by Jacquelyn Horkan, Editor
September, 2002

E-SNAIL

From Beijing comes word of a new service available to China ’s postal customers: hand delivery of e-mail. China Post, the nation’s official postal service, will print out personal e-mail sent to it over the Internet then deliver the missives to intended recipients anywhere on the mainland by human mail carrier.

Chinese authorities strictly control the information that it made available online to the country’s 38 million Internet users, who represent a mere three percent of the population. A special security force monitors and punishes browsers who distribute “subversive” material.

China ’s new e-mail-snail-mail service is a laughable attempt to appear open to progress. The charge for delivering one page is 24 U.S. cents (more than double the cost of a normal letter) and six cents for additional pages, although letters will be limited to four pages.

And here we have further proof that in a state-run economy, progress moves at a snail’s pace, and usually in a backward direction.

GEEK WAR ON TERRORISM

Islamicist terrorism groups complain that the American government is violating our nation’s cherished ideal of free speech by shutting down Web sites that demand the death of Jews and Americans. Some of the shutdowns may be the work of the CIA or FBI, but much of the credit must go to our country’s hackers who have declared their own war.

According to a National Review article (http:www.nationalreview.com) by James S. Robbins, the hacker community makes sport of online jihadists, posting the Web addresses on bulletin boards with messages such as “Have fun” or “;-).” Visitors to the official al Qaeda Web site at its most recent address found the greeting, “Hacked, tracked, and NOW owned by the U.S.A. ”

The commanding officer of this online army is the so-called “porno patriot,” Jon David, a purveyor of Internet smut. In the case of the al Qaeda site, David hijacked the domain name and tracked over 20,000 hits per day, information he turned over to the authorities, before the terrorists caught on.

Robbins enjoys the irony of the pornographer’s attacks on al Qaeda, “the guys who would stone a woman to death for showing a little too much ankle under her burka.”

SMEARING THE INNOCENT

Thanks to high-profile misconduct of CEOs at Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, the sins of a few are now being visited on the heads of the many.

The corporate scandals are deepening jury distrust of large corporations in civil lawsuits. The trend was recently addressed in an August 12, 2002 , Wall Street Journal article that revealed the following troubling developments:

§         Lawyers defending Ford Motor Company in a Los Angeles rollover-death trial asked 50 prospective jurors whether corporate executives will lie to increase profits; more than half agreed.

§         A Chicago jury consultant posing the same question to prospective jurors finds that the percentage of those who agree more than doubled over the last year, from 30 percent to 67 percent.

§         A nationwide poll found that 72 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement, “A representative of a company will say whatever it takes to keep a company out of trouble.”

Plaintiff attorneys are also finding juries more willing to “send a message” to business that misconduct is unacceptable. That message, of course, comes in the form of compensatory and punitive damages, a healthy portion of which helps to enrich the attorney himself.

The only message companies are getting from the courtroom is that establishing actual innocence or negligence becomes a less and less important factor in the civil justice system.

E-TAXES

The Florida Department of Revenue is implementing a new state law that requires electronic filing of tax returns for all businesses that collect more than $30,000 in sales, fuel, or communications services tax during the prior year.

All businesses that fall under the mandate should enroll during the month of September; electronic payment and filing will be required starting January 1, 2003 . The only software required to access the program is Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (available for free download from the agency’s Web site.

Visit http://myflorida.com/dor/forms/new/filing.html for more information regarding this matter.

Jacquelyn Horkan is editor of Florida Business Insight, Associated Industries of Florida’s on-line magazine (e-mail: jhorkan@aif.com).