Sept. 26, 2000
8:30 AM ET.
Alert No. 28. |
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| News Briefs |
9/25. California Gov. Gray Davis
vetoed Assembly
Bill 2412, sponsored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San
Francisco). This bill would have imposed a sales tax for
retailers who process orders over the Internet. In addition,
Gov. Davis signed a bill creating a commission to examine sales tax
issues in the New Economy, and another bill calling for a three-year
moratorium on Internet access taxes. SB
1933, sponsored by Sen. John
Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), creates the California Commission
on Tax Policy in the New Economy. The Commission will examine sales
tax issues and develop a long-term strategy in relation to
technology and the State and local tax structure. AB
1784, sponsored by Assemblyman Ted Lempert (D-San Carlos),
provides a 3 year extension of California’s Internet Tax Freedom
Act. See, Gov.
Davis release.
9/25. U.S. International Trade
Commission (ITC) announced that it determined not to review the
presiding administrative law judge's (ALJ) finding that access from
the U.S. of Mentor Graphics's
foreign design verification centers would not be covered by the
ITC's cease and desist order in its advisory opinion proceeding
instituted by Quickturn
regarding certain hardware logic emulation systems used in the
semiconductor industry to debug and test electronic circuit designs
for semiconductor devices. (Inv. No. 337-TA-383) The respondents are
Mentor and Meta Systems. The ITC also determined to take no position
on the ALJ' s alternate determination concerning the "use"
of Mentor's hardware logic emulator in the United States if the term
"covered product" in the cease and desist order is
interpreted to include infringing hardware and software that has not
been imported. See, ITC
release.
9/25. The Commerce Department's National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced an electronic
Braille reader that allows blind people to read e-books. It
employs software to translate electronic text into Braille, and
features variable speeds. NIST hopes that it will be adopted by the
private sector. According to NIST, "About 50,000 e-books
already have been sold in America, and industry analysts believe
e-books could represent a $2.3 billion market by 2005, about 10
percent of all consumer books." See, release.
9/25. Christian Mixter left the SEC to become a
partner in the Washington DC office of the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius,
a huge Philadelphia based law and lobbying firm. He was the SEC's
Chief Litigation Counsel in the Division of Enforcement. See, SEC release.
9/25. Bill Clinton announced his intent to nominate Donald
Robinson to be a member of the National Commission on Libraries
and Information Science. See, release.
9/25. Ivan Seidenberg, President and co-CEO of Verizon Communications, gave a
luncheon address at the National
Press Club in Washington DC.
9/22. The FCC's Wireless Telecoms.
Bureau issued a Notice
[MS Word] in which it requests public comment on a petition for
declaratory ruling filed on Feb. 2, 2000 by the plaintiffs in the
class action lawsuit White
v. GTE. It pertains to whether certain CMRS
practices violate the Communications Act. Comments are due by Oct.
20; reply comments are due by Nov. 6.
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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| New TLJ Stories |
Economist
Estimates that Court Ordered Microsoft Breakup Would Cost U.S.
Consumers $50 Billion. (9/25) Stan Liebowitz, an economics
professor, released an economic analysis of Judge Thomas Jackson's
breakup order in the Microsoft antitrust case, which concluded that,
if the order were implemented, software prices will rise, costing
American consumers at least $50 Billion over three years, and
possibly much more.
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| New Documents |
Liebowitz: An
Expensive Pig in a Poke: Estimating the Cost of the District Court’s
Proposed Breakup of Microsoft, 9/21/. (PDF, ACT).
Calif.: Assembly
Bill 2412 (a bill to impose a sales tax on Internet
retailers vetoed by Gov. Davis on 9/25) (HTML, Calif. Assem.)
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| New and Updated Sections |
Calendar
(updated daily).
News
from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"A remedy is supposed to fix a problem. An antitrust remedy is
supposed to help consumers. The current remedy does neither. Over a
three year period the remedy put forward by Judge Jackson can be
expected to cost American consumers upward of $50 billion in higher
software prices alone, compounded by additional development and
support costs, reduced competition in the server/ workstation
market, a lower quality Windows operating system and an inferior
shopping and utilization experience for PC consumers. The total
price tag will undoubtedly wind up being much larger than this
conservatively estimated $50 billion." Prof. Stan
Liebowitz, regarding Judge Jackson's order to break up
Microsoft. (source)
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