POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Speech: Campaigns, Broadcasters, and the Public Interest (FCC)
INTERNET
There's No Free Hollywood (NYT)
Book Publishers Aim To Get Ahead Of Piracy Game (WSJ)
British Telecom looks To Collect For Hyperlinks (WSJ)
EU Set To Block Sprint's Merger With WorldCom (SJM)
Vivendi Vis-a-Vis the Internet (NYT)
Reciprocal Compensation Adjustment Act of 2000 (House)
College Dorms Getting Digital Video (WP)
EDTECH
Instructors Say Online Courses Involve More Work at
Same Pay (CyberTimes)
DISABILITIES
Speech: The Americans With Disabilities Act: Lessons for
the Virtual World (FCC)
ANTITRUST
Microsoft Wins Year's Reprieve From Penalties (NYT)
POLITICAL DISCOURSE
SPEECH: CAMPAIGNS, BROADCASTERS, AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Issue: Political Discourse
Remarks of Commissioner Gloria Tristani: "I can't help but wish that groups
like the Alliance for Better Campaigns had no reason to exist. They only
exist because not all broadcasters take their civic and legal
responsibilities as seriously as the broadcasters here do. And they only
exist because those of us in public life are not fulfilling our
responsibility to hold those broadcasters accountable. The sad reality is
that we wouldn't be here unless it was 'news' that some broadcasters are
doing what all broadcasters ought to be doing as a matter of course." The
public interest standard must have some substantive meaning. The public
interest requirements should be specific. The public interest standard
should be a "safety net" to protect the public against those broadcasters
who might be tempted to avoid their obligations in the absence of a rule.
The public interest standard should apply to every broadcast station, not to
the industry as a whole. The public interest standard should protect and
enrich our children. The public interest standard should promote diversity
over the public airwaves. But perhaps most importantly, the public interest
standard should promote an open and robust debate on issues of public concern.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/2000/spgt008.html)
INTERNET
THERE'S NO FREE HOLLYWOOD
Issue: Intellectual Property
[Op-ed] Movies are next in line for those "causal thieves" that are now
stuffing their hard drives with audio files found on the Internet [see
COLLEGE DORMS GETTING DIGITAL VIDEO below]. Congress and the courts must
protect people's privacy while ensuring that creative artists and
distributors can transport movies and music without their valuable works
being burglarized. If copyright can no longer protect the distribution of
the work they produce, who will invest immense sums to create films or any
other creative material of the kind we now take for granted? "Internet
marauders" argue that copyright is old-fashion, a relic of the non-Internet
world. Valenti concludes: But suppose some genius invented a magic key that
could open the front door of every home in America and wanted to make the
keys available to everyone under a canopy sign that read, "It's a new world
-- take what you want." Wouldn't it be the responsibility of our society to
try to control the use of that key?
[SOURCE: New York Times (A27), AUTHOR: Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Association]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/21vale.html)
BOOK PUBLISHERS AIM TO GET AHEAD OF PIRACY GAME
Issue: Intellectual Property
Book publishers are not about to sit back and let what has happened to the
music industry happen to them. They have been watching anxiously as their
peers in the music business have been upended by digital file-trading
programs like Napster that allow Internet users to pass around free copies
of CDs. In an attempt to stem that tide, they are trying to control the
direction of electronic books themselves and to establish piracy
protections. Publishers say it's only a matter of time
before copying programs like Napster start penetrating their industry,
making unauthorized copies of electronic books just as publishers expand
their e-book offerings. If the programs prosper, book publishers could stand
to lose a chunk of revenue in the fast-growing e-book market. Publishers
worry that if e-book piracy catches on, print sales could eventually be
threatened as well. If getting unauthorized e-books through the Web becomes
widespread, "that starts to make people who buy the hard-copy books feel
foolish: 'Why am I paying for it when I can get it for
free?"' says Ken Mifflin, a media-industry consultant at Andersen Consulting.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR, Erin White]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB961545396621133614.htm)
BRITISH TELECOM LOOKS TO COLLECT FOR HYPERLINKS
Issue: Intellectual Property
British Telecommunications PLC claims to have created hyperlink technology,
a basic building block of the Web, and now plans to pursue licensing fees
for its technology. BT said U.S. Internet-service providers will be its
first targets. BT claims that three years ago it discovered, during a
routine review of its 15,000 patents, that it owned a U.S. patent covering
hyperlink technology. Industry experts greeted the news with surprise and
skepticism. "It's like saying that Sikorsky helicopter should pay Leonardo
da Vinci's descendants for the concept of the helicopter," said Mike Jeremy,
a telecommunications analyst at ING Barings in London. Hyperlinks technology
allows users to click on an image or text to move between Web pages. In
the 1970s, when BT came up with the technology in conjunction with a
dial-up information service project with the British post office, of which
BT was then a part, the Web didn't exist.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B5), AUTHOR,Stephanie Gruner And David
Pringle]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB961505642691544787.htm)
EU SET TO BLOCK SPRINT'S MERGER WITH WORLDCOM
Issue: Merger
Antitrust authorities for the European Union will recommend that the merger
of WorldCom and Sprint be blocked after concluding that the $129 billion
deal would place too much of the Internet within the network of a single
company. The European Commission's Competition Directorate-General has
rejected the companies' proposal to sell Sprint's Internet business to
alleviate regulators' concerns. According to the Statement of Objections,
the new company would carry as much as 45
percent of the world's Internet traffic. "It's over," said a senior official
of the Competition Directorate-General. "This deal is finished. Possibly,
the parties will withdraw." The proposed merger has raised concerns from
regulators on both sides of the Atlantic from the start. William Kennard,
chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, criticized the deal the
day it was announced, noting that it would combine the nation's second- and
third-largest long-distance telephone companies. And U.S. antitrust experts
have recommended that the Justice Department also block the deal. The
Competition Directorate-General's decision is likely to be formally adopted
at the European Commission's July 5 meeting.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29907-2000Jun20.html)
VIVENDI VIS-A-VIS THE INTERNET
Issue: Mergers
This is the main telecommunications asset to be owned by the new Vivendi
Universal: 52 percent of Cegetel, which is the No. 2 long-distance provider
in France and also the owner of 80 percent of France's No. 2 cellular phone
carrier. Vivendi Universal would also own Canal Plus, a European pay
television company with 14 million subscribers, 25 percent of a British
satellite television operation and 50 percent of the Vizzavi European
Internet portal, which began its first operations, in France, Monday night.
