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Tech Law Journal |
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| News, records, and analysis of legislation, litigation, and regulation affecting the computer, internet, communications and information technology sectors | |
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6/15. The SEC filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (SDNY) against Shig Ahn for fraud in connection with an online trading scheme. This is what the SEC says Ahn did: he placed cross trades between online accounts he maintained at two different brokerage firms by carefully timing his orders and routing them through an electronic communications network (ECN); he wrote over $350,000 in bad checks to fund one account, and then repeatedly bought and sold three thinly-traded, over-the-counter stocks to deliberately create a loss in that account and a corresponding profit in the second account, and, he tried to take cash out of the winning account. See, SEC release. 6/15. Al Gore named Wm. Daley to be his new campaign chairman, replacing Tony Coelho, who was suffering from health and ethical problems. As head of the Commerce Dept., Daley has been one of the most pro high tech members of the Clinton Gore administration. See, DOC release and Gore release. 6/15. AOL submitted a proposal to the IETF regarding how it would open access to its instant messaging service. The FTC recently began investigating whether the service violates antitrust laws. 6/15. AT&T and MediaOne completed their merger with the filing of a certificate of merger with the office of the Delaware Secretary of State. With the addition of MediaOne’s 5 million cable subscribers, AT&T becomes the country’s largest cable operator, with about 16 million customers. Its systems pass nearly 28 million homes. The FCC approved the deal on June 5. See, AT&T release. 6/15. Microsoft filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals its response to the DOJ's June 14 motion for dismissal of Microsoft’s motion for leave to file a motion for stay pending appeal. 6/15. The SIIA released a paper titled Internet Identity Theft. 6/15. The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property held an oversight hearing titled "Copyrighted Webcast Programming on the Internet." See, prepared statements of Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), Marybeth Peters (Copyright Office), Jack Valenti (MPAA), Thomas Ostertag (Major League Baseball), Jonathan Potter (Digital Media Assoc.), Ian Mccallum (iCraveTV), Peggy Miles (International Webcasting Assoc.), Hilary Rosen (RIAA), Edward Fritts (NAB), Dean Kay (ASCAP), Charles Moore (Radioactive Media Partners), and Scott Purcell (www.com). 6/15. The House Commerce Committee's Telecom Subcommittee held a legislative hearing on HR 3125, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999. 6/15. FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky gave a speech in Washington DC in which he argued that 110 year old antitrust principles designed for smokestack industries should be applied to present day intellectual property based high tech companies. He stated: "An approach that starts from the point that a patent holder does not have to sell or license to anyone, and proceeds from that unchallenged assumption to the rule that it therefore can condition its sales or licenses in any way it sees fit, (with tie-in sales as the sole antitrust exception), would be an unwise and unfortunate departure from the traditional approach in this area." 6/14. The House Appropriations Committee marked up the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary approps bill for FY2001. The FCC is funded at $207 Million, $29 M below the President's request. The FTC, which is seeking to beef up its activities pertaining to high tech antitrust, Internet fraud, and online privacy, is funded at $134.8 M, $10 M more than FY2000, but $29 M below the President's request. The bill also diverts $295 M of USPTO user fees to other government programs. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), Chairman of the Courts and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, may fight this on the House floor. 6/14. The Senate Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee held a hearing on S 2454 IS, a bill to to authorize low-power television stations to use their spectrum to provide high-speed Internet access to subscribers. See, prepared statements of Roy Stewart, (FCC), Larry Morton (Community Broadcasters Assoc.), and Dean Moseley (Accelernet). 6/14. The House approved the conference report on S 761, the electronic signatures bill, by a vote of 426 to 4. Senate passage, and signature by the President, are expected shortly. 6/14. The House Commerce Committee approved by a unanimous voice vote an amendment in the nature of a substitute to HR 3113, the Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act of 1999. 6/14. The House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology approved by voice vote HR 4049, the Hutchinson-Moran privacy protection commission bill. 6/14. The DOJ filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals opposing Microsoft's motion for stay filed with that court. The DOJ asserts that the motion is premature. 6/13. The DOJ's Antitrust Division advised the FCC that SBC's § 271 application to provide long distance service in Texas should be granted. See, DOJ release. See also, submission by SBC to FCC. 6/13. The DOJ filed with the U.S. District Court its motion for certification of direct appeal to the Supreme Court, and its proposed order certifying direct appeal. The motion is brought pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 29. 