COPYRIGHT
Static Over Net Radio
Trial Set for Digital Millennium Copyright Act Case
INTERNET
Ancient Writing System Gets Internet Update
Sweden's Post Office Pushes Online Mail
Big-City Broadband Growing At High Speed
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Telecoms Can Challenge States In Federal Court, Justices Rule
COPYRIGHT
STATIC OVER NET RADIO
After nearly three years of debate, the director of the Library of Congress
is scheduled to decide today whether to accept or reject proposed royalty
fees for music streamed over the Internet. Everyone agrees that record
artists deserve compensation, but dispute what formula should be used to
determine royalties. On one side, Webcasters maintain that the current
proposal from the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) sets rates too
high for most Webcasters to remain in business. On the flip side, industry
representatives like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
and some artists feel that the rates are fair. Don Henley of the popular
recording group, Eagles, said in a statement that "If a Webcaster can
survive only by paying the recording artists a nominal or relatively
nonexistent royalty, then perhaps the Webcasters' business model is not
viable. A detail not often noted is that, under current law, traditional
radio broadcasters and Webcasters have been obligated to pay royalty fees
based on revenues to organizations representing composers, not to artists
and record companies. Thus, the new royalties would add an additional
financial burden for Webcasters that terrestrial broadcasters would be
exempted from.
[SOURCE: San Francisco Gate; AUTHOR: Benny Evengelista, Edward Epstein]
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/1
9/BU210365.DTL)
TRIAL SET FOR DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT CASE
A judge set an August 26 date for the first criminal trial under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow has been
accused of creating technology that allows users to avoid copyright
protections on Adobe Acrobat files. While the program is legal in Russia, it
is banned under the DMCA. If convicted ElcomSoft could be fined $500,000.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3303774.htm)
INTERNET
ANCIENT WRITING SYSTEM GETS INTERNET UPDATE
A number of universities have begun to transfer hundreds of examples of the
5,200-year-old cuneiform writing system to the World Wide Web. Cuneiform
was used from 3200 B.C. to A.D. 75 to record everything from tax receipts to
the legends, science and religion of the ancient world. Hundreds of
thousands of tablets written in cuneiform are in museums around the world.
Project leads believe that bringing these tablets online in dictionary,
photographic, and 3D forms will be of tremendous value to researchers. The
Birmingham University Digital Forensic Project is creating a Web-based
cuneiform catalog covering signs made from 3000 B.C. to 323 B.C. In the
Digital Hammurabi Project at Johns Hopkins University they are collecting
three-dimensional images of tablets from 2000 B.C. onward. Johns Hopkins
Assyriologist Jerrold Cooper said, "The beauty of this is that with fast and
cheap 3-D scanning, we can practically put the tablet in your hands on your
desktop." Other online projects are based at UCLA and the University of
Pennsylvania.
[SOURCE: USA Today, AUTHOR: Dan Vergano]
(http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2002/05/21/cuneiform.htm)
SWEDEN'S POST OFFICE PUSHES ONLINE MAIL
Posten, Sweden's national post office, is trying to persuade Swedes to sign
up for a new Internet mail-delivery service. "Our vision," says Posten
spokeswoman, Margareta Chowra, "is that the hall carpet or mailbox will
never be cluttered with anything but the occasional love letter or
invitation to a party." Posten, like many other national postal services
around the world, has seen its revenues drop due to competition from private
delivery services and e-mail. Through its new Internet service, Posten hopes
to reinvent itself and recapture customers. The new service, dubbed
ePostbox, will cost companies about 25 percent less than standard mail
delivery. Other countries with electronic post office services, such as
Canada, the U.S. and Finland, have not seen customers rush to use the
service.
[SOURCE: International Herald Tribune; AUTHOR: The Associated Press]
(http://www.iht.com/articles/58378.html)
BIG-CITY BROADBAND GROWING AT HIGH SPEED
According to a new study by Nielsen/NetRatings, 60 percent of the 20 largest
U.S. cities show more than 50 percent growth in home broadband
subscriptions. Approximately 25.2 million home users surfed the Internet via
broadband connections, a 58 percent rise from last April's figures. While
impressive gains were seen in the nation's high-population cities (New York,
Los Angeles, Boston and Philadelphia jumped by more than 40 percent),
broadband growth was at record levels. Hartford, Connecticut recorded growth
of almost 200%, and Baltimore, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Orlando,
Florida all saw broadband subscriptions increase by at least 150 percent
over the year ending April 30, 2002. Detroit, Michigan was the only top 20
city showing single-digit broadband growth.
[SOURCE: Newsbytes; AUTHOR: Dick Kelsey]
(http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176676.html)
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
TELECOMS CAN CHALLENGE STATES IN FEDERAL COURT, JUSTICES RULE
The Supreme Court ruled that Verizon Communications Corp. and other large
telecommunications companies could challenge state regulatory decisions in a
federal court. State public utility commissions have preferred state courts
that often defer to their rulings. If forced into the federal court there is
a danger that the states will be caught up in long and expensive litigation
with the Baby Bells and long distance companies. State regulators had argued
that the 11th Amendment barring lawsuits "against one of the United States
by citizens of another state" made them immune to being sued in federal
courts. When asked about the 8-0 defeat, Brad Ramsey, general counsel of the
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said, "I'm
disappointed but not surprised...It's taxpayers who may ultimately bear the
burden for this." The case centered on "interconnection agreements", the
contracts that define rates competitors pay the Bells to gain access to
their network.
[SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yochi J. Dreazen and Robert S.
Greenberger]
(http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB102189858666918600,00.html?mod=technolog
y_main_whats_news)
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