| Universal Service |
| 3/22. Rep. Nathan Deal
(R-GA) introduced HR
1171, the Universal Service Support Act, a bill to repeal
caps on high-cost universal service support. The bill would
amend Section
254 of the Communications Act of 1934 by adding a new
subsection that would render the FCC's regulations
setting caps and limitations on universal service ineffective.
Sen. Conrad Burns
(R-MT) introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S 500,
on March 8. See also, Burns release of
Mar. 9. |
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| More Bills |
3/22. Rep. Tammy
Baldwin (D-WI) introduced HR 1160, a bill to terminate
operation of the Extremely Low Frequency Communication System
of the Navy. The bill was referred to the Armed Services
Committee.
3/22. Rep. Ken Lucas
(D-KY) introduced HR 1188, a bill to encourage the use of
technology in the classroom. The bill was referred to the
Education and Workforce Committee and the Ways and Means
Committee. |
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| Securities Class Actions |
3/23. A Florence Foster filed a complaint
[PDF] in U.S. District Court (MDFl)
against Pinnacle Holdings and three of its officers
and directors alleging violation of federal
securities laws. Plaintiff, who is represented by the law firm
of Milberg Weiss, and
others, seeks class action status. Count I alleges violation
of § 10b
of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, by all
defendants. Count II alleges violation of § 20(a)
of the Exchange Act by the individual defendants (controlling
person liability). Pinnacle
Towers, of Sarasota, Florida, is a provider of tower and
rooftop antenna site space for wireless communications.
Milberg Weiss is a law firm that specializes in bringing class
action securities suits against technology companies when
their stock prices drop.
3/23. The Teachers' Retirement System of Louisiana filed a
complaint in U.S. District Court (SDCal)
against Gateway and one
of its former officers alleging violation of federal
securities laws. Plaintiff, which is represented by the law
firm of Berstein
Litowitz, seeks class action status. Gateway is a leading
producer of desktop PCs, laptops, network servers, and
peripherals. |
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|
| New Documents |
Roberts:
S
599, re fast track trade negotiating authority, 3/22
(HTML, LibCong).
Deal:
HR
1171 re universal service support caps, 3/22 (HTML,
LibCong).
Milberg:
complaint
against Pinnacle, 3/23 (PDF, Milberg).
NIPC:
advisory
re Lion worm, 3/23 (HTML, NIPC).
NIPC:
advisory
re theft of VeriSign Microsoft digital certificates, 3/23
(HTML, NIPC). |
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| IP News |
3/23. Cisco announced
that it has settled the patent litigation brought
against it by Visual Interactive Phone Concepts, Inc., the
exclusive licensor to HandTrade.
Cisco entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement as part
of the settlement. Cisco also stated that the licensed patents
cover systems for conducting transactions using video-enabled
wired and wireless phones, and that all claims against Cisco
have been dismissed. See, Cisco release.
3/21. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion in Kroll
v. Finnerty, an attorney misconduct case that
concerns the scope of federal patent jurisdiction. Kroll
is an attorney licensed to practice in New York State, and is
registered to practice as a patent attorney before the USPTO.
The New York Grievance Committee initiated disciplinary action
against him in response to grievances filed by three of his
clients regarding his prosecution of patents on their behalf.
Kroll then filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (EDNY)
asserting that federal patent law preempts the disciplinary
action. The District Court granted summary judgment to
Finnerty, counsel for the grievance committee. Kroll appealed.
The Court of appeals agreed that there is no preemption, but
also found that the complaint was "absolutely devoid of
merit." Hence, it vacated the summary judgment, and
remanded with instructions to dismiss for lack of
jurisdiction.
3/23. A Jillann Reeves was charged by criminal complaint in
the U.S. District Court (WDWash)
with criminal copyright infringement, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 2319 and 17 U.S.C. § 506(a)(1).
Defendant copied of over 2,000 Sony PlayStation, Gameboy, and
Nintendo games, and over 140 movies, and sold them over the
Internet. See, release. |
|
|
| Computer Crime |
3/23. The FBI's NIPC
issued an advisory
in which it stated that it has "received reports of an
Internet worm named 'Lion' that is infecting computers and
installing distributed denial of service (DDOS) tools on
various computer systems. Illegal activity of this nature
typically is designed to create large networks of hosts
capable of launching coordinated packet flooding denial of
service attacks." The NIPC issues three levels of
warnings: assessments, advisories, and alerts. Advisories are
of the middle level of importance.
3/23. The FBI's NIPC
issued an advisory
regarding the warnings issued by Microsoft and VeriSign about
the theft of two VeriSign Class 3 Software Publisher digital
certificates. The certificates are dated January 29 and 30,
2001. The NIPC stated that "this incident poses a
significant security threat because an unauthorized user of
these certificates could misrepresent malicious software as an
authentic Microsoft product. These include, for example,
programs, updates, patches, macros, and other downloads
available over the Internet. The NIPC is advising all Internet
users to manually approve all certificates until a patch is
available and installed, which is currently under development
by Microsoft." See also, VeriSign
Alert and Microsoft
Security Bulletin.
3/15. A U.S. District Court (CDCal)
jury found a Jamie Newburn guilty of two felonies related to
arranging criminal acts with a minor over the Internet. He was
found guilty of one count of interstate travel with the intent
to engage in criminal sezual activity and one count of using
of a facility of interstate commerce (the Internet) to attempt
to induce a minor to engage in criminal sezual activity.
Newburn was arrested by a Ventura County Sheriff's Deputy who
observed the minor walking at about midnight towards Newburn's
motel. See, release.
Editor's Note: Tech Law Journal's Daily E-Mail Alert
has been blocked by some mail servers as a result of news
stories which reference either indecency or network security.
Hence, TLJ intentionally misspells words which have caused
e-mail blocking in the past. |
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| People |
3/19. Andrew
Velcoff joined the Atlanta office of the law firm of Greenberg Traurig as a
shareholder in the firm's entertainment practice. He will
focus on entertainment, intellectual property and media law.
He was previously SVP of legal and business affairs for Turner
Entertainment Group. See, release.
3/16. Sarah Kirk joined the London office of the law
firm of Arnold &
Porter in the Intellectual Property and Technology
section. She focuses on commercial IP/IT agreements, including
those related to e-commerce, data protection, outsourcing and
corporate deal support. She previously worked at Nicholson Graham & Jones
in London. See, release. |
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| Today |
10:00 AM. The Senate resumes consideration of S
27, the campaign bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
The Senate is scheduled to spend all week on this bill, again.
2:00 PM. The House meets in pro forma session.
March 26-30. The National
Telephone Cooperative Association will hold its Annual
Legislative Conference. Location: Hyatt Regency Washington,
400 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington DC. |
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