EDTECH
Online Learning Picks Up Pace (USA)
Teachers Get A Taste Of High-Tech World (SJM)
PRIVACY
Carnivore Debate Centers on FBI Trustworthiness (WP)
MERGERS/ACQUISITIONS
U.S. Justice Department Approves Deutsche Telekom's VoiceStream Bid
(WSJ)
Time Warner to Buy Africana.com Site (WSJ)
No Concessions In AOL Merger (NYT)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Recording Giant Wins Ruling Over Web Site (WP)
WIRELESS
AOL in Talks with Several Carriers (NYT)
EDTECH
ONLINE LEARNING PICKS UP PACE
Issue: Distance Learning
USA TODAY is following the progress of Florida High School (FHS), a virtual
school that offers online curriculum to its students as well as 37
ninth-graders participating from Daniel Jenkins Academy in Haines City, Fla.
The students from Daniel Jenkins Academy have enrolled in a program that
combines the social and extracurricular activities of traditional high
school with online curriculum. Students come to Jenkins daily, where they
spend much of their time together in a classroom/lab with two facilitators,
who help them manage their online courses through FHS. At various times
during the day, groups of those Jenkins students are bused to nearby Haines
City High School, where they take part in sports, music, drama and other
club activities. FHS courses include a two or three hour online orientation
that must be completed before students can gain access to courses. Some
classes also offer an initial unit designed to help students adapt to their
self-paced education curriculum -- a task that can be awkward for many young
students.
[SOURCE: USAToday (11D), AUTHOR: Karen Thomas]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000907/2620126s.htm)
TEACHERS GET A TASTE OF HIGH-TECH WORLD
Issue: Edtech
A Bay Area program, IISME (Industry Initiatives for Science and Math
Education), gives classroom teachers the opportunity to experience
day-to-day work in the tech industry. IISME places teachers in summer jobs
in Silicon Valley, where they can see the real world applications of the
skills and subject matter they teach. Participants of this summer's program
said one thing they learned was that high-tech workers are given the tools,
training and support needed to do their jobs. Many were also impressed by
the corporate collaboration they witnessed at Silicon Valley workplaces.
"You meet together and talk about the goal. Then everyone goes to their
cubicle to do their part. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. If you don't have your
piece done on time . . . '' said Susan Diaz, a computer teacher at
Sunnyvale Middle School.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Joanne Jacobs]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/front/docs/jj090700.htm)
PRIVACY
CARNIVORE DEBATE CENTERS ON FBI TRUSTWORTHINESS
Issue: Privacy/Security
At a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday, the philosophical and technical
questions surrounding Carnivore, the FBI's controversial e-mail-sniffing
tool, came down to the issue of trust. Can the FBI and the government be
trusted to limit the use of the online wiretap tool to capturing spies,
hackers and terrorists while protecting the privacy of law-abiding
Americans? Or is another party the proper authority. The FBI's Donald M.
Kerr argued before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that the agency
has used the system only about 25 times in the past two years and in "every
case and at all times" with the permission of the courts. "The FBI cannot
and does not 'snoop,'" said Kerr, assistant director of the agency.
Representatives of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a policy group
based in Washington, made an interesting suggestion. The CDT representatives
suggested that Internet Service Providers such as Microsoft's MSN or America
Online be put in charge of administering the system, because of the high
potential for government abuse. Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Vint
Cerf, an Internet founding father who was selected to serve as an unbiased
technical adviser on the Senate panel, were quick with criticism of the
suggestion. Hatch said the proposal "strikes me as alarming, quite frankly."
Cerf believed that aside from the personal privacy issues raised by the
suggestion there existed also the possibility of evidence corruption. "I
have a feeling," he said, "that the ISP geeks would be less familiar with
restraints than the FBI gentlemen." Attorney General Janet Reno plans to
award a university contract to study Carnivore by Sept. 25 and to issue a
report by Dec. 8.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E3), AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25183-2000Sep6.html)
See Also
WEB GURU CERF DEFENDS FBI'S USE OF CARNIVORE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B8), AUTHOR: Ted Bridis]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB968280823274189422.htm)
(Requires subscription)
MERGERS/ACQUISITIONS
U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPROVES DEUTSCHE TELEKOM'S VOICESTREAM BID
Issue: Merger
The proposed merger of Deutsche Telekom and VoiceStream Wireless is nearly
complete, after the U.S. Justice Department approved the takeover by
default. The review period lapsed without opposition. But the transaction is
still to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and also by
VoiceStream shareholders. When Deutsche Telekom, Europe's biggest telephone
company, agreed to acquire 100% of VoiceStream for about $50 billion in cash
and stock in late July, a group of U.S. congressmen voiced its opposition
against the deal, mainly on the grounds that Deutsche Telekom is 58%-owned
by the German government. The senators urged the FCC to consider
national-security implications of any foreign acquisition of a U.S.
