Three major television content producers have chosen Virage Interactive software to allow viewer-driven Web broadcasts of prime-time programming.

ABCNEWS.com, CNET.com, and C-SPAN are now using Virage Interactive's video search "solution" to publish their broadcast TV programs as interactive video on their Websites, San Mateo, Calif.- based Virage Inc. announced today.

The applications signal the first time major TV networks are actively redeploying and monetizing their broadcast content as Web-ready video, taking advantage of the commercial aspects of Web interactivity, says Virage. It also marks the first time viewers will be able to watch prime-time television shows when they want to, and opt to access them as topic-searchable segments.

The Virage software allows broadcasters and other content providers to convert long-format video from television, satellite or tape directly into interactive, short-form digitized video suitable for cyberspace.

The applications follow a fast-emerging convergence trend that is seeing more TV programming themed to cyberspace topics, and as Newsbytes recently reported, the producing of the first made-for-the-Internet feature film, "The Quantum Project." Today also marks the announcement that The IBC-NEWS Website will go live this fall with ongoing global news coverage and editorials.

Virages vice president of business development, Dave Girourd, told Newsbytes, "Essentially, we have introduced an engine that allows content owners to deploy on a very large scale on the Internet."

The three networks say they are making hundreds of thousands of hours of prime television programming accessible for viewing by topic of interest on their Websites.

Virage claims the user-driven content aspect allows broadcasters to target their content and advertising and expand commercial opportunities derived from broadcast assets in ways that traditional broadcast video does not.

The public benefits from the convergence since prime-time content becomes available in a familiar Web format, searchable by topic, and viewable from the point of interest.

Girourd claims Virage is far ahead of other players in the field by providing a complete out-sourced, hosted service to the major broadcasters. He predicts that TV viewers will soon be able to watch and search their favorite mainstream TV programs, such as soap operas, and by typing key search words, will be able to, for example, pinpoint all the scenes featuring their preferred character.

With the new set-up, ABCNEWS.com, makes ABC News multimedia assets more accessible to Web audiences. Visitors to the site at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/video_index/video_index.html will be able to search across all of ABC News' programming for topics of interest.

CNET's television content is combining to build a database of video that will become searchable on the front door of CNET.com. By searching on keywords for specific topics, visitors to http://www.cnet.com have the option to watch video pertaining to topics from any of the networks shows.

The C-SPAN application will be dedicated to the upcoming US presidential election. The site at http://www.cspan.org/campaign2000/search contains an up-to-date, online collection of candidate campaign speeches, primary and general election debates, press conferences, party fund-raisers, and all other candidate appearances on C-SPAN.

The Campaign 2000 video search engine provides access to the breadth and depth of programming compiled on C-SPAN as the network follows the candidates on the trail. By typing in keywords, users can search by candidate, party, campaign issue, or location on topics such as taxes, gun control, abortion, education, or foreign policy. Users can also compare and contrast statements made by candidates in different regions of the country and can track a candidate's position on a topic by date throughout the campaign season.

The Virage Interactive software is powered by Sun Microsystems' Enterprise servers in a Solaris operating environment. The service translates video content from television, satellite or tape directly into a hosted and private-labeled video search engine. The video search engine was first put to public use last year when Virage posted President Clinton's Grand Jury Testimony to the Internet in partnership with AltaVista, an event described by industry analysts as a watershed for streaming media on the Web.

Girourd says a tremendous potential is created once video is databased. "I envision video community sites where users can experience the content of their choice and share their thoughts with other viewers."

More information on the engine cam be found at http://www.virage.com

Internet Ratings
Memo To Spark Discussion
By David McGuire and Robert MacMillan

A controversial memorandum suggesting "voluntary" worldwide Internet ratings and filtering guidelines was not intended as the final word on the subject, but rather as a public "conversation-starter," the man in charge of drafting has said.

