Television
WSJ: Microsoft, Intel To Join Formats For Interactive TV
NYT: Microsoft and Intel Team Up on Interactive TV
FCC: The Road to DTV
Campaign Finance Reform
WSJ: Campaign Finance Restrictions Violate the Constitution
Internet
NYT: In Rejecting Dismissal of Filtering Case, Judge Sets High
Standard for Libraries
NYT: It's Confirmed, Web's Size Bogs Down Searches
NYT: Have You Listened to Your Computer Lately?
NYT: Exhibition Seeks to Be a 'Snapshot' of Internet Art
Microsoft
NYT: Microsoft Pushes Case in Ads
WP: Justice Dept. Browsing a Range of Options in Microsoft Case
WSJ: States Ready Antitrust Move Over Microsoft
** Television **
Title: Microsoft, Intel To Join Formats For Interactive TV
Source: Wall Street Journal (B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: David Bank
Issue: Television
Description: Microsoft said it will include Intel software called Intercast
in the upcoming Windows 98 operating system. Intercast allows some
broadcasters to offer -- alongside traditional TV programming -- additional
data,
such as sports stats, background info or e-shopping opportunities. Windows
98 will include support for a TV tuner card, which some PC makers have begun
to include as a standard feature. Microsoft had already been planning to add
features to Windows 98 that come from WebTV. Microsoft now plans to
highlight listings from Intel's programming partners, including NBC, PBS and
MTV, in an electronic-programming guide that will be part of the "WebTV for
Windows" set-up in Windows 98. Microsoft is providing promotional incentives
for computer makers to include the TV tuner cards, and Microsoft and Intel
are providing technical assistance to TV programmers experimenting with
interactive programming. And, even though Intercast hasn't been a huge hit
to date, Intel said it expects the combination of data broadcasting with
Internet connections to create new opportunities for broadcasters to receive
transaction fees.
Title: Microsoft and Intel Team Up on Interactive TV
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/biztech/articles/09intel.html
Author: Bloomberg News
Issue: Web TV
Description: Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. announced yesterday that
they would work together on technology for broadcasting interactive
television. Intel and Microsoft hope to develop a common framework for
"putting Internet content into TV programming on a variety of devices,
including PC's equipped with TV tuners." The announcement comes as both
companies are working to increase their presence in the home entertainment
field.
Title: The Road to DTV
Source: FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Ness/spsn808.html
Author: Commissioner Susan Ness
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Commissioner Ness's 4/8/98 Remarks before NAB '98, "The Road to
DTV" Panel. "Industry groups must come together to fulfill a shared vision
of a smooth transition to digital television. And that vision must be based
on what the American consumer wants and needs to be enticed to join the
digital revolution.... After all, less than one percent of all consumers
have ever seen high definition or any other type of digital signal. Yet they
will be asked to buy new television sets or decoder boxes, and will have to
deal with an array of conflicting claims for various sets and services."
** Campaign Finance Reform **
Title: Campaign Finance Restrictions Violate the Constitution
Source: Wall Street Journal (Op-eds, A22)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Floyd Abrams
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform/First Amendment
Description: In op-ed Abrams writes, it is understandable that proponents of
campaign finance reform in Congress would seek to close the "loophole"
through which my solicitor
was seeking to move my money. It is more than understandable that they seek
to limit how much soft money individuals or political action committees may
give. All of these efforts make a kind of sense, but the legislation aimed
at campaign finance reform that was defeated last month in the Senate was at
war with freedom of speech. Proponents of campaign finance reform argue that
the speech I was engaging in by contributing money was dangerous in the
sense that too much of it from too few people could result in wealthier
contributors skewing the political system in their favor. That isn't a
ridiculous argument. But it shouldn't lead to restrictions on speech in the
service of "protecting" people who have less money. That would strike at the
heart of the First Amendment. But while the ruling barred restrictions on
campaign spending, it permitted restrictions on contributions to a campaign.
The former, the Supreme Court said, jeopardized speech more directly, since
expenditures were tantamount to speech itself; the latter merely associated
the contributor with speech with which the contributor agreed. And
contributions were said to raise more directly the specter of corruption.
** Internet **
Title: In Rejecting Dismissal of Filtering Case, Judge Sets High Standard
for Libraries
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/articles/09library.html
Author: Jeri Clausing
Issue: Internet Regulation/Libraries
Description: In the first major ruling on the use of filtering software,
Federal Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, of U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, rejected efforts "to dismiss a challenge to the use of
such software" in Loudoun County, VA. In a strong 36-page opinion, on
Tuesday, Judge Brinkema said that the government had "misconstrued the
nature of the Internet" and held that "the Library Board may not adopt and
enforce content-based restrictions on access to protected Internet speech"
unless it meets the highest level of constitutional scrutiny. The American
Civil Liberties Union hailed the opinion for its defenses of online free
speech and hopes it will slow the movement of legislation to require filters
on school and library computers at the federal state and local level. "We
are thrilled that the judge in this case, a former librarian, recognized the
Internet as the ultimate library resource," said Ann Beeson, an ACLU staff
lawyer on the case. "Every member of every library board considering an
Internet-blocking policy ought to read the judge's ruling," said Kent
Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. "It will remind them of
why we have libraries and why an unfettered Internet serves the fundamental
purpose of libraries better than any invention since the printing press."
