CBP has posted an updated version of its guidance on the Automated Commercial Environment update deployed on February 2, 2008 that enabled electronic in-bond requests filed via the Automated Broker Interface message QP to update a shipment record that is reported in a truck ACE e-Manifest with a shipment release type of Pre-Arrival Processing System (PAPS).
The Entertainment Software Association Monday lauded efforts by Paraguay’s Specialized Technical Unit and its Intellectual Property Rights Prosecutor to fight game piracy. The authorities there seized 27 suitcases holding 50,000-plus pirate game software discs. The agents confiscated the bags from a plane landing at Asuncion, Paraguay, from Dubai, making one arrest, ESA said. ESA set up a Paraguayan anti- piracy program “specifically to support local efforts to address the traffic of pirated products through the country,” said ESA CEO Michael Gallagher. Suspect Ali Hani Zeineddine was charged with criminal copyright and trademark infringement, ESA said. Seized discs included such PS2 and Xbox 360 games as Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, FIFA Street II, Call of Duty 3 and 4, Midnight Club 3, Crash of the Titans and Ratatouille, it said.
ISuppli cut its 2008 global revenue forecast for NAND flash memory to a single-digit rise from a 27 percent jump because Apple shrank orders for iPod key memory components. Apple’s flash purchases were seen as rising 32 percent this year, increasing NAND chip sales, iSuppli said. Last year Apple spending on memory for CE devices was $1.2 billion, 13.1 percent of the world market, the research firm said. Samsung, a major NAND supplier for Apple’s iPod, has scrambled lately to land more customers for its chips (CED Jan 30 p5). These include Kingston Technology, said to be buying 8 GB-equivalent flash memory. When Apple downscaled NAND purchases in 2006, a supply glut send prices down 70 percent-plus between January and September, analysts have said. Since November 2006 prices have tumbled 40 to 50 percent, analysts said. As a result of Apple’s decision, 2008 NAND revenues will rise “marginally” over last year’s $13.9 billion, iSuppli said. NAND revenue grew 12.5 percent last year over 2006, the firm said. Capital spending on NAND production is expected to jump 20 percent this year, likely meaning price drops, iSuppli said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a fact sheet on its scheduled fall 2008 introduction of Automated Commercial Environment Rail and Sea electronic manifest (e-Manifest)1 for advance cargo information purposes.
The FCC should reject a proposal by Alaska’s General Communications Inc. (GCI) for a Tribal and Native Alaskan carve-out from any cap on high cost Universal Service Fund support for competitive eligible telecommunications carriers (CETCs), the Rural Telecommunications Group said. “The GCI carve-out exempts the entire state of Alaska from any CETC cap since the total state is considered Tribal land,” RTG said: “Even urban Anchorage would be covered by the exemption… GCI’s supposedly ‘limited, competitively neutral exclusion’ is anything but… and would harm small, rural carriers that provide universal service in some of the most high cost areas of the Nation, including Alaska.”
Land-, air-, sea-, and space-based sensors confirmed that a U.S. navy rocket knocked out a disabled National Reconnaissance Office satellite headed for Earth, said Ambassador Christina Rocca, U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament. The interceptor hit the satellite about 153 miles over the Pacific Ocean as it traveled in space at more than 17,000 mph.
House Republicans are lining up behind a bill (HR-5440) that would give phone companies retroactive immunity for electronic surveillance done at the Bush administration’s request. House Democratic leaders aren’t ready to adopt the bill, the companion to a measure the Senate passed in December. Bipartisan talks are seeking a compromise between S-2248 and the bill (HR-3773) the House passed 227-189 in November, said a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
House Republicans are lining up behind a bill (HR-5440) that would give telcos retroactive immunity for electronic surveillance done at the Bush administration’s request. House Democratic leaders aren’t ready to adopt the bill, the companion to a measure the Senate passed in December. Bipartisan talks are seeking a compromise between S-2248 and the bill (HR-3773) the House passed 227-189 in November, said a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
STANFORD, Calif.-- A conference to develop copyright ground rules for archiving virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life is in the works by a new preservation project financed by the Library of Congress, a leader said. But Brewster Kahle, co-founder and director of the Internet Archive, said Sunday at the Metaverse U conference that he opposes the project’s approach on rights. The sponsors of the conference included Cisco Systems and the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a news release announcing that beginning April 1, 2008, new applicants for the southern border Free and Secure Trade Commercial Driver Program will be permitted to enroll online via CBP's Web site.