For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
Headlines will be on a break August 12-18.
INTERNET
Bridging a Digital Divide
Internet Pirates
Federal Suit Claims DoJ Illegally Chilling Ad Sales
Federal Law Fails To Lessen Flow Of Junk E-Mail
FTC Settles Case Involving Windows Pop-Up Ads
DIVERSITY
Media's Lack of Diversity Skews News Judgment
BROADCASTING
Disney Sides With Music Industry On Digital Copy Issue
"Buffy," "Will & Grace" Not Indecent, FCC Rules
SPECTRUM
Spectrum Swap Plan Scrutinized
INTERNET
BRIDGING A DIGITAL DIVIDE
A look at NPower NY's efforts to bridge the digital divide. Since 2001, 57
students have graduated the program; the students' average salary before
entering the program is $9,834 a year while after graduation, the figure
jumps to $22,956. The program accepts men and women between the ages of 18
and 25, so long as they have finished high school or earned an equivalency
degree., bust most participants are young men who come from low-income
families and have little or no schooling beyond a high-school diploma.
Andrew Sum, an economist who directs the Center for Labor Market Studies at
Northeastern University in Boston, says that almost half of the jobs lost
in the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 were held by people between 16 and 24
years of age. This group has also mostly been excluded from new job growth,
he says. Many recently created jobs have been related to rising
self-employment or are contract positions for highly skilled workers, or
they are off-the-books jobs, frequently taken by new immigrants.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kris Maher Kris.Maher( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109208888946586863,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
INTERNET PIRATES
[Editorial] Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has introduced the Induce Act, a
bill which gives copyright holders a cause of action to sue anyone who
"induces" the violation of their copyrights. The legislation's aim is
online networks like KaZaa and Morpheus that facilitate illegal music
swapping. The WSJ doesn't like the bill: "it wouldn't make much of a dent
in the Internet piracy problem it's designed to solve, it would unleash a
wave of frivolous lawsuits." The editorial concludes: "The better legal
tools to stop file traders are hidden in plain sight, in pre-Internet U.S.
copyright law. "Willful" infringement -- when the copier knows, or should
know, that he's over the line -- carries a statutory penalty of $150,000
per illegal copy. The content industry can also continue to sue individual
pirates. With penalties this high, it doesn't take very many suits to
substantially increase the expected cost of pirating an album or film."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: WSJ Editorial Staff]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109209577232687104,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
FEDERAL SUIT CLAIMS DoJ ILLEGALLY CHILLING AD SALES
About a year ago, the Department of Justice wrote the national Association
of Broadcasters stating that anyone who facilitated online gambling by
running ads for such services is "punishable as a principal violator of
those statutes." Now Casino City, a portal for online gambling, filed the
case in US District Court, Baton Rouge (LA) alleging that DoJ's efforts to
discourage such ads by threatening criminal prosecution of anyone airing
them is a violation of free speech. "Prior to the foregoing actions by the
DoJ, the advertising industry was selling and running advertisements for
online casino and sports book businesses that legally operate in the
jurisdictions in which they are located," the complaint said. "The NAB
letter and subpoenas, however, have created a fear of prosecution within
the advertising community resulting in a chilling effect upon the exercise
of free speech."
"When you have an FCC license that must be protected to stay in business,"
said Casino City CEO Michael Corfman in a statement, "you can't afford to
take chances with the Department of Justice."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Patrick Ross]
(Not available online)
FEDERAL LAW FAILS TO LESSEN FLOW OF JUNK E-MAIL
A new report from Consumer Reports finds that the federal law aimed at
reducing spam is not working. "Spam volume has overtaken that of legitimate
e-mail," the study concludes, "threatening to drown it in a sea of sales
pitches for herbal nostrums, mortgages and pornography." Jim Guest,
president of Consumers Union, calls the CAN-SPAM law inadequate, saying
that regulators should require that consumers elect to receive commercial
solicitations rather than ask not to. Mr. Guest also criticizes the law's
effort to distinguish between unwanted mail from legitimate mass marketers
and the deceptive spammers. The Consumer Reports study contains several
recommendations for consumers seeking to cut down on spam. For example,
consumers should never buy anything advertised in a spam message, because
doing so subsidizes future mass e-mailings and shows spammers there's money
in it. It says further -- despite the CAN-SPAM Act's provisions -- that
consumers shouldn't attempt to opt-out of future mailings by clicking on
"unsubscribe" links contained in unsolicited e-mails, since doing so only
alerts illicit spammers they've reached a live address. The study
recommends using a closely guarded e-mail address for friends and family,
and another for everything else, and says that when an e-mail address gets
clogged with spam consumers should simply get another one.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daniel Nasaw daniel.nasaw( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109209213254586948,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
See Also:
NET PHONE CUSTOMERS BRACE FOR 'VOIP SPAM'
Imagine wading through dozens of pre-recorded porn and Viagra messages on
your voice mail.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Ben Charny]
http://news.com.com/Net+phone+customers+brace+for+%27VoIP+spam%27/2100-7...
