MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC Chief Says Rule Barring Media Cross-Ownership Likely to be
Dropped
Huge Turnout at San Francisco FCC Meeting
Diverse Critics Fight FCC on Media Ownership Rules
DIGITAL DIVIDE
Media Lab Asia's Restructuring in the Cards
Spreading The Digital Word
INTERNET
Licensed to War Drive in New Hampshire
Qwest, Comcast Duel over DSL Ads
TECHNOLOGY
Proteins Produce Nano-Magnetic Computer Memory
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC CHIEF SAYS RULE BARRING MEDIA CROSS-OWNERSHIP LIKELY TO BE DROPPED
At the Newspaper Association of America convention in Seattle yesterday, FCC
Chairman Michael Powell said that it's likely that the commission will end
the 28-year-old rules regarding media ownership at its June 2 meeting.
Critics of the proposal say that deregulation will reduce local news and
increase media outlets' power over the public. "Every major paper is going
to try and buy or be bought by a TV station; certainly the major chains will
just go hog wild," said Mark Cooper, research director at Consumer
Federation of America in Washington. Frank Blethen, publisher of the Seattle
Times, was one of the few media owners to speak out against Powell's
comments. "It's amazing to hear somebody use so many words to say nothing,"
Blethen said. "He's focused on technology and not news and how news serves
our democracy, and the loss of the diversity of voices we're seeing through
concentration of ownership." Gregg Jones, publisher of the Greenville Sun in
Tennessee, voiced support for deregulation, saying that the rules had
prevented him from buying local TV stations. "Had we been in the game, there
might have been more local ownership, less radio consolidation, resulting
very likely in more local news and information," he said.
[SOURCE: The Seattle Times; AUTHOR: Brier Dudley]
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134685149_powell29.
html
HUGE TURNOUT AT SAN FRANCISCO FCC MEETING
An audience of more than 400 people filled the chamber at San Francisco City
Hall last Saturday to express their concerns over FCC proposals to
deregulate US media ownership rules. FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein was
in attendance. "You put the word out," Adelstein told the audience. "I'm
going to track down each of my four colleagues and I'm going to tell them
that people in the Bay Area are alarmed that they haven't heard more about
this." Adelstein also criticized the argument that deregulation would create
greater economic efficiencies. "The FCC's legal responsibility is to protect
the public interest," he said. "The fact that this increases their economic
efficiency isn't our legal responsibility." Dozens of speakers criticized
the FCC proposals, including Brother J of the hip-hop group X-Clan, who
worried that deregulation would stifle diverse voices over the airwaves.
"Creativity is buffeted right now, because if you don't fit into a bracket,
you don't get played," he said. Artists are forced to "fit into a mainstream
of foolishness, and that has to change."
[SOURCE: The Argus; AUTHOR: Suzanne Bohan]
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~1357420,00.html
DIVERSE CRITICS FIGHT FCC ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[Commentary] The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, and
liberal advocacy group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) rarely
agree on anything. But now they've both lining up to encourage the FCC to
slow down the process for overhauling America's media ownership rules, says
columnist Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times. The Media Research
Center worries that consolidation of media outlets will lead to more
indecency on television. "We feel, with further media consolidation, you're
going to see a proliferation of indecent material," said Lara Mahaney of the
Parent's Television Center, an offshoot of the Center. For its part, FAIR
argues that the FCC proposals will hinder public debate. "In a country this
size, you can't carry on a political debate without the media to help you,"
said FAIR spokeswoman Rachel Coen. "When ownership of that media system is
concentrated in a very few corporate hands, it decreases the amount of news
and information people have access to, and it narrows the range of debate.
Both of those things are inimical to democracy." Columnist Deggans urges the
public to get involved in the debate by sharing their thoughts with the FCC
directly by visiting the commission's ownership website
(http://www.fcc.gov/ownership) or by contacting their representatives in
Congress.