"This is by no means intended to be the end of the discussion," Jens Waltermann, deputy head of the Bertelsmann Foundation's Media Division said in an interview. "This is a way of taking the discussion (of Internet content regulation) public. In order to take a discussion public, you have to put (something) on the table," he said.

Waltermann headed up a group that wrote "Self Regulation of Internet Content," a 60-page memo that became the target of blistering criticism from civil liberties and online privacy groups even before it was officially released. The memo was unveiled last month (Sept. 10) at a conference in Munich.

"(A) so-called voluntary ratings system may actually facilitate governmental restrictions on Internet expression," said a joint statement released yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC).

But Waltermann questioned the tone of the memo's most strident detractors. "The GILC statement is cut-and-paste from 'Fahrenheit 451,'" he said. "Basic opposition is nice, but it's not going to get us any closer to a solution."

Waltermann rejects, out-of-hand, the assertion that any form of rating and filtering guidelines would violate basic civil liberties.

Still, even some of those who were involved in making suggestions for the Bertelsmann memo have raised concerns about its content.

The final draft of the memo left Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Interim Chair Esther Dyson feeling "distinctly queasy," she said earlier this week in a written response to the document.

"The document proposes the creation of a full, broadly integrated set of institutions that can 'protect' us all from the problem of illegal content. I fear that we will end up with a worldwide bureaucracy always forced to take the 'safe' route, calling for the removal of questionable content," Dyson wrote.

Specifically, Dyson raised concerns about the document's nebulous definitions of "illegal" content. While the memo refers specifically to child pornography it also alludes to hate sites and terrorist "how-to" sites in its descriptions of illegal content, she wrote.

Dyson was part of an "expert panel" that offered suggestions to memo authors.

Waltermann agreed, at least in part, with some of Dyson's criticisms "I don't think that the vagueness that is, in fact, there in certain parts is, in fact, the ideal," he said. But, Waltermann argued, "there is a certain amount of vagueness required" to allow for reasoned discussion, he said.

The Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) was formed by a group of mostly big-time industry players bent on developing its own regulations to avoid the potential government regulation of Internet content.

ICRA planned the Munich meeting where it heard two conflicting proposals for a worldwide ratings system

ICRA, which has absorbed the US-based ratings group the Recreational Software Advisory Council, supports the use of Internet filtering to keep children away from harmful content online, but does not necessarily support governmental imposition of these systems.

According to David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a system of international content regulations leads one step closer to governments requiring the use of such a system for the Internet community.

"It is being put forward as a means of self-regulation and a way to ward off government regulation, but I think there's a very strong and obvious possibility that governments are going to consider mandating the use of such a system," Sobel said earlier this month.

ICRA wants to have global ratings and filtering guidelines in place by the end of next year, Waltermann said.

Full text of the Bertelsmann memo is available online at http://www.stiftung.bertelsmann.de/internetcontent/english/content/c3200.htm

It suggests, among other things, that: the "Internet industry" develop self-regulatory agencies for foster the "creation and implementation of codes and standards for Internet content; world governments "consider a process" of ratifying and accepting the codes developed by the Internet industry; and governments use their public information capabilities to raise awareness about content-filtering technology.

Most Prez Candidates' Websites
Fail Privacy Test
By Bob Woods . Few presidential candidates who have "walked the walk" in terms of Internet privacy concerns actually "talk the talk" on their own Websites, according to a new survey from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). While all candidates' Websites ask for personal information, few disclose what is done with that data, CDT said.

CDT's "A First Test: The Candidates and Their Privacy Policies" survey found that only Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have privacy policies linked from the main pages of their respective Websites. Both candidates were also awarded "A's" from CDT, in terms of the ability to find the notice within their Websites.

Gore had a "learning experience" from an incident involving his Website last April. His staff hurriedly changed Gore's campaign site just before it was to go online, so it would not violate a federal law protecting children and their privacy. That law, however, is not to take effect until 2001.

CDT's survey found that three others - former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Republican candidate Steve Forbes - had a policy linked from either their contribution page or their volunteer page. And when it came to finding the notice within their sites, Hatch received a "B+," Forbes got a "B," and Bradley was awarded a "C+."

