The CyberNation of Freedom is a non-violent, law abiding nation on the Internet that seeks your citizenship and support in order to revert government back to the founding principles of our republic. It is not a right wing or left wing movement. It is a mainstream effort for serious change. Citizenship is free and welcome to all.

May of 1998 marked the beginning of a widespread government campaign to conquer, control and ultimately tax cyberspace. The government lawsuits leveled against Microsoft and Intel in May and June of 1998 had far more to do with showing who's the boss in cyberspace than with protecting consumers. Since these lawsuits were filed, there has been a steady expansion of government activity in all spheres of cyberspace, culminating in the July 28, 1999 announcement that the United States has been secretly developing a plan for an extensive computer surveillance system, as well as the November 5, 1999 'Finding of Fact' against Microsoft and the subsequent June 7, 2000 federal judge order to break it up.

Very few who understand how the U.S. Government operates were surprised by these developments. Once the Justice Department put its credibility on the line against Microsoft there was never any question that they would rule against them. (Does anyone seriously believe vindicating Microsoft was ever an option?) Attorney General Janet Reno, Joel Klein and company paraded themselves at their 'victory' news conference as if they were pompous Roman Legionaries returning from a victorious battle of conquest, instead of being the faceless defenders of the 'Rule of Law' that they are supposed to be. The CyberNation is not here to defend Microsoft if they have violated the law and we believe they should be punished if they have done so. However, we seriously question the veracity of a 'Finding of Fact' by a government so obviously intent upon making cyberspace and the most recognized players in cyberspace (Microsoft, Intel, et al.) part of their fiefdom of taxation and control. "The real political significance of the Microsoft breakup is that it signals that Silicon Valley is now another Detroit. As a target for government meddling, software is now little different from autos, or steel or even textiles. The trust being busted here is the illusion that any part of the private sector is safe from federal power." (The Wall Street Journal, Paul A. Gigot. June 9, 2000 Page A18.)

As noted in the ‘Liberation of the Individual’ document, government will creep into every aspect of our lives if given enough time. This is occurring at an alarming rate in cyberspace and by the time we awake the Internet will be taxed and regulated in every way imaginable. We have chronologically listed the major developments and articles of concern below starting with the most recent and extending back to the beginning of the ugly process in May of 1998. Please remember to measure government by its actions, not its rhetoric.

• Microsoft Shuts Blog’s Site After Complaints by Beijing: “Microsoft has shut the blog site of a well-known Chinese journalist who uses its MSN online service in China after he discussed a high-profile newspaper strike that broke out here one week ago. The decision is the latest in a series of measures in which some of America’s biggest technology companies have cooperated with Chinese authorities to censor Web sites and curb dissent or free speech online as they seek access to China’s booming Internet marketplace.” (The New York Times, David Barboza and Tom Zeller Jr. January 6, 2006 Page C3.)
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• Microsoft Is Warned By Europe: “The European Commission turned up the heat yesterday on Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, threatening to fine it more than $2 million a day unless it agrees to share more technical information with competitors.” (The New York Times, Steve Lohr and James Kanter. December 23, 2005 Page C1.)
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• Some States Push to Collect Sales Tax From Internet Stores: "For years, states and online retailers have bickered over whether the retailers should - and, if so, could - collect local and state sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet." "18 states tomorrow will implement a long-planned move to remove obstacles that the retailers have cited." (The Wall Street Journal, Robert Guy Matthews. September 30, 2005 Page B1.)
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• China Tightens Grip on Internet With New Content, Media Rules: "Can China really control the Internet? It has launched a new bid to try. In an effort to crack down on the information access and activities of China's 100 million Internet users, the Chinese government is imposing new regulations that will attempt to centralize all China-based Web news and opinion under a state regulator. The laws would prohibit content that "goes against state security and public interest," likely affecting Chinese bloggers, bulletin boards on popular portal sites and other independent Chinese-news Web sites." (The Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey A. Fowler and Mei Fong. September 27, 2005 Page B4.)
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• Iran sees red over election text messaging craze: “The use of text messaging by Iranians to send often highly acerbic comments on their presidential election choice has worried the authorities, who are threatening to prosecute mobile-addicts who insult the candidates.” (Yahoo News, June 21, 2005.)
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• ‘Freedom’ a Taboo Word on Chinese Internet: “Chinese bloggers, even on foreign-sponsored sites, had better choose their words carefully – the censors are watching. Users of the MSN Spaces section of Microsoft Corp.’s new China-based Web portal get a scolding message each time they input words deemed taboo by the communist authorities – such as democracy, freedom, and human rights. “Prohibited language in text, please delete,” the message says.” (Associated Press, Elaine Kurtenbach. June 14, 2005.)
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• Online book retailers face sales-tax bite: “A little-noticed appellate court ruling against Borders Group sets a precedent that could enable California to force some major Internet retailers to start collecting state sales tax on books, music and other goods sold online to state residents, analysts said yesterday. (The San Diego Union-Tribune, Kim Curtis. June 14, 2005 Page C1.)
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• China Orders All Web Sites to Register: “Authorities have ordered all China-based Web sites and blogs to register or be closed down, in the latest effort by the communist government to police the world of cyberspace. Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to 1 million yuan ($120,000) for failing to register, according to documents posted on the Web site of the Ministry of Information Industry.” (Associated Press, Elaine Kurtenbach. June 7, 2005.)
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• A National Telephone Tax?: “The National Governors Association – along with its buddies at the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National League of Counties, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors – desperately wants to tax Internet use. And they’re hoping that Internet phone calls, the latest hot Web application, will pave the way.” (The Wall Street Journal. December 22, 2004 Page A14.)
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• Iran Jails More Journalists and Blocks Web Sites: “Iran has continued its crackdown on journalists, with two arrests in the past week, and has moved against pro-democracy Web sites, blocking hundreds of sites in recent months and making several arrests.” (The New York Times, Nazila Fathi. November 8, 2004 Page A10.)
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• Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship: “Google Inc.’s recently launched news service in China doesn’t display results from Web sites blocked by that country’s authorities, raising prickly questions for an online search engine that has famously promised to “do no evil.” Dynamic Internet Technology Inc., a research firm striving to defeat online censorship, conducted tests that found Google omits results from the government-banned sites if search requests are made through computers connecting to the Internet in China.” (My Way, Michael Liedtke. September 25, 2004.)
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• China’s Cyber Censors: “First it was the Internet, now China’s censors are targeting telephone text messages. Last Friday, China announced plans to use new technology to monitor cell-phone messages. The official reports claimed that the campaign is aimed at cleaning up pornography. But there is another target as well – stopping political dissidence from being spread through text messaging. We can understand why China’s Communist rulers are worried about the threat that text messages pose to the state’s control over the flow of information. Last year, Chinese text messages helped expose the government cover-up of the outbreak of SARS. And in the Philippines, text messages have already played a part in toppling a president, helping organize the street demonstrations that forced Joseph Estrada to step down in 2001.” (The Wall Street Journal. July 6, 2004 Page A22.)
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• Court, 5-4, Blocks Law Regulating Internet Access: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Congress’s latest effort to curb children’s access to sexually explicit material on the Internet. But at the same time it gave the Bush administration a second chance to defend the law as a trial on its constitutionality goes forward in Federal District Court in Philadelphia.” (The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse. June 30, 2004 Page A1.)
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• EU Regulators Slap Microsoft: “EU Regulators Slapped Microsoft with tough sanctions and a record $612.7 million fine for allegedly abusing its market power for technology that links computers and plays music and video. The software titan was ordered to disclose code from its Windows operating system and to offer PC makers a version of Windows that doesn’t include Media Player.” (The Wall Street Journal. March 25, 2004 Page A1.)
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• The Justice Department Files Suit to Block Oracle: “The Justice Department filed suit to block Oracle’s $9.4 billion hostile bid for PeopleSoft, saying a takeover would choke competition ion the market for business-applications software.” (The Wall Street Journal. February 27, 2004 Page A1.)
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• China Frees 3 ‘Cyber Dissidents’ (as a Diplomatic Visit Nears): “The Chinese government has released three jailed “cyber dissidents,” including a young college student nicknamed Stainless Steel Mouse whose arrest a year ago had brought international condemnation, a Hong Kong human rights group said Sunday.” (The New York Times, Jim Yardley. December 1, 2003 Page A3.)
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• Internet Phone Service Threatens Industry Giants: “When is a phone call not a phone call? Federal regulators plan to tackle this thorny question Monday, when they will hear arguments about whether and how to regulate voice calls that are sent over the Internet. The fast-growing service could radically transform the $300 billion telecommunications industry and is renewing doubts about whether the Internet should remain regulation-free.” (The Wall Street Journal, Anne Marie Squeo. November 28, 2003 Page B1.)
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• Point, Click and Tax: “The effort to make permanent a temporary ban on Internet-access taxes has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. But don’t blame the Democrats. Fault instead two GOP Senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and George Voinovich of Ohio. Both are using procedural legerdemain to prevent a vote on the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, a provision that not only keeps the taxman away from your AOL or Earthlink account but also bans “multiple or discriminatory” levies on electronic commerce. A temporary Internet tax moratorium, in place for the past five years, expired on November 1. If Congress doesn’t act to extend it before winter recess, don’t be surprised by a yuletide e-mail tax.” (The Wall Street Journal. November 13, 2003 Page A18.)
