4/28. The Dept. of Justice asked Judge Jackson to split Microsoft into two
corporations. See, Plaintiff's
Proposed Final Judgment, Memorandum in Support
(redacted), and statements
of Reno and Klein.
4/28. Bill Gates stated that "Breaking up Microsoft into separate companies
is not in the interest of consumers and is not supported by anything in the
lawsuit." See, MSFT
release.
4/28. MCI WorldCom shareholders approved the
MCI WC Sprint merger. MCI WC stated in release
that "The Company anticipates the merger to be approved by the Department of Justice in the second quarter
of 2000, followed by approval by the Federal
Communications Commission, various state government bodies and foreign
antitrust authorities in the third quarter of this year. The Company anticipates
the merger to close soon thereafter." Sprint shareholders also approved the
deal. See, release.
4/28. The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C.
Circuit, issued its opinion
denying the petition for review of MCI WorldCom, CompTel, and others, seeking
review of an FCC order prohibiting them from filing tariffs with the FCC.
4/28. The FCC asked for public comment in its Bell Atlantic
GTE antitrust merger review (transfer of license) proceeding on the proposal to
transfer GTE Internetworking's (now Genuity) Internet
backbone assets to a separate corporation. (Common Carrier Docket No.
98-184.) See, FCC
release and FCC
BA GTE merger page.
4/28. FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth
gave an address at the American Enterprise Institute on the
"realpolitik of regulation," and FCC regulation specifically. He
stated that regulators expand their power by "1. a lack of strict adherence
to the law; 2. expansion of agency jurisdiction; 3. refusal to write procedural
rules; 4. refusal to have transparent processes; 5. refusal to have predictable
processes; 6. refusal to collect, disseminate, analyze, or systematically
evaluation information on the costs and benefits of regulation; 7. complexity;
8. inefficiency; 9. promotion of benefits, and hiding of harms to consumers; and
finally, the treatment of similarly situated parties in different ways."
See also, TLJ story.
4/27. Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Alan Greenspan gave a speech
at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
titled "Beyond Agriculture: New Policies for Rural America." He
addressed the effect of information technology on rural communities.
4/27. The Senate Judiciary Committee
approved S 1854,
the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.
4/27. "The USPS
and PostX Corp. announced the first
commercial availability of the USPS Electronic Postmark (EPM). The EPM is
a feature designed for email subscribers interested in ensuring a higher level
of security for their electronic messages. PostX Corp., of Cupertino, CA, is the
first email service provider to offer the EPM as an option on email
services." See, USPS
release and PostX
release.
4/27. The Economic Policy Institute
released a report titled "MCI WorldCom’s Sprint Toward Monopoly: An
Analysis of the Proposed Telecommunications Merger." The report, authored
by Steven Pociask and Jack Rutner, recommends that regulators require
divestiture of Sprint's Internet backbone network, long distance backbone
network, and ATM network. The report elaborates that Internet backbone
divestiture should include "the fiber and equipment, data centers,
personnel, systems, documentation, and all customers receiving Internet
wholesale services." See, summary of report.
4/27. The FTC
entered into Agreement
Containing Consent Order with several auto dealerships that ran deceptive
advertisements for auto leasing on the Internet. See, FTC release.
4/26. CompTel filed comments [PDF]
with the FCC stating that SBC’s § 271 application to enter long
distance in Texas should be denied. See, release.
4/26. Bill Clinton traveled to Whiteville, North Carolina, to give another
"digital divide" speech. He announced that the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) will expand
its Telecommunications
Loan Program to include companies that provide broadband Internet access in
rural areas. See, USDA
release.
4/26. The NTIA and
Rural Utilities Service released a report
that says that Americans in rural areas lag far behind those in urban areas in
access to advanced telecommunications services. See, Advanced
Telecommunications in Rural America, The Challenge of
Bringing Broadband Service to All Americans [750 KB PDF document]. See also,
NTIA release.
4/26. Clinton also addressed the expansion of the economy. "And I'd like to
see my Vice President get his fair share of credit this year in November."
Clinton also thanked FCC Chairman Wm. Kennard,
Transportation Sec. Rodney Slater, and other politicians for joining him on his
campaign.
