Volume 10, Issue 05        Atari Online News, Etc.       February 1, 2008   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                



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                                  =~=~=~=



A-ONE #1005                                                 02/01/08

   ~ eBay Lowers Some Fees! ~ People Are Talking!     ~ Europeans Uneasy!
   ~ 'Madden' Picks Pats!   ~ MS Offers To Buy Yahoo! ~ Hackers Rig Google!
   ~ Japan Lacks Virus Laws ~ eBay's Feedback Worries ~ FTC: Spammer Settles!
   ~ Nigerian Spam: Guilty! ~ eBay Buyers Save Plenty ~ Psycho Bunnies Back! 

                  -* New Life for HP Printer Carts *-
              -* Cyber Storm: Threats From Everywhere *-
           -* Judge Extends Microsoft Oversight 2 Years! *-



                                  =~=~=~=



->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



Another week, another weird spell of wintry weather.  You would think that
not much would surprise me in that regard!  At least we haven't been
digging out any snow for awhile!

I didn't have much to say this week - y'know, it's really difficult to
come up with thought-provoking topics week after week!  But, a message I
saw on one of my favorite Delphi forums, as well as a number of related
articles (reproduced for your reading pleasure this week) got me in a
semi-rotten mood.

I'd wager that most, if not all of you, have taken advantage of the
opportunities provided by eBay at one time or another - either as a buyer
or a seller.  Personally, I do a little bit of both.  I've purchased all
kinds of items on eBay, including a roll top desk!  And, I've been a
seller for almost a year now.  eBay is one helluva 24-hour flea market,
and more!

Well, this past week eBay announced some new changes to their fee
structure.  Listing fees are being reduced, while at the same time, final
purchase fees are going up.  For sellers of low-priced items (such as
mine!), this will really take a bite out of our profits, or increase our
losses.  What bothered me the most about this announcement was the way in
which eBay tried to sugar coat the changes!

We all know that even though there are other venues, no one (yet) can
equal the customer base that eBay has.  And eBay knows it!  While I still
routinely search for various specific items, the items that I have for
sale have been reduced greatly.  It's just too expensive to list items
and not have them sell.  And I'm just one of many who aren't too happy
with these changes.  Sure, I'll probably continue to sell, jacking up my
prices a bit to help defray the increases.  But, I'm sure that many folks
will go elsewhere, or just decide to hold live flea markets when the
weather is suitable.  And now we're back to the weather again!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



->In This Week's Gaming Section  - "Madden" Game Picks Pats!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    Psychotic Bunnies Are Back!
                                   "Chimps" Gets Game Treatment!
                                   And more!


        
                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



                 "Madden" Game Picks Patriots To Win Super Bowl


The New England Patriots will beat the New York Giants by a score of 38-30
in the Super Bowl, at least according to the popular "Madden NFL 08"
football videogame.

A simulation of this Sunday's championship game run in "Madden" by
publisher Electronic Arts Inc showed the Patriots taking an early lead
with a pair of touchdowns by running back Laurence Maroney.

The Giants pulled within one point in the third quarter, but a pass from
quarterback Tom Brady to receiver Randy Moss helped make the Patriots the
first team to record a perfect 19-0 season, EA said in a statement.

EA said "Madden" has picked the Super Bowl winner for five years running.



                         Psychotic Bunnies Are Back


When the Nintendo Wii console came out in November 2006, "Rayman Raving
Rabbids" emerged as its first sleeper hit by weaving entertaining
minigames and hilarious slapstick comedy bits and into a cleverly
constructed story line.

"Rayman Raving Rabbids 2" ($49.99, Ubisoft) offers more fun and humor,
full-motion video scenes and an expansion to four-player action, but it
lacks the cohesiveness of its predecessor - especially in single-player
mode.

In the original game, the cartoon character Rayman found himself trapped
in a Romanesque coliseum, having to win over the growing crowds of
psychotic bunnies by performing well in minigames. There was a sense of
purpose to the task at hand, and success opened new games for multiplayer
mode.

In the sequel, the rabbids invade Earth and Rayman must travel to
different cities around the world to stop them. The introductory video is
funny, but there's no game path laid out and it's too easy to quickly
open up all the minigames - about 50 instead of the nearly 70 offered by
the original "Rayman Raving Rabbids."

The good news is the bunnies are just as nuts as ever and there are
plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

In "Are We There Yet?" a perturbed Rayman sits in the driver's seat of a
station wagon packed with misbehaving juvenile bunnies. Score points by
using the Wii remote to slap the ones who are acting up. Hit the wrong
ones and you'll lose points.

"Dial R for Rabbids" throws players in a theater full of bunnies trying
to get away with gabbing on their cell phones during a movie showing.
Raise the Wii remote up to your ear to talk, quickly drop it down when
the usher barges in and raise it up again to earn more points after he
leaves.

In "Burgerinni," your character becomes a waiter and must maneuver
through the "ristorante" to deliver piled-high burgers to a waiting
"Godfather"-like customer. It's more fun in multiplayer mode, as
competing waiters collide to send burger layers, and each other, flying
off the sides.

Others minigames are so shallow they seem almost pointless.

In "Timber," you shake your Wii remote to saw the tree branch on which
you're sitting to the ground. That's it.

"American Football" involves running aimlessly around a football field
and avoiding other players while trying to hold onto the ball.

The dancing minigames were favorites of the original title, and each
played a key part in advancing to new levels. They were sort of hand
controller versions of "Dance Dance Revolution," prompting players to use
their Wii remote and drum sticks to keep beat with the dancing bunnies.

"Rayman Raving Rabbids 2" scraps the original dancing games in favor of
ones that let players choose one of four musical instruments and play as
part of a band. The game overreaches here, and they're just not as fun as
in the original. A simple retooling with new songs would have worked
better.

The battle scenes in which players shoot plungers at the crazy meandering
bunnies are entertaining, and the sequel trades out the animated
backgrounds for full-motion video of such cities as New York and Paris.
It's an interesting blend of real and cartoon, akin to the "Who Framed
Roger Rabbit" movie.