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• Microsoft in Lilliput: “With the settlement of six more class-action suits last week, Microsoft moved one step closer to resolving its long-running legal woes – in the U.S. anyway. But on the other side of the Atlantic, it’s beginning to look like the European Commission will never leave Microsoft alone. Even as one investigation dating to 1998 winds down, the commission last week announced the beginning of a fresh inquiry.” (The Wall Streeet Journal, Brian M. Carney. November 4, 2003 Page A18.)
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• The Internet Tax Grab: “Just as Congress is poised to make the temporary ban on Taxing Internet access permanent, some politicians are using the occasion to stage a revenue gold rush by pushing for an Internet sales tax. We can’t think of a better way to handicap a technology with uses the world is just beginning to understand.” (The Wall Street Journal. October 21, 2003 Page A26.)
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• Judge Says Minnesota Cannot Regulate Internet Calls: “A federal judge in Minnesota has ruled that the state’s Public Utilities Commission cannot apply its telecommunications regulations to the Vonage Holdings Corporation, a start-up company that allows consumers to place phone calls over the Internet.” (The New York Times, Barnaby J. Feder. October 9, 2003 Page C8.)
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• Net of Taxes: "Cash-starved states are taxing anything that isn’t nailed down. That may soon include the fast-growing new business of making phone calls over the Internet." "Cash-strapped state and local governments are fearing the end of a century’s worth of telephone taxes. (Make that a century-plus: Congress passed a telephone tax to fund the Spanish-American War. The war ended in 1898. The tax lives on.) In recent months many states have taken steps to begin applying the old regulations and taxes to the Internet." (Forbes, Scott Woolley. September 29, 2003 Page 44-45.)
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• California Gets Serious About Spam: "California Gov. Davis plans to sign a bill that would give the state the nation’s toughest antispam law. The measure would prevent marketers from sending unsolicited commercial e-mail from California and to state residents. It could influence proposals being considered by Congress and other states." (The Wall Street Journal, Mylene Mangalindan. September 24, 2003 Pages A1 and A3.)
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• EBay to Tax Deals on European Sites And Raise Fees: "Internet Auction site eBay Inc. warned users it will begin collecting tax on transactions on its European sites at the same time it will raise most fees for merchants in its biggest European markets, separate moves that could crimp near-term growth in its increasingly important overseas businesses." "EBay is making the change to comply with European Union regulations that go into effect on that date requiring collection of VAT on digital services, including music and software downloaded from Web sites." (The Wall Street Journal, Nick Wingfield. June 5, 2003 Pages A1 & B10.)
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• White House Scales Back Cyberspace Plan: "The White House today scaled back plans for a more active government role in protecting cyberspace from attacks from terrorists, criminals and nation states, emphasizing voluntary industry initiatives instead. The revamped national security strategy on cyberspace security was a response to lobbying from industry groups that were worried about an overly heavy handed approach by government regulators." (The Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Lee. February 15, 2003 Page A12.)
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• Microsoft Rivals Allege Antitrust In New EU Case: "Opening a new front against Microsoft Corp., a coalition of global telephone, computer and consumer-electronics companies asked European antitrust regulators to block efforts by the software giant to extend its Windows monopoly into new markets." (The Wall Street Journal, John Wilke & Brandon Mitchener. February 11, 2003 Page A1.)
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• More Web Retailers Collect Sales Tax: "Major retailers have voluntarily expanded the number of states in which they collect sales tax from Web consumers. While the impact of the change on online sales is expected by industry executives to be minimal, it represents another step in a movement by bricks-and-mortar retailers to persuade states and Congress to impose sales tax on companies such as Amazon.com Inc. that operate only on the Web." (The Wall street Journal, Nick Wingfield & Amy Merrick. February 10, 2003 Page B5.)
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• Microsoft to Alter Online System to Satisfy Europe: "To avert a clash with European regulators over data privacy, Microsoft has agreed to make "radical" changes in the workings of .Net Passport, its online authentication system, regulators said today." (The New York Times, Paul Meller. January 31, 2003 Page W1.)
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• Planned Databank on Citizens Spurs Opposition in Congress: "Opposition is growing in Congress and among public interest groups to a domestic antiterrorism surveillance program being developed in the Defense Department. The program, known as Total Information Awareness, would mine the databases of American telephone, financial and travel companies, retailers and other concerns for patterns that suggest terrorist activity." (The New York Times, John Schwartz. January 16, 2003 Page A14.)
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• Endangered Liberties in Hong Kong: "You don’t have to be a human rights activist to deplore Hong Kong’s current drive to enact insidious security legislation that threatens its people’s freedoms. Hong Kong’s conservative business community is alarmed by the effort, too, seeing a threat to the territory’s status as a financial center." "The proposed measure would sharply curtail Hong Kong’s freedoms by giving the government a pretext to crack down on political activities, dissent and the distribution of information it finds unacceptable." (The Wall Street Journal. December 27, 2002 Page A20.)
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• Cash-Short States Scroll for E-Taxes: "As states across the country struggle with budget deficits in the billions, many officials are beginning to eye sales taxes on online shopping. In California alone, such taxes could yield an estimated $200 million a year. Nationally, local and state governments could raise billions." (Associated Press, Jim Wasserman. December 27, 2002.)
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• Bush Administration to Propose System for Wide Monitoring of Internet: "The Bush Administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal is part of a final version of a report, "The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace," set for release early next year, according to several people who have been briefed on the report." (The New York Times, John Markoff and John Schwartz. December 20, 2002 Page A16.)
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• Down (Under) With the Internet: ""Some Australian guy went and ruined the Internet. Dang." So writes Web writer Glenn Reynolds. And he might not be far wrong. Yesterday’s ruling by the High Court of Australia that libel suits can be brought wherever damage occurs has chilling implications for free speech, whether the alleged offender be a large news corporation or a one-man operation like Mr. Reynolds’s Instapundit.com. In theory, one incautious comment on your family Web site could be enough to land you in a foreign court if it gets read in the wrong place." (The Wall Street Journal. December 11, 2002 Page A18.)
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• A Blow to Online Freedom: "Since the Internet’s inception, its promise has been threatened by governments seeking inappropriate jurisdiction over far-flung online communications. French authorities have sought to enforce a ban on the sale of Nazi memorabilia against Yahoo, Zimbabwe has prosecuted foreign correspondents for articles critical of its repressive regime, and China has famously insisted that foreign-based search engines engage in odious self-censorship. Now comes a ruling from Australia’s highest court in a libel case that could strike a devastating blow to free speech online. Yesterday the court decided to allow a novel cross-border libel suit brought against Dow Jones by an Australian businessman to proceed in Australian courts. The businessman, Joseph Gutnick, took issue with an article about him that was published in Barron’s, one of Dow Jones’s financial publications. The issue before the court was whether Dow Jones, by uploading Barron’s onto the World Wide Web at its New Jersey headquarters, could have committed the act of defamation in Melbourne, simply because that is where Mr. Gutnick downloaded the article." (The New York Times. December 12, 2002 Page A34.)
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• Internet Makes Dow Jones Open to Suit in Australia: The Australian High Court ruled yesterday that a local businessman could bring libel charges against Dow Jones & Company in a local court, a decision that reignited publishers’ fears that posting material on Web sites could leave them open to libel prosecution in any country with Internet access." (The New York Times, Felicity Barringer. December 11, 2002 Page C6.)
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• China Has World’s Tightest Internet Censorship, Study Finds: "China has the most extensive Internet censorship in the world, regularly denying local users access to 19,000 Web sites that the government deems threatening, a study by Harvard Law School researchers finds." (The New York Times, Joseph Kahn. December 4, 2002 Page A15.)
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• Judge Explores Sun Challenge Of Microsoft: "A federal judge hearing Sun Microsystems’ private antitrust suit against Microsoft said today that forcing Microsoft to carry Sun’s Java software in the Windows operating system could be an attractive remedy." (The New York Times. December 4, 2002 Page C11.)
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• Terror-Tracking Agency Weighed, but Discarded, Plan Reconfiguring the Internet: "The Pentagon research agency that is exploring how to create a vast database of electronic transactions and analyze them for potential terrorist activity considered but rejected another surveillance idea: tagging Internet data with unique personal markers to make anonymous use of some parts of the Internet impossible." (The New York Times, John Markoff. November 22, 2002 Page A14.)
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• White House Defends Pentagon Data-Mining Plan: "The Bush administration is trying to calm fears that a planned Pentagon program to comb through large quantities of citizens’ personal information will erode civil liberties. The Total Information Awareness program has been blasted by advocacy groups and in the media as a potentially serious invasion of privacy." (The Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Kulish & Ann Davis. November 21, 2002 Page A4.)
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• You Are a Suspect: "If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend – all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database." To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you – passport application, driver’s license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance – and you have the supersnoop’s dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen. This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks." (The New York Times, William Safire. November 14, 2002 Page A35.)
