According to the quarterly Bellwether Report from the UK-based Institute of Practitioners in Advertis­ing, the direct marketing sector is showing its biggest decline in eight years. Budgets dropped 6.3% in the last quarter, the report said, spurred by weak sales and ongoing economic concerns.

The Do-Not-Call Fee Extension Act of 2007 has been enacted, setting the annual fees telemarketers will pay to access the registry in fiscal year 2009 at $54 for each area code of data accessed or $14,850 for access to every area code in the registry, whichever is less. More than 157 million phone numbers are currently enrolled in the National Do Not Call Registry.

The Federal Communications Commis­sion may amend its rules on how phone and cable companies can use customer information when competing for business. It is expected to look further into whether customer retention efforts between phone service and cable providers are pro- or anti-competitive.

A US District Court judge in Northern Illinois ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects Internet service providers from being held liable for mis­takenly blocking permission-based e-mail. Dave Linhardt, CEO of 360 Insight, lost a case, in which he accused broadband cable provider Comcast of unfairly blocking messages that he claimed were permission based. The judge ruled that Comcast had acted in good faith when it blocked e360's messages.

The US Postal Service has published its changes to Shipping Service standards in the Federal Register. They will take effect May 12. Express Mail prices will be zone-based prices, taking into account weight and distance. Priority Mail retail prices are increasing by 6%, while Parcel Select prices are increasing by 5.7% on average.

Charles Farrugia, a defendant in a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging a scam involving telemarket­ing lists and American businesses, has settled FTC charges for his role in the May 2006 Datacom Marketing case. Farrugia, who was acting as the corporate defendants' president when the case was filed, was added as a defendant in November 2006.

UPS lowered its first quarter earnings expectations to 86-87 cents per diluted share from a previously anticipated range of 94-98 cents. According to the company, lower volume trends were experienced and are expected to continue as a weak US economy causing a reduction in domestic package volume and a shift away from premium products.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau released digital video ad format guidelines for in-stream, overlay and video companion ads to simplify specs and make creative submissions more efficient. The guidelines deal with linear formats such as pre-, mid-, or post-roll ads, as well as non-linear units such as overlays or product placements. The trade group is seeking com­ment on the guidelines throughout this month.

Google, MySpace and Yahoo have partnered to create a nonprofit OpenSocial Foundation with the goal of supporting neutrality in the development of social network widgets. Google launched its OpenSocial network last November at a time when Web applica­tions on social networks such as Facebook were gaining popular­ity. In other news, Facebook suffered a security breach last week. Users' restricted photos were available for public viewing for about an hour.

EBay Inc. said last week it would cut 125 jobs in Europe and North America, including 70 positions at its headquarters in San Jose, CA. The online auction site said the cuts are aimed at streamlin­ing operations. It currently employs about 15,500 people.