TECH NEWS FROM TOMORROW'S BILLBOARD BULLETIN

SECRET ADMIRERS SAFE ONLINE
Between Napster controversies and the recent conviction of Randy Lee Williamson for manufacturing and selling pirate CD-Rs on his website (oh, and also for child pornography), it’s a wonder any online freedoms are left. But take heart, momentarily at least, in this: A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday rejected a subpoena forcing ISP InfoSpace to reveal the identities of anonymous posters on their client Silicon Investor’s online bulletin board. This means that closet Winger fans can still declare their love in cyberspace without embarrassment.

STREAMING YAHOOLIGANS
Yahoo today unveiled Yahoo! Broadcast, a media destination where consumers can access streaming audio and video content from leading providers. Since the announcement, HITS employees have scrambled to find interactive bondage videos before they’re taken down.

WORKING WITH A LIVE WIRE
Hiwire Inc. today announced that it has signed an ad targeting deal with MusicMatch’s MusicMatch Radio service. Hiwire will act as a third-party provider of targeted ad-insertion services and a rep for audio ad sales. So if you want to buy space for your punching-monkey ad, you know who to call.

CELEBS GO POSTAL
AOL has announced its month-long Celebrity "You’ve Got Mail" promotion, which begins April 30, where stars from TV, movies and music will utter the infamous phrase that greets AOL users. The promotion will run through May 29. Participants must guess the identity of the celeb greeter for a chance to win prizes including a Mazda Miata. Non AOL members can play at www.celebrityygm.aol.com. What’s more, members can download the voices to customize their own AOL account without any threatening copyright lawsuits. And no, Ted Kaczynski won’t be participating.

IT’S EASY AS ABC
Best Buy.com, the online destination of the retail giant, has implemented a weekly "The ABCs of Rock" promotion. The campaign will highlight musicians whose names start with a corresponding letter of the alphabet, starting with ‘A’ because that’s the first letter of the alphabet (we learned this from Lil’ Romeo). The promotion began April 22 and will run for 26 weeks, because that’s how many letters are in the alphabet. The first three weeks of the promotion will feature rockers AC/DC, The Beatles and Eric Clapton.

RIO’S GRAND
Digital audio company RioPort, a division of SONICblue launched the Rio Music Center today. The center is a download service that increases online music distribution security by placing music directly on Rio handheld players. The company hopes the new music center will help quell the debate over online distribution rights. It’s good to dream.

NOT THAT KIND OF STREAMING
Concert webcaster Digital Club Network (DCN) has made a deal with Tokyo-based film distributor Gaga Communications to syndicate DCN’s content on Nippon Telegraph And Telephone’s (NTT) new "Biportable" Personal Wireless Broadband Service. DCN, which streams hundreds of live concert performances over the Internet each week, will feature select performances on the portal and the service’s content channel during the service’s six-month trial period. If it doesn’t work out, NTT promises not to sue for custody. Meanwhile, HITS Roy Trakin said his "biportable" service was an experimental college phase.