Cisco Government Affairs E-Update

Volume 2, Issue 37

18 October 2002

Brought to you by Cisco Government Affairs Online: http://www.cisco.com/gov

This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs

Cisco's E-Update keeps you up to date on the major policy news of the week. Focusing on broadband, education and e-government areas, but covering high-tech and telecom in general, the E-Update is a great source of information for state, federal and international policymakers. To subscribe, send a message with “subscribe” in the subject line to “Subscribe-eUpdate@cisco.com

If you have news or announcements that you think other e-update subscribers would be interested in, please send them to jearnhar@cisco.com.

This Week@WASHINGTON, DC

SENATE PASSES SWEEPING WYDEN-ALLEN CYBER SECURITY BILL - Legislation Coordinates Efforts, Increases Federal Research Funds to Nearly $1 Billion - The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation sponsored by U.S. Senator George Allen (R-Va.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that would significantly increase our national commitment to cybersecurity and help coordinate efforts in government and the private sector to secure our information technology infrastructure.  http://allen.senate.gov/PressOffice/10172002.htm

DID WASHINGTON SET THE STAGE FOR CURRENT BUSINESS TURMOIL? - Seeking Growth, Policy Makers Made Free Markets Freer, Shot Down Naysayers - From the 1930s to the 1970s, Washington embraced an ever-greater role for the federal government. But the economic stagnation of the 1970s convinced politicians in both parties that the pendulum had swung too far. By the decade's end, Democrat Jimmy Carter launched the modern deregulation movement by freeing up the airline and trucking industries. His successor, Ronald Reagan, even more enthusiastically embraced the wisdom of markets over bureaucrats.  The reforms, the officials believed, would unleash innovation and raise living standards. Those good things did happen. Other things happened as well.  http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1034809014214129708,00.html (Paid subscription required)

SILICON VALLEY FIGHTS BACK - Hollywood has a worthy adversary in South Bay Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren - Lofgren announced new legislation last week, called the Digital Choice and Freedom Act, that is designed primarily to appeal to consumers, the bill also offers the best shot yet at getting the faltering digital and broadband economies back into job-creation mode.  Rather than argue about what is best for Silicon Valley firms -- or, for that matter, for Hollywood studios -- Lofgren wants to shift the debate to the question of what is fair to the buyers of digital media.  http://www.sfgate.com/technology/beat/

AN UPHILL BATTLE IN COPYRIGHT CASE - At 11:01 a.m. last Wednesday, at the conclusion of the Supreme Court arguments over the constitutionality of a law that extended copyrights for 20 years, the statute's challengers knew they had not scored a decisive victory.  "My sense is that the case could be in trouble," Charles Nesson, the co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, said afterward at a lunch reception. "They saw the problem, but they didn't necessarily buy our solution."  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/technology/14LESS.html
More on this subject: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,55801,00.html

SPEECH - THE IMPORTANCE OF FEDERAL-STATE COLLABORATION IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGULATION - Remarks of Federal Communications Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy Conference of California Public Utility Counsel.  http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Abernathy/2002/spkqa223.html

This Week@EMEA

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: COMMISSION LAUNCHES EUROPEAN MULTI-STAKEHOLDER FORUM - A multi-stakeholder, pan-European initiative to create a common understanding of corporate social responsibility, and enhance its credibility and effectiveness in helping to achieve EU economic, social and environmental aims, will be launched in Brussels. The European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR EMS Forum), chaired by the European Commission, will bring together enterprises and other stakeholders, including trade unions, NGOs, investors and consumers, to promote innovation, convergence, and transparency in existing CSR practices and tools (such as codes of conduct, labels, reports, and management instruments).  http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/02/1487|0|RAPID&lg=EN

IN FRENCH – INTERVIEW WITH JACQUES DOUFIAGUES, MEMBER OF TELECOM REGULATION AUTHORITY - Interview de Jacques Douffiagues, membre du Collège de l'Autorité de régulation des télécommunications, publiée dans le journal "Réseaux et Télécoms " - L’Autorité envisage une refonte de l’article L. 1511-6 du code général des collectivités territoriales qui aboutirait entre autre résultat sur la levée de l’interdiction faite aux collectivités d’exercer l’activité d’opérateur dans certaines zones du territoire qui ne pourront être desservies par les opérateurs. http://www.art-telecom.fr/

SPEECH: Mr Erkki Liikanen Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enterprise and the Information Society "Better Regulation" Informal Council (Competitiveness) - http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/02/477|0|RAPID&lg=EN

COMMISSION CLEARS ONE-STOP AGREEMENTS FOR THE LICENSING OF TV AND RADIO MUSIC VIA THE INTERNET - An antitrust exemption granted by the European Commission will introduce more competition for European television and radio companies, which simultaneously broadcast music shows on the Internet. Under the new rules, broadcasters can get a single 'one-stop shop' licence from royalty collecting agencies to cover Internet broadcasts across most of the 18-nation European Economic Area (EEA) replacing the old system where they need to secure a license from each national copyright administration and collecting societies.
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/02/1436|0|RAPID&lg=EN

