MarkHutch - 8:27 pm on Oct 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

I think sales have been hurt some by all the negative publicity surrounding identity theft, but Internet usage is still growing at a rapid pace and new folks are going to want to try out the Internet and they are not going to be in as much fear as people that have been around for awhile that have caught viruses and have seen some of the bad neighborhoods, first hand.

Also, when you read negative stuff about the Internet in magazines, newspapers and see it on the television news, they do have a financial interest in keeping Internet growth in check. That interest is their own advertising revenue base. Sure most of these companies have a web site, but their main profits still come from their old fashion advertising models and the Internet is considered competition for those ad dollars.

Anything they can do to slow down Internet growth is good news for their own bottom line.