Internet Closures Reach Record High in 2001
At least 537 Internet companies shut down or declared bankruptcy in 2001, more than twice as many as in 2000 according to new figures from Webmergers.com. Mergers and acquisitions were also way down in 2001. The number of site deals was about half of those in 2000.
In 2000, there were 910 Internet destinations acquired for about $90 billion, compared to 523 for $13.5 billion in 2001.
However, Webmergers.com's figures also show that the shutdown rate is slowing dramatically. The fourth quarter of 2001 saw only 78 shutdowns compared to 135 in the same period last year. December's "death rate" was less than half of that in December of 2000 and is the lowest since August 2000. Shutdowns peaked between October 2000 and June 2001, an 11-month period that accounted for nearly 75 percent of all shutdowns in the past two years.
More than two-thirds of all shutdowns in the past two years involved content or e-commerce properties, including entertainment sites, online news providers, e-tailers and B2B marketplaces.
Ten EU Member States Miss Deadline on E-Commerce Directive
The United Kingdom is among 10 of the European Union's 15 member states that will miss the deadline for implementation of the e-commerce directive on Jan. 17.
The Department of Trade and Industry has said that it hopes for sympathy from the European Commission.
Only Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Luxembourg have met the implementation deadline, according to Silicon.com. A spokesman for the DTI is quoted by the news site as saying, "We're fully aware that we've missed the deadline. We would hope the Commission is sympathetic."
There are unlikely to be dramatic consequences as a result of the failure to meet the EU's timetable.
Rival Cab Companies Battle of URL
Radio Taxis, which takes bookings for London black cabs by telephone and on its Web site at RadioTaxis.co.uk, has failed in an attempt before the English High Courts to win the domain name RadioTaxis.com.
The URL is currently used by rival firm Dial-A-Cab to take Internet users to its own Web site, which is also available at DialACab.com.
Radio Taxicabs (London) Limited has been trading under the name Radio Taxis since the 1950s. In 1997, its rival registered the disputed ".com" domain name. The following year, Radio Taxis registered the ".co.uk" name. However, it was two years before the company took action to get hold of the ".com" name.
German Politician Goes after Pro-Nazi Site
German Interior Minister Otto Schily is taking action over a U.S.-based pro-Nazi Web site which is using the name of his office as an alternative domain name, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.
Schily has raised an action with the World Intellectual Property Organisation for transfer of the domain name "bundesinnenministerium.com" over its use by Gary Lauck, an American who calls himself Gerhard Lauck. The grounds for such actions are that the domain name is in conflict with Schily's trademark rights, that it has been taken without legitimate interest and that it was registered and is being used in bad faith. Schily has also approached the web site’s host, Earthlink, asking that it take down the site.
According to the Guardian, Lauck came to Germany from the United States and was deported back to the States in 1996 after being convicted by a German court for inciting racial hatred. His Web site is filled with Nazi imagery and
offers a download of Hitler's Mein Kampf. It also sells Nazi memorabilia such as stickers and flags.
Microsoft Claims Glitch Is Fixed
A glitch in Microsoft's server software left some users unable to download important security patches and other fixes for Windows software, a Microsoft official said Monday.
The glitch would be fixed by Tuesday, Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said.
Problems began last Thursday when the Redmond-based software giant attempted to update the software that routs users to appropriate servers to download patches and fixes, Cullinan said.
A glitch in the update left some of the hundreds of millions of Windows users unable to download any data at all, Cullinan said. Microsoft heard sporadic complaints beginning Friday, but it was unclear how many users experienced problems.
The problem came as security experts, including the FBI, are encouraging users of Windows XP--the latest version of Microsoft's desktop operating system--to download a patch to fix a serious security vulnerability discovered last month.
'.name' TLD Rolled Out
The first Internet address suffixes created exclusively for individuals on Tuesday joined the familiar ".com" and ".org" domain names.
Currently, Internet users with personal Web sites tend to use ".org," which is commonly associated with nonprofits.
Operators of ".name" are hoping individuals will be lured by e-mail and Web addresses featuring their own names.
The London-based Global Name Registry, which in 2000 proposed and won rights to administer the suffix, is also exploring expanding ".name" to mobile phones and other personal devices later this year.
The new names were approved to help relieve domain name overcrowding. Registration of ".com," ".net" and ".org" names more than tripled in 2000, ending the year at 28.2 million TLDs registered.
Businessman Battling Microsoft in Favorable Arena
Entrepreneur Ken Belanger is certain he has a strong case against Microsoft for trademark infringement, but a conventional lawsuit would never stand a chance against the software giant's cache of high-paid lawyers.
So Belanger is taking his beef to a place made for little guys: small claims court.
Claiming that Microsoft Corp. illegally latched onto the name "Pocket PC'' for its handheld computer operating system, Belanger paid $20 last week to file a small claims complaint against the company. The dispute is scheduled to be heard Feb. 22 before a small claims commissioner in San Francisco.
With the case, Belanger hopes to win the maximum $5,000 award allowed in California's small claims courts and establish his legal right to the Web address "pocketpc.com," a site that Microsoft launched two years ago.
Although Belanger never officially registered Pocket PC with the federal government, legal experts say he still may hold a "common law'' trademark on the name in California. A common law trademark is established whenever someone sells a commercial product under a specific name, said Harvey Dunn, an intellectual property attorney in Dallas.
MSN Gets 7.7 Million Subscribers
Microsoft Corp. added 980,000 MSN Internet access subscribers in the last three months of 2001, bringing its total to 7.7 million subscribers, the company said Tuesday.
The new figure also reflects a reduction of about 200,000 "bad'' accounts, MSN marketing director Bob Visse said, including subscribers who stopped paying, moved or were using bad credit cards.
The growth of Microsoft's robust subscriber base still leaves it far behind rival America Online, which boasts 33.2 million subscribers. The unit of New York-based media giant AOL Time Warner said it added 1.9 million new subscribers in the last quarter of 2001, including 1.1 million in the United States.
Microsoft currently only offers its MSN access in the United States; AOL has users in Europe and Latin America as well.
CompuServe, also owned by AOL, has about 3 million subscribers. Third-ranked EarthLink, based in Atlanta, had 4.8 million subscribers as of Sept. 30 and plans to release fourth-quarter numbers next week, spokesman Dan Greenfield said.