LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe

Search Terms: internet, sales, tax

Document 18 of 27.

July 31, 1999

SECTION: TECHNOLOGY; Pg. 2222; Vol. 31, No. 31

LENGTH: 603 words

HEADLINE: Playing Offense and Defense

BYLINE: Neil Munro

BODY:

Here are some of the policy areas involving AOL:

* Access charges. In 1997, the Federal Communications
Commission considered ending the regulatory arrangement that
subsidizes telephone charges incurred by at-home Internet users.
AOL and other Internet companies won, but only after a tooth-and-
nail fight against the well-established Bell companies. AOL
helped generate a petition of 400,000 e-mails sent to sympathetic
FCC commissioners. AOL's European subsidiary is lobbying European
governments to impose similar price caps on Internet calls--a
change that would help AOL compete against its European rivals.

* Online Taxes. In an alliance with New York City-based
stock firms and other high-tech companies, AOL pushed
aggressively throughout 1998 for a law barring the collection of
sales taxes on items bought via the Internet. Both Republicans
and Democrats supported the bill, despite bitter opposition from
state and local governments. The act imposed a three-year
moratorium on Internet sales taxes, pending the recommendations
of a 19-person commission. One of AOL Chairman Stephen M. Case's
deputies, Robert W. Pittman, AOL's president and chief operating
officer, serves on the commission, which is chaired by Virginia
Gov. James S. Gilmore III. The Governor was elected in 1997 on an
anti-tax platform and recently approved a state tax measure worth $18 million to AOL.

* Violence and the Internet. Just after the April 20
school shootings in Littleton, Colo., Case delivered a gift from
the online industry to the Clinton Administration--a new ''one-
click'' service offering parents the advice and software that
helps shield their children from online porn and violence. The
service had been designed during the previous few months by the
industry. AOL lobbyists told Vice President Al Gore's staff about
it, allowing him to announce on May 5 that the new service would
help worried parents find ways to protect their children from
violent and harmful Internet materials. The industry's desire to
reassure parents was again demonstrated on May 10 at a White
House summit on violence, where Case was seated beside President
Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. ''Steve very much
thought we should try to take the bull by the horns,'' said
Senior Vice President George Vradenburg III.

* Children and Privacy. AOL last year opposed a bill that
would have sharply curbed its collection of data about the
computer-using habits of kids and teenagers--what sites they
visit, what products they buy, where they live, etc. This
computerized data can be processed so as to subdivide consumers
into tiny market segments, providing valuable information for
outside advertisers. After months of debate, AOL signed on to a
privacy bill that restricts the collection of data about children
aged 12 and under because, said Vradenburg, kids under 13 are
''not necessarily aware of the consequences of their decisions.''

* Gambling. AOL and other online companies opposed a
Senate bill that would outlaw gambling over the Internet.
Although the bill has been revised to relieve AOL and other
online companies of liability when their subscribers gamble
online, AOL executives say they don't like it because it creates
national regulatory obstacles to AOL's unhindered Internet
commerce. Perhaps contradictorily, they also say they support
decisions by some cities to impose a patchwork of rules forcing
AT&T to share its cable TV networks with AOL.

LOAD-DATE: August 04, 1999

Document 18 of 27.


Search Terms: internet, sales, tax
To narrow your search, please enter a word or phrase: