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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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11/10. The USPTO issued a patent to Avanex for its dense wavelength multiplexing (DWDM) process. Avanex is a provider of photonic processors for optical communications networks. Its main product, PowerMux, is based on the patented technology. See, Avanex release. 11/10. U.S. District Court (SDFl) Judge Donald Middlebrooks released his opinion in the Broward County cable access case in which he held the county ordinance unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. On July 13, 1999, Broward County adopted an ordinance that required Comcast to provide competing ISPs access to its broadband cable Internet access facilities. On July 20, 1999 Comcast filed its original complaint against Broward County alleging many legal theories, including, that the ordinance violates the Communications Act of 1934, that it violates Comcast's First Amendment rights, that it impairs interstate commerce, that it constitutes an unlawful taking, that it is an unlawful impairment of contract, and that it violates due process rights. See, TLJ story. 11/10. ICANN released a series of reports just prior to its annual meeting on Nov. 13-16 in Marina Del Ray, California. See, meeting agenda. Its lengthy Report on New TLD Applications recommended creating a limited number of new top level domains (TLDs) from the general purpose TLD applications. The report stated that the following "merited further review": .web, .biz, .ebiz, .home, .info, .site, .sport, .surf, .cash, .global, and .secure. The report also recommended creating a few personal TLDs from among the following: .nom, .per, .i, .nom, .name, .nom, .san, and .xing. However, the report also recommended against creating either a .kids or .xxx TLD. The report stated that "The concept of a content-restricted TLD presents difficult definitional issues: Who is a 'kid'? What content is 'appropriate'? And who decides? Given the international reach of the Internet, the complexity of these definitional issues is compounded by many diverse cultures and a variety of community and individual views on the answers." The report noted too that both pornographers and the COPA Commission opposed creation of a .xxx TLD. The report also recommended against creating restrictive commercial group TLDs (.fin, .travel, .law, and .pro). 11/10. ICANN also published reports titled Staff Working Paper on ICANN Cost Recovery Structure for Domain Name Registries Posted, and Audited Financial Report for Fiscal Year Ending 30 June 2000. 11/10. ICANN announced that 24 additional companies in Austria, Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, U.K., and U.S. have qualified to be accredited as domain name registrars in the .com, .net and .org domains. See, release. 11/10. Australian Prime Minister John Howard opened Lucent's new facility at Sydney's North Ryde. See, Lucent release. 11/10. Qualcomm announced that "the European Patent Office (EPO) has upheld the validity of another of QUALCOMM's patents covering important features of CDMA systems. The opposition proceedings were initiated by Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd. of Finland in July 1998. The EPO rejected Nokia's challenge to all claims and ruled that the patent had novelty and contained the requisite inventive step." Qualcomm also announced that "the EPO has terminated two other opposition proceedings in QUALCOMM's favor, maintaining the patents in both cases." See, Qualcomm release. 11/9. Economic Solutions, Inc. (ESI) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (EDMo) against ICANN seeking injunctive relief prohibiting it from establishing a .biz or .ebiz TLD, or any other TLD that is similar to the country code for Belize, .bz. ESI has an agreement with the country of Belize to market the .bz TLD. ICANN had this to say: "ESI's lawsuit is without merit." See, ICANN release. See also, undated 1999 Belize press release (at item 3) and Oct. 18 letter from ESI to ICANN. 11/9. The FTC filed a "consent judgment" and a "proposed default judgment" in its injunctive proceeding against World Interactive Gaming Corp. (WIGC), a Delaware Corp. which owns an Antigua Internet casino corporation. In Aug. 1998, the FTC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court (EDNY) charging defendants with violation of §5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act in connection with the offering for sale of securities. The FTC complaint stated that defendants misrepresented to consumers "that their purported Internet casino can expect to make approximately $100 million in its first year of operation." The FTC stated that "The proposed settlement will bar deceptive claims in the future, require more than $500,000 to be returned to investor-victims, and require the defendants to post a $2 million bond prior to engaging in, or assisting others engaging in, the promotion, advertising, marketing or sale of an investment in any company that owns or intends to own an online gaming entity." See, FTC release. The State of New York has also pursued WIGC. See, case summary by the NY Office of the Atty. Gen., and opinion of the Supreme Court of New York in People v. World Interactive Gaming Corp. 11/9. The FTC released a statement regarding its review of the AOL Time Warner merger. "The Federal Trade Commission met today to consider an enforcement action against the proposed merger of AOL and Time Warner. The parties have committed in the last 24 hours to offer new proposals to address competitive issues in connection with the proposed merger. The Commission has elected to delay action for a period of not more than three weeks." See, FTC release. 