Oct. 16, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 42. |
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| News Briefs |
10/13. The BXA
published changes to its Export Administration Regulations (EARs)
for high performance computers (HPCs) in the Federal Register.
The new regulations
provide that HPCs with a composite theoretical performance (CTP) of
up to 45,000 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) can
be exported to Computer Tier 2 countries under License Exception CTP,
and HPCs with a CTP up to 28,000 MTOPS can be exported Computer Tier
3 destinations under License Exception CTP. The civil-military
distinction for computer Tier 3 end- users and end-uses is removed.
Effective February 26, 2001, this rule also raises the advance
notification level for HPC exports to Computer Tier 3 countries to
28,000 MTOPS. These new regulations took effect on October 13. See,
Federal Register, at Vol. 65, No. 1999, pages 60852-60857.
10/13. Bill Clinton issued a Memorandum
for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies regarding Third
Generation (3G) wireless technology. "Neither the first nor
the second generation of wireless technologies were designed for
multi-media services, such as the Internet. Third generation
wireless technologies will bring broadband to hand-held
devices," wrote Clinton. He continued that "radio
spectrum must be made available for this new use". To this
end, "Federal Government agencies and the private sector must
work together to determine what spectrum could be made available for
third generation wireless systems ... by July 2001". He also
encouraged the FCC "to initiate a rule-making proceeding".
See also, statement
by Clinton, and statements
by Greg Rohde (NTIA),
Linton Wells (Defense Dept.), Martin Baily (CEA), Susan Ness
(D-FCC), and Bill Kennard (D-FCC). In addition, Clinton's Council
of Economic Advisors released a report
[PDF] titled "The Economic Impact of Third-Generation
Wireless."
10/13. FTC Chairman Robert
Pitofsky spoke at the National
Association of Manufacturers regarding antitrust regulation
and business to business (B2B) ventures. He praised B2Bs for
their potential to increase market efficiencies. However, he
cautioned that the FTC would enforce the antitrust laws if any B2Bs
are used to "facilitate price coordination" or abuse their
market power. He added the policy of the FTC is to "protect the
marketplace, and don't undermine the incentives to innovate."
He concluded that the argument "We are high tech. The antitrust
laws do not apply to us" does not fly at the FTC.
10/13. Justin Lilley, the outgoing Telecom Counsel for the House Commerce Committee (HCC),
has been named Vice President, Government Relations, for News Corporation. For years
Lilley has sat to the right of Rep. Billy
Tauzin (R-LA), Chairman of the House Telecom Subcommittee, at
hearings and markups regarding major telecom and e-commerce bills.
Lilley previously worked for the law office of Kellogg Huber. He
joined the minority staff of the HCC in 1988. Recently, he worked on
the Satellite Home Viewer Improvements Act, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Electronic Signatures in Global and
National Commerce Act (ESIGN). He also worked on HR
1858, the HCC's bill to weaken intellectual property rights in
databases (which passed the HCC in Aug. 1999, but went no further). Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA),
Chairman of the HCC, is retiring at the end of the 106th Congress.
Fox Corp. is involved in motion pictures and TV programming; TV
broadcasting, satellite, and cable; publication of newspapers,
magazines, and books; and Internet content. Its major properties
include Fox Broadcasting, Fox News, Fox Interactive, Twentieth
Century Fox, BSkyB, London Times, London Sun, New York Post, Harper
Collins, and the LA Dodgers. Rupert Murdoch and his family own about
30% of News Corp.
10/13. Bill Clinton announced his intent to nominate Gregory Frazier
as the USTR Special Trade
Negotiator for Agriculture and Food Policy. Agriculture trade issues
are sometimes intertwined with other trade issues that affect high
tech industries. See, release.
10/13. The ICANN
published a statement
regarding the status of TLD applications. The update
states that ICANN is in the process of posting the non-confidential
portions of the applications. See, links to applications.
10/12. The House Commerce
Committee issued its report on HR 3011, the Truth in Telephone
Billing Act. See, House
Report 106-978. The bill would add a new section 258(c) to the
Communications Act requiring telecommunications carriers to identify
on each subscriber's monthly statement: (1) the government program
for which the carrier is being taxed, and the government entity
imposing the tax; (2) the form in which the tax is assessed (e.g.,
per subscriber, per line, percentage of revenues); and (3) a
separate line-item that identifies the dollar amount of the
subscriber's bill that is being used by the carrier to pay for the
government program. That is, phone companies would be required to
tell their customers that they are being taxed to pay for the e-rate.
10/12. The FCC amended its rules
regarding disclosure of non-public information by the FCC, to
require that parties regulated or practicing before the FCC to
return any documents improperly leaked by the FCC. "This Order
would seem to help curtail the flood of document leaks," said Comm'r Powell (R) in a statement.
"The regular pattern of leaks of pre-decisional written
material is intolerable." In particular, the Washington Post
has been reporting on confidential pre-decisional documents in the AOL
Time Warner antitrust merger review proceeding. Chairman Kennard (D) also
released a statement;
he said that "While this requirement cannot prevent a leak, it
will inform us that a leak has occurred." Comm'r Furchtgott-Roth
(R) issued a dissent:
"Rather than burdening the communications industry and bar with
yet another layer of regulation, the Commission should first enforce
the existing rule. After all, leaks spring from the inside, not the
outside, of this building." See, FCC
release.
10/11. ADE
filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (DDel) against KLA-Tencor
Corp. alleging patent infringement. ADE, which makes
automated metrology and inspection systems for wafer manufacturing
and the computer disk drive industry, alleges infringement of U.S.
Patent No. 6,118,525, titled "Wafer Inspection System for
Distinguishing Pits and Particles". See, ADE release.
10/11. iNoise.com, based in
Vancouver BC, announced that its has developed a peer to peer
distributed networking system that allows users to "share"
music. It provides for the streaming of music files in real time,
rather than file copying, as is done by Napster. iNoise thus asserts that
there is no copyright infringement. See, release.
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 Documents |
BXA:
changes
to regulations re export of high performance computers,
10/13 (HTML, GPO).
Clinton:
Memorandum
re more spectrum for 3G wireless, 10/13 (HTML, WH).
CEA:
Report
on economic impact of 3G wireless, 10/13 (PDF, WH).
HCC:
House
Report 106-978 on HR 3011 re notifying phone customers of
e-rate charges, 10/12 (HTML, HCC).
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| Quote of the Day |
"B2B is just one illustration of the general challenge that we
face in dealing with high tech. And if I were to reduce that
challenge to a sentence, it is: Protect the marketplace, and don't
undermine the incentives for innovation. And that is what this is
about. The incentives for innovation seems to be very important in
this area. On the other hand, you don't want people taking advantage
of the fact that -- claiming that 'Well. We're high tech. The
antitrust laws don't apply to us.' That is not an acceptable
defense."
FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky on antitrust laws and B2B
exchanges.
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