"Rayman Raving Rabbids 2" has its moments, but it had a tough act to
follow and doesn't quite meet the high expectations.

Two-and-a-half out of four stars.



                 "Chimps" Gets Game Treatment From Brash


Brash Entertainment is developing a video game based on the upcoming
movie "Space Chimps," from Vanguard Animation and Starz Media.

The "Chimps" game, which has been in development for more than a year,
will be available for Microsoft XBox 260, Sony PlayStation 2 and
Nintendo's Wii and DS systems.

Mitch Davis, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Brash Entertainment, said
the company had worked closely with the makers of the film, which is
being produced by John H. Williams ("Shrek") and Barry Sonnenfeld.

"We were with them from the very beginning on site at the studio in
Canada," Davis said. "They shared all the assets, from conceptual art to
the music, and they gave a lot of ideas on how the game could extend the
story arc of the movie."

Said Vanguard CEO Terry Bootlick: "Starting early with Brash definitely
gave us the opportunity to sync up the schedules and collaborate along the
way. We've shipped assets on a regular basis to Brash, and they've exposed
us to their script, design documents and additional characters they were
thinking of creating."

Bootlick said the film is on track to be completed in February. Fox will
release it July 18.

"Chimps" follows the adventures of a mischievous circus chimp named Ham,
voiced by Andy Samberg, who leads a mission into space to explore a
mysterious new planet.

Davis said the "Chimps" game will be on shelves a few weeks before the
film's debut, following a formula Brash used successfully with its first
title, a game based on the holiday hit "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

Brash was founded in June with the goal of creating content based on
theatrical franchises. It has deals in place with Warner Bros, Fox,
Universal, Vanguard and Lionsgate.



         Crash Scenes In Latest 'Burnout' Are A Gamer's Paradise


The new year gets off to a blazing start with crash fest Burnout Paradise,
a raucous racer that kicks the franchise into a higher gear.

The seventh Burnout installment is a sharp turn in the action. Criterion
Games takes you down to Paradise City, a sprawling open-world metropolis.
Developers liberate players by scrapping the linear campaign and
providing the freedom to choose their path.

Paradise City is a driving mecca. Vehicles sparkle in the sunlight as you
zoom through busy downtowns and steep mountain passes. The soundtrack,
like the vehicles you command, packs a ton of horsepower.

The city is very easy to navigate, thanks to a crisp interface. A small
map of Paradise City sits in the lower right corner, and your boost meter
on the lower left. Your current street sits at the top middle, while side
streets pop up on the left or right.

Of course, Burnout has never been a leisurely drive. Only one rule of the
road exists: Create highway carnage. Each stoplight represents a
different event. Some are a simple race. Road Rage rewards takedowns of
opposing vehicles. In Stunt Run, drivers take daring jumps and
stomach-churning spins to rack up as many points as possible.

Each event you win earns a point on your license. When you complete a
certain number of challenges, you'll get a license upgrade. One cool
wrinkle is the option to include your picture taken off PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 cameras.

If the hundreds of challenges aren't enough, every street has its own
time and crash challenges to master. You can also spend your time
scouting the city for shortcuts, billboards and super jumps. After certain
events, special cars begin to randomly appear. If you take them out,
they're added to a collection that peaks at 75 vehicles. All cars vary
based on speed, strength and stunt skills. Each vehicle earns boost based
on type. Stronger cars must drive overly aggressive to power their meter.

At the core of Burnout are the spectacular crashes. The cinematic effects
turn a violent collision into a mesmerizing display of glass shards and
twisted metal. Fresh paint jobs peel away. Bumpers cling to your car. Once
the slow-motion effect ends, you'll cringe as your roadster slams into
walls or plummets onto a lower highway.

The freeway freedom is astounding, but Criterion's ability to mash the
gas pedal non-stop is particularly impressive. Once you start the game,
load screens disappear. Menus are relegated to the pause menu. Drivers
can whip through gas stations for boost refuels and repair shops without
stopping.

Even jumping online is accomplished with little interruption. A click of
the direction pad and you enter Freeburn Mode, an online set of
challenges numbering in the hundreds. Up to eight can battle for road
rule records or other milestones. Options are solid, although a few more
online events like Road Rage would have broadened the experience. Another
small disappointment is the lack of offline two-player mode.

Those minor speed bumps don't slow Burnout Paradise. The franchise sticks
to its roots, yet feels incredibly refreshing. All that's missing is the
new car smell.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



               Microsoft Offers To Buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion


Microsoft Corp made a bid to buy Yahoo Inc for $44.6 billion in cash and
stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc in what would be the
biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger.

In its boldest-ever acquisition move, Microsoft sent a letter to Yahoo's
board on Thursday night, offering $31 per share for the Internet media
company, a 62 percent premium over its Nasdaq closing stock price that
day. The price is still below Yahoo's year-high of $34.08 in late October.
Yahoo said on Friday its board will evaluate the offer.

Yahoo shares shot up 45.5 percent to $27.91.

The world's biggest software maker is seeking a joint stand against an
ever more powerful Google, whose share of the global Web search market
has reached 77 percent, according to Internet audience researcher
comScore. Yahoo is second with 16 percent and Microsoft was a distant
third with 3.7 percent.

Yahoo would give Microsoft dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate
brand advertisers. Yahoo attracts more than 500 million people monthly to
a network of sites devoted to news, finance and sports as well as Yahoo
Mail, the No. 1 consumer e-mail service.

"Microsoft's wanted to do things that could build up its online business
dramatically," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest
Securities. "This is going to be a big bet for them. But I also think
it's where they see the market going, so they really needed to get there.

"This is more than a shot across the bow at Google, because you put these
two guys together who are basically two and three in search and makes
them far more relevant," he added.

Yahoo said its board will evaluate the unsolicited bid. Microsoft shares,
which have a market capitalization of about $300 billion, fell 5.5
percent to $30.82.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told analysts on a conference
call that the deal would transform its money-losing Internet division,
which it sees as critical to growth, into a profitable pillar of its
business.