11/9. The FCC discussed and adopted, but did not release copies of, a Policy Statement and a NPRM, pertaining to secondary markets for wireless spectrum. See, FCC release. See also, TLJ story and TLJ news analysis. 11/9. AT&T announced the settlement of a patent lawsuit brought by Ronald Katz. Katz is the inventor in a large body of patents dealing with telephonic interactive voice applications. On July 6, 1997, MCI and Katz filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (EDPa) against AT&T and others alleging that a number of AT&T services infringe patents owned by Katz, but licensed to MCI for enforcement against AT&T. As part of that settlement, AT&T paid an undisclosed sum for a worldwide, nonexclusive license under a comprehensive portfolio of patents. See, AT&T release. 11/9. The TIA released a Telecommunications Systems Bulletin (TSB) titled "Administration of Parameter Value Assignments for Cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Standards" and numbered TSB58-C. See, TIA release. 11/8. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion [EXE/MS Word] in Li Second Family L.P. v. Toshiba affirming the U.S. District Court (EDVa) judgment for Toshiba. The plaintiff filed a complaint alleging that Toshiba makes semiconductor devices using a process that infringes several claims of one of plaintiff's patents. Toshiba alleged that this patent is unenforceable because Li and his attorney engaged in inequitable conduct before the USPTO. The District Court issued its opinion on May 19, 1999 finding that Plaintiff's patent is unenforceable due to inequitable conduct -- failure to disclose information, and misrepresentation, to the patent examiner. 11/8. The outcome of the Senate race in Washington state between Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) and Maria Cantwell is still uncertain. The latest count has Gorton ahead by several thousand votes. However, the Washington Elections Division is still counting hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots. 11/8. The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry cleared Microsoft's planned acquisition of 23.6% interest in Telewest Communications. See, DTI release. Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, stated that he was following the recommendations of the Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT). He stated: "The DGFT has advised me that the relevant market in this case is the provision of software to all digital television set top boxes. The DGFT has also advised me that, having carried out an investigation into the complex issues raised by the case, he has seen no evidence that Microsoft's stake in Telewest gives rise to sufficient competition concern to recommend a reference to the Competition Commission." 11/8. The USTR announced that the U.S. will request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel to examine U.S. claims that Mexico has failed to comply with its WTO commitments in the telecommunications services sector. See, release. 11/8. The USTR announced the outcome of several Special 301 out-of-cycle reviews, and resolution of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) implementation concerns. Both Italy and Poland were moved from the Priority Watch List to the Watch List. Ireland was removed from the Watch List. The USTR cited recent anti-piracy legislation, stiffer penalties, education efforts, and cooperation with industry as the reasons for these determinations. See, USTR release. 11/8. The ICANN published a notice that it "is nearing completion of its evaluation of the 44 active applications for new TLDs and the preparation of an extensive report. ICANN now expects to post the report on Thursday, 9 November 2000." 11/7. The SEC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court (DKan) against several defendants involved in an Internet based securities fraud scheme. The SEC alleged violation of §17(a) of the Securities Act, and §10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Court issued various emergency orders sought by the SEC to freeze assets, appoint a receiver, require an accounting, and expedite discovery. See, SEC release. 11/7. Two individuals filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (SDMiss) against WorldCom, CEO Bernie Ebbers, and CFO Scott Sullivan, alleging violation of federal securities laws. The plaintiffs, who seeks class action status, are represented by several law firms, including Milberg Weiss. Count one alleges violation of §10b of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b5 thereunder, for making allegedly false statements about the financial status of WorldCom. Count two of the complaint alleges violation of §20a of the Act by Ebbers and Sullivan. Milberg Weiss is a law firm that specializes in bringing class action securities suits against technology companies with volatile stock prices. The Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse reports that 168 securities class action suits have been brought in federal court so far this year. 11/7. