We never take possession of the goods sold through eBay, and we dont have any expertise, said Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay. We are not clothing experts. We are not car experts, and we are not jewelry experts. We are experts at building a marketplace and bringing buyers and sellers together.

A year ago, Jacqui Rogers, a retiree in southern Oregon who dabbles in vintage costume jewelry, went on eBay and bought 10 butterfly brooches made by Weiss, a well-known maker of high- quality costume jewelry in the 1950s and 1960s.
At first, Rogers thought she had snagged a great deal. But when the jewelry arrived from a seller in Rhode Island, her trained eye told her that all of the pieces were knockoffs.

Even though Rogers received a refund after she confronted the seller, eBay refused to remove hundreds of listings for identical Weiss pieces. It said it had no responsibility for the fakes because it was nothing more than a marketplace that links buyers and sellers.

That stance — the heart of eBays business model — is being challenged by eBay users like Rogers who notify other unsuspecting buyers of fakes on the site.

This interesting story has the potential to cause untold havoc if the aggrieved party is successful with their court action.

Read more at newsfactor

Even just a few years ago, lawyers in corporate lawsuits sometimes agreed not to poke around in their opponents e-mails. Instead they would confine themselves to paper memos and other documents on file as they pursued evidence.

Now, however, with so much work done via e-mail, instant messaging and other online platforms, nothings in the file cabinets anymore, said Michele Lange, staff attorney for legal technologies at Kroll Ontrack Inc.

Instead, the memos, presentations and other scraps of corporate intelligence are increasingly finding their way into vast electronic discovery centers like the one Kroll Ontrack operates here near Minneapolis.

Day and night, rows of whirring, blinking computers sock away enormous batches of digital records sent by companies involved in lawsuits. Other files are discovered deep in hard drives - wedged between everything from personal e-mails to pornography - by Kroll Ontrack forensic teams whose code names keep their missions secret.

Continue reading courtesy of ap.org

The Internet audience increased at a rate of less than one percent in December, with growth in eight of the 11 countries tracked by Nielsen//NetRatings. The rate of growth appears to be slowing.

After experiencing a significant growth of 6.82 percent in November, Brazil Internet users dropped off -2.57 percent in December. The South American country has an active home user Internet population of 12.5 million users. Spain was the highest-gaining active Internet user population with a 3.46 percent increase.

France (1.06 percent growth) outpaced the U.K. (0.9 percent growth) in new Internet users, though the U.K. Internet user population remains larger. Broadband adoption in France is currently greater than it is in the U.K.

Japan experienced a turnaround in new users. November data detail a -1.29 percent drop in active users. Japan increased its number of users by 2.59 percent to total 40.1 million subscribers.

If you market on the Internet then you need to follow this story, a great chart shows by country the growth in Internet users, good information if you are looking to target by country.

Courtesy of clickz

Thousands of credit card numbers were stolen from a state government Web site that allows residents to register their cars and buy state permits, authorities said Friday.

The private company that runs http://www.ri.gov said that 4,118 credit card numbers had probably been taken, a state official said. All online transactions were suspended Friday until any possible security problems could be fixed.

We just cannot risk it, said Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian.

The company, New England Interactive, originally told state officials late last month that eight credit card numbers were stolen during a security breach, but said Thursday that thousands had probably been taken, Najarian said.

Clearly this shows that adequate security on the internet is still an issue in many quarters, learn more courtesy of ap.org

Open rates on marketing e-mail and newsletters dipped in Q4 of 2005, according to the Q4 2005 E-mail Statistics report released by eROI.

From the Q3 to Q4 2005, open rates dropped 29 percent. Click rates fell 21 percent in the same period. The report speculates image blocking in Gmail, Outlook 2003 and other e-mail clients chipped away at open rates. The sheer volume of e-mail received over the holidays is another factor considered by the e-marketing agency.

The study finds Friday to be the best day to send e-mail. The past two quarters show a tendency for higher open and click rates on Friday. Tuesday gets the second-highest open rate, with Thursday earning the second-highest clickthrough rates.

This report confirms the best day in which to send your emails to ensure the best opening rate, the enclosed chart and description explains it all, courtesy of clickz.com