Let It Be
The SBC Deal Shelved, What Tack For AT&T
A Father, A Friend, a Seller of Cyberporn
On the Net: Autistics, freed from face-to-face encounters, are communicating in
cyberspace
New Service Skims 150 Newspapers for Its Users
Microsoft Wants Information To Travel the Real Highway
Lowell Paxson has a dream: to start yet another television network
Digital 'Watermarks' Assert Internet Copyright
Homosexual imagery is spreading from print campaigns to
general-interest TV programming
AT&T-SBC Plan Is Ended By Phone Call
Germany's Telekom Slows Its Spending
FCC to Issue the Long-Sought License For Ellipso's Satellite Phone
Service
Microsoft Adds A 'Firewall' To Next Server
NBC Is Expected To Provide Viewers With Digital Data
Ticketmaster and Excite In Pact for Internet Sales
FTC Asked to Probe Microsoft Compliance With Antitrust Pact
News Corp. Unit Slashes Number Of Book Projects
Clinton Backs No New Taxes On Internet
In Computer Age, Postal Service Needs More Checks in the Mail
Interesting Times at the FCC
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Title: Let It Be
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D1)
Author: John Broder
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: Ira Magaziner, the architect of President' Clinton's failed
national health care proposal, has spent the past 15 months studying the
Global Information Infrastructure, the Internet. In a White House report due
for release this week, Magaziner's answer for most Internet-related problems
-- from copyright to pornography -- is to do "Not much." Magaziner believes
the Internet community should be allowed to flourish free of Government
interference and with industry self-regulation.
Title: The SBC Deal Shelved, What Tack For AT&T
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D1)
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Mergers
Description: On Fiday, AT&T and SBC broke off merger talks. "This was a Hail
Mary pass," a Merrill Lynch analyst said. "AT&T was attempting to declare
peace on one front so it could defend all its other fronts." AT&T must now
regroup and figure out how it will compete for local customer as every other
telecommunications company seeks to gain its long distance customers.
Title: A Father, A Friend, a Seller of Cyberporn
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D1)
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: Internet Content
Description: The Communications Decency Act, struck down by the Supreme
Court last week, was supposed to make doing business harder for the likes of
Joe Warshowsky who runs Video-fantasy.com, a live stripshow on the Internet.
But Warshowsky says that minors can't afford his $6/hr service nor can they
access anything before their identity is confirmed via a phone call.
Title: On the Net: Autistics, freed from face-to-face encounters, are
communicating in
cyberspace
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D6)
Author: Harvey Blume
Issue: Disability
Description: In Technology column, Blume looks at how autistics are using
the Internet to do what they are supposed to be unable to do --
communicate.See Independent Living at http://www.inlv.demon.nl/ and On the
Same Page http://amug.org/~a203/index.html.
Title: New Service Skims 150 Newspapers for Its Users
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D8)
Author: Iver Peterson
Issue: Newspapers/Internet
Description: "Everything that's news in any town in America originates in a
newspaper, but a huge percentage of it goes to waste because 99% of the rest
of the country never gets to see it," says Newsworks' editor in chief, John
Papanek. Newsworks http://www.newsworks.com sifts, organizes, and links to
stories in 150 newspapers around the country. The new site hopes to break
into the Web news market currently dominated by Yahoo, Netscape, Microsoft,
and about a dozen large newspapers. These sites have about 80% of the
advertising revenue on the Internet.
Title: Microsoft Wants Information To Travel the Real Highway
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/(D9)
Author: Keith Bradsher
Issue: Info Tech
Description: Microsoft is developing tools so people can use computers in
their cars using cellular phone connections. The auto industry has safety
concerns, especially since cell phone users have higher accident rates, but
Microsoft believes it can handle safety problems by making car computers
with speech recognition.
Title: Lowell Paxson has a dream: to start yet another television network
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/ (D10)
Author: Geraldine Fabrikant
Issue: TV
Description: Lowell Paxon owns 55 TV stations, started the interactive home
shopping business in 1977, and wants to be, he explains, "the United States
Post Office of Eyeballs" by creating a new television network. In a sense,
Paxton already has a network since he can reach 58 percent of the TV
audience, but he does not produce programming. Paxton is going about
network creation intentionally backwards by, as one analyst put it, putting
down the railway tracks and hoping that someone will ride over it because he
bought stations first. Paxton has a hard goal -- WB and Paramount are two
new networks and after two years neither of them are making a profit. The
article has a chart documenting the market penetration, hours of
programming, etc. of the major networks.
Title: Digital 'Watermarks' Assert Internet Copyright
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/ (D11)
Author: Andrew Ross Sorkin
Issue: Copyright
Description: To cut down on copyright infringement, in other words to
cut down on people pirating its online pictures of women who aren't wearing
much, Playboy is going to start putting a "digital watermark" on its images.
The watermark lets Playboy "encode ownership information into the photograph
and will also let the magazine track unauthorized copies of images on the
Internet." Hooters is investigating a similar electronic marking process
(not true).
