| New Documents |
USCA:
opinion
in Cook v. Robbins re copyright, 11/16 (PDF, USCA).
EPIC: Carnivore
document which reflects capture of unfiltered Internet
traffic (HTML/GIF, EPIC).
DOJ:
Competitve
Impact Statement in Clear Channel - AMFM merger action,
11/15 (HTML, DOJ).
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| New and Updated Sections |
Calendar
News
from Around the Web
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| Quote of the Day |
"Never before has the United States had to enact legislation --
and particularly legislation in the sensitive field of taxation
policy -- in order to implement the findings of a dispute settlement
panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We believe that this
legislation specifically addresses the concerns raised by the WTO
Appellate Body and will be found to be WTO-compliant."
Bill Clinton, on signing HR 4986, the FSC replacement bill on
Nov. 16. (source)
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| News Briefs |
11/16. Bill Clinton signed HR 4986, the Foreign Sales Corporation
Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000. See, Clinton
statement.
11/16. The U.S. and Singapore announced the launch of negotiations
for a U.S. Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA). USTR
Barshefsky stated that "It will remove the remaining barriers
to trade between our countries, and help us take full advantage of
the new opportunities unfolding through communications, the Internet
and high technology." The USTR release also stated that it will
"cover substantially all services sectors, help to develop electronic
commerce, protect intellectual property rights, and
include safeguards and dispute settlement mechanisms". See, USTR
release. These trade negotiations are also scheduled to include
non trade related social issues, such as labor and environmental
matters. This aspect of the negotiations likely would be continued
by a Gore administration, but not by a Bush administration.
11/16. EPIC announced
that its review of documents regarding the FBI's Internet
surveillance system named Carnivore reveals that it has
broader capability than the FBI has previously claimed. For example,
EPIC stated that one
document which it obtained under a FOIA request states that a
machine with Carnivore installed "could reliably capture and
archive all unfiltered traffic to the internal hard drive ..."
In contrast, the FBI has asserted that Carnivore is only capable of
capturing and archiving "unfiltered" Internet traffic. An
team from the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI)
selected, that was picked by the Justice Dept., is scheduled to give
a draft "technical report" on the Carnivore system to the
Justice Dept., but not the public or the Congress, on Friday, Nov.
17. See, EPIC
release. Background: testimony of
FBI Asst. Dir. Donald Kerr before the House Constitution
Subcommittee on July 24, 2000; FBI's
Carnivore web page; and letter
from House Republicans to Janet Reno urging suspension of Carnivore.
11/16. Michael Aisenberg, Director of Public Policy for Network Solutions, spoke at a Federal Communications Bar Association
luncheon on "The Future of the On-Line Revolution." He
reviewed a wide range of current issues. On online privacy, he
stated that EU safe harbor "is essentially unworkable" and
"it was perhaps a mistake to attempt to negotiate a common
ground between two essentially conflicting predicates" (opt in
and opt out). On Internet growth, he stated that in the U.S.
"we are going to rapidly tap out that potential", but that
the growth potential in Asia is enormous. He predicted that Asia's
Internet community "will dwarf the size of the Internet
community here in the U.S.", and this means that "the U.S.
government is going to have to give." He also stated that
"the traditional regulatory schemes such as exited in the U.S.
before 1984 and the 96 Act ... is essentially a barrier to the
growth of the Internet."
11/16. The Social Security
Administration (SSA) published in the Federal Register a notice
announcing a computer matching program that SSA plans to conduct
with the IRS. [Federal Register,
Nov. 16, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 222, Pages 69358 - 69359.]
11/16. The SEC promoted several
persons to the position of Senior Assistant Chief Accountant,
including:
• Dennis Muse (Office of Computer and OnLine Services).
• Carlos Pacho (Office of Telecommunications).
• Margery Reich (Office of Electronics and Machinery).
See, SEC
release.
