INTERNET REGULATION
Regulators Expected to Lighten Up on
Internet Campaigns (CyberTimes)
Capital Dispatch: Filtering Proposal Deleted From
Budget Bill (CyberTimes)
Capital Dispatch: Civil Libertarians Seek to Halt
Cybersquatting Bill (CyberTimes)
Court Bars Suit Against Internet Name Provider (SJM)
MERGERS
Excite( at )home to Acquire Bluemountain (NYT)
BROADBAND
Giveaway by Cisco Aims For Share Of Wireless Technology (SJM)
New Alliance Will Promote Wireless Access to Internet (NYT)
ANTITRUST
GTE Files Suit Over internet Access (WP)
Microsoft Has A Right to Defend Herself (WP)
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS
FCC Reform for the New Millennium (House)
*** Live Webcast this morning ***
Assessing Consumer Access to Digital Entertainment (House)
INTERNET REGULATION
REGULATORS EXPECTED TO LIGHTEN UP ON INTERNET CAMPAIGNS
Issue: Politics & the Internet
On Thursday, the Federal Election Commission (http://www.fec.gov) will
decide on cases that will help set the balance between the need to regulate
political campaigns and the desire to encourage voters to get involved in
politics on the Internet. At stake in the cases is whether several types of
Internet activity count as contributions that must be reported to the FEC:
online debates sponsored by a nonpartisan group, Web sites set up by
supporters without the knowledge of campaign officials, and links from a Web
site to an official campaign site. "They [the FEC] obviously have the
opportunity to send a signal to people that they do recognize the
differences posed by the Internet," said James Dempsey, senior staff counsel
for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It's obviously going to be
closely watched, and they have to be very sensitive to the chilling effect
that they have created." A variety of advocacy groups have taken positions
and issued reports on the issue of online campaigning in recent weeks,
including CDT, the Aspen Institute, the Alliance for Better Campaigns and
the American Civil Liberties Union. Though the results of these two cases
could sketch out the FEC's approach to the medium, Internet-related
questions will no doubt continue to surface this year. The commission is
expected to issue a "notice of inquiry" on Thursday to call for public input
on establishing rules to regulate the medium. David M. Mason, the FEC
commissioner who prompted the inquiry, said the process could take more than
a year. "We simply don't have the option of sitting back and saying, 'Hands
off the Internet,'" he said.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney (rfr( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/articles/26camp.html)
CAPITAL DISPATCH: FILTERING PROPOSAL DELETED FROM BUDGET BILL
Issue: Internet Regulation
House and Senate appropriators last week agreed to drop from the labor,
health and human services education budget a provision to require that all
schools and libraries install filtering software on computers bought or
operated with federal funds. The battle is won for free speech advocates,
but the war continues; a similar measure has been attached to the House
version of a juvenile justice bill. Also, Senate Commerce Chairman John
McCain (R-AZ) has legislation pending that would link filtering requirements
to federal Internet subsidies.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing (jeri( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/capital/26capital.html)
CAPITAL DISPATCH: CIVIL LIBERTARIANS SEEK TO HALT CYBERSQUATTING BILL
Issue: Internet Regulation
The Association of Computing Machinery (http://www.acm.org), a group of
computer professionals, is circulating e-mail to get Internet users to call
their Members of Congress to vote against legislation that would outlaw
cybersquatting, the practice registering famous names as Internet addresses
in the hope of selling them at a profit. Opponents of the bill are worried
about its affects on free speech and that it could upset a carefully crafted
international policy that is being carried out by the Internet's new
oversight body, ICANN. Alan Davidson, a lawyer with the Center for Democracy
and Technology (http://www.cdt.org), a Washington civil liberties group,
said his group was trying to slow down House movement on the bill until
language could be clarified to ensure that it does not trample on free
speech rights. Davidson noted that the House bill was introduced just a few
weeks ago and moved quickly through the committee process. Because a Senate
bill has already passed, he said civil libertarians were hoping to use the
House process to iron out the problems. "This legislation has some serious
defects," he said on Monday. "It's not that it can't be cured, but the
process has happened so quickly on Capitol Hill that there hasn't been the
chance to fix this bill so that it doesn't chill free speech. We're talking
to people about how to slow it down."
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing (jeri( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/capital/26capital.html)
COURT BARS SUIT AGAINST INTERNET NAME PROVIDER
Issue: Intellectual Property
Yesterday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a company which
registers Internet domain names can't be sued for approving the name of a
"cybersquatter" that violates a companies' trademark.
