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from: Capital Weekly

AT&T's new privacy policy is sticking point in cable-access legislation

By Shane Goldmacher

(published June 26th, 2006)
On Tuesday, the Senate utilities committee will consider legislation to drastically expand telephone companies' access to California's lucrative video- and Internet-services market.

From: The Nation
Please ignore the shameful telco astroturf banner ad the Nation is running on all its pages - sigh

A Ten-Point Plan for Media Democracy

By Jeffrey Chester

Ten years after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, digital technologies are rapidly reshaping the country’s communications system. It will be the most powerful media environment ever created—always “on” with connections via PCs, digital TVs and an array of mobile devices, delivering a torrent of personalized, interactive and virtual content, much of it coming from the nation’s most powerful traditional and new media companies (e.g., AT&T, Comcast, Google, Microsoft). The next several years are critical to insure that the promise of what we now experience online—and its vast potential to help build a just civil society—is fulfilled. With Congress poised to pass legislation that rewrites key parts of the Telecom Act, the following ten action items should be on any media reform agenda.

from: American Prospect

It’s Alright, Ma Bell
What the NSA eavesdropping program might tell us about the Bush administration’s love for telecom monopolies.

By Alexander Dryer

Last week, as details emerged of the Justice Department’s plan to have Internet providers log customers’ Web clicks and e-mails, the method behind the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance finally became discernible. The new initiative follows the pattern set by the NSA call-tracking program: The government deputizes telecommunications companies to carry out its spying.

from: Democracy Now

Friday, June 9th, 2006
House Passes Controversial COPE Telecom Bill, Rejects Amendment to Protect Net Neutrality

The House voted on legislation yesterday that could determine the future of the Internet and public access television in this country. We examine the implications of the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act - known as the COPE bill - with Anthony Riddle of the Alliance for Community Media. [includes rush transcript] The House voted on legislation yesterday that could determine the future of the internet and public access television in this country. In a vote of 321 to 101, the House voted to pass the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act, known as the COPE bill.

from: CNET - go to the link to see photos

Protesters face off with Verizon, AT&T
By Declan McCullagh
Story last modified Wed May 24 17:51:02 PDT 2006

Protesters lined streets on both coasts Wednesday to bring public awareness to the telecommunications policy debates currently going on in Washington, D.C., and to show opposition to the phone companies reportedly providing customer records without a court order to the National Security Agency.

See: Wired for additional links and info

Why We Published the AT&T Docs

By Evan Hansen| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM May, 22, 2006

A file detailing aspects of AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretap operation is sitting in a San Francisco courthouse. But the public cannot see it because, at AT&T's insistence, it remains under seal in court records.

We have some report-backs and media from Wednesday's actions!

AT&T certainly put a new spin on their slogan "Your World. Delivered" with the recent news (USA Today) that the company willingly turned over the phone call records of millions of citizens to the National Security Agency who requested the information without a legal warrant. The NSA is now in possession of what one employee described as the 'biggest database ever built'.

Yet another compelling reason why the current telcom legislation (COPE HR.5252 and S. 2686) should be stalled and stopped

from: USA Today

Cable firms: Law protects customers
Updated 5/11/2006 11:26 PM ET
By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Leading cable operators say a 1984 federal law would stop them from handing customer calling records to the National Security Agency the way AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have, as reported Thursday in USA TODAY.

from USA Today

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.