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The AOLization of America
A Perspective By Ken Feinstein

The Online Giant Has Homogenized the Net.
What's Next?
While all eyes have been on the Nasdaq's ups and downs and Microsoft's legal troubles, America Online has been not so quietly taking over the world. Aiming to control everything you watch, read, and listen to, online and off, this titan is already wired into the households of 23 million Americans (about 20 percent of the surfing population). And, thanks to the merger with Time Warner, it is set to control 13 million more. Don't get us wrong: building an empire is not necessarily a bad thing. AOL's widely available, easy-to-use Internet service has helped millions of new Netizens get online. But a closer look at AOL's content, services, and business practices leads us to wonder if AOL's dominance will further open the Web, or just turn it into another homogenized, lifeless medium.

AOL's Modus Operandi:

•AOL's proprietary browsers and email clients can keep users from
venturing off the service.
•The company has censored chat rooms and user home pages.
•AOL has been accused repeatedly of anticompetitive and strong-arm
business practices.
•Through a string of media, entertainment, and Internet mergers and
acquisitions, the company has built a Web empire of
near-Microsoftian proportions.
And it's not just the Web that's in danger of being sanitized. We have to
wonder what will happen to Time Warner's many radio, television, and print media holdings under AOL's influence.
So get ready, America. The postman always rings twice, and, whether you
like it or not, you've got mail.

Tired Of Unsolicited E-Mail ?
Protect yourself from e-mail hijackers
An Internet-based version of identity theft is putting your e-mail alias at risk.
Here's how you can avoid becoming a victim.
By Tom Woodruff (MoneyCentral)
Here's another twist on the growing problem of unsolicited e-mail, known as spam: The senders of this unwanted mail are using other people's aliases, or e-mail addresses.
Not only are our electronic mailboxes filled with spam each day, but now the mail could be coming from an innocent victim who gets vilified in a torrent of responses from angry recipients of the unwanted mail. Spammers use this new version of identity theft to mask the origin of their e-mails and to combat increasing public scrutiny.Don't let your e-mail get hijacked
You can't protect yourself fully from e-mail identity hijackers, but there are some steps you can take. For instance, don't allow your e-mail alias to be visible in any public postings on bulletin boards, newsgroups, etc. Make your return address in bulletin boards or newsgroups something like "[email protected]."
How you change your "From" address or e-mail alias in public postings depends on which e-mail application you use. In Outlook Express, for example, you change your visible alias by going to "Internet accounts" then "Properties" and changing your e-mail address to a non-existent or dummy address.
A problem, of course, is that your real e-mail address also can be revealed by legitimate e-mail you send that is forwarded to others, or from business cards or other directories where you might list the address.
The outrage factor over spam has reached Capitol Hill, where legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year to deter the practice. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced the "Internet Freedom Act," to make certain types of spamming a criminal offense carrying heavy fines.
Meanwhile, system administrators who oversee corporate networks met last month in California at a "Spam Roundtable" and learned that even though most large Internet service providers (ISPs) have staff members dedicated to fighting spam, the problem is getting worse. The problem is underscored by the dilemma facing the nation's largest ISP, America Online, where roughly 15% to 30% of the e-mail that it receives is spam.
High-tech identity theft
Recently, some contributors to MSN MoneyCentral received spam titled "HOTT NEW CONTENT," promoting a pornographic Internet site, with links to that site. The apparent sender was someone with an e-mail address from MindSpring.com. When the recipients of the mail complained to the alleged sender, he was surprised. He had not sent the mail. Someone had hijacked his e-mail address to mask the missive's actual origin.
". . . I never sent mail to any of you of any kind. I am just a normal person," the sender responded. (His name is being withheld for this story.) "I don't own a mailing list to remove you from. I never had any of your names and e-mail addresses before you sent them to me asking to be removed … I called my ISP (Internet service provider) tonight when I discovered that over 350 angry people had written me in response to something I had allegedly sent. They told me that someone else is making the mailings and are putting my e-mail address as the return address, making it appear that I am the sender. . . "
The pending Congressional legislation would make it a criminal offense to falsify intentionally an e-mail sender's address, time or date stamp or other identifying information. Under the proposed legislation, a person whose identity is hijacked could file a civil lawsuit against the abuser for damages of $10 per incident or $15,000, whichever sum is higher.
Trace the e-mail routing
Bulk e-mailers use special software to change the origin information in e-mail messages as each small cluster of messages is sent. So this software attempts to defeat the blocking software of ISPs, which deflects large volumes of messages originating from a single source.
Normally, depending on your e-mail software, you can trace the actual routing of e-mail sent to you even if the sender's address has been altered. For example, in Outlook Express, you can check the "Properties," then "Details" of each message to see its routing. In Hotmail, when you check "Options" in the top toolbar, then "Preferences," then indicate that you want to see "Full" headers displayed, you can also see the full routing information.
The Internet service provider in this example case was MindSpring, which says it will track down the origin of identity hijackers when notified of the occurrence. MindSpring also will contact the service provider of the person or company that sent the mail.

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