Washington File reports that on September 9, 2005, Commerce Secretary Gutierrez announced a formal determination of a fishery failure in the Gulf of Mexico (including the Florida Keys, and the area from Pensacola, Florida to the Texas border) due to the major flooding, clogged waterways, damage to fishing boats and ports, and closed processing facilities following Hurricane Katrina. (Washington File, dated 09/12/05, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=September&x=20050912111545lcnirellep0.7358057&t=xarchives/xarchitem.html )
Hewlett-Packard unveiled a model e-waste bill that it said would require companies to run their own recycling programs or accept a “tax"-based approach. The bill is being circulated in state legislatures and “there is interest,” HP Dir.-Govt. Policy David Isaacs told us. Despite concerns, state officials called the HP proposal a significant step.
Hewlett-Packard unveiled a model e-waste bill that it said would require companies to run their own recycling programs or accept a “tax"-based approach. The bill is being circulated in state legislatures and “there is interest,” HP Dir.-Govt. Policy David Isaacs told us. Despite concerns, state officials called the HP proposal a significant step.
Fury stirred by sexual content woven into in rival Take-Two Interactive game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was “unfortunate” because “it casts a very negative light on the industry as a whole,” THQ CEO Brian Farrell told the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment Conference in Pasadena, Cal., after our Wed. deadline. Farrell said the brouhaha “created some political pressures” but will “over time, lose steam” as people realize it was an “isolated incident.”
Music copyright holders and online subscription services must bring Capitol Hill a unified proposal for licensing law reform to get a bill moving, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) said Tues. at the Future of Music Coalition summit in D.C. Talks between the sectors broke down last month over what Digital Media Assn. (DiMA) members should pay artists and publishers. DiMA firms -- like iTunes and Napster - now pay a flat fee to rights holders, who have been demanding 14% of revenue. DiMA’s most recently offered 6.9%.
EBay’s $2.6 billion cash and stock buy of Skype, announced Mon., raised eyebrows on Wall Street over its price and over it’s wisdom. VoIP advocates, however, welcomed it as a validation of their technology.
User-generated Internet content is raising new issues, panelists said Mon. at a Council of Europe (CoE) conference on how to promote human rights in the information society. Blogs, “Really Simple Syndication” (RSS) news feeds and other innovations are creating a “participatory society” in which “netizens” get information not only from established content providers but from other each other, said Rachel O'Connell, dir.- research, cyberspace research unit, U. of Central Lancashire, U.K. That’s creating a situation where even seemingly innocuous acts can lead to danger, she said.
Facing growing consumer demand for broadband access unbundled from public switched telephony network (PSTN) services, European incumbent telcos are scurrying to stave off competition from alternative providers. Within 2 years, “naked DSL” will be widely available in Europe, said Ovum Senior Analyst-Broadband Mark Main. The service is raising regulatory and competitive questions telecom regulators are monitoring but haven’t answered definitively, said Jette Jakobsen, division head of Denmark’s National Information Technology & Telecom Agency (NITA).
The FCC conditionally granted a TracFone Wireless petition seeking forbearance from a rule barring firms that don’t own facilities from participating in the agency’s “Lifeline” low-income support program. TracFone has said it needs the forbearance to be designated an ETC to get Lifeline support, since it provides service entirely on a resale basis. Tues. was the deadline for the FCC to act.
BellSouth said it’s setting up tent cities for its employees in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas severely affected by Hurricane Katrina. It said it’s providing employees and their families food, shelter and clothing, and financial and other help to employees who lost their homes to Katrina. BellSouth has 13,000 employees across the affected region, about 1,000 in New Orleans.