Aug. 28, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 7. |
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| News Briefs |
8/25. The Digital Media
Association (DiMA) filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Cir.)
in Napster v. A&M Records, Inc., et al. The brief argues
that U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel incorrectly abandoned
the "capable of substantial non-infringing uses" test for
determining the legality of challenged technologies that the U.S.
Supreme Court set forth in the 1984 Sony Betamax case. See, DiME
release [PDF].
8/25. The FCC adopted changes
to its rules to remove the financial eligibility restrictions for
some C and F block PCS licenses
to be auctioned in Auction 35 and in future C and F block auctions.
The FCC also revised the service and auction rules for upcoming
auctions of C and F block PCS licenses including reconfiguring the
size of C block licenses, modifying auction eligibility restrictions
for certain licenses in both large and small markets, and retaining
the spectrum cap. See, FCC
release.
8/25. AT&T filed a challenge
in the Ohio Supreme Court
to an order of the Public
Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) that Ameritech Ohio suspend
its price ceiling for intrastate access
charges. AT&T alleges that the PUCO order
"is in direct violation of Ameritech Ohio’s recently-approved
alternative regulation plan, which sets the interstate access rates
established by the Federal Communications Commission as the price
ceiling on these intrastate access charges." See, AT&T
release.
8/25. The RIAA
announced that "The number of full-length CDs manufacturers
shipped to the U.S. market is at an all-time high, growing 6.0% from
this time last year ..." The RIAA, and its members, have also
brought copyright infringement suits for Internet
distribution of music files via peer-to-peer and other
systems. See, RIAA
release.
8/25. Intel announced the
formation of an industry working group to foster standards and
protocols for peer-to-peer computing. See, release.
8/25. ICANN
responded to NSI's multilingual domain name testbed. It stated that
"the internationalization of the Internet's domain name system
must be accomplished through standards that are open,
non-proprietary, and fully compatible with the Internet's existing
end-to-end model and that preserve globally unique naming in a
universally resolvable public name space." See, ICANN
release.
8/24. Network Solutions announced
that it will open a testbed for accredited registrars to register
domain names in non-English language character sets in .com, .net,
and .org. The testbed will allow users to register domain names
initially in three languages: Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
(traditional and simplified), and soon thereafter in Spanish,
Portuguese, and Arabic. See, NSI release.
8/23. The CTIA
filed a Petition to Suspend Compliance Date with the FCC in its CALEA
proceeding . In 1994 the Congress passed the CALEA
to allow law enforcement authorities to maintain their wiretap
capabilities in new telecom devices, by requiring carriers to make
their wireline, cellular, and broadband PCS
equipment capable of certain surveillance functions. In Aug. 1999
the FCC issued an Order [huge WP file]
implementing and expanding the requirements placed on carriers. The
CTIA on others filed Petitions for Review. On Aug. 15 The U.S. Court of Appeals (DC Cir.)
released its opinion
vacating parts of the FCC order. However, the binding deadline of
the order remains in place. CTIA seeks to have the deadline
suspended until new CALEA rules are in place. See also, CTIA
release.
8/21. 3Com announced on Aug. 18
that it will pursue its patent infringement suit against Xircom. On May 26 3Com filed a
complaint in U.S. District Court (Utah) alleging infringement in
connection with its PC Cards technology. However, 3Com did not
initially serve the complaint upon Xircom. 3Com stated on Aug. 18
that it "had withheld serving the complaint in an effort to
negotiate a reasonable business solution to the dispute, but the
parties have not been able to come to terms. 3Com has therefore
served Xircom with the complaint and will now pursue protection of
its intellectual property rights in the courts." See, 3Com
release. Xircom General Counsel Randall Holliday responded on
Aug. 21 that "Xircom is committed to an aggressive response to
3Com’s decision to pursue this litigation and we are fully
prepared and intend to mount an aggressive defense to 3Com’s
baseless allegations." See, Xircom
release.
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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