October 18, 2000

H-1B First Step in Immigration Reform
Another Fix for Loan-Addicted Countries
MP3.com May Reach Settlement in Suit

H-1B First Step in Immigration Reform

President Clinton today signed into law legislation increasing the number of visas available for skilled foreign workers, handing a victory to high-tech companies desperate for computer-savvy employees, according to Reuters.

Overwhelmingly approved by Congress earlier this month, the new law will increase the number of H-1B temporary visas available for high-tech workers from India and other countries and double the fee charged to employers using the program.

However, the White House expressed disappointment that the bill did not include broader immigration amendments to grant amnesty to some long-term illegal aliens and to address the legal status of immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti and Liberia.

In the Cato Handbook for Congress, Daniel Griswold and Stephen Moore call for easing immigration laws and expanding quotas for immigrant workers. In "Keep Giving Us Your Best and Your Brightest," Moore argues that "immigrants are generally assets to our economy and our culture." In "H-1B Straightjacket: Why Congress Should Repeal the Cap," Suzette Brooks Masters and Ted Ruthizer explain that "fears that [skilled immigrant] workers cause unemployment and depress wages are unfounded."

Another Fix for Loan-Addicted Countries

Congressional leaders said today that they planned to grant President Clinton all the money he had sought to forgive debts of the world's poorest nations this year, a victory for a coalition of rock stars, religious figures and charity groups that have made debt forgiveness a moral touchstone for wealthy nations, according to The New York Times.

The agreement to allot $435 million for the United States' share of a global debt relief initiative this year, though still subject to final approval in both the House and the Senate, is a sign that street protests and parish activism about globalization have had an impact on Congress.

In "Shell Games Won't Help Africa," Director of the Project on Global Economic Liberty Ian Vasquez explains that the "need" for debt forgiveness is a testament to the fact that loans have not worked. He writes that loans have "subsidized regimes whose policies have destroyed their national economies." In "Debt and Dependency Are the IMF's Legacy," Senior Fellow Doug Bandow writes that international lending "failed to promote self-sustaining economic growth anywhere in the world. Instead, it has left debt and dependency in its wake."

MP3.com May Reach Settlement in Suit

Online music company MP3.com Inc. said today it would pay up to $30 million to music publishers in a preliminary pact that would give it the right to use more than 1 million songs as part of its Internet-based service, according to Reuters.

Under the terms of the deal, trade group National Music Publishers' Association and its licensing subsidiary Harry Fox Agency, will allow the songs to be used as part of a service called My.MP3.com, which allows users to store music digitally and then access it via any computer.

A U.S. District Court ruled in April that MP3.com broke copyright law by creating the database. Since then MP3.com has settled with four of the five major labels: Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Brothers music group, Sony Music Entertainment, BMG, the music unit of Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group Plc.

MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson will be the keynote speaker at this year's Cato/Forbes ASAP Technology and Society conference, "The New Entertainment Era: The Convergence of Technology and Entertainment." Robertson, along with Playboy.com CEO Christie Hefner, Global Crossing CEO Leo Hindery and many other speakers will discuss the future of music, movies, entertainment networks, software, television, games and other emerging entertainment media. More information on the conference can be found at the Cato Web site.

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