The case will still go to trial but the "unequivocal" language of the ruling
gives the government a "high burden to meet" in its defense of the blocking
policy.
Title: It's Confirmed, Web's Size Bogs Down Searches
Source: New York Times (E3)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/circuits/articles/09find.html
Author: Gina Kolata
Issue: Internet
Description: Dr. Steve Lawrence and Dr. C. Lee Giles of NEC Research
Institute in Princeton, NJ, have found that no single search engine could
find more than a third of the documents available on the Internet and that
different search engines found different documents. Their findings basically
say that the best way to find a more obscure document is to use several
search engines to conduct your research. They also discovered that the Net
now contains at least 320 million pages and is continuing to grow every day.
Dr. Haym Hirsch, a computer scientist at Rutgers Univ., predicts that the
Internet and the search engines as we know them will change. "I'm certain
that the Web won't persist in its current form 10 years down the line," he
said. "But the only prediction I feel comfortable making is that I don't
have any idea what it will look like." (It kinda makes you feel justified in
any encountered search effort frustrations.)
Title: Have You Listened to Your Computer Lately?
Source: New York Times (E1,E7)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/circuits/articles/09radio.html
Author: Michael Marriott
Issue: Radio/Internet Content
Description: The Internet is surprisingly well wired to transmit radio. The
result of this discovery is that hundreds of radio stations around the world
are now being heard on personal computers as well as conventional radios.
"When a radio station in the real world chooses to encode and broadcast its
signal over the Internet, it expands beyond the geographical boundaries of
the station, including its audience that is now worldwide," said Mark
Hardie, a senior analyst for the Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA, who
has been closely watching the development of Internet radio. Broadcast radio
is now being forced to adapt to this new technology the same way it had to
change with the advent of television. Jae Kim, an analyst with Paul Kagan &
Associates, said, "This will not destroy broadcast radio. What is probably
going to happen more and more is that broadcast radio is going to shoehorn
itself into being used in certain capacities."
Title: Exhibition Seeks to Be a 'Snapshot' of Internet Art
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/artsatlarge/09artsatlarg...
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Art
Description: Beyond Interface is an art exhibition starting today consisting
of only Internet-based work. The 24 works in the online exhibit selected by
an expert jury, are among the first professionally curated displays of
Internet-specific creativity. "The goal has been to present a coherent
snapshot of 'Net.Art' for an audience that, by and large, is not extensively
familiar with this work -- not only a general audience, but also the
specific audience of the conference that is sponsoring it," said Steve
Dietz, director of new media initiatives for the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis and who put the exhibit together at the request of organizer's
of this year's Museums and the Web conference. "At its home page, the
exhibit initially appears to be little more than a list of links to the
chosen works. But to provide context, Dietz has written an introductory
statement and his nine-co-curators have supplied comments to accompany each
piece. Essays and artist statements add further insight." You can access the
'Beyond Interface' Web site at: http://www.archimuse.com/mw98/beyondinterface/
** Microsoft **
Title: Microsoft Pushes Case in Ads
Source: New York Times (D2)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/microsoft-ads.html
Author: John Markoff
Issue: Antitrust
Description: In an effort to win public support, Microsoft will begin
running quarter-page advertisements today stating its case with the
government as its "battle" intensifies. "We believe the marketplace should
determine what innovations our consumers want," the ad states. "At
Microsoft, the freedom to innovate for our customers is more than a goal, it
is a principle worth standing up for." The first ad is running in The
Seattle Times, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Washington Post, The
Washington Times and The New York Times. "The ads suggest that Microsoft's
products represent a great industrial wave of progress in the United States
that is threatened by government interference."
Title: Justice Dept. Browsing a Range of Options in Microsoft Case
Source: Washington Post (C1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-04/09/132l-040998-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: While the Justice Dept. is considering filing a broad action
against Microsoft that would challenge several of the company's business
tactics, at least 2 of the 11 state attorneys general who have been
investigating Microsoft are moving toward filing their own lawsuit against
Windows 98, a source said. The action would be unlikely to block
introduction of the new operating system but would force Microsoft to mount
a legal defense on another front. The Justice Dept. doesn't appear to be
giving serious thought to breaking up Microsoft. But some of the software
giant's competitors have asked the dept. to consider a broad set of options,
including limiting what programs can be included in Windows, requiring the
company to provide competitors with equal access to technical info about
Windows, cracking down on business agreements that Justice finds
anti-competitive and preventing the company from distributing certain
products for free, according to people close to the case.
Title: States Ready Antitrust Move Over Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3)
http://wsj.com/
Author: John R. Wilke
Issue: Antitrust
Description: A draft complaint is circulating among 11 states planning to
take their own antitrust action against Microsoft and have opened a new
investigation of alleged antitrust abuses in the credit-card industry. While
the states have been working closely with the Justice Dept. on Microsoft for
the past year and continue to do so, some officials say they fear the dept.
won't follow through with plans to file an antitrust suit against the
software company. They also worry that the remedies federal officials will
seek won't go far enough to address Microsoft's dominance of PC software. In
the credit-card industry, the states have asked Visa and Mastercard to talk
with investigators next week, industry lawyers and execs said.
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