Vizzavi is meant to be an Internet portal with three legs: wireless devices,
personal computers and interactive televisions. But Vizzavi barely exists
and neither Seagram or Vivendi are providing much Internet access to
computers in any country. It will be years before audio and video files can
be delivered to wireless phones. "I don't necessarily look at this deal as
one where the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts," one United
States media analyst said yesterday on the condition of anonymity.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C8), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/062100vivendi-portal.html)
See Also:
MELDING CULTURES IS NEXT STEP IN SEAGRAM DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/062100seagram-vivendi.html)
RECIPROCAL COMPENSATION ADJUSTMENT ACT OF 2000
Issue: Telephone/Internet Regulation
Thursday, June 22, 2000 11:00 a.m. in2123 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection
legislative hearing. This hearing will focus on H.R. 4445, to exempt from
reciprocal compensation requirements telecommunications traffic to the
Internet. Witnesses will be by invitation only.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://com-notes.house.gov/schedule.htm)
COLLEGE DORMS GETTING DIGITAL VIDEO
Issue: Internet
Some universities have begun projects to wire dormitories with high-quality
online video networks. Northwestern University is in the middle of a $2
million network upgrade that will deliver digital video to all of its dorms,
allowing students to watch lectures or other instructional videos without
ever leaving their homes away from home [Kevin, I know you wish they had this
when you were there]. "What the Internet did with its present capability, it
made it possible for anyone to become a publisher," said Mort Rahimi,
Northwestern's vice president of information technology. "The environment we
are creating at Northwestern is going to allow each one of our students at
Northwestern and our faculty members ... to become producers." The video
capability was made possible through Northwestern's participation in
Internet2, an experimental computer network -- currently available only to
the academic world -- with speeds 45,000 times faster than the best
telephone modems. Janet Poley, president of the American Distance Education
Consortium in Lincoln (NE) notes that one of the challenges is reaching
students who don't live in dorms -- a majority of this country's college
population.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Nicole Ziegler Dizon (Associated
Press)]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/118764l.htm)
EDTECH
INSTRUCTORS SAY ONLINE COURSES INVOLVE MORE WORK AT SAME PAY
Issue: EdTech
Many college and university professors are taking on the new challenge of
teaching courses online, but they are finding that it takes a lot more time
and work than traditional classroom courses. The National Education
Association recently released a survey that found 53% of participants said
distance learning courses take more time to prepare for and deliver than
traditional classes. Faculty members are concerned that the extra workload
will not be accompanied by a pay raise, the survey found. The survey covered
all major forms of distance learning, including video feeds and the more
common Web- and e-mail-based courses. Eighty-three percent of the
instructors responding to the NEA survey said they contact their students at
least once a week by e-mail, and often communicate more frequently than that.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Weiner (rweiner( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/cyber/education/21education.html)
DISABILITIES
SPEECH: THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: LESSONS FOR THE VIRTUAL WORLD
Issue: Disabilities/Access
Chairman Kennard's Remarks for the 10th Anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, Torch Relay. "Increasingly, Americans live and work in
another world. It is not a world of bricks and mortar. It's a world of
billions and billions of digital bits that move at the speed of light over
fiber optic networks and through the airwaves - that reside in servers and
are manipulated by software. It is an exquisitely complex world that we call
the World Wide Web. And the fact is that those who have access to this world
and can navigate through it with ease have a huge advantage in our society
and in our economy....
Too many Americans with disabilities are being cut off from this virtual
world. Americans who need access to the technology that can bring them jobs
and information and education in ways undreamed of just a few years ago.
This is the real power of the New Economy. And the real challenge of the New
Economy is to make sure that this wondrous technology uplifts the lives of
every American - regardless of age or ability."
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/2000/spwek015.html)
ANTITRUST
MICROSOFT WINS YEAR'S REPRIEVE FROM PENALTIES
Issue: Antitrust
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson delayed the restrictions he had imposed on
Microsoft until a higher court affirms them. The restrictions were scheduled
to take effect in 11 weeks and may be delayed now for one year or more.
Microsoft was jubilant; for weeks the company had been arguing that the
conduct restrictions would cause grievous harm to the company and its
customers. The Justice Department lauded Judge Jackson for referring the
case to the high court but added, "Given the district court's decision to
stay the remedy during the appeal process, the direct appeal to the Supreme
Court is of particular importance to the national interest." It is now up to
the Supreme Court to decide whether to take the case directly, or to let an
appeal be heard first by the Court of Appeals.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Joel Brinkley]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/biztech/articles/21soft.html)
See Also:
MICROSOFT CASE SENT TO SUPREME COURT
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: James V. Grimaldi]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30327-2000Jun20.html)
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