INTERNET/ONLINE SERVICES
Company Says Junk E-Mailer Stole Its Identity (NYT)
AOL Requires Games To Have Ratings (SJM)
TELEPHONY
FCC Orders Bells To Share Internet Lines (USA)
FCC Acts to Remove Barriers Impeding Enhanced
Wireless 911 Service (FCC)
SATELLITE
House Passes Measure to Let Satellite Companies
Broadcast Local Channels (NYT)
PRIVACY
EPIC, ACLU and EFF Challenge New Wiretap Rules (EPIC)
FILM
New Digital Cameras Poised to Jolt World of Filmmaking (NYT)
INTERNET/ONLINE SERVICES
COMPANY SAYS JUNK E-MAILER STOLE ITS IDENTITY
Issue: E-commerce
Last week, a company called Visto filed suit in federal district court in
San Jose, California accusing a man named Sam S. Khuri and his company of
engaging in the practice of spoofing. Doug Brackbill, the chief executive of
Visto, a California Internet company says return addresses falsely
identifying Visto as the sender were included on junk e-mail sent to people
around the globe, damaging his company's reputation. The suit also accused
the defendants of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, to Visto
customers. The two sides have already reached an agreement where Khuri and
his company, Benchmark Print Supply, would agree not to spam Visto's
customers or spoof its corporate identity. Since they settled out of court,
there is nothing stopping Khuri from spoofing someone else. Khuri, in an
interview, declined to talk about the Visto lawsuit. He has been sued for
his e-mail activities before. In February, Washington state's attorney
general filed a complaint against Khuri in Seattle, charging him with
violations of the state's strict anti-spam statute, which went into effect
in June 1998. The law mandates fines for anyone who sends unsolicited
commercial e-mail to Washington residents that have false or misleading
information in the subject line, include false information about the
message's origin or feature a third party's domain name in the return
address without permission. The suit is still pending. Paula Selis, an
assistant attorney general handling the Seattle case said, "We got a lot of
complaints about him."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/cyber/cyberlaw/19law.html)
See Also:
SEC SAYS CHICAGO MAN POSTED FAKE BUSINESS NEWS ON INTERNET
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 3, p.1), AUTHOR: Rob Kaiser]
(http://chicagotribune.com/business/printedition/article/0,2669,SAV-99111901
73,FF.html)
AOL REQUIRES GAMES TO HAVE RATINGS
Issue: Online Services
America Online plans to require games played on its service to be rated by an
independent trade group and will not carry games rated "adults only." But
AOL said none of the games currently on the site would be removed when the
policy is enacted. The Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated nearly
6,000 games, said Arthur Pober, ESRB executive director. The
Interactive Digital Software Association, the trade group representing
computer and video game makers, established the independent ESRB in 1994. It
assigns games rating designations from "Early Childhood" to "Adults Only."
"We don't carry adult content," said Ginny Wydler, director of standards and
policy at AOL. She said displaying the rankings would allow parents the same
control they have over video games distributed for PCs or game consoles.
AOL, the world's largest online service with 19 million users, said the
policy would be fully implemented by March 1, 2000.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/1099626l.htm)
TELEPHONY
FCC ORDERS BELLS TO SHARE INTERNET LINES
Issue: Telephony/Broadband
The FCC ruled that the regional Bell companies must share their phone lines
with competitors, cutting rivals' costs to offer broadband service. The
move is expected to make digital subscriber lines for Web access available
on 50 million phone lines by 2001, up from 10 million today. Subscribers
should increase tenfold to 3 million, according to a report from Goldman
Sachs. DSL has lagged behind cable companies' broadband offerings with
about 2 million subscribers, partly because the Bells have been "loath to
cannibalize their more profitable high speed data services," critics
say. The Bells challengers have had a hard time offering DSL because first
they must lease a separate phone line from the Bells for about $22/month.
The competitors then turn around and charge customers about $50 or more for
DSL compared with the Bells rate of $40. While The Bells use a technology
called line sharing whereby they split the frequency of an existing voice
line and the Internet service is then beamed on a portion of it. The Bells
argue that line sharing with DSL competitors gives those firms a lucrative
service at a low fee and it degrades voice service. Line sharing is
expected to cut Bell's competitors' cost at least $10.
