Weekly News

Table of Contents

This is a good opinion column.

Dear Prudence:Get answers to your questions on morals, manners, and macroeconomic policy.

Olympic snowboarders arrested on marijuana charges

(AP) - Two Olympic snowboarders are due in court Wednesday in Minden, Nev., on marijuana-related charges. Michael Kildevaeld, a member of Denmark's snowboarding team, and Canadian Brett Tippie were arrested Saturday after a sheriff's deputy stopped their car for speeding. Deputies said they smelled marijuana smoke while speaking to Kildevaeld. A drug sniffing dog found about 2 grams of what was believed to be marijuana and a pipe inside the car. Kildevaeld has been charged with felony marijuana possession and misdemeanor charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence. Tippie was charged with being under the influence of marijuana.

Dog sentenced to death for having insulting name

A court in Tanzania has sentenced a dog to death by hanging and its owner to a suspended jail term because of its name, The East African newspaper reported Monday. It said the dog, named "Immigration" by its 25-year-old owner, was sentenced to hang by a judge in Rukwa. It is currently on death row while an appeal is heard. The magistrate found the dog's owner guilty of scandalizing the department of immigration in naming his pet. Prosecutors told the court that the owner had mischievously given the dog the name of a highly respected and law-abiding government department and compounded the crime by going to the department on a daily basis and boasting of its name.

:41 AM ET 02/27/98

Internet Copyright Victory For Showbiz

By Christopher Stern

WASHINGTON (Variety) - A House subcommittee handed a preliminary victory Thursday to the copyright-rich recording and movie industries when it rejected proposals by telephone companies to weaken intellectual property law in the digital domain.

The legislation approved by the House subcommittee would bring U.S. law into compliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization treaty. It is the first step towards ratification of the treaty, which would strengthen digital copyright law globally.

Telephone companies and Internet service providers such as America Online had hoped the subcommittee would give them a limited indemnity for copyright piracy conducted over their networks.

``The message is clear: it is critical that the creative works of millions of Americans are protected and essential that copyright protection that will help strengthen and expand the Internet is secured,'' said Recording Industry Assn. of America's Jennifer Bendall.

``We are just pleased that it is moving its way through Congress and we are looking forward to the next step in the process,'' said Motion Picture Assn. of America spokesman Richard Taylor. The House Judiciary Committee is the next stop for the legislation, where the creative industries will face a much tougher fight. Reuters/Variety ^REUTERS@

:11 AM ET 02/26/98

FEATURE-Aliens craze spills over into advertising

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In the sphere of advertising, aliens are making contact at a record pace.

They are dropping new-age Maytag washing machines from UFOs, exploring the creature comforts of GM's Buick Century, selling wireless phone service for PrimeCo and leaving secret messages on wrappers of Betty Crocker's Fruit by the Foot.

Given the blockbuster success of Columbia's ``Men in Black'' last summer and TV hits ``The X-Files'' on Fox and ``3rd Rock from the Sun'' on NBC, the current alien sightings in advertising are hardly paranormal, said Laura Ries, a principal in brand consulting firm Ries & Ries of Atlanta.

``There have been hordes of copies of those shows,'' she said. ``It's not surprising that, in addition to all of those copycats, advertisers are using the idea to sell products.''

Feature film releases such as Warner Brothers' ``Sphere'' with Dustin Hoffman and Sharon Stone this month and the upcoming April release of New Line Cinema's ``Lost in Space'' with William Hurt may help keep the trend alive.

It is no surprise that alien ads are on the rise given all the related TV programs, Johann Wachs, senior strategic planner at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in New York, said. ``You never want your advertising to stick out like a sore thumb.''

In addition to space-related movies and TV programming, the Pathfinder spacecraft's Mars mission and the 50th anniversary of the supposed alien crash landing near Roswell, N.M., grabbed headlines last summer, bringing the possibility of life beyond Earth to the fore.