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion [EXE/MS Word] in Texas Instruments v. Tessera and USITC vacating and remanding the judgment of the U.S. District Court (CDCa). At issue was the meaning of a vague choice of forum clause in a license agreement between Texas Instruments and Terresa which provided that "If such disputes, controversies, claims or differences cannot be settled between the parties, any litigation between the parties relating to this Agreement shall take place in California." TI filed a complaint for injunctive relief in U.S.D.C. in Los Angeles seeking to bar Terresa from pursuing a proceeding under §337 before the USITC (which is in Washington DC). The District Court ruled that the choice of forum clause did not apply to USITC proceedings. The Appeals Court disagreed, 2-1. It opined that §337 proceedings are litigation. Judge Rader wrote the opinion; Newman joined. Lourie dissented. 11/7. Several legislators who have been active on technology related issues either retired or were defeated. See, TLJ stories: Sen. Abraham defeated. More Key Senate Race Results. Rogan and Bilbray Defeated. Representatives Who Won in Close Races. More House Election Results. Retirements from the House. 11/7. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall (DConn) ordered Microsoft to pay $3.7 Million in attorneys fees to Bristol. Bristol filed its 14 count Complaint against Microsoft on Aug. 18, 1998. 12 of the 14 counts alleged violations of federal or state antitrust law. The jury ruled for Microsoft on all of these counts. A very small part of the case was a claim that Microsoft violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA). Last July, the jury found that Microsoft had violated CUTPA, but awarded Bristol only $1 in compensatory damages. On Aug. 31 Judge Hall issued a 103 page opinion and order in which she awarded Bristol $1 Million in punitive damages, based on this $1 in compensatory damages. On Nov. 7, she awarded Bristol $ 3.7 Million in attorneys fees. See also, TLJ Summary of Bristol v. Microsoft. 11/7. Dorothy Attwood, Bureau Chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau, and the top staff of the Bureau, spoke and answered questions at a luncheon meeting in Washington DC with telecommunications lawyers. She was asked if the CCB or the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) are thinking about IP telephony. "Yeah, of course, we are looking at that," said Attwood. "OET is working with us on that." However, most of the luncheon was devoted to other issues. She stated that she sees "continually vexing problems" in local telephone competition. Section 271 proceedings, long distance competition, and the FCC audit process were also discussed. 11/7. The Global Internet Project (GIP) asked the Council of Europe to extend its December 2000 deadline for completion of its Convention on cyber crime. See, Draft No. 22 of Convention on Cyber-crime, and GIP release. 11/7. SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt named Estee Levine Director of the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. She was previously Counsel to Chairman Levitt. She replaces Tracey Aronson, who was recently named Chief of Staff to the Chairman. See, release. 11/7. The BSA gave its often awarded Cyber Champion Award to four world leaders: King Abdullah II of Jordan, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland; Julio Semeghini, Representative, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, and Dato' Pahamin Rajab, Secretary General, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs of Malaysia. See, release. 11/7. The TIA published a new Telecommunications Systems Bulletin (TSB) regarding Internet protocol telephony. It is numbered TSB 122, and titled "Telecommunications - IP Telephony Equipment - Voice Router/Gateway Loss and Level Plan Guidelines." See, release. 11/6. Veronica Kayne joined the Washington office of the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering as a partner. She was previously Assistant Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, Anticompetitive Practices Division. She will work on antitrust, intellectual property, and e-commerce matters. See, WCP release [PDF]. She was an antitrust attorney in the DC office of King and Spalding before going to the FTC in June of 1996. 11/6. The Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, announced its intent to block the merger of two Silicon Valley companies that provide information management solutions in the field of oncology. Varian Medical Systems Inc. had planned to purchase IMPAC Medical Systems. The DOJ alleged that the transaction would reduce competition in the sale of radiation oncology management systems software and medical devices known as linear accelerators. See, DOJ release. Richard Levy, CEO of Varian, had this reaction: "We respectfully disagree with the Department of Justices market interpretation and conclusions regarding how this acquisition would affect consumers, but we believe we would be doing our customers and investors a disservice by entering into what could be a protracted legal proceeding." See, Varian release. See also, IMPAC release. 11/6. