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Actress Emilie Krause plays 14-year-old Deena Letts in the new play User 927, based on AOL search logs leaked to the Web in 2006.

(Credit: Michael Alltop)

Imagine every question you've typed into an Internet search engine suddenly appearing online for the world to scrutinize. What would the queries say about you? Would the world view you as totally mundane? Totally bizarre?

Would your search log be intriguing enough to draw thousands upon thousands of viewers?

Brat Productions, a theater company in Philadelphia, found one such search string more than compelling enough to form the basis of its new play, User 927.

The show--which opened Wednesday and runs through June 22--is based on a now infamous real-life search log that included queries ranging from "purple lilac," "happy bunny pictures," and "square dancing steps" to "cut into your trachea," "pee fetish," and "Simpsons incest." And that's just for starters.

"It was something that captured my imagination and seemed to suggest some type of dramatic story that could come out of it--a mystery or something about the Internet in general, and privacy," said User 927 director Michael Alltop.

In 2006, when AOL published the search logs of 650,000 subscribers, many people were shocked and outraged at what they viewed as a massive privacy breach. The logs, which were supposed to be used for research, were quickly withdrawn from the Web and three employees left in the ensuing uproar.

Katharine Clark Gray and Michael Alltop wrote and directed (respectively) the play User 927.

(Credit: Bob Pasini)

But other sites had already gotten ahold of the data and damage control couldn't do much to curb the curious minds of the cyberworld. Mirror sites such as Splunkd allowed users to probe every query and even gave the means to compile lists of some of the most interesting logs.

So Alltop joined in the fun. After hearing that a customer involved in the breach had been identified by The New York Times, Alltop logged on to AOLStalker.com--which allows visitors to track the leaked AOL searches--to see what the fuss was about.

When he realized he had essentially stumbled upon a database of life stories, he called friend and playwright Katharine Clark Gray and pitched an idea. Why not write a play about the search logs?

"From that point we had a good year and a half or so of throwing all kinds of ideas around. How could she frame a whole bunch of search queries into a story that people would want to come see?" he said.

Since the play's conception, its creators were sure it had to revolve around User 927, AOL's anonymous ID number for the Web seeker at the center of the production.

"We always knew that the search records of User 927 had to be the core," Alltop said.

Playwright Gray explains that unlike some of the other leaked search logs, User 927's queries were anything but linear and also anything but conventional. Whoever User 927 was, he, she, or they topped the charts on AOLStalker because of their often peculiar quests for knowledge. Many users rated the search log a masterpiece, putting it in the top-10 rated users out of all 650,000 subscribers.

AOL did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

What made User 927 an object of such public curiosity was not only that his or her search results were highly sexual and even violent, but perhaps that he or she spent hours looking up song lyrics and researching flowers and then went several days looking up sexual topics that are downright illegal, or would at least be considered deviant by many observers.

The search log was made even more popular with an article on the Consumerist Web site.

Unraveling a mystery
Since the play is a mystery, Gray wanted to keep most of the plot under wraps. She would say that the story focuses on a mother and daughter who move from New York to Indiana in search of a new life.

The mother decides the pair is going to "go analog" for the summer and forbids her daughter from the Internet. So the girl uses the library to enter the cyberworld without her mother's watchful eye. The mother and daughter struggle over the Internet, someone disappears in the town, and User 927's search log might be the key.

"There are numerous scenes in which the actual search records of User 927 are used to illuminate what happened," Alltop said.

"Or what might be happening," added Gray.

Appearing in the play User 927 are actors Peter Roccaforte, Conrad Ricamora, Emilie Krause, and Elena Bossler.

(Credit: Michael Alltop)

Although digital and analog search forms the core of the play, Alltop and Gray said that the tagline, "U are what U seek," is the other concept they worked into the play. The question was: can a three-month window into the searches of a stranger really portray that person accurately?

"I don't believe that a search log can tell you explicitly, exactly who you are," Alltop said. "I got the sense, and hopefully you will get the sense in the play, that you may not be exactly what you seek, but what you search for reveals an incredible amount about yourself and you don't even realize what you are revealing about yourself when you're online."

Gray has worked that issue into the second act, when one character addresses search logs and their link to identity.

"They are a portrait of you in the impressionist style," Gray said. "Each little ingredient is like a dab of color here and a dab of color there, you have to sort of stand back and look at the full picture to see the portrait that you've painted."

User 927 runs through June 22 at Philadelphia's St. Stephen's Theater. At least one reviewer liked the concept of the play, but didn't much like the execution, slamming its "confused, condescending plot."

"You could possibly forgive the amateurish quality of Gray's script if the issues it misses weren't so fascinating," Philly.com reviewer Wendy Rosenfield said.

But Alltop said everyone from technophiles to florists would enjoy the play.

"And AOL users especially," he added.

AUDIO

What do our searches say about us?
User 927 director Michael Alltop and playwright Katharine Clark Gray talk about why they focused on User 927's search logs, and what our own search results might say about us.
Download mp3 (2.93MB)

AOL plans to launch a new program called AIM Money on Tuesday that lets programmers write applications that run in the AOL Instant Messenger buddy list--and lets programmers get a cut of any resulting revenue.

