Newsbytes Law & Regulation Week In Review - Industry Trend or Event - News Briefs

High Court Sends Microsoft Case Back To Appeals In a huge victory for Microsoft Corp., the US Supreme Court Tuesday denied a petition to hear an expedited appeal to the court-ordered breakup of the software giant. The appeal will now be sent back to the US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, a court which overturned a previous decision against Microsoft in a separate but related case. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155740.html

EC Quiet About AOL-Time Warner, EMI Deals European Commission (EC) officials are holding their tongues on the fate of proposed deals between America Online Inc. and Time-Warner Inc., as well as EMI Group and Warner Music, despite Reuters and Washington Post reports that say the first deal will be approved, and the second one blocked. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155930.html

MP3 E-Mail Drive Backs Revised Copyright Bill Controversial music download site MP3.com Inc. [NASDAQ:MPPP] is reportedly set to launch a cyber political campaign in support of a federal bill making it legal to store music digitally and to listen to songs online. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155915.html http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155877.html

SEC Charges German Firm Deceived Customers The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly filed a unique fraud case against Germany's E.On AG [NYSE:EON], the new name for the merged entities Veba [NYSE:VEB] and Viag [FSE:VIAG], Germany's third-largest industrial holding company, with chemical, energy and telecommunications operations, alleging that company executives deliberately misled investors when they denied the two were in merger talks last year. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155910.html

Microsoft Judge Says Ruling At Risk The federal judge who ordered Microsoft Corp. split in two said Thursday that "virtually everything" he did in the antitrust case may be vulnerable on appeal, and he blamed the software giant's "intransigence" for his breakup decision. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155908.html

Administration Hoping To See Favorable H-1B Bill - Podesta The Clinton Administration will continue to push Congress to include a fee hike in any H-1B visa package it sends to the President, but White House Chief of Staff John Podesta said on Thursday that the administration remains committed to passing the visa legislation. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155896.html

Broadcasters Seek Time To Counter JumpTV Webcasting A Canadian company contemplating a service that could retransmit broadcast television over the Internet may have to wait a little longer to see if it will be able to clear a legal hurdle that stymied another Webcaster - the controversial iCraveTV.com - earlier this year. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155888.html

Register.com Outraged Over Release Of Client List Internet domain-name seller Register.com expressed outrage Thursday over a Web site that has begun posting the names, addresses and phone numbers of Register.com customers. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155886.html

House Committee OKs Social Security Number Protections The House Ways and Means Committee Thursday unanimously approved legislation that would make it a crime for governments or businesses to buy or sell Social Security numbers. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155881.html

WorldCom Appeals EU Merger Block Long distance giant WorldCom [NASDAQ:WCOM] Thursday appealed the European Commission's denial of the $115 billion merger with Sprint Corp. [NYSE:FON] on "jurisdictional, substantive and procedural grounds." http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155869.html

Texas Protects Privacy Of Bankrupt Living.com's Customers The state of Texas is moving to ensure bankrupt online retailer Living.com doesn't sell sensitive customer data that it collected through its Web site. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155868.html

Microsoft, IBM Ask Congress For Permanent R&D Tax Credit Representatives of senior companies in the high-tech industry Thursday testified in favor of a permanent tax credit for research and development before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155866.html

ISP Group Fights Pro-Baby Bell Bills Two bills in the House and Senate that would end the complicated "reciprocal compensation" agreement between local telephone companies should be defeated because they would result in higher Internet access fees, according to the American Internet Service Providers Association. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155861.html

Study Shows Growing Awareness Of E-Govt. Public awareness of the possibilities of so-called "e-government" still has lots of room to improve, but using the Internet for government services clearly shows early signs of success, according to a new study from the Center for Excellence in Government. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155858.html

Macromedia Bites Back In Legal Fracas With Adobe Macromedia's [NASDAQ:MACR] response to being served with a technology patent lawsuit by Adobe [NASDAQ:ADBE] has been to counterstrike with one of its own Thursday. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155836.html

ICANN Board Candidates Differ On Policy, Scope In the upcoming global election to determine who will represent the online public within the powerful Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), voters will be forced to choose between candidates with very different views about Internet governance, according to poll results released Wednesday. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155827.html

AOL-TW Open Access Requirement 'Troubles' Key Lawmaker The Chairman of the House Commerce Committee today asked federal regulators Wednesday to justify plans to require "open access" provisions before approving the merger between America Online NYSE:AOL] and Time Warner [NYSE:TWX]. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155816.html

DoJ Appoints Experts To Dissect Carnivore After sifting through a handful of proposals, the Justice Department on Tuesday picked the Illinois-based IIT Research Institute to complete an independent technical review of "Carnivore," the FBI's controversial cyber-snooping device. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155813.html

European Group Attacks Hollings Telecom Bill An attempt by Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Democrat Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., to restrict what he perceives as foreign government control of US telecommunications networks is misguided and must not become law, said the director of a large association that represents most European telecom companies. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155806.html

FAA's Air-Traffic Control System Vulnerable To Hackers - GAO Computer networks that monitor US air traffic control systems are highly vulnerable to hacker attack, in part because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) failed to follow its own security guidelines, federal regulators said Wednesday. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155805.html