COMMUNITY
A Year and a Half Later, a Wired Neighborhood Looks Back (CyberTimes)
TELEVISION
Deciding on Digital Public Interest (B&C)
Public Broadcasters Don't Want, to Sell (B&C)
1-To-A-Market FCC Dissension (B&C)
WITF-TV On the DTV Switch (B&C)
REGULATION
Supreme Court Hears Providers of Local Calls (WSJ)
High Court To Review Phone Rules (WP)
F.C.C. Likely to Halt BellSouth Long Distance Bid (NYT)
COPYRIGHT
Congress Passes Anti-Piracy Bill (NYT)
Congress Passes Copyright law for Internet Items (WSJ)
House Passes Copyright Bill (WP)
MERGERS
Media Metrix Plans Merger With Relevant Knowledge (NYT)
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COMMUNITY
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A YEAR AND A HALF LATER, A WIRED NEIGHBORHOOD LOOKS BACK
Issue: Community
Eighteen months ago, Microsoft's MSNstreet project offered residents of a
street in Islington, England the Internet beginner's dream package: a
computer, a modem, an Internet account through the Microsoft Network (MSN),
a dedicated phone line, a selection of software, a contribution toward their
phone bills, and on-site installation and tutoring by specialists. They
would also have access to a dedicated telephone line for troubleshooting,
and to a private Web site and bulletin board. In return, all they had to do
was keep a log of their online activity. The volunteers are still
enthusiastic Internet users and some of them believe the street's residents
are closer socially. "There has been a significant improvement in
communication in the street which would not have happened otherwise," a
volunteer said. The shared experience of being Internet beginners and
talking about local issues on the bulletin board "has meant that when we
meet face to face we can carry on discussions instead of blandly talking
about the weather," another said. "There is no doubt that e-mail will be
used by everybody, and that for all the talk of wiping out time zones and
geographical distances, it will become a normal way to exchange information
locally as well," said Andrew Graham, a professor of economics at Balliol
College in Oxford, who has been monitoring the project as part of his
research into the effects of new technologies on citizenship. Yet before
becoming commonplace, technology needs to "get much easier to use," Prof
Graham said.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Bruno Giussani
giussani( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/eurobytes/13euro.html
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TELEVISION
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DECIDING ON DIGITAL PUBLIC INTEREST
Issue: DBS/Public Interest
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to propose public interest
obligations for digital broadcast providers by the end of this month.
Commissioners are currently reviewing a staff proposal that would require
DBS companies to set aside 4% of channel capacity for public interest
programming. The Cable Act of 1992 instructed the FCC to require DBS
providers to set aside 4-7 percent of their channel capacity. While many
public interest advocates argue that more capacity should be set aside, Gigi
Sohn, executive director of the Media Access Project, say that 4% is a good
start: "I can live with the lower number as long as the FCC is willing to
revisit the issue in the future." Other contentious issues include questions
of weather DBS providers will be able to choose the programming and if so,
will for-profit channels, such as The Learning Channel, count as "public
interest" programs.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.19), AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
PUBLIC BROADCASTERS DON'T WANT TO SELL
Issue: Public TV
Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La), Chairman of the House Telecommunications
Subcommittee, has proposed a bill that would give public broadcasters more
operating money in the next year and help them develop a plan for stable,
long term funding for the next century. Although the public broadcast
community was pleased with most aspects of the bill, there is concern about
Rep. Tauzin's requirements that one station must be sold in markets where
PBS stations overlap. Public Broadcasters are also not enthusiastic about
the proposal to eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to create
a permanent money pool to fund PBS stations.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.24), AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
1-TO-A-MARKET: FCC DISSENSION
Issues: Broadcasting/Ownership
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission voted to waive it's
"one-to-a-market" rule that prohibits companies from owning radio-TV
combinations in the same markets. Chairman William Kennard, along with
commissioners Gloria Tristani and Susan Ness, pledged to revamp the
Commission's ownership rules before year's end.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.27), AUTHOR: Bill McConnell]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
WITF-TV FLIPS ON THE DTV SWITCH
Issues: DTV
People have begun to discover that there are even bargains when it come to
digital broadcasting. WITF-TV, a PBS affiliate in Harrisburg, Pa., is
borrowing equipment from Harris and Emcee to prove that lower powered
stations can make the transition to digital with out going broke. For less