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in New York Times v. Tasini, a case regarding whether publication in electronic databases of works written by free lance writers for periodicals constitutes copyright infringement. The plaintiffs are free lance authors who whose articles were previously published in periodicals. They claim copyright infringement by defendants, who are publishers and owners of electronic databases in which the articles are also made available. The U.S. District Court (SDNY) issued its Opinion in 1997 holding that defendants are protected by the privilege afforded the publishers of "collective works" under §201(c) of the Copyright Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals (2ndCir) issued its Opinion reversing the District Court on Sept. 24, 1999. The Supreme Court's Order granting certiorari contained no comment. See, Order List [PDF], Nov. 6, at page 2. See also, TLJ story. 11/6. The FCC's Wireless Telecom. Bureau issued a Report [PDF] to Congress on the status of competitive bidding for spectrum between 746-764 MHz and 776-794 MHz. This spectrum offers potential to deploy new methods of providing high speed Internet access, and is suitable for new fixed wireless in underserved areas, as well as next generation high speed mobile services. The FCC has bifurcated the process into two separate auctions, one for licenses in a 30 megahertz spectrum block (747-762 MHz and 777-792 MHz) and another for licenses in the Guard Bands, which consist of 6 megahertz of spectrum (746-747 MHz, 776-777 MHz, 762-764 MHz, and 792-794 MHz). See also, Nov. 2 release. The former, Auction No. 31, has been postponed until March 6, 2001. The auction of Guard Band licenses, Auction No. 33, closed on September 21, 2000. For background, see WTB summary of Auction 31. 11/6. The BXA published in the Federal Register a notice of request for public comments regarding whether it should change foreign policy based export controls in the Export Administration Regulations (EARs). These regulations cover, among other things, high performance computers (HPCs), encryption products, and other software products. The deadline for comments is Nov. 30, 2000. See, Federal Register, Nov. 6, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 215, pages 66514 - 66515. 11/6. The FCC requested nominations to its Technological Advisory Council. The deadline is Nov. 22, 2000. See, release. 11/6. The USPTO published two minor technical corrections to its final rules regarding 18 month publication of patent applications. See, rule changes [PDF], at Federal Register, Nov. 6, Vol. 65, No. 215, page 66502. 11/6. The USITC published an article on e-commerce in the steel industry in the October edition [1.3 MB in PDF] of its International Trade and Technology Review, at pages 7-18. The study found that "Steelmakers and steel buyers around the world have recently aligned themselves with various Internet-based marketplaces ... to improve efficiencies and decrease costs. Electronic commerce ... has led to many strategic alliances and joint ventures among industry participants as well as between steel-related and high-technology companies. However, the amount of steel sold to date through E-commerce has necessarily been limited because the technology to conduct transactions online is still evolving." 11/6. The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced deadlines for applying for grants and loans under its Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program. For FY 2001, $25 Million in grants and $300 Million in loans will be made available for distance learning and telemedicine projects serving rural America. Grant applications must be postmarked no later than March 2, 2001. Loan applications may be submitted at anytime up to Sept. 30, 2001, and will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis. See, RUS notice [PDF], Federal Register, Nov. 6, Vol. 65, No. 215, page 66503. 11/4. Bill Clinton vetoed HR 4392, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001. The bill included a provision criminalizing unauthorized disclosure of classified information. Clinton explained that "the free flow of information is essential to a democratic society" and "there is a serious risk that this legislation would tend to have a chilling effect on those who engage in legitimate activities." See, Clinton veto statement. 11/3. Three individuals filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (EDVa) against PSINet, CEO William Schrader, COO Harold Willis, and CFO Larry Hyatt, alleging violation of federal securities laws. The plaintiffs, who seeks class action status, are represented by several law firms, including Milberg Weiss. Count one alleges violation of §10b of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b5 thereunder, for making allegedly false statements about the financial status of PSINet. Count two of the complaint alleges violation of §20a of the Act by Schrader, Willis, and Hyatt. PSINet provides corporate Internet access, private IP networks, Internet security, web and database hosting services, e-commerce solutions, and voice, fax, live audio-video, and other applications. Cohen Milstein and other firms are also participating as counsel. 11/3. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion [MS Word] in E-Data v. Compuserve vacating and remanding the judgment of the U.S. District Court (SDNY) of non-infringement of U.S. Patent No. 4,528,643, also known as the Freeny patent. The Freeny patent is directed to a system for reproducing information in material objects at point of sale locations. The defendants are computer software and publishing companies and a retail bookstore. E-Data alleges that the software and publishing companies infringed the Freeny patent by selling software or documents over the Internet, and that the bookstore infringed the Freeny patent by selling books that include a CD-ROM containing encrypted computer applications, access to which is not possible until the consumer retrieves a password. 11/3. The ICANN released a statement regarding RegLand.com's filing of a complaint in state court in Texas against ICANN: "Regland's claims are utterly baseless and ICANN regards the lawsuit as frivolous. ICANN believes that it is entirely appropriate to alert the public that no TLDs have been selected and that no company -- including Regland -- is yet authorized to be selling domain names in new TLDs. These statements are entirely true and are designed to caution consumers who may be mislead into believing that they have actually registered a name in a TLD that does not yet exist." On Sept. 29 ICANN released a statement which included the following: "The Names Council feels it is premature for companies to offer pre-registration services for domain names in speculative new TLDs. To date, no new TLDs have been selected and there is no guarantee that any particular organization will be authorized to take registrations for any particular TLD." Regland's three count complaint, which was filed by the law firm of Jackson Walker, alleges defamation, business disparagement and tortious interference. See, Regland release. 11/3. The ICANN issued a statement regarding the development of a standard specifying the requirements for internationalized access to domain names. This standard will extend the operation of the Internet's Domain Name System to character sets other than ASCII such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, the Scandanavian languages, and Spanish. 11/3. 3Com announced it reached a settlement two class action lawsuits -- Reiver v. 3Com and Adler v. 3Com. Under the settlement, which still requires court approval, 3Com will pay $259 Million in cash to shareholders. The suits arose out of 3Com's acquisition of US Robotics in 1997. See, 3Com release. 11/3. The Office of Personnel Management announced that "Computer specialists and other information technology employees with the federal government will receive pay increases ranging from 7 percent to 33 percent". The announcement, which is designed to make the federal government more competitive with the private sector, was made 4 days before election day. See, release. 11/3. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) issued an order [PDF] regarding to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in the Microsoft antitrust appeal. The Court will allow six briefs, each not to exceed 25 pages. The four major anti Microsoft entities that sought permission to file briefs (AOL, CCIA, SIIA, and ProComp) are required to file one brief jointly. Similarly, the two major pro Microsoft entities (ACT and CompTIA) are required to file together. Two other pro Microsoft entities (TAFOL and CMDC) are also required to file jointly. Their brief will not likely receive much attention from the Court. Three individuals who are Microsoft critics who asked permission to file briefs will also be permitted to do so. The two pro Microsoft amicus briefs are due by Nov. 27. The four anti Microsoft briefs are due by Jan. 12. The net result is that while the court is permitting numerous amicus briefs, it will only receive two significant ones, a pro Microsoft brief from ACT and CompTIA, and an anti Microsoft brief from AOL, CCIA, ProComp, and SIIA. 11/3. The FBI's NIPC issued an advisory regarding cyber attacks against Palestinian and Israeli related web sites. It stated that "The continued tension and increase in the number of cyber attacks shows no signs of abating and has reportedly resulted in attacks on two U.S. web sites. The attack against one of the sites, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), differs from previous attacks on other web sites in that it is the first of its kind to have experienced theft of information, including credit card information. All other attacks involving Palestinian and Israeli-related sites are believed to have consisted solely of a DoS type of attack." The advisory added that "It is anticipated that as the conflict in the Middle East continues, the level and severity of cyber attacks being experienced may escalate and expand." 11/3. The Bureau of Export Administration published changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EARs) for high performance computers (HPCs) in the Federal Register. The BXA published new regulations on Oct. 13. The BXA stated that the Nov. 3 publication "corrects inadvertent errors or omissions in the October 13 rule". See, Federal Register, Nov. 3, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 214, page 66169 - 66170. [Background: The Oct. 13 rule provides that HPCs with a composite theoretical performance (CTP) of up to 45,000 million theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) can be exported to Computer Tier 2 countries under License Exception CTP, and HPCs with a CTP up to 28,000 MTOPS can be exported Computer Tier 3 destinations under License Exception CTP. The civil-military distinction for computer Tier 3 end- users and end-uses is removed. Effective February 26, 2001, this rule also raises the advance notification level for HPC exports to Computer Tier 3 countries to 28,000 MTOPS. These new regulations took effect on October 13.] 