A new organization called the Competition Policy Instutute has been
founded to make recommendations in telecom. I don't know much about
them, but I've got a press release I can share with you if you're
interested. They say they want to "promote state and federal policies
that introduce telecom and electic service competition in ways that
benefit consumers" but I don't know what actual positions they take.
Expect pronouncements from them in the future.
I recently posted something about an organization that claims to try
to negotiate between parties with disagreements on the Web. It's
called the Virtual Magistrate Project, and I've placed the press
release on our FTP site under the Announcements directory, as
Virtual-Magistrate-Announcement. I can also email it if you can't get
to the FTP site.
In an ironic twist in the game of competition, Pacific Bell has tried
to increase its rates in order to recover 4.2 billion dollars that
they claim they'll lose because of competition. They claim that they
made investments on the basis of their monopoly position and need to
be reimbursed for them. I don't know much about the arguments, but I
can forward a few mail messages that Marilyn Davis kindly culled for me.
On their Web site, the FCC has put up some comments they've received
about Open Video Systems (OVS). This is the future technology that
will let video be sent over telephone lines, bringing the phone
companies into direct competition with cable. Comments come from a
variety of companies and public-interest groups, and can be downloaded
from:
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/WWW/csovscom.html
Someone said on the Net that the FCC would also put up the comments
they received about universal service, but I don't see them on the Web
site yet.
Following up on the European Community draft I mentioned a couple
weeks ago, I saw a report that Spain had decided not to deregulate its
telephone system yet. Email me if you want it.
David Loundy, a lawyer who writes regularly for the Chicago Daily Law
Bulletin, has put up a nice article about the Internet phone issue on
his Web site:
http://www.leepfrog.com/E-Law/CDLB/ACTA.html
Finally, Craig Johnson sent me a message from an intellectual property
lawyer about putting a newspaper article on a Web site, saying that
this does not automatically consitute copyright infringement. The use
to which the readers are expected to put the article has to be
considered before judging whether or not the posting is "fair use."
Andy
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