PRIVACY
New Technology Is Aimed at Increasing Web Privacy (NYT)
Pretty Poor Privacy: An Assessment of P3P and Internet Privacy
(EPIC)
BROADCASTING
Broadcast Ownership Rules (FCC)
700 Applications For Low Power FM Radio Construction Permits (FCC)
MERGERS
Europe Resists Big U.S. Mergers (WP)
A Scramble To Salvage Phone Deal (NYT)
BT May Buy Media Companies, Says Openworld Exec (SJM)
WIRELESS
U.S. Wireless Access Needs A Touch Up (WSJ)
INTERNET REGULATION
Reciprocal Compensation Adjustment Act of 2000 (House)
PRIVACY
NEW TECHNOLOGY IS AIMED AT INCREASING WEB PRIVACY
Issue: Privacy
A new technology called Platform for Privacy (P3P) that would alert computer
users before they visit Web sites that collect more personal information
than they are willing to share was unveiled yesterday by major Internet
companies and an online civil liberties group, the Center for Democracy and
Technology. The technology has been under development for about three years
by the World Wide Web Consortium, AT&T labs and other major companies like
IBM, Microsoft and America Online. Nevertheless, it was immediately
denounced by some privacy advocates as a way for companies to avoid new laws
and a tool that would give consumers a false sense of security. According to
Daniel J. Weitzner of the World Wide Web Consortium, which develops open
standards to promote universal Web access and interoperability between web
sites and different technologies, the goal of P3P is to give users on the
web more control, and to make privacy policies easier to find and to
understand. P3P set standards to allow Internet browsers to automatically
read privacy policies that have been posted on Web sites using the new
standard. The browsers then will go only to sites that follow the
preferences pre-selected by the computer users. However, for the technology
to work, however, it will have to be put into effect by the millions of Web
sites on the Internet.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C6), AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/cyber/articles/22privacy.html)
See Also: Clinton Supports Move to Protect Consumer Privacy on the Internet
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B14), AUTHOR: Glenn R. Simpson]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB961623432968249771.htm)
PRETTY POOR PRIVACY: AN ASSESSMENT OF P3P AND INTERNET PRIVACY
Issue: Privacy
EPIC and Junkbusters have released their report on the Platform for Privacy
Preferences (P3P), "Pretty Poor Privacy: An Assessment of P3P and Internet
privacy". The report concludes that there is little evidence that P3P will
improve privacy protection on the Internet and recommends adopting privacy
standards built on Fair Information Practices and genuine privacy-enhancing
technologies.
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/reports/prettypoorprivacy.html)
BROADCASTING
BROADCAST OWNERSHIP RULES
Issue: Broadcasting
The FCC has released a number of items related to the ownership rules for
broadcast outlets including its biennial review of rules, a notice of
proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the dual network rule and a NPRM on the
elimination of experimental broadcast ownership restrictions. All documents
are available online from the FCC's homepage at the URL below.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov)
700 APPLICATIONS FOR LOW POWER FM RADIO CONSTRUCTION PERMITS
Issue: Radio
Press Release: The Federal Communications Commission received 769 low power
FM radio applications from community-based organizations and state and local
governments in Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana,
Louisiana, Maine, Mariana Islands, Maryland, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and
Utah. Today the Commission is issuing a Public Notice listing low power FM
radio applicants who completed forms requesting a new low power FM radio
station. The FCC's preliminary count of the applications received in each of
the first ten states breaks down as follows: Alaska (27), California (309),
District of Columbia (4), Georgia (109), Indiana (73), Louisiana (66), Maine
(12), Maryland (17), Oklahoma (61), Rhode Island (25) and Utah (19). The
second filing period, which will begin at the end of August, will be
announced by Public Notice at the end of July. At that time, the Commission
will take applications from the following states and territories:
Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New
Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Virginia, Wyoming.
