INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Issue of Web Copyright Hotly Debated (SJM)
MERGERS
Bell Atlantic-Vodafone Pact (CNN)
VoiceStream Confirms Deal To Buy Aerial (WSJ)
E-COMMERCE
U.S. Commerce Dept to Collect Data on Online Sales (NYT)
WIRELESS
Users of Wireless Phones Find Unexpected Benefits (NYT)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
ISSUE OF WEB HOTLY DEBATED
Issue: Intellectual Property
Congress has much on its table with respect to copyright and the Internet.
The issue extends far beyond the scientific community, affecting millions of
stockbrokers, librarians, real estate agents and publishers -- anyone who
makes a living collecting information. Today, such compilations or databases
go largely unprotected by copyright laws that safeguard the interests of the
authors and publishers of creative works. The database owners fear they will
lose profits if outsiders can freely copy their information as it costs them
tremendous amounts of money to collect and enter such data. On the other
hand, companies such as Yahoo! fear they could be run into the ground if
they can't easily trade works. The debate is essentially between people who
collect raw data and people who distribute it. Real estate agents, for
example, gather information about which apartments are available. Their
concern is that an online publisher could see their listings in the window
of an agency, copy them, and put them up on a Web site -- all perfectly
legal under current federal law. Lexis keeps vast collections of court
decisions. They might be faced with a competing on-line publisher who
decides to use Lexis data to launch a Website of all court decisions from
Massachusetts -- also perfectly legal under copyright law. "Why would anyone
spend $2 million to create a database if it's not going to be protected?''
said David Mirchin, of SilverPlatter Information, a database publisher in
Norton, Massachusetts. Companies such as AT&T and universities such as
Brandeis in Massachusetts want legislation that would not restrict people
from copying databases unless they plan to use the information in a directly
competitive way. Behind the push for stricter copyright regulations are Reed
Elsevier, owner of Lexis-Nexis and of Cahners Publishing of Newton,
Massachusetts, the American Medical Association and the National Association
of Realtors.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Boston Globe]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/075686.htm)
MERGERS
BELL ATLANTIC-VODAFONE PACT
Issue: Merger/Deal
Today, Bell Atlantic and Britain's Vodafone AirTouch agreed to form a new
wireless telephone operation in the U.S. Under the terms of the venture,
which will have a market value of more than $70 billion, Bell Atlantic will
own 55% of the new company and Vodafone will own 45%. The companies said the
new operation would serve about 20 million wireless customers and 3.5
million paging customers throughout the U.S. Bell Atlantic will manage the
new venture.
[SOURCE: CNN, AUTHOR: CNNfn]
(http://www.cnnfn.com/1999/09/21/deals/vodafone/)
VOICESTREAM CONFIRMS DEAL TO BUY AERIAL; AT&T, SPRINT TO GET COMPETITION
Issue: Wireless
VoiceStream Wireless plans to acquire Aerial Communications, a
cellular-phone company, in its attempts to compete with wireless providers
AT&T and Sprint. The sale could cost as much as $3.27 billion. VoiceStream
is on a merger run, announcing 3 months ago it will acquire Omnipoint. All
three cell-phone providers VoiceStream, Aerial and Omnipoint use a digital
technology called GSM, or global system for mobile communications.
VoiceStream, Aerial and Omnipoint jointly serve 1.5 million customers.
Comparatively, AT&T's wireless unit has 11.5 million customers and Sprint's
wireless unit has more than four million customers. VoiceStream appears to
be building a wireless empire that could provide service between New York,
Hawaii, Minneapolis and Houston. The newly merged VoiceStream will have
licenses to operate cell-phone service in 22 of the nation's 25 largest
markets. Some Wall Street investors believe VoiceStream's mergers signal a
move towards consolidation of GSM operators in the U.S. While GSM is the
standard for digital-wireless service in Europe, the platform has not seen
widespread use in the U.S. However, the deal fueled speculation that
VoiceStream would move to acquire Powertel, the last remaining US
independent GSM operator.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Nicole Harris & Nikhil Deogun]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB937834955210032356.htm)
E-COMMERCE
U.S. COMMERCE DEPT TO COLLECT DATA ON ONLINE SALES
Issue: E-Commerce
Next month, the U.S. Commerce Department will begin to track Internet
retailing as part of its monthly retail sales survey. When conducting its
retail sales surveys for October, November and December, the department will
now ask companies what portion of their sales took place online -- a
question that never before was part of the survey. "This is a fast-moving,
important development," said Lee Price, Commerce Department's chief
economist. "We are committed to getting out there and starting to ask
questions."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/biztech/articles/21commerce-dept.
html)
WIRELESS
USERS OF WIRELESS PHONES FIND UNEXPECTED BENEFITS
Issue: Wireless
As the cost of wireless service has plummeted in the last year, cell phone
users are experiencing an unexpected benefit in addition to the convenience
of mobility. Wireless subscribers in the New York metropolitan region and
other localities have discovered that their cell phones offer a low-cost way
of making regional or long-distance toll charges that can be very expensive
on a wired phone. A wireless home calling area -- which in metropolitan New
York generally encompasses most of New Jersey, southern New York State,
including Long Island and Fairfield County in Connecticut -- is far larger
than the local calling area for traditional phone service. "This is an
inherent advantage of wireless carriers," said Mark Lowenstein, senior vice
president for global wireless research at the Yankee Group, "that they're
able to exploit more and more because they have these larger calling areas."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A27), AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-wireless-phones.
html)
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