Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
Music wants to be free: A Webnoize Inside report called MP3 the most widely known digital music format, a certified mainstream phenomenon. That view got no argument at the MP3 Summit in San Diego, where Net icon John Perry Barlow asserted that the music industry's fight against MP3 "resembles the war on drugs."
War or not, the record companies lost a battle when an appeals court judge ruled that the Diamond Rio portable music player isn't subject to government restrictions. Manufacturers eager to get into the MP3 player market saw the decision as a green light to develop more portable players.
As for dissenting views, they were scant in San Diego. But Universal Music's Lawrence Kenswil did say that not only would artists reject the music-wants-to-be-free paradigm, but that the Net doesn't have the bandwidth to handle consumer demand.
Fresh, hot Java: Sun said part of its new Java 2 server platform would be licensed to the Apache Project, and it promised to port a version of Java to the PalmPilot platform. These moves are all part of Sun's barely veiled strategy to topple Microsoft.
Meanwhile, developers at JavaOne focused on what they could take home -- a cut-rate PalmPilot or anything with the Java logo on it.
Endless MS trial: And you thought the Microsoft antitrust case might end soon? Trial, yes. Case, no. Experts and players see the thing dragging on for years. But we're sticking it out, and our blow-by-blow coverage is compiled here.
Bezos' bid: Amazon.com bought a small stake in Sotheby's and said it would do an auction site with the venerable house of fine arts and collectibles. But analysts scoffed at the suggestion that Amazon might now be primed to knock eBay off its auctioneer's perch.
E-commerce risk: A Net security firm found another hole in Microsoft's NT Web servers -- and showed everybody how to exploit it. That peeved Redmond, which announced a fix a couple of days later.
Divx, RIP: Circuit City pulled the plug on Divx, the DVD competitor that charged users according to how often they watched a movie. The player's demise was widely celebrated by privacy experts, who hated the heavily encrypted discs.
Name game: The Net governing body ICANN came under attack for its plan to charge fees to domain-name registrars. Lurking among the complainants was Network Solutions, which stands to lose its monopoly under ICANN's oversight.
Numbers game: Internet service providers, direct marketers, and anti-spam companies squabbled about a new study on the costs of junk email to ISPs. The GartnerGroup report, backed by spam-fighting outfit Bright Light Technologies, found the tariff was hefty -- US$7.7 million a year for a million-user ISP.
On the hill: Congress' Joint Economic Committee explored high tech during a three-day run of hearings. First-day star Alan Greenspan suggested the lawmakers suppress any desires to regulate the industry, lest they throw the economy into a death spiral. A day later, Microsoft's Bill Gates danced around antitrust issues, and nobody seemed to mind.
Rodman's Web shill: Dennis Rodman rode into San Francisco for a Web marketing conference, which may tell you everything you need to know about Web marketing conferences these days.
No scalpel: They call it the "gamma knife" -- gamma-radiation treatments that take the place of risky cranial incisions for various brain treatments. Surgeons in Massachusetts said with new imaging software, they're using this circa-'50s device to treat brain tumors and other disorders in pain-free, outpatient operations.
Attention-getters: The owner of Sex.com, who is embroiled in a strange lawsuit alleging the theft of the lucrative domain name, made a US$3.6 billion offer for the Caesars chain of casinos. But everything about Ocean Fund International -- including the clumsy way it tendered and announced its bid -- left a scent of publicity stunt in the air.
On the road: One analyst asserted it's not much more than packaging -- but brilliant packaging. That would be Lonely Planet's bundling of free email, voicemail services, and international telephony for the independent traveler who wants to stay in touch.
Embracing the bazaar: Opencontent.org said it would make available the latest version of the Open Publication License. This handy document aims to allows creators in any medium to release their work into the public domain for reproduction and modification, while preserving their rights to any printed, commercial versions.
Hands off: Access to cable lines was a hot topic as system operators convened in Chicago. Traditional dialups want in, but the cable guys -- like Excite@Home's Milo Medin -- said forcing them to open up their networks to the likes of AOL would slow broadband growth.
Direct route: Net advertising giant DoubleClick agreed to buy Abacus, a company that tracks who buys what from catalogs. Their dream is to connect surfers with their profiles in Abacus' offline database so that DoubleClick can serve up finely tailored ads in real time. Net privacy activists called the scenario a nightmare.
Guiding force: Isidore, a 6th-century intellectual who created a 20-volume dictionary that had a tree-like structure similar to a primitive database, was reportedly the leading candidate to become patron saint of the Internet. Among the other contenders: Santa Tecla, a Catalonian who backers say cures computer problems.
Cutting-edge public: PBS talked up the potential of digital TV, a format it will fully embrace beginning in April. The network is particularly keen on data-casting, which allow viewers with a PC to access a television program's supplemental "informational channel."
Going private: The Commerce Department washed its hands of that controversial fee-based site for looking up government documents. Northern Light Technology will run the jointly developed usgovsearch on its own, with reduced rates and free searches for libraries. THE WEEK AHEAD
21 June: A chess match of sorts begins between world champion Garry Kasparov and four experts, with Internet voters picking the challengers' moves. In MSN's Gaming Zone.
21 and 22 June, Williamsburg, Virginia: The federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, appointed to look into the touchy issue of Internet taxation, holds its first meeting. At the College of William and Mary.
21 and 22 June, Paris: Smartcard wonks gather for the Gemplus Developer Conference '99. At the CNIT Conference Center.
21 to 24 June, New York City: "Business-to-Business Portals: The Next Big Thing?" -- just one of the issues they'll explore at PC Expo. At the Javits Convention Center.
22 and 23 June, New York City: They do VC in the Big Apple, too. It's the fourth Venture Capital Conference & Exposition. At the Marriott Marquis.
24 June: The two-month test period for five would-be domain-name registrars is due to end. But a recent memo from ICANN suggests that delays in getting the testing started may lead to an extension.