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• Top Court to Decide if Libraries Must Block Sex Material on Web: The Supreme Court will decide whether a law requiring public libraries to block access on their computers to sexually explicit material violates constitutional free-speech rights. The case involves an issue that the high court has dealt with before – how to strike the proper balance in an Internet-wired world between the First Amendment and the need to protect people, particularly children, from access to material that may be deemed obscene or child pornography." (The Wall Street Journal, Robert S. Greenberger. November 13, 2002 Page A7.)
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• Microsoft’s U.S. Settlement Won’t Clear Path in Europe: Last Friday’s ruling in the settlement of the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Microsoft forces the company to make more concessions than it has offered so far to the European Commission, which is also pursuing an antitrust action." "The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has accused the company of withholding vital information from rivals to extend its dominance of computer operating systems into the market for server software." (The New York Times, Paul Meller. November 5, 2002 Page C5.)
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• Microsoft Won A Sweeping Victory: "Microsoft won a sweeping victory as a federal judge upheld the software company's antitrust settlement with the Bush Administration and nine states. But the Justice Department and courts in Baltimore and Brussels are weighing further claims of monopoly abuse that could prolong the firm's legal problems." (The Wall Street Journal. November 4, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Microsoft Wins Major Points in Antitrust Settlement Ruling: "A federal judge handed Microsoft Corp. a definitive legal victory Friday by approving most provisions of a controversial antitrust settlement with the Justice Department, all but certainly freeing the world's biggest software company from the threat of crippling sanctions." (Los Angeles Times, Joseph Menn and Jube Shiver Jr. November 2, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Can This Marriage Be Saved: "While in Saudi Arabia recently, I sat down at a computer terminal to see how the Internet works there. I typed in the address women.org, not knowing what it was but figuring that it might sound subversive to Saudi ears. (It turns out to be a women's empowerment site.) Sure enough, a message flashed on my screen that the site was blocked. Then I tried religioustolerance.org ("promoting religious tolerance as a human right"), and that was blocked as well. So were informational pages on Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism, as well as sites calling for love and respect among faiths." "Blocked sites included skirtmag.com (a women's magazine), rollingstone.com, blueskyswimwear.com and human rights sites. Saudi Arabia even bans the home page for the Anne Frank House." (The New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristoff. November 1, 2002 Page A31.)
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• China Toughens Obstacles to Internet Searches: "Some Chinese internet users seeking the popular search engine Google today instead are now instantly routed to GlobePage, which calls itself the "premier Asian search engine."" "The diversions are an intensification of an effort to block access to Google that began last week, and they appear to represent an unusually strong campaign to funnel Chinese Internet traffic into sites the government deems friendly and safe." (The New York Times, Joseph Kahn. September 12, 2002 Page A3.)
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• The Internet on Trial: "American journalist Andrew Meldrum, who is facing deportation from Zimbabwe after 20 years faithfully reporting from that country, is the first to be prosecuted and punished for writing a news story placed on the Internet. Robert Mugabe’s vindictive precedent puts journalists, editors and publishers throughout the world at risk, because it pioneers a legal path whereby repressive regimes may inflict their draconian media rules on the rest of the world." "Mr. Meldrum’s paper, the Guardian, is not distributed in Zimbabwe, but his report, which discomforted the government, went "online" in London and was in due course downloaded in Harare by secret policemen who spend their days surfing the net for criticisms of Mr. Mugabe. He was arrested for the crime of "publishing falsehoods," which carries a two-year prison sentence, on the theory that any local court can take jurisdiction over all the people involved in an Internet publication, wherever they or their Web-servers are located." "Unfortunately, the Mugabe government is not alone in its attempt to subject material published on the Internet to local laws." (The Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey Robertson. July 18, 2002 Page A12.)
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• Setback in State Sales-Tax Plan Hurts Push for Levies on Web Sales: "A herculean effort to simplify state sales taxes that was to be a precursor to convincing Congress to allow states to tax Internet transactions suffered a setback as representatives from businesses and state governments failed to agree on a final, crucial part of the plan." "After two years of discussions, state officials hoped to emerge from a meeting in Salt Lake City on Friday with a draft of a modernized sales tax. Once states adopt this simpler, uniform tax, they planned to press Congress to approve an Internet tax." (The Wall Street Journal, Russell Gold. July 15, 2002 Page B6.)
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• The FBI Has Begun Visiting Libraries: "The FBI has begun visiting libraries to check reading records of people suspected of terrorist ties, library officials said. The effort was authorized by antiterrorism legislation that passed soon after Sept. 11." (The Wall Street Journal. June 25, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Whose Domain Is It Anyway?: "Last week, the Senate held hearings on the putative governing authority of the whorls of cyberspace, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names ans Numbers. On Monday, Sen. Conrad Burns, (R., Mont.) announced plans for a bill to give the U.S. government greater sway in ICANN’s operations. At stake is just who should oversee the non-government policy-setter of the domain name business – the U.S. government, many governments or the Internet community itself." (The Wall Street Journal, Esther Dyson. June 17, 2002 Page A18.)
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• The FBI Was Given Broad New Powers on Domestic Spying: "Agents now will be allowed to conduct surveillance of public gatherings and surf the Internet as part of terrorism investigations. Previously, FBI agents had to have clear evidence of possible criminal activity to get approval for such monitoring." (The Wall Street Journal. May 31, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Ashcroft Permits F.B.I. to Monitor Internet and Public Activities: "Attorney General John Ashcroft said today that he was stepping up the fight against terrorism by expanding the F.B.I.’s authority to monitor the World Wide Web, political groups, libraries and religious organizations, including houses of worship like mosques." "Mr. Ashcroft said guidelines restricting the bureau, imposed a quarter of a century ago in response to abuses by federal law enforcement officials, were outdated and left investigators at a disadvantage in fighting terrorism today." (The New York Times, Neil A. Lewis. May 31, 2002 Page A18.)
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• Microsoft Faces European Commission Inquiry on Privacy Concerns: "The European Commission has begun an inquiry into Microsoft because of concerns that its .NET Passport system may violate privacy rules." (The New York Times. May 28, 2002 Page C4.)
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• The Monitors Have Eyes: "Cheating hearts and delinquent teens beware: New software is stripping another layer off the Internet’s privacy protections." "Called "BeAware with ChatWatch," the software takes periodic screen shots of a monitored computer, letting a parent or suspicious spouse see everything that crosses the screen, from Web pages and chat to instant messages (IM)." (Forbes, Chana R. Schoenberger. May 27, 2002 Page 138.)
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• Senator Prevents Action on Online Privacy Bill: "Senator Trent Lott, the minority leader, forced the Senate Commerce Committee to adjourn this morning as it was on the verge of adopting an online privacy bill." (The New York Times, Adam Clymer. May 17, 2002 Page A14.)
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• ‘Virtual’ Child Pornography Ban Overturned: "Affirming that free speech principles apply with full force in the computer age, the Supreme Court today struck down provisions of a federal law that made it a crime to create, distribute or possess "virtual" child pornography that used computer images or young adults rather than actual children." (The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse. April 17, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Seeking Profits, Internet Alters Privacy Policy: "Pressed for profits, Internet companies are increasingly selling access to their users’ postal mail addresses and telephone numbers, in addition to flooding their e-mail boxes with junk mail." "Yahoo, the vast Internet portal, just changed its privacy policy to make it clear that it has the right to send mail and make sales calls to tens of millions of its registered users." (The New York Times, Saul Hansell. April 11, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Breakup of Microsoft’s Windows Is a Viable Option, Expert Says: "Endorsing a key component of the case for tough restrictions on Microsoft Corp., a computer expert who inspected the secret code that makes up the Windows operating system said it could be broken into separate parts and still function effectively." "Andrew W. Appel, a professor of computer science at Princeton University in New Jersey, inspected the closely guarded code – often likened in corporate importance to the secret formula for Coca-Cola – on behalf of the group of nine state attorneys general pursuing the antitrust case against Microsoft. He was the first expert witness to take the stand, following weeks of testimony by high-tech executives from AOL Time Warner Inc., Gateway Inc. and other companies." (The Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Kulish. April 10, 2002 Page B4.)
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• SBC Wants Restraints on Microsoft: "A telecommunications firm joined other members of the technology sector pressing for tough restraints on Microsoft Corp.’s business tactics, as the software company’s renewed antitrust trial entered its fourth week." (The Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Kulish. April 9, 2002 Page B14.)
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• Microsoft Says Court Should Not Design Computer Systems: "The hearings over the Microsoft antitrust case returned today to what has been the most hotly contested question since the government filed its suit four years ago: Can a court tell the company how to design its own software code?" (The New York Times, Amy Harmon. April 4, 2002 Page C4.)
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• Novell Official says He Sought Microsoft’s Aid: "Novell, once the biggest maker of software for corporate networks, offered two years ago to tell antitrust enforcers that Microsoft had altered its behavior in return for help promoting its products, a Novell executive testified today." (The New York Times. March 29, 2002 Page C6.)
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• Big Brother Is Watching – Be Grateful!: "Cameras are the hot new law-enforcement tool." "Washington is setting up hundreds of cameras monitoring streets, federal buildings, Metro stations, and other locations. Police used cameras with face recognition technology at last year’s Super Bowl to catch known fugitives." "The main concern with cameras must be not individual privacy, but government power. Cameras are a tool, which can be used for good (to enforce good laws) or for ill – to enforce bad laws, to track the government’s political enemies, to gather ammunition for blackmail, and so on." (The Wall Street Journal, Eugene Volokh. March 25, 2002 Page A22.)
