.US TLD
NeuStar Inc. to Administer '.us' Domain (Reuters)
MERGER/ANTITRUST
Look, Up in the Sky! Big Bets on a Big Deal (NYT)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Closing The Gap (WSJ)
INTERNET
Veiled Messages of Terrorists May Lurk in Cyberspace (NYT)
FCC
FCC Chairman Announces Creation of Media
Ownership Working Group (FCC)
.US TLD
NEUSTAR INC. TO ADMINISTER '.US' DOMAIN
Issue: .us TLD/INTERNET
The Department of Commerce announced Monday afternoon it has awarded control
of the ".us" Internet domain to NeuStar Inc., a private company. NeuStar
intends to market the little-used online address to a wider audience, but
says they will parts of the domain for free use by local governments,
schools and libraries. "For the first time, U.S. residents, government
bodies and public-service organizations are able to establish an American
identity on the Internet," said Jeff Ganek, chief executive and chairman.
NeuStar will additionally streamline the .us address system. For example, a
school that might be listed as www.cape.k12.me.us could opt to be listed as
www.capeschools.us, or www.capeelizabeth.us. NeuStar will also make the .us
TLD available to the general public. NeuStar officials say they expect to
sign up millions of new names like www.johndoe.us and www.acmecorp.us. This
summer Democratic lawmakers and a wide range of interest groups lodged
protests when the Commerce Department announced that it intended to hand
control of the domain to a private business. NeuStar intends to set up a
policy board of government, nonprofit, commercial and other interests.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan]
(http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=329976)
MERGERS/ANTITRUST
LOOK, UP IN THE SKY! BIG BETS ON A BIG DEAL
Issue: Satellite/Broadcasting
Analysts believe that the EchoStar takeover of Hughes Electronics will win
easy approval from the FCC. But they aren't so confident about the outcome
of a review by the Department of Justice's antitrust division. Even if the
regulators could get past the consequences of merging the no. 1 and no. 2
satellite carrier, word is that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is likely to
lead the lobbying in Washington against the deal. The elimination of the two
competing satellite TV providers leave many with only one competing
alternative: cable. But where cable is unavailable, the choice is satellite
or nothing. "I think there is about a one-in- three chance that this gets
approved," said Scott C. Cleland, chief executive of the Precursor Group, a
highly respected investment research firm in Washington. "It discourages new
market entrants. It creates less incentive for innovation. It eliminates the
most direct competition." He added, "DirecTV and EchoStar are whipping cable
in the marketplace today. There is no legitimate argument why they have to
merge to compete with cable."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/business/media/30BIRD.html)
(Requires Registration)
See Also:
MURDOCH'S 'PLAN B' IS UNCLEAR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Lippman and Ken Brown]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1004397230177870280.htm)
(Requires Registration)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
CLOSING THE GAP
Issue:
In 1995, the U.S. government issued its first report on the digital divide,
"Falling through the Net: A survey of the 'Have-Nots' in Rural and Urban
America." Since then, the gap has narrowed -- but it's still very much here.
Race, education and location still determine who has access to and uses the
Internet. Minorities, the disabled and rural residents still lag behind in
their use of computers and other high-tech gadgetry, as does much of the
rest of the world. Experts, including many state legislators, are already
gearing up for the next challenge when it comes to bridging the digital
frontier: broadband. Nationally, 12% of urban households have high-speed
access, compared with 7% of rural households. A lot of people may have
rudimentary access," says Andy Carvin, senior associate at the Benton
Foundation, "but if broadband is only available in more-affluent households,
that means it will divide the types of opportunity available to people --
especially as a lot of the content being produced for the Internet is
broadband-enabled."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ann Grimes]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1004117421169724720.dj
m)
(requires subscription)
INTERNET
VEILED MESSAGES OF TERRORISTS MAY LURK IN CYBERSPACE
Issue: Security/Culture
The investigation of terrorist activity has drawn attention to the
centuries-old art of hiding secret information in public documents:
steganography. Of particular concern is the power and ease that digital
images and the globally networked Internet brings to the practice. In
modern, digital steganography, photographs, video, and text can be hidden in
digital photographs or music files without any outward trace that the files
were altered. While U.S. officials remain tight-lipped about what they know
about illegal uses of steganography, the French have revealed that they have
apprehended terrorists who were instructed that all communications should be
made through picture posted on the Internet. "Quite an alarming number of
images appear to have steganography in them," said one expert who has looked
for them, Chet Hosmer, the president and chief executive of WetStone
Technologies in Cortland, N.Y. Mr. Hosmer says his company has not decided
whether to reveal all the sites where he is finding steganography, but he
has found it on the auction site eBay, where people can post pictures
anonymously. A George Mason University professor, Dr. Neil F. Johnson, a
steganography expert, said he became so worried by steganography's potential
to be used by terrorists and criminals that he stopped publishing his
research on how to detect it. [Note: For those interested, we will publish a
Digital Beat on steganography on Wednesday.]
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Gina Kolata]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/30/science/physical/30STEG.html)
(Requires Subscription)
FCC
FCC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL POWELL ANNOUNCES CREATION OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP WORKING
GROUP
Issue: Media Ownership
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell announced Monday the creation of a Media
Ownership Working Group tasked with developing a solid factual and
analytical foundation for media ownership regulation. The findings of this
Working Group will provide an empirical and analytical basis for the FCC to
achieve its long-standing goals of promoting diversity, localism, and
competition in the media. Chairman Powell said, "Rebuilding the factual
foundation of the Commission's media ownership regulations is one of my top
priorities. For too long, the Commission has made sweeping media policy
decisions without a contemporaneous picture of the media market. We need to
rigorously examine whether current forms of media regulation are achieving
the Commission's policy objectives, and how changes in regulations would
affect the policy goals of competition, diversity, and localism." The
Working Group member, all staff of the FCC, represent the Mass Media Bureau,
Cable Services, General Counsel, and economists.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Miscellaneous/News_Releases/2001/nrmc0124.html)
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