UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Furchtgott-Roth Warns Wireless Could Alter USF Funding (Telecom AM)
PRIVACY/SECURITY
FCC May Extend CALEA Deadline by One Year, USTA Says (Telecom AM)
Gore to Announce Privacy Initiatives (NYT)
Gore to propose Consumer-Privacy Initiative (WSJ)
MINORITIES/BROADCASTING
Chairman Kennard at National Association of Black Journalists (FCC)
OWNERSHIP/ALLIANCES
Microsoft Co-Founder to Buy 90% of Big Cable Company (NYT)
Allen to Pay Record Sum for Cable Firm (WSJ)
Thomson Multimedia, Microsoft Agree to TV Pact (WSJ)
INTERNET
New Anti-Pornography Measure Could Pass Constitutional Test (CyberTimes)
Web Sites Illustrate Voting's Complexity (CyberTimes)
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE
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FURCHTGOTT-ROTH WARNS WIRELESS COULD ALTER USF FUNDING
Issue: Universal Service
Speaking at a meeting of the Federal/State Joint Board on Universal Service,
being held in conjunction with the National Association of Regulatory
Utility Commissioners (NARUC) meetings, FCC Commissioner Harold
Furchtgott-Roth warned that wireless universal service may introduce
economic distortions that could have a major impact on the size of federal and
state universal service funds. Also at the meeting, FCC Commissioner Susan
Ness said that when wireless carriers become primary local service suppliers
for a significant segment of the population, serious questions will arise
about their eligibility to receive universal service support and how much
they must contribute to state and federal universal service funds. Both
commissioners are members of the Joint Board.
[SOURCE: Telecom AM]
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
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PRIVACY/SECURITY
================
FCC MAY EXTEND CALEA DEADLINE BY ONE YEAR, USTA SAYS
Issue: Privacy/Security
The FCC is expected to extend the deadline on the Communications Assistance
for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) from this October to December 1999. The
industry has been asking for a two-year delay. The new deadline is needed
because an agreement has not been reached between the Justice Department and
the industry over what surveillance capabilities the Department needs and
thus what capabilities must be built into phone equipment to permit law
enforcement wiretapping, TelecomAM reports.
[SOURCE: Telecom AM]
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
GORE TO ANNOUNCE PRIVACY INITIATIVES (NYT)
GORE TO PROPOSE CONSUMER-PRIVACY INITIATIVE (WSJ)
Issue: Privacy
In response to growing concerns about privacy on the web, Vice President
Gore will announce plans for a White House consumer privacy initiative that
will include the appointment of a "privacy czar" and endorsement of online
child protection legislation. Proposed legislation would prevent companies
from collecting personal data from children under the age of 13 without
parental consent. While privacy advocates were pleased by the
Administration's willingness to address privacy issues, many feel that they
have not gone far enough to protect adults online. According to Marc
Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington; "On
the big issues such as adult privacy on the Internet, encryption, and the
impact of the European Union data directive, the U.S. policy still comes up
short."
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/30privacy.html
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A12), AUTHOR: John Simons]
http://wsj.com/
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MINORITIES/BROADCASTING
=======================
CHAIRMAN KENNARD AT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS
Issue: Minorities/Broadcasting
Chairman Kennard's July 30, 1998 remarks to the National Association of
Black Journalists. "Today I want to talk with you about the importance of
diversity in the media, the steps we're taking at the FCC to promote equal
opportunity in the media, and why the digital revolution is both a story you
should cover and a pathway to new opportunity for African-American journalists."