telecommunications firm. If the deal sails through, the German government's
stake would be reduced to 45%. But the lawmakers, with the quiet support of
several large U.S. telecom companies, are pushing legislation that would bar
any company that is 25% or more owned by a foreign government from acquiring
a U.S telecom company.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Interactive), AUTHOR: WSJ.COM Roundup
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB968321872331479735.htm)
(Requires subscription)
TIME WARNER TO BUY AFRICANA.COM SITE
Issue: Merger
Earlier this year, Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr.
predicted that his Web site, Africana.com, would become the dominant portal
for blacks worldwide. Although he is giving up its independence, Prof. Gates
has taken a major step toward achieving his goal by selling Africana.com to
Time Warner, a move that is poised to raise eyebrows at Harvard and
elsewhere in academia. Harvard and other higher education institutions are
struggling to balance scholarly pursuits with the entrepreneurialism of
Internet-inspired faculty. Time Warner hopes to attract more black
subscribers to America Online after the proposed AOL-Time Warner merger.
AOL-Time Warner has interests in an array of black-oriented Web sites,
including NetNoir.com and Volume.com, a site under development by Home Box
Office, a unit of Time Warner. Although Africana.com isn't the largest black
portal, Time Warner officials say Mr. Gates's site holds a unique niche
because of its educational bent and high-brow columnists -- many of them
courtesy of Mr. Gates's platinum Rolodex. A source familiar with the
negotiations said the price was at least $10 million, and Prof. Gates could
reap at least $1 million in the transaction, a noteworthy boon for an
educator who asserted earlier this year that he didn't expect to get rich
off his Internet efforts. He declined to comment on this matter.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Daniel Golden]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB968282511599715727.htm)
(Requires subscription)
NO CONCESSIONS IN AOL MERGER
Issue: Merger
Executives of Time Warner and America Online do not plan to offer any
concessions to clear their proposed merger plans when they meet regulators
of the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union.
The European Commission has sent the two companies a 45-page statement of
objections, arguing that the merger in its current form would allow the
companies to dominate the online distribution of entertainment and of music,
in particular. European concern has been magnified in Time Warner's separate
plan to merge its music business into a joint venture with the EMI Group of
Britain, the big music distributor. In an all-day hearing today, also in
private, Time Warner and EMI executives tried to convince officials that the
deal would be beneficial despite reducing the number of major music
distributors to four from five. The European Commission can block mergers
between companies that generate European sales of more than 250 million
euros a year, currently $217 million. On many occasions, including mergers
between two American companies, officials have used their power to force
companies into divestitures or changes in their practices. The commission's
deadline to reach a final decision on Time Warner's deal with EMI is Oct.
16, and on its merger with America Online, Oct. 24. The companies have to
submit proposed remedies at least one month before then.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C9), AUTHOR: Edmund L. Andrews]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/technology/07ONLI.html)
(requires registration)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RECORDING GIANT WINS RULING OVER WEB SITE
Issue: Intellectual Property
Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that MP3.com, an online
music site, willfully violated copyright laws. The ruling clears the way for
a potentially crippling damage award and provides the strongest sign to date
that major record labels are winning control of music commerce on the
Internet. Judge Rakoff said he would fine the company $25,000 for each CD
it copied from, a punishment that could yield a total fine of as much as
$250 million. MP3 officials had argued that anything more than $500 per
violation would be a "death sentence." A rival to the better-known Napster ,
MP3.com, started as an Internet bazaar for fans to sample and buy songs by
unknown bands. Later, it began offering users access to major-label artists
without having first obtained the licensing rights. Universal Music Group
and the four other major record labels sued the company. While the other
labels settled out of court, Universal continued with the suit. "If this
ruling holds up on appeal, the music industry is now in the driver's seat in
terms of deciding what business models can be used," said Eric Scheirer, an
analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. The industry will
"decide where the boundaries of copyright are, and the ground rules for
licensing music." Judge Rakoff said some Internet companies "may have a
misconception that, because their technology is somewhat novel, they are
somehow immune from the ordinary applications of laws of the United States,
including copyright law." Not so, he said: "They need to understand that the
law's domain knows no such limits."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (A1), AUTHOR: David Segal]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24289-2000Sep6.html)
See Also:
JUDGE FINDS MP3.COM WILLFULLY INFRINGED ON UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP'S
COPYRIGHTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B16), AUTHOR: Anna Wilde Mathews And Colleen
Debaise]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB968264393911222386.htm)
(Requires subscription)
WIRELESS
AOL IN TALKS WITH SEVERAL CARRIERS
Issue: Internet/Wireless
The largest U.S. Internet services provider, America Online, is in talks
with several firms in search of deals to help it tap into the booming mobile
phone marketplace. Internet companies, which are eager to pair up with
wireless providers, have paid large sums of money for deals with carriers
such as Sprint PCS Group and ATT Wireless Group Inc.in the U.S. to secure a
prominent display on wireless devices' highly coveted small screens,
offering content and services including news and e-mail.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-aol-wireless-dc.html)
(requires registration)
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