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• States Seeking Stiffer Penalties For Microsoft: "As the landmark antitrust battle against the Microsoft Corporation enters its latest phase, the company’s opponents are trying to shift the focus to how Microsoft will be prevented from abusing its market power in new technologies." (The New York Times, Amy Harmon. March 19, 2002 Page A1.)
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• Lawyer’s Ties Questioned In AOL Accord: "An attorney representing AOL Time Warner Inc. helped write a controversial agreement between two agencies dividing antitrust enforcement that steers future AOL merger reviews to the Justice Department’s antitrust division – headed by one of his former law partners." (The Wall Street Journal, Nicholas Kulish. March 14, 2002 Page A3.)
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• Microsoft Is Ordered to Give Code to Opponents in Court: "A federal judge has ruled that Microsoft must give nine states that are seeking tougher sanctions against the company access to the software code for its flagship Windows operating system." (The New York Times, Steve Lohr. February 19, 2002 Page C2.)
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• Europe Is Said To Be on Verge Of Ending Case Against Intel: "The European Commission is about to drop its antitrust investigation of the Intel Corporation, a person close to the investigation said today. "The intention is to close the inquiry," the person said. "After careful analysis of the complaints, the commission has decided that the accusations are unfounded."" (The New York Times, Paul Meller. February 2, 2002 Page B1.)
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• Court Weighs Shielding Children From Web Smut: "As the Supreme Court considers the fate of Congress’s latest attempt to shield youngsters from Internet smut, one question looms large: Do "community standards" exist in the far-reaching, freewheeling realm of cyberspace? The justices will ponder the First Amendment yardstick Wednesday, when they hear a Bush administration bid to revive the 1999 Child Online Protection Act. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia, siding with the American Civil Liberties Union and several Web sites last year, said the statute seemed to trample constitutionally protected speech and upheld a preliminary injunction blocking it." (The Wall Street Journal, Scott Ritter. November 26, 2001 Page B6.)
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• Companies Compete to Provide Internet Veil for the Saudis: "Nearly a dozen software companies, most of them American, are competing for a contract to help Saudi Arabia block access to Web sites the Saudi government deems inappropriate for that nation’s half-million Internet users." (The New York Times, Jennifer Lee. November 19, 2001 Page C1.)
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• Attorney-Client Confidentiality Waived in Rule: "The right of a client to communicate confidentially with his lawyer is a sacred tenet of the U.S. legal system. But when some of the more than 1,000 detainees rounded up during the Justice Department’s terrorism investigation confer with their attorneys, they could find a government agent listening in. In an extraordinary development that has defense lawyers up in arms, the Justice Department has quietly put into effect a new federal rule giving the government authority to monitor communications between people in federal custody and their lawyers if the attorney general deems it "reasonably necessary in order to deter future acts of violence or terrorism." The rules cover both conversations and mail. The Justice Department estimates it will apply to about 100 inmates who present a "national security risk."" (The Wall Street Journal, Ann Davis. November 11, 2001 Page B1.)
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• Court Says France Can’t Censor Yahoo Site: "In a decision that is being applauded by Internet companies and civil liberties groups, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the United States Constitution’s protections of free speech trumped a French order requiring Yahoo to remove Nazi materials from its Web site." (The New York Times, Lisa Guernsey. November 9, 2001 Page C5.)
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• Congress Will Allow Ban on Internet Taxes to Expire: "In a move that will allow a ban on Internet taxes to expire this weekend, Congress declined today to extend it, remaining mired in a dispute over how state sales taxes should apply to billions of dollars in electronic commerce." (The New York Times. October 19, 2001 Page A14.)
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• Living Under an Electronic Eye: "In reaction to the attacks of Sept. 11, lawmakers and many of their constituents are saying yes. Several bills are being considered this week that would expand the ways in which the federal government could use technology not only as a law enforcement tool to track down terrorists or anyone suspected of committing a crime but also as a crime prevention tool to monitor suspicious activity and possibly anticipate any future attacks. Officials, for example, are asking for broad authority to inspect logs of Internet use and the address fields of e-mail messages, which in addition to revealing the senders and the recipients could also divulge the messages’ content through the subject lines. And they are seeking more latitude in listening to conversations of people on the move as they communicate by cellphone or other wireless technologies." (The New York Times, Lisa Guernsey. September 27, 2001 Page D1.)
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• U.S., Microsoft Resume Antitrust Case: "Government lawyers said they will make Microsoft Corp.’s powerful new Windows XP software a central focus in the final round of court hearings in their landmark antitrust case against the company." (The Wall Street Journal, John R. Wilke. September 21, 2001 Page B6.)
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• Civil Liberties of Ordinary Americans May Erode – Legally – Because of Attacks: "The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks could lead to an erosion of the civil liberties of ordinary Americans." "Last week, a mobilized Senate agreed to broaden the nation’s electronic-surveillance laws, making crimes involving "terrorism" grounds for wiretapping telephones and computers for the first time. Last night in New York, Gov. George Pataki said he would call a special session of the state legislature to consider broadening police wiretapping and video surveillance power to a list of newly defined crimes related to terrorism." "To some, the early signs are disturbing, and illustrate the kinds of problems ahead, as Americans seek to balance the need for heightened security with the desire to maintain their freedoms. The wiretap provision "threatens privacy rights without receiving any public showing that it would make us any safer," the American Civil Liberties Union says." (The Wall Street Journal, Pamela Sebastian Ridge and Milo Geyelin. September 17, 2001 Page A5.)
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• U.S. Abandoning Its Effort To Break Apart Microsoft, Saying It Seeks Resolution: "Reversing the government’s strategy in the landmark antitrust case against Microsoft, the Bush administration announced today that it would no longer seek a breakup of the company. The government also abandoned a central claim of the lawsuit: that Microsoft had violated federal antitrust law by integrating its Internet Explorer browser software into its Windows operating system." (The New York Times, Stephen Labaton. September 7, 2001 Page A1.)
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• Coming: A National Sales Tax: "A big tax increase is on the way. This October the moratorium on a special Internet tax expires. If not renewed, 30,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S. will be allowed to begin laying levies on this new, still fast-growing marketplace. Tax-hungry governors and some bricks-and-mortar retailers are pushing to make it easy to tax sales on the Net." (Forbes, Steve Forbes. August 20, 2001 Page 31.)
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• Rebels in Black Robes Challenge Government Computer Monitors: "A group of federal employees who believed that the monitoring of their office computers was a major violation of their privacy recently staged an insurrection, disabling the software used to check on them and suggesting that the monitoring was illegal and unethical." "In this case, the concern over the loss of privacy comes from the very individuals, federal judges, who will shape the rules of the new information era." (The New York Times, Neil A. Lewis. August 8, 2001 Page A1.)
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• New Software, New Scrutiny For Microsoft: "Federal and state regulators are again considering legal action to force Microsoft to alter a new system, Windows XP, which tightly integrates Internet services like music, instant messaging and shopping into this basic operating system." (The New York Times, Steve Lohr. July 30, 2001 Page C1.)
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• Third of U.S. Employees’ Web Use Monitored – Study: "More than one-third of U.S. employees who browse the Web and use e-mail at work have their Internet use systematically monitored by their employers, a privacy group said on Monday." (Reuters. July 10, 2001.)
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• In Asia, It’s Not a Wide-Open Web: "Singapore – The story was rather grisly: a report two weeks ago that doctors were harvesting organs from Chinese prisoners who had been executed, including some not quite dead. The "world news" section of the U.S. Web site of Yahoo Inc. carried the news, as did several other Yahoo Web sites targeted at other parts of the world." "But there was one place Yahoo didn’t carry the story: in China itself. The Chinese-language Web page prepared in Beijing by a Chinese unit of Yahoo contained no mention of the allegations-although it did have a report about civil service reform in the city of Guangzhou." "U.S. Internet companies may think of themselves as the world’s defenders of free speech in cyberspace. But that’s not the case when they operate in Asia. As Internet usage has spread around the globe, authoritarian governments like those in China, Singapore and Malaysia have, to various degrees, clamped down on Net access, fearing it would make for a restive population. The fact that big Internet companies are complicit in that process is less well-known." (The Wall Street Journal, Chen May Yee. July 9, 2001 Page B1.)
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• Sect Clings to the Web in the Face of Beijing’s Ban: "Tapping away at one of his computers in a cramped two-room apartment in western Beijing, Lloyd Zhao is engaged in an extraordinarily dangerous endeavor – searching through the night for holes in the electronic wall that the government has built to keep Chinese from seeing Web sites of Falun Gong, the outlawed spiritual movement." (The New York Times, Craig S. Smith. July 5, 2001 Page A1.)
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• Appeals Court Voids Order For Breaking Up Microsoft But Finds It Abused Power: "A federal appeals court unanimously threw out a lower court’s order today that the Microsoft Corporation should be broken up, although the appeals court found that the companies had repeatedly abused its monopoly power in the software business. The appeals court also sharply chastised the district judge who oversaw the Microsoft antitrust trial and removed him from any further involvement in the case because of derogatory comments he made to reporters about the company and its senior executives." (The New York Times, Stephen Labaton. June 29, 2001 Page A1.)
