Across the Nation

Ford prepares for congressional hearings

WASHINGTON - On the eve of congressional hearings into the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires, Ford Motor Co. released new documents yesterday to bolster its contention that it had no reason to doubt the safety of the tires being investigated in 88 deaths.

In a more than hour-long briefing with reporters, the automaker presented a packet of charts and correspondence with Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. to show that it repeatedly asked the tire maker to investigate reports of tread separation coming in from around the world.

Each time Bridgestone/Firestone insisted that there was no manufacturing defect with the tires and blamed performance problems on poorly maintained tires or other external factors, according to the documents. And data from Ford, Firestone and the federal government did not show a trend of defects, Ford said.

"I genuinely believe we can demonstrate to anyone that has the patience to sit and listen that we were not taking a see no evil, hear no evil approach," said Helen Petrauskas, Ford vice president of safety.

Ford eventually replaced the tires on its popular Explorer SUV and other vehicles in 16 foreign countries beginning in August 1999. Ford said it only went ahead with the recall because customers in those markets kept complaining that their tires were falling apart.

One year later after the federal government began investigating the tires, Bridgestone/Firestone recalled 6.5 million ATX, ATX II and Wilderness tires, but both companies say they still do not know what is causing the tread separation, blowouts and other defects that customers have reported.

Ruling on MP3.com lawsuit in sight

NEW YORK - The world's largest record company asked a judge yesterday to award it up to $450 million in damages from MP3.com for copyright infringements, an amount the Internet music company said would put it out of business.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who earlier this year determined MP3.com had violated copyright law by allowing people to store copied songs on its computers, said he would rule today on whether the company willfully infringed on Universal Music Group copyrights. If he finds the company did so intentionally, that could increase potential damages.

"An award should sting. It should be serious," said Hadrian Katz, Universal's lawyer. "Massive copyright infringement is the kind of innovation that needs to be deterred."

The nation's four other major record companies also sued but have since settled with San Diego-based MP3.com. The amount of the settlements were not disclosed, but the company recently set aside $150 million to cover its legal costs, including the deals.

A $450 million damages award would mean $45,000 for each of the 10,000 CDs Universal maintains were illegally copied and included in an MP3.com service that allowed MP3.com customers to access their favorite CDs on the Web, Katz said.

The lawyer said the award would hurt the Internet company but would not be so harsh that it "would put people out of work or end MP3.com as a corporation."

Michael Rhodes, MP3.com's lawyer, told the judge that a $400 million penalty "could never be satisfied" and that Universal did not deserve what he described as a windfall.

"There's not one iota of evidence that they even lost a penny," Rhodes said.

MP3.com caused a stir in January when it began the MyMP3.com listening service, which allows customers to hear CDs from anywhere once they prove they own them by inserting them into a computer.

Judge casts doubt on argument against Lee

NEW YORK - The federal judge handling the case of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee has raised serious questions about the strength of the prosecution's arguments.

In an Aug. 31 ruling made public over the Labor Day weekend, U.S. District Court Judge James Parker said new evidence makes the Taiwanese-American physicist's alleged security breaches "seem somewhat less troubling that they appeared to be" earlier.

"Dr. Lee's actions may not have been as surreptitious, clandestine and secretive as the government originally indicated," Parker wrote in the 17-page opinion, which concluded Lee should be released on $1 million bail pending his jury trial in November.

Lee, 60, fired last year from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has been jailed for eight months for copying nuclear data from the lab's classified computer system to his desktop computer and to portable tapes, seven of which are missing. Defense lawyers insist he destroyed the tapes but have not disclosed how, when or where.

Parker at first denied bail last December, saying Lee's actions were "of grave concern to national security." But he changed his mind after listening to conflicting testimony at another bail hearing last month. The government has appealed his decision to grant bail, and a higher court last week ordered Lee to remain in jail in Santa Fe until it can review the matter.

In his opinion, Parker said, expert witnesses disagree over the importance of the data that Lee downloaded from Los Alamos computers. "It is no longer indisputable, as the government made it appear in December 1999, that the missing tapes contain crown jewel information about the nation's nuclear weapons program," he wrote.