The court said that Network Solutions, the principal registrar of names,
doesn't control or monitor the millions of names it approves and is not
legally responsible when the approval results in a trademark infringement.
Ronald L. Johnston, lawyer for Network Solutions, said that unlike the U.S.
patent and trademark office, which takes a year or more to review and
approve trademarks, "Network Solutions doesn't review the names that people
are trying to register. This is critical to the growth of the commercial
Internet." [speed] This particular case involved Lockheed Martin, whose
Skunk Works laboratory designs aircraft for the government. Network
Solutions has registered a dozen names containing some variation of "skunk
works," a phrase previously trademarked by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin,
a Bethesda, Maryland company, sued Network Solutions in 1996 after getting
no response to its request to cancel the registrations. The suit sought
damages for trademark infringement and an order barring all such domain
names. David Quinto, lawyer for Lockheed Martin, believes Network Solutions
was performing the same role as the trademark office and should be judged by
the same rules. But U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson dismissed the suit
and was upheld by the appeals court in a 3-0 ruling. The appeals court said
that Network Solutions exercises no more control over the domain names it
registers than the U.S. Postal Services provides when it sends mail to a
street address.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/reuters/docs/981703l.htm)
See Also:
INTERNET REGISTRARS AREN'T LIABLE IN CLASHES OVER DOMAIN NAMES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB940903064363871993.htm)
MERGERS
EXCITE( at )HOME TO ACQUIRE BLUEMOUNTAIN
Issue: Mergers
So, how much is a "spiritual and emotional center for the Web" worth?
Excite( at )Home figures ~$1 billion -- even if that center has little revenue.
Blue Mountain Arts Publishing Company, a successful paper greeting card and
poetry publisher, decided to give away E-greeting cards for free. Using only
word-of-mouth as advertising, Bluemountain.com swiftly grew to be one of the
most consistently popular sites on the Web. Excite( at )Home estimates its
audience will increase 40% to encompass ~34% of Internet traffic with the
purchase of Blue Mountain. With a 34 percent share, Excite( at )Home would pass
the Disney portal Go.com for fifth position, right behind Lycos but still a
long stretch from dominant players like America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Leslie Kaufman]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/26blue.html)
See Also:
EXCITE LOGS INTO BUSINESS OF E-GREETING CARDS
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Bloomberg]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg501.htm)
BROADBAND
GIVEAWAY BY CISCO AIMS FOR SHARE OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
Issue: Broadband
Cisco Systems plans to give away some of its wireless networking technology
in hopes to spur wireless broadband Internet services. Currently, most
high-speed wireless networks aim their services at office buildings and
large corporations, setting prices too high for what a home user or small
office could afford. The technology that Cisco is offering for free works in
the frequency band once reserved for wireless cable TV operators and is
designed to cut the cost and improve the performance - enabling the
technology
to support voice, video and data services to more homes and businesses. The
technology increases the range and the power of the wireless signals, Steve
Smith, marketing director for broadband wireless, said. To serve homes as
well as businesses, companies in the wireless Internet service business need
prices that can compete with the $40 to $50 per-month high-speed offerings
from cable TV and local phone companies. The company plans to give the
technology, royalty free, to any other would-be partner, Smith said. The
broadband wireless connection is up to 380 times faster than the speediest
traditional dial-up modem.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
(http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/cisco102699.htm)
NEW ALLIANCE WILL PROMOTE WIRELESS ACCESS TO INTERNET
Issue: Broadband
The race to bring broadband to consumers has led to promises for satellite,
cellular telephone networks, cable networks and telephone line broadband
technologies. That race continued yesterday when a group of leading
technology companies said that they would form an alliance to create
products that would allow consumers to get high-speed Internet access
through a wireless system within the next year. The consortium -- led by
Cisco Systems and Motorola -- is essentially backing an alternative to
underground cables and wires by delivering broadband Internet access via
wireless technology. Cisco and Motorola are trying to provide a cheaper and
more effective solution to digging up the ground and laying cables by
delivering data, voice and video services over the airwaves and directly
into buildings and homes that are affixed with antennas or the equivalent of
a satellite dish. Steve Smith, director of marketing in the broadband
wireless business unit at Cisco Systems, said, "This gets consumers Internet
access without tearing up the ground." Officials at Cisco Systems also
announced that 10 companies -- Motorola, Texas Instruments, Broadcom,