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• Bill in senate Gives Governments More Power to Tax E-Commerce: "Congress would consider granting state and local governments more power to tax electronic commerce if at least 25 states simplify their sales-tax codes, under a bill being negotiated by Senate Democrats and Republicans. The proposal, an attempt to break the deadlock over how to tax the swelling trade in retail sales by phone and the Internet, is being drafted by Arizona Republican John McCain, Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and John Kerry of Massachusetts and others active on e-commerce issues." (The Wall Street Journal, Glenn R. Simpson. June 18, 2001 Page A20.)
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• Justices Say Warrant Is Required in High-Tech Searches of Homes: "In an important declaration of the constitutional limits on new privacy-threatening technology, the Supreme Court ruled today that the use by the police of a thermal imaging device to detect patterns of heat coming from a private home is a search that requires a warrant. The Court said further that the warrant requirement would apply not only to the relatively crude device at issue in the case but also to any "more sophisticated systems that are already in use or in development" and that allow the police to gain knowledge that in the past would have been impossible without a physical entry into the home. "We must take the long view, from the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment forward," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for a 5-to-4 majority that cut across the court’s usual ideological division." (The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse. June 12, 2001 Page A1.)
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• Judge Throws Out New York Ban On Cigarette Sales by Mail, Internet: "A federal judge struck down a New York state law banning the sale of cigarettes by mail order and the Internet, finding the statute is an unconstitutional interference with interstate commerce." (The Wall Street Journal, Gordon Fairclough. June 11, 2001 Page B4.)
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• A Father’s Cranky essays on Web Site Put Son in Jail in China: "The government’s frantic attempt to control political views on the Internet has taken a new twist with the detention of a man whose only apparent trespass was to help his father maintain Web sites featuring the father’s obscure, left-wing writings." "To publish his views, Mr. Lu, who is not adept with computers, mailed his articles to his son Hu Dalin, 30, who posted them on the Web sites he had created for his father. But while the father remains free, the son, who dabbled in computers, the stock market and an art-supply business in their hometown, Shaoying, in Hunan Province, was jailed on May 18." (The New York Times, Erik Eckholm. May 24, 2001 Page A13.)
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• Beijing Jails a U.S.-Based Chinese Entrepreneur: "Liu Yaping left a comfortable life in the United States to seek out business opportunities in the city where he was born. A permanent resident of the United States with a home in Weston, Conn., he traveled frequently in the last six years to Hohhot, the capital of the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, often staying for months at a time. When he tried to start a company to design Web sites last year, he seemed headed for success." "But on March 8, one day before he was to return to the United States for talks with investors, public security officers dragged Mr. Liu off the street and he has been held incommunicado in a military prison ever since, family friends and lawyers said." "Mr. Liu, 48, is one of a growing number of Chinese-born United States residents who have found themselves mysteriously detained by the Chinese authorities in the last six months, a trend that Western diplomats say reflects increasingly aggressive behavior by China’s security agencies toward this group." (The New York Times, Elisabeth Rosenthal. May 7, 2001 Page A6.)
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• E-Tailers Faced Death; Now Can They Handle Taxes?: "They say the only things certain are death and taxes. Web retailers have definitely learned the former. They’re about to learn the latter. It’s about time. A bevy of tax collectors and powerful off-line retailers are gearing up for another round of wrangling over sales taxes owed on online commerce." "Their current battleground: The 1998 federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, which placed a moratorium on any special or discriminatory taxes on the Internet and which is set to expire in October. Internet access-what you pay to get your connection-will probably remain untaxed for now and possibly forever; the big fight this year is over sales taxes." (The Wall Street Journal, Kara Swisher. April 9, 2001 Page B1.)
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• European commission Now Probe Intel: "European antitrust enforcers have opened an investigation of Intel Corp.’s business tactics, taking up an effort the Federal Trade Commission ended last year with no action." (The Wall Street Journal, John R. Wilke. April 6, 2001.)
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• Pick Your Net: "Despite its Wild West reputation, the Internet has no shortage of regulation. There are rules involving children, copyright, domain names and more. Congress is looking at new privacy and antispam requirements, Internet taxation, gambling and the digital divide. And the American Bar Association, the French government and the UN are pushing global Internet governance." (Forbes, Clyde Wayne Crews. April 2, 2001 Page 36.)
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• NSC Chief Urges U.S. Tech Firms To Protect Computer Network: "President Bush’s national security adviser warned technology executives that private industry, not the government, must lead the way in protecting vital U.S. computer systems from terrorist-hacker attacks." "Sen. Robert Bennett (R., Utah) told the Chamber’s computer-infrastructure conference that government-securities regulators should require companies to disclose their computer-security posture as part of their securities filings. He called it "appropriate for government to facilitate transparency."" (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. March 23, 2001 Page B2.)
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• Internet Filters Used to Shield Minors Censor Speech, Critics Say: "When Jeffery Pollock ran for Congress last year, he posted his forceful opinions on more than a dozen topics on his Web site, pollock4congress.com, including his support for the federally mandated use of Internet "filtering" software to block pornography in schools and libraries. Then he discovered that his own site was blocked by one of those filtering programs, Cyber Patrol. The experience led Mr. Pollock, a 47-year-old Republican from Oregon, to reconsider his views on filtering. What he once thought of as protection, he said, now looked a lot like censorship. "To mandate the federal government to legislate morality, I find abhorrent," Mr. Pollock said. Congress apparently disagrees. In December, lawmakers passed a bill requiring federally financed schools and libraries to use a "technology protection measure" like filters to block access to obscene material, child pornography and anything considered to be "harmful to minors."" (The New York Times, John Schwartz. March 19, 2001 Page A15.)
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• Welcome to the Web. Passport, Please?: "Last fall, a French judge named Jean-Jacques Gomez made Internet history, and attracted a flock of critics, when he ordered the yahoo Web site to prevent French residents from viewing Nazi memorabilia in its online auctions." "But Judge Gomez was intent on upholding French law, which largely prohibits the display of Nazi insignia." "His decision raised the question, How can one jurisdiction decide what can or cannot be displayed on the World Wide Web?" (The New York Times, Lisa Guernsey. March 15, 2001 Page D1.)
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• The FCC's Dangerous Internet Precedent: "Last Friday, exactly one year and one day after America Online and Time Warner announced they wanted to merge, the Federal Communications Commission finally granted permission. But the FCC, like the Federal Trade Commission, attached certain conditions. It told AOL how it had to run an important part of its business, a magnificent invention called instant messaging that allows 140 million computer users to communicate in real time ­ a sort of a cross between a telephone conversation and e-mail." "The action by the FCC was a landmark ­ a disgraceful and dangerous one. The commission broke sharply with past policies and took its first step ever in regulating the Internet, a medium that has benefited both consumers and businesses in large part because government has left it alone." (The Wall Street Journal, James K. Glassman. January 17, 2001 Page A26.)
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• F.C.C. Approves AOL-Time Warner Deal, With Conditions: "Clearing the final obstacle to the creation of the world's biggest media business, the Federal Communications Commission approved tonight the proposed merger of America Online and Time Warner. In doing so, however, the agency laid down conditions intended to make America Online's popular instant-messaging service compatible with the systems of Internet rivals." (The New York Times, Stephen Labaton. January 12, 2001 Page C1.)
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• Judge: Gates a Napoleon, Microsoft executives immature: "The Federal judge who ordered Microsoft split in two last year compares Bill Gates to Napoleon ­ even musing that the company founder should be required to write a book report on him ­ and said Microsoft executives behave like children. "I think he has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experiences, no reverses," Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson says of Gates in the January 15 issue of The New Yorker." (Associated Press. January 8, 2001)
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• F.C.C. Orders AT&T to Shed Some Assets: "Taking a slap at AT&T, the Federal Communications Commission ordered tonight that the telephone and cable giant sell its interest in Time Warner Entertainment, after officials concluded that the company had been trying to wriggle out of an earlier commitment it had made to win government's approval of its acquisition of MediaOne." (The New York Times, Stephen Labaton. December 22, 2000 Page C1.)
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• FBI's E-Mail Suggests Divisions On Legality of Web Surveillance: "Law-enforcement officials say telephone-era wiretap laws let them secretly copy e-mail addresses in messages sent to people involved in criminal probes, but a newly disclosed Federal Bureau of Investigation e-mail suggests internal dissent about the practice's legality." (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. December 7, 2000 Page B9.)
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• Computer Security Experts Question Internet Wiretaps: "Despite winning a favorable review by an outside group, the FBI's Carnivore Internet wiretap system continues to raise strong concerns about privacy and the legal limits of government surveillance, a prominent panel of computer security experts said yesterday." (The New York Times, John Schwartz. December 5, 2000 Page A14.)
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• Yahoo! Ordered To Bar the French From Nazi Items: "A French court said Yahoo! Must block French users from accessing Nazi memorabilia on its U.S. ­ based Web site, establishing a precedent that Web companies operating on the global Internet can be required to tailor their practices to the laws of individual countries. "This French court ruling has disastrous implications for free expression around the world," said Alan Davidson, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group." (The Wall Street Journal, Mylene Mangalindan and Kevin Delaney. November 11, 2000 Page B1.)
