December 1998

OWNERSHIP
FCC Plan Alarms Radio Owners (ChiTrib)
En Bancs Regarding Telecom Mergers (FCC)
New Corp's Fox Rejects Big Spot By Hill Hoilliday
on Basis of 'Taste' (WSJ)

INTERNET
Scholars Weigh Internet's Effect on Campaigns (CyberTimes)
Republicans Say Web Brought in Volunteers (CyberTimes)
Court Tackles New Angle on Library
Internet Filtering (CyberTimes)
Releasing Survey, AOL Calls Internet a Necessity (CyberTimes)
Chinese Computer User on Trial (WP)
International Group Reaches Agreement on Data-Scrambling Software (NYT)

ANTITRUST
Everybody Does It, Microsoft Again Argues (WP)

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OWNERSHIP
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FCC PLAN ALARMS RADIO OWNERS
Issue: Radio
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to debate at its December
17 meeting a plan to *reverse* the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules.
If approved by the FCC, some owners -- like CBS and Clear Channel
Communications -- would be forced to sell dozens of stations. The plan is
part of a push by FCC Chairman Kennard to diversify ownership in an industry
that has rapidly consolidated in the three years since passage of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996. There is already resistance from Congress. A
Tuesday letter from Senate Commerce Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) and Senate
Communications Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-MT) said the plan is
"clearly not in the spirit or intent of the 1996 law." They continue: "As
with other issues, the commission appears ready to substitute its judgement
for ours. To the extent the FCC shows itself incapable of following
congressional intent, these issues will become part of our overall review of
the commission's function and structure during the next session of Congress."
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1), AUTHOR: Tim Jones]
http://chicagotribune.com/ [Sorry, no URL for this story]

EN BANCS REGARDING TELECOM MERGERS
Issue: Mergers
The Federal Communications Commission will hold two additional En Bancs to
discuss recent consolidation activities in the telecommunications industry.
The purpose of the merger En Banc series is to assist the Commission in
determining whether certain proposed mergers are consistent with the goals
of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which include promoting competition in
telecommunications markets and protecting the public interest. At an earlier
merger En Banc, representatives of AT&T Corp. and Tele-Communications, Inc.,
SBC Communications, Inc. and Ameritech Corporation, and Bell Atlantic
Corporation and GTE Corporation discussed the details of their merger plans.
To conclude the series of merger En Bancs, two En Bancs will take place on
Monday, December 14, 1998 in the Commission Meeting Room (Room 856) at 1919
M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. In the first En Banc, from 9:30 a.m. to 12
noon, interested parties, including state, consumer, community and industry
representatives, will discuss the impact on telecommunications markets of
the proposed mergers between incumbent local exchange carriers SBC and
Ameritech (CC Docket No. 98-141), and Bell Atlantic and GTE (CC Docket No.
98- 184). In the second En Banc, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., interested parties,
including consumer, community and industry representatives will discuss the
impact on telecommunications markets of the proposed merger between AT&T and
Tele-Communications, Inc. (CS Docket No. 98- 178). or additional information
contact: Florence Grasso at 202-418-1579
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Public_Notices/1998/da982415.html

NEW CORP'S FOX REJECTS BIG SPOT BY HILL HOILLIDAY ON BASIS OF 'TASTE'
Issue: Advertising
Fox broadcasting has rejected a commercial that HotJobs.com, a small
Internet company, wanted to run during the Super Bowl. Fox claims that the
advertisement -- for which HotJobs was willing to pay $1.6 million for 30
seconds of airtime - was in poor taste. The ad in question depicts a man
sweeping a zoo cage until he is sat on by an elephant. When the elephant
gets back up, the man is gone. An announcer then says that some people are
stuck in the same old job, but with HotJobs you don't have to be. Creators
of the ad wonder if Fox rejected it in an effort to avoid alienation of
blue-chip advertisers by the inclusion of an increasing number of upstart
companies on the Super Bowl - the year's most elite advertising event. [Who
knew that either Fox or the Super Bowl were ..you finish it Kevin. Well,
Rachel, there's just too many jokes here to pick just one.)
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Sally Beatty]
http://www.wsj.com/

