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E-Briefing
The news behind the Net
The era's first couple come out of their shell
By Janet Kornblum, USATODAY
While the rest of us are still buying water and emergency batteries, Cheryl Berthelsen and
Matthew Beach will be standing on a moonlit beach on Turtle Island, off Fiji in the South
Pacific, the first place to greet the new millennium. They will say their vows, and
Methodist minister Tula Tula Joe will pronounce them the first newlyweds of the new
millennium.
"It's a magical time," Cheryl says from the tropical island. While Cheryl and
Matt, both 28 and from Leesburg, Va., say this is a dream come true, they didn't always
dream of being the first couple to marry in Y2K. It all started about a month ago while
Cheryl was surfing the Net, checking out tropical getaways for the honeymoon. They were
planning a traditional May wedding, but both had thought about how the wedding was getting
away from them.
So when she went to the Turtle Island site and saw that Turtle Island Resort was
auctioning off the first wedding of the millennium, she jumped.
She and Matt won with a $15,100 bid (half will be donated to the Turtle Island Community
Foundation for a new hotel). The bridal site WeddingChannel also is pitching in with the
promotion. "We were probably one of those couples who would be sitting home watching
people on television," Matt says. Instead, he says, they're participating in a
"once in a thousand year" opportunity.
Peace in our time? Responding to intense public pressure, Web retailer
eToys on Wednesday said it's moving to end its lawsuit for trademark infringement against
European Internet arts site Etoy. Spokesman Ken Ross says eToys decided to "initiate
an end to the legal actions in this matter" after being flooded with e-mail and
letters from Net artists and activists.
The toy site will drop its lawsuit if Etoy drops its countersuit, Ross says. Etoy attorney
Chris Truax says the two are still in negotiations, but the Swiss-based arts group also is
eager to resolve the matter. The eToys retailer has been asking the art site to remove
content "offensive" to children but is not demanding that the site do so; that
request has slowed negotiations.
Cracked code: A trade association behind digital video discs is suing Web
sites that have allegedly posted DVD hacking software, as well as sites that link to those
sites. The DVD Copy Control Association is accusing the Web site owners of ripping off
"trade secrets" -- specifically, the secrets of the scrambling system intended
to keep the video tracks from being pirated.
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