EMPLOYMENT
High-Tech Haves And The Have-Nots Could Be The Cause Of A Meltdown
(SJM)
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
States Eager to Post Campaign Finance Data, Survey Finds (CyberTimes)
An Insult to Campaign Reform (NYT)
INTERNATIONAL
Shanghai Tightens Curbs on Internet Cafes (SJM)
Europe's Home And Work Connections To Internet Nearly Doubled In 1998
(WSJ)
INTERNET
Anti-Pornography Law Struck Down in a Yale Classroom (CyberTimes)
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (House)
ANTITRUST
Witness Rejects Microsoft Claim (WP)
EMPLOYMENT
HIGH-TECH HAVES AND THE HAVE-NOTS COULD BE THE CAUSE OF A MELTDOWN
Issue: Employment
Despite the constant hype surrounding the great employment situation created by
our new economy, there are many workers who remain untouched by the bight job
prospects offered by the high-tech boom. In fact, the largest growth sector in
California, which is leading the nation into the new high-tech economy, is the
temporary-help industry, where pay averages a mere $19,000 a year. Currently,
non-college educated male workers inthat state are doing worse now than they
were three decades ago, according a recent report by the Economic Policy
Institute and Working Partnerships of San Jose. Schrag says the only way for
all Americans to reap the prosperity of the new economy is for greater
investment in education and worker training. He calls for the government to
return to 1950s and 1960s levels of spending on public sector programs. "That
investment badly needs renewal, as does our investment in the workers and
citizens on which our future depends."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Peter Schrag]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/viewpoints/docs/ps060499.htm)
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
STATES EAGER TO POST CAMPAIGN FINANCE DATA, SURVEY FINDS
Issue: Campaign Finance
Twenty-five states now are publishing information about campaign donors
online -- up from just 12 at this time last year. "The different states do
really try to keep up with the Joneses," said Paul Hendrie, spokesman for
the Center for Responsive Politics
(http://www.opensecrets.org/home/index.asp), a nonprofit research group in
Washington that studies money and politics. To conduct the survey,
researcher Marian Currinder called election officials in each state in May.
Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington allow searches for donations under
contributors' names. Eight states require electronic filing for statewide
candidates: Connecticut (for contributions of more than $250,000), Florida,
Hawaii, Illinois (for contributions of more than $20,000), Maryland, New
York, North Carolina and Wisconsin (for contributions of more than $20,000).
Five states -- Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin --
require electronic filing for legislative candidates, according to the
survey. Electronic filing makes information available must more quickly than
traditional methods. See the Digital Democracy study
(http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/digdem/index.htm). [Also see Destination
Democracy at (http://www.destinationdemocracy.org/intro.html)]
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Fairley Raney (rfr( at )nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/articles/04donate.html)
AN INSULT TO CAMPAIGN REFORM
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
[Editorial] "The latest indication of the G.O.P. Congressional leadership's
indifference to cleaning up a corrupt campaign financing system is its
attitude toward an upcoming vacancy on the Federal Election Commission.
Senate Republican appear ready to nominate Bradley Smith of Capital
University Law School in Columbus for a seat on the FEC. Prof Bradley has
called for a repeal of the Federal Election Campaign Act and he questions
the proposition that money corrupts politics. Groups like Common Cause,
Democracy 21 and the Brennan Center at New York University are urging
President Clinton to reject the nomination. Such a show of backbone would be
a departure for [President] Clinton, who has repeatedly passed up
opportunities to transform the Election Commission into a serious
enforcement agency."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A28), AUTHOR: NYT Editorial Staff]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/04fri4.html)
INTERNATIONAL
SHANGHAI TIGHTENS CURBS ON INTERNET CAFES
Issue: International
Unregistered Internet cafes in Shanghai were warned and fined today in a move
aimed at "standardizing the city's public cafes" where customers can sip coffee
and surf "the Net." Shanghai now has more than 2,000 Internet cafes but only
1,500 of them have applied to register and only 350 are authorized, according
to the official Liberation Daily. The recent crackdown called "Public Action
Number One" was launched jointly by the city's police and commercial,
telecommunications and education authorities. Last month, Shanghai ordered
local paging stations and computer information vendors to stop disseminating
political news temporarily, including news downloaded from the Internet. Users
of the Internet in China have grown to an estimated two million and could top
ten million by next year. The government has viewed growth as a potential
threat to its authority.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/012490.htm)
EUROPE'S HOME AND WORK CONNECTIONS TO INTERNET NEARLY DOUBLED IN 1998
Issue: Internet
A recent study by Dataquest, a market research firm, reports that Internet
connections in Europe have doubled in the past year. While only 5% of
households in Western Europe were connected to the Internet in 1997, 10% were
connected by 1998. The firm predicts 17% penetration by the end of 1999. Thirty
six percent of US households are expected to have Internet access by the same
time. An increase in inexpensive broadband services and a growth in free
Internet service providers is expected to further fuel the growth of Internet
in Europe. "By the end of this year you will have reached critical mass," said
Petra Gartzen, senior analyst at Dataquest.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Kevin Denalney]
(http://wsj.com/)
INTERNET
ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY LAW STRUCK DOWN IN A YALE CLASSROOM
Issue: Free Speech
In a mock Supreme Court opinion produced by students in the "Constitution in
Cyberspace" law seminar at Yale Law School, it was decided (5-4) that the Child
Online Protection Act (COPA) violated the First Amendment in at least four
ways. COPA was signed into law last year by President Clinton and made it a
crime for operators of commercial Web sites to make material deemed "harmful to
minors" available to those under 17-year of age. It also gave Web site
operators, who take steps to remove objectionable material, a defense under
law. But Congresses' latest attempt to deal with speech, pornography, children
and cyberpsace never went into effect, because it was challenged by interest
groups including the American Civil Liberties Union. In their opinions, the
students came to inventive and humorous conclusions and the majority hailed
filtering as a less restrictive alternative to Government regulation of the
Internet. Professor James Boyle, who taught the seminar, said the mock opinion
is not intended to predict the Supreme Court's decision on the case -- which
legal experts say may reach the Supreme Court in another year or so-- and that
the real justices might strongly disagree with some of the opinions of their
law school counterparts.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/cyberlaw/04law.html)
ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES IN GLOBAL AND NATIONAL COMMERCE ACT
Issue: Ecommerce
Wednesday, June 9, 1999. 10:00 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection hearing
on H.R. 1714, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
(http://www.house.gov/commerce/schedule.htm)
ANTITRUST
WITNESS REJECTS MICROSOFT CLAIM
Issue: Antitrust
In court yesterday, Microsoft argued that its Windows software faced stiff
competition from a product called Linux and from Internet-connected electronic
devices. But its defense was used against it when the government's chief
economic witness, MIT professor Franklin M. Fisher, dismissed the argument
saying, that the Linux system would have little impact on Microsoft's monopoly
in the PC operating system market. He called Linux "a niche operating system"
and scoffed at the idea that PCs would be supplanted by other electronic
devices. "The PC isn't going away," Fisher said. "The PC is going to remain
extremely important, and therefore Microsoft's monopoly over the PC operating
system will remain extremely important." Microsoft's argument before the court
is to prove it doesn't have a monopoly with Windows, and as such, cannot have
violated antitrust laws. The proceedings will resume today and will include
discussions about America Online and Netscape's recent deal.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (p.E3), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/04/095l-060499-idx.html)
See Also:
TURNING TABLES ON MICROSOFT
[SOURCE: USA Today (3B), AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
(www.usatoday.com)
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