Oct. 3, 2000
7:45 AM ET.
Alert No. 33. |
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| News Briefs |
10/2. The House rejected HR
4049, the Privacy Commission Act, on a roll call vote of
250-146. The bill was considered under a suspension of the rules,
meaning that a 2/3 majority was required for passage. It fell 14
votes short. The bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Asa Hutchinson
(R-AR) and Rep. James Moran
(D-VA), would create a 17 member commission to study a broad range
of privacy issues, involving both the government and private sector,
and including medical and financial records. See, statement
by Rep. Hutchinson. A companion bill is pending in the Senate. The
Congress is on the verge of recessing.
10/2. The House Government
Reform Committee's Government Management, Information, and
Technology Subcommittee held a hearing titled "FirstGov.gov: Is
it a Good Idea?" The site is a portal for government
information. Its primary function is a search engine. Eric Brewer,
Chairman of the Federal Search Foundation (and co-founder of Inktomi)
stated that the site has indexed 27 Million documents in government
web sites. Witnesses from OMB and GSA praised the web site. The GAO
witness offered several criticisms: the site lacks adequate
security, the site can be used for malicious electronic searches,
and, there are questions about the relationship between the
government and private parties involved.
10/2. The Gartner Group
released the summary
of a study [PDF] regarding a "digital divide" which
found that 50% of U.S. households have Internet access. It also
projects that by 2005 75% of U.S. households will be connected. See,
release.
10/2. The U.S. Court of
Appeals (9th Cir.) heard oral argument in Napster
v. A&M Records. See also, statement of RIAA CEO Hillary Rosen.
10/2. Napster CEO Hank Barry
released a statement
about attempts to settle with record companies. "Napster has
made serious proposals to each of the major record companies and
their publishing affiliates that involve payments of substantial
percentages of expected company revenues to compensate artists and
rights holders - proposals whose most conservative estimates would
result in payments of over $500 million to the industry in just the
first year alone. Every one of these proposals has been rejected,
and the record companies have made no counterproposals. Just as we
will continue to press our case in court and on Capitol Hill, we
will continue to seek an agreement with the recording industry
because we believe that our 32,000,000 users deserve nothing
less."
10/2. The Supreme Court of
the U.S. denied the petition for writ
of certiorari in Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix.
See, S.C.U.S.
Docket No. 00-11. San Mateo, CA, based Connectix produces cross
platform technologies, including Virtual PC for Microsoft Windows,
Virtual PC for Red Hat Linux, and Virtual Game Station. Sony filed a
complaint in U.S. District Court in Jan. of 1999 alleging that the
Virtual Game Station, which allows users to run PlayStation games on
PCs, infringes Sony copyrights. The District Court issued a
preliminary injunction of sale of the Virtual Game Station. In Feb.
2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Cir.), issued it opinion
lifting the District Court injunction. [Appeal No. 99-15852.] Other
legal claims are also pending in the District Court. Sales of the
Virtual Game Station continue.
10/2. Former rivals Microsoft
and Corel announced a strategic
alliance. Microsoft has purchased 24 million non-voting convertible
preferred shares of Corel at a total purchase price of $135
Million. The companies will also work together to support the
development, testing and marketing of new products related to
Microsoft's .NET platform. Microsoft's and Corel's release
also referenced that "both companies have agreed to settle
certain legal issues between Corel and Microsoft", but
did not specify what the legal issues were, or how they were
settled.
10/2. The NIST
announced that its new Advanced Encryption
Standard will be Rijndael.
This is developed by Belgian cryptographers Joan
Daemen of Proton World International and Vincent
Rijmen of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The proposed selection
of Rijndael as the AES will be formally announced in the Federal
Register in several months, and then NIST will receive public
comments for 90 days. Under Sec. for Technology Cheryl Shavers said
in a statement
that "This is a proposed standard that will be used by federal
civilian agencies -- if adopted by the Secretary of Commerce after
the public comment process." She added that "those in the
private sector may use any encryption technique they choose."
See also, statement
by NIST Director Ray Kramer.
