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The debate over the effect of the Internet on the print media has become more complex as it is seen that both old and new media have their particular virtues. Print is cheap and portable, tends to be much easier on the eye than on-line newspapers, and does not involve any download times. The Net permits a new dimension of journalism since it lacks the time and space constraints of print. Traditional media companies have a huge amount of content and content creators at their disposal and are already well-known to the public but face both physical and organisational difficulties with regard to the Net.

A growing number of prostitutes are using the Internet to promote their services and building their own websites. Rachel, a prostitute for almost 10 years, has set up a website giving details of the sexual services on offer at the Maison Demi-Monde, an 18-month-old brothel in Covent Garden, London, England. She believes that having a website address on the cards promoting her services that are left in telephone boxes makes clients think that the brothel is a little more respectable. Yannosh, who works as a male escort in London, England, explains that his website is an essential part of his business.

Head of Associated Newspapers' cable television and Internet interests Martin Dunn maintains that his former colleagues in print journalism have been overwhelmed by the creative journalism that has gone in to the This is London web site launched in Dec. 1997. Dunn argues that the site, which he describes as the Evening Standard's electronic magazine, shows that it is possible to do 'proper' journalism electronically. He points out that he would not have left a good job as editor of the New York Daily News in Oct. 1996 had he not believed that This is London was going to succeed.

The Shamen will follow the example of such bands as Pulp and Oasis when they give a live performance over the Internet on Oct. 5, 1996, but past experience suggests that the quality will be poor. Webcasting, the process of putting live audio and video down the line, has become a growth industry but Simon Scott of AMX Digital admits that it is still at a very early stage. Although Scott is beginning to see an improvement, he explains that Webcasts have reached a stage similar to that reached by the cinema when someone suggested having a piano playing in the hall to accompany silent films.

Advertising was virtually absent from the Internet just two years ago yet US consultancy Jupiter Communications calculates that around $34 million was spent on banner advertising, an advertising strip along one edge of a page, in 1995. In addition, more than 50,000 companies with their own sites on the World Wide Web are listed in the on-line directory of Internet sites, Yahoo. However the rising cost of Web sites and the poor success rate of banner advertising leads Hunter Madsen, senior partner at JWT in San Francisco, CA, to forecast a year of retrenchment, scepticism and cynicism.

Northern & Shell, UK publisher of soft-porn magazines Penthouse and Forum, is planning to offer at least half its titles on the Internet. The group's Website manager Danny Clamp points out that on-line publishing eliminates paper and distribution costs as well as the need for a circulation department. However Paul Raymond Group Chief Exec. Carl Snitcher doubts whether on-line magazines can ever be a substitute for the written word. Publisher Bob Guccione's Penthouse on-line is visited by a reputed 3 million people/d and has attracted $1 million in advertising since its launch in Mar. 1995.

The number of newspapers on the Internet or very close to it has quadrupled since the end of 1994 to reach an estimated 550, but none are yet generating much revenue. A regularly updated site costs a publisher a minimum of around 30,000 pounds sterling to set up, but no-one yet knows where the return will come from. The use of on-line publishing to drive subscriptions for publishers' existing titles is one way of generating revenue. Advertising and display sponsorship is another. However the advertising market is still too small to support the increasing number of on-line titles.

An internet user discusses the thrill he experienced from downloading free software when he first ventured online in 1993/94. The arrival of ever more professional sites, notably enet's highly efficient and reliable Download.com and Shareware. com, have not entirely taken away the fun of downloading. Hotline is recommended for downloaders who enjoy an element of danger since it offers rich, but legally dubious, pickings.

World expert on virus writers, Sarah Gordon of IBM, explains that virus writing is on the increase. She feels that this is probably because of the sheer number of new people becoming aware of the possibility as the internet becomes accessible to the mass market. However she admits that she cannot identify a particular type of person who engages in virus writing. Gordon believes that she has identified a new, more dangerous type of virus writer in the form of older, employed people who refuse to see the error of their ways and 'age out.'

Head of marketing and membership for the UK Conservative Party Michael Simmonds is one of a growing number of people to have been caught out by e-mails sent at work. Simmonds lost his job in Apr. 1999 after an e-mail leaking a speech by the party's deputy leader was found in his outbox. Many people do not realise that e-mails sent at work belong to their employer and can be recovered from the company's computers even after they have been deleted. Four-year-old e-mails recovered from Microsoft's computers were presented as evidence against the company in an anti-trust case earlier in 1999.

The unleashing in Mar. 1999 of a malicious computer virus, the Melissa Macro Virus, that steals people's e-mail contacts and sends them pornography, has highlighted the lack of privacy that people have on the Internet. Malcolm Hutty of UK Internet consultants iVision stresses the need for people to take control of their PC to prevent their most private data being used in a dangerous way. The release of Melissa follows outrage over infringements of privacy by Microsoft's Global Unique Identifier system and the Processor Serial Number on Intel's new Pentium III chip.

Stand-up comic Mark Lamarr is to host a series of online chats with various celebrities beginning in Apr. 1999. Most of the questions that Lamarr will ask during his new chat show on America Online (AOL) will be sent in by Internet users. AOL's hiring of a big name to host its new show and appointment of a PR company to promote it is reminiscent of the launch of a new television show. However online chat shows, in contrast with television chat shows, allow celebrities to chose exactly which questions to answer without the Internet user being any the wiser.

The news website launched by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) at the beginning of Nov. 1997 is undoubtedly the most comprehensive on-line news offering to come out of Britain. However, not only is it considerably less attractive and imaginative than many rival sites, but its coverage of Judge Zobel's decision in the Louise Woodward case on Nov. 10, 1997, was not impressive. The BBC's problem stems from having two sites, one funded by the licence fee, the other by computer company ICL Fujitsu. The BBC should focus solely on the latter and use licence money for traditional broadcasting.

Music Connection in the US has established a new website that allows people to create their own CD for no more than $19.95 by choosing up to 15 tracks from a database of 30,000 tracks. However copyright restrictions mean that most of the tracks available are old jazz and blues from two labels, Alligator and Fantasy. Meanwhile another company in the US, Liquid Audio, has pioneered software that allows people to download tracks from the net while ensuring that artists receive their rights money. A CD recorder allows people to press downloaded tracks onto their own CD in any order.

US judge Hiller Zobel has concluded that it would be a miscarriage of justice if Louise Woodward were to remain convicted of the second-degree murder of baby Matthew Eappen. Zobel does not consider that the defence evidence presented in the case warrants Woodward either being found not guilty or being granted a new trial. However he does not believe that Woodward acted out of malice in the legal sense. He has therefore decided that the jury's verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree should be reduced to a conviction for involuntary manslaughter.