6/13. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing titled "Computer Insecurities at DOE Headquarters: DOE’s Failure to Get Its Own Cyber House in Order." See, prepared statements of Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), Glenn Podonsky (Office of Independent Oversight and Performance Assurance, Department of Energy) and Eugene Habiger (Office of Security and Emergency Operations, Dept. of Energy). 6/13. The Senate Commerce Committee held another hearing on Internet privacy and profiling by online advertising companies. See, prepared statements of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Jodie Bernstein (FTC), Jules Polonetsky (DoubleClick), Daniel Jaye (Engage Tech.), Marc Rotenberg (EPIC), Richard Smith, and Orson Swindle (FTC). [Commissioner Swindle did not testify in person. All links are to PDF files in the Commerce Committee web site, except Rotenberg's, which is to an HTML file in the EPIC web site.] 6/13. The House Commerce Committee's Telecom Subcommittee held a hearing on two bills: HR 3100, the Know Your Caller Act of 1999, and HR 3180, the Telemarketing Victim Protection Act. 6/13. The House Science Committee held a hearing on Science, Math, Engineering and Technology Education in K-12, and HR 4272, The National Science Education Enhancement Act. 6/13. The House Commerce Committee's Finance Subcommittee held a hearing on converting the exchanges to decimal pricing. See, prepared statements of Rep. Mike Oxley (R-OH), Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), Arthur Levitt (SEC), Richard Grasso (NYSE), and Frank Zarb (NASD). The SEC ordered the exchanges and Nasdaq to submit a plan to phase in decimal pricing for listed stocks and certain options starting no later than September 5, 2000, and to phase in decimal pricing for Nasdaq securities beginning no later than March 12, 2001. All securities must be priced in decimals no later than April 9, 2001. See also, SEC release and order. 6/13. Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY) and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) circulated a letter for other signatories which asks Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) to schedule a vote on HR 4444, a bill providing for PNTR status for China, before the July 4 recess. 6/13. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered that it will hear Microsoft's appeal of Judge Jackson's judgment. The court, in a short per curiam order, wrote: "ORDERED, sua sponte, by the en banc court that these cases and all motions and petitions filed in these cases be heard by the court sitting en banc." See, Order [PDF]. 6/13. The U.S.C.A. order also stated that three judges will not participate. The court wrote: "Circuit Judges Silberman, Henderson, and Garland took no part in the consideration and issuance of this order, and they will take no part in any future consideration of matters before the court involving these cases." 6/13. Microsoft filed with the U.S.D.C. its Notice of Appeal of Judge Jackson's judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals. See, statement of MSFT attorney Bill Neukom. 6/13. Microsoft filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals its motion for stay of Judge Jackson's judgment. 6/12. The House Rules Committee adopted a resolution waiving points of order against the Conference Report on S 761, the electronic signatures bill. 6/12. The DOJ filed its opposition to Microsoft's U.S.D.C. motion to stay Judge Jackson's final judgment. 6/9. The FCC submitted a request for further information to AOL and Time Warner in connection with its antitrust merger review proceeding. 6/9. House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on the electronic signatures bill, S 761, and released their Conference Report. The House and Senate passed different versions of the bill last year. The House version of the bill, HR 1714, was sponsored by Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee. Rep. Bliley stated that "Electronic signatures and records will help grow the digital economy by giving American consumers greater confidence in their online business transactions. This is one of the most important steps Congress can take to help foster the growth of the digital economy." See also, statement by Commerce Sec. Wm. Daley. 6/8. A nonprofit corporation named Third Millennium submitted a request for an advisory opinion [PDF] to the Federal Election Commission asking for permission to use ISPs to serve political advertising of parties and candidates to young voters. The request states that "Third Millennium proposes to retain the services of established Internet service providers that require subscribers both to provide extensive demographic information and to review paid advertising before retrieving and sending their e-mail." 6/8. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that the GSA and the USPTO followed applicable procedures in acquiring consolidated leased space for the USPTO. The GSA entered into a 20-year lease with LCOR for the USPTO space consolidation project in Alexandria, VA. The USPTO now rents space in 18 separate office buildings in Arlington, VA. 6/8. Sen John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Rep. David Bonior (D-MI) held a rally on Capitol Hill with the Low Power Radio Coalition and the Indigo Girls to promote the FCC’s LPFM Radio initiative, and to bash corporate broadcasters. 