FTC SETTLES CASE INVOLVING WINDOWS POP-UP ADS
The Federal Trade Commission has barred a company from sending pop-up ads
via Windows Messenger Service. Windows Messenger allows computer network
administrators to communicate with others on their networks but is
unnecessary for home users. The messenger service pop-up ads were used to
sell pop-up blocking software, and they could appear even when a user was
online but not browsing the Web. The settlement contains no financial
penalties against the company which admitted no wrongdoing.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=591...
DIVERSITY
MEDIA'S LACK OF DIVERSITY SKEWS NEWS JUDGEMENT
[Commentary] While minorities now make up 30.9% of the nation's population,
they make up just 12.5% of the newspaper journalists nationwide. And just
one in 10 of the journalists covering the nation's capital for major
newspapers and news groups are minorities, according to a study released on
the first day of the Unity Journalists of Color convention. With minorities
now making up about a third of the nation's population, a nearly all-white
national press corps may be tone-deaf to a broad range of racial and
cultural issues that could impact the outcome of the election.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:DeWayne Wickham]
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040810/6438065s.htm
BROADCASTING
DISNEY SIDES WITH MUSIC INDUSTRY ON DIGITAL COPY ISSUE
Siding with the recording industry over the broadcast and electronics
industries, Disney last week filed comments at the FCC supporting an audio
"broadcast flag" to combat piracy. The FCC "also should consider whether to
extend [the flag] to all music distribution platforms, including satellite
digital audio radio service, the Internet and broadcast radio service," the
company's comments read. "We think that before anybody streams content over
the Internet, they should first get the permission of the owner of that
content, and an audio flag is just one small piece of the overall
technical-legal infrastructure that is required for the Internet to
blossom," said Preston Padden, Disney executive vice president.
[SOURCE: National Journal's technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/techdaily/pmedition/tp040809.htm
"BUFF," "WILL & GRACE" NOT INDECENT, FCC RULES
The FCC issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order denying a complaint by
Parents Television Council alleging that various television station
licensees airing UPN programming, including the licensee of Station
WDCA(TV), Washington, DC, aired indecent material during the "Buffy the
Vampire Slayer" program on November 20, 2001. The complainants alleged
that the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode at issue included a scene in
which the characters Buffy and Spike engage in sexual intercourse. The
Commission concluded that the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" program at issue,
as described by the complainants, was not sufficiently explicit or graphic
to be indecent. The Commission noted that there was no nudity, and there
was no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon, or was used to
pander, titillate or shock the audience. The episode depicted the
characters Buffy and Spike fighting one another before engaging in what is
alleged in the complaint to be sexual intercourse.
The FCC also issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order denying a complaint by
Americans for Decency and related complaints alleging that KSAZ License,
Inc., the licensee of Station KSAZ(TV), Phoenix, Arizona, aired indecent
material contained in an episode of the "Will and Grace" program. The
Commission concluded that the episode of the "Will and Grace" program was
not sufficiently explicit or graphic to be indecent. The complainants
allege that the "Will and Grace" episode at issue included a scene in which
"[a] woman photographer passionately kissed [a] woman author and then
humped her (what she called a 'dry hump.')"
[SOURCE: FCC]
*Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Press Release:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-250666A1.doc
Order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-196A1.doc
* Will & Grace
Press Release:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-250669A1.doc
Order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-197A1.doc
SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM SWAP PLAN SCRUTINIZED
The Nextel/public safety rebanding order was released on Friday. "Not many
people have read it yet, but the first impressions are pretty positive,"
said Robert M. Gurss, director of legal and government affairs for the
Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International, which
lobbied for the spectrum switch. The decision orders Nextel to pay $2.18
billion to relocate itself, public safety organizations and other wireless
carriers to new airwaves. Many analysts expect Nextel to accept the FCC's
order, although the cell phone company's board of directors has not yet
voted to approve it. "I would expect that [Nextel's] going to go through
the technical aspects of the order with a fine-toothed comb and come back
to the agency with some tweaks, but given that the order tracks much of
what Nextel sought, I would expect that Nextel will end up accepting it,"
said Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Legg Mason Wood Walker, a major
institutional Nextel shareholder.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52863-2004Aug9.html
(requires registration)
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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