Amazon.com To Buy Online Bookseller AbeBooks

By Antone GonsalvesInformationWeek

Amazon

Privately held AbeBooks, based in British Columbia, Canada, lists books from thousands of independent sellers worldwide, Amazon said. The online marketplace has more than 110 million books for sale.

"As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide," Russell Grandinetti, VP of books for Amazon, said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to close before the end of the fourth quarter. Amazon plans to have AbeBooks continue as a standalone operation based in Victoria, British Columbia. It will maintain all of its Web sites, including the ones in Canada with Canadian content, such as reviews of Canadian-authored books and interviews with that country's writers.

So far this year, Amazon has bought online fabric store Fabric and audiobook seller Audible. Fabric, based in Marietta, Ga., expands Amazon's offerings in the growing craft and hobby marketplace.

A recent report by Jeffrey Lindsay, analyst for Wall Street firm Sanford C. Bernstein, argued that Google and Amazon are in the best position to withstand the current economic downturn and become long-term winners on the Internet.

His report, "U.S. Internet: The End Of The Beginning," also argued that Yahoo would eventually be sold to Microsoft; IAC InterActiveCorp, which owns a number of travel, financial, and other commerce sites, would be split five ways as planned; and eBay would become a merger target, the Reuters news agency reported.

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Yahoo board emerges unscathed from annual meeting

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

Microsoft Corp.

Some shareholders expressed displeasure by opposing the re-election of Yahoo's current directors, but the resistance wasn't as intense as last year, when three directors were rejected by more than 30 percent of the vote.

In this year's balloting, only two directors — Chairman Roy Bostock and Arthur Kern — were opposed on ballots representing at least 20 percent of Yahoo shares. Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who steered the Microsoft negotiations with Bostock, was approved by 85 percent of the votes cast.

Many investors had already made an emphatic statement about their feelings by dumping their holdings in Yahoo shares. The company's stock price has fallen by 31 percent since Microsoft withdrew a takeover offer of $33 per share in early May.

Much of the drama was drained from Friday's meeting last month when Yahoo reached a truce with activist investor Carl Icahn, who had been campaigning to oust the company's entire board for spurning the Microsoft bid.

Icahn, who owns a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, will join the company's board next week and can't criticize his fellow directors as part his peace pact. He didn't attend Friday's meeting.

Yahoo will add two other Icahn-endorsed candidates to the board by Aug. 15. Former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller had been considered one of the leading candidates to fill the other seats, but he apparently will be precluded from doing so as part of a noncompete agreement that AOL's owner, Time Warner Inc., plans to enforce.

The provisions preventing Miller from joining an AOL rival remain in effect through March 2009, Time Warner spokesman Keith Cocozza said Friday.

Miller has been mentioned as a possible successor to Yang, who has been unable to boost the company's market value during the first 13 months of his reign.

Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Wong declined to comment on Miller's status.

Only two of the roughly 125 shareholders at Friday's meeting criticized the Microsoft negotiations. Two other shareholders said they were happy Yahoo didn't sell to Microsoft.

The rest of the shareholder remarks covered a wide range of topics, including Yahoo's human rights policies in China and the scarcity of women on its board.

Former Yahoo employee Martin Baker, who still owns 100 shares, was mostly upset that the company didn't carve out more time for shareholder questions. After Yahoo's leaders spent more than an hour defending its handling of the Microsoft offer and management's optimistic outlook, the company allotted about 35 minutes to field nine questions.

"It seemed like they were more interested in going to lunch than hearing from shareholders," said Baker, a San Francisco resident. "I think they controlled things pretty well."

Yahoo's biggest challenge is still ahead, given that its stock price is just slightly above where it stood six months ago when Microsoft first announced its unsolicited takeover offer.

Yang, who co-founded Yahoo 14 years ago, assured shareholders his management team is pursuing a turnaround plan in "a very deliberate and forceful manner." Yang has promised to increase Yahoo's net revenue by at least 25 percent in each of the next two years.

Bostock staunchly defended the board's handling of the Microsoft negotiations, saying the directors met more than 30 times to discuss the bid as well as other ways to elevate the company's stock.

MicrosoftEric Jackson

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this story from New York.

