The South Carolina Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell was honored recently with the 2006 ThinkTEC Excellence award for his contributions in furthering the innovation economy in South Carolina. Speaker Harrell has been a major leader in positioning the state in the new knowledge-based economy. In accepting the award at the 2006 ThinkTEC Innovation Summit in Charleston, Harrell said, "We as a state have to change the way we think and change the way we do business now if we are going to succeed in the global economy." For more information, please see www.ThinkTEC.org.

One of the best ways to keep up with the efforts by individuals, companies and organizations in the Southeast, and especially South Carolina, to support and grow the regional innovation economy is by reading John Warner's SwampFox, which can be accessed at http://www.swampfox.ws/.          

A Michigan figurine dealer has been sentenced in Federal Court to more than six years in prison for an online scam in which he ripped off approximately $300,000 from eBay customers.  The government said the defendant had carefully planned the eBay rip-off and was a fugitive for nearly four years and was a “cynical and sinister con man.”  The 65-year old defendant had pocketed the money from his buyers on eBay without delivering the goods, had emptied his joint bank accounts he shared with his wife, and cashed out the equity in their home.  He was captured in Los Angeles after bragging to his new girlfriend about his status as a federal fugitive.  His girlfriend called him a liar and he then proceeded to show her his FBI wanted poster.  She promptly turned him in to authorities.  (source:  The Detroit Free Press)

In its first two weeks, ABC TV’s efforts to make its shows available online have resulted in its shows being watched over three million times.  Four of ABC’s programs were made available on the Web with commercials, including such blockbuster hits as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost.”  The shows are aired on the “ABC.com” website about twelve hours after they were first broadcast on television.  ABC’s parent company, Walt Disney, is looking at a variety of options for expanding the service.  (source:  News.com)

So far this year, at least fifteen names used in Internet addresses have sold for more than $100,000.  Leading the way was the Internet site “sex.com,” which was sold for a record $12,000,000 in January.  Other names sold included “On.com,” which sold for $635,000 and “Macau.com,” which sold for $550,000.  As the economy is being increasingly driven by the Internet sector, commentators state that the opportunities continue to grow for the estimated 1,000 to 2,000 “domainers” who buy and sell domain names.  The hottest names recently have been related to poker, real estate, hotels and iPods.  (USAToday.com)

The department stores Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman have recently filed a lawsuit against Dotster for cybersquatting based upon Dotster’s reservation of hundreds of domain names that closely resemble other well-known trademarks.  The federal lawsuit alleges that the domain name “NeimuMarcus.com” was registered and placed with an advertising parking service.  This service caused advertisements for rivals such as Bloomingdale’s and J. Crew to be displayed.  Cybersquatting, or “typosquatting” such as in this case, is not an unusual circumstance.  However, this case is unique because the Dotster lawsuit involves a case where the registrar, using its special status, secured misspelled domain names in order to divert Internet traffic and secure click-through advertising revenues.  The lawsuit also includes allegations that an employee of Dotster allegedly tried to sell the domain name “BergmanGoodman.com” for $800.  This lawsuit was filed under federal anti-cybersquatting statutes for trademark infringement and trademark dilution.  (source:  news.ZDNet.com)

A growing concern among large Internet-based companies is the dilemma being faced with large bandwidth charges.  Those companies that provide the wires and fiber optics that connect the Internet believe that large “bandwidth hogs” should pay additional amounts to guarantee fast and efficient connections.  To prevent such a move, companies such as Google and eBay are lobbying Congress to pass a law that would maintain “Net-neutrality”.  In general, they are seeking a law that would prohibit telecommunications and cable companies from blocking or slowing down access to Web sites or for charging big bandwidth users a fee for priority access.  The House of Representatives recently passed telecommunications legislation that did not include such neutrality provisions.  However, the law did empower the Federal Communications Commission to investigate discrimination in online bandwidth access.  Opponents of the Net-neutrality law argue that somebody must pay for the huge amount of bandwidth consumed by some large Internet sites.  They state that if Internet service providers are not allowed to charge for greater-than-average bandwidth use, then the cost will end up being borne by the average consumer.   (source:  www.tmcnet.com)

A 20-year-old California man faces up to fifteen years in prison for launching so-called “Botnet” attacks which are robotic “attack” programs that let hackers infect and control a computer network.  The defendant, along with two juvenile co-conspirators, attacked the Department of Defense and also a hospital network in Seattle, Washington.  Their goal was to install unwanted Internet advertising software on tens of thousands of computers, which earned the individuals about $100,000.  (source:  SiliconValley.com)