A complete list of the applicants will be posted on the FCC website at
www.fcc.gov or a summary will be available on Wednesday, June 22, 2000.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Mass_Media/News_Releases/2000/nrmm0029.html)
MERGERS
EUROPE RESISTS BIG U.S. MERGERS
Issue: Mergers
The unprecedented scrutiny of American communications-related mergers is
partially a symptom of Europe's coming late to the Internet. While Europe is
gaining ground on the United States in Internet access and use, the
companies that control the global computer system's basic infrastructure
remain a handful of dominant American firms. Fifty to Eighty percent of all
Internet traffic originating in Europe travels to the United States,
according to a recent commission statement. "The Internet is not a global
net," said an executive with Spain's Telefonica. "It's an American net with
international extensions." The dominance of the U.S. few has led to the EU's
executive body, the European Commission, to cast a critical eye on the
implications for Europe of the America Online/Time-Warner and
Sprint/WorldCom deals. The commission also, last month, launched a probe of
Boeing's purchase of Hughes Electronics' Satellite operations and
Microsoft's effort to take a majority stake in a British cable operator.
While European officials deny that there is a nationalist cast to the
scrutiny of the U.S. deals -- citing their desire to keep any company from
gaining "gatekeeper status" -- it is equally evident that the US-centered
Internet is growing wearisome for the wider wired world.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Peter S. Goodman]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37332-2000Jun21.html)
A SCRAMBLE TO SALVAGE PHONE DEAL
Issue: Merger
Increasing pressure from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic may lead
WorldCom to consider selling Sprint's entire long-distance unit to gain
approval of its $115 billion deal to acquire the company. While negotiations
continue between the WorldCom and the Justice Department, which is reviewing
the deal's antitrust implications in the United States, the European
Commission's competition ministry has already indicated that wishes withhold
approval. European regulators are worried that the merged company would have
a stranglehold on Internet traffic in Europe. The Justice Department's main
concern is about the power a combined Sprint-WorldCom would hold over the US
long-distance market. With a desire to appease regulators, WorldCom is now
considering a plan to sell Sprint's entire long-distance business, in
addition to Sprint's Internet operation. But such moves would skew the
financial plan that underpinned the acquisition in the first place.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel And Andrew Ross Sorkin]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/financial/062200mci-sprint.html)
BT MAY BUY MEDIA COMPANIES, SAYS OPENWORLD EXEC
Issue: Mergers
According to Marc Deschamps, Chief operating officer for British
Telecommunication's (BT) broadband Internet company Openworld, BT is
shopping for media companies to provide content and is willing to make a
deal the size of the AOL-Time Warner merger. Deschamps said that BT intends
to be aggressive in making acquisitions, yet there are still other options
for securing content. Openworld has already contracted 75 companies to
supply content such as news, video clips and software applications for its
Internet service, which it launches to small businesses in July and to
consumers soon after. The majority of these deals are based on a licensing
or revenue-sharing basis and include only one joint venture, with travel
reservations company Amadeus. Deschamps also said that BT is exploring the
option of floating Openworld.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News (Reuters)]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/044731.htm)
WIRELESS
U.S. WIRELESS ACCESS NEEDS A TOUCH UP
Issue: Wireless
Americans are in real backwater when it comes to wireless access to the
Internet. The majority is unaware that they can surf the Web on data-enabled
cell phones, while millions of Japanese and European users are already doing
just that. While a handful of cellular providers in the U.S. have started to
take interest in wireless Internet, the services are marred by technical
glitches, and don't yet come close to delivering. Take the Sprint network,
for instance. It crawls at a pace of only 14.4 kilobits per second, or about
one-fourth the speed of a common 56-kilobit modem. Sprint's service, like
many others based on a standard called the Wireless Application Protocol, or
WAP, blocks access to sites that haven't rewritten their pages in the
special WAP format -- one that is purely text-based. That limits wireless
Internet users to a fraction of all Web sites, and reduces the Web to gray
menus of tiny letters and numbers. Sprint has acknowledged that it's still
learning what users want, and has vowed to improve speeds, eliminate the
dial-up lag, and let users customize start-up menus.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: David Hamilton]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB961626460243411062.htm)
INTERNET REGULATION
RECIPROCAL COMPENSATION ADJUSTMENT ACT OF 2000
Issue: Telephone/Internet Regulation
Live Webcast -- 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/cchear/hearings106.nsf/12b6a0781fa86e88852567e50
07558f4/24e76b0841421cc085256905006aaa4a?OpenDocument)
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