[SOURCE: USA Today (1A), AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
(http://www.usatoday.com)
FCC ACTS TO REMOVE BARRIERS IMPEDING ENHANCED WIRELESS 911 SERVICE
Issue: Telephone
From the Press Release: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today
acted to remove
impediments to the deployment of enhanced 911 (E911) services for wireless
users. Enhanced
wireless 911 services help ensure that in emergencies wireless phones
provide vital information to assist 911 call centers, or Public Safety
Answering Points (PSAPs), in locating the caller. The FCC took a number of
steps. First, the FCC amended its cost recovery rule to modify
the requirement that a mechanism for cost recovery be in place before a
carrier is obligated to
provide E911 services. The FCC affirmed the requirement that a formal
mechanism be in place for
PSAP cost recovery, but eliminated as a barrier to E911 implementation any
prerequisite that carrier E911 costs be covered by a mechanism. Of course,
a cost recovery mechanism is not necessary to permit carriers to recover
their costs. The Commission emphasized, however, that the revised rules do
not disturb current state and local cost recovery schemes that are already
working, nor was it discouraging state and local governments from deciding
that cost recovery or sharing mechanisms that cover carrier costs are an
effective way of expediting wireless E911 for their citizens, especially
in rural areas.
[SOURCE: FCC]
(http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/News_Releases/1999/nrwl9046.txt)
SATELLITE
HOUSE PASSES MEASURE TO LET SATELLITE COMPANIES BROADCAST LOCAL CHANNELS
Issue: Satellite
The House has finally passed a hard-fought measure that would give
satellite television companies the right to re-broadcast local channels,
providing competition to cable companies. "This bill cuts through much of
the current static that has so confused and frustrated millions of home
satellite viewers," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont,
who helped push the legislation. "For the first time ever, it will usher in
an era of head-to-head competition." For more than a year Congress has
attempted to pass satellite legislation, which was nearly killed in the
Senate just last week. Sen Phill Gramm (R-TX) had threatened a filibuster
in response to a provision to extend loan guarantees of $1.25 billion to
satellite companies as an incentive to serve rural viewers. A compromise
was finally struck when the bill was resubmitted to the House without the
disputed measure.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C1), AUTHOR: Lizette Alvarez]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/satellite-tv.html)
PRIVACY
EPIC, ACLU AND EFF CHALLENGE NEW WIRETAP RULES
Issue: Privacy
The groups are asking the federal courts to block new rules that would
enable the FBI to dictate the design of the nation's communication
infrastructure. The challenged rules -- adopted by the FCC under the
controversial Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) --
would enable the Bureau to track the physical locations of cellular phone
users and monitor Internet traffic. See the press release on the court
challenge for more information.
[SOURCE: Electronic Privacy Information Center]
(http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/release_11_18_99.html)
FILM
NEW DIGITAL CAMERAS POISED TO JOLT WORLD OF FILMMAKING
Issue: Film-making
As the price of digital film technology rapidly falls, some believe it
could radically transform the way movies are made distributed. "It's a
revolution," said Rodger Raderman, chairman of iFilm, a San Francisco-based
company that distributes digital films on the Internet. "And I believe it's
coming faster than most people think." The theory is that digital
technology will allow even the most modestly financed filmmaker to shoot a
movie and transmit it to theaters digitally at little expense. "The whole
economics of the business are basically turned upside down by digital
technology," said Bruce Apar, editor in chief of Video Business, a magazine
published by Variety. "It will change the movie industry, absolutely."
Digital moviemaking has long been popular among independent filmmakers who
resented the dominance of the Hollywood aesthetic, but now -- for the first
time -- a major is finally climbing on the digital bandwagon. Sony
Pictures, which is owned by a company that also manufactures digital
equipment, is producing "Time Code 2000," a digital film directed by Mike
Figgis, the British director known for the Oscar-winning "Leaving Las Vegas."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A1), AUTHOR: Rick Lyman]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/19digit.html)
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Way to go, Pudge!
...and we're outta here. Start making some room for turkey!