Bechtel Telecommunications, Samsung, Toshiba, LCC International, EDS, KPMG
Consulting and Pace Microtechnology have agreed to create and develop
products that use a Cisco technology, one that is equipped to deliver
Internet service over a radio frequency called MMDS. The companies involved
said that the ability to deliver high-speed broadband access through a
wireless system would also rapidly accelerate the introduction of broadband
services to rural areas and urban centers, and do so more easily and
inexpensively.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Barboza]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/26internet-wirel
ess.html)
ANTITRUST
GTE FILES SUIT OVER INTERNET ACCESS
Issue: Antitrust/Broadband
Local telephone company GTE Corporation filed a federal antitrust suit in
Pittsburgh yesterday to force cable companies to offer their customers an
equal choice of Internet service providers. GTE filed suit against two cable
companies -- Tele-Communications Incorporated, now owned by AT&T
Corporation, and Comcast Corporation -- and, Excite At Home, which connects
customers to the Internet over cable lines. AT&T and Comcast both own
substantial interests in Excite. The industry's need to provide faster
access to the Internet, with no dialing required, has led to the emergence
of upgraded cable television lines that can serve as a direct path to the
Internet and competes with local phone companies' digital subscriber lines.
DSL effectively transforms regular copper phone lines into high-speed data
lines. Cable companies, which already have a link with millions of
subscribers, want to turn this into a market share of the Internet world.
AT&T has spent more than $100 billion to acquire TCI and other cable
franchises throughout the country. The problem, according to GTE, is that
AT&T and Comcast offer their customers a single portal to the Internet --
the Excite At Home service. If customers want to use a different Internet
provider, they still must pay for Excite. GTE contends that forcing
customers to buy two products when they only want one amounts to an illegal
"tying" under federal antitrust law.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/oct99/gtesuit26.htm)
SEE ALSO:
GTE SUES AT&T OVER NET ACCESS
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Bloomberg]
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg504.htm
AT&T, COMCAST, EXCITE AT HOME SUED, AS GTE MOVES TO FORCE ACCESS TO CABLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, (B16), AUTHOR: Stephanie N. Mehta]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB940884957363395186.htm)
MICROSOFT HAS A RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF
Issue: Antitrust
[Op-ED] Jack Krumholz refutes a column that ran in the Washington Post last
week alleging attempts by Microsoft to reduce the Justice Department's
budget when the DoJ's antitrust division is currently prosecuting Microsoft.
"Microsoft does not and has not advocated 'cutting funding' for the
antitrust division's budget." Krumholz describes Microsoft's role as
providing information to Congressional members on Microsoft's experience
with certain actions by the antitrust division outside the current lawsuit.
Microsoft did suggest to some Members that the smaller increase proposed
by the House seemed more reasonable than the Senate's larger increase.
However, "Microsoft's primary concern has not been the funding level
approved for the antitrust division. The Microsoft investigation and the
District Court trial phase are essentially over -- the case has been
submitted to the judge, and findings are expected any week now. Whatever
budget figure is approved for the antitrust division, it will have no impact
on the Microsoft case." Microsoft's decision to approach members of Congress
was instead intended to "call attention to what many observers believe is
inappropriate behavior by the government." Microsoft has concerns that a
handful of companies directly lobbied the government to start a
taxpayer-funded lawsuit on behalf of Microsoft's business competitors, not
consumers, and Members of Congress have expressed concern that antitrust
division officials have urged other nations to join in the attack against
Microsoft.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A25), AUTHOR: Jack Krumholz, director of federal
government affairs for Microsoft Corporation]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/26/012l-102699-idx.html
)
CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS
FCC REFORM FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Issue: FCC Reform
Webcast available: Today, 9:30 a.m. (Eastern) in 2123 Rayburn House Office
Building The Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer
Protection hearing on Federal Communications Commission Reform for the New
Millennium.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/b1da34d22461b9d485256810004d911e?OpenDocument)
ASSESSING CONSUMER ACCESS TO DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT
Issue: Intellectual Property
Thursday, October 28, 1999 10:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office
Building. The Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer
Protection hearing on WIPO One Year Later: Assessing Consumer Access to
Digital Entertainment on the Internet and Other Media
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://www.house.gov/commerce/schedule.htm)
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