10/2. The EU and the USTR
reached an agreement regarding procedures for reviewing whether the Foreign
Sales Corporation (FSC) repeal and replacement legislation,
currently pending in Congress, is WTO consistent. See, EU
release and USTR
release. The FSC scheme allows a portion
of a U.S. taxpaying firm's foreign-source income to be exempt from
U.S. income tax. It benefits software companies, among others. The
EU filed a complaint about the FSC scheme with the WTO, alleging
that it is a prohibited export subsidy. A WTO dispute settlement
panel sided with the EU last fall, and the WTO Appellate Body upheld
its findings in February. The EU also objects to the pending
replacement bill, HR
4986, the "FSC Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion
Act of 2000", sponsored by Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX). For
background, see May 2, 2000 press briefings by Lamy and Eizenstat
and by Eizenstat
and Talisman.
10/2. The EPIC announced
that the FBI released 565 pages
from government files on the Internet monitoring program known as Carnivore,
in response to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and law
suit. EPIC filed a Complaint
in U.S. District Court (DC) on July 31 under the
FOIA to compel production of Carnivore records. EPIC noted in a release
that "Of the material released, nearly 200 pages were withheld
in full and another 400 pages were redacted, many completely except
for the page numbers. The source code to the Carnivore system was
withheld." EPIC Exec. Dir. Marc Rotenberg stated: "We
intend to pursue the litigation until the relevant documents are
disclosed." For background, see EPIC's Brief
in Support of Motion for TRO.
10/2. Commerce Sec. Norman Mineta gave a speech
to the NAM's "Get
Tech" event regarding high tech workers. He stated that
"the Commerce Department has
been focusing on ways to help industry meet the demand for
technology workers. We have held town meetings, worked with business
and community leaders, and tried to determine why more young people
aren't training for these good, high paying jobs. One of the most
important reasons given was this: students are not getting
information about new economy jobs early enough to effectively guide
their educational and career decisions."
10/2. Alan
Larson, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs gave a speech
at the "Net Diplomacy 2000 Conference on the Internet &
Diplomacy" in Washington DC. He stated: "If you look at
the websites of even some of the most major US e-commerce merchants
-- GAP.com, JCrew.com, Nike.com, Walmart.com and others -- you will
find that they are refusing to ship overseas. Shipping difficulties
and the magnitude and unpredictability of taxes and tariffs are
constraints on international e-commerce. ... A major international
effort must be made to help developing countries assess their
readiness for electronic commerce and to provide help to those who
wish to improve policies that are deficient." He offered
several recommendations, including: "competition in the
telecommunications market", "enable goods to move
efficiently through customs", adopt "open skies civil
aviation agreements", "open postal and delivery service
regimes to competition", and "examine the regulatory
environment".
10/2. ICANN
announed its review
procedure for applications for new TLDs. (The application
deadline was Oct. 2.)
10/2. Bill Clinton announced his intent to nominate Philip
Bredesen to the National
Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Bredesen is a
former Mayor of Nashville, TN. See, release.
9/30. California Gov. Gray Davis
signed AB
1767, sponsored by Assemblywoman
Charlene Zettel (R-Poway). This bill expands the computer and
high-tech equipment forfeiture statute to most crimes in which such
equipment could be used to commit the crime. It also provides for
forfeiture of computer equipment of parents where the defendant is a
minor, unless "the parent or guardian files a signed statement
with the court at least 10 days before the date set for the hearing
that the minor shall not have access to any computer or
telecommunications device owned by the parent or guardian for two
years after the date on which the minor is sentenced."
9/30. California Gov. Gray Davis
signed AB
2720, sponsored by Assemblyman
Keith Olberg (R-Victorville). This bill creates a Bipartisan
California Commission on Internet Political Practices to
examine issues posed by campaign activity on the Internet in
relation to the goals and purposes of the Political Reform Act of
1974, and to make recommendations for appropriate legislative
action. Compare, FEC
Notice of Inquiry Regarding Use of Internet for Campaign Activity
(Nov. 99).
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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| New Documents |
Calif: AB
1767 re expanding the computer and high-tech equipment
forfeiture statute, signed 9/30 (HTML, Cal.).
Calif: AB
2720 re creating a commission to study political activity on
the Internet, signed 9/30 (HTML, Cal.).
Larson:
Speech
re promoting electronic commerce around the world, 10/2 (HTML,
State).
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Calendar
(updated daily).
News
from Around the Web (updated daily).
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| Quote of the Day |
"It will not be possible to have a successful information
economy if governments attempt to suppress or control the flow of
information in their societies or between countries."
Alan Larson, Under Secretary of State
(source)
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