The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is a leading e-privacy advocate - but founder Marc Rotenberg wasn't private about his dismay over a two-of-four rating in a recent survey by the San Diego privacy-advocacy firm enonymous. "It doesn't have a clue about evaluating a privacy policy," Rotenberg told Wired. And EPIC isn't alone, apparently, in finding something odd about enonymous's surveying style. They use a database aimed at telling you the privacy practices of websites, but its survey - showing 8.6 percent of the thousand most-trafficked debsites deserve four star ratings - didn't include such popular hits as various Microsoft properties which bring in millions of surfers. They also said - incorrectly, according to Wired - that slashdot.org had no privacy standards. And other entries in the survey proved contradictory as often as not. Case in point: CNET properties download.com, help.com, and search.com show identical, word-for-word privacy polices - but got ratings of one, two, and three stars, respectively. Likewise several Lycos sites which linked to the same Web page for their privacy statements but got varied, and less than four-star, privacy ratings. Says enonymous co-founder and privacy director Tim Kane: "It might be a glitch in our database." Says Wired: "If it's not corrected, it could call into question the future of the company, which depends on the reliability and accuracy of its data to differentiate itself from competitors in the increasingly-crowded privacy-protection field.
MUNICH - The music industry may have been handed a potent weapon against online piracy - a Bavarian state court here has ruled America Online is responsible when its users swap bootleg music files. German software maker Hit Box Software had sued AOL in 1998 after it found its digital music files were being traded on AOL. Hit Box attorney Stefan Ventroni says the ruling means better protection for musicians, including an ability to demand such Web pages be blocked. AOL Germany says it will appeal, arguing it lacks the means to monitor its huge data flow. AOL also argued it closed the forum where the music was traded after the company learned of the trading. The case involved instrumental versions of popular hits used for karaoke soundtracks, including the Backstreet Boys's "Get Down". AOL Germany spokesman Alexander Adler told the Associated Press total control of all pages on AOL serves is almost impossible. "Also," he continued, "that would amount to censorship." The court has yet to rule on damages in the case.
SEATTLE - RealNetworks and Microsoft have a new partnership, but is it a deal with the devil? Their recent licensing agreement, CNET says, contrasts to sharp congressional testimony two years ago, when RealNetworks' CEO asked, "sarcastically," "Is there anywhere I can go except where Microsoft wants me to go?" CNET says Web analysts see it as, at best, RealNetworks no longer being able to ignore Microsoft's Windows Media Player, with demand growing for both formats. At worst? RealNetworks is seeking an exit strategy from software sales, seeing Microsoft "encroaching on its turf" relentlessly, CNET says - similar to when Netscape was prodded to move beyond its core of Web browsers. And CNET cites a former Microsoft executive who says it was more personal than even a competition with Netscape: "Our number one goal," the unidentified former executive told CNET, "was to force (RealNetworks) to become a hoster of content" and push it out of the software business. But RealNetworks isn't exactly pushing the surrender button yet. The company says such licensing deals as between it and Microsoft "happen all the time," with "no geopolitical significance whatsoever." That and the presence and growth of Unix and Linux operating systems, among others.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