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INTERNET
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SCHOLARS WEIGH INTERNET'S EFFECT ON CAMPAIGNS
Issue: Internet & Politics
"This is, I think, the year the Internet really came on stage as a campaign
tool," said Elaine Kamarck, a faculty member at the Kennedy School. More
than 50 leading scholars and political consultants met Thursday at the John
F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to debate how grand a
entrance that was. In a telephone survey the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press found that 6% of respondents named the Internet as
their primary source of election information -- up from 3% in 1996.
(Television was the main source at 78%; newspapers were the primary source
for 60%). When asked if they had used the Internet at all for election
research, 15% of respondents said they had. Two years ago, only 10% had done
so. The voters in that group were largely from younger age brackets: 28%
were ages 18 to 29; 22% were ages 30 to 49. "I clearly think young voters is
where the potential is for the Internet," Andrew Kohut, director at Pew ,
said. "Among the young, use of the Internet rivaled network and cable TV."
Lawrence Grossman, former president of PBS and NBC News, said the Internet's
development as a medium for political communication is following the pattern
established by radio and television. He warned of the risk of politics being
drowned out by entertainment. "The Internet is clearly the most important
political tool in the future, but it isn't necessarily going to be a tool
for the good," he said. It all depends on the ethics of the consultants,
Grossman said. Rich Galen, executive director of GOPAC, a national
Republican organization, predicted that if the medium becomes important,
political operatives will find a way to abuse it.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney
rfr( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/cyber/articles/04politics.html

REPUBLICANS SAY WEB BROUGHT IN VOLUNTEERS
Issue: Internet & Politics
Campaign Solutions, a Republican consulting firm, surveyed volunteers who
signed up online with 18 Republican campaigns nationwide. The firm found
that 55% said they had never volunteered to help in a campaign before; 91%
of the Internet volunteers surveyed said they had not been recruited
directly by the campaigns. The study also tracked usage of 14 campaign sites
and showed that users spent an average of 8 minutes in the sites -- 17 times
as long as a television ad. They spent most of their time reading
candidates' biographies, issue sections and comparison charts, said Marty
Edlund, project manager of the study, which was sponsored by GOPAC and
Campaign Solutions. "Despite what people say, there are people who want
something more than a 30-second sound bite," Edlund said. "They're looking
to the information that you would expect undecided voters to use in deciding
how to vote." The Campaign '98 Internet Study can be found at
http://www.campaignstudy.org/.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney
rfr( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/cyber/articles/04politics-side...

COURT TACKLES NEW ANGLE ON LIBRARY INTERNET FILTERING
Issue: Libraries
A Livermore (CA) mother is suing the city alleging that her 12-year-old son
was able to use library computers to download sexually graphic pictures,
copy them to a disk and print them out at a relative's home. The mother and
her lawyer contend that the library should install filters on terminals used
by children. "The Loudoun decision completely affirms our position in the
[this] case," the lawyer said. "And that [position] is that it is completely
constitutional to say that adults can view unfettered terminals, but
children must have parental permission in order to see a terminal which has
unfettered access. That is exactly the solution [the mother] is looking
for." In October a judge ruled that the lawsuit against the Livermore
library was invalid under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
which among other things, gives Internet service providers, including
libraries, broad immunity from lawsuits that target online content the
providers did not create. The mother's lawyer amended the suit to claim that
the boy's 5th and 14th Amendment rights to personal security were violated:
"Children such as Brandon P. who view obscenity and pornography on the
library's computers can and have sustained emotional and psychological
damage in addition to damage to their nervous systems," the lawyer's amended
filing says, adding that the library's actions "shock the conscience and, at
a bare minimum, display a deliberate indifference to the health and welfare
of children such as Brandon P. who are invited into the library premises by
the library." The next hearing in the case is scheduled for mid-January.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Pamela Mendels
mendels( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/cyber/cyberlaw/04law.html