"We have been losing money. Our plan here would be to not lose money in
the future," Ballmer said.

Ballmer said Microsoft had held discussions with Yahoo "off and on for
the last 18 months."

"A year ago, the management team told us it wasn't really the right time
to discuss an acquisition," Ballmer said, in an apparent reference to
then Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel, who was forced out as CEO
in June. He resigned as chairman of Yahoo on Thursday, a day ahead of
Microsoft's bid.

While speculation of such a tie-up has swirled in the markets for more
than a year, critics say Microsoft and Yahoo have very different
corporate cultures and many overlapping businesses, from instant
messaging to email and advertising, as well as news, travel and finance
sites.

"To me, the premium seems exorbitant, for what is a dwindling business.
I personally don't see how the synergies of Microsoft-Yahoo is going to
take on Google," said Tim Smalls, head of U.S. stock trading at brokerage
firm Execution LLC.

Yahoo has been losing market share to Google in the increasingly
strategic Web search market, and warned earlier this week that it faced
"headwinds" in 2008, forecasting revenue below Wall Street estimates.

Microsoft said the online advertising market is growing rapidly and
expected to reach nearly $80 billion by 2010 from over $40 billion in
2007. It added it is "increasingly dominated by one player," referring to
Google. Microsoft paid $6 billion last year to buy online advertising
services firm aQuantive as a bulwark against Google's growing position.

The software company said it had identified four areas that would
generate at least $1 billion in annual synergies for the combined
entity.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith acknowledged that rival bidders
could emerge, but said any attempt by arch-rival Google to acquire Yahoo
would face insurmountable antitrust hurdles.

"Any number of companies might take an interest. There's one company
that cannot: That's Google itself. Given its superdominant market share,
Google is clearly prevented by antitrust laws from buying Yahoo," the
chief lawyer said.

Mark May, analyst at Needham & Co, said that while the price is a premium
to Yahoo's recent trading price, it was in line with its average trading
value over the last 2 years.

"I would not be surprised to see this bid have to be raised over time,"
he said. "I think there are companies out there like Comcast and Viacom 
nd others that still need to address the emergence of online media and
haven't. So there are clearly other strategic companies out there."

Under the proposal, Yahoo shareholders can choose to get $31 cash, or
0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. The deal in aggregate must
consist of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock, it said.

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal would be the largest in the Internet market
since the $182 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc by AOL in 2001, which
was seen as the worst merger in recent corporate history, with clashing
corporate cultures and many of the promised synergies never
materializing.



                  Hackers Rig Google to Deliver Malware


If last November you googled one of thousands of innocuous and common
search terms, such as "Microsoft excel to access" or "how to teach your
dogs to fetch," you were in line for an Internet attack that infects PCs
with spam senders, password stealers, and other kinds of nasty malware.

Beginning on November 24 and continuing for less than a week, bad guys
loaded up more than 40,000 Web pages with malicious software and
thousands of common search terms. They then employed an automated network
of malware-infected computers - known as a botnet - to link to those
sites in blog-comment spam and other places. The mentions elevated the
position of the poisoned sites in search results, often to the first page.

The malicious sites had no useful information. Instead, a simple click on
a link to such a site in the search results was enough to launch attacks
against your PC. If the attack found any of a number of vulnerabilities
in a range of programs, it would load.

"This was a massive wave," says Alex Eckelberry, president and CEO of
security firm Sunbelt Software.

The attack marks a new level of sophistication, using multiple techniques
to raise site visibility in search results and deliver malware to a mass
audience.

Sunbelt researcher Adam Thomas happened upon the attack when he ran a
search of "netgear ProSafe DD-WRT" for router firmware. His trained eye
saw a suspicious-looking result on the first page. More research and
digging on other phrases turned up the vast array of attack sites.

None of the sites from this wave, or a smaller follow-up group, appear
now on Google, and Eckelberry and other experts believe the search giant
has blocked those specific domains. But Google isn't saying what it did
to stop this attack, or whether measures are in place to halt a
recurrence.

This massive attack had three notable features that point to the
sophistication and planning behind it. The first is the culprits' use of
botnets to push a dark form of SEO (search-engine optimization), called a
"Google bomb," to boost their sites' Google rankings.

"They did an extraordinary job optimizing the search results using the
bots," Eckelberry says.

Second, the poisoned sites carried JavaScript code on their pages designed
to stop visitors coming via other search engines from being attacked -
only visitors who came through a Google search were hit.

"[This trick was a] way of flipping the finger at Google," says
Eckelberry. Experts don't know the motive behind directing the attacks at
Google users, but online crooks have targeted specific sites and
companies in the past when they felt threatened. Google recently launched
an online form for reporting a site that Web users believe might contain
malware.

Third, the manipulated pages carried code that kept the attack sites from
appearing in results if the entered search term included certain
expressions that security researchers commonly use. For example,
Eckelberry had recently written about using "inurl" and "site," two of
the singled-out terms.

Despite Google's steps to eliminate the impact of comment spam on its
search result rankings, the use of SEO techniques is growing in the
online criminal underground. And bad guys don't employ the trick just to
infect people's PCs. WhiteHat Security chief Jeremiah Grossman says that
whoever hacked Al Gore's Web site recently added a link that could be
seen only in the site's source code.

The link, which pointed to an online pharmacy site, was designed to give
the drug site more relevance. Grossman says that, according to
underground contacts, the top result for "buy Viagra online" is worth
about $50,000 a month.

Though this attack was crafty and effective, security experts say there's
no need to stop using Google, as long as you take some precautions. Most
important: Keep your software patched and up-to-date. The attack sites
used a programming kit called the "404 exploit framework," which hits
known software vulnerabilities, says Roger Thompson, president of
security software maker Exploit Prevention Labs. You can close most of the
targeted holes by enabling the automatic-update features for Microsoft
Windows, Mozilla Firefox, Apple QuickTime, and other critical software,
but you should also update to the latest version of WinZip, a targeted
program that doesn't have an auto-update feature.