4/26. MCI WorldCom announced a $2 million "wireless Internet" program
to offer schools, libraries and community centers in four southern rural
communities high-speed wireless Internet connectivity via MMDS technology. See, release.
4/26. Donald Abelson, Chief of the FCC's International
Bureau gave a speech titled "The FCC's International Agenda: Access,
Broadband and Competition." He stated that "One of the Chairman’s
highest priorities is to promote development of the information infrastructure
worldwide."
4/26. Excite announced the launch of its interactive elections web site at http://elections.excite.com.
4/25. The SEC approved the issuance of an
interpretive release discussing the application of the federal securities laws
to electronic media. See, release.
4/25. Nasdaq filed a complaint in U.S.
District Court, E.D.Va., against U.K. based Deltacross Ltd., for cybersquatting.
Nasdaq alleges that the registration of nasdaqeurope.com and nasdaqeurope.net
violated the Anti cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d).
4/25. Tribal Voice, a provider of
co-branded instant messaging (IM) and interactive communications, submitted a
filing to the FCC in its proceeding on the merger of AOL and Time Warner. Tribal
Voice argues that the FCC should required AOL to allow users of other IM
providers to send instant messages to AOL users. AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM)
only communicates with other users of the AIM service. See, release.
4/25. Phone.com filed a complaint against Geoworks in federal court in San Jose. It
seeks declaratory judgment that a patent held by
Geoworks is invalid and unenforcable, and that Phone.com has not infringed it.
The suit goes to who holds intellectual property rights in standards for
Internet and intranet access by wireless devices such as smart phones and PDAs.
See, Phone.com
release and Geoworks
release. See also, TLJ story.
4/25. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), Chairman
of the House Republican Conference,
gave a digital divide address in Sacramento, CA. "Republicans in
Congress are committed to narrowing this gap," said Rep. Watts. "There
is no silver bullet to solve this national problem. ... The first priority is to
ensure that the marketplace that has spawned a breathtaking array of innovation
and creativity remains unfettered. Does anyone really believe that this digital
opportunity can't be resolved by the U.S. economy? Republicans are working to
provide tax and regulatory relief to harness the power of the marketplace. This
year we will eliminate barriers to technology such as excise and access taxes
and examine other changes in tax policy to ensure continued growth."
4/25. Robert Solow, MIT professor emeritus, and Nobel laureate in economics,
spoke in favor of PNTR status for China at a
White House event. "What you have here is a good example of the standard
politics of free trade. Opening of trade always hurts some small number of
people, and hurts them appreciably. It benefits the whole population, but each
of them by a relatively small amount. Added up, over the total, it is very
large, as history has always shown. There is no question that the benefit to
American workers, to all American workers from having free access to a market
the size of China has to be important -- far more important." See, transcript.
4/25. Homestore.com received a request
for information from the antitrust division
of the Department of Justice. The request seeks information about Internet
realty sites. Homestore is a network of web sites for home and real
estate-related information, products and services. See, Homestore
release.
4/25. Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening signed into law the Uniform Commercial
Information Transactions Act (UCITA). The law goes into effect October 1. The BSA and SIIA praised
passage of the act. See, SIIA release.
4/25. Rap musician Dr. Dre and Aftermath
Entertainment filed suit against MP3 music swapping company Napster in U.S. District Court, C.D.CA. The complaint alleges that "Napster has
built a business based on large-scale piracy. Napster is a worldwide Internet
site, which encourages and enables visitors to its Web site to unlawfully
exchange with each other MP3 files containing records created by and belonging
to artists such as Young. The end result of the process is that Napster's users
are able to obtain the music they want for free. The copyright owners, those
rightfully entitled to profit from their music, get nothing." The complaint
alleges contributory infringement, vicarious infringement, and unlawful use of
digital audio interface device. Dr. Dre had this to say: "I don't like
people stealing my music."
4/25. Limp Bizkit (the famous rock
band) and Napster (the MP3 music swapping
company) announced that Napster will underwrite Limp's summer tour. Napster has
been sued by the RIAA and others for copyright
infringement. Said Limp, "The trek is aimed at getting fans geared up for
the August release of Limp's 'Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored
Water'."
4/25. Richard Teel, Bell South's
VP of Regulatory and External Affairs, announced his retirement effective July
1. See, BellSouth
release and Teel
bio.