RELEASING SURVEY, AOL CALLS INTERNET A NECESSITY
Issue: Internet
America Online and Roper Starch released the results of a survey of Internet
users which shows, they claim, that "going online is increasingly becoming a
necessity." Given this hypothetical choice: If you were stranded on a desert
island, would you rather have a phone, a television, or an online
connection? The answer from 67 percent of the respondents: the Internet.
77% of respondents said the Internet had made their life better. "A lot of
the stuff they've got here is 'so what,'" said Shelley Morrisette, group
director for new media for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. He said
the fluid nature of the medium makes it difficult to predict different
users' experiences. He added: "I don't find anything remarkably wrong with
these statistics. I'm just saying you can spin statistics in ways that give
a positive story. What they're trying to show here is the Internet is
important and therefore advertisers should park some of their dollars."
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Lisa Napoli napoli( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/cyber/articles/04aol.html

CHINESE COMPUTER USER ON TRIAL
Issue: International
In Shanghai, China a computer entrepreneur went on trial today for giving
e-mail addresses to a pro-democracy Internet magazine published by Chinese
dissidents in the United States. The charges of subversion in the
closed-door trial of Lin Hai were placed in March after he reportedly gave
e-mail addresses of 30,000 Chinese computer users to "VIP Reference." Lin's
lawyers were permitted in the courtroom, but his wife and reporters were
not. The court did not plan to announce Lin's verdict publicly. The New
York-based group Human Rights in China today demanded Lin's release and
called the decision to put him on trial a "blatant violation of the right to
freedom of expression."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (WP Online), AUTHOR: Joe Mcdonald (Associated Press)]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19981204/V000674-120498-idx.html

INTERNATIONAL GROUP REACHES AGREEMENT ON DATA-SCRAMBLING SOFTWARE
Issue: Encryption
Yesterday, the US and 32 other countries agreed to limit the exportation of
encryption software. The US has long restricted the international sale of
strong data-scrambling technology developed in this country, fearing that it
could be used to hinder national intelligence efforts to gather information
on terrorists and unfriendly governments. Software companies have argued
that the administration's policy puts American companies at an unfair
disadvantage and slows the development of encryption technology. The
Wassenaar agreement (named after a popular local sausage), signed yesterday
in Vienna, is intended to make international policies more comparable to
each other. Ambassador David
Aaron, the president's special envoy for cryptography says that the new
agreement "levels the playing field between the U.S. and other countries."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: John Markoff]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/12/biztech/articles/04encrypt.html
See also:
ENCRYPTION CURBS BACKED BY 33 NATIONS
[SOURCE: Washington Post (D1), AUTHOR: Elizabeth Corcoran]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-12/04/052l-120498-idx.html

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ANTITRUST
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EVERYBODY DOES IT, MICROSOFT AGAIN ARGUES
Issue: Antitrust
Microsoft Corp. contended in its antitrust trial on Thursday that two of its
key rivals talked about a deal in which they would not compete against each
other. According to Microsoft attorney Tom Burt Sun Microsystems talked with
Netscape Communications about not competing with it in the browser market,
although Sun had developed its own browser called "HotJava." In court Sun's
James Gosling said he could remember no such deal ever being proposed. The
Microsoft contention was part of what is being called the "everybody does
it" defense. Government lawyer David Boies said that the performance of the
other two companies does not condone the conduct of Microsoft, which he said
was markedly different from that of its competitors. In court Burt also
argued that Microsoft's efforts to develop a Windows-specific version of the
Java programming language was a service to the computer community. He said
that Java was riddled with technological problems. The government says that
Microsoft intentionally sabotaged Java.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (D2), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/micro.htm
MICROSOFT SAYS JAVA DISAPPOINTED USERS DUE TO ITS OWN SHORTCOMINGS, MISSTEPS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B5), AUTHOR: John R. Wilke & Keith Perine]
http://www.wsj.com/

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...and we are outta here. Have a great weekend and don't spend too much time
at the mall (online or otherwise).