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Lazio, Clinton Fundraise In High Tech
TechNet is scheduled to host a fundraiser for Rep. Rick Lazio, R-NY, on Sept. 7 in Silicon Valley. Lazio recently laid out his high-tech economic agenda which included a federal tax credit to make high-speed Internet access available in rural and underserved areas of New York and tax breaks to help parents defray education costs. On Sept. 9, in New York City at the Sky Studio, Silicon Alley companies will host a "Salute to the President" to benefit the Democrat's New York Senate 2000 committee. The president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is running for the Senate seat. Flatiron Partner's Jerry Colonna, NetCreations CEO Rosalind Resnick, Marvel Enterprises CEO Mark Petricof and DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan are among the hosts of the party, which requires a $1,000 donation to get into the cocktail reception and a $25,000 to attend the dinner following the reception. President Clinton is expected to arrive late at the cocktail reception and dine with those who could afford the $25K. TechNet also hosted a fundraiser for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-UT, on Sept. 1.
Privacy has shown up on the campaign trail in the Midwest. Illinois congressional candidate Mike Kellher, who is running for an open seat left by retiring Rep. Tom Ewing, R-IL, said that he wants companies to obtain permission before sharing consumer information with third parties or the federal government, according to the Bloomington Pantagraph. Democrat Kellher said in a speech to the Law and Justice Center in Bloomington, IL, that there is "a looming crisis for American consumers, and unless we act decisively to protect individual privacy, millions of people could become a victim."
The Wexler Group, which represents high-tech companies like domain name registrar Network Solutions Inc., has hired Adam Eisgrau, formerly legislative counsel for intellectual property issues at the American Library Association. Eisgrau previously served as Senate Judiciary Committee counsel to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, before heading to the American Library Association. Eisgrau will work in Wexler's practice on new economy issues, covering intellectual property, privacy and Internet taxes.
After eleven years at the Bond Market Association, Betsy Barclay will be opening the Arlington, VA, office of E-Trade, the online brokerage firm that offers securities to retail investors. Prior to heading government affairs at the BMA, Barclay was director of government relations for Times Mirror Co. Joining Barclay is Tara Wade, who also worked at the BMA.
Microsoft added to its stable of lobbying firms on retainer in Washington DC by hiring the Groom Law Group, according to lobbying registrations. Groom Law's Louis Mazawey and Michael Thrasher will be lobbying on legislation related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code.
On Aug. 28, the Congressional Internet Caucus hosted a briefing for Capitol Hill webmasters, where Microsoft's program manager for Web development, Dick Brown, discussed online accessibility tools. Others who briefed the webmasters included the National Federation for the Blind and the National Center for Access to the Media.
During a recent interview with Redherring.com, former Cisco Systems executive Don Listwin, who's now the boss over at the new entity formed by the merger of Phone.com and Software.com, said that even Cisco wasn't a fast-paced enough place for him. "On the Cisco side, I wasn't learning as much as I wanted to at the time, " Listwin told Redherring.com. Listwin commented that his next career goal was to be a CEO. "That would have taken a substantial amount of time at Cisco," he said. "This (his new job) was a great opportunity," he said. "This is a company that is just riding what I think is the next wave — the convergence of the Internet and the wireless revolution." Listwin also was asked about whether he knew what his ex-colleague Mario Mazzola would be doing at Cisco now that Mazzola isn't retiring. "Mario is a brilliant engineering leader, and Cisco shareholders should be thrilled that he's sticking around to work on technologies."
Former Oracle Chief Operating Officer Ray Lane has joined the Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Lane, 53, spent eight years at Oracle and is widely credited for restoring credibility with customers in the early 1990s. He said he had been contemplating a move into the venture capital field for a while. "I wanted to get more balance in my life because over the past 20 years, I’ve spent 70 percent of my life on airplanes," he told Reuters. Before Lane’s departure, Reuters reported, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison had become much more involved in the every day affairs of the company and eventually stripped Lane of most of his responsibilities.
John Schneidawind, BellSouth's director of media relations, is leaving the firm for a job as senior manager, national media relations, at KPMG Worldwide Consulting in McLean, VA.
The Summer Forty Niner, the California State University student newspaper, Long Beach, reported the week of Aug. 14 that an executive at Sony Pictures Entertainment said the music industry will "take aggressive steps" to bring down Napster if the courts don’t." It was reported that Sony Senior Vice President Steve Heckler said "the (music) industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect itself and protect its revenue streams. It will not lose that revenue stream, no matter what." But Sony spokesman Jerry Giaquinta told on Newsbytes Aug. 24 that Heckler’s remarks were taken out of context and "basically, we believe the story was totally inaccurate…Mr. Heckler was not speaking for Sony music or any other Sony company." Heckler reportedly made the remarks after a presentation at the Americas Conference on Information Systems 2000, which was sponsored by CSU, Long Beach. The Recording Industry Association of America is suing the online song-swapping company, Napster, for copyright infringement — a case now being considered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Michael Robertson’s purchase of domain name MP3.com from a man in 1997 may go down in dot-com history as the greatest speculative domain buy of all time — even though the online song-swapping company is currently embroiled in a copyright infringement lawsuit with the recording industry. But four businessmen are showing that the histories of European country domains —.de (Germany), .fr (France), .it (Italy) and .es (Spain) — are still being written. Those four businessmen, owners of mp3.de, mp3.it, mp3.fr and mp3.es, operate music sites at those addresses and have no relationship with the $500 million-market-cap MP3.com. As of the week of Aug. 25, however, they were connected with one another. The four have announced the formation of the "MP3 European Alliance," or MP3 EU, and registered the domain mp3eu.com, which they plan to use as a pan-European music catalog and search engine. And while they aren't ruling out a partnership with Robertson, each seems to feel that, at least in Europe, they can do him one better. "We expect to be the biggest community of mp3 in the world, with a customer base 400 million users," MP3.fr General Manager Gilles Babinet told The Industry Standard. "Since we have every MP3 name in Europe, we are stronger in terms of skills than Robertson."
President Clinton assistant Bob Nash says the administration would consider a recess appointment to keep Susan Ness on the Federal Communications Commission after Congress adjourns this fall, if her nomination dies in the Senate Commerce Committee, The Wall Street Journal reported. Committee Chairman John McCain, R-AZ, says commissioners should be limited to one term. The White House fears tie votes if FCC is left with four members, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. A recess appointment could keep Ness on the commission for most of next year, unless someone else is confirmed.
Juliana Gruenwald, a senior writer at National Journal's Technology Daily, has moved on to become the international editor for Interactive Week, where she'll get to spend some time at Euro Disney in between her frequent visits to Europe.
 | - by Bara Vaida and Liza Porteus. |
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