March 1, 1999

Market Place column on speech-recognition software produced by Dragon Systems, company scheduled to sell shares to public in next few weeks; Dragon Naturally Speaking software converts words spoken conversationally into computer's microphone into words typed on computer's screen; Dragon Systems has balance-sheet strength and good products and young and extremely fluid market niche; potential problem is with large companies like IBM, Royal Philips Electronics and Microsoft, all of which are working on similar speech technology that they might try to bundle into their hardware; photos; graphs (M)

Anna Kisselgoff reviews performance by Mark Morris Dance Group at Wang Center for the Performing Arts, Boston, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov as guest dancer; photo (M)

Recording industry names Leonardo Chiariglione to head Secure Digital Music Initiative, in effort to create technical format for copyrighted sale and digital delivery of music over Internet; Chiariglione was instrumental in creating industry-standard formats for converting and compressing video and audio information into digital form known as MPEG; Chiariglione announces ambitious timetable, saying he plans to have preliminary standards on paper by June to insure that industry-backed format would be approved in time to sell music on line by Christmas; recording industry associations of North America, Japan and Europe want to be able to distribute songs and albums on Internet in way that protects copyright holders and foils many audio pirates who copy and distribute digital music illegally (M)

Article discusses problems besetting New Jersey Nets; team has won only 2 of first 12 games (M)

Chinese Citizen Arrested By U.S. in Arms Smuggling Federal agents in California charged the man with trying to obtain a vital part for missile guidance systems. The news came as Secretary Albright arrived in Beijing. Page A8. Israeli Planes Hit Lebanon Israel bombed what it said were Hezbollah bases after a week of attacks that included the killing of a general and three others. Page A3.