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MusicMatch
creates Jukebox for Linux
After just six months, Virgin Entertainment Group is taking
back computer equipment and Internet services it gave for
free to 10,000 customers in exchange for the right to track
their online activities. In an email disBriefly Yours..d last Wednesday,
Los Angeles-based Virgin said that its partner in the giveaway,
Internet Appliance Network, has gotten out of the business
of providing Internet appliances and services.
Virgin
offered $25 gift certificates to participating customers for
the trouble of returning the sleek Virgin Connect Webplayers.
The company’s web site said. “Internet Appliance
Network will terminate your charter membership and shut down
the service as of midnight 11/15,” said the email sent
to one customer. “We will send you a letter within the
next seven to 10 business days that includes instructions
for returning your Webplayer and a prepaid shipping label.”
Internet
Appliance representatives could not immediately be reached
for comment. Webplayers allow people to surf the Net and send
email but can’t be used for tasks such as word processing
and creating spreadsheets. The sleek machine with a flat-panel
screen, wireless keyboard and 56K modem connected customers
to Web sites that were part of Virgin’s program.
The machine
can’t be used with any other Internet service provider,
the email stated. The program was set up to collect consumer
information for targeted advertisements. Virgin asked each
applicant to provide a name, address and car model and to
answer several questions — for example, whether the applicant
rents or owns a home and what kind of magazines that person
reads.
The information
will be deleted from Virgin’s database except for name
and contact information, which will be kept for record-keeping
purposes, the company said in a statement.
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