Killer Nap
Last year, 19-year-old__Shawn Fanning__ had an idea that changed his life: Instead of wandering the Web alone to find digital music, why not create an online community where like-minded listeners could swap MP3 files? Fanning, then a computer science major at Northeastern University in Boston, pieced together Napster, a music-sharing app that has since been attracting people in prodigious numbers (user-base estimates reach into the millions).
Predictably, the Recording Industry Association of America has filed suit, claiming the software promotes piracy, and more than 100 universities began blocking access to www.napster.com after Napheads clogged their networks. Now running the site from his new office in Silicon Valley, Fanning will be touring college IT departments this summer to ensure Napster is back at school in the fall. "The bandwidth issue isn't something we can control entirely," says Fanning. "But there are ways to configure networks to limit traffic jams."
Fortified Wine
Vintners have long complained about being shut out of the ecommerce boom by Prohibition-era laws. So have wine consumers. "I was just appalled to find out that I couldn't order a bottle of wine online and have it sent anywhere in the country," says__Deborah Simpson__, an attorney with the libertarian-minded Institute for Justice (www.instituteforjustice.org). Simpson is litigating a federal suit challenging New York statutes that make it a crime for out-of-state producers to advertise or ship alcohol to residents of New York. (Similar laws are on the books in 28 other states.) With about 20 wineries shipping 90 percent of the wine sold in the US, Simpson says it's clear such laws benefit a select few. "This is not about preventing unscrupulous sales or protecting minors," says Simpson. "It's about protecting the wholesalers."
e-Cadillac
In July, General Motors will unveil its 2001 Cadillac Seville, which the company calls "the first browser on wheels." In the driver's seat is__Karenann Terrell__, director of GM's e-vehicle program and the person charged with getting the fleet up to Internet speed. Her engine: The Caddy's souped-up OnStar service now provides a wireless Net connection featuring a voice portal that reads stock quotes, weather forecasts, and traffic conditions. By year's end, the system will offer satellite radio - 100-plus channels of streaming digital sound. "Sometimes they look at me like I'm from Mars," Terrell says of some colleagues. "But we're trying to change our entire mind-set. So it's kind of cool to work on."
Pulpless Fiction
"Before I became electronically published," says author__Leta Nolan Childers__, "there was no interest in my books." Ignored by traditional presses, the 46-year-old South Dakotan signed with DiskUs Publishing (www.diskuspublishing.com) to distribute her stories in HTML, PDF, and Palm-format PRC. Childers' Best Laid Plans, a comedic romance released last year, is the best-selling ebook of all time (at nearly 16,000 copies), and even cracked barnesandnoble.com's top 10 ebooks list alongside marquee names like John Irving and Stephen King. The former legislature reporter is now at work on her latest novel, about her parents' courtship and, oddly enough, chickens. Look for it on e-shelves later this year.
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