Telecom Act of 1996
Appeals Court Hears Telecom Act Appeal (TelecomAM)
Mergers
Ohio PUC Asked to Begin SBC-Ameritech Merger Review
(TelecomAM)
Illinois Schedules Workshop on SBC-Ameritech Merger
(TelecomAM)
Bandwidth
FCC Hears Disputes Over Broadband Deployment at
En Banc Hearing (TelecomAM)
Internet
Domain Names as Intellectual Property (CyberTimes)
Booking the Future (WP)
Television
Afghan Rulers Planning to Smash TV Sets (NYT)
Advertising
Advertisers Aggressively Court Hispanic Consumers (NYT)
Journalism
Journalism Goes Hollywood, and Hollywood Is Reading (NYT)
** Telecom Act of 1996 **
Title: Appeals Court Hears Telecom Act Appeal
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Telecom Act of 1996
Description: Baby Bell SBC is challenging the constitutionality of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996. Specifically, SBC is arguing that Sections
271-75 of the 1996 Act constitute a bill of attainder, which is an
unconstitutional use of legislative power to single out individuals for
punishment. Assistant Attorney Gen. Joel Klein argued the Government's side
before the 5th U.S. Appeals Court's Judge Grady Jolly saying the sections
are "forward-looking regulation" rather than a bill of attainder. AAG Klein
also said that the provisions -- which create the process by which Bells are
allowed into the long distance market -- could not be seen as punishment
since the Bells are better off under the 1996 Act than the AT&T consent
decree which barred them from providing long distance service. Laurence
Tribe, arguing for SBC, said that's not true because Judge Greene -- who had
jurisdiction over the consent degree -- could have lifted the consent decree
or offered waivers while the Bell Companies now are under the FCC's thumb
forever. Mr. Tribe said that even if there wasn't punishment, the 1996 Act
still would violates the separation of powers provisions of the Constitution.
** Mergers **
Title: Ohio PUC Asked to Begin SBC-Ameritech Merger Review
Illinois Schedules Workshop on SBC-Ameritech Merger
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Mergers
Description: The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the
Edgemont Neighborhood Coalition of Dayton, an Ohio consumer group
representing low-income persons, have petitioned the Ohio Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to immediately open an investigation into the proposed
merger of Ameritech into SBC Communications, TelecomAM reports. The groups
oppose the merger and argue that SBC and Ameritech both have a record of
"bad attitudes" toward competition and the public interest. The groups
believe that the merger threatens competition and would mean higher prices
and reduced quality of service. The groups want the PUC to begin a
proceeding now so that there is time to gather evidence and hold hearings.
They fear a delay that could cause a "rush to judgement" that won't
allow time for thorough review. On July 9, TelecomAM reported that the
Illinois Commerce Commission will hold a workshop on the merger on July 14.
[Additional information and a link to the agenda for the meeting can be
found at http://icc.state.il.us/icc/News/PR/98/0708.htm] Ohio, Illinois
and Indiana are the three Ameritech states whose approval is needed for
merger completion.
** Bandwidth **
Title: FCC Hears Disputes Over Broadband Deployment at En Banc Hearing
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Bandwidth/Infrastructure
Description: "Broadband is the next great frontier for telecommunications
policy," said FCC Chairman at an en banc meeting of the Commission July 9.
As cable, wireless and common carriers begin to offer similar services to
customers, the FCC must address the separate regulations that govern each
section of the telecom industry. A majority of the industry executives at
meeting offered this advise to the Commission: 1) hold incumbent carriers to
the 14-point checklist in the Telecom Act for entry into the long distance
market, 2) reject the Baby Bells' requests for relief under Section 706 of
the Telecom Act, 3) take minimal actions to encourage the marketplace to
develop new services to meet the increasing demands for broadband access,
and 4) assure that all competitors get access to facilities at the same
prices as incumbents.