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• From Europe, Creative Taxation: "Europe is rushing to tear down borders, but the Internet is toppling some of them even faster, making life distinctly uncomfortable for European policy makers. A big source of that discomfort is the threat of lost tax revenues, because European nations depend far more on taxes on consumption than the United States does. So in contrast to the United States ­ where a federal commission failed to agree on how states should tax basic electronic commerce and mail-order sales like books, consumer electronics and other products ­ European officials are pushing hard to adopt a seemingly narrow but potentially far reaching proposal to ensure that digital products bought in Europe over the Internet do not escape taxation." (The New York Times, John Tagliabue. September 28, 2000 Page C1.)
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• Justices Decline A Direct Appeal In Microsoft Case: "The Supreme Court handed a major tactical victory to the Microsoft Corporation today when it rejected the government's plea to hear the appeal of its landmark antitrust case immediately and instead returned the proceeding to a lower court." (The New York Times, Stephen Labaton. September 27, 2000 Page A1.)
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• Tax on Web purchases won't be charged by California as Gov. Davis vetoed a bill to tack a 7.25% levy on goods bought online from firms with a physical presence in the state. He said the issue needs further study." (The Wall Street Journal. September 26, 2000 Page A1.)
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• AOL-Time Warner Plan Hits Roadblock: "The European Commission drafted a preliminary recommendation to block AOL's merger with Time Warner, partly because of concerns over Time Warner's own plans to create a music joint venture with Britain's EMI Group. The EMI venture also faces antitrust objections from the FTC." (The Wall Street Journal, Philip Shishkin and John Wilke. September 19, 2000 Page A1.)
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• U.S. Endorses a Global Approach to Antitrust: "In a change of tone in U.S. policy toward cross-border mergers, Washington's top antitrust official endorsed the idea of a multilateral organization that would help standardize treatment of international merger proposals. U.S. Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein told a surprised international meeting of lawyers, economists and antitrust officials that there is no other way to relieve political friction and reduce the regulatory burden on merging companies, as deals become larger and more complex. While stressing that he favors a "cautious beginning," Mr. Klein said "the time has come for a world organization committed to these issues." At the same time, he insisted that any such organization not be a part of the World Trade Organization ­ something the European Union has repeatedly proposed." (The Wall Street Journal, Brandon Mitchener. September 15, 2000 Page A15.)
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• Antitrust Enforcers' Actions on Mergers Chill Wall Street: "News that federal antitrust enforcers are prepared to block America Online Inc.'s $129 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc. unless the two sides make key concessions brought shudders to Wall Street. It comes on the heels of a string of high-profile deals that have either faced intense scrutiny or been blocked outright by regulators in the U.S. and Europe, such as WorldCom Inc.'s attempted pact for Sprint Corp. and a merger of three aluminum producers." (The Wall Street Journal, Nikhil Deogun and Anita Raghavan. September 6, 2000 Page C1.)
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• FTC Staff Raises Serious Concern on AOL Deal: "Federal antitrust enforcers are prepared to block America Online Inc.'s $129 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc. unless the companies accept far-reaching restrictions on their combined market power, lawyers close to the case said." (The Wall Street Journal, John R. Wilke. September 5, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Ambivalence in China On Expanding Net Access: "The warning followed renewed reports that local [Chinese] governments are establishing Internet surveillance units and tracking down people who use the Web to express political dissent or other nonconformist ideas. The government shut one such Web site, www.xinwenmig.com, this week for posting "counterrevolutionary content," a euphemism that often means nothing more than criticism of the government. Police are searching for the Web site's organizers, according to the New York-based Human Rights in China group." (The New York Times, Craig S. Smith. August 11, 2000 Page C3.)
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• FBI Won't Provide Data on Carnivore Congress Requested: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to give to Congress details of its Carnivore Internet surveillance system, telling a member of a House oversight committee that some of the documents he requested include classified information and others are the subject of a pending lawsuit seeking their release." (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. August 10, 2000 Page B8.)
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• Chinese Dissident Web Site Closed: "A Chinese dissident Web site was closed by the government and police are hunting those who ran it, a U.S. human-rights organization said. The site was described as the first by a China-based pro-democracy group." (The Wall Street Journal. August 9, 2000 Page A1.)
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• EC Accuses Microsoft on 'Server' Sector: "Microsoft Corp., still threatened with a two-way breakup, ordered by a U.S. judge, sustained another legal blow when the European Commission formally accused the company of seeking to corner the global market for software that runs powerful "server" computers. The commission, the executive arm of the European Union, has tangled with Microsoft several times over the past few years, but the most recent action is its biggest assault yet on the Redmond, Wash., software company." (The Wall Street Journal, Brandon Mitchener, Rebecca Buckman and Ted Bridis. August 4, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Judge Prods FBI to Decide on Carnivore: "A federal judge proded the Federal Bureau of Investigation to decide quickly whether it will publicly disclose the secret blueprints for its "Carnivore" Internet wiretap system." (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. August 3, 2000 Page B8.)
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• Wiretapping in Cyberspace: "Millions of Americans now log on to the Internet as naturally and as frequently as they pick up a phone. Technology has created a revolution in personal communications, but technology is also making it possible for government and even employers to monitor private conversations as never before. Telephone-era laws must be updated to address these new challenges to privacy." "It is probably not practical for agents to listen in on all the phone calls, for example, that go through AT&T. But new technology is making it possible for agencies like the F.B.I. to scan, read and record millions of pieces of e-mail on the network of an Internet service provider. Until now, this kind of power and its potential for abuse were not so readily available." "Until now, routine government surveillance of private conversations was limited as much by practicality as by legal constraints. Now that it is feasible to eavesdrop electronically on an unlimited scale, the laws have to be strengthened to prevent monitoring of all online communications simply because technology makes it easy." (The New York Times. July 27, 2000 Page A26.)
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• FBI is Pressured To Disclose Codes For Carnivore: "The FBI is resisting pressure to divulge the source code for its e-mail surveillance system, called Carnivore. The bureau says such a move would help hackers and violate copyright protections for software licensed to develop the system." (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. July 24, 2000 Page A1 and A6.)
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• Deutsche Telekom To Pay $50 Billion For U.S. Company: "Despite political opposition in Washington, Germany's largest telephone company, Deutsche Telekom, agreed last night to acquire an upstart American cellular communications company, the VoiceStream Wireless Corporation, for $50.7 billion." "But the merger is far from a certainty. In recent weeks lawmakers in both the Senate and House, anticipating a move by Deutsche Telekom, introduced legislation with the intent of preventing the German company from acquiring an American telephone company. And last week the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, citing those concerns, said any telecommunications deal involving a foreign government-owned company would face heavy scrutiny." (The New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Simon Romero. July 24, 2000 Page A1.)
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• Carnivore E-Mail Tool Won't Eat Up Privacy, Says FBI: "FBI e-mail surveillance is generating much criticism, and the agency is trying to convince lawmakers that its system, called Carnivore, isn't the threat to privacy it seems. Top officials expressed regrets about the unfortunate name." (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis and Neil King Jr. July 20, 2000 Page A1 and A28.)
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• High-Tech Executives Urge Action on World's Digital Divide: "A group of high-technology executives urged the wealthiest nations today to take action to erase a growing digital divide resulting from the economic chasm separating the developed and developing worlds." "The perception that the world is increasingly being divided into information technology have and have-nots is among the topics that the seven leading industrial nations and Russia will take up at their annual summit meeting, which begins on Friday in Okinawa." (The New York Times, John Markoff. July 20, 2000 Page A6.)
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• British Authorities May Get Wide Power to Decode E-Mail: "As the Clinton administration formally enters the debate about law enforcement surveillance in cyberspace, the British government is about to enact a law that would give the authorities here broad powers to intercept and decode e-mail messages and other communications between companies, organizations and individuals." "The measure, which goes further than the American plan unveiled on Monday in Washington, would make Britain the only Western democracy where the government could require anyone using the Internet to turn over the keys to decoding e-mails messages and other data." (The New York Times, Sarah Lyall. July 19, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Updating of Wiretap Law for E-Mail Age Is Urged by the Clinton Administration: "The White House is urging changes in U.S. law to make it easier for authorities to eavesdrop on Internet communications such as electronic mail, updating what the government described as wiretap laws written for an earlier era." "The American Civil Liberties Union said the White House announcement was "deeply disappointing," because it did not include any promise to suspend use of Carnivore, which the group charged gives the government "unsupervised access to a nearly unlimited amount of communications traffic."" (The Wall Street Journal, Ted Bridis. July 18, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Internet May Need New Cyber-Borders ­ U.S. Legal Body: "The Internet makes such light of geographical frontiers that new cyber-borders may be needed instead, top U.S. lawyers said Monday as they presented a two-year report into preventing global online chaos." (Reuters, Richard Meares. July 17, 2000)
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• ACLU Asks Details On FBI's New Plan To Monitor the Web: "The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking to force the Federal Bureau of Investigation to disclose the technical details behind a controversial electronic surveillance system created by the bureau." "The request reflects the growing concern among privacy groups and Internet companies about the privacy implications of Carnivore. The FBI surveillance system, a hardware device that contains a specialized program for tracking e-mail and other forms of online communication, has especially raised hackles among Internet service providers. The FBI is attempting to install Carnivore on the networks of ISPs as part of specific criminal investigations of online users. But ISPs say they have no way of knowing whether Carnivore is limiting the scope of its surveillance to the cases at hand." (The Wall Street Journal, Nick Wingfield. July 17, 2000 Page B7.)
