July 14, 2003

Businesses hoping to ride Wi-Fi wave are encouraged by leadership role taken by Intel Corp, whose wireless PC chips now dominate W-Fi market; Intel is teaming with Alvarion, small Israeli company, to back free wireless standard that is intended to send data over distances of as much as 30 miles and at speeds of up to 70 megabits a second; data rate is high enough to comfortably stream high-definition television video broadcasts, and range makes it possible to quickly deploy system in large urban or suburban area, allowing businesses to deliver interactive entertainment and host of other digital products and services right into America's living rooms and dens; is putting WiFi circuitry in all of its chip sets for portable computers, investing widely in Wi-Fi industry start-ups and spending almost its entire annual marketing budget in $300 million ad campaign extolling virtues of its unwired Centrino brand; photos (M)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is being downloaded in pirated online versions; some fans are assisting in cumbersome process of scanning and typing in book, which its author, J K Rowling, has not authorized for publication in any of existing commercial e-book formats; English-language copies are available on all major file-sharing networks in variety of formats; portions unofficially translated into German and Czech appeared on Web, only to be removed after owners of those rights threatened legal action; piracy may be perverse sign that public is finally acquiring taste for e-books; file-sharing software may be most powerful force in shaping online distribution of books; photos (M)

Article on 112 Gripes About the French, booklet that appears to have been published by US Army in late 1945; French history magazine editor Balbino Katz found copy at garage sale and printed excerpts, which were then translated and printed by Paris publisher Le Cherche Midi; Andrew Thomson, British academic who has researched provenance of booklet, comments; cartoon (M)

Loan dispute between Prudential Securities and TVT Records, one of nation's largest independent record companies, had no impact on control or management of TVT Records by its founder and president, Steven Gottlieb, as stated in July 7 profile of Gottlieb; Gottlieb was never personally responsible for default on $23.5 million loan from Prudential and remains in full control of his company; Prudential's remedies, if it prevails in court, will be limited to seizing certain music royalty rights that Gottlieb's company transferred in 1999 to affiliated company called TVT Catalog Enterprises; profile's reference to Gottlieb as litigious is not borne out by fair reading of legal cases; profile also referred inaccurately to Gottlieb's relationship with certain prominent performing artists, including Snoop Dogg, and included number of misleading or incomplete references to Gottlieb's recent courtroom victory against Island Def Jam Music Group; photos (M)

Jennifer Lopez's firing of her longtime personal manager, Benny Medina, reflects desire to retain control of her own career, desire that has grown with huge sums she is earning in music, film and fasion industries and that has been encouraged by Ben Affleck, actor she plans to marry this year; Lopez has also filed complaint alleging that Medina misappropriated more than $100,000; people who know them say Lopez and Medina were inseparable soon after he became her personal manager five years ago and compare their relationship to platonic marriage; both sides say they are close to settling their differences; breakup highlights fine lines in Hollywood that separate roles of personal manager, producer, fashion executive and confidant; photos (M)