than $300,000, WITF-TV will be able to purchase the entire transmission
system that is on loan to it now. With costs lower than expected, more
public and independent stations might be able survive the transition.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable (p.71), AUTHOR: Karen Anderson]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
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REGULATION
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SUPREME COURT HEARS PROVIDERS OF LOCAL CALLS (WSJ)
HIGH COURT TO REVIEW PHONE RULES (WP)
Issue: Regulation/Local telephone
The Supreme Court will consider today whether to reinstate federal rules
designed to open the $110 billion-per-year local telephone market to
competition. The rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission two
years ago -- and later overturned by a federal appeals court - required
local monopoly phone companies to offer discounts to newly emerging
competitors that wanted to lease lines on the incumbent's phone system. The
lower court said the rules usurped state powers to set local rates. One
prime objective of the 1996 Telecommunications Act was to bring competition to
monopoly control of local service in the telecommunications industry. But so
far competition is stalled, in part because of legal battling over these
rules. If the court upholds the FCC rules, would-be local telephone
competitors say their cost of entering the market would be lower and as a
result, they say, residential telephone consumers could soon choose among
rival local telephone companies like they do long-distance carriers. The
regional Bells, however, argue that new rivals are only interested in
serving the most profitable local customers.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Stephanie N. Mehta and Edward
Felsethal]
http://wsj.com/
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C1), AUTHOR: Mike Mills]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-10/13/026l-101398-idx.html
FCC LIKELY TO HALT BELLOUTH LONG DISTANCE BID
Issue: Long Distance
0 for 5. The FCC is likely to announce today that BellSouth's bid to provide
long distance service to customers in Louisiana has been denied. This is the
5th attempt by a Baby Bell to convince the Commission that the local
telephone giant has sufficiently opened its market to local competition to
merit being allowed to enter the lucrative long distance market. The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 set out a 14 point checklist for the Bells to
win long distance approval. According to "people close to the application
process" BellSouth's application came closer than any of the previous four
-- satisfying the FCC that six points were fulfilled.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/fcc-bellsouth.html
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COPYRIGHT
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CONGRESS PASSES ANTI-PIRACY BILL (NYT)
CONGRESS PASSES COPYRIGHT LAW FOR INTERNET (WSJ)
HOUSE PASSES COPYRIGHT BILL (WP)
Issue: Copyright
The House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation intended to
protect books, music, computer software and other works from computer
pirates. The bill will now go to the White House for the President's
signature and the Senate passed the measure last week. The legislation
shields telephone companies and online service providers from liability when
subscribers illegally transmit or post copyrighted works on their networks
and has been two years in the making. The "fair use" principal has been
extended allowing schools, libraries and others to make limited copies of
copyrighted works.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: Bloomberg News]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/13software-pirac
y.html
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B5), AUTHOR: John Simons]
http://wsj.com/
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C3), AUTHOR: John Schwarts ]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-10/13/029l-101398-idx.html
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MERGERS
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MEDIA METRIX PLANS MERGER WITH RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE
Issue: Mergers
Merger fever is catching on in cyperspace. The two largest companies that
measure Website audiences have agreed to merge. Both Media Metrix and
Relevant Knowledge publish a list of the 25 most trafficked Websites and
charge clients up to $50,000 for detailed audience information. But the
archrivals' ratings were often vastly different from eachother and from
measurements taken by the Websites themselves. "The more we have gotten into
this business, the more we understood that neither company was going to beat
the other into submission," said Jeff Levy, the chief executive of Relevant
Knowledge, who had been steering his company toward a public stock offering.
"This would have been a long and bloody battle that would not be good for
either company or the industry." (Is anyone else nostalgic for all that
mid-90's rhetoric about competition being better for consumers?)
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: Saul Hansell]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/13internet-analy
sts.html
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