| New TLJ Stories |
Court
Rules that Open Access Ordinance Violates First Amendment Rights of
Cable Operators. The U.S. District Court ruled in favor of
the cable operators in the Broward
County cable access case. It held that the county ordinance
requiring cable operators to provide their competitors with access
to their broadband cable Internet access facilities violates the
First Amendment rights of the cable operators. See, opinion.
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| New Documents |
FTC:
Notice
of workshop on consumer protection in m-commerce, 11/14 (HTML, FTC).
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| New and Updated Sections |
Calendar
(updated daily).
News
from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"Under the circumstances, I would agree that there is no point
in holding Members here with the unrealistic expectation that
something is going to happen over the next week or so on the
appropriations bills."
Rep. David Obey (D-WI), 11/13. |
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| News Briefs |
11/14. The House met on Monday Nov. 13 and Tuesday Nov. 14. It put
off negotiations over unresolved appropriations legislation disputes
until after Thanksgiving, in part because of uncertainty in the
Presidential election. However, the House passed the FSC bill, the
Intelligence Authorization Act, and another joint resolution making
further continuing appropriations for the FY 2001. It then adjourned
until Dec. 4.
11/14. The House passed HR 4986, the Foreign Sales Corporation (FCS)
Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act by a vote of 316 to
72. See, Roll
Call No. 597. The bill benefits, among others, U.S. high tech
companies that sell their goods and services abroad, including
Microsoft and Cisco. It also averts, at least temporarily, a
potential trade war with the European Union.
However, the EU will complain to the WTO that this new bill
constitutes an illegal export subsidy. See also, USTR
release.
11/13. The House passed by voice vote HR 5630, the Intelligence
Authorization Act for FY 2001. It is one of several
appropriations bills held up by Bill Clinton before the Nov. 7
election. However, Clinton stated only one objection -- that a
provision criminalizing the unauthorized disclosure of classified
information would impede the free flow of information. Hence, the
House passed the bill once again, absent this one provision. Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL),
Chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, explained: "The bill before
us, HR 5630, is identical to the version of HR 4392 that passed the
House and the Senate on October 12 of this year with one major
exception. The language, formerly section 304, prohibiting the
unauthorized disclosure of classified information has been removed
in its entirety. All the other provisions remain the same."
11/14. MP3.com and Universal Music
Group (UMG) settled their legal disputes, just prior to a ruling
from U.S. District Court (SDNY)
Judge Ned Rakoff on the issue of damages. Under the agreement
MP3.com will pay $53.4 Million in damages, and license the use of
UMG music recordings. UMG is the final major music company to settle
its copyright infringement claims against MP3.com in a suit
that was filed on Jan. 31. In Sept., Judge Rakoff found that MP3.com
had deliberately infringed the copyrights of the plaintiff record
companies by copying CDs onto its servers, and making them available
to its users on the Internet.
11/14. The FTC announced that it will
host a two day public workshop on December 11-12 to examine emerging
wireless Internet and data technologies and the privacy, security,
and consumer protection issues they raise. The workshop will
examine, among other things, the what role the FTC should play in
protecting consumer from unfair trade practices in m-commerce.
See, FTC
release and notice.
11/14. ICG Communications filed a
Chapter 11 petition in the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court (DDel). ICG stated that
"it has secured a commitment for up to $350 million of new
financing from Chase Manhattan Bank of which $200 million is
available immediately. The remaining $150 million will be made
available upon the satisfaction of certain conditions. ICG
also has approximately $160 million cash on hand." See, ICG
release. ICG is a facilities based communications provider and LEC.
It offers voice and data services, including local, long distance
and enhanced telephony, to small and medium sized business
customers. It also offers network facilities and data management to
ISP customers. It also provides interexchange services such as
special access and switched access services to long distance
carriers and other customers.
11/14. The FCC published in the
Federal Register regulations
to implement aspects of the Satellite
Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 which take effect on
Nov. 29, 2000. The act authorizes satellite carriers to add more
local and national broadcast programming to their offerings and
seeks to place satellite carriers on an equal footing with cable
operators with respect to availability of broadcast programming.
(Federal Register, Nov. 14, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 220, pages
68082-68107.)
11/14. 11/14. The U.S. Court of
Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion affirming the decision of
the U.S. District Court (EDTex)
in John
Watts v. XL Systems, a patent infringement case. (The opinion is in
the court web site in EXE/MS Word format.)
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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ISTAC Meeting
Nov. 15 and 16
There will be a two day meeting of the Information
Systems Technical Advisory Committee (ISTAC) of the Bureau of Export Administration
(BXA) of the Department of Commerce. See, notice
in Federal Register. This committee deals with export
controls applicable to information systems equipment and
technology. Parts of the meeting will be closed to the
public. Location: Herbert C. Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th
Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington DC. |
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