INTERNET
Government Begins Protecting Children From Web Site Queries (NYT)
Think Globally, Click Locally (WP)
COMPETITION
Price War, Legal Concerns Squeeze European Internet-Service
Providers (WSJ)
Tiny Northpoint Technology Pushes Satellite Giants to Fight (WSJ)
MERGERS
AT&T Pledges Not to Influence The Programming at MediaOne (WSJ)
MCI WorldCom Eyes British Wireless Phone Company Orange (USA)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Lawsuit Targets Music Swap (USA)
FREE SPEECH
Regulators Confront Web Role in Politics (NYT)
Suit Against Anonymous Pest Revives Online Speech Law (NYT)
INTERNET
GOVERNMENT BEGINS PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM WEB SITE QUERIES
Issue: Privacy
Federal Trade Commission employees, working from the agency's
state-of-the-art computer lab, are prepared to begin making "sweeps" or
peruse random Web sites to ensure they are complying with a child privacy
law that goes into effect today. The 1998 Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act was enacted after federal officials found that only 1 percent
of companies were asking for parental permission when asking children
questions while they played video games online or researched book reports.
"It's a high priority for the agency," said Loren G. Thompson, a lawyer with
the FTC. "The bottom line is we will be enforcing this law and we will be
looking at violators closely." The commission is looking to make sure that
sites post information for how parents can grant their permission, Thompson
said. Each child that e-mails or posts identifiable information like a name
and address -- without a parent's say so -- could cost a Web site operator
$11,000, she added.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Online), AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/21child-privacy.
html)
THINK GLOBALLY, CLICK LOCALLY
Issue: Nonprofits/Internet
The Web site Helping.org, connects people with causes they care about and
helps them provide support, by either contributing money or volunteering.
The 'Volunteer Here' and 'Charity Search' sections let users search by
geographic location or other criteria to find the organizations best-matched
to their interests. The Web site, which is a joint venture between the AOL
Foundation and such nonprofits as the American Red Cross and the National
Urban League (and the Benton Foundation), also offers help for nonprofits,
with links to 'Resources for Nonprofits' and 'Bridging the Digital Divide.'
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E15), AUTHOR: Gabriel Goldberg]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51791-2000Apr20.html)
COMPETITION
PRICE WAR, LEGAL CONCERNS SQUEEZE EUROPEAN INTERNET-SERVICE PROVIDERS
Issue: Competition
European Internet-service providers are engaged in a brutal price war at the
same time they are struggling to safeguard themselves against a growing
threat of legal action. The competition is especially hot in the U.K., where
ISP's are abandoning Internet-access charges, including call charges, which
had been a key source of revenue, and introducing free or unmetered access.
In other European countries, subscription prices are being slashed. This
wave of competition may force many of the smaller European ISP's out of
business. "Within a few years, the European Internet-access market will be
dominated by a small group of multinationals," says Jupiter Communications
analyst Olivier Beauvillain. Adding to the ISP's administrative costs is a
recent court settlement that dealt with defamatory postings. Demon Internet,
a U.K. ISP owned by Thus PLC, paid a total of $386,700 this month to
Laurence Godfrey, a physicist who claimed that Demon had ignored several
requests to remove two anonymous postings he said defamed him. Many ISPs
fear this court ruling means they will now have to police their bulletin
boards for offensive comments, as well as pay much closer attention to
incoming e-mail messages, which may contain complaints about defamatory
postings. That presents a particular problem for one ISP, which receives up
to 10,000 e-mails a week. "The Demon case shows how easy it is for people to
contact you and how hard it is to keep up with the correspondence," says Mr.