And don't let your guard down just because your software is current.
Attack sites will often employ social-engineering tricks when they can't
worm into your PC through software holes. On its blog, Sunbelt provides an
image of a common attack pop-up that attempts to trick you into installing
a fake video codec that then tries to exploit a vulnerable PC. Your sharp
eye can also catch many of these bogus results before you click. Watch for
seemingly garbled text such as "vpn passthrough sting maphack light
Motorola" in the text snippet shown for each search result. If the
listing is for an oddly named page such as "leuwusxrijke.cn/769.html," it
could very well be a land mine.

Free downloads such as McAfee's SiteAdvisor and Exploit Prevention Labs'
LinkScanner Lite identify potentially dangerous search results with small
icons. And the leading commercial security software suites offer browser
protection. Keep a close eye on what you click on, too, and you'll keep
search paranoia at bay, as Eckelberry has. "I'm a Google fanatic," he
says. "I haven't stopped using Google because of this."



                 Threats From Everywhere In 'Cyber Storm'


In the middle of the biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game to test the
nation's hacker defenses, someone quietly targeted the very computers
used to conduct the exercise.

The surprising culprit? The players themselves, the same government and
corporate experts responsible for detecting and fending off attacks
against vital computer systems, according to hundreds of pages of heavily
censored files obtained by The Associated Press. Perplexed organizers sent
everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" instructing them not to
probe or attack the game's control computers.

"Any time you get a group of (information technology) experts together,
there's always a desire, 'Let's show them what we can do,'" said George
Foresman, a former senior Homeland Security official. "Whether its intent
was embarrassment or a prank, we had to temper the enthusiasm of the
players."

The exercise was a big deal for all concerned.

The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S.
describes as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against
the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by
anti-globalization hackers. The government is organizing a
multimillion-dollar "Cyber Storm 2," to take place in early March.

Among the mock disasters confronting officials in the previous exercise:
Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York went
dark. Bloggers revealed locations of railcars with hazardous materials.
Airport control towers were disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago.
Overseas, a mysterious liquid was found on London's subway.

The list of fictional catastrophes - which also included hundreds of
people on "No Fly" lists suddenly arriving at airport ticket counters -
is significant because it suggests what kind of real-world trouble keeps
the White House awake at night. Railway switches failed. Planes flew too
close to the White House. Water utilities in Los Angeles were compromised.

The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise, with help from the
State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security
Agency and others.

Imagined villains included hackers, bloggers and even reporters. In one 
scenario, after mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network"
airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the
government. Other simulated reporters were duped into spreading
"believable but misleading" information that confused the public and
financial markets, according to the government's documents.

The upcoming "Cyber Storm 2" in March also will simulate electronic
attacks against chemical plants and communication lines, and include
targets in California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.

"They point out where your expectations of your capabilities may be
overstated," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the AP.
"They may reveal to you things you haven't thought about. It's a good way
of testing that you're going to do the job the way you think you were.
It's the difference between doing drills and doing a scrimmage."

The AP obtained the Cyber Storm internal records nearly two years after
it requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. The government
censored most of the 328 pages it turned over, marked "For Official Use
Only," citing rules against disclosing sensitive information. The
government is still reviewing hundreds more documents before they can be
turned over to the AP.

"Definitely a challenging scenario," said Scott C. Algeier, who runs a 
cyber-defense group for leading technology companies, the Information
Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

For the participants - including government officials from the United
States, England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and executives from
technology and transportation companies - the mock disasters came fast
and furious: hacker break-ins at an airline; stolen commercial software
blueprints; problems with satellite navigation systems; trouble with
police radios in Montana; school closures in Washington, Miami and New
York; computer failures at border checkpoints.

The incidents, designed to tax responders, were divided among categories:
computer attacks, physical attacks and psychological operations.

"We want to stress these players," said Jeffrey Wright, the former Cyber
Storm director for the Homeland Security Department. "None of the players
took 100 percent of the correct, right actions. If they had, we wouldn't
have done our job as planners."

How did they do? Reviews were mixed. Companies and governments worked
successfully in some cases. But key players didn't understand the role of
the premier U.S. organization responsible for fending off major cyber
attacks, called the National Cyber Response Coordination Group, and it
didn't have enough technical experts. Also, the sheer number of mock
attacks complicated defensive efforts.

The little-known Cyber Response group, headed by the departments of
Justice and Homeland Security, represents the largest government
departments, including law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The 2006 exercise had no impact on the real Internet. Officials said they
were careful to simulate attacks using only isolated computers, working
from basement offices at the Secret Service's headquarters in downtown
Washington.



                   Europeans Uneasy On Online Data Safety


Three out of four Europeans are worried about posting their personal
information on the Internet.

Franco Frattini, the European Union's top law enforcement official, said
Monday that an upcoming poll will show people were concerned about the
security of their personal data and wondering what they could do to
protect it.

"It is our intention to fully analyze and understand the feedback we have
been given by Europe's citizens in this survey," said Frattini, the EU's
Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner.

Europeans' should be "a salutary lesson" for all those who handle
personal data, he said. Regulators from the EU's 27 nations are preparing
a report on whether the privacy policies of Internet search engines
operated by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others comply
with EU privacy law.

Frattini did not reveal the number of people surveyed or the poll's
margin of error, but Eurobarometer surveys like this one usually are
based on interviews with several thousand people across the EU.

While three in four people worry about the safety of posting personal
data, more than half said they trusted medical services, financial
institutions, employers, police, social security, tax authorities and
local government to handle their data.

Frattini said people did understand the need to use private data to hunt
down terror suspects and fight crime with almost 75 percent agreeing to
phone tapping in certain circumstances and almost 70 percent to
monitoring of their credit card use.

"Only 15 percent of respondents were against the monitoring of air
traveler data in all cases," he said.

The British government was forced to apologize in November when it
managed to lose sensitive details on some 25 million people who claim
child benefit payments.

And banking transfer operator SWIFT drew criticism from EU data
protection officers and lawmakers last year for transferring bank data to
the U.S. Treasury under a secret deal that did not give enough guarantees
that the information would be kept safe.



