INTERNET
Kazaa, Verizon Propose To Pay Artists Directly
Turkey Mulls Strict Net Bill
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Supreme Court Upholds FCC Rules Forcing Network-Leasing Discounts
PRIVACY
EPIC Files Brief in Opposition to Mandatory TV Surveillance
E-LEARNING
E-learning Becoming E-ssential
Educators Seek Balance Between Books, Computers
INTERNET
KAAZA, VERIZON PROPOSE TO PAY ARTISTS DIRECTLY
Over the past few years the major record labels have been attempting to
control online music swapping with little success. When one company is shut
down another one takes its place and today online file swapping is booming.
In an effort to convert individuals into paying customers, the major record
labels started up two online music ventures, PressPlay and MusicNet. For
the most part, the public has ignored the ventures because they do not offer
music in MP3 format and the files cannot be used on portable devices or
burned to CD. Jim Guerinot, a board members of Don Henley's and Sheryl
Crow's Recording Artists Coalition said, "It would be like me opening a
video store, charging 10 times what others were charging and only offering
videos in Beta format." Kaaza, an online music sharing Web site and Verizon
have drafted a possible solution. They propose computer manufacturers, blank
CD makers, ISPs and software companies each pay a modest fee and use the
funds to pay artists directly. Verizon vice president Sarah Deutsch said,
"We're proposing the idea of a copyright compulsory license for the
Internet, so peer-to-peer distribution would be legitimate and the copyright
community would get compensation."
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Jefferson Graham]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/05/14/music-kazaa.htm)
TURKEY MULLS STRICT NET BILL
A media bill to go before the Turkish parliament today could, observers say,
cripple the Internet industry. Turkey's already stringent media regulations
would be expanded by the bill which would require websites to submit two
hard copies of pages to be posted on the Internet to a government agency for
approval. In addition, websites would not be able to launch without approval
from local authorities. If permission to launch a website is granted, the
owners would then be obligated to inform the authorities every time the site
is changed. The bill comes at a time when Turkey is struggling to meet human
rights and civil liberties requirements for European Union membership. The
bill, according to Savas Uncel, CEO of Turkey's biggest ISP, is
contradictory to Turkey's European Union membership bid, which requires more
press freedom than exists under current law. European Union representatives
say the bill runs counter to the government's publicly stated goals of
increasing constitutional freedom of speech and expression. Unsal says that
there are between 195,000 and 210,000 active websites in Turkey, giving rise
to jokes within the industry about the truckloads of paper that would have
to be submitted for approval each morning if the law is passed and enforced.
[SOURCE: Wired News; AUTHOR: Jonathan Evans]
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52477,00.html)
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS FCC RULES FORCING NETWORK-LEASING DISCOUNTS
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the FCC rate-setting methods
mandating that the giant Bells lease parts of their networks to competitors
at discounted rates are consistent with the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The
Bells have argued that the FCC rates prohibit them from recouping billions
of dollars they spent to upgrade networks. The FCC believes that the current
rules are the only way to ensure a strong competitive market. In writing for
the majority, Justice David Souter said, "Whether the FCC picked the best
way to set these rates is the stuff of debate for economists and regulators
versed in the technology of telecommunications and microeconomic pricing
theory. The job of the judges is to ask whether the commission made the
choices reasonably...[and the] FCC's pricing and additional combination
rules survive that scrutiny."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yochi J. Dreazen]
(http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1021288896743688480,00.html?mod=telecomm
unications%5Fprimary%5Fhs)
(Requires Subscription)
PRIVACY
EPIC FILES BRIEF IN OPPOSITION TO MANDATORY TV SURVEILLANCE
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and a coalition of civil
liberties and consumer groups have asked a federal court to overrule a
decision requiring SONICblue Inc. monitor and record the TV viewing patterns
of its customers. SONICblue makes the ReplayTV 4000, a personal video
recorder (PVR) that enables users to record TV programs to hard disks. They
can then pause, fast forward, and skip commercials when viewing the program.
Television studios have sued SONICblue for copyright infringement and made
the demand that the company reengineer the ReplayTV4000 to track individual
PVR usage without notice to consumers, or their consent. Megan E. Gray,
Senior Counsel at EPIC said, "A person's home is one of the most sacred of
private places - the studios have no right to intrude there to collect data
for their own purposes without the individual's consent."
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/)
E-LEARNING
E-LEARNING BECOMING E-SSENTIAL
E-training is one of 24 e-government initiatives launched by the Office of
Management and Budget in October 2001. Agencies participating in the OMB
initiative are working to create a government wide repository of e-learning
courses. Course materials are delivered through a number of electronic
methods: Internet, intranets, audio- and videotape, satellite broadcast,
interactive television and CD-ROM. For one Health and Human Services (HHS)
agency with a slim training budget (just $50 to $60 per employee per year),
e-learning has enabled the agency to provide 1,400 courses online. Overall,
about 14,000 people are using the HHS learning portal. Government agency
managers and analysts agree that e-learning is destined to become ubiquitous
in the next few years. The biggest hurdle is to Web-enable training
materials and hire training professionals. Right now, only approximately 7
percent of materials are Web-enabled. E-learning also needs to be more
accessible across the federal government which will mean expanding
infrastructure.
[SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Gail Repsher Emery]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10884-2002May13.html)
EDUCATORS SEEK BALANCE BETWEEN BOOKS, COMPUTERS
In education, there are two distinct approaches to integrating
computer-based lessons in the school. Both camps, says author Chad
Swiatecki, "claim their approach works best, making ideology as important as
money in examining how the digital divide affects education. On one side are
schools like Grand Blanc Academy that follows a philosophy of
computer-immersion for even its youngest students. "We're a high-tech
society and part of our philosophy is incorporating technology completely in
our curriculum, not just in a lab in one part of the school," said Debi
Ziscke, the academy's assistant chief administrative officer. At the
International Academy of Flint, technology instructor Charles Grasley feels
that students are better served by small amounts of focused computer
instruction. "It's easier to monitor what they're doing and what they're
looking at on the Web this way." But both tech-teaching styles run into a
similar problem: lack of technology training for teachers. Lack of funds,
little time and teacher reluctance to integrate computers into their
curriculum are some of the key reasons cited for lack of effective use of
classroom computers.
[SOURCE: Flint Journal; AUTHOR: Chad Swiatecki]
(http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.
xsl?/base/news/1021211401104990.xml)
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