Gregory from Totalise. "We no longer say 'do not hesitate to write to us
again' at the end of each reply."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: David Pringle]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956248177444089259.htm)
TINY NORTHPOINT TECHNOLOGY PUSHES SATELLITE GIANTS TO FIGHT
Issue: Satellites
It has three employees, limited capital and unproven technology but
Northpoint Technology Ltd. seems to have stirred up quite a scare among the
giants of the satellite industry. Northpoint isn't a satellite company,
instead, its technology employs ground-based transmitters that get more
usage from the spectrum used by satellite-TV providers, ostensibly without
interfering with the satellite-TV providers signals. This would allow
Northpoint to offer consumers at least 96 channels of programming at rates
cheaper than most cable and satellite-TV packages currently on the market.
In response, DirecTV Inc., Boeing Co., Loral Space & Communications Ltd.,
AT&T, and other industry's heavyweights are attempting to convince
regulators and lawmakers that Northpoint will encroach on the airwaves
currently occupied by them, causing, "ruinous interference and serious
disruption of services to consumers." But Northpoint has won surprising
backing from regulators and lawmakers, in part because of its promise of
fresh competition. A clause in a satellite-TV bill passed last year requires
the FCC to decide on applications involving Northpoint-type technology by
the end of the year, a time frame that some satellite-industry executives
contend is unusually quick. The FCC is leaning toward granting approval as
early as this month people close to the review say.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Kathy Chen]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956270509342817443.htm)
MERGERS
AT&T PLEDGES NOT TO INFLUENCE THE PROGRAMMING AT MEDIAONE
Issue: Mergers
AT&T made a pledge in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission
that it won't attempt to influence programming at the cable-TV companies it
is acquiring or partially owns. This represents the company's latest effort
to retain a 25.5% minority stake in Time Warner Entertainment, which it
would acquire as part of its purchase of cable giant MediaOne Inc. Time
Warner Entertainment includes Road Runner, a high-speed Internet-access
service that works over cable lines. AT&T is said to want to retain its
interest in Time Warner Entertainment to help bolster its negotiating
position for a pact with Time Warner and America Online to deliver local
phone services over Time Warner's cable lines. With the filing, regulatory
approval of the AT&T-MediaOne deal could be imminent.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Rebecca Blumenstein]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956264448760876229.htm)
MCI WORLDCOM EYES BRITISH WIRELESS PHONE COMPANY ORANGE
Issue: Wireless
MCI WorldCom is thinking about buying Britain's number-three wireless
company, Orange, say people in the know. The potential acquisition wouldn't
really be in full gear until after WorldCom's $120 billion deal to buy
Sprint goes through sometime this summer. WorldCom might not find that
buying Orange is easy, or cheap -- the company could cost them upwards of
$40 billion. France Telecom also wants Orange and has said that a bidding
war is not out of the question. Additionally, NTT DoCoMo of Japan and KPN of
the Netherlands, BellSouth, Telefonica of Spain and Telecom Italia seem to
be interested in joining what could end up being the Wrestlemania of telecom
mergers.
[SOURCE: USA Today (1B), AUTHOR: Thor Valdmanis]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000421/2187301s.htm)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
LAWSUIT TARGETS MUSIC SWAP
Issue: Intellectual Property
Last week rock group Metallica named the popular music-swapping Web site,
Napster, and three universities - Yale, the University of Indiana and the
University of Southern California - in a lawsuit alleging that they violated
the speed-metal band's copyrights by allowing students to share their music
without paying for it. Last Friday, Yale blocked the site and Indiana
followed this Thursday. Metallica's lawyer, Howard King, says that by
blocking the site, Yale and Indiana will be dropped from the suit and that
he is "guardedly optimistic" that USC will also block the site. The band
feels that it's doing more than just banging its head against the wall with
the suit. "We're not sitting here saying we're against making music
available on the Internet," said Metallica's drummer, Lars Ulrich. "We want
to be the people who decide when and where we download the music and who we
make the music available to."
