Electronic Commerce

In his weekend radio address, President Bush warned of rogue pharmacists making potentially dangerous prescription drugs readily available online. "The Internet has brought about tremendous benefits for those who cannot easily get to a pharmacy in person," Bush said. "However, it has also created an opportunity for unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists to profit from addiction." That's undoubtedly true, as are most observations that the Internet has become a hotbed of fraud and flimflammery.

The allure of March Madness guarantees the NCAA will receive at least $3.8 billion from its CBS deal over the next five years. But the organization isn't about to leave any spare change on the men's basketball tournament court. While maintaining a firm stance against unregulated scalping, the NCAA has struck deals with online ticket resellers in a bid to share in the wealth being created as Final Four tickets change hands in the secondary market.

Amazon.com Inc.'s brick-and-mortar competitors have yet another reason to fear the Web: a new service that lets shoppers compare prices and buy things with a few quick taps on their cellphones. Amazon TextBuyIt, which launched late Tuesday, lets people text the name of a product, its description or its UPC or ISBN to 262966 -- that's "Amazon" on the keypad -- from anywhere their cellphones work, including inside stores.

A Santa Monica company whose investors include actor Will Smith is launching a website today that offers 10,000 high-quality music videos and concerts for free. PluggedIn Media Corp. has the backing of three of the four major music companies: Universal Music Group, EMI Music and Sony BMG. The site has raised more than $2 million from its founders and from Overbrook Entertainment, a production and management company whose principals include Smith.

Will the third time be the charm for Sony Corp.? The entertainment and electronics giant is preparing to launch an online video service through its game console PlayStation 3 as early as this summer, studio executives familiar with the plan say. The company has been in licensing talks with studios in recent weeks, according to these executives, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of continuing negotiations.

Rhapsody America, the Web's top subscription-based music service, plans to open a digital download store today, becoming the latest company to challenge the dominance of Apple Inc.'s iTunes. Like other recent challengers -- and unlike iTunes -- the Rhapsody MP3 store will feature songs that aren't constrained by anti-copying measures. The four major record labels will provide Rhapsody such songs, which work on any digital music player and can be copied an unlimited number of times.

MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe came to a worrisome conclusion last year. The online community, which began as a place where musicians connected with fans, had stopped innovating. Proof of how its musical star had faded became clear during a conversation with Interscope Records Chairman Jimmy Iovine, who was the producer behind Stevie Nicks and Bruce Springsteen and with whom DeWolfe had previously struck a deal to distribute CDs on a MySpace Records label. Iovine didn't mince words.

As the nation prepares to pay the price for years of unfettered property speculation, a collection of online companies is hoping to cash in on an oncoming wave of foreclosure sales by auctioning distressed homes online -- with significant consequences for homeowners as well as purchasers. Next month, Duval County in Florida will be the first in the country to hold an Internet foreclosure auction, forgoing the traditional courthouse sale in the hope of attracting buyers from other areas.

Ever watched a video on YouTube and wanted to buy the song? YouTube is counting on it. The world's most popular video-sharing site is hoping to make money from its huge audience by installing buttons under YouTube videos so that the ability to buy the music and video games featured in the video clip is just one click away. The "click to buy" buttons, which began appearing in the United States on Tuesday, connect viewers to the product page on Amazon.com or Apple Inc.'s iTunes store.

The major record labels plan to start selling digital songs today for a dime apiece. The catch: You can't carry them with you on an iPod. Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's president of digital business and U.S. sales, came up with the new pricing approach for the "Web song" while in discussions with Lala Media Inc., a digital music retail store and service. The Web song is stored online and can be listened to only through a computer's Web browser.