[SOURCE: St. Petersburg Times; AUTHOR: Eric Deggans]
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Columns/Diverse_critics_fight.shtml
DIGITAL DIVIDE
MEDIA LAB ASIA'S RESTRUCTURING IN THE CARDS
India's information technology minister said this week that he is asking the
Indian government for its opinion regarding the future of Media Lab Asia.
The MIT Media Lab established the center in India to address technology
research that would benefit people at large. To date, though, the lab has
failed to attract significant private sector support, so the Indian
government is now considering an idea to retool the lab for government-aided
research and development. While there were no plans to shut down the lab, IT
Minister Arun Shourie said that he expects there to be a major
restructuring.
[SOURCE: Rediff.com; AUTHOR: Business Standard Corporate Bureau]
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/apr/29media.htm
SPREADING THE DIGITAL WORLD
Putting a new spin on a tried and true idea, digital librarian Brewster
Kahle introduced his Bookmobile at last week's O'Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference in Santa Clara, California. The Bookmobile does not actually
carry printed books, however: it's equipped with a satellite, a printer, a
book-binding machine and a searchable database of the 20,000 books currently
part of the public domain. Kahle noted the decrease in flow of works into
the public domain since the Eldred v. Ashcroft court decision, saying that
he wanted to give people the opportunity to obtain public works for a low
cost. The fee for downloading and printing a book is one dollar. Kahle
lauded the government of India, which agreed to purchase 30 Bookmobiles on
the spot at OETC. Eventually, he hopes that authors will see the simple
technology employed by Bookmobile as incentive to publish their works in the
public domain.
[SOURCE: ExtremeTech.com; AUTHOR: Radhika Kaushik]
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1047454,00.asp
INTERNET
LICENSED TO WAR DRIVE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
A proposed bill in the New Hampshire state legislature would create legal
protections for individuals who tap into unsecured wireless networks. The
practice, know as "war driving," has gained popularity recently, to the
chagrin of unwitting wireless network hosts. The issue is more broadly
embraced by the grassroots "open network movement," which is attempting to
create a worldwide grid of wireless access points. The law would require
network operators to properly secure their networks from unintended outside
use. While the bill is intended to protect those who happen to stumble upon
a wireless network, some critics fear that it will provide a defense for
malicious hackers.
[SOURCE: Wired News; AUTHOR: Brian McWilliams]
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,58651-2,00.html
QWEST, COMCAST DUEL OVER DSL ADS
In a letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, QWEST CEO Dick Notebaert accused
his high-speed Internet service rival of "censorship," citing a Comcast
policy against airing commercials for DSL services. DSL and cable broadband
offerings are in high competition, and Comcast claims that the First
Amendment of the US Constitution protects them from having to advertise DSL
companies. However, Media Access Project CEO Andrew Schwartzman says that
the "First Amendment [offers no] protection to use a monopoly to violate
anti-trust laws."
[SOURCE: USA Today; AUTHOR: David Lieberman and Andrew Backover]
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-04-28-dsl_x.htm
TECHNOLOGY
PROTEINS PRODUCE NANO-MAGNETIC COMPUTER MEMORY
The British company Nanomagnetics is touting a new protein-based technology
that could increase computer hard drive capacity a hundredfold. The company
has developed a way to utilize the protein apoferritin, a molecule used by
the human body for storing iron. Nanomagnetics removes the iron and fills
the molecule with a magnetic cobalt-platinum, creating a liquid called
DataInk that can be sprayed onto the surface of a hard disk. When heated,
the DataInk dries and locks the molecules together, allowing each of them to
store the equivalent of one bit of data. The CEO of Nanomagnetics believes
that the technique will allow the company to store as much as five terabits
of data (5000 gigabits) per square centimeter of hard disk. The product may
take another six to 10 years before it reaches the market.
[SOURCE: New Scientist; AUTHOR: Will Knight]
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993664
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