On The Net

Calif. data sale raises privacy concerns

California has sold about 24 million birth records to genealogy Web site Rootsweb.com, raising concerns that the information could be used by identity thieves, reports the San Jose Mercury-News. State law allows the sale of birth and death records but lawmakers and privacy advocates are calling for changes to how California handles the personal information of its residents. The chief concern is that Rootsweb.com offers free information, including mothers' maiden names, that could be used by criminals to get access to a person's financial information. "The time has come for us to recognize that identity theft has become a big problem," said state Sen. Jackie Speier. "The fact that this information is public should raise a red flag." Rootsweb.com also has purchased similar information from the state of Texas, according to the Mercury-News.

Fast Track said to surpass Napster

Research firm Webnoize is expected to release a study next week that shows the Amsterdam-based file-trading service Fast Track has more users than Napster did at its peak, according to The New York Times. "Users have found a new dominant system" to trade music online, said Webnoize analyst Matthew R. Bailey. Fast Track, which organizes its trading networks in a way that is less centralized than Napster, is accessible through software such as Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster. The major music labels are jumping into the fray next week with subscription services. Listen.com's Rhapsody and RealNetworks' RealOne are expected to go into service early in the week, with Universal and Sony's Pressplay to take the leap Dec. 21.

Supreme Court hears arguments on porn law

Solicitor General Theodore Olson told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it should uphold the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which prohibits an individual or company from making online pornography available to children under 17. Representatives of Web sites and civil liberties groups that filed suit against the law said it could potentially reduce the Internet to a place where only content for children is legally acceptable. Olson argued that it is too easy for children to find harmful material online, whether on purpose or by accident. The law says "contemporary community standards" should apply when defining what is acceptable online. American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Ann Beeson said the broad reach of the Internet would allow, under the law, for one group to set the standards for the entire country. A ruling in the case, Ashcroft vs. ACLU, is likely by July.

At Home customers could get the boot

About 4 million customers of At Home Corp.'s broadband service could lose their Web access later this week if a federal bankruptcy judge allows the struggling company to cut them off. At Home is the nation's largest provider of cable Internet access, according to The Washington Post, and the industry is worried that a shutdown would turn many broadband customers away from cable services for good. Two things could keep the pipes open: Judge Thomas E. Carlson could deny the request by At Home's bond holders to shut down the service, or rival AT&T could finish its negotiations to buy At Home's broadband business. If At Home is allowed to proceed with the shutdown, it could come as early as midnight Friday, according to the Post.

Harry Potter entrances Web crowd

Warner Bros. says the site for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is drawing some intense traffic. The movie studio estimates that HarryPotter.com has been averaging 8.5 million hits per day domestically with an additional 2 million daily hits internationally. Jim Noonan, senior vice president and general manager of Warner Bros. Online, told the Los Angeles Daily News: "We've never had anything else even close. We believe this is the most popular movie Web site ever." The film based on the popular children's book was expected to hit the $200 million box office mark this week.

Bill would create Sept. 11 tip site

A bill introduced to Congress this week would create a centralized site for collecting tips related to the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he wants there to be a federal site called www.911.gov because the government is currently taking tips through at least five different Web sites associated with the FBI, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Customs Service, and the Treasury. His spokesman, Matthew Specht, told Information Week: "People have information that could save lives. They shouldn't have to waste time tracking down the exact URL."

Court blocks Web access to DVD crack

A federal appeals court has upheld an order that blocks the Web site 2600.org and its publisher, Eric Corley, from posting links to a piece of software that allows DVD movies to be decoded and played on personal computers. The program, DeCSS, was declared "content neutral" by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, meaning it does not enjoy the same protection as "expressive content" such as poetry or music. The decision upholds the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which opponents say is a threat to free speech on the Internet because it bans links to content, not just content that is problematic.

(Compiled by Joe Warminsky in Washington.)