OWNERSHIP
Senate Panel to Review Media Ownership Again
WIRELESS
Silicon Valley Hikes Wireless Frontier
PRIVACY
US Or EU Model for SA Privacy Laws?
OWNERSHIP
SENATE PANEL TO REVIEW MEDIA OWNERSHIP AGAIN
According to committee staff, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation will hold a hearing on media ownership prior to the FCC's
proposed June 2nd rule issuance. Lawmakers want to give the public ample
opportunity to comment on this issue, though opponents of the hearing argue
that the rules should be made quickly so as to let media companies plan
their immediate futures. Such a hearing could further frustrate FCC Chairman
Michael Powell, who last week referred to those attempting to slow the
rulemaking process as mere "noisemakers."
[SOURCE: Yahoo! News, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20030406/media_nm/congre
ss_media_fcc_dc)
WIRELESS
SILICON VALLEY HIKES WIRELESS FRONTIER
As cellular telephone technology advances to a level comparable with
personal computing, product engineers and software developers are migrating
from the PC industry into several cell phone software start-ups. To industry
veterans, the trend is similar to the early PC and Internet eras. "It's
starting to happen, it's getting exciting again," says Esther Dyson, host of
Arizona's annual PC Forum. And, as in those prior eras, the winners and
losers are not quite clear, since the competition has yet to begin in
earnest, standards have yet to be agreed upon and the regulatory context is
very much up in the air.
[SOURCE: The New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
(http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/technology/07CELL.html)
PRIVACY
US OR EU MODEL FOR SA PRIVACY LAWS?
[Commentary] Despite having several privacy laws on the books as well as a
constitutional and common law basis, the South African government has yet to
really define the concept of privacy via legislation. In fact, previous acts
have been intentionally vague since clarifying legislation was pending. The
government must now decide which model of privacy protection it should
adopt, and the European Union and United States models offer differing
views. Unlike the US system, which places the burden on consumers and makes
obtaining and using private information easy for businesses, the EU model
relies on government regulation to offer more individual protection, making
it a more adoptable framework for South Africa.
[SOURCE: All Africa.com, AUTHOR: Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb]
(http://allafrica.com/stories/200304070125.html)
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