| In Re Unisys |
| 3/9. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (3rdCir) issued its opinion
in In
Re Unisys, a class action filed on behalf of
retirees and disabled former employees of Sperry, Burroughs,
and Unisys against Unisys.
The dispute arose out of Unisys' termination of post
retirement medical plans for retirees and disabled former
employees of the three companies. On appeal were two orders
granting partial summary judgment to the Unisys. Reversed and
remanded. |
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| Spectrum |
| 3/12. March 12 was the deadline to file reply comments with
the FCC in its rule
making proceeding (WT Docket No. 00-230) regarding removing
some regulatory barriers to secondary markets in spectrum
rights. See, for example, reply comments [PDF] by the Software
Defined Radio Forum, El
Paso Global Networks, AT&T,
and the Industrial
Telecommunications Assoc. See, notice
in Federal Register, Dec. 26, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 248, at pages
81475 - 81486. See also, TLJ
story of Nov. 10, 2000. |
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| IP News |
3/12. The USPTO updated
its business
methods patents web page.
2/28. A panel of the WIPO
Arbitration and Mediation Center ruled on Google's complaint against
Namerental.com and Leonard Bensonoff for transfer of the
domain ggoogle.com. The panel found that the domain name is
confusingly similar to a Google trademark, that respondents
have no legitimate interest in the domain name, and that they
registered it in bad faith. The panel ordered that the domain
name be transferred to Google. See, WIPO
opinion. |
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| SEC |
3/9. The SEC filed a civil
complaint in U.S. District Court (SDFl)
against Families Online Corp. (FOL) and its two principals,
Mark Thurman and Robert Fiene, alleging violation of federal
securities laws, including fraud and sale of
unregistered securities. The complaint states that they sold
unregistered of securities of FOL, which they purported would
provide Internet filtering software. The complaint further
states that the defendants made false statements in the FOL
web site. In addition, the USAO
(SDFl) unsealed indictments against Thurman and Fiene
instituting parallel criminal proceedings. See, SEC
release.
3/9. On March 7 the U.S. District Court (NDOhio)
permanently enjoined Lloyd Wollmershauser, who operated a web
site and newsletter called The PennyStockMan, from violating several
sections of the federal securities laws, and to
disgorge $205,000. Defendant used his web site, newsletter and
emails to provide microcap stock recommendations. Defendant
touted the stock of, and made false statements about, a
company in which he owned stock. On March 9 the SEC instituted
an administrative proceeding, and entered an order, against
Wollmershauser, that bars him from participating in any
offering of a penny stock, including acting as a promoter,
finder, or consultant, or inducing the purchase or sale of any
penny stock. The SEC determined that Wollmershauser was an
investment adviser as defined by § 202(a)(11) of the
Investment Advisers Act of 1940. |
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| New Documents |
USCA:
opinion
in In Re Unisys, 3/9 (TXT, USCA).
Privacilla:
report
re government exchange and merging of databases with personal
information, 3/12 (PDF, privacilla).
EU:
transcript
of Zoellick Lamy joint press conference, 3/9 (HTML, EU).
WIPO:
opinion
in ggoogle cybersquatting proceeding, 2/28 (HTML, WIPO). |
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|
| USTR Names Staff |
3/12. USTR Robert
Zoellick announced his key staff appointments. See, release.
Peter Davidson will be General Counsel. He was VP for
Congressional Affairs at Qwest.
Previously, he worked as General Counsel and Policy Director
to House Majority Leader Dick
Armey (R-TX). He has also been General Counsel and Policy
Director for the House
Republican Conference, an attorney in the Department of
Justice's Office
of Legal Counsel, and law clerk to Judge John Porfilio
(10th Circuit).
M.B. Oglesby will be Chief of Staff. He was Deputy
Chief of Staff, and Assistant to the President for Legislative
Affairs, in the Reagan White House. He has also been an SVP at
RJR Nabisco, COO of Cassidy & Associates, and P/CEO of the
Association of American Railroads. He has also been a minority
counsel to the House Commerce Committee.
John Veroneau will be Assistant USTR for Congressional
Affairs. He was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Legislative Affairs. Prior to that he was Chief of Staff to Sen. Susan Collins
(R-ME), and Legislative Director to Sen. William Frist (R-TN)
and former Sen. William Cohen (R-ME).
Heidi Nelson will be Special Assistant. She worked on
the Bush Cheney campaign, focusing on economic and tax policy.
From 1995 - 1998, she was an investment banker with J.P.
Morgan, specializing in Latin American mergers and
acquisitions. She also worked for former Sen. John Ashcroft
(R-MO).
Matthew Rees will be Chief Speechwriter. He was a
reporter for The Weekly Standard, The Economist, and The New
Republic, and an editor and writer for the editorial page of
The Wall Street Journal.
Steven Schrage will be Executive Secretary. He worked
for the Bush Cheney campaign and transition. He was previously
Counsel to the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the Senate for Foreign
Relations Committee and senior foreign policy and trade
counsel for former Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-GA). He will be
responsible for coordinating and overseeing all policy
materials and briefings for the USTR and for interactions with
other government agencies.