** Internet **
Title: Domain Names as Intellectual Property
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/07/cyber/articles/10domain.html
Author: Jerry Clausing
Issue: Domain Names
Description: The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva
announced this week that it will begin formulating recommendations on the
"contentious trademark issues associated with Internet domain names. The
WIPO has issued a request for comments on how to balance the rights of
trademark holders against the general public, and how to establish an
international dispute resolution process for parties fighting over rights to
coveted Internet domain names."
Title: Booking the Future
Source: Washington Post (A1,A20)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-07/10/160l-071098-idx.html
Author: David Streitfeld
Issue: E-Commerce
Description: There seems to be no stopping the online book giant,
Amazon.com, who's stock closed at $105.5 yesterday, up from only $11 a year
ago. Despite predictions that computers would kill traditional publishing,
it is old-fashion books that are the Internet's hottest items. "Those of us
that like post modern ironic humor really appreciate the fact that the most
successful e-commerce is the product that this medium was supposed to
eliminate," said Amazon Vice President Rick Ayre. With the advantage of
being able to order books only when customers want them and having no fixed
costs for real estate or employees, Amazon poses a real threat to
independent booksellers and superstores alike. Online booksellers are the
"future of publishing" according to Random House editor Jason Epstein. "The
present system is extremely inefficient, especially for the more specialized
kind of book that can't easily be identified or categorized by the chain
stores' computers." Epstein adds, "It's increasingly difficult to publish
those books, because it's hard to put them in the hands of their potential
readers. As the Internet evolves, it will begin to solve that problem."
** Television **
Title: Afghan Rulers Planning to Smash TV Sets
Source: New York Times (A7)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/afghanisan.html
Author: Barbara Crossette
Issue: Television
Description: The people of Afghanistan have 15 days to get rid of their
televisions, VCRs, video tapes, and satellite dishes. The country's Minister
for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue has said that
television and video are "the cause of corruption in this society." Leonard
Sussman, a scholar of international communications at Freedom House, says
the Afghan rulers are "killing urban communication. It is really a reversion
to a primitive lifestyle. This is about the worst for one special reason:
[other countries] demand absolute control of the content of broadcasting.
But no other country wipes out the delivery system."
** Advertising **
Title: Advertisers Aggressively Court Hispanic Consumers
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/hispanics-ad-column.html
Author: Carol Marie Cropper
Issue: Advertising
Description: According to Hispanic Business Magazine, advertisers spend $1.4
billion trying to reach Spanish-speaking and bilingual Hispanic consumers
last year. That amount represents four times the total spent in 1985 and
more than double the 1990 total. The number remains less than 1% of the
total $186.8 billion spent on advertising in 1997. "People are beginning to
recognize that the Hispanic population is very large," said Dolores Kunda,
director of Hispanic marketing at Leo Burnett USA and a board member of the
Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. "The Hispanic population is as
large as the population of Canada," she said, referring to the perhaps 30
million people of Hispanic descent now living in the nation. 1995 census
figures estimated the Hispanic population at just under 10% of the US total.
The Census Bureau predicts that will rise to over 11% in 2000 and to nearly
14% by 2010 -- replacing blacks as the largest minority.
** Journalism **
Title: Journalism Goes Hollywood, and Hollywood Is Reading
Source: New York Times (C5)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/mags-movies.html
Author: James Sterngold
Issue: Journalism
Description: Journalism and Hollywood are melding as magazine articles have
become "the source du jour for movies." The trend has the potential to warp
journalistic principles and to create conflicts of interest within media
conglomerates. "The journalist is focused on the economic demands, not on
the demands of the information he or she is working with," said Bill Kovach,
the director of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation. New Journalism -- a
school in which writers are given more license to re-create scenes -- has
oriented many publications toward compelling yarns rather than dry
expositions of fact. These yarns are what is attracting movie studios.
Hollywood loves magazine stories, he said, because "they have a whiff of
authenticity" and that legitimizes the story ideas.
*********
...and we're outta here.
Go France! Go Brazil! - World Cup wrap-up frenzy - rah!yah!rah!