6/8. Rep. Bob Franks (R-NJ) and Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) re-introduced legislation to require schools and libraries that accept universal service funds for Internet service to install filtering technology on their computers. (HR 4600). See, TLJ story. 6/8. The Federal Communications Bar Association's Ad Hoc Committee on Telecommunications Competition Issues held a luncheon titled "Implementation of Shift to Packet-switched Networks for Telephone Regulation and Competition" at the law offices of Howrey Simon Arnold & White. 6/8. The FCC held an open meeting. The FCC allocated new spectrum and established rules for a Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS). See, release. The FCC also took steps to promote the deployment and subscribership of telecommunications services on Indian lands. See, release. 6/8. The Child Online Protection Act Commission held the first of two days of hearings at the FTC. The hearing continues on Friday, June 8. See, agenda. 6/8. The Democratic National Committee began offering a package with free Internet access, e-mail and a Democratic Party Internet start page. The service is called FreeDem.com, and also has the domain name freedem.ibelong.com. See, DNC release. 6/8. House Republican leaders launched a web site named GOP.gov that is designed to give the public immediate access to news releases, schedules, and other information from their member of Congress. See, release. 6/7. The Los Angeles City Council's Information Technology & General Services Committee voted to mandate open access as a condition for renewing cable franchises. See, openNET release and HOTI release. 6/7. AOL announced its plans for gavel to gavel online coverage of the National Republican and Democratic Conventions. The plans include video and audio feeds of all Convention proceedings and live interviews. See, release. 6/7. The SEC's Division of Market Regulation issued a report titled Electronic Communication Networks and After-Hours Trading. 6/7. U.S. District Court Judge Jackson issued his Memorandum and Order and Final Judgment, in which he ordered that Microsoft be split in two. See, TLJ story on Jackson's decision and TLJ story on Microsoft's appeal plans. 6/7. "We have a very strong case on appeal," said Bill Gates in a press release. "This ruling is inconsistent with past decisions by the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court that support product improvement; it is unreasonable in its call to break up Microsoft and regulate software design." Gates added at a press conference that "we're quite confident that it won't be something that ever comes into effect." See, transcript. 6/7. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) stated that "Judge Jackson's ruling will divert innovative companies from creating better products. Worse, it will send the message to innovators around the world that in America we punish success. It is this ruling, not Microsoft, that is damaging to consumers, as it would deny consumers new products, better accessibility and lower prices. I'm confident the appeals court will reject Judge Jackson's notion that any one man can foresee how this world of possibility should unfold." See, Armey statement. 6/7. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) released a statement praising the Microsoft judgment. 6/7. The Joint Economic Committee held the second of two days of hearings titled the High-Technology National Summit, focusing on removing barriers to the new economy. Witnesses included Carly Fiorina (HP) and Michael Eisner (Disney). 6/7. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on satellite export controls. The witnesses included John Holum (State Dept.), Wm. Reinsch (Commerce Dept.), James Bodner (Defense Dept.), and Clayton Mowry (Satellite Industry Assoc.) 6/7. AT&T announced that it would begin a test of allowing other ISPs shared access to it cable Internet facilities in Boulder, Colorado, in November. See, AT&T release. Doug Hanson, CEO of RMI.NET, a Denver based ISP, stated in a release issued by openNET that "Although significant pricing, technical and operating details still need to worked out, we are hopeful this trial is the first step to full open equal access ..." 6/7. AT&T announced, and then promptly postponed, plans to raise long distance rates. FCC Chairman Wm. Kennard had reacted strongly: "AT&T promised to pass on savings to all consumers. Their new rate plan does not do that. It is in our order and I am going to enforce it." See, Kennard statement. See also, AT&T release. 6/7. The Senate Finance Committee approved HR 4444 EH, the House version of the bill which extends PNTR status to China. 6/7. The Business Software Alliance gave its Cyber Champion Award to Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA). 6/7. The NSA announced that it plans "to pursue private sector performance of its non-mission related IT support." See, NSA release. 6/7. Alcatel filed three complaints for patent infringement against Cisco in U.S. District Court in the Central District of Calif., U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, and a Dutch court in the Hague. The suits relate to a variety of routing and switching technologies. See Alcatel release. 6/7. The European Commission proposed to levy a value added tax (VAT) on the sale of digital goods via the Internet. See, EU release. The SIIA released a statement criticizing the proposal as "unenforcable". 