Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, click over to The Calendar of E-vents.
Taxing the Net: This muddled issue -- where the warring lobbying groups call themselves e-fairness and e-freedom, and GOP presidential contenders are staking out "polarizing positions" -- gained no new clarity this week.
The federal commission on Internet taxation met in San Francisco, and despite the better efforts of tax proponents like Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, the group postponed all decisions until its next and final meeting -- in March 2000.
Not that there weren't some waves made in SF. A European Commission official did float the idea of "requiring the US supplier to register in the EU" or perhaps hire a European representative from whom nations can extract sales taxes. Commissioners were not wowed.
Anyway, if the Feds ever do open up the Internet for taxes, there are software makers ready to tote up the damage. On that you can be sure.
Customer service: An MBA student's registration of races.com was screwed up by Network Solutions. The company's reaction? We don't have to fix things, so we won't. The student, meanwhile, is out the domain name he paid US$1,000 for -- and which he planned to build a business around.
Do it yourself: "We're seeing a 10 to 15 percent rate of plagiarism in universities where we are testing." So said Berkeley doctoral candidate John Barrie, who is trying to run Internet cheat services out of business with Plagiarism.org. Be forewarned -- Barrie's meta-search technology can scope out duplicate material in a matter of seconds.
One to watch: EBay sued to stop Bidder's Edge from listing eBay items alongside items from Yahoo, Amazon, and other auction sites. Bidder's Edge fired back that the eBay suit threatens the very foundation of e-commerce. One legal expert wouldn't go that far, but he did say the lawsuit "has the potential to really be groundbreaking and precedent setting."
Dubya bashing: The man behind the GWBush site -- which includes a doctored image of the candidate snorting cocaine -- began a campaign to produce a slew of anti-Bush commercials for radio, television, and the Web. To pay for the ads, Zack Exley is asking site visitors for contributions. He'll take checks or credit cards.
Dark memories: A Berlin official said a massive New Year's light show ought to be scrapped because it harkens back to Albert Speer's illuminated spectacles that glorified the Nazi regime. But even the head of Berlin's Jewish community isn't buying that. "It's just a party," said Andreas Nachama, whose father survived Auschwitz and helped rebuild Berlin's devastated Jewish community after the war.
Flight sim: NASA unveiled FutureFlight Central, a US$110 million operation in California that will simulate air traffic control operations at even the busiest airports. The idea is to allow researchers to play with new guidance and tracking systems while airport managers can fine-tune operations and visualize the impact of big construction projects and runway redesigns.
Click until you drop: A Goldman Sachs-PC Data report said online buying surged to a stunning $900 million last week. And the Christmas rush on the Net isn't just a US phenomenon. According to one expert, "There's a scramble going on, particularly for Christmas," in Europe, which has lagged behind the United States in online sales.
Still streaming: Cease-and-desist orders continued to pile up in Bill Craig's mailbox, but his company, ICraveTV.com, continued to stream television broadcast programming over the Net. Canadian law allows cable companies to retransmit broadcast signals without asking permission or paying licensing fees, so long as they don't alter the signal in any way. ICraveTV.com streams TV signals live and unaltered, Craig argued, so it too is exempt.
One way to the top: A panel of music industry insiders at the Western Show '99 said digital music will supplement, and even help, CD sales by exposing people to new music. What it won't do, however, is threaten traditional sales. "MP3 hasn't broken an act yet, and I don't think it ever will," said Dave Del Beccaro, CEO of Music Choice, a cable and satellite digital music provider.
(BTW, it wouldn't be the Western without big shots cracking wise. This year's notable dart throwers included Ted Turner, Barry Diller, and Michael Bloomberg. Among other things, they rehashed that familiar open-access question.)
Not playing around: There was more action in that eToys-etoy dustup. First, Network Solutions shut down etoy.com's email -- a routine move in such domain disputes, the company said. Then a Web site supporting etoy vowed "digital riots" over the matter, and etoy itself predicted etoys risked being compromised during the busy Christmas shopping season.
Copycats: Frenchman Herve Gallaire was picked to head Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Xerox is notorious for failing to capitalize on PARC's innovations, but Gallaire said the company would now aggressively move to protect its intellectual property, focus on Internet technologies, and make sure research translates into viable business technologies.
Kiddie cards: Plastic is just about the only way to buy online, and that's giving rise to debit-type cards for kids. The leading services, such as Pocketcard, RocketCash, nor icanBuy.com, don't actually give children the chance to rack up credit -- but they do allow parents to keep track of where children and teens are spending their money.
He kisses you: Turkish Web-phenomenon Mahir Cagri made San Francisco his first stop on a two-week media tour. But no, no Speedo.
Today's agenda: With its Gateway to Educational Materials, the Department of Education is giving teachers a place to find free lesson plans on the Internet. "I think this is going to be tremendously useful," said a rep from the nonprofit Milken Exchange. "I would give this an unqualified recommendation."
On the move: The International Telecommunications Union said real-time audio/video, radio, video mail, and other bandwidth-intensive services will soon be a mobile reality. The ITU is in the final stages of establishing a global standard for mobile phones that will make it possible for a single handset to recognize multiple radio interfaces around the world. Dubbed IMT-2000, the standard is meant to be a framework for 3G -- or "third generation" -- phones and wireless services.
That's the week that was. For information on ongoing goings-on, click over to The Calendar of E-vents.