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek823.html
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OWNERSHIP/ALLIANCES
===================
MICROSOFT CO-FOUNDER TO BUY 90% OF BIG CABLE COMPANY (NYT)
ALLEN TO PAY RECORD SUM FOR CABLE FIRM (WSJ)
Issue: Ownership
Technology billionaire and a co-founder of Microsoft Corp., Paul Allen,
yesterday agreed to buy more than 90 percent of Charter Communications Inc.,
the nation's 10th-largest cable operator, for $4.5 billion and assume $2
billion of the cable system's debt. Allen's company, Vulcan Ventures,
already owns Marcus Cable. Combining the two companies would make Allen the
owner of the nation's seventh-largest cable operator. William Savoy,
president of Vulcan, said that it was paying about 14 times Charter's
projected cash flow, a relatively high multiple in an industry where buyers
had been paying only about 12 times cash flow. This number is credited to
the recent embrace by computer and telephone companies of cable's
high-bandwidth fiber as an ideal way to deliver Internet and telephone
services to consumers homes. Allen, who in recent years has been assembling
a portfolio of entertainment, cable and other "new media" assets, has said
publicly that he expects all of those technologies to be interconnected and
that cable will play a critical role in their delivery to consumers in what
he calls the "Wired World."
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Geraldine Fabrikant]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/biztech/articles/31cable.html
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A3), AUTHOR: Eben Shaprio]
http://wsj.com/
THOMSON MULTIMEDIA, MICROSOFT AGREE TO TV PACT
Issue: Alliance
Thomson Multimedia, one of the world's largest TV makers, has reached an
agreement with Microsoft Corp. that will put the software giant's Windows CE
operating systems inside popular TV brands such as RCA in the U.S. and Saba
in Europe. The move is intended to help create a market for interactive
television sets. "We are seeding the market for interactive television,"
said Frank Dangard, executive vice president at Thomson. "Disney is not
going to develop interactive programming, if, looking forward to 1999, there
are only 200,000 people out there with the right TV sets," Mr. Dangard said,
"you need critical mass quickly."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B5), AUTHOR: Douglas Lavin & G. Pascal Zachary]
http://wsj.com/
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INTERNET
========
NEW ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY MEASURE COULD PASS CONSTITUTIONAL TEST
Issues: Internet/Content
A little more than a year after the Supreme Court's ruling that portions of
the Communications Decency Act (CDA) were unconstitutional, a new version of
the Act ("CDA II") is before Congress. The court found that the original
CDA's attempt to block minors from "indecent" material on the Internet was
too vague and threatened free speech. The new act more clearly targets
sexually explicit commercial material that is "harmful to minors." A
leading cyberlaw expert, Lawrence Lessig, says the bill will likely withstand
constitutional scrutiny. However, free speech and civil liberties advocates
claim
the new legislation "contains many of the unconstitutional provisions" of
the original law. The bill is "a Trojan horse," said Barry Stienheart of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who fears it could lead to the
suppression of adult free speech.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/cyberlaw/31law.html
WEB SITES ILLUSTRATE VOTING'S COMPLEXITY
Issue: Internet Use/Politics
A couple of Web sites are adapting the idea of "Congressional scorecards,"
which rate individual members of Congress on certain policy issues, and
extending them into interactive guides. These sites take advantage of the
medium's interactivity by calculating ratings based on the "user's" beliefs.
For example, voters visiting the Women's Voters Guide Web site are presented
with a series of questions asking their opinion on a variety of policy
issues. Once they mark their answers, they can hit a button and see how
closely their Congressional representatives agree with their choices.
However, while two Congressman and a political scientist that have tested
the sites compliment the innovation behind the concept, they are concerned
about the sites oversimplifying voting issues. "People who take a quiz like
this should realize a vote is not always a vote," said Michael Cornfield,
who teaches a course in politics and new media at George Washington Univ.
"I'd be surprised if it mobilizes people, but as a way of educating the
curious about what politics is about, it's a great device." Both groups say
they have spent many hours developing and fine-tuning the questions
presented on their sites so they are as straight-forward as possible. "Randy
Lilleston, managing editor of online ventures for Congressional Quarterly,
said he looks for bills that represent single-issue votes, and for issues
that go beyond partisan lines. He said he rarely receives complaints from
members of Congress about the services. But it's difficult for such an
endeavor to be totally impervious to criticism." You can check out the
Women's Voting Guide at:http://www.womenvote.org and the Congressional
Quarterly's rating feature at: http://voter.cq.com/cq_rate.htm
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley-Raney]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/31vote.html
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...and we're outta here. Have a great summer weekend!