E-VOTING IN GENEVA - In a comparative international perspective, the current e-voting project in the Canton of Geneva stands out as one of the very few really serious attempts to implement formally binding governmental voting procedures on the WWW. University of Zurich. http://socio.ch/intcom/t_hgeser12.htm#5.3

WOMEN TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE TO ACCELERATE JORDAN'S ECONOMY - - UNIFEM opens 10 Cisco Networking Academies in Jordan; 63% of new students are women – Cisco Systems and UNIFEM announced the first results of an initiative to increase the number of working women in Jordan. Launched in January this year, under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, UNIFEM's 'Achieving E-Quality in the IT Sector' programme has since successfully opened 10 Cisco Networking Academies across Jordan. 600 students have enrolled on the course to date, including 380 women (63%) who are now training to achieve globally recognised Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification.  http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_101402b.html

SENEGAL MIXES COMMUNITY AND PCs - Residents in Senegal are bettering their livelihood, improving their businesses and maintaining contact with family and friends through telecentres. The computer hubs are allowing residents to get online at reasonable prices to search for information and even improve business efficiencies - "Now we have the chance to bill people properly," says Ibrahim Fall, a car mechanic who runs a repair shop near the telecentre.  More and more centers are springing up around Senegal, giving residents a new opportunity to learn about technology and benefit from its access. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2296993.stm

WEB BROWSER SPEAKS XHOSA - The Zuza Software Foundation, funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation, released a range of translated software this week. The foundation, with help from Translate.org, released the Mozilla Web browser in Xhosa, Zulu and four other languages while completing work on KOffice in Xhosa, Zulu and Venda.  "This project is crucial to transformation in our country where language is a highly sensitive issue," says project director Dwayne Bailey. "The open source philosophy lends itself to making technology available to the masses. No commercial software vendors have adequately addressed the language issue in SA, but in one year the open source community has." http://allafrica.com/stories/200210170169.html

This Week@Asia/Pac

CHINA’S NEW CYBERCAFE RULES - China has imposed strict new limits on Internet cafes, banning minors and demanding that operators keep records of customers and the information they access.  The regulations, which take effect Nov. 15, also impose tougher safety standards for the popular cafes that provide Internet access to users who pay by the session. Smoking is banned, no cafe can operated within 124 feet of a school, and the businesses must close by midnight, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.  http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=528&ncid=528&e=12&u=/ap/20021014/ap_on_hi_te/china_internet_rules

VIETNAM ISSUES NEW RULES FOR SETTING UP WEB SITES - In an effort to curtail its citizens' access to content it deems subversive, the Vietnamese government has issued new rules requiring government permission before businesses and organizations set up new Web sites. The Ministry of Culture and Information did not specify the penalties for breaking the regulations, but under current law Internet offenses are punishable by fines of up to $3,250 or up to three years in jail. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-10-14-vietnam-web-rules_x.htm

NET REACHES BANGLADESHI VILLAGES - In an effort to take the digital revolution into the Bangladesh countryside, a non-profit organization, the Grameen Trust, has set up two Internet access centers that use wireless links to connect to the Internet. Dial-up connections in Bangladesh are expensive and unstable, with slow connection speeds and frequent interruptions.  The centre was set up a year ago to provide low-cost training in computer skills such as word-processing and graphics and design to villagers. "Our vision is to provide an information technology service to local people who don't know about computers," said the telecentre manager, Mohammad Alamgir Hossain. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2249597.stm

OTHER TECH STORIES OF THE WEEK

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME INSTALLATIONS EXPECTED TO REACH APPROXIMATELY ONE MILLION BY 2004 - New study released at Fiber-to-the-Home Council’s first-ever FTTH Conference shows growth rate of 330 percent next year - According to a new study released during the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Conference 2002, the first annual conference hosted by the FTTH Council, FTTH installations are expected to leap by 330 percent in 2003 from 72,100 homes passed to 315,000 homes passed, ultimately reaching between 800,000 and 1.4 million homes by 2004. The study, entitled “Fiber to the Home and Optical Broadband 2002,” builds on an earlier report on FTTH installations released in August that showed a 2002 growth rate of more than 200 percent. http://www.ftthcouncil.org/FTTHInstallations101502.PDF (Adobe file)

M.I.T. TRIES FREE WEB EDUCATION - THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY HAS DECIDED TO PUBLISH ONLINE ALL ITS COURSE MATERIALS--A $107,840 VALUE.  - The MIT OpenCourseWare project launched two weeks ago with a preliminary pilot offering that just scratches the surface of MIT's publishing ambitions. As of Sept. 30, people with an Internet connection and a Web browser have been able to access the syllabus, lecture notes, exams and answers, and in some cases, even videotaped lectures of 32 MIT courses.  So far, more than 130,000 unique visitors from around the world have plugged into the pilot, tapping into a vein of information for which MIT undergraduates pay $26,960 per year.  http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1023-961563.html

MOTOROLA HOPES TO INITIATE RESURGENCE OF FIXED WIRELESS - Fixed broadband wireless is neither comatose nor dead; in fact, it's functioning well enough for Motorola to bring its Canopy fixed broadband wireless product out of the lab and into the marketplace.  http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_motorola_hopes_initiate/index.htm

