Roy Mark

The proposed merger between EchoStar and Hughes Electronics received a second major blow in a month Thursday afternoon when the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the combination of the nation’s two largest satellite broadcasters. The DOJ action follows an Oct. 10 decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to […]

WASHINGTON — Web retailers basking in the glow of Congress’ extension last year of the Internet Tax Moratorium until Nov. 1, 2003, may be in for a rude surprise when delegates from 33 states meet in Chicago on Nov. 13 to consider a uniform sales tax aimed at Internet and catalogue sales. Spearheaded by the […]

Spam is reaching such epidemic proportions that even the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which has staunchly opposed any federal anti-spam bills in the past, now plans to seek help from Washington in the form of legislation designed to slow the proliferation of “unsolicited and untargeted” e-mail. Earlier this year, the New York-based DMA joined the […]

On the same day a top Commerce Department official said the government and the private sector needed to “actively tip the scales” in the long running dispute between “free but illegal” content and legitimate content providers, Hollywood movie studios and major music publishers were preparing a letter to U.S. corporations warning them about the legal […]

WASHINGTON — Resolving the legal issues of digital content and rights management are integral to sparking broader consumer use of broadband, Bruce P. Mehlman, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s assistant secretary for technology policy and a key intellectual property advisor to the White House, told a packed conference room at a Capitol Hill think tank […]

Forget the regulatory rules that would, or would not, allow the Baby Bells to cut Internet service providers out of the DSL business. Forget the proposals to put the Bells on equal footing with the cable companies offering high speed connections. Forget Tauzin-Dingell. According to a group of Internet analysts and business executives, the answer […]

The U.S. Senate Wednesday night unanimously passed legislation that would more than triple the federal funding commitment to cybersecurity research, to about $978 million over five years. The bill authorizes grants for basic research and industry partnership programs. Introduced by George Allen (R.-Va.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the Cyber Security Research and Development Act (S. […]

Bankrupt broadband carrier XO Communications will scuttle an investment agreement with Telefonos de Mexico (TelMex) and Forstmann Little & Co. to avoid any potential lawsuits related to the deal. The two companies will each pay XO $12.5 million and agree to release any claims they may have relating to the investment agreement. The pact requires […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission grounded the proposed $17 billion merger between satellite television providers EchoStar Communications and Hughes Electronics Wednesday night with a unanimous 4-0 rejection of the deal. The FCC said that the companies did not demonstrate that the merger would serve the public interest. Last year, General Motors proposed spinning off […]

AeA, the nation’s largest technology trade association, is “cautiously optimistic” about the latest IT job numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which show the high-tech industry fell by 113,000 jobs (two percent) for the first six months of 2002. Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the AeA’s Special Midyear 2002 […]

Last October, as fears of anthrax swept the nation, many Americans turned to the Internet to find foreign websites promoting and selling anthrax antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cipro). The drug, which requires a prescription, prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue “cyber letters” to websites selling the unapproved and non-prescribed doses of Cipro. While […]

WASHINGTON — In a stage setting event for what promises to a bitter and bruising legislative battle next year, Congressmen Rick Boucher (D.-Va.) and John Doolittle (R.-Calif.) introduced a bill Thursday afternoon that would add fair use protections to U.S. copyright law and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and would also impose tough […]