INTERNET
Advocates of People With Disabilities Taken Online Stores to Task
(NYT)
Looking Forward (NYT)
Napster Files Intellectual-Property Suit Against Merchandiser for
Use of Logo (WSJ)
TV/CABLE
AT&T to Boost Cable Prices 4.8 Percent (WP)
Leader Pulls the Plug On TV Quality Group (WP)
EMPLOYMENT
Unions Gain in Popularity Among Dot-Com Workers (WSJ)
INTERNET
ADVOCATES OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES TAKEN ONLINE STORES TO TASK
Issue: Digital Divide
Just before Christmas, when the federal government committed itself to
making its Web sites fully accessible to people with disabilities, it raised
an issue that has been ignored by many e-commerce sites. While the Americans
With Disabilities Act compels physical stores to make themselves reasonably
accessible to disabled people, courts have not said conclusively whether the
law applies to online stores. "The things that need to be done to make a
site accessible are not that hard to do, but they get ignored until somebody
raises a stink," said Jane Jarrow, president of Disability Access
Information and Support, a consulting firm. "It'd be hard to make a case for
saying that e-commerce sites are legally required under the A.D.A. to be
accessible to everyone, but it's silly for them not to be."
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/01/technology/01ECOMMERCE.html)
(requires registration)
LOOKING FORWARD
Issue: Internet
Cyberlaw Journal recently asked a panel of legal experts to predict the most
significant or interesting developments in Internet law and policy for the
year 2001. These are excerpts from their forecasts. There will be the Bush
Administration's unceremonious exit from U.S. v. Microsoft, as it gives up
on the most important antitrust action of the last three decades. The music
industry meltdown will continue: by the end of 2001 Napster will be taking
over the market, leaving music companies no one to sue except their own
listeners. We will have federal legislation governing Internet privacy that
creates a national standard for consumer Web sites. Look for politicians to
explore the Internet and high-tech solutions in the wake of the recent
electoral debacle. It will be interesting to see whether privacy protections
will get stuck like a hanging chad or whether both parties see privacy
legislation as something they can agree on. The Bush Administration may have
its greatest effect simply by doing nothing - in particular by letting
control of cyberspace and the communications infrastructure become
increasingly concentrated.
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/28/technology/29CYBERLAW.html)
(requires registration)
NAPSTER FILES INTELLECTUAL-PROPERTY SUIT AGAINST MERCHANDISER FOR USE OF
LOGO
Issue: Intellectual Property
In a strange twist, Napster, the free music site locked in a copyright
infringement suit with the record industry, filed an intellectual-property
suit of its own last week against Sports Service Inc., a Southern California
marketing and merchandising company, in relation to the company's Web site
Napsterstore.com. Napsterstore.com sells paraphernalia such as caps and
T-shirts featuring Napster's cat logo. "It's a pretty ironic situation that
they find themselves in," said Daniel R. Harris, a partner in the law firm
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. In the record-industry case, Napster isn't
arguing that intellectual property is free but that it shouldn't be held
responsible for what users do with the music they download from the
Internet. Harris said companies have to sue to protect trademarks such as
logos because otherwise they can fall into generic usage and lose their
value as a marketing tool for the company.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A8), AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB978398798262586082.htm)
(requires subscription)
See Also:
NAPSTER SUES E-TAILER FOR LOGO THEFT
[SOURCE: USA Today (Online), AUTHOR: Bloomberg News]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh810.htm)
TV/CABLE
AT&T TO BOOST CABLE PRICES 4.8 PERCENT
Issue: Cable
On Tuesday, AT&T Corp., the biggest U.S. long-distance phone and cable TV
company, said that it would hike its prices on cable services an average of
4.8 percent. The most common increase applies to the company's main analog
package, known as Standard Cable. The package is received by 63 percent of
AT&T Broadband's 16 million customers. The company blamed the increase on
rising costs of providing service and investments in customer service.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2001Jan2.html)
LEADER PULLS THE PLUG ON TV QUALITY GROUP
Issue: TV
Dorothy Collins Swanson, head of the grass-roots group Viewers for Quality
Television (VQT), is dissolving the nonprofit organization that she founded
16 years ago. Over the years, VQT has lobbied the networks to value the
medium and viewers by offering worthwhile series like "Designing Women,"
"China Beach" and this season's "Gilmore Girls." The organization has
dropped from its peak of about 5,000 participants to fewer than 1,000,
making it impossible to stage costly activities as the annual awards dinner
and convention in Los Angeles.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C07), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7338-2001Jan1.html)
EMPLOYMENT
UNIONS GAIN IN POPULARITY AMONG DOT-COM WORKERS
Issue: Employment
Disenchantment among dot-com workers may deliver to the labor movement its
first fighting chance for a foothold in the New Economy. Labor unions are
enticing a corps of disaffected workers who want higher wages to make up for
worthless options. One attractive union target is Amazon.com. At its home
base in Seattle, the Internet retailer faces a drive by the Washington
Alliance of Technology Workers, familiarly called WashTech, to organize 400
Amazon customer-service agents. The 1.4 million-member United Food and
Commercial Workers, has also spent months leafleting Amazon's distribution
centers, though no formal union-certification vote has been scheduled.
Employees and union organizers say that growing unease about job security,
benefits, forced overtime and low pay are behind the Amazon campaigns. As
they make their moves in the New Economy, the unions are running into a
staple of Old Economy labor relations: Some of the companies they have
targeted are counterattacking with old-fashioned, and controversial,
antiunion tactics. "I think unions have an important role to play in
society," Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, said recently. "I think
they're not needed at Amazon. All our employees are owners."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A9), AUTHOR: Nick Wingfield And Yochi J.
Dreazen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB978386202477642298.htm)
(requires subscription)
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