BetaNews Staff

The days of the ordinary video camera with a small focal area
and a single point of view may be coming to an end. Advances in immersive
technology have created cameras and viewing systems that produce
360-degree, panoramic, interactive imagery, according to a panel of
researchers and industry experts. Applications are being driven by the
Web,
video games consoles and the increasing availability of bandwidth.

The Digital Hollywood conference in Beverly Hills, California, today put
together
a panel of six to discuss "Immersive Technology on the Net - Expanding the
Visual Horizon." The conference concerns the convergence of entertainment
and the Internet.

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Paul Allen, one of the key players in
Microsoft Corp's [NASDAQ:MSFT] creation, will quit the software
company's board of directors in November. He will, however, be
retained as a strategy adviser to Bill Gates and other Microsoft
executives.

In a statement today, Microsoft said Allen will not seek re-election
to the board. Another director, Richard Hackborn, will also leave
the board having already quit as chairman of the board of
Hewlett-Packard Co. [NYSE:HWP] last week.

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A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers earlier this week
introduced legislation that would make it expressly legal for Internet
users
to hear and electronically store music purchased legally.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., led a bipartisan quartet of House members
Monday in introducing the Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000,
which amends copyright law to effectively legalize certain transmission of
music over the Internet. The legislation appears to be a direct response
to the mounting debate over digital music spurred by the ongoing legal
battles surrounding MP3.com's personalized music service, MyMP3.com.

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At the same time it is embroiled in a lawsuit that seeks
to punish music-swapping company Napster, Capitol Records has made
overtures to users of another file-sharing technology known as
Aimster.

Aimster, an application that can use the "buddy lists" of instant
messaging software to help create a personal file-sharing community
for its users, now has the distinction of being the first such
peer-to-peer service to team up with a major record label in a
promotional deal.

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America Online Inc. is refuting a report
today that suggests it has enabled communication between its two instant messaging applications at the same time it is keeping at bay companies with competing software.

The Wall Street Journal said that it is now possible for many users
of ICQ, an instant messaging network purchased by AOL two years
ago, "to sign on to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and communicate
with other ICQ users."

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Broadband is making its way into more homes around the
world, and it seems inevitable that the previously separate
entertainment devices, television sets, stereos and computers, will
converge. Now ZapMedia says its ZapStation will be the first universal
digital media system for the living room.

ZapMedia and Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ:MSFT] today announced a
strategic agreement to integrate Microsoft's Windows Media audio and
video format and digital rights management (DRM) technology into the
ZapStation as its default digital media format and DRM.

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Digital music pirates resemble nothing so much as
cockroaches in nuclear winter - they simply will not die.

That, at least, is the message of a new Forrester Research report by entertainment analyst Eric Scheirer, who
maintains that neither digital rights management watermarking
technology, nor the threat of lawsuits will be enough to dissuade
digital content hijackers from pushing the industry to the brink
of collapse.

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Malicious hackers have hijacked hundreds of computer systems
that could be used to help wage large-scale attacks similar to those that
brought down Amazon.com, Yahoo and other high-profile Web sites
last February, according to an alert issued by the CERT Coordination
Center, a government-funded security project.

CERT warned that over the past two months it has received reports that
computer vandals are scouring the Internet for computers containing a
type of vulnerability that allows for the installation of automated
"toolkits"
that permit the intruder to control the affected computer for use in an
attack
against another computer or network.

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Chen Ing-Hau, the author of the infamous Chernobyl (CIH) computer
virus, has been detained by authorities in Taiwan.

The virus, which triggers on the anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster, is said to have caused over $250 million damage in South
Korea alone last year, infecting a quarter of a million computers
according to government reports.

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For
the first time, a Web site in the UK is offering high-rolling travelers
the chance to book their own holiday in space.

Richard Baguley, a spokesperson for Realbuzz.co.uk, the site offering
the six-day excursions, said that, while the service is a little
tongue in cheek at the moment, the moment technology for civilian
trips into space becomes available, Realbuzz will process the holiday
reservation.

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Software design company iPrivacy LLC said today it is
set to release the first of its planned software programs that
are formulated to provide consumers and corporations protection
of personal, financial and behavioral information while they are
on the Net.

In an official announcement, New York-based iPrivacy said their
patent-pending technology lets Web users browse, buy and receive
delivery of merchandise, while completely preventing access to
individual identity and click-data about their household's
surfing and purchasing behavior.

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Lawyers working for the record industry are filing
their opening brief tonight in a legal tussle with music-swapping
company Napster that has escalated to the US Court of Appeals.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the
National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) can be excused for
believing they have a winning argument: it has already worked well
for the 18 record labels and the pair of music publishing companies
they represent in a lawsuit that claims Napster aids massive
copyright infringement by connecting users who exchange pirated MP3
files on its peer-to-peer network.

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Travel Web site Orbitz has delayed its official launch
until next June to allow plenty of time to prepare for what it hopes
will be a deluge of customers seeking to book cheap airline reservations
and make other low-cost travel arrangements. The phased-in launch - which includes a "monster" beta test - is
aimed at perfecting customer service prior to launch, Orbitz chief
Jeffrey Katz told reporters during a conference call today. "We will
throttle the number of people that we'll let on there," he said, "because
you really want to ensure that there is (full) testing done. Until that's
done we don't want the world to hammer on Orbitz."

Next month Orbitz will open its airfare search engine so consumers
can compare prices, and in February will allow registered participants -
as many as 100,000 - to book flights through Orbitz. In April the
test will expand to include hotel reservations, auto rental and
other travel services, then comes the full launch in June.

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Nokia Corp. [NOK:NYSE] today introduced its
new Media Terminal, an open standards-based device that will
provide Internet access and push-button online services over
broadcast networks.

Nokia said the terminal, which is scheduled for availability next spring,
is based on open source technologies, including the Linux operating
system and the Mozilla Web browser. "So far," Nokia Ventures
communications manager, Jyrki Rosenberg told Newsbytes, "digital
set-top boxes have been proprietary. Now that we're offering open
standards we believe application developers can develop services
that you can interact with programs in various different ways."

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Two rivals of the America Online Inc. instant
messaging (IM) service have reportedly recommended conditions to the
Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that regulators should place
on AOL's pending merger with cable and media giant Time Warner Inc.

A Reuters report today said the CMG Information Services Inc. Tribal Voice unit and iCast Corp. collaborated on a
response to FCC queries on how the merger, currently valued at about
$130 billion, would impact the IM industry. The AOL IM rivals called
on the company, which holds a dominant position in the market, to
open its system so that rivals can chat with AOL users.

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