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FYI
----- Forwarded by Scott Bolton/Enron Communications on 11/22/99 08:19 AM ----- Jeffrey Keeler@ENRON 11/19/99 10:57 AM To: Scott Bolton/Enron Communications@Enron Communications cc: Cynthia Sandherr/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Joe Hillings/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Chris Long/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Steven J Kean/HOU/EES@EES, Richard Shapiro/HOU/EES@EES Subject: Internet Language DROPPED from Satellite TV bill Scott: Just to follow up on my e-mail and voice mail messaged to you: language that would have barred internet companies from obtaining the licenses to transmit movies, sporting events and other broadcast programs was DROPPED from H.R. 1554, the satellite TV bill (which is attached to H.R. 3194, the omnibus appropriations legislation). Please see the CQ article below for more information on the legislation in general. We will certainly continue to watch for language like this that might surface in future legislation. In the context of ECI's larger legislative agenda, we may also want to explore the potential to develop legislation that would pro-actively ensure the broadcast of licensed programming over the internet. Cheers, Jeff ********* TELECOMMUNICATIONS: SATELLITE BILL SURVIVES A SCARE, CARRIES OTHER MEASURES WITH IT By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff Writer Nov. 18, 1999 - The uproar in the Senate Thursday over deletion of a loan guarantee program designed to improve rural television service nearly obscured the significance of the satellite television bill that was linked to the fiscal 2000 omnibus spending bill (HR3194). The controversial provision would have created a new Agriculture Department program to guarantee $1.25 billion in loans enabling satellite providers to transmit local programming to rural subscribers -- service they insist is too expensive to provide without help. It was added to the satellite TV bill (HR1554) in conference but dropped when the final version (S1948) was referenced in HR3194. Rural-state senators led by Max Baucus, R-Mont., blocked action on a stopgap funding bill (HJRES82) until leaders promised them a floor vote on the loan guarantee legislation or similar provisions by next April 1. Also dropped from the final bill was language that would haved barred Internet service providers from obtaining the licenses necessary to transmit movies, sports events and other broadcast programming. Cable and satellite providers would be the only entities with such licenses. America Online and other companies lobbied furiously to strip the provision. The final measure would for the first time allow satellite companies to beam local news, sports, weather and other broadcast programming to all of their customers, just as cable providers do. And it would grant a reprieve to more than a million satellite subscribers now receiving local channels who otherwise would lose those signals by year's end. A court had ruled the subscribers do not qualify to receive local signals by satellite under current law. Satellite companies would have to gain permission from local broadcast stations within six months after they begin retransmitting those signals. By Jan. 1, 2002, satellite carriers that transmit local channels would have to carry all of the channels in that community, a "must-carry" requirement already imposed on cable providers. The measure would extend for five years the licenses under which satellite companies retransmit the signals of superstations and distant network stations and reduce the copyright fees they must pay. The bill would generally retain existing standards for determining which subscribers are eligible to receive distant network signals by satellite, but it would require the Federal Communications Commission to review its model for determining which areas are unable to receive acceptable-quality broadcast signals over the air. Like the conference report on HR1554, the final satellite bill carries a number of pieces of unrelated legislation. * Patent Overhaul. In a victory for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, negotiators included a patent system overhaul bill (HR1907) that was strongly opposed by some inventors and by the Eagle Forum, a conservative group headed by political activist Phyllis Schlafly, who argued that it would permit foreign companies to steal American technology. The bill would require publication of some patent applications, which have been filed both in the United States and abroad, within 18 months of filing, whether or not patents have been granted. The measure also would require the Patent and Trademark Office to approve or reject a patent application within three years. It would provide patent term extensions for any not approved within that three-year period to guarantee investors a 17-year patent term. Currently, patents are for 20 years, but inventors often lose years waiting for approval of their applications. * Low-Power TV Stations. The omnibus spending bill also included provisions of a bill (HR486) to create a new "Class A" license for low-power television stations equivalent to those granted to full-service "primary" stations. The provisions are designed to help low-power stations that often provide "niche" programming in urban areas and local programming in rural areas become more stable and commercially viable. * 'Cybersquatting.' The measure includes provisions of a bill (S1255) to bar unauthorized use of trademark-protected brand names in Internet addresses. The bill was passed by the Senate by voice vote Aug. 5; the House passed a different version Oct. 26. * PBS Donor Lists. In response to disclosures earlier this year that some public broadcast stations had exchanged donor lists with political parties -- and primarily with Democratic Party units -- negotiators included a provision to prohibit such stations from sharing their donor lists with political parties. It also would bar disclosure of its donors to any non-affiliated group without the donor's consent. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., had introduced legislation (HR2791) earlier this year to prohibit the list-sharing, but the bill did not advance.
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