                            Japan Lacks Virus Laws


Police investigating a man for allegedly spreading a computer virus had
to arrest him on a copyright infringement charge because Japan lacks laws
against malicious computer programs, a police officer said Friday.

Masato Nakatsuji, 24, a graduate student at Osaka Electro-Communication
University, is suspected of illegally copying and distributing over the
Internet an image from the Japanese animation film "Clannad" showing a
woman walking amid falling cherry blossoms.

But Nakatsuji also allegedly embedded the image in the "Harada virus,"
one of Japan's "Big Three" viruses, a Kyoto police officer said on the
customary condition of anonymity.

Police said it was the first arrest in Japan involving making or
spreading viruses.

Although computer viruses have wreaked havoc around the world for more
than two decades, Japan has been slow to pass legislation to crack down
on people who make and spread the potentially destructive programs.

In the latest case, police considered other charges, including damage to
property and obstructing business, before deciding that copyright
violation charges would hold up best in court, the officer said.

Nakatsuji, who is not suspected of creating the virus, was in police
custody and not immediately available for comment. Police said he isn't
contesting the charges.

Downloading the Harada virus with the animated image destroyed data and
spread on the Internet information stored in computers hit by the virus,
according to police.

The virus was also spread through an illegal Japanese file-sharing
software program called Winny. The extent of the damage has not yet been
disclosed, the Kyoto officer said.

Koji Namikoshi, spokesman for the university where Nakatsuji was
researching laser technology, said the university is strengthening
instruction on ethical uses of the Internet.

"But the only illegality is copyright," he said. "Something is wrong."

The maximum punishment for copyright infringement is 10 years in prison
and fines of 10 million yen, or $93,000.



                Three Plead Guilty In Nigerian Spam Scheme


Three people have pleaded guilty to charges related to spam e-mail that
promised U.S. victims millions of dollars from an estate and a lottery,
the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

In one scenario, the defendants sent e-mails purporting to be from an
individual suffering from terminal throat cancer who needed assistance
distributing approximately $55 million to charity, the DOJ said.

The three defendants, two from Nigeria and one from Senegal, sent spam
e-mail to thousands of potential victims, in which they falsely claimed
to control millions of dollars located abroad, the DOJ said in a press
release. The fraud victims lost $1.2 million by giving the defendants
advance fees, the DOJ said.

Pleading guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New
York were Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, whose aliases include Yellowman, Abdul
Rahman, Michael Anderson, Edmund Walter, Nancy White, Jiggaman, and Namo,
age 31, of Nigeria; Anthony Friday Ehis, also known as John J. Smith,
Toni N. Amokwu, and Mr. T, age 34, of Senegal; and Kesandu Egwuonwu, also
known as KeKe, Joey Martin Maxwell, David Mark, and Helmut Schkinger, age
35, of Nigeria.

Anisiobi pled guilty to one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire
fraud, and one count of mail fraud. Ehis pled guilty to one count of
conspiracy and five counts of wire fraud. Egwuonwu pled guilty to one
count of conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of mail
fraud.

The maximum penalty for mail and wire fraud is 20 years in prison. The
conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

A fourth defendant, Lenn Nwokeafor, fled to Nigeria and was subsequently
arrested by the Nigerian Economic & Financial Crimes Commission on
July 27, 2006. He is being held by the Nigerian authorities pending
extradition to the United States, the DOJ said.

In the throat cancer scheme, the defendants offered to give a 20 percent
commission to the victim, or a charity of his or her choice, in exchange
for the victim's help. The defendants would send a variety of fraudulent
documents, including a "letter of authority" or a "certificate of
deposit," making it appear that the promised funds were available, as
well as pictures of an individual claiming to suffer from throat cancer,
the DOJ said.

Defendant Anisiobi allegedly telephoned victims, disguising his voice to
give the impression that he was suffering from throat cancer.

After obtaining their victims' trust, the defendants asked them to
wire-transfer payment for a variety of advance fees for legal
representation, taxes, and additional documentation. The victims then
received nothing back, the DOJ said.

In some cases, if the victims said they could not afford to pay the
advance fees, the defendants would send them counterfeit checks,
supposedly from a cancer patient, to cover those fees. Many victims
deposited the checks and then drew on them to wire-transfer the advance
fees. When the checks did not clear, the victims suffered substantial
losses, the DOJ said.

"Online scam artists should be on notice that we will continue to work
closely with our international partners to ensure that there are no safe
geographic boundaries for committing these crimes," Assistant Attorney
General Alice Fisher of the DOJ's Criminal Division said in a statement.

The investigation was initiated by Dutch law enforcement authorities,
who notified the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which opened its own
investigation. The three who pled guilty were arrested in Amsterdam on
Feb. 21, 2006.



                         FTC Settles With Spammer


An online advertiser that drove traffic to its Web sites by sending out
spam with misleading subject lines has agreed to settle a U.S. Federal
Communications Commission complaint charging that it failed to tell
consumers they had to spend money to receive so-called free products, the
FTC announced Wednesday.

The settlement requires Member Source Media to disclose the costs and
obligations associated with the advertised products and services, and
bars the company from sending e-mail that violates the CAN-SPAM Act,
which regulates the sending of unsolicited e-mail. The company must also
pay US$200,000 in civil penalties, according to the settlement approved
Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California.

Member Source Media - doing business as ConsumerGain.com,
PremiumPerks.com, FreeRetailRewards.com, and GreatAmericanGiveaways.com -
and the company's owner, Chris Sommer, used deceptive spam and online
advertising to lure customers to its Web sites, the FTC alleged.

The company used e-mail subject lines such as, "Congratulations. You've
won an iPod Video Player," "Here are 2 free iPod Nanos for You: confirm
now," and "Second Attempt: Target Gift Card Inside," the FTC said in a
press release. The company's Web-based ads contained similar offers:
"CONGRATULATIONS! You Have Been Chosen To Receive a FREE GATEWAY LAPTOP."

When consumers arrived at Member Source Media's Web pages, they were led
through a series of ads for goods and services from third parties.

