OWNERSHIP
The AT&T Comcast Merger: Threats to Competition, Choice, And
Democratic Discourse
Study Exposes Myth of Cross-Technology Competition In Communication
Markets
Senate Fights for Small Cable Biz
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Digital Divide Lives, Few People Care
Flash News Flash: It's Accessible
DOMAINS
ICANN Seeks Out Dot-Org Operator
Revamped ``.us'' Internet domain Goes Live Wednesday
OWNERSHIP
CONSUMER GROUP STUDY EXPOSES MYTH OF CROSS-TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION IN
COMMUNICATIONS MARKETS
A new study from the Consumer Federation of American and Consumer's Union,
"The Failure of Intermodal Competition in Cable and Communications Markets"
criticizes the FCC's claims that cross-technology competition from satellite
and DSL will be sufficient to control cable market power. Dr. Mark Cooper,
the director of research for the Consumer Federation of America has said
that, "The rhetoric does not reflect the reality, but it is being used to
justify a wide range of policies that will harm the public and drive policy
further away from meaningful competition in the video and high-speed
Internet broadband markets." Dr. Cooper also said, "The FCC's own data shows
that satellite does not have a significant or substantial effect on cable
price, quantity or quality." A PDF version of the study can be viewed online
at http://www.consumerfed.org/Intercomp.20020423.PDF.
[SOURCE: Consumer Federation of America]
(http://www.consumerfed.org/interpressfinal.html)
THE AT&T COMPACAST MERGER: THREATS TO COMPETITION, CHOICE AND DEMOCRATIC
DISCOURSE
The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) has released a statement summarizing
the key issues CDD will raise during the Federal Communications Commission
and Department of Justice review of the AT&T Comcast merger. The CDD and
its allies are concerned that the newly merged company will hold
unprecedented market power and be a liability to the future of the Internet,
video programming and the welfare of the U.S. economy. If AT&T Comcast
controlled the "last mile" high-speed connections it would allow them to
control Internet services for millions of Americans. The CDD will also
explore whether the merged company's newly formed access to half of the
nation's households would allow it to control programming for the entire
television industry. As for the merger's impact on democracy, the CDD
maintains that the two companies have offered no clear vision for digital
communications or the public interest. This could result in public
programming being pushed to the sidelines in favor of commercial content.
[SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy]
(http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/ATTComcastStatement.html)
SENATE FIGHTS FOR SMALL CABLE BIZ
Four months after announcing plans to combine their massive cable
operations, executives of AT&T Broadband and Comcast faced a grilling on
Capitol Hill regarding how the mega-merger will affect cable industry
competition. "We know it's good for the companies, but what does it do for
the average consumer?" said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), chairman of the
Judiciary's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition. Kohl
suggested putting "meaningful conditions" on the combination to protect
consumers. AT&T's CEO, C. Michael Armstrong, defended the merger, saying it
"will not reduce competition in any particular market." Instead, he argued,
the two companies will be able to roll out services such as broadband and
cable telephony at a faster rate by drawing from each company's respective
expertise in those areas. Nonetheless, senators and an assembled group of
industry experts argued that restraints -- such as requirements to offer a
choice of ISPs on broadband networks -- are necessary to ensure that the new
AT&T Comcast doesn't squeeze out smaller players.
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Joanna Glasner]
(http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52057,00.html)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
DIGITAL DIVIDE LIVES, FEW PEOPLE CARE
The digital divide still is very much alive, but U.S. corporations and the
federal government have unfairly abdicated their roles in helping to bring
the Internet to U.S. citizens regardless of their race or class, said former
U.S. Commerce Undersecretary Clarence "Larry" Irving. "We're a nation
online?" Irving said, noting that 60 percent of African-Americans don't have
any Internet access, nor do 70 percent of Hispanic-Americans. Speaking at
the Computers Freedom and Privacy 2002 conference in San Francisco, Irving
responded to an earlier speaker's assertion that the U.S. should view the
digital divide situation as a "glass that's half-full," Irving said, "Lady,
for the folks who don't have access, it is completely empty." Irving, who
made the digital divide a front-and-center issue for the Clinton
administration, said that the Bush administration's elimination or scaling
back of several important programs to close the divide also reveals a basic
lack of desire to make the Internet a ubiquitous tool in the U.S.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12299-2002Apr18.html)
FLASH: IT'S ACCESSIBLE
Jason Smith, technical director at the American Association for the
Advancement of Science has invented a Flash captioning tool that will allow
blind and deaf Web surfers to enjoy Flash-enabled Web sites. Smith said,
"Using Flash at all, in Flash 5 made it inaccessible." The new captioning
tool will work with screen readers that translate Web information by reading
it aloud or sending it to a Braille display. Andrew Kirkpatrick, technical
project coordinator for the CPB/WBGH National Center for Accessible Media
has said the new tool makes Flash captioning practical. While Section 508 of
the Rehabilitation Act requires Web sites to be accessible to people with
disabilities, many Web designers are still playing catch up. Jamie Berke, a
deaf captioning advocate, applauded the new Flash captioning tool but also
said, "The key is the mind-set of Web video producers, who must learn to
automatically include captioning as part of their production
process...Producers have to be made aware of the existence of the tool and
encouraged to use it."
[SOURCE: Wired News, AUTHOR: Lisa Delgado]
(http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,51638,00.html)
DOMAINS
ICANN SEEKS OUT DOT-ORG OPERATOR
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today put
out a request for proposals from organizations and companies interested in
operating the dot-org domain. Several public interest groups are closely
following the search for a new dot-org operator, and some are already
raising eyebrows over ICANN's requirement that prospective operators submit
a $35,000 processing fee along with their applications, which they fear
could deter some nonprofit groups from bidding. While the dot-org domain has
traditionally served as the Internet ZIP code for nonprofit organizations,
ICANN won't give nonprofit groups special consideration in the dot-org
bidding. In its contract with ICANN, however, VeriSign agreed that if a
nonprofit group won the bid to operate dot-org, it would be awarded $5
million in seed capital to get started.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: David McGuire ]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35846-2002Apr23.html)
REVAMPED "US" INTERNET DOMAIN GOES LIVE ON WEDNESDAY
After years of restricting the ".us" domain name to be used only by local
governments, libraries and schools, U.S. citizens and businesses will now be
able to register for the ".us" domain. NeuStar Inc., will manage the domain
and is also working with the U.S. government to set up a ".kids.us" domain
that would filter out violent and pornographic material.
[SOURCE: Silicon Valley News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3123810.htm)
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