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Apple Pulls, Then Returns iPhone-PC Tethering App To Store

By Antone GonsalvesInformationWeek

AppleiPhone

Apple has not said why it took down the NetShare iPhone application Thursday evening, but the software's creator, Nullriver, confirmed that the application was available once again.

"We're not quite sure why Apple took down the NetShare application yet, we've received no communication from Apple thus far," Nullriver said on its site.

The company said it had asked for an explanation from Apple and was hoping to hear back from the company soon. Nullriver said NetShare did not violate the developer or App Store agreement.

Tethering applications makes it possible for people to use the high-speed Internet connections on the mobile phones to provide wireless access to the Web on a mobile PC. Many handsets have tethering capabilities built-in, but carriers typically charge a monthly fee for the service.

AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States, charges $30 a month, Web site TechCrunch reported. The iPhone, however, has no such capabilities built-in, and tethering would violate AT&T's terms of service.

NetShare, which costs $10, shares the iPhone's EDGE, or 3G, connection with a PC. While the connection speeds don't equal that of a broadband connection at the home, the software provides some form of ubiquitous Internet access.

Many users gave the application high marks on the customer reviews section of the App Store. One user, however, had this warning: "It's a great app but be careful of hitting the limit of your unlimited data play," the user said. "Carriers have been known to fine people with unlimited plans for 'excessive usage.' "

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U.S. lawmakers query Internet firms on ad targeting

By Peter Kaplan

Senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
wrote to broadband Internet providers and other online
companies on Friday, asking whether they have "tailored, or
facilitated the tailoring of, Internet advertising based on
consumers Internet search, surfing, or other use."

The request comes amid rising scrutiny of the practice,
known as deep-packet inspection, or DPI, by lawmakers and
consumer advocates.

The letters were sent to more than 30 online companies,
including large broadband providers such as Comcast Corp, AT&T
Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, as well as search giant
Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.

"We are interested in the nature and extent to which you
engage in such practices, and the impact it could have on
consumer privacy," said the letter from Energy and Commerce
Committee Chairman John Dingell and ranking committee
Republican Joe Barton.

Representatives of Comcast, Google and Microsoft had no
immediate comment on the letter. A Verizon spokesman said, "Of
course we will review the letter and respond." An AT&T
spokesman said, "We look forward to responding promptly to the
committee's request."

The letter asks where any ad-targeting practices have been
used, how many consumers have been subjected to it and whether
those people were ever notified about it, among other things.

Concerns about DPI were sharpened earlier this year when
cable company Charter Communications disclosed plans for a
pilot program, in partnership with an advertising company
called NebuAd, to track customers.

Charter has said the service would be anonymous and would
not collect or use any information that identifies individuals.
It pledged to protect customers' privacy and said they would be
allowed to opt out of the program. But Charter later put the
program on hold because of the privacy concerns.

NebuAd's chief executive, Bob Dykes, has told lawmakers
during congressional testimony that the company's advertising
network benefits consumers by serving them with more relevant
online ads. He has said NebuAd does not collect personally
identifiable information about Web users or store "raw data"
linked to individuals.

One of the committee members who signed Friday's letter,
Democratic Rep. Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, has said
broadband providers should be required to get their customers'
permission before the companies are allowed to track their
online visits.

(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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FCC Slams Comcast in Landmark P2P Decision

Patricia Resende, newsfactor

Internet service providerComcast

Under strong pressure from open-Internet advocacy groups, the FCC ruled 3-2 Friday that Comcast monitored customers' Web traffic and blocked specific types of connections.

Around-the-Clock Blocking

The FCC said its investigation and the findings of engineers confirmed complaints. Comcast, according to the FCC, delayed subscriber downloads and blocked uploads 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of the amount of congestion on the network or how small the file.

Comcast has been under fire for some time for blocking peer-to-peer file sharing with BitTorrent software. The FCC said Comcast's motive was to block competition with its video-on-demand offering.

Comcast will not have to pay a fine because the FCC had not previously provided direction to network operators on what constitutes reasonable management, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.

But the company was ordered to have a compliance plan in place by the end of the year, refrain from any discriminatory practices, and notify subscribers of any future network actions.

Comcast Disappointed

Comcast said it was disappointed with the FCC's decision because its network management was consistent with industry practices. A spokesperson said the FCC's order raises due-process concerns and a variety of legal questions.