To qualify for their "free products," consumers would have to first wade
through pages of "optional" offers. Once they navigated those pages, they
had to participate in a series of third-party promotions requiring them
to do things such as purchase products, subscribe to satellite television
service, or apply for multiple credit cards, the FTC said.

Member Source Media's failure to disclose material facts was deceptive
and violated the FTC Act, the FTC said. In addition, the agency charged
that deceptive subject lines in Member Source Media's spam e-mails
violated the federal CAN-SPAM Act.

The settlement requires that Member Source Media clearly disclose in its
ads and on its Web pages that consumers have to spend money or incur
other obligations to qualify for a free product or service. The
settlement also requires the company to provide a list of the obligations
a consumer is likely to incur to qualify for their chosen item - such as
applying for credit cards or purchasing products.



             Judge Extends Microsoft Oversight for Two Years


A federal judge ruled on Tuesday to extend the U.S. government's
antitrust oversight of Microsoft Corp for two more years, but stopped
short of granting a five-year extension sought by states accusing the
company of continuing monopolistic behavior.

District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she will extend the
government's oversight of Microsoft until November 12, 2009, two years
after its original expiration date, due to delays by Microsoft in filing
technical documents to software licensees.

The consent decree settled the landmark U.S. antitrust case against
Microsoft in 2002. The decree covers the company's ties to computer
makers, how its software works with other types of software and
enforcement to ensure it does not repeat past practices.

The consent decree's expiration had been temporarily pushed back until
January 31 while Kollar-Kotelly considered the motion filed by 10
states to extend government oversight of Microsoft.

The states, which include California and New York, wanted the decree
extended until 2012, arguing that Microsoft would again use its market
dominance to crush competitors once the decree expired.

Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion that the extension should not be
seen as a "sanction" against Microsoft, but she said the delays in
documentation meant the objectives of the settlement had not been fully
achieved.

She also left open the possibility that the decree could be extended in
the future and said there are mechanisms in place to reexamine the
decree in the fall of 2009.

"We will continue to comply fully with the consent decree," Brad Smith,
Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement. "We built Windows Vista
in compliance with these rules, and we will continue to adhere to the
decree's requirements."



                 HP Gives New Life To Used Printer Cartridges


Hewlett-Packard is boosting its effort to effectively recycle used inkjet
printer cartridges, Wednesday introducing a new process that manufactures
new cartridges from recycled cartridges that are separated and rebuilt
from scratch.

The "closed loop" process gives used HP inkjet cartridges a sustainable
end-of-life value and puts the material back to good use while being
environmentally friendly, HP representatives said.

The process first breaks down plastic in printer cartridges made of PET
(polyethylene terephthalate), after which additives including fibers and
resins are used to strengthen and regenerate the plastic. The remolded
plastic is then used to manufacture new HP inkjet cartridges.

The plastics or cartridges are not melted, refilled, resold, or sent to a
landfill, HP said. The process also applies to other products, like PET
water bottles, HP representatives said.

The process, which went into pilot in 2005, has already resulted in HP
manufacturing 200 million printer cartridges, said Scott Canonico,
manager of environmental policy and strategy for HP supplies. The process
will go into full manufacturing now, he said.

Each inkjet cartridge contains 70 percent to 100 percent recycled
material. Users will find the process beneficial as cartridges with new
material perform better than used or refilled cartridges, Canonico said.

HP allows users to return inkjet cartridges worldwide for free in most
cases through its recycling program , said Ken Fleming, marketing
director of supplies for HP. In some cases, a postage-paid return
envelope is provided by HP with the inkjet print cartridge box.

The process will apply only to HP cartridges, the company said. No
external inkjet cartridge brand is being put through the new recycling
process, Canonico said.

Before the implementation of the new process, not all plastic recovered
went into making new cartridges, Canonico said. They were used by others
to manufacture products including auto parts and toys.

The company has already recycled 1 billion pounds of hardware and hopes
to recycle 2 billion pounds by 2010, Canonico said. HP offers recycling
options for hardware including PCs, cell phones and computers.

The inkjet cartridge recycling initiative is the latest in HP's broad
effort to be environmentally friendly. HP recently announced that it
would implement more energy-efficient technologies across its PC lines
to reduce computer energy use by 25 percent in 2010.

Recycling is one way to go green, Canonico said. "We're always looking to
further our commitment to customers and our commitment to the public and
environment," Canonico said.

While achieving the closed loop process was an achievement, HP will
continue to look for new ways to better recycle products, Canonico said.



                   EBay Lowers Some Fees, Raises Others


EBay Inc. is rejiggering its fees - raising some, trimming others - to
meet rising competition and maintain its share of the online auction
market it helped start a decade ago.

But those who keep tabs on the Web site, including its top sellers, say
the changes are a step in the wrong direction.

"It's a too little too late," said Steve Grossberg, one of eBay's top 100
sellers and the founder and president of the Internet Merchants
Association.

Grossberg, a Florida-based vendor of video games, spoke by phone from a
conference of 200 of North America's top eBay sellers in Washington,
D.C., where incoming CEO John Donahoe announced the fee changes Tuesday.
EBay makes 80 percent of its revenue from the top 20 percent of its
sellers.

"I think you are going to see a listing decrease, you are going to see
some sellers leave the site or pull back quite a bit and think of other
ways to make revenue, and it's going to backfire," Grossberg said.

Listings on eBay's various sites in the fourth quarter rose 4 percent,
reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last
week. The number of people actively using the site has stagnated, rising
just 2 percent from a year ago, while revenues have risen modestly.

The price changes, which take effect Feb. 20, are complex. It will cost
25 percent less to list an item for auction and up to 50 percent less to
offer something for a fixed price. EBay's commission on items sold for
fixed prices over $100 will also decline.

Its commissions on auction items selling for more than $1000 will remain
at 1.5 percent, while its commission on cheaper items will rise as much
as 67 percent.

Under the old rules, for example, a purse auctioned for $25 would have
cost the seller $1.91, including 60 cents for listing the item plus
eBay's commission of $1.31. Under the new structure, the seller would pay
$2.74, including 55 cents to list the item plus a higher commission of
$2.19.

