FCC
Democratic, Two GOP Candidates Are Nominated For FCC Posts By Bush
(WSJ)
FCC Releases Indecency Statute Policy Statement (FCC)
Consumer, Civil Rights Groups Ask FCC To Approve License For
Broadwave USA (CU)
JOURNALISM
Minority Staff Members in Journalism Are Fewer (NYT)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Libraries Offer a Touchstone For Intellectual Property Debate (WSJ)
PRIVACY
Survey: Net sparks call for privacy laws (USA)
FCC
ONE DEMOCRATIC, TWO GOP CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED FOR FCC POSTS BY BUSH
Issue: FCC
President Bush has tapped two Republicans and a Democrat for seats on the
Federal Communications Commission. The nominees are Kevin Martin, a White
House aide who served as deputy general counsel of President Bush's election
campaign; Kathleen Abernathy, a prominent Republican telecommunications
executive and onetime legal adviser to former FCC Commissioner James Quello;
and Michael Copps, a longtime aide to Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.) If
confirmed, they would join FCC Chairman Michael Powell in forming a 3-2
Republican majority on the five-member agency. Republican control of the FCC
will have an enormous impact on the nation's telecommunications industries,
with telephone companies, cable operators and broadcasters reaping large
rewards. Mr. Powell is widely expected to lead the agency down a sharply
deregulatory path. "The bottom line is that Powell has a working GOP
majority, and the FCC hasn't had that for years," said Scott Cleland, an
analyst with the Precursor Group. "This will make him a much stronger
chairman and allow him to pursue the things he's only been able to talk
about up until now."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: YOCHI J. DREAZEN]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986579817785895138.htm)
(requires subscription)
FCC RELEASES INDECENCY STATUTE POLICY STATEMENT
Issue: FCC
The Federal Communications Commission today issued a Policy Statement to
provide guidance to broadcast licensees regarding compliance with the
Commission's case law interpreting the broadcast indecency statute. The
Policy Statement discusses the statutory basis for, and judicial history of,
indecency regulation; describes the approach the Commission uses in making
broadcast indecency determinations (including comparisons of selected
rulings); and describes the Commission's broadcast indecency enforcement
process.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Enforcement/News_Releases/2001/nren0109.html)
CONSUMER, CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS ASK FCC TO APPROVE LICENSE FOR BROADWAVE USA
Issue: Broadband
Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, the United Latin American Citizens, the Center
for Media Education and the Media Access Project asked the FCC o approve
Broadwave's application for a license to provide video and roadband Internet
services. According to Broadwave, the company's "Northpoint" technology
would allow people to take an off-the-shelf satellite dish, point it to the
North, and receive 60-90 television channels for $20 a month. Broadwave also
plans to offer high-speed Internet service for an additional $20 a month,
which is considerably below the current cost of either high-speed cable
modem service or DSL (digital subscriber line).
[SOURCE: Consumers Union]
(http://www.consumersunion.org/news/news.htm)
JOURNALISM
MINORITY STAFF MEMBERS IN JOURNALISM ARE FEWER
Issue: Journalism/Diversity
The American Society of Newspaper Editors 24th annual survey of minorities
found that the total number of minority journalists dropped from 6,665 to
6,563. Minorities now make up 11.64 percent of journalists, the survey
showed, compared with 31 percent of the national population. The numbers and
percentages fell among all four groups counted. William Sutton Jr., the
president of the National Association of Black Journalists and deputy
managing editor at The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., suggested that
because editors have not made minority hiring important publishers should
increase pressure by tying annual bonuses more closely to hiring goals.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/09/business/09DIVE.html)
(requires registration)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
LIBRARIES OFFER A TOUCHSTONE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEBATE
Issue: Intellectual Property
Public libraries are all too easy to forget these days. The more wired we
get, the further away the local library can seem. Yet the public library
system continues to serve millions of people. As the intellectual property
debate moves ahead, the role of the library should serve as an important
touchstone for keeping consumers' rights in perspective. When "we spend
money buying access to databases, we don't own a thing at the end of the
year," says Gary E. Strong, director of the Queens borough library system
in New York. Libraries have always grown by building collections, he says.
Yet the trend now is to move information into electronic form. "My fear is
that we will end up owning nothing," he says. Because digital content is so
easy to copy, we now have laws like 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act
and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, passed in some states
and under consideration in others. Combine those laws with upcoming
technologies and it's getting more difficult to share information even for
legitimate purposes. Meanwhile, Mr. Strong says, libraries and Internet
companies need to do more to preserve digital information. Historians have
long depended on archived copies of newspapers and magazines to understand
the past. But what if you want to find out what was on America Online's
"Welcome" screen two years ago?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Tom Weber]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986768659189163431.htm)
(requires subscription)
PRIVACY
SURVEY: NET SPARKS CALL FOR PRIVACY LAWS
Issue: Privacy
Americans want laws to protect their private information, even at the cost
of restricting public access and free press, a new survey shows. The survey,
conducted by the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University in
collaboration with the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that
people were as concerned about privacy as they were about such issues as
health care and the future of Social Security. "There's tremendous potential
for backlash against public record access," said Ken Paulson, executive
director of the First Amendment Center Friday. "Americans understand we need
access to public records, but they don't understand why anyone would need
access to their records," Paulson said. Paulson said the findings "suggest a
long uphill fight to make the case for freedom of information," and
predicted that we'll see more laws like the one hurriedly passed last month
by the Florida Legislature, which voted to block release of autopsy photos
unless ordered by a judge.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-04-06-privacy-survey.htm)
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