Nov. 1, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 54. |
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| News Briefs |
10/31. Bertelsmann
and Napster announced the
formation of a "strategic alliance." The Napster music
file copying system will be developed into a "secure
membership- based service" which provides "payments to
rightsholders, including recording artists, songwriters, recording
companies and music publishers." Bertelsmann will loan money to
Napster for this purpose, obtain equity in Napster, and upon
implementation, dismiss its legal claims against Napster. See, Napster
release and Bertelsmann
release. Hillary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA, had
this to say: "Today's announcement ... makes clear that Napster
has come to the same conclusion we have been urging from the start:
that it is better to work with the creative community than against
it. This is a welcome development. We welcome anyone's decision to
become a legitimate player in the online music industry, building a
business based on licensed uses of copyrighted works." However,
Rosen added that this "does not bring an end to the court case.
There are multiple plaintiffs in addition to BMG; and BMG itself has
said that it won't withdraw its complaint against Napster until they
actually implement a legitimate business model."
10/31. WTO Director General Mike
Moore gave a speech
on e-commerce and GATS in Geneva. He stated that "We are
not in the business of regulating the Internet and we never shall
be. The huge potential of electronic commerce may be yet stifled by
over-regulation and interference by governments. But if that
happens, it will be despite, not because of, the WTO." He also
discussed the WTO agreement on trade in services, or GATS. He stated
that "it contains the disciplines which guarantee the right to
do international business electronically. As far as international
trade is concerned, electronic commerce essentially means two
things. First, it is an important channel for retailing and
wholesaling goods and services. Rights to provide retail and
wholesale distribution are covered by the GATS. Second, and probably
more important, electronic commerce is the delivery of services
direct to the consumer in the form of digitised information. The
GATS covers the delivery of services by any means, including
electronic." Moore spoke at the ITC Briefing Session on
E-Commerce. See also, agenda.
10/31. The FTC and other government
agencies held another in a series of press conferences to announce
their latest actions against persons and entities engaging in fraud
on the Internet. See, FTC release.
10/31. The FCC issued a press
release about its bi-annual report on the deployment of high-speed
Internet services in the U.S. It states that "High-speed lines
connecting homes and small businesses to the Internet increased by
57% during the first half of 2000". The study measured the
change from the end of 1999 to June 30, 2000. DSL service grew 157%
to "almost one million homes"; cable grew 59% to 2.2
million; and, optical fiber, satellite, fixed wireless, and other
technologies increased 18%. The study is based on data collected in
FCC Form 477, See, release
(MS Word).
10/31. The FCC's Office of
Engineering and Technology and the Center for Global Security
Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of the University
of California held a day long conference on network, computer, and
e-commerce security. David Farber, the FCC's Chief Technologist,
presided. The topics addressed included network security threats,
including backhoes, denial of service attacks, and buggy code; host
security, including firewalls; PKI
and end-to-end security for e-commerce; cybercrime legislation;
government research and funding; and government networks.
10/31. Clinton spoke to reporters about his veto of the Treasury
Department appropriations bill, which also includes the repeal of
the 3% tax on telephones. The tax was instituted as a
temporary luxury tax in 1898 to fund the Spanish American War.
Clinton apparently seeks a replay of the 1995 government shutdown in
order to create a political issue in the final week before the
general election. Clinton then left Washington DC for a series of
campaign events. See, transcript.
Tom Wheeler, CEO of the CTIA,
released a statement
in which he said that "the repeal of the tax on talking has
broad bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
Therefore, we see this as only a temporary setback." USTA CEO
Gary Lytle also released a statement: "We
applaud Congress for passing legislation to repeal the tax, but we
are disappointed that the President passed up an opportunity to
lower telecommunications taxes, which in addition to being
regressive, are harmful to the growth of technology."
10/31. MP3.com, an Internet music
company beleaguered by claims of violation of copyright laws,
announced that it has appointed retired California Court of Appeal
Justice Howard Wiener to its board of directors. See, release.
10/31. Microsoft published
an essay
on Internet voting. It argued that "Internet voting
could significantly reduce the cost of counting, tabulating and
processing votes" and "stimulate public interest in
government". However, it also pointed out that "Some
critics of Internet voting are concerned that it will increase the
participation of affluent voters who have convenient access to the
Web from their homes or offices, further widening the voter turnout
gap between rich and poor."
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 |
Moore:
speech
re WTO, GATS and e-commerce, 10/31 (HTML, WTO).
FCC:
notice
re Dec. 6 meeting of Technology Advisory Council re software defined
radios, spectrum management, wave division multiplexing, high speed
packet/cell switching, and other topics, 11/1 (TXT, FedReg).
|
| New and Updated Sections |
Calendar
(updated daily).
News
from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"Person to person file sharing has captured the imagination of
millions of people worldwide with its ease of use, global selection
of content, and community features. Napster has pointed the way for
a new direction for music distribution, and we believe it will form
the basis of important and exciting new business models for the
future of the music industry. We invite other record and publishing
companies, artists and other industry members to participate in the
development of a secure and membership based service."
Thomas Middelhoff, CEO of Bertelsmann.
(source)
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