"EBay does sincerely want to compete. They are reacting to the
competitive threat of Amazon," said Ina Steiner, editor of
AuctionBytes.com, a trade publication for online sellers.

Amazon already has "cherry-picked" a lot of eBay's high-volume sellers,
Steiner said.

Company spokesman Usher Lieberman said the company's internal pricing
experiments and number-crunching show listings overall will rise in
response to the changes.

"We've heard from our sellers for a long time that they've wanted us to
reduce their upfront cost and risks, and we've done that," Lieberman
said. Lieberman predicted the changes will results in savings for more
than 60 percent of sellers.

EBay most wants to encourage growth in fixed-price sales, the area where
it sees the most future growth.

One of its main rivals in fixed-price sales, Amazon.com Inc., charges no
fee at all to list an item, though it charges a commission as high as 15
percent.

Sellers told The Associated Press that Amazon is more straightforward,
takes less time and that they make more money using it, partly because
Amazon pays for payment processing.

Randy Smythe, a former eBay seller in Southern California, said eBay's
sellers take more risks than Amazon's because they have to pay before an
item sells.

Smythe sold music and movies on eBay for nine years, bringing in up to
$4.6 million a year. He stopped in 2006 because he saw increased
competition from those who were gaming eBay's fee structure, charging
less for CDs upfront but more on shipping. He found he was keeping just
2 percent of his gross revenue, and he now blogs about the industry
instead.

"What's going to happen is it's still going to be too expensive to sell
on eBay and make good money," Smythe said.

Donahoe said eBay is at a crossroads. He told the sellers the new fee
structure will be driven by their success.

"To maintain our leadership position in e-commerce, we can no longer
afford to make incremental changes to meet our customers' needs," Donahoe
said. "We need to redo our play book and we need to redo it fast. We need
to take bold actions to meet the expectations of buyers and sellers
around the world."

Donahoe said a majority of sellers will see their prices fall.

But sellers said the changes will increase their costs.

"I don't see any real incentive for the average seller to list more with
this new fee structure. I think their 'bread and butter' core auction
listings will continue to diminish as a result," said Bill Hamilton, a
Georgia-based top seller who specializes in collectible gemstones.

The new fees affect only sellers in the United States. More changes are
coming in Britain and Germany.

The changes come as longtime Chief Executive Meg Whitman announced she
would retire at the end of March. Donahoe, president of eBay
Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds, has
said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach and
business model.

Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said eBay's
rising fees have in the past caused sellers to look elsewhere on the
Internet for places to practice the online skills they perfected at eBay,
whether it's their own Web sites, Amazon, or other shopping sites.

"The more savvy sellers look at a multitude of options. It's not like
Amazon is taking market share from eBay in a big chunk, it's more of a
gradual shift. This commission going up will be a telling point over the
next months to see what kind of reactions it gets," Pyykkonen said.



            EBay Adjusts Pricing To Encourage Low-cost Sellers


Online auction leader eBay Inc on Tuesday introduced price changes and
tighter sales standards in a bid to retain quality sellers, improve
customer service and revive flagging growth.

In a speech to eBay's top store operators and market makers in Washington
D.C., CEO-in-waiting John Donahoe will set out a plan to reward the
company's best sellers with sales incentives and priority ranking in
search results for auction items.

Key changes involve lowering fees for listing items within auctions or
for independently operated stores run on eBay. It also involves raising
some of the fees sellers pay once sales transactions are successfully
completed. And eBay plans to raise minimum standards to discourage
abusive sales practices.

"Sellers that describe items accurately, ship on time, and ship at a fair
price will enjoy preferential pricing and discounts on eBay," Donahoe
said in prepared remarks. "We're serious about making eBay easier and
safer to shop."

EBay is seeking to reverse slowing revenue growth in its marketplaces
business, which is roughly half the level of three years ago. The company
telegraphed that changes were in store last week when it reported its
2007 year-end results.

The moves initially take effect February 20 in the United States across
both auction bidding and fixed price markets. In coming weeks, similar
changes will be introduced in Germany and Britain, eBay's No. 2 and No.
3 markets. Eventually, the pricing and other rules changes will take
effect worldwide.

In the United States, eBay plans to reduce insertion fees - the cost of
listing new items - by 25 percent on most auction items and by 50 percent
on most store items.

The fee changes, which vary by country, are intended to encourage
sellers to list more items and use more pictures to illustrate listings,
moves designed to encourage shopping.

Final value fees, or the price sellers pay for successfully completing a
sales transaction, go down as the value of items go up. The pricing
changes lower the up-front risk if listed items don't sell. "Put simply,
we will make more of our money when sellers are successful," Donahoe said
in a statement.

Long-serving eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said last week she planned
to step aside at the end of March and be replaced by Donahoe.

There were 532,000 stores operated with the eBay network in the fourth
quarter. The company no longer discloses the overall number of sellers
who participate in its auctions business. But it boasts 1.3 million
people make some part of their living selling goods or services on eBay
sites globally.

Along with fee changes, eBay is making its minimum standards more
stringent for anyone who sells on the site, primarily to discourage
behavior like charging excessive shipping fees or not describing listed
items accurately. Sellers with high customer dissatisfaction ratings will
be given lower priority in searches consumers perform on eBay.

Analysts said the changes were welcome but that eBay has a lot more to
do to revive its growth in its auction business.

"While the moves are bold, I don't think they are going to change the
face of competition," Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, a
sales consulting group that advises online merchants who sell through
eBay and other sites.

But Wingo said eBay was headed in the right direction by cutting fees
that have pushed some merchants off of eBay, reversing a pattern of fee
increases seen in recent years.

Lower fees could help woo back sellers of books, music and videos - items
that typically sell for under $25, he said.

"These guys have had a very tough time as (auction listing) prices and
then store prices went up," Wingo said. "That drove a lot of selection
off the site," he said, both to rival Amazon.com and to Web sites these
merchants set up themselves.

Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel, one of two out of 27 analysts who
recommend investors sell eBay shares, has argued eBay must drastically
cut its sales commission structure in order to compete with Amazon,
which will require "hitting the Reset button on (its) business model,"
he wrote last week.

