MEDIA & SOCIETY
FTC Says It Won't Sue Hollywood (WP)
Software That Tracks E-Mail Is Raising Privacy Concerns (NYT)
EDTECH
More Technology Training for Teachers (CyberTimes)
SPECTRUM
Up In the Airwaves (WP)
GM's Hughes Auction Gets More Complex (WSJ)
JOBS
Hundreds of Workers Strike At 2 Newspapers in Seattle (NYT)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
FTC SAYS IT WON'T SUE HOLLYWOOD
Issue: Media & Society
Two months after a report accusing Hollywood of aggressively marketing
violent, adult-rated entertainment to children, Federal Trade Commission
lawyers and regulators decided yesterday that they will not pursue legal
charges against any of the companies involved. The FTC was considering
charging the offending companies with engaging in deceptive or unfair
advertising practices. However, the regulator decided that the charges could
be defeated on First Amendment free-speech grounds. The FTC had found that
the film industry regularly advertised R-rated movies during television
shows and in magazines most popular with children. Pursuing the matter would
have placed the FTC in the position of having to explain which movies were
inappropriate for children and why. Lee Peeler, the FTC's associate director
for advertising practices, noted that a lawsuit might undermine the
voluntary content-rating system employed by the music, movie and film
industries. In the end, Peeler said, self-regulation "would do more and do
it quicker than government law enforcement actions." Jeffrey Chester,
executive director for the Center for Media Education, a group highly
critical of the entertainment industry's marketing practices, said "This whole
exercise is about sending the entertainment industry a big wake-up call...
They have promised to clean up their practices; clearly the FTC and
advocates are going to keep on alert."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A01), AUTHOR: Christopher Stern]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49551-2000Nov21.html)
See Also
FTC STEPS BACK FROM REGULATING FILM MARKETING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B2), AUTHOR: David Pringle]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB974856096446485901.htm)
(Subscription Required)
SOFTWARE THAT TRACKS E-MAIL IS RAISING PRIVACY CONCERNS
Issue: Privacy
The latest versions of e-mail applications have features that allow users
to track, undetected, when the messages they send are read and whether or
not they are passed on to others. For some senders, this may appear to be a
pretty handy tool: a job searcher, for example, could know if that company
really opened her resume or a lawyer could know if a confidential message
has been passed on. But privacy advocates contend that such practices open
a new window of surveillance on a traditionally private sphere of
communications. They compare it to having someone who leaves a message on
your answering machine -- a telemarketer, say, or your mother -- alerted
the moment you listen to it. More troubling, they say, is that the same
technology can be used to match a recipient's e-mail address with
previously anonymous records of the Web sites visited from that person's
computer. "You can buy 50,000 addresses of people who subscribe to The New
Yorker," said Richard M. Smith, chief technology officer of the Privacy
Foundation. "But you don't know what articles they're reading in it, or
what books they've bought or what medical problems they've been researching
lately. That's very much a possibility within this technology." [There's
much more at the URL below]
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/22/technology/22NET.html)
(requires registration)
See Also:
WIRETAPPING SYSTEM WORKS ON INTERNET, REVIEW FINDS
Another look at the Carnivore review we reported on yesterday.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A17), AUTHOR: John Schwartz]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/22/technology/22CARN.html)
(requires registration)
STUDY: FBI TOOL NEEDS HONING
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A02), AUTHOR: Vise and Eggen]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48737-2000Nov21.html)
CRITICS SLAM CARNIVORE REPORT
[SOURCE: USA Today (), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti834.htm)
EDTECH
MORE TECHNOLOGY TRAINING FOR TEACHERS
Issue: EdTech
A recent analysis of technology spending in education shows that schools
are spending more on new computers and software than on training teachers
to use the new technology. Of the estimated $5.67 billion public schools
spent on technology in the 1999-2000 school year, just 17 percent went to
teacher training, according to an annual survey conducted by Market Data
Retrieval, a educational research company. Even though spending on teacher
training remains a small part of school district technology budgets, there
is growing concern that teachers are not adequately prepared to integrate
technology into classroom instruction. Teacher training is the key to
ensuring that technology investments result in better-educated students,
said Barbara Stein, senior policy analyst for education technology issues
for the National Education Association (NEA). "The greatest indicator of
technology improving student achievement depends on the degree to which the
teachers can use it," she said. The NEA recommends that schools devote 40
percent of their technology budgets to teacher training. "We have made a
strategic error in wiring our schools," said Mario Morino, a philanthropist
and the chairman of the Morino Institute. "We should have been wiring our
teachers. If you can get a teacher to use technology to improve his or her
productivity, you get a quantum change." Morino also recommends a greater
percentage of school budgets go to teacher training. He suggests that 70
percent of educational technology budgets should be dedicated to
organizational development -- which includes teacher preparation -- with
the remaining 30 percent allocated to computer hardware and services.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Weiner]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/22/technology/22EDUCATION.html)
(requires registration)
SPECTRUM
UP IN THE AIRWAVES
Issue: Spectrum
[Editorial] America's airline industry is facing a challenge that can't be
fixed by cancelling flights, better mechanic hours or additional routes:
dwindling spectrum for the myriad of communications required for airport
operations and safe air travel. The solutions are not expected soon enough
to prevent increasing delays and cancellations and the FAA and airline
industry do not agree on a remedy. The airlines make the case for a system
that would take five years to install, but be outdated in 20. The FAA and
some others prefer a system that would last longer, but take 9-12 years to
install. The existing channels for airspace communication having been
subdivided into halves, and then halved again, now some are calling for a
plan to split each frequency into 12 channels - a plan requiring new
equipment to deal with the interference that will occur. "[D]ecisions
cannot wait much longer," the editorial concludes. "Air travel is too much
of a waiting game already."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A26), AUTHOR: WP Editorial Staff]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49900-2000Nov21.html)
GM's HUGHES AUCTION GETS MORE COMPLEX
Issue: Satellite
Hughes Electronics, the provider of entertainment and satellite services
best known for its DirecTV operation, is for sale and is expected to fetch
$45 billion. The stock of Hughes, which is owned by General Motors but
trades as a tracking stock with 70% of shares held by public shareholders,
has been hammered amid a loss of confidence in communications stocks and
indications of slowing growth and increased spending to lure subscribers.
There is growing skepticism on Wall Street as to whether Hughes will be
sold, and even some question whether GM is committed to a sale. Indeed,
people familiar with the matter say the odds are good that GM may choose a
spinoff if it isn't satisfied with the bids. The serious bidders are
worried about a spinoff. If they pass or can't reach a deal with Hughes now,
they run the risk that it could be even more expensive down the road. So
far, three companies -- News Corp., Viacom Inc. and Comcast Corp. -- have
signed confidentiality agreements that give them access to detailed
corporate information about Hughes. Walt Disney Co. and Sony Corp. are
circling, considering whether they should jump into the fray.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (C1), AUTHOR: Deogun & Pasztor]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB974844224655203418.htm)
(Subscription Required)
JOBS
HUNDREDS OF WORKERS STRIKE AT 2 NEWSPAPERS IN SEATTLE
Issue: Jobs
Newspaper Guild workers at The Seattle Times and The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer went on strike yesterday over issues including wages,
pensions and health benefits. About 90 percent of more than 900 workers --
circulation personnel, copy editors, reporters, photographers and
advertising sales representatives -- have walked out in the first newspaper
strike in the heavily unionized town since 1947. The strike is also the
first against a major-market daily since the 1995 walk out against The
Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A14), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/22/national/22STRI.html)
(requires registration)
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...and we're outta here.