Elizabeth Gianini will be Deputy Chief of Staff. She
was a public affairs consultant with law firm of Foley & Lardner in
Tallahassee, Florida. Prior to that she was Deputy Executive
Director of the Republican Party of Florida.
Sarah Hanlon will be Confidential Assistant. She is a
fundraiser for Republican Senators.
Carolyn Hensarling will Director of Scheduling. She was
Executive Assistant and Scheduler to Rep. Henry Bonilla
(R-TX). |
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| Computer Crime |
3/5. David Roesch plead guilty in U.S. District Court (SDCal)
to one count of computer fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 1030(a)(4). Roesch used a computer to steal computerized
customer telephone billing data from his employer,
Worldxchange Communications. He then created a company which
he used to bill many of the customers he identified from the
stolen billing data. See, release.
3/7. Michael Trollinger and John Hechendorn plead guilty to identity
theft, possession of stolen mail, and possession of a
counterfeit postal key in U.S. District Court (WDWash).
Defendants did not use the Internet, computers, or electronic
databases to commit identity theft. They did it an old
fashioned way: by stealing other people's USPS mail. See, release. |
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|
| FCC |
| 3/12. The FCC's Mass Media
Bureau approved 32 long pending applications to transfer
broadcast radio licenses. The Telecom Act of 1996 eliminated
the limit on the number of radio stations a single entity
could own nationally, and significantly relaxed the local
market limits. Nevertheless, former FCC Chairman William
Kennard "flagged", and hence, delayed, many
compliant license transfer applications. Michael Powell,
the new FCC Chairman, wrote in a statement
that "Congress established quite plainly the number of
stations that could be commonly owned in a local market -- and
the proposed transfers in all of the flagged cases
comply with these numerical caps." |
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|
| Quotes of the Day |
"And what exactly was the flagging system that is today
being abandoned? No one knows. No rules for flagging were ever
written; no rules were proposed for public comment; no rules
were reviewed by the Commission; no rules were approved by the
Commission; no rules were available for parties to review and
to understand whether their transaction complied or did not
comply with those rules; and no rules were available to
challenge in court. There were no rules. There was no rule of
law."
Harold Furchtgott-Roth, FCC Commissioner, in a March 12
statement.
"The Bureau's retreat from the Commission's past practice
is unjustified."
Gloria Tristani, FCC Commissioner, in a March 12 statement. |
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| Privacy |
| 3/12. Privacilla.org
released a report
[23 pages in PDF] titled "Privacy and Federal Agencies:
Government Exchange and Merger of Citizens' Personal
Information is Systematic and Routine." It stated that
"For the 18-month period from September 1999 to February
2001, federal agencies announced 47 times that they would
exchange and merge personal information from databases about
American citizens. And these programs are only the tip of an
information - trading iceberg. The Computer Matching and
Privacy Protection Act, which causes agencies to report these
activities in the Federal Register, applies only to a small
subset of the federal agency programs that exchange and merge
databases of personal information." This report was
released the day before the FTC holds its one day
workshop on how the private sector merges and exchanges
databases of personal information. See, agenda
of FTC meeting. The report concludes that the government poses
a greater threat to privacy than does the private sector. |
|
|
| Today |
8:00 AM. The Federal Trade
Commission will host a day long public workshop to explore
how businesses merge and exchange consumer information
and how such information is used commercially. See, Notice
in Federal Register. Location: FTC, Commission Meeting Room
(432), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC.
9:00 AM. FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky will make opening
remarks at the FTC's Information Marketplace Workshop.
10:00 AM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing which it describes
as "promoting technology and educations issues relating
to turbocharging the school buses on the information
highway." Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building. The
witnesses will be:
• Marybeth Peters (Register of Copyrights)
• Gerald Heeger (U. Maryland)
• Allan Adler (Assoc. of Am. Publishers)
• Richard Siddoway (Electronic H.S.)
• Paul LeBlanc (Marlboro College)
• Gary Carpentier (American U.)
12:15 PM. The Federal
Communications Bar Association will host a brown bag lunch
on the "Role of Wireless Technologies in Addressing
Universal Access in Developing Countries." The speakers
will be Cecily Cohen, Gonzalo de Dios, Adam Krinsky and Mindel
De La Torre. RSVP to Kent Bressie.
Location: Wilkinson Barker
& Knauer, 2300 N St, NW, 7th Floor, Washington DC. |
|
|
| More News |
3/9. USTR Robert
Zoellick and EU Commissioner for Trade Pascal
Lamy held a joint press conference. See, transcript.
3/8. Rep. Bob
Goodlatte (R-VA) was assigned to an additional House
committee: Education
and Workforce. See, Goodlatte release.
Goodlatte already sits on the Judiciary Committee
and its Subcommittee on Courts, Internet, and Intellectual
Property, as well as the Agriculture Committee. He is also a
Co-chair of the Internet
Caucus. Goodlatte brings an active interest in technology
and communications issues to all of his committee assignments. |
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