Haven’t these guys heard about Swatch’s and the UK government’s efforts to do the same thing? And — hello? Does patenting time seem ridiculous to you, too, or is it just me?
BitWise files patent on Internet standard time
ICANN chair Esther Dyson terrified that democratically elected board members will lead to a tyranny of “People who are stupid, individually.”
Internet Board Faces Heavy Opposition on Voting Plan
(free registration required to access)
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus — and the billionaire chief executives of enormous Internet commerce juggernauts do occasionally listen to the public. Jeff Bezos is calling for a reform of the patent system that would greatly shorten the life of software and business-method patents, to 3 to 5 years. This was prompted largely by the outcry over Amazon’s 1-Click and Associates Program patents. I think Bezos should be commended for paying such attention to the marketplace, and for spending some time in online discussions — and his proposal is sure to generate some much-needed debate on the topic.
Amazon.com: An Open Letter from Jeff Bezos
And here’s the rather long-winded response of Tim O’Reilly, who kinda got the ball rolling by needling Bezos and engaging him in conversation:
Amazon’s Patent Reform Proposal
Consumer e-commerce still sucks: Almost half of consumers surveyed have had trouble making online purchases. 28% of would-be transactions never close because of site problems. Namely: pages that take too long to download and sites that are too confusing to navigate.
The WSJ reports this morning that VeriSign is acquiring domain-name registrar Network Solutions:
VeriSign to Buy Network Solutions In a $20.75 Billion All-Stock Deal
Controversial code governing the software industry and software consumers’ rights looks like it’s going through:
“One of the key provisions in UCITA is the transformation of what is now a sale – such as buying a copy of the Windows 2000 operating-system software, or the e-book version of Stephen King’s latest novel – into a lease, with the leasing party (typically the software company) dictating the terms of a nonnegotiable license. Among other consequences, this legalistic sleight-of-hand allows a potential leasor to work around pre-existing consumer-protection laws, since many of those govern buyer-seller transactions.”
Now, UCITA … Later, You Don’t?
Yesterday, Wells Fargo and eBay teamed up to put some oomph behind eBay’s Billpoint service, which lets individuals collect payments from other individuals via credit card. Now, financial service companies X.com and PayPal are merging. And First Union dropped its suit against Paytrust. The future is starting to look bright for online banking again.
The U.S. Commerce Department yesterday released its online retail sales figures. Their estimate: $5.3 billion in sales during Q4 1999, or about 1% of overall retail sales. That’s a bit lower than estimates from research firms like Jupiter and Forrester. The Commerce Dept.’s figures don’t include travel or financial services, however. … But then, the Commerce Dept. also has less of stake than most research firms in publishing inflated numbers.
Official e-commerce count released (3/02/2000)
Credit card fraud is a much bigger problem for online merchants than it is for shoppers. The Industry Standard’s long story on the topic goes a long way towards explaining why — and it describes the credit card processing system in great detail along the way. It’s a well-researched article, and — except for coining the word “fraudster” — it’s well-written, too.
The Real Victims of Fraud
DoubleClick continues to apologize, and has promised not to link personal data with browsing trails until the U.S. government comes up with clear privacy standards. That should be about never, I figure.
DoubleClick, Yielding on Privacy, Promises to Wait on Linking of Data