Title: Homosexual imagery is spreading from print campaigns to general-interest
TV programming
Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/ (D12)
Author: Stuart Elliot
Issue: Advertising
Description: Commercials on broadcast and cable are using homosexual
imagery to market to gays and lesbians as well as general audiences. Ads
use same sex couples, cross-dressing, (the "seeing a lot of people you never
expected to see in women's clothes" ads as one analyst put it), and
transexuality. A lot of ads with same sex couples are referred to as
"gay-vague" -- when it's not certain what the relationship is between the
two people. The ad for Volkswagen with two young men roaming around the
country in a Golf falls into this category. This ad has been incredibly
popular.
Title: AT&T-SBC Plan Is Ended By Phone Call
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (A3)
Author: Leslie Cauley and John J. Keller
Issue: Mergers
Description: SBC told AT&T that it wanted to end merger talks.
Discussions had not gone smoothly and typical of the negotiations, the two
companies could not even agree on the exact reasons the talks were broken
off. SBC representatives were angered by AT&T Chairman Allen's comments
about the Bells' reticence to open local markets.
Title: Germany's Telekom Slows Its Spending
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (A11)
Author: Silvia Ascarelli
Issue: International
Description: Last year Germany's main phone company, Deutsche Telekom, was
making lots of deals to prepare itself for the competition to conquer the
international phone market. This year Telekom has scaled back its spending,
but not its ambitions. The company is now looking for fewer, but larger
deals. The government is also going to sell more shares of Telekom to
raise $14.5 billion.
Title: FCC to Issue the Long-Sought License For Ellipso's Satellite Phone
Service
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Jeff Cole and Bryan Gruley
Issue: Satellite
Description: The FCC will issue a license for a global satellite phone
network, called Ellipso, to Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc. Ellipso
will crowd the market of companies providing "go-anywhere global service
mobile phones."
Title: Microsoft Adds A 'Firewall' To Next Server
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B6)
Author: Dean Takahashi
Issue: Security
Description: Microsoft is going to include Internet "firewall" software in
its next server. A firewall is a security software system that "connects a
private company's network with the public Internet without compromising
security." Microsoft's decision to enter the firewall market will be bad
news for many smaller companies already specializing in this type of software.
Title: NBC Is Expected To Provide Viewers With Digital Data
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B8)
Author: Kyle Pope
Issue: Digital TV
Description: NBC is going to be the first big American network to allow
viewers to "access digital information about programs as they are being
aired." Today Show watchers could order recipes demonstrated on the show.
Olympic watchers could demand stats on athletes and viewers could request
coupons for products in advertisements. This Fall, about 800,000 viewers who
have special set top boxes will be able to try out the service.
Title: Ticketmaster and Excite In Pact for Internet Sales
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B8)
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: Ticketmaster sued Microsoft in April because Microsoft's
Sidewalk site linked to Ticketmaster without permission. Ticketmaster just
announced that it has made a deal to sell tickets through the Internet
search service Excite. Ticketmaster and Excite will share profits.
Ticketmaster also agreed to link with CitySearch, the biggest competitor to
Microsoft's Sidewalk.
Title: FTC Asked to Probe Microsoft Compliance With Antitrust Pact
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B12)
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Microsoft/Antitrust
Description: Senators Burns (R-Montana), Stevens (R-Alaska), and Thomas
(R-Wyoming) have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate claims
that Microsoft has violated the terms of a 1994 antitrust settlement. The
letter the senators sent to the FTC did not outline who made the allegations
or what the supposed violations were. Microsoft has been under
investigation for various antitrust issues for most of the 90s.
Title: News Corp. Unit Slashes Number Of Book Projects
Source: Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/ (B12B)
Author: G. Bruce Knecht
Issue: Publishing
Description: HarperCollins, owned by News Corp., is canceling more than
100 book projects it commissioned. HarperCollins says it canceled
commissions because authors missed deadlines or it decided it couldn't
publish certain projects "well." Analysts also believe that company's
recent financial troubles made it cancel a larger number of books than usual.
Title: Clinton Backs No New Taxes On Internet
Source: Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (A1)
Author: Ravjiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: The Clinton Administration will not regulate or tax
electronic commerce conducted over the Internet. The Administration's
reasoning will be available in a report, entitled "A Framework for Global
Electronic Commerce," to be released tomorrow. The decision may put the
Administration at odds with state and local governments who have been
positive about special Internet taxes. The Administration will still have
an active role in children's privacy and encryption export.
Title: In Computer Age, Postal Service Needs More Checks in the Mail
Source: Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ (A11)
Author: Bill McAllister
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Description: The Post Office is losing money because more people are paying
bills electronically and not using stamps and the mail system. The office's
share of the "correspondence and transaction" market has dropped 18
percentage points since 1988. Article has chart with post office revenue
over time.
At the FCC http://www.fcc.gov
Remarks Commissioner Rachelle B. Chong, Bridging Digital Technologies and
Regulatory Paradigms, Berkeley, California, June 27, 1997 "Interesting Times
at the FCC"
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