[SOURCE: USA Today (3B), AUTHOR: Keith L. Alexander]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000421/2187252s.htm)
See Also:
INDIANA UNIVERSITY BANS NAPSTER ON LEGAL CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal Interactive, AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB956253795238391492.htm)\
FREE SPEECH
REGULATORS CONFRONT WEB ROLE IN POLITICS
Issue: Political Discourse
As more campaigning goes online, federal regulators are beginning to face
difficult questions about how to regulate political discourse on the Web.
"The Internet has thrown an utterly unanticipated means of political
communication before everyone," said Laurence C. Gold, associate general
counsel for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., whose own Web site has a section devoted to
endorsing Vice President Al Gore. "You cannot say that federal regulations
don't apply to something just because no one knew about the technology at
the time," he notes. Regulators must negotiate the possibility of campaign
abuses in cyberspace, and the benefits of online free speech and grass-roots
participation. The Federal Communication Commission, which recently invited
comments on how to approach Web politics, needs to answer questions such as:
Is an individual or grass-roots Web site a campaign contribution? And, if
so, how should it be valued? Most of the individuals, unions, corporations
and nonprofit groups that have responded to the commission's inquiry - in
about 30 letters and 1,200 e-mail messages -- have argued for holding off on
any action until after the election.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A16), AUTHOR: Leslie Wayne]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/21web.html)
SUIT AGAINST ANONYMOUS PEST REVIVES ONLINE SPEECH LAW
Issue: Free Speech
The Communications Decency Act (CDA) is back from the dead, sort of. A
portion of the 1996 legislation, making the use of a telecommunications
device, such as a modem, to transmit comments that are "obscene, lewd,
lascivious, filthy or indecent" when the intent is "to annoy, abuse,
threaten, or harass another person." In a lawsuit filed April 11, About.com
claims that an unknown person has been invading various company chatrooms,
including those with subjects such as alcoholism, dating and rodeo. The
intruder has been filling the rooms with "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy
and indecent messages through interstate communications with the intent to
annoy, abuse, threaten and harass other people." Many thought the remaining
portion of the CDA had died in 1998 when US District Court for the Northern
District of California rendered the law meaningless by interpreting it as
banning only obscene speech not protected by the First Amendment, thus
banning something that is already banned. Chris Hansen, a lawyer with the
American Civil Liberties Union who specializes in Internet speech, is
opposed to the New York suit, which goes against the District Court's
interpretation. "The private use of the law is particularly troubling to
me," he said. ". . .An awful lot of people could be rushing into federal
court to stop all kinds of speech they find annoying."
[SOURCE: New York Times (Cyber Times), AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/cyber/cyberlaw/21law.html)
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c)Benton Foundation 2000. Redistribution of this email publication -- both
internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message.
--------------------------------------------------------------
The Benton Foundation's Communications Policy and Practice (CPP)
(www.benton.org/cpphome.html) Communications-related Headline
Service is posted Monday through Friday. The Headlines are highlights
of news articles summarized by staff at the Benton Foundation. They
describe articles of interest to the work of the Foundation -- primarily
those covering long term trends and developments in communications,
technology, journalism, public service media, regulation and philanthropy.
While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone does
not represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by
Kevin Taglang (kevint( at )benton.org), Rachel Anderson (rachel( at )benton.org),
Jamal Le Blanc (jamal( at )benton.org), and Nancy Gillis (nancy( at )benton.org) -- we
welcome your comments.
The Benton Foundation works to realize the social benefits made possible
by the public interest use of communications. Bridging the worlds of
philanthropy, public policy, and community action, Benton seeks to shape
the emerging communications environment and to demonstrate the value of
communications for solving social problems. Through demonstration
projects, media production and publishing, research, conferences, and
grantmaking, Benton probes relationships between the public, corporate,
and nonprofit sectors to address the critical questions for democracy in
the information age. Other projects at Benton include:
Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org)
Open Studio: The Arts Online (www.openstudio.org/)
Destination Democracy (www.destinationdemocracy.org/)
Sound Partners for Community Health (www.soundpartners.org/)