TELEPHONY
New Phone Bill Deal Drops Fee (USA)
INTERNET
When the Internet Moves Faster Than the Courts (Cybertimes)
Arizona Democrats get federal OK for Internet primary (SJM)
AOL: People Love to Hate It, But Don't Leave It (WP)
Web's Absence May Skew Hiring Data (WSJ)
TELEVISION
Nielsen Ratings Spark A Battle Over Just Who Speaks Spanish (WSJ)
SECURITY
NSA Faulted on Privacy Invasion, Tech Weakness (WSJ)
U.S. Lets Scientist Post Source Code For Encryption Software on Web
Site(WSJ)
TELEPHONY
NEW PHONE BILL DEAL DROPS FEE
Issue: Telephony
AT&T, Sprint and MCI, along with most of the nation's local phone
companies, are close to a deal that would eliminate minimum monthly fees for
millions of customers who make few long-distance calls and would reduce a
proposed tax increase. Not all of the three big long-distance companies have
signed on and the plan, which would require Federal Communications
Commission approval, could still unravel, people close to the matter say.
Long-distance carriers now charge residential customers a minimum of $3 a
month, even if they make just one or two calls. AT&T says, however, that
these fees are needed to offset its $300 million-a-year in billing costs for
low-volume callers. But the FCC says it's an unfair burden on poorer
customers.
[SOURCE: USAToday (1B), AUTHOR: Paul Davidson]
(http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000225/1971215s.htm)
INTERNET
WHEN THE INTERNET MOVES FASTER THAN THE COURTS
Issue: Internet/Legal issues
The speed with which the facts surrounding court cases related to the
Internet, could pose major problems for the appeals process, a law scholar
writes. Stuart M. Benjamin, associate professor at the University of San
Diego Law School believes that the appeals process is ill equipped to deal
with Internet cases, because the facts of such cases change so rapidly. He
points out that in the interval between an initial court finding, and the
findings of appellate courts, the facts relating to technology cases change
so rapidly that the appeals court's discussions are based on stale facts and
end up doing both parties in a dispute a disservice. Benjamin points to the
recent Microsoft antitrust case. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has already
issued his finding of facts, and is likely to issue his conclusions of law
in the next several weeks, but Benjamin notes the, if the case is appealed,
the Supreme Court is unlikely to make a decision on it any time before 2002.
In that time much could change. For instance, much of Jackson's findings
center on the idea that Microsoft bundled its Web browser and its operating
system, amounting to an illegal tie-in. In the time it takes to appeal, itt
is likely that the boundary between browsers and operating systems will go
away, creating case law based on facts that would be meaningless at that
point.
[SOURCE: New York Times (Cybertimes) AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/cyber/cyberlaw/25law.html)
ARIZONA DEMOCRATS GET FEDERAL OK FOR INTERNET PRIMARY
Issue: Political Discourse
Arizona Democrats got the go-ahead Thursday to allow voting by computer
in next month's presidential primary, in what would bbe the nation's first
binding election for public office using the Internet. While the Justice
Department said that Attorney General Janet Reno had no objections, it did
articulate concern that participation for affluent whites would increase
more than minorities because of their greater access to computers and the
Internet. "This pretty much says we can go ahead with our election," said
state Party Chairman Mark Fleisher. "It also says they're going to keep
looking over our shoulder, but that's to be expected." The state's
Democratic party still faces a lawsuit charging that voting by computer
would discriminate against minorities and the poor. A three-judge panel is
scheduled to hear the case next week.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/018782.ht)
AOL: PEOPLE LOVE TO HATE IT, BUT DON'T LEAVE IT
Issue: Internet
AOL: if it's the company we love to hate, how come we love it so much?
Despite the fact that users delight in grumbling about its shortcomings, AOL
remains the most popular way to get online. It boasts of 21 million users,
and an incredible 40 percent or more of the market. So, with its busy
signals, and software that doesn't work and play well with other Internet
connections, what is the secret to its success? "It boils down to one
thing... We make it very easy to get online," says Barry Schuler, president
of the company's interactive services group. In addition to its relative
ease of use, members often come to the service because friends and family
members use it, allowing them to keep in touch via chatrooms or AOL's famous
"instant messenger" service. In addition, for many of its users, AOL
provides a kinder gentler means to go online, particularly when compared to
other ISPs which often offer nothing more than a dial-up connection. For
many people, like Wendy Labenow, who met her husband, Adam in a Jewish
singles chatroom on the service, the other users they meet on AOL become
close friends." When we announced our marriage through a mass e-mail, we got
back all their well wishes," she said. " When my father passed away
recently, we sent out the same kind of notice and we got the same amount of
support from people we've never met face to face but feel like we know." In
addition, AOL is constantly expanding its services with products like "AOL
Anywhere" which allows users of Palm Pilot and Windows CE handheld digital
assistants to check their AOL email on the devices, or AOLTV set-top boxes
which will be launched later this year. Additionally, the company's recent
merger with Time Warner should allow the company to provide high-speed cable
access to the Internet, as well as large amounts of additional "broadband"
content.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E1), AUTHOR: Ariana Eunjung Cha]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A29921-2000Feb24.html)
SEE ALSO:
CONSIDERING YOUR AOLTERNATIVES
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E13), AUTHOR: Mike Musgrove]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A29951-2000Feb24.html)
WEB'S ABSENCE MAY SKEW HIRING DATA
Issue: Internet/Employment
The index that helps forecast a tightening in the labor market, the
so-called "help-wanted advertising" index, is believed to understate hiring
needs because it doesn't capture Internet recruiting. The index is compiled
monthly from a survey of help-wanted ads in 51 major metropolitan
newspapers. A rise in the index typically indicates increased hiring needs
and thus a future tightening in the labor market. Bill Dudley, chief U.S.