FOR ADVERTISERS ALIENS - HI-TECH

For some advertisers, aliens have become a metaphor for high technology. Dallas-based PrimeCo Personal Communications is betting an estimated $50 million in brand advertising that a little pink alien who left his phone on Earth will pique consumers' interest in wireless phone technology. The campaign, which began last July, focuses on an alien named Primetheus.

``We did a takeoff on Greek mythology,'' Allen Bourne, director of marketing communications for PrimeCo, said. ''Prometheus brought the gift of fire to Earth. Our hapless alien left his gift of advanced wireless communications.''

So far, the ads seem to be making an impact for Primeco, a joint venture by U.S. West Media, AirTouch Communications and Bell Atlantic. In its first six months, the effort has boosted PrimeCo's TV awareness rating by 47 percent. ``That brings us to within 10 to 12 points of competitors who have been out there for years,'' Bourne said.

Maytag Corp. took a slightly more serious approach when it introduced the Neptune front-loading washer, a design common in Europe but unfamiliar to consumers in the United States. TV ads depict the Maytag repairman, played by actor Gordon Jump, in an open field at night as Neptunians drop a high-tech washer from their spaceship, solving his stain problem.

``If anybody was going to bring (this technology) to Earth, who better but Neptunians?'' said Chris Julcher of Leo Burnett USA in Chicago, which created the spot along with Australian special-effects agency Animal Logic. ``Alien sightings seem to happen in small, remote locations, which is where the Maytag repairman lives,'' he said.

ALIENS AT HOME WITH THE INTERNET

Aliens are right at home in the high-tech world of the Internet, said Karen Carbonnet, director of online marketing and marketing communications for Infoseek, an Internet search and navigation site. As part of its multimillion-dollar spot TV campaign, Infoseek proposed aliens as a possible solution to the problem of how Johnny -- a character in its TV ads -- could have gathered certain difficult-to-obtain information.

The campaign, which premiered on ``The X-Files'' Nov. 2 and has been making its debut in waves across the United States ever since, features four commercials with the themes ``aliens,'' ''witchcraft,'' ``psychic powers'' and ``CIA.'' A corresponding online promotion and contest urged consumers to find the most interesting Web sites related to each theme.

``The aliens part of our contest got more entries than all of the other parts combined,'' Carbonnet said.

In a whimsical campaign for General Motors' Buick Century, Martians explore the car's luxury amenities. The commercial is part of a $50 million ad campaign from McCann-Erickson of Troy, Mich., which also uses talking cows, penguins and baby chicks in an effort to appeal to younger consumers.

Space exploration and aliens, popular with adults, are the No. 1 most fascinating topic for kids, said Wachs, who tracks children's interests for Saatchi's Kid Connection ad unit.

For Fruit by the Foot maker General Mills, secret alien messages have begun appearing on its wrappers as well as in advertising launched this month by Saatchi & Saatchi. ``The space theme is not only infiltrating the advertising but the product itself,'' said Wachs, who predicts the alien trend is far from over.

``Space is the realm of fantasy. There's always a new frontier,'' he said.

:35 PM ET 02/26/98

Gore backs fee for school and library Internet access

By Aaron Pressman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore said Thursday the Clinton administration would fight to preserve a multibillion dollar program to connect schools and libraries to the Internet.

Some lawmakers are considering limiting the program, which uses fees collected from telephone companies to pay for discounted Internet hook-ups in low-income and rural areas.

Gore said the administration opposed efforts to trim the discount, known as the ``e-rate.''

``Your effort to block the e-rate is an effort to ration information and ration education,'' Gore said at a conference here to promote school and library connections. ``It would darken the future of some of our brightest students.''

After the speech, an official of the American Library Association said lawmakers were discussing sharp cutbacks in the program as well as limits on how funds could be used.

More than 19,000 schools and libraries have applied for funds under the program so far this year, Lynne Bradley, deputy executive director of the group, told reporters.

``We're very concerned,'' she said. ``We've got people in the pipeline now counting on this.''

Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard said his agency was working to explain the e-rate program to lawmakers. The FCC established the program to implement provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act for ``universal service,'' which also includes subsidies for residential phone service in rural and low-income areas.

``We're going to work closely with members of Congress to answer their questions and resolve their concerns,'' Kennard told reporters. ``The important thing is that the program's got to continue.''

The General Accounting Office concluded in a Feb. 11 report that the FCC had exceeded its authority in establishing two not-for-profit corporations to carry out the e- rate program.

Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, who requested the GAO study, raised concerns about the e-rate program at that time. He said collecting more than $2 billion for the e-rate program would raise phone rates and might jeopardize universal service.

Gore noted in his speech that the country was ``well on our way'' to hooking up every school by the year 2000.

A survey released by the Department of Education on Thursday showed that although 78 percent of U.S. schools were connected to the Internet, schools serving the poor and minorities lagged behind.

Gore said the e-rate would help lagging schools get wired to the Internet.

Internet access was available in only 63 percent of schools where more than half the students where minorities. Access lagged the same amount in schools where more than 70 percent of students received federally-subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty in schools.

Overall, Internet access rose from 35 percent in 1994 and 65 percent in 1996, the survey found.

((Aaron Pressman, Washington newsroom, 202-898-8312)) ^REUTERS@

Clinton endorses Internet-tax moratorium

By Randall Mikkelsen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President Clinton Thursday called for a U.S. and international ban on new taxes on cyberspace business transactions, saying economic prosperity depended on ''full development'' of the Internet.

``There should be no special breaks for the Internet, but we can't allow unfair taxation to weight it down and stunt the development of the most promising new economic opportunity in decades,'' Clinton told some 300 high-tech industry executives at a conference here.

``The next big step in our economic t ransf orma t ion it seems to me is the full development of this remarkable device, and the electronic commerce it makes possible,'' he said.

Clinton endorsed legislation pending before Congress that would impose a moratorium on taxes that discriminate against electronic business transactions and the Internet. He said he would ask Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to seek a similar ban internationally.

Clinton will back domestic legislation introduced by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and California U.S. Rep. Chris Cox, a Republican, the White House said in a statement.

The legislation would block states or localities from imposing new taxes on the electronic sale of goods and services. The White House said state and local governments could continue to apply existing taxes to electronic commerce as long as they did not discriminate by taxing such business differently from other transactions.

Clinton did not set a specific time limit on the moratorium, but said a bi-partisan group of elected officials, business leaders, consumers and Treasury Department representatives should study the issue and develop a policy recommendation.

In addition, Clinton said, ``To ensure that electronic commerce can flourish across international borders, I've also asked the Secretary of Treasury to work with our international trading partners to block new or discriminatory taxes on global electronic commerce.''

Clinton noted what he said was dramatic growth in on-line sales of goods such as books and airline tickets and said an upcoming White House study estimates the value of business-to-business electronic transactions at $300 billion by 2002.

``This explosion of real commerce has the potential to increase our prosperity, to create more jobs, to improve the lives of our people and to reach into areas that have not yet felt prosperity,'' he said.

Speaking more broadly about the promises of the information revolution, Clinton also said economic gains wrought through improved productivity and technological advances can support continued robust economic growth without fueling inflation.

The moratorium has been backed by major on-line companies such as America On-Line, Microsoft Corp and Netscape.

However, Clinton's endorsement of it puts him at odds with many governors who are concerned that Internet sales can escape state sales tax levies, deprive state and local governments of crucial revenues, and drain away business from local vendors.

The National Governors Association adopted a resolution Tuesday urging Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit taxation of Internet access but would allow states to impose taxes on electronic commerce

``State and local governments depend on existing sales and excise taxes to generate about 50 percent of total state and local tax revenues. These revenues support a wide range of public services, including police protection, education, community services, and health care,'' the association said in a news release Thursday.

^REUTERS@

Go To Archives