INTERNET
Appeals Court Says Woman Cannot Sue AOL Because Member
Peddled Porn (WP)
Library Grapples With Protecting Internet Freedom (NYT)
Balancing Act: Finding the Right Online Service (NYT)
Media Firms Can Now Buy ".TV" for Domain (WSJ)
TELEVISION
HDTV's Mixed Signals (NYT)
MERGERS
Murdoch Satellite TV Deal Folds (WP)
Primestar Inc., News Corp. End Satellite Accord (WSJ)
Canada's Telus, GTE Unit Enter Merger Discussions (WSJ)
LONG DISTANCE
BellSouth Application to Provide Long Distance
Service in Louisiana (FCC)
ARTS
Retrospective for Pioneer of Computer-Based Art (CyberTimes)
JOBS
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT: Deputy Director, Communications and
Information Infrastructure Assurance Program (NTIA)
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INTERNET
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APPEALS COURT SAYS WOMAN CANNOT SUE AOL BECAUSE MEMBER PEDDLED PORN
Issue: Online Services/Censorship
Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld a lower court's
decision to dismiss a lawsuit that charged America Online with permitting
one of its chat rooms to be used to peddle pornography. Federal law
protects online services from being liable for messages sent by members.
The court, however, did ask the Florida Supreme Court to review the case on
other grounds. The man who had used AOL chat rooms to meet other men who
have sex with boys and who had sold a lewd videotape of an 11-year-old boy
is presently serving a 14-year sentence. The mother of the boy in the tape
had accused AOL of knowingly allowing Russell to sell the videotape.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (WashTech Website), AUTHOR: Karen Testa (Associated
Press)]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/wtech001.htm
LIBRARY GRAPPLES WITH PROTECTING INTERNET FREEDOM
Issue: Libraries/Freedom of Speech
Libraries around the country are grappling with the though question of
whether to restrict access to objectionable material on the Internet, and if
so, how much blocking to do. The Austin Public Library, like many others,
has found itself amidst a complex struggle between protecting children and
upholding the freedom of speech. Austin's libraries offered unfiltered
Internet access for two years, until library staff discovered the printing
of child pornography from a computer at one of the local branches. The
installation of filtering software was met with harsh criticism in this
traditionally liberal town. After much debate, city officials held a
roundtable with librarians, the ACLU and a local PTA representative. The
group agreed to reduce the number of items filtered and to install one
adult-only, unfiltered computer at each branch. ACLU members still argue
that any amount of filtering amounts to "censorship in a box." Jon
Leblowsky, member of the local civil liberties group Electronic Frontier -
Texas, coincides that "there's the potential for libraries to become like
adult arcades if access to hard-core porn isn't somehow restricted." He said
"minimal filtering" might be the solution.
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1), AUTHOR: Katie Hafner]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/circuits/articles/15filt.html
BALANCING ACT: FINDING THE RIGHT ONLINE SERVICE
Issue: Online Services
With thousands of online service providers, both local and nationwide, competing
for your business, choosing one has become trickier than ever. While there
are many factors - phone lines, modems, and computer speed -- that can
effect Internet access, there are three issues that one might consider in
choosing an online provider. 1)Performance: Ask friends if they are happy
with their providers. 2) Services: Ask about such features as free storage
space for personal Web pages, toll-free dial-up numbers when you travel, and
technical support. 3)Price: Plenty of nationwide carriers like Mindspring
and Earthlink offer good value for less than $20 a month.
[SOURCE: New York Times (D7), AUTHOR: Michelle Slatalla]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/circuits/computing/15comp.html
MEDIA FIRMS CAN NOW BUY ".TV" FOR DOMAIN
Issue: Internet
The most popular export of tiny Tuvalu may be its Internet domain name. TV
Corp. of Toronto has announced it has permission to sell licenses for domain
names ending in ".tv" which is the country code of the group of nine atolls
in the South Pacific. The effort of TV Corp. will be to promote the suffix
to media companies. In addition to the generic top-level domain names, 236
two-letter country codes were created for nations. The use of Tuvalu's
suffix will not be cheap. Registration and renewals will cost $1,000 and
$500 per year respectively. Currently domain names ending in ".com," ".net"
and "org" are registered by Network Solutions, Inc. for $119 for two years.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B8), AUTHOR: Jason Fry]
http://www.wsj.com/
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TELEVISION
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HDTV'S MIXED SIGNALS
Issue: Digital TV
Joel Brinkley describes his experience as "the only civilian in the nation"
with HDTV. He sums it up in two words: mesmerizing and frustrating. The
digital TV sets are huge -- 4 feet by four feet huge (some bigger than
that). They can receive both analog and digital programming, but are
optimized for digital -- which can be annoying because the monitor is shaped
more like a movie screen than a TV screen. Reception of digital signals over
the air are tricky, but the results are immediately obvious: "It doesn't
simply offer a clearer, sharper picture. Color rendition is vastly
improved." Even though the picture was much sharper, the early sets cannot
display full-resolution HDTV yet. Brinkley was watching broadcasts from WHD,
an experimental station in Washington, DC. There isn't much digital TV
content yet, however, so he saw a lot of promotional tapes that stations
around the country have produced to demonstrate HDTV. As the only viewer,
Brinkley called the station and requested a movie. The station played
Sleepless in Seattle and "it looked splendid -- bright and crystal clear."
