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Mammoth Internet service provider America Online announced an agreement Tuesday with InterTrust Technologies Corp. that will allow AOL's 23 million subscribers to digitally download music and videos for a fee, while protecting copyrighted material from theft The Sunnyvale, California-based InterTrust specializes in so-called digital rights manageme...

Despite the recent decline in venture capital funding for Internet companies, North American e-tail sales will exceed $29.3 billion (US$) in 2000, according to new research from Gartner Group This figure represents an increase of 75 percent over 1999's $16.8 billion in online sales, which were up 157 percent from 1998 sales.

Name-your-own-price Web retailer Priceline.com announced Wednesday that it is teaming with Internet investor group General Atlantic Partners LLC to launch Priceline.com Europe in the fourth quarter of this year Priceline.com Europe will begin by offering airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and long-distance telephone services in the United Ki...

Beating such rivals as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com to the market, German media giant Bertelsmann AG announced Tuesday the opening of an online bookstore in Japan, the fourteenth opening for BOL.com, Bertelsmann's Internet unit With the Japanese store, BOL.com is continuing its ambitious push to open Internet bookstores across the globe after ...

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced Monday that it has reached settlements totaling $2.4 million (US$) in fines from 20 companies found guilty of software piracy The BSA, an industry watchdog group, said it is spreading out details of the penalties this week in order to highlight the problem of software piracy in small to medium-sized co...

In an effort to help local car dealers keep pace with the increasing number of online auto sellers, the National Automobile Dealers Association on Monday launched DriversSeat.com, an Internet portal that links consumers directly to dealer Web sites The site, built by The Cobalt Group, enables visitors to locate auto dealerships in their area and sc...

European Web shoppers will spend more money online for groceries than their American counterparts by 2003, according to a study released Monday by Forrester Research Titled "Online Grocers Diversify," the report predicts that Web grocery shopping in Europe will be $51 billion (US$) -- or five percent of Europe's total grocery sales -- by 2005.

The Internet's impact on the U.S. business-to-business (B2B) marketplace will trigger more than $6 trillion (US$) in trade by 2005, according to a new report by Jupiter Communications B2B e-commerce will represent 42 percent of the total U.S. business-to-business non-service spending, the research firm said.

According to data from IT research firm IDC, U.S. sales of pharmaceutical, health, and beauty products over the Internet will boom from less than $250 million (US$) in 1999 to more than $18 billion in 2004 The study, "U.S. Online Prescription and Nonprescription Pharmaceutical, Health, and Beauty Market: Forecast and Analysis," predicts that the ma...

Small business seems to have a split personality when it comes to the Internet. Although nearly three quarters of U.S. small businesses have found it prudent to set up Web sites, most of them are strangely noncommittal. It is as though they neither want to miss the party nor have too much fun and end up hugging the porcelain A survey last week from...

Dell Computer Corp. unveiled on Tuesday a wide range of new online services geared toward small and mid-sized businesses, including Dell-branded Internet access, e-mail and purchasing services The launch is seen by many observers to be an attempt to offset shrinking margins on PCs, but the Round Rock, Texas-based company is merely matching similar ...

The White House has commissioned a new portal, Firstgov.gov, to expedite information delivery to citizens from U.S. government agencies and services that are presently spread across more than 20,000 separate Web sites After shifting from his usual weekly radio address to his first-ever "Internet address," President Bill Clinton said Saturday that t...

Clearing the way for a mega-merger that could radically change the high-tech landscape, stockholders of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and America Online (NYSE: AOL) voted overwhelmingly in favor of the pending deal Friday at separate shareholder meetings Although the merger faces opposition that could delay approval from federal regulators, the companies...

Liberty Media Group (NYSE: LMGA), the cable television arm of AT&T, announced Monday that it will combine broadband assets with UnitedGlobalCom, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCOMA) to create the world's largest cable television company outside the United States In a complicated deal worth $3.48 billion (US$), Liberty agreed to become United's largest shareholder,...

By definition, couch potatoes dislike getting active, and they may be even less inclined to get interactive When the idea of accessing the Internet through a television set initially floated into public consciousness, it stirred quite a bit of excitement. But the killer Web convergence technology that allows TV viewers to actually -- well, do thing...

U.S. federal regulators have expanded their probe of America Online's planned $124 billion (US$) acquisition of Time Warner, Inc., according to published reports In its second request this month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is asking that the two companies provide a wide range of additional information.

A survey released Monday by investment firm Scudder Kemper Investments shows that despite slumping share prices, a majority of Americans remain optimistic about investing in e-commerce companies and see these firms as the linchpins of the future American economy Optimism aside, however, Americans are still fearful of instability in the sector and a...

Further shrinking what is already a highly competitive e-commerce sector, online grocer Webvan Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBVN) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire rival HomeGrocer.com for $1.2 billion (US$) in stock The move is yet another step in Webvan's strategy to expand its geographic reach, along with moving beyond groceries to become a...

In what is being described as a victory by both AT&T and open access advocates, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the city of Portland, Oregon has no authority to force AT&T to open its broadband infrastructure to competitors because the operation comes under the purview of federal regulators The decision, which reversed a ruling...

In what is being described as a victory by both AT&T and open access advocates, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the city of Portland, Oregon has no authority to force AT&T to open its broadband infrastructure to competitors because the operation comes under the purview of federal regulators The decision, which reversed a ruling...