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• Earthlink Says It Won't Install Device for FBI: "One of the nation's largest Internet service providers, Earthlink Inc., has refused to install a new Federal Bureau of Investigation electronic surveillance device on its network, saying technical adjustments required to use the device caused disruptions for customers." "The FBI has used Carnivore, as the surveillance device is called, in a number of criminal investigations. But Earthlink is the first ISP to offer a public account of an actual experience with Carnivore. The FBI has claimed that Carnivore won't interfere with an ISP's operations." "Earthlink executives said they were also concerned about privacy. The company said it had no way of knowing whether Carnivore was limiting its surveillance to the criminal investigation at hand, or was trolling more broadly. Other ISPs have said there could be serious liability issues for them if the privacy of individuals not connected to an investigation is compromised." (The Wall Street Journal, Nick Wingfield, Ted Bridis and Neil King Jr.. July 14, 2000 Page A16.)
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• Measure To Curb Internet Gambling Gains In The House: "A tentative deal has been reached in the House of Representatives on a bitterly fought bill to ban most forms of gambling on the Internet, clearing the way for a floor vote as early as next week." The legislation has created a number of odd alliances and has fattened the bank accounts of some of the most powerful lobbying and law firms in Washington. Evangelical Christian groups have lined up with horse-track operators and liquor store owners to support the bill." "The measure, strongly backed by major sports leagues and the Nevada gambling industry, is an attempt to halt the rapid growth of online betting on casino-style games and professional and college sports by anyone with access to a personal computer, modem and credit card. The big Nevada casinos have put their money and considerable lobbying clout behind the bill to try to crush a competitive threat to their billion-dollar desert palaces." (The New York Times, John M. Broder. July 14, 2000 Page A1.)
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• Senators Say They Will Intervene If Web-Music Battle Isn't Settled: "Signaling Congress's close attention to the burgeoning Internet-Entertainment industry, influential lawmakers said if private industry fails to work out disputes over the future of online music, they would step in with legislation." "Most witnesses at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which included industry representatives and celebrities, opposed government involvement in the industry, and Mr. Hatch said that was the "last thing" he wanted." (The Wall Street Journal, Jill Carroll and Anna Wilde Mathews. July 12, 2000 Page B12.)
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• Internet Companies Decry FBI's E-Mail Wiretap Plan: "Internet-service providers and privacy advocates are concerned about the implications of a new electronic surveillance system devised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with some providers vowing to resist if they are asked to install it on their networks." "The FBI system, a sophisticated combination of hardware and software the agency has dubbed Carnivore, must be connected directly to an ISP's network. Once it is connected, Carnivore has he potential to keep tabs on all of the communications on the network. The FBI has said it will use the system only with valid court orders and that Carnivore will allow it to narrowly target its investigation" "However, ISPs, industry representatives and privacy advocates, responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal about the FBI system, criticized the potential for excessive monitoring of online communications." (The Wall Street Journal, Nick Wingfield and Don Clark. July 12, 2000 Page B11A.)
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• FBI's Wiretaps To Scan E-Mail Spark Concern: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is using a superfast system called Carnivore to covertly search e-mails for messages from criminal suspects." "Essentially a personalized computer stuffed with specialized software, Carnivore represents a new twist in the federal government's fight to sustain its snooping powers in the Internet age. But in employing the system, which can scan millions of e-mails a second, the FBI has upset privacy advocates and some in the computer industry. Experts say the system opens a thicket of unresolved legal issues and privacy concerns." (The Wall Street Journal, Neil King Jr. and Ted Bridis. July 11, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Business Links On Web Raise Antitrust Issues: "As companies in practically every industry rush to join business-to-business exchanges on the Internet, regulators are growing concerned that they will face a rash of new antitrust questions for which they are not prepared." "Both regulators and executives agree that the stakes are enormous. B2B sites already account for about $150 billion in annual sales, significantly more than the better-known consumer sites like Amazon.com. And that number is expected to grow exponentially as businesses move more and more into buying and selling on the Web." ""Antitrust has never had this kind of factual scenario to look at before," said Susan DeSanti, the director of policy planning for the Federal Trade Commission." "Last week, the commission took the unusual step of holding a two-day conference to which it invited executives, lawyers and consumer advocates to advise it on how to regulate B2B marketplaces." (The New York Times, David Leonhardt. July 7, 2000 Page A1.)
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• The FBI Raises Security Issues On NTT-Verio: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has raised national-security concerns about a Japanese company's attempt to acquire a U.S. Internet service provider, signaling the government's increasing worry about the globalization of, and its loss of control of, telecommunications networks." "The agency has registered its concerns with the Treasury Department about Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.'s planned acquisition of Verio Inc., Englewood, Colo." "In recent years, the FBI and other security agencies have raised concerns about their ability to maintain surveillance over telecommunications networks being acquired by companies based outside the U.S. Now, law-enforcement officials appear to be moving to extend their influence to Internet deals, which generally aren't regulated by the Federal Communications Commission but come before an obscure Treasury panel called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S." (The Wall Street Journal, Glenn R. Simpson and David S. Cloud. July 6, 2000 Page A3.)
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• All Wires Lead to Washington: "When the Justice Department dispatched a private lawyer, Steve Axinn, to se if the WorldCom merger raised any antitrust problems, he came back and reported that he had "deep concern." Of course he did. Those who gurgle about the "rule of law" in antitrust don't know, or have forgotten, that antitrust enforcement has always been an area of untrammeled policy initiative masquerading as law enforcement. In the WorldCom case the arbitrariness surpasses the usual opportunism and verges on contrived ignorance. Joel Klein said the deal must be stopped because WorldCom and Sprint would jointly have 27% of consumer long-distance business. Last time we checked, 27% doesn't constitute a monopoly, but Mr. Klein's reasoning is that AT&T has nearly 50%, so two companies instead of three would control 77% if Sprint and WorldCom were to merge. Never mind that you could just as easily argue the deal would finally give AT&T somebody its own size to pick on. The pith of the Justice Department's complaint is that an industry whose prices are trending toward zero, that has no natural reason to exist, and that is on the verge of being rendered a technological nullity, must be treated like a dangerous oligopoly. If the long-distance business were your Uncle Fred, you'd have to pity it." (The Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins Jr.. July 5, 2000 Page A23.)
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• EU May Block Microsoft Deal With Telewest: "Microsoft Corp. is working to salvage its proposed $3 billion investment in British cable-television concern Telewest Communications PLC amid evidence European antitrust regulators are leery of the deal." (The Wall Street Journal, Brandon Mitchener. July 5, 2000 Page A3.)
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• New Global Cybercops: "The wording in a recent Council of Europe document may sound like boring legalese, but it could have profound implications for civil liberties around the world. It reads: "Each Party shall take such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to empower its competent authorities to search or similarly access a computer system or part of it and computer data stored thereinfor the purpose of criminal investigation or proceedings." A "Party" is any country that signs the International Convention on Crime in Cyberspace ­ let's call it IC3. The first draft was published for public comment in April by the Council of Europe, an independent group of 41 countries that focuses on social and legal issues. While the general content of the treaty has been widely discussed (granting police more powers and narrowing the differences in national laws), one disturbing detail has gone almost unnoticed, and it is hidden in four words of Article 14 quoted above: "search or similarly access." In other words, the IC3 could authorize law-enforcement agencies to remotely search computer hard drives by penetrating somebody's computer (or a corporate system) through the Net and other networks. This interpretation was confirmed in an interview with Peter Csonka of the Council of Europe's legal office. "The convention admits the possibility of direct online searches," he says. That opens the door for some very troubling changes. Lawful searches in most democratic countries are authorized only in certain situations: when a search warrant is obtained, when the target person is notified and so on. No such provisions are stated in the IC3 draft. Rather, the authors of the convention have implemented an insidious semantic shift from "search" to "access." The word "search" is often associated with force, typically embodied by police officers seizing any kind of potential evidence from a person, a home or an office. "Access" has a softer, more neutral connotation. Imagine authorities gaining access to your hard drive remotely, opening files, reading or copying them and leaving no trace of what they had done. Moreover, the very notion of telesearch collides with political borders and legal jurisdictions. The convention, for example, authorizes the police to extend searches "expeditiously" across networks connected to the initial computer, basically prejustifying any search by a law-enforcement agency that, bouncing from computer to router to computer, would "inadvertently access" data located in the jurisdiction of another country. Almost any cop could be a global cybercop. The IC3 will be finalized after the summer; it then is subject to an approval process expected to be completed in about 18 months. The text then will be legally binding in the countries that sign it. Canada, Japan, South Africa and the U.S. are not members of the Council of Europe, but they do participate in IC3 discussions. The U.S. Department of Justice has been very active in supporting the draft. It seems that Washington, confronted with strong privacy and consumer lobbies at home, is using the Council as a back door to expand police powers in cyberspace around the world. That, in turn, could give U.S. law-enforcement agents even more power to sneak into computers than they have now." (The Standard, Bruno Giussani. July 3, 2000.)