The other six candidates - Republicans George W. Bush, Elizabeth Dole, Gary Bauer, Pat Buchanan, Alan Keyes and Dan Quayle - were given failing grades by the report's "quite-lenient standards," CDT said. None of their sites had a locatable privacy policy.

CDT Policy Analyst Ari Schwartz said that, while his organization did not have any expectations from the study, the "candidates who have worked on Internet privacy policies generally had one on their own Websites."

Dole campaign spokesperson Chris Hawes said that posting a privacy statement was a "priority" for the organization, and will happen "very soon."

Hawes also said that the Dole campaign has always had a "privacy policy" that included not selling the names of contributors or volunteers, even though such a statement was not explicitly presented on the Website.

"A trust is implicit when anyone visits our Website," she said. "We take that trust very seriously."

For its latest study, CDT only looked for the presence of personal information and not the quality of the policy itself. "The lack of clarity and completeness of the policies makes grading their actual quality difficult," CDT said in its study. "A look at the policies revealed that they did not answer many questions a perspective donor or volunteer might have about the candidate's privacy practices."

To help answer those questions, CDT today sent letters to all 11 campaigns, asking: if/how each campaign intends to sell/share data collected on volunteers or donors; if each campaign allows individuals to opt-out of other uses or sharing; if their Websites informs contributors about current election law; and if the site provides the ability to access information held on them by the campaign and correct inaccuracies.

Schwartz said CDT will post the answers to its Website, http://www.cdt.org , as the candidates' campaign officials send back the questionnaires. CDT will then issue another report based on the responses, which are due into the organization by mid-September.

"The next step will be to see what their priorities are, in terms of privacy policies," Schwartz also said. "A lot of campaign managers are just starting to face these privacy issues."

A "boilerplate" policy that can be used by any candidate might result from these studies and evaluations, Schwartz said. "We may get a general policy for the presidential candidates to follow. That policy could then even be used at the local level."

Specific results from the study are located within the CDT's Website, at http://www.cdt.org/privacy/090299candidates.shtml

Covad Expands DSL Network
To Cover 40 Percent Of US
By Sylvia Dennis

Covad Communications [NASDAQ:COVD] has announced it is increasing its DSL (digital subscriber line) service rollout plans to cover 40 percent of the US population by the end of 2000.

The move is a significant one for the company, which is fast becoming a major force in the DSL service provider community. By the end of 2000, the carrier says it will be offering DSL services in more than 100 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the US.

This is almost a doubling of previous plans, adding 49 more MSAs to Covad's planned coverage areas, as well as 19 states in its national rollout campaign.

As reported previously, Covad is already offering, or planning to offer, its range of DSL services in 51 MSAs across the US. Even with the extra coverage plans, the carrier says its network will still be completed by the end of the Year 2000.

In a press statement, Robert Knowling, Covad's president, said that last mile access to customers is the most valuable asset in the telecommunications industry.

"Covad has the largest network of any national DSL provider," he said, adding that, by the end 2000, no other broadband access provider will have the carrier's reach in the US.

In the Pacific Northwest, Covad will expand broadband capabilities to Washington (Bremerton and Olympia). In the Pacific Southwest, the carrier will now include extending broadband services to California (Santa Barbara and Ventura) and well as Las Vegas in Nevada.

In the Rocky Mountain region, Covad says that its network expansion will bring broadband capabilities to Provo and Salt Lake City in Utah, as well as Colorado Springs.

In the Southwest, the carrier plans to bring service to: Tucson, Ariz.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and San Antonio, Texas.

In the Central US, Covad will also bring broadband capabilities to Indiana (Indianapolis); Kentucky (Louisville); Michigan (Grand Rapids); Missouri (St. Louis and Kansas City); Ohio (Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton); and Wisconsin (Milwaukee).

In the South, the network expansion will extend services into Birmingham, Alabama; Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina; and Nashville plus Memphis, Tennessee.