11/3. Youth-e-Vote released the results of an online election in which 1,330,913 students cast ballots. In the presidential race, Bush / Cheney won with 56% of the popular vote, and 386 electoral votes. Gore / Lieberman received 38% of the popular vote and 155 electoral votes. Nader / LaDuke got 4%. Buchanan / Foster got 2%. Republicans retained a majority in the Senate. Lazio beat Clinton in New York; Republicans also won open seats in Nebraska, Florida, and Nevada. However, Democrat Corzine won the seat of the retiring Lautenberg (D-NJ). All incumbents seeking re-election won, except Roth (R-DE), Gorton (R-WA), Grams (R-MN), Ashcroft (R-MN), and Robb (D-VA). Results were not tallied for House districts. 11/2. The FTC announced changes to its Rules of Practice. The changes delegate to the Director of the Bureau of Competition the authority to respond to certain requests made pursuant to agreements under the International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act (IAEAA). 11/2. Qualcomm announced that it has received a ruling from the IRS indicating that the proposed spin-off of its integrated circuits and system software business, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, which are also know as Qualcomm Spinco, should be a tax-free distribution to Qualcomm and its stockholders. See, release. See also, July 25 release announcing the spin-off. 11/2. EU Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy gave a speech in Washington DC on the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) tax regime, and other US-EU trade issues. He stated: "I was brave enough, or I'm told foolhardy enough, to sit in front of the Congress and pledge that we would come into compliance on both bananas and beef hormones, and I stand absolutely by that. But the same position applies to the US on the foreign sales corporation dispute. Each of us must comply with the rules. There has been plenty of loose talk in the corridors about package deals. Now, don't get me wrong. I love deals." He added that "the problems seem to get worse, not better." Last week the House and Senate both passed a tax reform bill that includes the FSC replacement bill. However, Bill Clinton said he would veto it. Then, the Senate passed the FSC replacement bill as a stand alone bill on Nov. 1. 11/2. The House met on Nov. 2, and passed another one day continuing resolution, by a vote of 310 to 7. 73 Democrats and 43 Republicans did not vote. See, Roll Call No. 592. The House did not pass the Foreign Sales Corporation replacement bill. Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) explained why: "Last month, the House and the Senate reached agreement on the Taxpayer's Relief Act, which included several important provisions. Among those provisions were an increase in the minimum wage, incentives for Americans to save more for their retirements in their IRA and 401K funds, an initiative to increase investment and development in the poorest rural and urban areas, and an increase in investments in school construction. ... There has been considerable pressure on the House to schedule a stand-alone Foreign Sales Corporation bill at the exclusion of the other provisions of the tax bill. ... The Foreign Sales Corporation issue is important, but is it more important than these other issues? I don't think so. I urge the President to stop playing politics with the lives of the American people, and drop his ill-advised veto threat of the Taxpayer Relief Act." See, Hastert statement. 11/2. The NTIA hosted a public meeting on the process of identifying and allocating spectrum for Third Generation (3G) wireless systems. 3G will enable broadband wireless Internet access. However, spectrum will have to be reallocated from current users. "This is not going to be an easy process," said NTIA chief Greg Rohde. See, TLJ story. 11/2. The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that US organizations can now sign up for the US - EU privacy safe harbor framework through a web site. The safe harbor framework enables companies to comply with the European Commission's Directive on Data Privacy. See, release. 11/2. The FCC released the agenda [PDF | MSWord] for its Nov. 9 Commission meeting. It includes two items pertaining to secondary markets for wireless spectrum. The FCC will consider a Notice Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) concerning the promotion of secondary market mechanisms to facilitate efficient use of wireless spectrum, and a Policy Statement setting forth guiding principles for the promotion of secondary market mechanisms to facilitate efficient use of wireless spectrum. 11/2. The SEC announced that it will continue to support the EDGAR legacy filing system along with the modernized EDGAR filing system beyond the original Nov. 27, 2000 transition date. The new termination date for the EDGAR legacy system will be April 20, 2001. See, release. 