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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (49528)	7/20/2001 2:05:50 PM
From: Joseph Beltran	Respond to of 70976

O.T. Michael, an even more interesting case involving brokers: Idealab: Rebel in the making Matt Berger Mar 3, 2001 2:10 AM Get-rich tip: Buck the system. Rebellion seems to be an increasingly popular theme for doing business on the Internet, even though -- as the industry learned Friday when file-sharing site Napster conceded to The Man by blocking all the copyrighted music on its network -- it doesn't always work. This time, the egregiously slick executive Bill Gross (infamous for soiling the good name of incubators with his Idealab) is carrying the revolutionary flag. Monday, Gross and the chief executive of new Idealab offspring New.net are expected to unveil a new company that challenges the convention of the domain name, currently under the watch of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). New.net says it has developed technology that will increase the number of top-level Internet domain names -- such as ".com" and ".net" -- without disrupting Web surfing or getting the OK from ICANN, which has the job of administering new domain suffixes. His PR henchman declined to comment on how they would get away with this, but if New.net is able to pass muster (or bypass the system), Gross could finally be on to something -- the domain registry business is big and lucrative and could help pull his money-losing business out of the dumpster. Still, there's no telling yet how this venture will work out. Any upstart in this space will likely attract many powerful enemies, namely the rich and famous who end up spending all their time in court fighting off cybersquaters. No matter. Idealab has some experience dolling out domain names, as it is the registrar of ".tv" domains, a right it acquired after bargaining to take control of domains assigned to the island country Tuvalo. Some new names expected to be up for the bidding include ".euro," ".xxx" and ".duh," according to reports. I'll save you the trouble of registering this one: ThisOneAintGoingToWork.duh. MORNING NEWS OVER EASY Napster falls to pieces Hope you all like independent techno folk music because that's about all that's going to be left online after this weekend when the popular song-swapping website Napster implements its voluntarily action to remove copyrighted songs from its service. San Francisco U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel met with lawyers from Napster and the Recording Industry Association of America, as well as a zillion journalists, on Friday, but did not issue a new injunction, as some had expected. Thinking of going elsewhere for your free downloads? You might want to think again. A new virus has infected the network of Napster neighbor Gnutella. A PC infecting worm called W32/Gnuman.worm is traveling the file-sharing network under the alias "Mandragore," and anti-virus experts are warning users to avoid opening any file ending in ".exe" as opposed to ".mp3." Also, for fear of a legal witch hunt similar to Napster's, file-sharing site Aimster is warning its members that any legal action from the record labels will be diverted to its users. On Trial: Henry Blodget An even juicier lawsuit to watch: A 46-year-old pediatrician filed an arbitration case with the New York Stock Exchange alleging Merrill Lynch and its aging Internet-industry guru, Henry Blodget, held a "buy" rating on InfoSpace (INSP) to keep its stock up until the investment bank was able to broker a deal to sell the company to Go2net, the Wall Street Journal reported. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Merrill Lynch was the financial adviser for Go2Net in its $4 million acquisition of InfoSpace, which closed on July 27. Debasis Kanjilal argues that Blodget reiterated his "buy" recommendation on InfoSpace prior to the deal to pump the stock so the deal would go through. The private investor is seeking $800,000 in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. If these suits take hold the legal liability of the brokers will be tremendous.

To: michael97123 who wrote (49528)	7/20/2001 2:07:58 PM
From: Joseph Beltran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

O.T. Michael, an even more interesting case involving brokers: On Trial: Henry Blodget An even juicier lawsuit to watch: A 46-year-old pediatrician filed an arbitration case with the New York Stock Exchange alleging Merrill Lynch and its aging Internet-industry guru, Henry Blodget, held a "buy" rating on InfoSpace (INSP) to keep its stock up until the investment bank was able to broker a deal to sell the company to Go2net, the Wall Street Journal reported. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Merrill Lynch was the financial adviser for Go2Net in its $4 million acquisition of InfoSpace, which closed on July 27. Debasis Kanjilal argues that Blodget reiterated his "buy" recommendation on InfoSpace prior to the deal to pump the stock so the deal would go through. The private investor is seeking $800,000 in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages. If these suits take hold the legal liability of the brokers will be tremendous.