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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