INTERNET SOCIETY WINS CONTROL OF ".ORG" DOMAIN - The Internet Society, a group of 11,000 engineers and other networking experts, won their bid to ICANN for ownership of the ".org" domain, home to the non-profit sector on the Web. VeriSign agreed to relinquish control of .org as a part of its deal to maintain the .com domain, which remains the Internet's most populous home. While the domain will be marketed to non-profit and community groups, others will not be prohibited from registering their sites in .org.  http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-10-14-dot-org_x.htm

SPEECH: J. Gregory Sidak, American Enterprise Institute - "THE FAILURE OF GOOD INTENTIONS: THE COLLAPSE OF AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS AFTER SIX YEARS OF DEREGULATION" -  "The United States has spent more than six years trying to deregulate telecommunications.  We are not in the 'transition' any longer. It is time to take stock.  I would like to address three topics. The first is the administrative cost of deregulation.  Next, I will examine the consequences of the Federal Communications Commission’s use of a competitor-welfare standard when formulating its policies for local competition. Finally, I will speculate about how the WorldCom bankruptcy will affect the telecommunications industry and its regulation." http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID335180_code021001500.pdf?abstractid=335180

HOLLYWOOD'S DEMANDS COULD CRIPPLE CONSUMER TECHNOLOGY, PANELISTS SAY -

The debate over copyright in the Digital Age took another step yesterday as the Associated Press held a conference on the topic in San Francisco. Fred von Lohmann, a civil liberties attorney who represents some of the file-swapping companies that have recently been sued, said that the content industry "is saying, 'We need to be able to tell the technology industry what they can and cannot build.'" Warner Bros. CTO Chris Cookson reiterated the restrictions proposed by Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) aren't aimed at stifling consumers' fair use of content, but to prevent unlawful distribution over the Internet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26723-2002Oct15.html

CABLE'S PROPOSED CONSUMPTION PRICING SCHEME WILL STIFLE BROADBAND GROWTH, DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL, THREATEN PRIVACY - Consumer Group Decries Broadband Banditry, Says Hogwash to its Claims - The cable industry has begun to pursue plans that could impose new restrictions on Internet use, allowing it to "closely monitor and tightly control its subscribers, network, and offerings." New technology embraced by the cable industry is designed to fundamentally transform today's open network into a system that will prevent such applications as file-sharing, streaming video, and peer-to-peer communications. The stage is now being set for a radically different approach to Internet access, where the flat rate pricing of today is replaced by "tiered and usage-based billing." New schemes are also planned, that could replace the open Net environment with industry-self-described versions of "walled gardens" or "Internet Lite."  http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/marketwatch/bandwidthCaps.html

COMPUTER PIONEER DIES - Keith Uncapher, a computer pioneer at the University of Southern California who was a key player in the development of the Internet, died of a heart attack, the university announced. He was 80.  Uncapher  founded the Information Sciences Institute at USC's school of engineering in 1972.  Under his tenure as executive director, ISI researchers worked on the development of the Internet's system of domain names that includes ".com" ".net," ".org" and other addresses.  "He and his creations were at the center of the information technology revolution of the 20th century," said Herbert Schorr, Uncapher's successor at ISI.   http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=528&ncid=528&e=16&u=/ap/20021012/ap_on_re_us/obit_uncapher

FACTS & STATS

NET-ENABLED PHONES A HUGE SUCCESS IN JAPAN - Over 50 million people in Japan have Internet-enabled mobile phones, reports Japan Today.  http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358440&rel=true

TELEWORKING ON THE INCREASE IN EUROPE - The number of teleworkers in Europe has doubled in the past three years to 20 million, reports ZDNet.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358438&rel=true

ADSL DOMINATES ASIAN BROADBAND MARKET - New research from IDC indicates that ADSL is the leading broadband access technology in Asia-Pacific.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358426&rel=true

OVER FOUR MILLION DSL SUBSCRIBERS IN JAPAN - The number of DSL subscribers in Japan passed the four million mark at the end of September, reports Yahoo.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358434&rel=true

GERMAN SENIORS TAKE TO THE NET - Deutsche Welle reports that more than 4.5 million senior citizens in Germany are online.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358444&rel=true

IRISH NOT INTERESTED IN BROADBAND - A recent survey from the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) indicates that a large number of Irish adults have little or no interest in subscribing to broadband services.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358428&rel=true

UK HAS ONE MILLION BROADBAND CONNECTIONS - The UK now has one million broadband connections, according to official statistics released by Oftel.  http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358430&rel=true

CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2002

Cisco’s top policy focuses for 2002 are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment.  To read or listen to our thoughts on these issues, please visit our Government Affairs home page or our visit our multimedia section. http://www.cisco.com/gov/multimedia/index.html

E-UPDATE ARCHIVE

To view past issues of Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page. http://www.cisco.com/gov/archive/eupdates/index.html

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Positions in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of Government Affairs.  We offer articles on topics of interest to our audience to further the debate on the issues that are important to high-tech.  To view our positions on the policy matters that we care about, please visit our Government Affairs homepage. – http://www.cisco.com/gov

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