>THE BATTLE FOR THE LAST MILE
>Issue: Telecommunications Act/Regulation
>In a 30-page section devoted entirely to telecommunications, the WSJ looks
>back at the last 2-1/2 years since passage of the Telecommunications Act.
>Recalling claims that the local service market would be opened to
>competition between the Baby Bells and the long distance companies, the
>series of articles review why competition hasn't occurred. Topics covered
>in seventeen articles include why cable-TV firms haven't gone anywhere, why
>the promise of deregulation is yet to be fulfilled, why wireless technology
>might provide a detour around the Bells' grip. At the time of this writing,
>free online access to this special report was not available; hard copy
>reprints, however, are available from Telecommunications, Dow Jones &
>Company, Inc., Attn: Anita Deragon, 84 Second Avenue, Chicopee, MA 01020.
>$4 for one copy; $2 each for each additional copy. Check or money order
>(payable to Dow Jones & Co.) only.
>[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Section R), AUTHOR: (various); edited by Bart
>Ziegler]
><http://wsj.com>
>
>
>DBS DEAL IN WORKS
>Issue: Satellite TV
>Congress may pass legislation in this session that would permit satellite TV
>companies to provide local broadcast signals. Bills are being introduced in
>both the House and Senate. Because of a recent court decision and agreement
>in the industry the bills are being given a last minute push. Under the
>bills must-carry rules for local station service by DBS providers would take
>effect in the future.
>[SOURCE: Broadcasting & Cable (10,11), AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak]
><http://www.broadcastingcable.com>
================
INFORMATION FLOW
================
FLOW OF INFO
Issue: Copyright
A look at the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, legislation that
would set rules for information flo across the Internet. The proponents of
the bill are movie studios, record companies, book publishers and the
software industry -- with a combined total worth around $300 billion.
Opponents include 40,000 librarians, colleges and universities, some
consumer groups and academic experts. The proponents believe that the
legislation will unleash digital commerce by tightening prohibitions against
pirating movies and other data from the Internet. Critics don't argue with
that, but claim the new rules would restrict the free flow of information
and create a "pay-for-use" world.
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune (Sec 1, p.29), AUTHOR: Robert Samuelson, Washington
Post Writers Group]
<http://chicagotribune.com/textversion/article/0,1492,SAV-9809180002,00.html>
====
ARTS
====
FUNDING AMERICA'S CREATIVITY: NEA'S IVEY PUSHES FOR SUPPORT
Issue: Arts
Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, said that he
needs more money to "fund the creative genius that is America" by reviving
support for individual artists. "There's no more important investment in our
nation than fostering individual creativity," said Ivey in his first
national speech since he took leadership of the NEA in June. In the early
1990s, while the agency was under extreme fire, Congress eliminated most of
its ability to fund individual artists. But now, with the Senate on the
verge of approving the first increase in NEA funding in over 8 years, Ivey
is hopeful that the agency can "get back to the business of supporting those
living artists who have demonstrated excellence in their work."
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C7), AUTHOR: Jacquline Trescott]
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-09/18/087l-091898-idx.html>
NEW CHIEF OF NEA VOWS TO SUPPORT INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS
Issue: Arts
"One of my goals as chairman is to work with Congress and other interested
parties to move the agency back into funding individual artists more
completely than we do now," Bill Ivey, new chairman of the National
Endowment of the Arts <http://arts.endow.gov/> said. "We certainly need to
find a way to get back into supporting individual visual artists. And I
think that, in supporting the individual artist, you tend to get a quicker
handle on new technologies because the individual artist tends to take on
these things more quickly than organizations do." In 1996 NEA grants to
individual artists were curtailed as controversial works had some in
Congress calling for the end of the agency. The NEA's guidelines have been
changed so that most grants now go to arts institutions, not-for-profit
organizations and regional arts agencies. Mirapaul reports: The NEA does
subsidize Open Studio <http://www.openstudio.org/>, a national program to
provide technology tools and Internet access to nonprofit arts organizations
and the artists they serve. Last Friday, [Chairman] Ivey visited Space One
Eleven <http://www.bham.net/soe/>, an arts center in Birmingham, Ala., that
has received Open Studio grants. While there, he viewed Piotr Szyhalski's
Web-based Ding an sich project, commissioned by the Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis. [Chairman] Ivey described the work as "pretty interesting and
pretty exciting." [Open Studio is a joint project of the NEA and the Benton
Foundation]
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Matthew Mirapaul
<mirapaul@nytimes.com>]
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/09/cyber/artsatlarge/17artsatlarge.html>
Gary Handman
Director
Media Resources Center
Moffitt Library
UC Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
510-643-8566
ghandman@library.berkeley.edu
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC
"You are looking into the mind of home video. It is innocent, it is aimless,
it is determined, it is real" --Don DeLillo, Underworld