Internet

"What now?" That's the question asked by many of us now that the holidays are over and we enter that sometimes drab "nothing ever happens" season - January and February, when there's nothing but slush outside and no sign of spring. But wait. Just because you may be homebound doesn't mean you can't indulge in some creative mind travel. If you can't go in person, try taking a virtual trip during these dog days of winter. The Internet is just the vehicle to take you there. It's fun and it's cheap.

New Jersey lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a bill legalizing Internet gambling within the state's borders. The bill now goes to Gov. Christie, who vetoed a similar measure last year that would have made New Jersey the first state in the nation to legalize online betting. Nevada and Delaware have since passed online gambling bills, but have not set a date to begin taking bets. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union) said he hoped New Jersey could beat other states to the punch and start taking bets by the end of April.

Columbia University law professor Tim Wu may have coined a phrase - "network neutrality" - that's become the cri de coeur for a generation of geeks and Internet evangelists. But maybe more than anyone, Wu knows it's a concept easier said than accomplished - or protected. It might sound painfully wonkish, but bear with me. Net neutrality is essential if the Internet is to continue to live up to its tremendous promise. And it's once again at risk, thanks to some powerful companies and some wishful decisions by Congress, federal regulators, and the courts.

Let's pause for a moment to remember the Internet as we know it. That Internet could soon be gone - in favor of something more like cable TV - if Verizon and MetroPCS Communications get their way in a fight with the Federal Communications Commission. If that sounds a touch alarmist, the two network owners are making some alarming claims in a dispute they have taken to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals - above all that, as network owners, they have a First Amendment right to exercise "editorial discretion" over their portions of the Internet, much like a newspaper.

How much privacy can anyone expect while surfing the Internet? How much special protection should be provided to children and their families? Those are key questions underlying a little-noticed proceeding in Washington that could have major reverberations for online commerce and the future of the Web: the first update in 12 years of rules enforcing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Industry and public-advocacy groups have been pushing hard - often at cross-purposes - over the update under way at the Federal Trade Commission.

Edward A. Schwartz, 69, of East Mount Airy, a community activist who was elected to Philadelphia City Council and later became an Internet-savvy organizer, died this week at his home, his wife said Thursday. Mr. Schwartz died of a possible heart attack Wednesday night, Nov. 28, or Thursday morning, Nov. 29, said his wife, Jane Shull. He had an untreatable heart ailment. He served as an at-large councilman from 1984 to 1987 and then as director of the city's Office of Housing and Community Development.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Internet service went down Thursday across Syria and international flights were canceled at the Damascus airport when a road near the facility was closed by heavy fighting in the country's civil war. Activists said President Bashar al-Assad's regime pulled the plug on the Internet, perhaps in preparation for a major offensive. Cellphone service also went out in Damascus and parts of central Syria, they said. The government blamed rebel fighters for the outages. With pressure building against the regime on several fronts and government forces on their heels in the battle for the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, rebels have recently begun pushing back into Damascus after largely being driven out of the capital following a July offensive.

Knockoff football jerseys, fake medicines, counterfeit electronics. U.S. and foreign investigators have seen it all, and they chase the thieves as aggressively as possible - most recently through the Cyber Monday seizure of more than 100 U.S. websites peddling consumer goods that aren't what they claim to be. Since 2010, they've shut down more than 1,600. Online or off, intellectual property theft is a massive worldwide problem that threatens even national defense - count the U.S. Navy among its victims - and public health.

  The websites bore names such as FlyersJerseyShop.com, TiffanyOnlineStore.com, and ErgoBabyShop.com, and pitched merchandise that looked authentic. But customers at those and dozens of similar websites shut down Monday by U.S. and European authorities bought counterfeit and typically shoddy goods, U.S. customs investigators said. For the third straight year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents marked "Cyber Monday" with a crackdown on Internet sales of counterfeit goods.

In the rush to assign blame for the Christmas shopping frenzy that is taking hold earlier than ever - detractors assailed Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart for planned Thanksgiving openings this year - one must follow the fingertips of American shoppers. Because the bogeyman boils down to this: online, online, online . For decades, retailers made a bundle on Black Friday by packing stores with sale goods, filling Thanksgiving Day newspapers with advertisements, and reveling in revenue as customers rolled in the next day en masse.