"We think the structural issues may take years to overcome, given the
economy, competition and financial impact," he said.



                  EBay's Tweaks To Feedback Worry Sellers


EBay Inc. says it's changing its user-feedback system to keep buyers from
leaving, but the plan has sellers worried they'll no longer be able to
weed out untrustworthy shoppers.

Buyers and sellers have been able to rate each other at the online
auctioneer since its birth in 1995, when eBay founder Pierre Omidyar
envisioned a virtual marketplace built on trust among buyers and sellers.

Come Feb. 20, a full spectrum of feedback is welcome from buyers about
sellers, while sellers can no longer give buyers negative star ratings.

The shift was announced Tuesday among a complex series of pricing
changes and initiatives that eBay hopes will improve buyers' experiences
as it struggles with stagnant user numbers.

It's a fundamental change to create trust and tackle fraud in a
marketplace where buyers and sellers never lay eyes on one another. Steve
Grossberg, a Florida-based top seller of video games and president of the
Internet Merchants Association, said the ban on rating buyers is a good
thing.

"When the seller leaves a negative feedback for a buyer, it drives them
away from the site," Grossberg said.

But eBay needs to work harder to stop bidders who don't pay up, he said.
The site does not require immediate payment,and sellers complain they
are just as exposed to fraud as buyers on eBay.

Company spokesman Usher Lieberman said about 6 percent of auctions end in
nonpayment by the winning bidder.

Sellers can require payment upon checkout for fixed-price sales, which
account for 40 percent of eBay's business worldwide. But immediate
payment is not required on auctions because the buyers are not at their
computers when they win an auction, Lieberman said.

Sellers have long used feedback to alert one another about fraudulent
practices like nonpayment. Sellers earn good ratings by delivering
quality products and using timely and reasonably priced shipping methods.
Buyers earn poor ratings by not paying for an item or threatening the
seller with a bad rating if they don't lower the final auction price.

Both buyers and sellers use the information to assess their trading
partners' trustworthiness. Buyers can decide not to purchase from poorly
rated sellers, and sellers can eject poorly rated buyers from an
auction, for instance.

But sometimes sellers retaliate for poor ratings by giving a buyer a bad
rating. Retaliatory ratings by sellers have risen fourfold in the past
several years, Lieberman said.

And that's turned off buyers, he said. Those who stop using the site
complain more often about retaliatory ratings than other factors, such as
not receiving items they've paid for.

Grossberg, the trade association leader, said eBay has no incentive to
stop nonpaying bidders, because it charges its fees and commissions
regardless of whether a transaction goes sour.

Sellers wrote this week in online forums that they worry what the change
means for how they do business.

"Most of the sellers are having a gut wrench about the feedback changes.
It's a very abrupt change to something that has always been sacrosanct in
the eBay world," Bill Hamilton, a top seller in Georgia who specializes
in collectible gemstones, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The company does not keep comprehensive fraud statistics since most fraud
occurs outside of the site, when, for example, the customer uses a
nonsecure payment method.

In the first quarter of 2006, eBay's reported loss due to payments it
made to settle fraud claims was .06 percent of revenue.



                   Study Shows eBay Buyers Save Billions


Buyers save billions of dollars each year bidding on eBay auctions,
according to a new study that quantifies the benefits online consumers
enjoy over and above what is derived by sellers, or eBay itself.

The independent research by two statisticians from the University of
Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business found buyers saved $7
billion that they might have otherwise been ready to pay in a study of
eBay auction behavior in 2003.

Applying the same analysis to 2004 buyer data, consumers saved $8.4
billion, said Wolfgang Jank, one author of the study. A linear
projection of the research findings would mean consumers saved around $19
billion during 2007, Jank said.

The study seeks to calculate what economists call "consumer surplus" -
the difference between the top price buyers were ready to pay and what
they actually ended up paying. E-commerce sites provide a treasure trove
of data that allows researchers to test out theories of consumer
behavior.

"Consumer surplus is usually very hard to measure," said study co-author
Galit Shmueli. "The problem is that it is hard to ascertain how much a
winner or a bidder or a user would have been willing to pay for a
certain item."

Jank and Shmueli are associate professors of decision and information
technologies at the University of Maryland. They collaborated with Ravi
Bapna, an associate professor at the Indian School of Business, who
generated data for the study.

The study highlights the delicate balance eBay must strike between the
interests of buyers and sellers on its site.

The flip side of the same data shows that sellers leave billions on the
table that they might otherwise have charged buyers by setting higher
prices.

While not the focus of their research, the benefit to sellers comes from
the market liquidity of selling items through eBay, the world's biggest
online auction service.

At an annual conference for its sellers this week in Washington D.C.,
eBay is poised to introduce changes designed to make its auctions more
appealing to sellers while also making it easier for consumers to find
items they wish to buy.

The research examined consumer purchase data from more than 4,500 U.S.
and European auctions in 2003. The $7 billion in projected savings
across eBay amounts to about 30 percent of the $24 billion of total
merchandise sold through eBay that year.

On eBay, winning bidders only pay the next increment above what the
second highest bidder was willing to pay. The difference between each
winning bid and what the buyer ends up paying amounts to consumer
surplus.

EBay makes publicly available much of the aggregate data about bidding
on its site. But it does not reveal data on the actual highest bids
people enter in the eBay bidding system.

Instead the data was drawn from a Web venture Bapna was running at the
time, called Cniper.com, which allows consumers to bid automatically
in the closing minutes of auctions to help them win desired items at
the lowest possible price. The statisticians adjusted their data to
account for eBay bidders who place bids manually rather than via
automated bids.

The group's study of the 2003 buyer data will be published in a paper
entitled, "Consumer Surplus in Online Auctions" in the Journal of
Information Systems Research.

"You just can't quantify this (consumer surplus) for traditional
retailers - a store clerk would never get an accurate answer by asking
a customer: 'How much were you really willing to pay for this item?"'
Shmueli said.

"We just pay the prices the retailers demand," she said.



                                =~=~=~=




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