Environmental management is buffeted by conflicting demands, calling for either relaxation of environmental regulations or for increased effectiveness and overall performance. While seemingly dichotomous, these demands can be reconciled through alternative approaches to environmental management. Several of these approaches are discussed, focusing…

Compares state telecommunications regulatory policies and their potential impacts on the development of the physical infrastructure needed to support an information superhighway. Topics include federal telecommunications regulations, federal preemption of state regulations, and economic impacts of the development of the National Information…

This collection of 8 papers from the Seventeenth Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference includes: (1) "The Measurement, Evaluation, and Encouragement of Telephone Service Quality" (S. Berg and J. Lynch, Jr.); (2) "Impacts of Deregulation and Competition on the PBX/Centrex Market" (H. Ware); (3) "The…

This paper examines two issues in telecommunications policy in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has attempted to pursue policies that were distant from the policy desires of their supervising committees in Congress, and in which congressmen made use of various instruments of congressional influence: the FCC's attempt to…

There is significant interest in reforming retirement plans for public school employees, particularly in light of current market conditions. This paper presents an overview of the various types of state regulation of public pension plans that affect possibilities for reform. Several states have legal protections that effectively prevent a state…

This paper discusses the aspects of copyright law pertinent to World Wide Web users. Topics addressed include: the purpose of copyright law; what can be copyrighted, including categories that do not qualify for copyright protection; notice of copyright; copyright infringement; and the factors that determine fair use, (purpose and character of use,…

This paper presents an overview of copyright issues for research and teaching. The first section provides historical background from the origin of the concept of copyright in 1557 in Britain to the present. The second section looks at fair use, including parameters and guidelines for reproduction. The following sections discusses the Berne…

This discussion of the 1976 Copyright Law highlights the librarian's responsibility, guidelines for interlibrary loan copying published by National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works (CONTU) and the American Library Association Interlibrary Loan Committee, and nonprint materials and copyright. Thirteen references and an…

The late 1980s' resurgent appeal to public interest standards entails a misunderstanding of the real meaning of "public interest" and, whatever the merits of the critique of the deficiencies during the recent regulatory period, the standard still contains within it the seeds of its own compromise, if not destruction. Even among its…

Family impact analyses are focused on one basic question: What will a given law, policy or practice do to families? There are two major activities in the process of analyzing family impact that has been developed by participants in the Family Impact Seminar: the first involves figuring out exactly how a law, policy, or system under study actually…

In his paper, "European Needs and Attitudes towards Information Security," Richard I. Polis notes that the needs for security in computer systems, telecommunications, and media are rather uniform throughout Western Europe, and are seen as being significantly different from the needs in the United States. Recognition of these needs is,…

This is one of several papers presented at a Federal Trade Commission Symposium on Media Concentration. It describes one journalist's experience owning a free newspaper in the Richmond, Indiana, area and meeting competition when the local daily newspaper was purchased by a chain. It is suggested that methods of curtailing print competition in the…

Educational policy decisions are political and are affected by demographic, economic, and social factors that influence policy-makers. As the number of federal government programs grew from the 1960's to the 1980's, so did the number of special interest groups lobbying in Washington, District of Columbia, to promote legislation, regulations, and…

This conference presentation deals with legal and cultural concerns of having foreign students serve as interns at U.S. colleges and universities. The first issue discussed is whether the intern is to be paid, which requires compliance with many federal laws and regulations. Form I-9, the Employment Eligibility Verification Form, must be…

At the moment, most of Canada is faced with the problem of dealing with declining enrollments. This decline necessitates consideration of two major issues: the role of the educational system in Canadian society and the structure of educational governance in Canada. Although by law education is the prerogative of the provinces, the federal…