E-GOVERNMENT
Internet Balloting Called Success (WP)
BROADBAND
AT&T Talks With Microsoft, Disney About Broadband Deal (WSJ)
SATELLITE
News Corp.'s Pact With Latin Firms May Add Leverage to Its Hughes
Bid (WSJ)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Inventors Release Free Alternative To MP3 Music, but Cost Is High
(WSJ)
E-GOVERNMENT
INTERNET BALLOTING CALLED SUCCESS
Issue: Internet Voting
(Sunday, Aug. 12) An experiment by the Defense Department in Internet voting
is being called a success, albeit an expensive one. Last year, the DOD spent
$6.2 million to let overseas service personnel vote by Internet. Eighty-four
(84) ballots were cast, a cost of nearly $74,000 per voter. The Pentagon has
said that the experiment was a success and that criticisms are misguided as
The experiment was designed to test the feasibility of Internet voting.
"This is a demonstration project that was to prove the concept as opposed to
looking at it on a cost-per-vote basis," Defense Department spokeswoman
Susan Hansen said Friday. The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan
research group in Washington, highlighted the voting project's cost per
ballot in a report Thursday. The test was part of an effort to make voting
easier for 6 million service personnel and other Americans living abroad.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/11821-1.html)
BROADBAND
AT&T TALKS WITH MICROSOFT, DISNEY ABOUT POSSIBLE BROADBAND UNIT DEAL
Issue: Broadband
AT&T executives held meetings Friday with officials of Microsoft and Walt
Disney about the fate of AT&T Broadband, according to people familiar with
the talks. While the discussions are preliminary and ultimately may not lead
to a deal, AT&T officials are actively talking with companies across the
country in an attempt to spark a bidding war among the nation's big media
companies for its nearly 14 million cable TV subscribers. AT&T has rejected
an unsolicited takeover bid by Comcast and has earlier held preliminary
talks with AOL Time Warner.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Deborah Solomon]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB997650976540599090.htm)
(requires subscription)
SATELLITE
News Corp.'s Pact With Latin Firms May Add Leverage to Its Hughes Bid
Issue:
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has reached an agreement with SKY Latin
America partners - a Latin American satellite-to-home television broadcaster
- to restructure the ownership of their business. Should News Corp acquire
Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV product, News Corp.'s current stakes in
SKY and rival DirecTV Latin America would face major regulatory obstacles.
The restructuring is intended to ease some of those obstacles. Currently,
SKY is owned 30% each by Australia's News Corp., Mexico's Grupo Televisa SA
and Organiza