11/16. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (9thCir) issued its opinion
[PDF] in Wade
Cook v. Anthony Robbins, a copyright infringement
case. Cook wrote a book titled the Wall Street Money Machine, which
was based on his experiences as a cab driver. It spent 18 months on
the New York Times business best seller list. Robbins is in the
business of providing investment seminars. Cook sued Robbins in U.S.
District Court (WDWa) alleging
copyright infringement based on use of Cook's taxi cab expressions
in Robbins' seminars. The jury returned a special verdict finding
that Cook held a valid copyright, that Robbins infringed it, that it
was not fair use, and awarding $655,900 in damages. However, the
USDC entered judgment for Robbins as a matter of law on the grounds
that Cook did not prove that Robbins' profits were attributable to
the infringing use of taxi jargon. Cook appealed. Robbins cross
appealed on the copyright validity and fair use issues. The three
judge USCA panel reversed and remanded. The USCA held
that the USDC erred in holding that there must be profits
attributable to the infringement. The USCA upheld the USDC on the
validity and fair use issues.
11/16. Microsoft announced
that it filed two complaints in U.S. District Court (DMd)
against two software resellers, Intellect Computers Inc. of
Rockville and Charles County Computers Inc. of Waldorf, alleging the
distribution of counterfeit software products. See, MSFT
release.
11/15. The European
Patent Office's (EPO) Board of Patent Appeals published 38
decisions. See, list
of decisions, with links to PDF copies of each, that were
decided from June through Oct.
11/15. The Antitrust Division
of the U.S. Justice Dept. filed with the U.S.
District Court (DC) its Competitve
Impact Statement relating to the proposed Final Judgment in the
civil proceeding pertaining to the merger of Clear Channel Communications
and AMFM. The combined operations include more than 900 radio
stations, 19 TVstations and over 700,000 outdoor advertising
displays in 40 countries. Operations also include the Clear Channel
Internet Group, which operates web sites with streaming online casts
of on-air programming. On Aug. 29 the DOJ filed a complaint,
proposed consent decree, and related pleadings in U.S. District
Court to put into effect an agreement with the merging parties that
they would divest AMFM's partial ownership interest in Lamar
Advertising Company and divest an additional 14 radio stations in 5
markets. See, Stipulation and
Order and DOJ release.
Clear Channel had also previously sold 122 radio stations to obtain
FCC approval of license transfers. See, FCC
release of Aug. 15. See also, Clear
Channel release of Aug. 28 [PDF] regarding divestiture of
stations and Clear
Channel release of Aug. 30 [PDF] regarding closing the merger.
11/15. NCTA CEO Robert
Sachs gave a speech
at Trinity College in NYC in which he addressed regulation of cable
and broadcast TV. "All this raises a question as to how long
broadcasters should continue to receive preferential regulatory
treatment over cable programming networks. Indeed, as broadcasters
cut back on political coverage and are relieved of their few
remaining public interest responsibilities, it is increasingly
difficult to justify a regulatory regime that favors broadcasters.
Long ago, broadcasters were granted free use of the public spectrum,
now worth tens of billions of dollars, in order to distribute their
signals for free to the public. That was in an era when broadcasters
had public interest responsibilities such as the Fairness Doctrine
and license renewal requirements, which have long since been swept
away." He added that "the so-called 'free' major
commercial broadcast networks now seek to charge the public to
receive their signals" by charging cable and DBS providers for
retransmission of their signals. He also stated that "The
Presidential election could have its greatest impact on
communications policy through the next President’s appointments to
the Federal Communications Commission."
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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Nov. 21
The USTR's Industry
Sector Advisory Committee on Services will hold a meeting. The
meeting will be open to the public from 9:00 to 10:00 AM, and
closed to the public from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM. See, notice.
Location: Department of Commerce, Conference Room B841-A, 14th
Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.,
Washington DC. The agenda for the public portion of the
meeting includes:
• Review of ISAC Mission to Geneva.
• Overview of GATS Work Program.
• Review of Preparation of GATS Council for Trade in
Services Meeting Dec. 6.
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