Last, but least, in the Eastern region, Covad's network will be expanded to provide broadband access to Connecticut (Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford, New Haven and Stamford); New Jersey (Trenton); New York (Albany, Buffalo, Dutchess County, Rochester and Syracuse); Pennsylvania (Harrisburg and Pittsburgh); Rhode Island (Providence); Virginia (Norfolk and Richmond); and West Virginia (Charleston).

A spokesperson for Covad's press office told Newsbytes that all these regions will have DSL coverage for businesses and heavy residential users of the Internet.

For residential users, the company will be offering its TeleSurfer ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) service, which will feature a dedicated connection into the Internet.

Businesses, meanwhile, will be offered the TeleSpeed range of services, which will include a virtual private network (VPN) facility across the Internet.

Further details of the services and coverage areas can be found on Covad's Web site at http://www.covad.com .

Clinton Urged To Change Directions On
Crypto Policy
By Bob Woods

President Clinton has received recommendations from a special advisory group on encryption and high-tech hardware, a White House spokesperson confirmed to Newsbytes. The body recommends, however, that the Clinton administration do a 180-degree turn on its fight to keep most export controls in place.

While a White House spokesperson told Newsbytes this afternoon that Clinton has received the recommendations from the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC), he would not comment on any specifics.

PECSENC is a senior-level advisory committee that provides private- sector guidance to the government on US policy as it pertains to commercial encryption products. PECSENC members are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce.

Looking at a copy of the "Liberalization 2000: Recommendations for Revising the Encryption Export Regulations" report, which was drafted during the group's quarterly meeting last July, the group made a total of 10 proposals.

One of those recommendations - probably the most controversial one - states that the US should allow the export of mass-market software and hardware "with key lengths of 128 bits or equivalent strength including triple DES (Data Encryption Standard)."

"Although the Wassenaar Arrangement sets the level for discretionary controls of mass-market encryption at 64 bits, long-standing practice of foreign countries has been to allow export of mass-market items with unlimited key lengths," the report said. "The US government should recognize market realities. In addition, the US government should recognize the difficulty of controlling mass-market products once they are allowed to be exported even to limited sectors."

Additionally, the report said a "license-free zone" should be created that would eliminate export approval requirements for encryption products sent to countries that "do not present a significant national security concern related to US encryption items." This policy would be similar to one already in place for shipments to Canada.

PECSENC also looked at a European Union plan being considered that would remove all export barriers between its member countries and greatly simplify export procedures for a list of friendly nations. "If burdened by US re-export controls, US-origin products will be unable to benefit from these relaxed controls and will suffer competitive disadvantages to foreign products," the report also said.

E-commerce companies should be able to import general purpose encryption products from US companies, the report also recommended. "The scope of eligible commodities and software must be expanded if the policy is to promote electronic commerce as the administration intends," PECSENC said. "The administration has emphasized how strong encryption products will form the basis of the e-commerce infrastructure and an environment of online trust... To meet the objective of promoting secure electronic business, online merchants must be allowed to protect their own business infrastructure with appropriate security commodities and software.

PECSENC also recommended that the administration should eliminate reporting requirements for exports under several license exceptions, including health and medical end-users, online merchants, recoverable encryption products sold to foreign companies, and mass-market products that use the "weak encryption" of 56-bit key length or less.

"Reporting requirements are difficult, and in some cases impossible, for industry to comply with and have questionable value to the government," the report stated.

William P. Crowell, PECSENC chairman, told Newsbytes late today that he thinks the Clinton administration will "certainly want to retain certain aspects of the current export control regime, especially in light of certain events like the Cox report."

But at the same time, Crowell said he thought the administration would adopt some of the recommendations that are meaningful, yet consistent with current policy.

With e-commerce becoming a major economic power that has no borders, though, the administration has to do something to protect the US information technology industry, he also said.

Overall, though, "(the administration) has a fine line, and they have to walk it," he added.