The company insisted it does little management of P2P protocols and on a typical day there are an estimated nine billion P2P packets unaffected by network management. It also said about six to seven percent of Comcast subscribers use P2P on a weekly basis.

Comcast and other ISPs argue that they need to be allowed to manage their networks to avoid congestion and fight illegal file sharing. Comcast also said the FCC does not have the right to enforce an open Internet.

In a move to work with P2P companies, Comcast has announced a joint effort with BitTorrent, Pando Networks, and Vonage to work out any management issues. It also said it will participate in an industry P2P best-practices initiative.

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Congress Moves To Ban In-Flight Cell Phone Calls

By Marin PerezInformationWeek

U.S. House of Representatives

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed Thursday the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace (Hang Up) Act, which would ban voice communication during scheduled flights. The Hang Up Act now moves to the full House of Representatives.

The Federal Aviation Administration already bans cell phone calls during flights, and the Hang Up Act would make that ban permanent. The ban would have certain exemptions for members of the flight crew as well as law enforcement officers.

Additionally, passengers would still be able to access in-flight Wi-Fi, as well as send text messages and e-mails as those services become available.

"With airline customer satisfaction at an all-time low, this is not the time to consider making airplane travel even more torturous," Rep. Peter DeFazio, who introduced the legislation, said in a statement. "Polls show the public overwhelmingly doesn't want to be subjected to people talking on their cell phones on increasingly overpacked airplanes."

A poll sponsored by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA found that 63% of respondents were against the use of cell phones during flights, and some flight attendants say in-flight calls can pose a safety risk.

As the lone dissenting voice, Rep. John Mica, said there are many things that can be annoying on a flight, but that doesn't mean they should be banned.

"You are trying to legislate courtesy, folks, and that just doesn't work," Mica said during the hearing.

If the bill passed, it may cause some confusion for international travelers, as the European Union is already creating a framework that will allow passengers to make calls, send text messages, and use e-mail on their mobile phones.

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FCC rules Comcast violated Internet access policy

By JOHN DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

Federal Communications CommissionComcast CorpInternet traffic

In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote on Friday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet.

The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of "file-sharing" software. Associated Press reports on Comcast's activities led to the complaints filed with the FCC.

Comcast says its practices are reasonable — that it has delayed traffic, not blocked it — and that the FCC's so-called network-neutrality "principles" are part of a policy statement and are not enforceable rules.

Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin proposed the enforcement action and was joined by Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps in voting for approval. He was opposed by members of his own party, commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate, who both issued lengthy dissents.

The commission's authority to act stems from a policy statement adopted in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles meant to ensure that broadband networks are "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers."

The principles are "subject to reasonable network management," a concept the agency has not explicitly defined.

While the FCC action did not include a fine, it does require Comcast within 30 days of release of the order to disclose the details of its "discriminatory network management"; submit a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop these practices by the end of the year; and disclose to customers and the commission its new plan.

Martin said Comcast managers were not "simply managing their network, they had arbitrarily picked an application and blocked their subscribers' access to it."

The agency said that Comcast had a motive to interfere. Peer-to-peer applications are used to load video that "poses a potential competitive threat to Comcast's video-on-demand service," it said.

Martin was particularly critical of the company's failure to disclose to customers exactly how it was managing its traffic.

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said in a prepared statement that the company was "disappointed in the commission's divided conclusion because we believe that our network management choices were reasonable...."

She said the company believes the order "raises significant due process concerns and a variety of substantive legal questions."

The FCC's action means network operators are subject to the FCC's enforcement process and the agency will act on consumer complaints.

Martin told The Associated Press in an interview before the meeting that the agency will consider fines for future violations, but he declined to speculate on how large they would be.

The FCC action arose when bloggers reported that Comcast customers who used file-sharing software like BitTorrent were noticing their transmissions were aborting prematurely.

AP ran tests and reported Comcast "actively interferes" with attempts by some subscribes to share files online, and that the practice involved "company computers masquerading as those of its users."

Supreme CourtSen. Barack Obama

Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and the U.S. Telecom Association all released statements Friday saying the FCC action proved there was no need for federal network neutrality legislation.

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