MEDIA & SOCIETY
Pale, By Comparison (ChiTrib)
INTERNET
Icann Approves Set of Procedures For Dealing With Domain Disputes
(WSJ)
France's Jospin Proposes Legislation To Apply Traditional Laws to
Internet
(WSJ)
E-COMMERCE
Who's Reading What? (WP)
Women click Web ads more often (USA)
ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
Documents In Transition (WP)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Ford Confronts Perils of Internet As BlueOvalNews.com Makes News (WSJ)
WIRELESS
Video Cellular Phones Closer To Reality (SJM)
MEDIA & SOCIETY
PALE, BY COMPARISON
Issue: Media & Society
A long look at the demographics of the Fall TV line-up from the Trib's TV
critic. Johnson points out the difference between local newscasts -- which
always seem to be delivered by a multiracial mix of men and women -- and
prime time entertainment which is filled by predominately white actors and
actresses. If the broadcast networks are narrowcasting, they seem to be
targeting just the majority white audience -- if we are to accept that
people tend to watch programs that feature their own race. The NAACP and a
coalition of Latino organizations started protesting the "whitewashing" of
prime time TV this summer. Of the nearly three dozen new series starting
this fall on the six broadcast networks, only six have minorities in leading
roles. Yvette Lee Bowser, an established TV writer, said, "There's a very
unfortunate reality that we have to deal with this particular season," she
said. "But it existed last year, too, and the year before....And I think
that people...are considering the kind of impact, the social impact, that
homogenized television will have on our culture." Johnson asks, Why does it
take the NAACP and media critics to awaken a TV network to something so
obvious as the fact that television, as a primary social force, will come
under scrutiny with regards to hot-button issues such as race? TV has
"increasingly become only white," says UPN President Dean Valentine, and is
"becoming increasingly divorced from the American way of life. I've always
felt that it was good business and it was responsible business for us to
try, over time, to reflect the way the country looked," Valentine says.
"There's a huge African-American middle class....We're one big capitalist
country and I think it's a silly and shortsighted business decision to
alienate an entire segment of the population." [There's more -- a lot more
-- at the URL below.]
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 5, p.1), AUTHOR: Steve Johnson]
(http://chicagotribune.com/leisure/tempo/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-990
8270130,FF.html)
INTERNET
ICANN APPROVES SET OF PROCEDURES FOR DEALING WITH DOMAIN DISPUTES
Issue: Domain Names/Trademark
In Santiago, Chile, the interim board of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a set of procedures yesterday
for dealing with disputes over rights to Internet domain names. In a
unanimous decision, ICANN will allow 57 recently created "registrar"
companies to begin registering Internet addresses without fear of being
drawn into costly legal battles over domain-name rights. Five other
registrars already are operating on a test-case basis. Two of those
companies -- AOL and Registrar.com -- spearheaded the creation of a formal
dispute-resolution mechanism. The board also agreed to study several
modifications within 45 days regarding the procedures proposed by a group
representing noncommercial users, small businesses and individuals. One
particularly difficult issue at the meeting was cybersquatting, which ICANN
has defined as the bad-faith registration of domain names to make a profit
on reselling them.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dow Jones Newswires]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB935693421619850720.htm)
See Also:
INTERNET OVERSIGHT BOARD ADOPTS NEW RULES ON DOMAIN NAMES
[SOURCE: New York Times (C2), AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/08/biztech/articles/27icann.html)
WHOSE WEB SITE IS THIS?
[Op-ed] China.com, an Internet portal partially owned by China's state-run
Xinhua news agency, has registered the domain name Taiwan.com. Several
hundred Taiwanese professors and lawmakers are leading an effort to take
China.com to court in the U.S. for misrepsentation. "One country, two Web
sites. Not good, writes Friedman. The case illustrates how the all-consuming
identity crisis between the China and Taiwan is making both sides crazy.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A25), AUTHOR: Thomas Friedman]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/friedman/082799frie.html)
FRANCE'S JOSPIN PROPOSES LEGISLATION TO APPLY TRADITIONAL LAWS TO INTERNET
Issue: Regulation
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced plans for Internet-related
legislation that his administration will present to Parliament in early
2000. The proposals for regulation will attempt to formalize mechanisms for
applying laws to cyberspace in areas such as encryption and confidentiality,
consumer protection, copyright and piracy. Prime Minister Jospin said ithe
plans will address the challenge of creating a legal framework for
electronic transactions that ensures security and it will seek to reinforce
authorship rights for material distributed through the Web. Prime Minister
Jospin also proposed creating an independent body that would bring together
public and private players to consult and set standards on Internet issues.
Prime Minister Jospin also announced his intention to pursue an increase in
the defense budget to fund efforts to protect France's information
infrastructure. Some of the proposed legislation would likely bring the
French government's policies in line with directives from the European
Commission with respect to privacy.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Staff Reporter]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB935705447708054699.htm)
ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
DOCUMENTS IN TRANSITION
Issue: Access to Government Information
[Editorial] The Commerce Department has plans to close the National
Technical Information Service, the information service that offers citizens
a place to buy government reports on scientific and technical topics. Many
academics and librarians wonder what will replace the information
clearinghouse as a central reference point and as a connection to the
"depository libraries" in all 50 states that store core government
documents. A new distribution system could be a considerable improvement
over the current matrix, in which the Library of Congress, the National
Archives, the Government Printing Office and others perform overlapping
tasks. "In one glaring irony," note the Post writers, "the recent Commerce
Department report warning of a 'digital divide' -- a growing inequality
between the better-off who have Internet access and those outside the
system -- was available online for free, while those presumably
less-wealthy souls who couldn't read it on the Net would have had to pay
$27 for a paper copy."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A28), AUTHOR: Washington Post Editorial Staff]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/27/005l-082799-idx.html)
E-COMMERCE
WHO'S READING WHAT?