The move is made possible through use of an open interface in AIM 6.8, another new development. Version 6.8 also includes "mini-applications" that run at the bottom of the AIM buddy list window; 150 new CBS radio stations in AOL Radio; and restoration of the ability to save and import buddy lists, a feature that helps move a to a new IM identity.

As the computing industry has discovered the possibilities of applications running on the Internet, companies are rushing to curry favor with programmers hoping those companies' online offerings. Other examples of the idea are Facebook, Google and other members of the OpenSocial consortium, and the Yahoo Open Strategy.

Ultimately, richer applications can mean more users, more activity, more advertising--though the more lucrative elements of the strategy is largely rhetorical than real at this stage for many. AIM, however, has a well-populated list of active users, unlike many start-ups.

AOL announced the interface in March with its Open AIM 2.0 developer program, which lets programmers write software such as the mini-applications that plug into AIM's own chat software, bots that can communicate with humans on the network, Web-based AIM interfaces, and software that show when AIM members are available online through the service.

The revenue for programmers comes through sharing money generated by an advertisement that can appear along with programs that use the new AIM features. AOL serves advertisements using its Platform-A ad network and pays developers through PayPal.

To use the AIM API (application programming interface), developers have to use two of five AIM elements. The ad is one. The other four are bundling the AIM browser toolbar; providing access to AIM Expressions that customize the AIM interface; displaying the AIM Dashboard start page; and displaying buddy info.

(Credit: Steve Tobak)

Here's the first installment of Train Wreck's first recurring post: Dysfunctional Executive Watch. It'll show up whenever there's enough material. Enjoy the lunacy, and let us know if you've got something to report.

You've got fraud
On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against eight former executives of AOL Time Warner for fraudulently inflating online advertising revenue by more than $1 billion. Four of the executives agreed to pay millions in fines and return ill-gotten gains. Charges against the other four, including former CFO John Michael Kelly, are still pending.

The company had previously agreed to fork over $500 million to settle civil and criminal charges brought by the SEC and the Justice Department. ... Read more

Securities and Exchange Commission regulators on Monday filed civil fraud charges against eight former AOL Time Warner executives over allegations they overstated the Internet company's advertising revenue in excess of $1 billion.

The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, allege John Michael Kelly, former CFO of AOL Time Warner; Steven E. Rindner, a former Business Affairs unit senior executive; Joseph A. Ripp, former CFO of the AOL division; and Mark Wovsaniker, former Accounting and Policy head, created a fraudulent scheme where AOL Time Warner funded its own advertising revenue by giving purchasers funding to buy their own online advertising. That, in turn, allegedly created fraudulent transactions at the media titan between the mid-2000 and mid-2002 period, according to the SEC statement.

The SEC also filed a lawsuit against David M. Colburn, former head of AOL Time Warner's Business Affairs unit; Eric L. Keller and Jay B. Rappaport, former senior managers in the same unit as Colburn; and James F. MacGuidwin, former controller, over allegations the group artificially inflated the company's reported online advertising revenue. These four executives, however, reached a settlement with the SEC.

Under the settlement, all four will pay disgorgement and pre-judgment interest, as well as civil penalties. The total fines and penalties these four executives will pay will reach nearly $8.1 million.

The lawsuits come more than three years after Time Warner agreed to pay a $300 million civil penalty, stemming out of a similar SEC investigation. That agreement called for the company to restate $500 million in advertising revenue for the two-year period ending mid-2002.

AOL has closed its acquisition of Bebo, which it plans to fold into a new People Networks business unit.

The new unit will include Bebo, AIM, ICQ, and AOL's other community platforms, with a reach of about 80 million users worldwide, the company said Monday. Joanna Shields, CEO of Bebo, will serve as executive vice president of AOL and president of People Networks.

AOL in March announced the $850 million acquisition of Bebo, designed to boost the company's international presence. The youth-oriented social network is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand.

The new unit will combine several social-media technologies at AOL. People Networks will also include widget technology company Goowy Media and social-search question-and-answer service Yedda.

The plans call for cross-distribution of AOL and Bebo content and applications. For example, AOL will promote Bebo's original programming across several AOL channels, and Bebo will integrate AOL music and entertainment content.

Microsoft may no longer be breathing down its neck, but Yahoo is still working on major deals with Google and Time Warner's AOL that could significantly alter the Internet pioneer.

The nearer-term possibility is a partnership to use Google for delivering some ads next to Yahoo search results. That option apparently is still on track to be announced this week, perhaps Wednesday or Thursday, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The Google deal could increase Yahoo's revenue, because Google gets more revenue per click for its ads, but it also could reinforce Google's search-ad leadership and make it even harder for Yahoo to catch up with its own Panama system. And though Yahoo thinks it can address antitrust concerns by employing a system that's open to other ad suppliers as well, regulatory scrutiny is a significant factor.

A deal to acquire AOL also is under active consideration, although talks haven't progressed as far as with the Google arrangement, the source said. Under that deal, Yahoo would get AOL, sans its declining Internet access subscription business, and cash from Time Warner, and Time Warner would get a 20 percent stake in Yahoo.

