PRIVACY
FBI's 'Carnivore' Might Target Wireless Text (WP)
As Public Records Go Online, Some Say They're Too Public (NYT)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Gov's Laptop Plan Approved (Wired)
TELEVISION
Prime time for Latinos on TV Networks (USA)
ANTITRUST
Microsoft Says Windows XP Off to PC Makers Today (WP)
PRIVACY
FBI's 'CARNIVORE' MIGHT TARGET WIRELESS TEXT
Issue: Privacy
According to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, federal
law enforcement authorities may soon have the room to expand the use of the
controversial FBI monitoring system, Carnivore, to capture e-mail and other
text messages sent through wireless telephone carriers and their Internet
service providers. The association warns that authorities could use
Carnivore as soon as October to examine messages such as those sent by
cellular telephones and other handheld devices. But, that's because the
industry has been unable to come up with a way to give law enforcement
agencies the ability to monitor digital communications, as required by a
1994 law. In an Aug. 15 letter to the Federal Communications Commission,
Michael Altschul, the association's senior vice president and general
counsel, said its members can't meet the Sept. 30 deadline for the
technology. "If the industry is not provided the guidance and time to
develop solutions for packet surveillance that intercept only the target's
communications, it seems probable that Carnivore, which intercepts all
communications in the pathway without the affirmative intervention of the
carrier, will be widely implemented," Altschul wrote. The FBI has been using
Carnivore for two years, subject to court authorization, to tap into
Internet communications, identify e-mail writers online or record the
contents of messages. Altschul said in an interview that the FBI has told
industry officials it would use Carnivore in the absence of another system.
The FBI responded yesterday with this prepared statement: "We have never
proposed or planned to have Carnivore used as a solution for . . .
compliance."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Robert O'Harrow, Jr.]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54155-2001Aug23.html)
AS PUBLIC RECORDS GO ONLINE, SOME SAY THEY'RE TOO PUBLIC
Issue: Privacy
A new Web site that puts New York City voter registration records online -
including home addresses - exemplifies the tension between the individual's
right to privacy and the public's right to public records in an electronic
age. The nonprofit group that runs the site, e-the People, say it is
intended to encourage voting by letting voters check their registrations,
find the proper polling place, or download a voter registration form. But
critics say the privacy risks of such an online system may actually
discourage voter registration. The New Jersey A.C.L.U is also planning the
latest in a series of challenges to state governments that have begun
publishing registries of sex offenders on the Internet. At least 30 states
now publish such information, which was previously made public in far less
accessible - often only to residents in the vicinity of an offender's home.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Harmon]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/24/nyregion/24VOTE.html)
(requires registration)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
GOV'S LAPTOP PLAN APPROVED
Issue: Digital Divide
Last year, Governor Angus King of Maine proposed that Maine middle school
children be equipped with laptop computers. In this streaming media
interview Gov. King announces that the plan has been approved by the Maine
legislature for every seventh and eighth grader in Maine. Gov. King details
the type of hardware Maine is seeking, additional conditions of the plan's
implementation, and the challenges in moving the project forward such as
teacher support and hardware support.
[SOURCE: Wired News Radio, AUTHOR: Katie Dean]
(http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,45866,00.html)
TELEVISION
PRIME TIME FOR LATINOS ON TV NETWORKS
Issue: Television
While the Hispanic population is booming, making up 12.5% of people in the
USA (according to the 2000 Census), Latino performers accounted for 4.8% of
that year's small-screen roles, according to the Screen Actors Guild. TV's
weak track record with people of color, including Latinos, has drawn
complaints, and broadcast executives say they are trying to better reflect
the population. ''It's a big ship, and it turns rather slowly,'' says Marc
Hirschfeld, NBC's executive vice president of casting. In addition to Jon
Seda, cast in NBC's UC: Undercover this fall, ''there's no higher priority
for our network than to get another Latino actor in the lead role of one of
our series.''
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Bill Keveney]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010824/3574477s.htm)
ANTITRUST
MICROSOFT SAYS WINDOWS XP OFF TO PC MAKERS TODAY
Issue: Antitrust
With the WAP-WAP-WAP of helicopter rotor blades in the background, Microsoft
today will present representatives from six PC manufacturers gold colored
attach