Digital TV broadcasts will start around the country November 1.
[SOURCE: New York Times (D1), AUTHOR: Joel Brinkley]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/circuits/articles/15hdtv.html
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MERGERS
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MURDOCH SATELLITE TV DEAL FOLDS (WP)
PRIMESTAR INC., NEWS CORP. END SATELLITE ACCORD (WSJ)
Issue: Merger
Five months after the federal government sued to stop a $1 billion dollar
satellite TV deal, the two parties have agreed to call it off. At issue was
use of the last remaining satellite slot for providing direct broadcast TV
service (DBS) to the continental U.S. MCI and News Corporation's American
Sky Broadcasting (ASkyB) own the slot. ASkyB would have been transferred to
Primestar Inc. under the merger giving Primestar the ability to double the
number of channels it could broadcast and to send programming to the 18-inch
dishes used by its rivals. Primestar Partners which has more than 2 million
satellite TV customers is owned by the five largest cable companies.
Yesterday News Corp. and Primestar called off the deal. The government's
suit was scheduled for trial in February. A Justice Department official
called the decision "a big win for consumers" and said "it will ultimately
mean lower prices, more innovation and better service and quality."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C1), AUTHOR: Paul Farhi & Mike Mills]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/digest/biz001.htm
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B14), AUTHOR: John Lippman]
http://www.wsj.com/
CANADA'S TELUS, GTE UNIT ENTER MERGER DISCUSSIONS
Issue: Merger
Two Canadian telephone companies are considering joining forces in Western
Canada to compete with industry leader Bell Canada. Deregulation in Canada
is convincing regional monopolies to encroach on each other's turf. The
companies, Telus Corp. and BC Telecom, Inc, a unit of GTE Corp. are
conducting merger talks. BC Telecom and Telus are currently Canada's second
and third largest telephone-service providers. Bell Canada has announced
plans to build a national high-speed fiber-optic network for voice and data.
A merger of the two companies would increase their resources to compete with
Bell Canada.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B9), AUTHOR: Solange De Santis]
http://www.wsj.com/
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LONG DISTANCE
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BELLSOUTH APPLICATION TO PROVIDE LONG DISTANCE SERVICE IN LOUISIANA
Issue: Long Distance
"Noting that it is encouraged that BellSouth meets more than 6 items on the
14-point "competitive checklist," the Commission denied BellSouth's second
application to provide long distance service in Louisiana and provided
further guidance as to what the company must do to comply with the statute
in areas where the application fell short. In addition, the Commission ruled
that BellSouth need only certify in any future application for Louisiana
that it still satisfies the requirements of the checklist items that it has
met in this application, thus streamlining the authorization process. The
Commission concluded that competition from broadband Personal Communications
Services (PCS) providers could form the basis for a successful application
to provide in-region long distance service. The decision should assist
BellSouth and the other Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) in complying with
the market-opening measures outlined by Congress as a prerequisite to the
BOCs providing long distance service to their local customers."
[SOURCE: FCC]
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1998/nrcc8070.html
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ARTS
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RETROSPECTIVE FOR PIONEER OF COMPUTER-BASED ART
Issue: Arts
Charles A. Csuri is one of the pioneers of computer-based art, a medium he
helped invent in 1963 while at Ohio State University. "I believe I was the
first artist with any serious art credentials to work with the computer,"
the painter-turned-programmer said recently. To celebrate the 76-year-old
artist's career to date, SIGGRAPH, the preeminent computer-graphics
organization, launched a career retrospective of Csuri's work on its Web
site http://siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/csuri/index.html. Using Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML), Csuri creates what he calls "real-time
interactive art objects." "What [Csuri] did was way ahead of his time," said
Barbara London, MOMA's associate curator of film and video. "I put him in a
league with people like Ed Emshwiller, who came out of painting and
science-fiction illustration. They really had a vision of how to use these
tools." Other sites: http://www.netexp.net/~kevinr/INDEX.HTM, MOMA
http://www.moma.org/,
http://www.vol.it/MIRROR3/STATICI/csuri/1965_anims/1965_anims.html.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Matthew Mirapaul
mirapaul( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/artsatlarge/15artsatlarg...
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JOBS
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VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT: Deputy Director, Communications and
Information Infrastructure Assurance Program
Issue: Jobs
DUTIES: The incumbent serves as an alter ego to the Director, Communications
and information Infrastructure Assurance Program (CIIAP) sharing fully with
the director in managing all phases of the program. As Deputy Director of
the program, the incumbent manages program resources, including supervising
staff in (1)the development and management of national programs to protect
the telecommunications and information infrastructure from compromise;
(2)the direction and review of studies and analyses which incorporate the
legal, economic, technical and social aspects of proposals for the
protection of the infrastructure; (3)the integration and coordination with
other National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
components of the results of these studies and analyses into policy options
and recommendations for the Executive Branch; and (4) the preparation of
program plans, budget documents, and periodic progress reports. (closes
11-16-98)
[SOURCE: NTIA]
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/infrastructure/files/current/pd1_depdir...
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