11/2. The FCC named Breck Blalock to be the Deputy Chief of the Planning & Negotiations Division. Julie Buchanan was named Associate Chief of the International Spectrum and Communications Policy Branch of the Planning and Negotiations Division. Linda Armstrong was named Senior Legal Advisor of the Planning and Negotiations Division. Jack Deasy was named Chief of the Multilateral and Development Branch of the Telecommunications Division. See, release [PDF]. 11/1. Listen.com and Scour.com filed an agreement in U.S. Bankruptcy Court (CDCa) under which Listen.com agrees to purchase assets of Scour.com. On July 20 a collection of motion picture studios, record companies, and music publishers (which are members of the MPAA and RIAA) filed a complaint [HTML | PDF] in U.S. District Court (SDNY) alleging that "Scour enables and encourages its users to find and download digital files of plaintiffs' copyrighted motion pictures, sound recordings, and musical compositions from the computer hard drives of other users". All plaintiffs alleged copyright infringement. Record company plaintiffs also alleged unfair competition and misappropriation under state law. On Oct. 12, Scour.com filed its Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy in Los Angeles. Hillary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA, said in a release that "I have been assured by Listen.com's management that prior to the acquisition of Scour.com that the file exchange service and search engine service will be shut down and any resolution of the lawsuit will depend upon Scour and Listen.com following through on this commitment." 11/1. Clinton and Congressional leaders appear to have put off until after the Nov. 7 election resolution of their disputes over legislation. Several appropriations bills have yet to be signed into law, one month into the new fiscal year. Most of the agencies which deal with technology related matters are affected, including the FCC, FTC, SEC, Justice Department, and Commerce Department (which includes the USPTO, NTIA, NIST, and BXA). Other pending matters include the FSC replacement bill, repeal of the 3% tax on telephones, and a provision mandating Internet porn filtering by schools and libraries receiving e-rate subsidies. Congress remains in session, but most Members of Congress, as well as Clinton, are out campaigning. 11/1. The Senate approved by unanimous consent HR 4986, the FSC Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000. Another version of this bill was included in HR 5542, a large tax reform package which has been passed by both the House and Senate, but which Clinton has said he would veto. See, Senate Finance Committee release. 11/1. WorldCom announced a realignment of its businesses; it will create two separately traded tracking stocks: WorldCom for data, Internet, hosting and international businesses, and MCI for consumer, small business, wholesale long-distance voice and dial-up Internet access operations. See, WC release. Gary Lytle, CEO of the USTA, seized the occasion to plead the case for RBOCs being allowed to offer long distance services. He said that "Today's announcement from WorldCom, coupled with AT&T's apparent retreat from the residential long distance market last week, provides further compelling evidence that more competition is needed in the long distance segment." See, release. Several RBOC Section 271 applications are pending before the FCC. 11/1. SEC Enforcement Division chief Richard Walker gave a speech to the Securities Industry Association in NYC in which he defended Regulation FD, the selective disclosure rule, which went into effect on Oct. 23. "Although I've heard industry spokespersons continue to claim that the rule has caused a 'chilling effect' on communications, I personally believe that any such effect being observed is largely due to an over-abundance of caution, fed by the dire predictions of numerous law firms and others opposed to the rule." He also reiterated that "Regulation FD was not designed as a trap for the unwary, as many law firms are counseling. ... there is no liability under Rule 10b-5 for failure to make a public disclosure required by FD ... there is no exposure to private liability ..." 11/1. ICANN published an update on the status of TLD applications. The public comment forum on the applications will remain open until 4:00 PM California time, Sunday, Nov. 5. 11/1. The Department of Defense, General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published a notice of proposed rule making regarding the use of electronic signatures in procurement. Public comments are due by Jan. 2, 2001. See, Federal Register, Nov. 1, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 212, pages 65697 - 65698. 11/1. The Copyright Office published in the Federal Register the schedule for the 180-day arbitration period for the Phase II distribution of the 1997 cable royalty funds for the syndicated programming category. (Nov. 1, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 212, pages 65335 - 65336.) 11/1. NTIA chief Greg Rohde held a demonstration of a new Internet based system intended to warn the public of dangerous weather conditions or other events. See, release. 11/1. BellSouth named Jonathan Banks General Counsel of its Washington DC office. See, release. |
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