Oct. 27, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 51. |
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| News Briefs |
10/26. The House and Senate remain in session. Several major tax and
appropriations bills, which may serve as vehicles for passage of
technology related provisions, are still under consideration.
10/26. The House passed HR 2614, a large tax package that includes,
among other things, the Foreign Sales Corporation bill. The
current FSC tax regime, and the replacement language contained in HR
2614, benefit high tech companies that sell goods and services
abroad. The WTO recently held that the
current FSC tax regime constitutes an illegal export subsidy.
Passage of the replacement language would, at least temporarily,
avert a potential trade war with the EU, in which the EU might
target for retaliation major U.S. tech exporters, such as Microsoft
and Intel. There is little debate in the U.S. over whether the FSC
bill should be passed. However, the underlying tax bill to which it
is attached is being delayed by pre-election posturing and publicity
seeking. HR 2614 passed on a largely partisan vote of 237 to 174.
203 Republicans and 33 Democrats voted in favor. See, Roll
Call No. 560. The White House press office released a statement
that said that Bill Clinton will veto the bill. "As the
President made clear today, the majority in Congress put forward a
partisan legislative tax proposal ... If H.R. 2614 reaches his desk,
he will be forced to veto it." Earlier in the day, Bill Clinton
sent a letter
to House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-MS) about the tax bill. He stated that "While we
have already reached substantial agreement in important areas, such
as replacement of the Foreign Sales Corporations regime, your
legislation has substantial flaws in several key areas." The
bill also contains a variety of tax cuts, raises the minimum wage by
$1, and restores Medicare cuts for health care providers. The Senate
has debated, but not yet voted on, this bill.
10/26. The House passed HR
4942, an appropriations bill which contains funding for
the Commerce, Justice, and State (CJS) departments. This bill
includes USPTO funding. At issue is how much of the fees
collected by the USPTO
will be diverted to pay for other government programs. USPTO
Director Todd Dickinson stated in a speech
on Friday, Oct. 20, that the USPTO needs all of the fees that it
collects to conduct its operations. Opponents of the diversion call
it a "tax on innovation." The bill also contains a
provision limiting the FCC's
authority to grant low power FM licenses. The measure is
supported by members of the House
Commerce Committee, the National
Association of Broadcasters, and National
Public Radio. The bill also contains a Social Security number
privacy protection provision; however, some privacy groups
oppose the measure for being "riddled with loopholes and
exceptions." See, opposition letter.
The bill passed on a partisan vote of 206 to 198. See,
Roll Call No. 562. Bill Clinton wrote a letter
to House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-MS) stating that he will veto the bill. The
Senate has not yet passed the bill.
10/26. Neither the House nor the Senate have passed the Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. This
bill may include a provision mandating the use of porn filtering
technology by schools and libraries that receive e-rate
subsidies. Opponents, including the ALA and ACLU,
continue to lobby against the measure. Supporters are confident that
it will remain in the bill when passed.
10/26. The U.S. Court of
Appeals (DCCir) released an Notice
[PDF] in the Microsoft
antitrust appeal in which it stated: "Upon
consideration of the parties' responses to the Court's October 18,
2000, Notice, the Court has decided not to proceed with the review
session described in that Notice." On Oct. 18 the Court issued a notice
requesting the parties to respond to its proposal that Michael Hites,
CTO
of the Illinois Institute of Technology, conduct a review session on
the "fundamentals of automation". On Oct. 25 the DOJ
filed a Response
in which it sought to limit Hites' role. Microsoft filed a Response
in which it pointed out that Hite has ties to Microsoft adversary Sun Microsystems.
10/26. The FTC released its long awaited
report on its June 29-30 workshop on electronic B2Bs and
antitrust law enforcement. Susan DeSanti, the FTC's lead person
on B2Bs, and David Balto, also of the FTC, will participate in a
panel on this topic at 8:30 AM on Friday, Oct. 27, at the U.S.
Capitol. The report is published in the FTC web site as 7 separate
PDF documents.
• Table of
Contents
• Introduction
and Executive Summary
• Overview of
B2B Electronic Marketplaces
• Efficiencies
of B2B Electronic Marketplaces
• Antitrust
Analysis of B2Bs
• Appendix
A: Workshop Panelists
• Appendix
B: Written Statements
See also, FTC
release.
10/26. FCC Chairman Wm. Kennard
released a statement
regarding AT&T's restructuring plan. He said: " Over
60 million American consumers rely on AT&T's long distance phone
service. The Commission has the authority and the responsibility to
ensure that this restructuring does not adversely impact the quality
of consumer service, competition in the telecommunications markets,
and the integrity of the telecommunications network. I will continue
to closely question the company about today's announcement and will
insist that consumers' interests are protected." On Oct. 25, AT&T announced that it would form
four separate publicly traded companies: AT&T Broadband (cable
TV and broadband services company), AT&T Wireless, AT&T
Business, and AT&T Consumer. See, AT&T
release. Meanwhile, MCI WorldCom
CEO Bernie Ebbers indicated that his company may restructure
also. He stated that "we have intensified our efforts to become
a more business-focused communications company. Our planning efforts
to restructure our company into a data and Internet focused,
high-growth business and a voice-based, high cash flow business are
substantially complete. We look forward to communicating the details
of this exciting new strategy on November 1, 2000." See, release.
10/26. SBC
filed §271
petitions with the FCC to provide long
distance service in Kansas and Oklahoma. Both the Kansas Corporation Commission
(KCC) and the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission (OCC) support the requests. The FCC has
already approved SBC's request to provide long distance service in
Texas. See, SBC
release and USTA
release.
10/26. The FTC held the first of two
sessions of a two day public symposium to examine warranty
protection for software and other high-tech goods and services
marketed to consumers. The symposium continues on Friday, Oct. 27 at
8:30 AM at the FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC. See,
FTC
release.
10/26. Bill Clinton announced his intent to nominate Isaac Hunt as a SEC Commissioner. He
has been a SEC Commissioner since Feb. 1996. See, WH
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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| Breaking News |
The Wall Street Journal reports on Dec. 27 that
"Microsoft Corp. and U.S. authorities are investigating an
extraordinary computer break-in at Microsoft's headquarters by
hackers believed to have stolen the blueprints to its most valuable
software ..." See, full
story.
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| New Documents |
FTC:
report on B2Bs and antitrust law, 10/26 (PDF, FTC)
• Table of
Contents
• Introduction
and Executive Summary
• Overview of
B2B Electronic Marketplaces
• Efficiencies
of B2B Electronic Marketplaces
• Antitrust
Analysis of B2Bs
• Appendix
A: Workshop Panelists
• Appendix
B: Written Statements
USCA:
Notice
cancelling technology review session for the Court of Appeals in the
Microsoft case, 10/26 (PDF, USCA).
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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 |
"B2Bs can offer tremendous efficiencies. They can help reduce
administrative costs, cut search costs, open new markets, check
unmonitored corporate spending, aid efficient joint purchasing,
facilitate supply chain management, and facilitate efficient
collaborations for such projects as joint product design, among
other things. B2Bs may also raise a wide variety of antitrust
issues, depending on their structure, bylaws, operating rules,
contracts with participants, ownership and management, the
characteristics of the markets in which they operate and that they
may affect, and other factors. Workshop panelists reported, however,
that the antitrust concerns that B2Bs may raise are not new and
agreed that B2Bs are amenable to traditional antitrust
analysis."
Federal Trade Commission, from report titled "Entering
the 21st Century: Competition Policy in the World of B2B Electronic
Marketplaces: A Report by Federal Trade Commission Staff," at
Part 3, page 1.
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