6/7. The U.S. and Jordan signed a Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce. See, statement by Commerce Sec. Wm. Daley. 6/6. The House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary marked up the CJS spending bill. The bill would divert up to $295 million of USPTO user fees in FY 2001 - 25% of the agency's fee revenue in FY 2001. See, AIPLA release. 6/6. Rep. Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced HR 4582, a bill to provide Internet access to congressional documents, including certain Congressional Research Service publications. 6/6. The Joint Economic Committee held the first of two days of hearings on "Removing Barriers to the New Economy." Witnesses included Bill Gates (Microsoft), Andy Grove (Intel), Carol Bartz (Autodesk), John Warnock (Adobe), and Wm. Larson (Network Associates). 6/6. High tech industry groups wrote a letter to Senate leaders Trent Lott (R-MS) and Tom Daschle (D-SD) urging Senate passage of S 2045, a bill to increase the annual cap on H1B visas. See also, summary of all bills pertaining to visas for high tech workers. 6/6. There were more reactions to the FCC's AT&T MediaOne decision. Roy Neel (USTA) repeated an often stated theme: "As a result of action by the FCC yesterday, AT&T will soon have an unprecedented level of control over American consumers’ telephone, entertainment, and Internet access services. ... However, AT&T can compete virtually free of regulation, while local phone companies are saddled with a regulatory regime created for another era." See, release. Greg Simon (openNET) said "We are encouraged by the FCC's growing recognition that open access is the best policy. But today's FCC decision continues to leave open access to the discretion of the cable industry." See, release. 6/5. The FCC adopted a Memorandum Opinion and Order [huge MS Word file] in which it gave its conditional approval to the merger of MediaOne and AT&T. See, FCC release, Kennard statement, Furchtgott-Roth statement, and AT&T release. See also, TLJ story. 6/5. FCC Chairman Wm. Kennard gave a speech in Atlanta, Georgia, in which he stated that "there are certain universal truths we must advocate. We know that competition is better than monopoly; that universal service and competition are not mutually exclusive; and that our communications goals require the intervention of a strong, independent regulator empowered to pry open markets and keep them open." 6/5. President Clinton and Ukrainian President Kuchma issued a joint statement expressing their agreement to combat the unauthorized production and export of optical media products in Ukraine. See, USTR release. Eric Smith, President of the IIPA, praised the agreement in a June 6 statement [PDF]. He said that "organized criminal optical media production in the region has been on the rise, swamping Central and Eastern European markets with illegal CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs; Ukraine has been the major producer of this material." 6/5. Kathleen Hamm, Asst. Dir. in the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission will leave the SEC in July to join the law firm of Wilson Sonsini, in Palo Alto, CA. See, release. 6/5. Bill Clinton appointed Christine Hemrick, VP for Strategic Technology Policy at Cisco, Co-Chairman of his Advisory Committee on Expanding Training Opportunities. A White House press release stated that this committee advises Clinton on "how the federal government can encourage the effective use of learning technology." Hemrick is already a member of the Technological Advisory Council for the FCC. 6/5. The DOJ filed its "Plaintiffs' Revised Proposed Final Judgment [June 5 Redlined Version]" and "Plaintiffs' Summary Response to Microsoft's Comments on Revised Proposed Final Judgment." 6/5. Commerce Sec. Wm. Daley gave a speech in Madrid, Spain, in which he addressed PNTR status for China. "The bill still needs to go before the Senate," said Daley. "But the biggest mistake business -- that has so much to gain from globalization -- could make is to declare victory and to dismiss the sincere concerns those opposed have." 6/5. The Electronic Privacy Information Center hosted a pair of panel discussions titled "The Internet, Privacy and the Open Source Movement," at the National Press Club. 6/2. Gregg Corso, Senior Counsel to SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, will leave the SEC to become a partner in the law firm of Cooley Godward. He will work in both the Palo Alto, CA, and Reston, VA offices. See, SEC release. 6/1. Commerce Sec. Wm. Daley gave a speech in Lisbon in which he addressed Internet policy issues, including privacy, consumer protection, intellectual property, security, and "equal access to the Internet." 6/1. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan allowed the USPTO to proceed with construction of a new 2 million square foot office complex in Alexandria, VA. The USPTO presently occupies rented space in 18 separate buildings in Arlington, VA. See, release. 6/1. The FCC announced the following staff changes. Ruth Dancey, who is now Asst. Bureau Chief for Management of the Cable Services Bureau, will leave the FCC, and join Gemini Networks in Falls Church, VA. Ann Morgan, who is now Dep. Asst. Bureau Chief for Management, will become Acting Asst. Bureau Chief. James Heimbach will replace Clint Odom as Acting Legal Advisor for the Cable Services Bureau. See, FCC release. Go to News Briefs from May 16-31, 2000.
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