Yahoo would use the cash to buy back its own stock, a move that could increase its value. Since most observers expect Yahoo's price to drop Monday because Microsoft walked away, Yahoo likely will face pressure to boost its share price.

Another possibility Yahoo explored was a partnership with Fox Interactive, but that didn't progress as far as the Time Warner deal, the source said.

Yahoo declined to comment on the possibilities.

There's no mistaking who benefited from a federal-court decision to set licensing fees that three top Web services must pay songwriters and publishers for the right to stream their music.

But the question left unanswered is whether the losers also include consumers.

AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo may end up paying the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) $100 million as a result of a decision by a U.S. district judge to set the licensing fee for streaming music at 2.5 percent of adjusted music-use revenue.

"(The court's decision) is a victory for songwriters, composers, and publishers, and something they have been looking forward to for a long period," said John LoFrumento, ASCAP's chief executive. "In the past, we've settled with (Internet companies) at low rates. We wanted to encourage the growth of these businesses, but these businesses have matured...they have been using our members' music to attract people to their Web sites...it's time to compensate (our members)."

While none of the Web companies involved would comment on the judge's decision, a source close to the three sounded like the players on a baseball team after the other side just hit a walk-off home run.

"This wasn't good for us, to say the least," the source said, adding that the judge's order isn't yet final and that the three companies plan to continue fighting.

If the final fee structure looks anything like what is prescribed in the judge's written opinion, RealNetworks, Yahoo, and AOL would likely have to raise prices. It may also mean that the cost of doing business for anyone streaming music over the Web just went up.

"What this means to other licensees is, they now see what a standard benchmark fee should look like," LoFrumento said. "They now know what to expect from the rate court."

The three Web services had negotiated with ASCAP to obtain a license for unlimited play on the Web of any of the millions of songs in ASCAP's repertory. Following a stalemate, the two sides took their case to a rate court. The court's mission in the case was to determine a fair licensing fee.

The judge considered proposals from both sides. AOL, Yahoo, and RealNetworks wanted a multitiered plan with different rates, depending on the nature of the stream. For example, the three Web services wanted to pay 2.5 percent for on-demand audio, 1.7 percent for Internet radio, and .9 percent for music videos.

ASCAP scoffed at those figures. It said any structure should be set up to charge a percentage of a Web service's net revenue.

When it came to actual dollars, the two sides were worlds apart. Under the formula the Web services proposed, AOL and Yahoo would have paid ASCAP respectively $872,000 and $1.1 million for the year 2006.

Under ASCAP's plan, AOL and Yahoo would have paid $7.8 million and $7.3 million for the same year.

Jonathan Potter of Digital Media Association, a trade organization devoted to companies competing in online audio and video sectors, said the Web services involved absolutely want to fairly compensate songwriters and music publishers.

"We are disappointed, however, that the court ruled that online services' royalties should be based in part on service-wide revenue," Potter said, "(and) not simply on revenue directly attributable to music usage."

A federal district court in New York ruled Wednesday that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is owed "reasonable license fees" by online media powerhouses AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo for the music streamed and distributed on their sites.

Currently, music streamed by sites owned by the three companies is advertising-supported and no dividends are paid to ASCAP.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will now determine appropriate fees for AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo, all of which have applied for ASCAP licenses but have not been able to agree upon fees. The total payments to the group, which represents over 320,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers--not record labels--could reach $100 million. (Click here for a PDF of the court's decision.)

The license fees would cover music distributed as early as July 1, 2002, and then up through the end of 2009. Because songwriters and composers often aren't affiliated with record labels that distribute their music as performed by another artist, they presently are left without licensing fees from digital distribution on the three companies named in the court decision.

ASCAP President Marilyn Bergman wrote in a statement following the decision:

The court's finding represents a major step toward proper valuation of the music contributions of songwriters, composers and publishers to these types of online businesses.

It is critical that these organizations share a reasonable portion of their sizable revenues with those of us whose content attracts audiences and, ultimately, helps to make their businesses viable. This decision will go a long way toward protecting the ability of songwriters and composers to be compensated fairly as the use of musical works online continues to grow."

More details to follow.

Time Warner is splitting off its cable services division, the company said Wednesday.

Time Warner currently owns around 84 percent of Time Warner Cable. The media giant, which has been struggling of late, has been rumored to be discussing an AOL partnership with Yahoo.

"A complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interest of both companies' shareholders," CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a release.

The company also reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Gains in its Turner cable networks and phone and broadband division were offset by slow ad sales at AOL and a decline in the Filmed Entertainment division.

Total sales for the period, which ended March 31, grew 2 percent from a year ago to $11.4 billion. Net profit fell 36 percent to $771 million, or 21 cents per share. That's down from $1.2 billion, or 31 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter, which included a boost from the sale of AOL's Internet access business in Germany.

As of March 31, the AOL service had 8.7 million U.S. access subscribers, down 647,000 from the prior quarter and down 3.3 million from the year-ago quarter. AOL's revenue fell 23 percent, or $330 million, to $1.1 billion for the three-month period just ended.