more successful in all sorts of ways, some organizations embrace the past and attempt to stave off the inevitable disintermediation and reorganization that the Internet is bringing," observes Lance Hoffman, director of the Cyberspace Policy Institute at George Washington University (dossier). "If you get ahead of the parade and lead it, it's a much more risky but better strategy."
Many of the offline players bristle at suggestions that these are issues that divide new-economy and old-economy players. The ASTA argues that the airlines' joint venture is part of an airline industry plan to "get rid of agents." Agents act as the public's representative and help keep prices low, says Paul Ruden, senior VP of legal and industry affairs for the society.
"We haven't been displaced by the Internet," says Ruden. "This isn't about the public turning away from us. It's about the public having the ability to find us. That's what the airlines are trying to prevent."
To Realtors, who have supported database protection for years - but never more fervently than now - the issue comes down to preventing online companies from having a license to steal. They say it is up to the homeowner to decide where the listing information should appear, and that no one should have the right to click around the Web and copy listings from the Realtors' own Web site, Realtor.com, to a rival site. "The Realtors were using computers before the Yahoo (YHOO) folks were out of high school," says Ed Miller, a lobbyist for the Realtors. "The question for us is do you keep building a site like Realtor.com or put it back on password-protected so that only other Realtors can see the information?"
The reason eBay has cast its lot with Realtors and publishers and against such Internet stalwarts as America Online (dossier), MCI WorldCom and Yahoo is that the database issue pits the interests of those who compile the data storehouses on the Internet against those benefiting from new forms of commerce that sometimes pull up some listings from these databases. A bill sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) in the House Judiciary Committee, would criminalize reuse of information from databases. A rival bill sponsored by Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) in the House Commerce Committee, would prohibit exact duplication of databases but allow enhancement and reuse of the information.
While the two congressional committees try to hash out a compromise, the Justice Department has been investigating whether eBay should be permitted to shield its auctions from competitors that allow comparison shopping.
Some opponents of the database protection legislation believe it will grant companies property rights to public data, such as stock quotes. "This is the buggy-whip manufacturers trying to ensure that we'll buy a buggy whip with every car," says Frank Kelly, head of government affairs for discount broker Charles Schwab, which is in a battle with the stock exchanges over charges for real-time stock quotes. "This is the old world vs. the new."
Analysts foresee another protracted battle looming on the horizon over streaming video. Already, there have been clashes in all three branches of government. A federal court blocked iCraveTV from distributing U.S. programming over the Net. Congress is trying to determine whether Internet service providers should be granted similar compulsory licenses to carry videos, like those enjoyed by the cable and direct broadcast satellite industries. Communications regulators recently denied a request by Internet Ventures to offer video programming over the Internet.
"The near-hysteria that content owners like Time Warner (TWTC) and the NFL have had over iCraveTV's pointing a crude Internetcam at a TV set underscores how frightened big copyright owners are that Internet distribution undercuts the value of their content by facilitating illegal copying and piracy," wrote Legg Mason (LM) Precursor Group director Scott Cleland in a recent report. "The vehemence of copyright owners' reaction is telling. This skirmish may be just the tip of an iceberg; the big
