A phone call to my web host confirmed they were hosting both my site and other company's site. Since both web sites were on same public server, any domain listed on that server would have produced identical results with FTP URL given above. That is, you could change ftp://www.nightcats.com/pub/users heirfiles/ to ftp://www.something-else.com/pub/users heirfiles/ and you would get access to this company's software. If a web administrator has set up server to implement anonymous FTP in this fashion, then all that is necessary is for both web domains to be stored on same server.

And that brings us to fourth mistake. If you don't want your copyright-protected software files to be available for public download, why in wide world would you store them in a public FTP directory where everyone has free access? Public means public. If you want files to be available only to authorized users, doesn't it make sense to have a private, password-protected directory set up on your web site?

Had I wanted to be vindictive, I could have posted URL to multiple newsgroups and mailing lists. Hundreds of people could have downloaded those files before problem was corrected. I didn't do that, but some people would.

What can be learned from this episode? 1. An understanding of basic Internet protocols is essential if you are running an Internet business. It is equally important that your agents, employees and company reps are trained, since they are ones that are likely to make mistakes. 2. Have a tech-guro available to advise you on issues that are beyond your current understanding. 3. If you're operating an Internet business, get a tough skin. You'll be accused of some mighty interesting stuff.

There‘s plenty of uncharted territory to cover and new rules to learn such as creating shorter sentences and paragraphs. This can lend a certain freshness to a stale career.

Web managers do have a problem on their hands. Practically overnight, they have been expected to become HTML savvy and produce fully-functioning, competitive sites with plenty of toots and whistles.

Often they have little or no staff. They are supposed to intelligently address an international audience, wow them, and somehome make a profit at end.

To disguise function of journalists by referring to them as "content providers," "word architects" or mere "slot fillers" is a disservice. With new titles, it ‘s easier to imagine them mindlessly churning out piece after piece to hand over without comment or concern. Instead of sitting in first class, "content providers" end up chasing after caboose.

Let‘s explore and celebrate this new medium together, but there‘s no passing buck. Let‘s not allow practice of fair compensation for good journalism to be thoughtlessly tossed out train‘s window as we sit back and enjoy ride.

We editors and publishers are ones with authority to make positive changes and we certainly have responsibility to know exactly what‘s posted on our Websites, under what conditions it got there, where it goes next - and why.