Value Chain: January 2004

Big Music's Worst Move Yet. "The RIAA's newest legal assault on file swappers is pushing them to encrypted networks, where the damage could become catastrophic."

The King of Rollups. "Not everyone was nursing a sore head, however. Take Michael Mullarkey, for instance, a former Sony (SNY ) vice-president, who surveyed the struggling startups left high and dry by the ebbing tide of venture capital and decided that quite a few of the outfits gasping for air still had something to offer. His focus was on those with proprietary human-resources applications, which could be scooped up for pennies on the dollar."

Wal-Mart CEO promises 'tough love' approach to RFID use (ComputerWorld). "In response to a question, Scott said that his view of the time frame is that it's realistic, "but if it isn't, we'll back off." He said he met last week with suppliers, and "they were very positive in what they were doing."

"I don't think they were just doing that -- I don't know what the technical term for it is -- we call it sucking up," Scott said, his comments greeted by laughter from many of the more than 2,000 retailers and industry observers in attendance. "But I think many of our suppliers are right in the midst of it and involved."

InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Thursday, January 8, 2004

Improving performance of modern Peer-to-Peer services

The SEM Shakeout

iTunes for Windows and Mac iSbogus

Sanity, Inc

Fiber to the People

Optimize Your Home Page for New Visitors.

We hear the playback and it seems so long ago

Forbes.com: China Syndrome

Fool.com: Netflix's Swelling Competition [Motley Fool Take] January 2, 2004

SAP Ventures: Sales Teams

Joel on Software - Archive