Wider Net not music to everyone's ears

By Chris Barton

The Web got bigger in 1998. Hardly surprising, but the continued growth is further confirmation that the phenomenon known as the Internet is bigger then Ben Hur. Some New Zealand statistics:

* Number of regular Net users in the third quarter of 1998: 741,000. (Regular users in the first quarter: 545,000.)

* Number of Internet billing accounts in 1998: 315,000. (Accounts in 1997: 215,000.)

* Number of Internet hosts (computers permanently wired to the Net), in 1997: 169,264. (Hosts in 1996: 84,532.)

But numbers aren't everything. Several events in 1998 are a better pointer to the Net's growing power. One was MP3 - an unusual little piece of compression software that allows Net users to download and play CD quality music on their PCs or on a portable walkman-like device called the Rio. The spontaneous Net development has sent the music industry into a tizz. Suddenly users all over are getting their music free.

Which is why MP3 gets the Net Democracy Rules OK Award - in recognition of the force of the medium and as a harbinger of transformations in all industries whose products are in digital form.

The music industry is already counter-attacking - proposing a new standard to distribute music over the Net. But if it thinks it can control the masses with special unlock codes, then it hasn't figured on the power of the hackers and the crackers.

This new breed of human - an information age elite - showed just what it's capable of this year. In the worst reported case of cyber-vandalism in this country, 4500 Websites hosted by Internet service provider Ihug were wiped out - apparently the work of a 15-year-old going by the online name of Sharkdogg who went on TV to brag.

He also used the online name Spazrat, but that was actually another 15-year-old whom he wanted to annoy.

Another rumour gaining currency is that Sharkdogg did not actually do it - that he was taking the fall for the real hacker. We will probably never know.

The police are looking into it but many believe our laws are insufficient to cope with this new scourge. Which is why there was no Whack a Hacker award this year.

Shortly after the Ihug attack, another hacker took his 15 minutes of fame by stealing Internet passwords from Telecom Xtra and other Internet service providers.

Xtra said the hacker was using a Trojan horse program called Back Orifice (BO) developed by a guild calling themselves the Cult of the Dead Cow (I swear I'm not making this up).

Xtra advised its customers to change their passwords and clean their PCs of the BO infection with anti-virus software. The hacker claimed he wasn't using BO and could get passwords any time he chose. His motivation was revenge because

Telecom had allegedly cut off his lines and put him out of business.

Telecom says it knows who the hacker is and it is working on bringing a prosecution.

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky take the Best Use of the Net for Disseminating Information about Cigars that we Didn't Need to Know Award. In an extraordinary first for the Net, the Starr Report went online before it went anywhere else - forcing newspapers, radio and television to go there for the news too.

The Net also got safer for online shopping in 1998 with ASB Bank announcing in December that it has strong 128-bit encryption for credit card transactions. The first online shops using this security will be hosted by Internet service provider Voyager - which looks about to be grabbed by one of the rapidly spreading global tentacles of telecommunications company WorldCom.

Another force that clearly sees its future in the Net - even if it is having a bit of legal bother - is Microsoft. The software behemoth takes the Tied in a Bundle with a Nice Ribbon Award of 1998.

It's important not to read this the wrong way. Under no account does it mean product tying - selling one product tied to the sale of another. That's a no-no - a predatory business practice that even our toothless Commerce Commission would say is anti-competitive behaviour. But it is okay to bundle - such as taking the separate Web browser Internet Explorer, attaching it to the Windows 98 operating system, and giving it away.

The US Department of Justice said no, that practice gave Microsoft an unfair advantage. Microsoft argues "integration" of browser and operating system is just enhancing the product for the benefit of all consumers. Why not integrate Microsoft Office - word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation and scheduling software - with the operating system too? And give that away free.

Many would see a lot of consumer benefit in that.

Privately, Microsoft knows it's living in a Windows paradise. Because it owns the operating system that most of the world uses, it's in a god-like position to decide when an application should be integrated and when it should be separate.

Should we care? If you're asking that question you probably missed the Bombshell of the Year Award. That was in October when our very own Telecom was cited in the landmark US v Microsoft anti-trust case as an example of how Microsoft's alleged predatory business practices have spanned the globe. True it was only a couple of lines in Netscape chief executive Jim Barksdale's marathon written testimony, but it was enough to make us pause.

Not that it's likely to make much difference. US Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson at first seemed to be indicating Microsoft was a dead duck - showing considerable impatience with chairman Bill Gates' unresponsiveness to questioning. But then, just before the case went into "holiday recess," he publicly mused that America Online's $US4.2 billion ($8 billion) purchase of Netscape in November might have changed everything.

While we all hold our breath for the outcome some time next year, we can quickly announce that the Yawn of the Year Award has been won by Windows 98 - the operating system with integrated browser that started the legal fracas. Despite selling more than 2.5 million copies by September, since its launch on June 25, Windows 98 has been otherwise unremarkable - with many finding no need to upgrade from Windows 95.

Then again, news in November that Microsoft had changed the name of Windows NT 5.0 - its next but as yet unreleased version of its more robust operating system - to Windows 2000 was fairly unremarkable too.