economist with Goldman Sachs, says "The absolute level of the index is low
relative to everything else we know about the labor market, and it's low
because help-wanted advertising is migrating to other places." The
Conference Board, which gathers the data for the index, concedes that it
will eventually have to provide Internet jobs data. "We would be remiss to
ignore it," said Ken Goldstein, the economist in charge of compiling the
index. But help-wanted ads haven't just migrated to specialized recruitment
Web sites like Monster.com, many companies now manage their hiring needs
through their own proprietary Web sites.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A2), AUTHOR: Michael Casey]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95143350610060684.htm)
TELEVISION
NIELSEN RATINGS SPARK A BATTLE OVER JUST WHO SPEAKS SPANISH
Issue: Television/Diversity
Univision Communications, the nation's leading Spanish-language network, has
charged Nielsen Media Research with undercounting predominantly Spanish
speaking households in its general-market survey's. Research suggests that
Spanish-dominant homes are more
likely than other households to watch Univision. Univision executives
became concerned about under-representation when they noticed that that
Nielsen's Hispanic only study, which takes language preference into account,
showed that the network was attracting more viewers than the general-market
study indicated. In New York, for example, Nielsen estimates that more that
54% percent of Hispanic households are Spanish-dominant, but only 28% of the
Hispanic homes in Nielsen's study are Spanish-dominant. As a result, Nielsen
revised the general-market study to more accurately reflect the language
preferences of Hispanic households. The implementation of the revamped
surveys, however, has been postponed three different times, which has left
Univision frustrated. "Dollar's follows ratings," says Micheal Wortsman,
president of Univision's station group. "Clearly, if Neilsen gets this
right, its going to help us."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B1), AUTHOR: Rick Wartzman and Joe Flint]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95144271180910998.html)
SECURITY
NSA FAULTED ON PRIVACY INVASION, TECH WEAKNESS
Issue: Privacy
Europeans are in an uproar this week over the NSA-led system called Echelon
which, Europeans claim, allows the U.S. to engage in electronic
eavesdropping for economic gain. A report written by a British journalist
claims that by listening in on telephone calls and e-mail traffic, the NSA
helped two U.S. corporations win large business contracts in the mid-1990's.
Independent experts dismiss the charge,
citing the long-standing hostility within the U.S. intelligence community to
the idea of corporate spying. Stewart Baker, a former NSA general counsel,
adds, "You'd have to know everything about [an] industry's competitive
environment, and that is asking for a level of knowledge that the government
just doesn't have." Skeptical privacy advocates argue that the time has
come for new legal standards for government eavesdropping. Rep. Robert Barr
(R-Georgia), a former intelligence operative, vowed to hold hearings
sometime this year, but none have been set.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A4), AUTHOR: Neil King Jr.]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB95143585759672859.htm)
U.S. LETS SCIENTIST POST SOURCE CODE FOR ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE ON
WEB SITE
Issue: Security
In 1993, while an undergraduate at Berkeley, Dr. Bernstein wrote a
encryption software program called Snuffle. He wanted to post the program's
blueprints on his Web site, but citing then-current encryption regulations,
the State Department wouldn't let him. That began a long running court
battle in which Dr. Bernstein scored a victory last Friday. The U.S.
government will allow Dr. Bernstein to publish the Snuffle source code
online. This victory could have something to do with the White House's
decision to bow to pressure from the high-tech community and greatly loosen
export limits on encryption programs. In light of the new regulations, a
district-court judge decided that Snuffle could be posted. But Dr. Bernstein
might continue his lawsuit to address the, "area of ambiguity that remains"
in the new regulations.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Sharon Cleary]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB951422940442620073.htm)
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(www.benton.org/cpphome.html) Communications-related Headline
Service is posted Monday through Friday. The Headlines are highlights
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