Sept. 4, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 12.
Labor Day |
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Copyright 1998 - 2000 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All rights
reserved. |
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| News Briefs |
9/1. A complaint was filed in U.S. District Court (SDNY) against Internet Wire and Bloomberg News in connection
with their publishing a fake press release with false information
about Emulex. Plaintiff, Ron
Hart, an Emulex investor who is represented by the law firm of Schatz & Nobel, seeks class
action status. The individual who perpetrated the press release
fraud, Mark Jakob, has been arrested by the FBI, and charged with
securities fraud by the SEC. A
second complaint was filed in California against Internet Wire and
Mark Jacob by a San Diego investor named Brian Robbins alleging for
fraud and negligence.
9/1. The FCC
released a request
for comments [MS Word] on the CTIA
Petition to Suspend Compliance Date in the FCC's CALEA
proceeding (CC Docket No. 97-213). In 1994 Congress
passed the CALEA
to allow LEAs
to maintain 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. The CTIA on others
filed Petitions for Review. On Aug. 15 The U.S. Court of Appeals (DC)
released its opinion
vacating parts of the FCC order. However, the binding deadline of
the order (Sept. 30, 2001) remains in place.
9/1. The House Commerce
Committee's Telecom Subcommittee released the witness list for
its Sept. 7 hearing on "Foreign Government Ownership of
American Telecommunications Companies."
• Sen. Ernest
Hollings (D-SC)
• Rep. Jennifer Dunn
(R-WA)
• Kevin DiGregory (DOJ)
• Larry Parkinson (FBI)
• William
Kennard (FCC)
• Richard Fisher (Asst. USTR)
• John Stanton (VoiceStream)
• Morton Bahr (CWA)
• Gregory Sidak (AEI)
• Andrew Lipman (Swidler
Berlin)
• Michael Noll (Annenberg
Sch.)
• Thomas Donahue (US
Chamber)
8/31. The U.S. Internet Council
released its annual State
of the Internet Report 2000. Quote: "Although it remains
possible that governments might smother the Internet in regulation,
early signs suggest that this is unlikely. The Internet should
continue to evolve into an open and global information environment
..." See, release.
8/31. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall (Conn.) released a
scathing 103 page ruling
in which she awarded Bristol
Technologies $1 Million in punitive damages against Microsoft. Bristol filed a 14
count complaint against Microsoft on August 18, 1998 in which it
plead a variety of federal and state antitrust, unfair trade
practices, and common law theories. On July 16, 1999, the jury ruled
for Microsoft on all counts, except one alleging violation of the
Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, for which it awarded a token
$1 in compensatory damages. Judge Hall saw the case differently. In
addition to the punitives, she enjoined Microsoft from publishing or
distributing its WISE Mission Statement. See, Bristol
release and Tech
Law Journal summary of Bristol v. Microsoft.
8/31. The FCC released a report
[PDF] about competition in the market for local telecommunications
services. It concludes that CLECs
provided about 4% of the 190 million telephone lines that served
end-user customers at the end of 1999. About 34% of these lines were
local loops that they own, while the remaining lines were served by
means of unbundled network elements (UNEs) or services acquired from
other carriers. See also, FCC
release [MS Word].
8/31. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy sent a letter to
Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Stuart Eizenstat
stating that proposed modifications to the U.S. Foreign Sales
Corporations (FSC) tax scheme are still unacceptable to the EU.
See, EU
release. The FSC scheme allowed a portion of a U.S. taxpaying
firm's foreign-source income to be exempt from U.S. income tax. It
benefited software companies, among others. The EU filed a complaint
about the FSC scheme with the WTO, alleging that it was a
prohibited export subsidy. A WTO dispute settlement panel sided with
the EU last fall, and the WTO Appellate Body upheld its findings in
February. See also, HR 4986, the "FSC Repeal and
Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000", sponsored by Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX). For
background, see May 2, 2000 press briefings by Lamy and Eizenstat
and by Eizenstat
and Talisman.
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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| Breaking News |
9/4. The Washington Post is reporting in a story
in its Monday edition, and in its web site, that the FTC
is "prepared to block the America Online Inc.-Time Warner
Inc. merger unless the companies agree to keep open their
high-speed cable lines to competing entertainment and online
companies".
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| New TLJ Stories |
9/4. Judge Awards Bristol $1M in
Punitive Damages from Microsoft. Judge
Hall awarded Bristol $1,000,000.00 in punitive damages from
Microsoft under the Connecticut unfair trade practices law, based
upon a jury verdict that awarded Bristol $1.00 in compensatory
damages.
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| New Documents |
9/1. FCC: Request
for Comments on the CTIA's Petition to Suspend CALEA
Compliance Date (MS Word file in the FCC web site).
8/31. Judge Hall: Ruling
on Bristol Technology's Motion for Award of Punitive Damages &
Motion for Permanent Injunction (103 GIF files in the
Bristol web site).
8/31. Judge Hall: Injunction
of Microsoft -- excerpt from ruling in Bristol v. Microsoft
(HTML, TLJ).
8/31. U.S. Internet Council: State of the Internet
Report 2000 (HTML, USIC).
8/31. FCC: Local
Telephone Competition at the New Millenium (PDF, FCC).
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| New and Updated Sections |
Bristol v. Microsoft
(case summary updated to include Judge Hall's ruling on punitive
damages).
Calendar (House and Senate
committees are starting to publish their hearing schedules for early
September).
News from Around the Web
(updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"The deceptive conduct engaged in by Microsoft clearly rises to
the level of reckless and wanton indifference to the harm it caused
Bristol and others, including ISVs, that relied on Microsoft's
assurances regarding the viability of products under the WISE
Program to allow porting of applications written for Microsoft's
latest NT source code". Judge Janet Hall, in her Aug. 31
ruling in Bristol v. Microsoft. |
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