4/25. The Federal Communications Commission
stated that all broadcast station employment units and cable employment units,
regardless of size, must file the new Equal Employment Opportunity form. See, release.
4/25. The Minnesota Public Utilities
Commission reversed an earlier decision and set the week of June 5 for a
hearing to consider approval of the merger of USWest
and Qwest. See, USWest release.
4/24. Eric London was appointed Director of the FTC's Office of
Public Affairs. He was previously Deputy Communications Director for House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt
(D-MO), where he handled technology issues. He received his J.D. from George
Washington Univ. in 1989. See, FTC release.
4/21. The FTC's
regulations implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act went into
effect. See, FTC release
and 16 CFR Part 312
[PDF].
4/20. AT&T stated in a filing with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission that
it wants to offer local phone services over its cable network to independent
phone company consumers in western Penn. See, ATT release.
4/20. Indiana Univ. (IU) announced that it
will block all IU network traffic related to the MP3 music swapping company Napster. (See, IU release.)
Yale Univ. did the same on April 14. These actions result from a law suit filed
by the rock music group Metallica
against Napster and three universities for copyright infringement, unlawful
use of digital audio interface device, and racketeering. (See, Metallica release.)
The RIAA has also sued
Napster.
4/19. The Dept. of Commerce (DOC) published a
Request for Comments in the April 19 Federal Register regarding progress made by
Intergovernmental Satellite Organizations' (ISO) signatories in providing full
and open competition in their communications satellite markets. The DOC is
required by the International Anti-Bribery and Fair Competition Act of 1998 to
prepare a report to the Congress. See also, DOC's Anti Corruption Review web
site.
4/18. AT&T stated in a filing with the FCC in
the AT&T - MediaOne merger
review proceeding that it will not attempt to influence programming at the
cable TV companies it is acquiring or partially owns. AT&T owns a minority
stake in Time Warner Entertainment (TWE), which it wants to keep. AT&T
stated that "No officer or director of AT&T shall also be an officer or
director of TWE" and "No officer, director, or employee of AT&T
shall, directly or indirectly, influence or attempt to influence, or otherwise
participate in, the management or operation of the Video Programming activities
of TWE." (See, AT&T filing in MS Word or text.)
4/18. A summit on critical infrastructure assurance was held at the White
House. Commerce Sec. Wm. Daley stated in his comments
that "this is the first time in American history the federal government
alone cannot protect our infrastructure. We can't hire a police force big enough
..." He added that "Government obviously has a role to protect our own
computer networks," but the "bulk is in the hands of the private
sector. And the responsibility to protect them rests largely with
industry."
4/18. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) announced his opposition to PNTR status for
China. See also, ITAA release.
4/17. The Federal Election Commission released
a letter and narrative in which it stated
its determination to take no action against Zach Exley in its proceeding on the
federal election law complaint
filed by Bush backer Benjamin Ginsburg for Exley's gwbush.com web site. See also, TLJ summary.
4/17. Island ECN announced that it will
begin decimal trading on July 3, 2000. Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, praised
Island. "The Island book will make these prices available for free in real
time on the Internet. It will have superior information to the non-converted
NASDAQ tape," said Rep. Bliley. "I call on the SEC and the Exchanges to follow suit -- enough
excuses. Convert now before the markets leave you behind." See, Island release
and Bliley
release.
4/17. NTIA chief Greg Rohde, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), and other
members of the Congressional Black Caucus participated in a "digital
divide" forum in Brooklyn, NY. See, NTIA release.
4/17. The Supreme Court of the United
States finally created a web site.
4/17. Bill Clinton and FCC Chairman Wm.
Kennard travelled to the Navaho Nation in New Mexico. FCC Commissioner Michael Powell accused Kennard of
politicizing the FCC. See, Powell
statement, and TLJ story.
4/17. Bill Clinton gave a speech on government and private sector efforts to
extend Internet access into low income areas. He was joined by high tech
industry leaders and Members of Congress. Clinton said, "If you work for
the government, you don't use e-mail very much unless you want it all in the
newspaper."
4/17. The New Jersey Judiciary
now has a video conferencing network for court systems with 29 remote sites. The
state's courts can use video conferencing to facilitate court activities, such
as testimony and arraignments. See, Lucent release.