Issue: Privacy
Through a new feature on the Amazon.com Web site you can find out "101
Nights of Grrreat Sex" is one of the top reads at the National
Semiconductor company, or that Microsoft workers are flocking to read "The
Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates." Online bookseller
Amazon.com has begun offering thousands of individual bestseller lists
calculated by Zip code, workplace or university. "We're taking chances,
we're innovating here," said Amazon spokesman Paul Capelli. "This program
is building community and adding a unique feature that never could have
existed before the Internet." Some customers, however, have complained that
Amazon's list amount to an invasion of privacy. As a result, the bookseller
has created an option that allows buys to choose not to have their data
collected. David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center commented that privacy is one of the biggest concerns
surrounding electronic commerce. "It doesn't seem like a good business
decision to do something that highlights your collection of customer
profiles," he added. "It throws fuel on the fire."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: David Streitfeld]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-08/27/099l-082799-idx.html)
WOMEN CLICK WEB ADS MORE OFTEN
Issue: E-commerce
PC Data Online recently released a study conducted at the beginning of the
month that says more women than men are clicking on Internet banner
advertisements. Over three days, 1,479 males and 1,333 females from the
online environment were recruited and evaluated. Just over half of women
asked said they "occasionally" click on a Web ad banner, while 43% of men
said they did the same. Almost 40% of men and 29% of women said they
"seldom" click on ads. Sean Wargo, Internet research analyst at PC Data
Online, noted, "in the typical household, the women are the main shoppers."
PC Data also said women are more motivated than men by curiosity. "So they
might be more inclined to click on an ad." Ads in motion were far preferred
to ads at rest, according to the study. Animated ads were the most preferred
by both men and women at 70%, followed by non-animated ads at 23% and pop-up
ads at 7%. Pop-up ads on the Internet are the least favored by both sexes --
only six percent of men and eight percent of women like the particular ad
format. Why do people click? PC Data said 61% of its respondents cited
curiosity about the ad's subject as their primary motivator, as opposed to
discounts or familiarity with the product. About half of both men and women
rely on Internet ads as a source of information about new Web sites, the
study also showed. PC Data's Web site is at http://www.pcdata.com .
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Bob Woods - Newsbytes News Network]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/nb/nb3.htm)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
FORD CONFRONTS PERILS OF INTERNET AS BLUEOVALNEWS.COM MAKES NEWS
Issue: Intellectual Property
Ford Motor Company filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Detroit,
arguing that Robert Lane, a 32-year-old nursing student of Dearborn,
Michigan, violated copyright and trademark law because he copied and
disseminated internal documents and used the trademarked blue Ford oval on
his Web site, blueovalnews.com. Ford also contends Lane solicited its
employees for information. Lane, who owns four Ford Mustangs and two F-150
trucks, argues that he has done nothing wrong and is covered by the First
Amendment. "There is not one piece of e-mail or fax or letter that they can
produce that will testify that I've solicited anything," he says. "And I
never sold a single document." On Wednesday, Ford won a temporary
restraining order against Lane. This case poses critical questions about the
media in the Information Age. For example,what's the difference, if any,
between Lane's Web site and a trade journal or newspaper that might publish
the same documents? Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, said, "There are
extraordinary legal issues to be dealt with about the Net. One is: Are
individuals on the Web given the full range of the First Amendment
protections as journalists? If Mr. Lane was simply handed the documents, he
would get the same protections." Ford spokesman Jim Cain says the company
met with Lane last October to discuss its concerns about the site -- but
Lane refused to stop posting the internal documents. Cain wouldn't speculate
on why employees would have given away this information. "We can't assume
their motivations," he says. "But it's still wrong."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Fara Warner and Jeffery Ball]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB935680625618499174.htm)
WIRELESS
VIDEO CELLULAR PHONES CLOSER TO REALITY
Issue: Video Technology/Wireless
Soon people will be able to tune in video from the Internet on their
wireless phones or hand-held computers. Software being developed by San
Diego-based PacketVideo could help speed the arrival of "anytime,
anywhere" Internet access. Industry analysts say that innovations such as
this are indicative of how wireless networks are evolving, gradually taking
on all the functions of their wired counterparts. "In the near future,"
said, PacketVideo chief executive James Carol "we'll see a variety of
video-enabled mobile Internet access devices that road warriors can use to
keep in touch with their families and offices." Originally, PacketVideo
planned to wait until the so-called third-generation of wireless networks,
which aren't expected to appear before 2003. But after being asked by
several companies, it decided to attempt adapting its approach to current
low-speed wireless connections. Resent demonstrations reveal that
PacketVideo's software actually produces a less jerky picture that what one
might see with an ordinary low-speed wire-line connection.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Joh Healey ]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/celvid082799.htm)
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