The good news in all of this is for the small, "mom-and-pop" ISPs who have been struggling to make ends meet (click here to read about the mom-and-pop online shops).

FORBES: The ISP buffet

The tough policy means that online shops and e-commerce websites will be shut down if the visitors they get have arrived because of a junk mail message.

BBC: NEWS | Technology | Net firms set sights on spammers

In India, however, there is no single nationwide retailer serving this market segment, so Essmart is developing an innovative distribution method that makes use of catalogs and online ordering in mom-and-pop shops.

FORBES: Let's Stop Overlooking Systems Innovations

This was, of course, when brick-and-mortar shops still outsold their online brethren.

ENGADGET: This is the Modem World: Fear and loathing in the local bike shop

Cost-cutting, selling in shops as well as online, a push into developing markets and hiring some prominent outside executives have not worked.

ECONOMIST: Second-act chief executives

Ichoose of Dallas and other shops are developing ever-shrewder software that lets online merchants scan rival sites, adjust prices on the fly and steal customers, all without leaving a clue.

FORBES: Spiders and Lies

Sanrio is in the West too - in addition to 30 shops in the U.S., it now accepts online orders through a website revamped in November.

CNN: PRETTY IN PINK SLUMP

Oh, and there's a second semi-related part to all this rumormongering: Think Secret reports that Apple is one of several companies fixing to buy HipSolve Media, a small startup which offers a Windows Media-based solution for record labels to distribute DRM'd music downloads directly to consumers, bypassing online shops like the iTunes Music Store.

ENGADGET: Apple planning subscription version of iTunes? Depends on how badly do you want to believe��