Crowell is also president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cylink Corp. [NASDAQ:CYLK], which develops secure electronic systems to protect the privacy of its client companies.

Encryption controls have been a hot topic on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Law enforcement officials like Attorney General Janet Reno and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Louis Freeh have spoken out against relaxing controls in front of many Congressional committees and subcommittees.

Reno has said that while encryption provides many important benefits to society, "the good of society requires narrow exceptions to this normal expectation of privacy." Reno also predicted crime prevention would become much more difficult if encryption export controls are relaxes, because the process to unscramble encrypted messages without a recovery key would be very complex.

Other Clinton administration officials have also come out against easing encryption controls.

On the other side of the fence are many high-tech industry executives, claiming that overseas companies will hurt their firms' bottom lines if they're not allowed to export strong encryption.

Center for Democracy Staff Counsel Alan B. Davidson recently said that the widespread foreign availability of encryption products demonstrates the failure of Clinton Administration policy and the need for passage of laws to reform US export controls.

Earlier this month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) officially eased computer export controls to Tier I, I and III nations.

When Clinton announced the action last July, he said the easing of computer export controls would "strengthen America's high-tech competitiveness, while maintaining controls that are needed to maintain our national security."

Clinton also said the reforms are needed "because of the extraordinarily rapid rate of technological change in the computer industry. The number- crunching ability of a supercomputer that once filled a room and cost millions of dollars is now available in an inexpensive desktop computer... These business computers have become commodities, and next year, US and foreign vendors are expected to sell 5 million of them."

Yahoo Introduces
Bill Pay Service -Competition Heating Up
By J Brown,

Internet portal Yahoo! announced a new Internet-based bill paying service today, allowing its customers to pay bills online using any PC connected to the Internet.

Through an agreement with CheckFree Corporation, a provider of financial electronic commerce, Yahoo! customers can now pay bills electronically throughout the US through two of the company's services - Yahoo! Finance <http://finance.yahoo.com> and My Yahoo! <http://my.yahoo.com> The new service is part of Yahoo!'s strategy to increase the availability of convenient, time-saving services to their millions of customers.

A recent study by Santa Clara-based Netroscope, an Internet market research firm, found that only 18 percent of consumers surveyed are paying some of their bills electronically. Part of the resistance can be traced to issues of flexibility and security.

"Many roadblocks to electronic bill payment success exist today," said Byron Patra, Netroscope senior analyst. "However, the advantages of electronic bill payment are so compelling that we anticipate an explosive surge after 2000."

Yahoo!'s Bill Pay service <http://bills.secure.yahoo.com> is attempting to gain ground with customers by addressing their concerns. Yahoo!'s service will add flexibility by allowing customers to send electronic payments to individuals, including friends and relatives, as well as established companies. Payees not able to accept electronic payments will be mailed a paper check from CheckFree. Yahoo! Bill Pay users will also be able to schedule single payments, such as car registration or tuition fees, up to one year in advance. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security combined with the use of Yahoo! Security Keys will be used to help give customer's peace of mind.

"This service is another way to make our users' financial lives more convenient," said Tim Brady, vice president of production and executive producer at Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo! already has competition in this arena. In February, MCI WorldCom also signed an agreement with CheckFree to allow their customers to receive and pay bills online. And both MCI and Yahoo! will soon get plenty of competition from the banks themselves. Bank of America has already announced plans to launch their own bill paying service. And in June, Chase Manhattan, First Union and Wells Fargo formed a new company, called The Exchange. The Exchange is designed to act as a hub for member banks, allowing them to ensure continuos and secure transactions between the banks and their customers. In doing so, The Exchange is hoping to stop middlemen like CheckFree from capturing their customers.

But the banks may not have to worry. According to a Gartner Group study conducted earlier this year, customers prefer to pay bills at their own banks rather than at an Internet portal by a margin of 8 to 1.

Either way, online bill paying appears ready to move from hype to reality. A recent Jupiter Communications study estimates that households paying bills via the Internet will grow to over 18 million by 2003.