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• Welcome To Sealand. Now Bugger Off: "Ryan Lackey, a 21-year-old MIT dropout and self-taught crypto expert, sees fantastic things for himself in 2005. For starters, he'll be filthy rich. But his future is animated by more than just money ­ to wit, the exploration of a huge idea he thinks will change the world. Lackey's big concept? That freedom is the next killer app." "Before you get too choked up, you should know that Lackey means giving corporations and frisky individuals the "freedom" to store and move data without answering to anybody, including competitors, regulators, and lawyers. He's part of a crew of adventurers and cypherpunks that's working to transform a 60-year-old gunnery fort in the North Sea ­ an odd, quasi-independent outpost whose British owner calls it "the Principality of Sealand" ­ into something that could be possible only in the 21st century: a fat-pipe Internet server farm and global networking hub that combines the spicier elements of a Caribbean tax shelter, Crytonomicon, and 007." "This summer, with $1 million in seed money provided by a small core of Internet-fattened investors, Lackey and his colleagues are setting up Sealand as the world's first truly offshore, almost-anything-goes electronic data haven ­ a place that occupies a tantalizing gray zone between what's legal and what'spossible. Especially if you exist, as the Sealanders plan to, outside the jurisdiction of the world's nation-states. Simply put: Sealand won't just be offshore. It will be off government." (Wired 8.07 cover article, Simson Garfinkel. July 2000 Issue, Page 230.)
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• Oracle Leader Calls Microsoft Spying 'Civic Duty': "In a raucous news conference on a sprawling Silicon Valley corporate campus affectionately called Larryland by its inhabitants, Lawrence J. Ellison, the chairman and founder of Oracle Corporation, today defended his company's yearlong spying operation against Microsoft as a "civic duty" similar to investigative reporting by the press." (The New York Times, John Markoff. June 29, 2000 Page C1.)
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• A Lobbying Machine Springs Up to Revive Issue of Internet Taxes: "The road to a tax-free Internet looked smooth and clear in Congress. Then an oddball coalition of retailers, real-estate agents, firemen and teachers came along. Just last month, the House rammed through a bill imposing a five-year moratorium on new Internet taxes, without even considering the devilish question of how to handle sales taxes on Internet commerce. Love of the Internet being this year's version of a motherhood issue, most expected the Senate to soon follow suit. But the forces of cyberspace were in for a surprise. A broad collection of people who want sales taxes on the Internet suddenly materialized and succeeded installing the bill in the Senate. Senators may soon begin considering alternative bills that, while still blocking new Internet taxes, would take the first steps toward a uniform tax system under which Americans would pay for shopping in stores and on the Internet alike." (The Wall Street Journal, Gerald F. Seib and Jim VandeHei. June 29, 2000 Page A1.)
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• Justice Dept. Acts To Block Merger Of Phone Giants: "The Justice Department sought to curb the headlong consolidation of the telecommunications industry yesterday by moving to block WorldCom's proposed $115 billion acquisition of the Sprint Corporation." "At the same time in the face of opposition in Europe, WorldCom and Sprint formally withdrew their deal from consideration by the European Commission, reserving the option to file again in the future." "The Justice Department, while seeking an injunction against the deal in Federal court, cited concerns that the combined company would stifle competition on the Internet and in the long-distance telephone industry. Industry executives said the filing probably doomed the deal, which was agreed to last year and would have created an Internet powerhouse and the nation's second-largest long-distance phone company after AT&T." (The New York Times, Seth Schiesel with David Leonhardt. June 28, 2000 Page A1.)
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• Oracle Hired Firm to Probe Microsoft Allies: "Oracle said it hired a detective agency to investigate allies of Microsoft and disclose internal documents to the media, saying it was necessary to expose Microsoft's underhanded attempts to fight its antitrust case." (The Wall Street Journal, Glenn R. Simpson and Ted Bridis. June 27, 2000 Page A1 and A3.)
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• U.S. Court Rules Against Online Pornography Law: "A federal law intended to shield children from online pornography was dealt a second setback today, as an appellate court upheld a lower court order against its enforcement and declared that the statute was probably fatally flawed." (The New York Times, David Stout. June 23, 2000 Page A16.)
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• Both Sides Talk of Victory in Cable Ruling: "Reversing a lower court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled today that a local government could not force a cable company that offered Internet access to share its telecommunication lines with rival providers of cable modems." "The decision left AT&T, the City of Portland and a coalition of Internet companies seeking access to AT&T's telecommunications lines each claiming victory in a suit closely watched by the Internet industry." (The New York Times, Matt Richtel. June 23, 2000 Page C2.)
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• Sprint, WorldCom Merger Faces Hurdle in Europe, Too: "Sprint Corp. and WorldCom Inc. were scrambling to salvage their $115 billion merger amid indications that the European Commission has joined the staff of the U.S. Justice Department in recommending it be blocked." (The Wall Street Journal, Philip Shisfkin and Brandon Mitchener. June 22, 2000 Page B10.)
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• Drug Office Ends Tracking Of Web Users: "The White House conceded today that it might have violated federal privacy guidelines, and it ordered its Office of National Drug Control Policy to stop using a software device that tracks computer users who view the government's antidrug advertisements on the Internet." "To monitor traffic on its Internet sites for children and parents, the White House's drug policy office has employed computer files known as cookies, which are placed in computers electronically ­ usually without the knowledge of users ­ to monitor their Internet travels." (The New York Times, Marc Lacey. June 22, 2000 Page A14.)
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• U.S. to Decide if it Will Halt WorldCom-Sprint Merger: "The Justice Department is expected to decide in the next few days whether to seek to block the proposed $115 billion merger of WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp." "Negotiations between the parties have intensified in recent days as the companies officials have tried to persuade antitrust chief Joel Klein to look beyond his staff's recommendation to halt one of the biggest telecommunications mergers ever proposed. If the department does try to halt the deal, it would be the biggest merger ever blocked by regulators." (The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Blumenstein and John R. Wilke. June 21, 2000 Page B6.)
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• Hi-Tech to Feds: We Love You, We Love You Not: "Ah, but the times have changed, and fast. The high-tech world has gone from resisting any government role, to grudgingly accepting one, to actively seeking one out. High-tech has discovered that government can be you friend." "This week, two new bits of evidence are on display here in California to support this finding. The first came on Monday night, when John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco Systems Inc., hosted Republican candidate George W. Bush at a fund-raiser that bagged a cool $4 million for the GOP. As it happens, this fund-raiser eclipsed the $2.6 million vice President Al Gore raised at his own Silicon Valley fund-raiser earlier this year. These aren't events hosted by people who think government is irrelevant to their lives." "Less splashy but more telling is a letter that was sent to both Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore on June 7 by the heads of the nation's biggest software companies. The 13 executives who signed the letter essentially asked the candidates: What are you going to do for us?" (The Wall Street Journal, Gerald F. Seib. June 21, 2000 Page A28.)
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• A Contract with America.Com: "Has Newt Gingrich gone Silicon Valley? It looks like it, from the minute he opens the door of his top floor suite at the Fairmont Hotel." But although the paradigm has changed, his target is still big, unresponsive government." "Some of the ideas he hopes to promote include: giving a computer (which he calls "the textbook of the information age") to every four-year old, buying weapons systems via the Internet with an open bidding process that everyone could see, giving everyone a medical smart card, promoting online voting using thumbprint or eye identification, and offering online access to all free of charge." (The Wall Street Journal, Kara Swisher. June 19, 2000 Page B1.)
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• AOL Makes Instant-Messaging Proposal: "A week after federal antitrust enforcers began investigating America Online Inc.'s instant-messaging policies, the online giant made its first gesture toward allowing open access to its wildly popular messaging system." "The conciliatory gesture comes at a time when regulators are reviewing AOL's proposed $113 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc., leading competitors to speculate that it was a more political than technical move." (The Wall Street Journal, Julia Angwin. June 16, 2000 Page A3.)
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• Visas for the Information Age: "The immediate issue that has [Intel's Andy] Grove and his peers so exercised ­ and which Congress looks set to act upon ­ is the increasingly ominous gap between the number of skilled workers they need to import and the H1-B work visas available to let them do it. The Information Technology association reckons that though the industry will this year create nearly 1.6 million jobs, some 843,000 will go unfilled because of the lack of qualified workers. The reason, say the CEOs, is that they are caught between the twin pincers of a U.S. education system that isn't turning out enough math and science grads and an H1-B quota that prevents them from making up the difference with qualified foreign students, many of them graduates of American universities." (The Wall Street Journal. June 12, 2000 Page A30.)
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• Tsk, Tsk, Bill: You Aren't Playing By Beltway Rules: "Bill Gates is a hard man to warm to, but this week I sympathize with him. Not only do the feds want to break up his company, but he must now endure public lectures about his many supposed political blunders. The Microsoft chairman didn't bow enough to bureaucrats,