| E-Government Act |
5/1. Sen. Joe
Lieberman (D-CT), Sen.
Conrad Burns (R-MT), and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT)
introduced a bill in the Senate titled the E-Government
Act of 2001 [94 pages in PDF]. Sen. Lieberman stated that
"What our bill tries to do is put information technology
to work to overcome arbitrary or jurisdictional boundaries so
that we can provide the public with seamless, secure online
services. We focus on delivering services and information to
the citizen, organized according to the citizen’s needs. To
do this, we will need leadership and coordination between
agency decision-makers. We are calling for a Federal Chief
Information Officer, to be located in the Office of
Management and Budget ..." See Lieberman's statement
and summary
of the bill.
Ari Schwartz of the Center for
Democracy and Technology praised the bill. He stated that
"this is the first bill ever to comprehensively require
the federal government to use the Internet to serve
citizens." Robert Atkinson, VP of the Progressive Policy Institute,
a Democratic think tank, also commended the bill: "The
E-government Act of 2001 will enable the federal government to
make a quantum leap toward an electronic, customer-centric
government of the 21st century." See, PPI release.
Microsoft also praised the bill. See, release. |
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| Blumenthal v. Drudge &
AOL |
| 5/1. Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton aide, and Matt Drudge, an
Internet journalist, settled the lawsuit, Blumenthal
v. Drudge and AOL, which has been languishing
with little action for years in the U.S. District Court (DDC).
Under the terms of the settlement, Blumenthal will pay $2,500
to Drudge. Blumenthal and his wife sued Drudge alleging
defamation for a story
that Drudge published about Blumenthal which quoted an
anonymous source as saying that Blumenthal had abused his
wife. Drudge also issued a retraction.
The Blumenthals demanded $30,000,001 in damages on each of 21
counts. Blumenthal also named AOL as a defendant, alleging
that it was liable for Drudge's alleged defamation, because
Drudge also published his story on AOL. AOL was dismissed from
the suit in 1998, pursuant to Section
230 of the Telecom Act of 1996 , which bars claims against
"interactive computer services" for
"information provided by another content provider".
Judge Friedman's opinion
is one of the leading precedents on the immunity of
interactive computer services. Blumenthal did not appeal the
dismissal of AOL. See also, TLJ
case summary. |
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| Commerce Dept. Budget |
| 5/1. The Senate
Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce,
Justice, State, and the Judiciary held a hearing on the Department
of Commerce FY 2002 budget. Donald Evans, Secretary of
Commerce, addressed funding for several tech related offices,
including the USPTO, NTIA,
and BXA, in
his prepared
testimony. He stated that the USPTO "requests a total
program level of $1,139 million, a $100 million increase to
manage its growing workload." He stated that the NTIA
"requests $73.0 million. This includes a program increase
of $2.1 million for the Radio Spectrum Measurement van and
suitcase necessary for NTIA's analysis of critical new
wireless technologies. We are requesting a decrease of $30
million in the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), for a
total request of $15.5 million. This funding will enable NTIA
to support approximately thirty new grants to under-served
communities to demonstrate innovative uses of emerging
information technologies." He also said that the
"Bureau of Export Administration requests $68.9 million
in FY 2002. This request includes a program increase of $1.6
million for the redesign and replacement of the Export Control
Automated Support System, which will enable better and faster
decisions on license applications to accelerate U.S.
competitiveness in global markets. An increase of $0.5 million
is also requested to achieve efficiencies in processing export
licenses." |
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| Antitrust |
5/1. Bertelsmann
and EMI announced that
they will not merge, citing government regulatory obstacles as
one reason. Bertelsmann stated that "After intensive
exploratory talks, Britain's EMI Group plc and Bertelsmann AG
have decided not to continue the negotiations about merging
their music businesses. The companies have mutually concluded
that the regulatory hurdles Brussels and Washington would most
likely impose on an EMI/Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) merger
would require a complicated, lengthy investigation and
approval procedure. Also, preliminary talks indicated that
there would be significant stipulations, which might have
called the project’s economic viability into question."
See, release.
5/1. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (5thCir) issued its opinion
in Bennett
v. Yamaha, an antitrust case involving
allegations of violation of the Sherman Act in connection with
resale price maintenance, advertising programs, and
monopolization in the sale of Yamaha personal watercraft. The
District Court held in favor of defendants on all counts. The
Court of Appeals affirmed. |
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| New Documents |
Lieberman:
E-Government
Act of 2001, 5/1 (PDF, GovAffComm).
USCA:
opinion
in S Industries v. Centra 2000 re trademark infringement, 5/1
(HTML, USCA).
USCA:
opinion
in Bennett v. Yamaha re antitrust, 5/1 (HTML, USCA).
GAO:
report
re Clinton White mismanagement of e-mail records, 5/1 (PDF,
GAO). |
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| Tauzin Dingell Bill |
5/1. HR
1542, the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of
2001, sponsored by Rep.
Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and Rep. John Dingell
(D-MI), has not proceeded to markup by the full House Commerce Committee.
Last week, on short notice, the Commerce Committee held a
hearing on the bill, and its Telecom Subcommittee marked up
the bill. Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI)
stated at the mark up session that the full committee markup
would take place on Wednesday, May 2.
Rep. James
Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, wrote a letter to House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL)
asserting that the Judiciary Committee also has jurisdiction
over HR 1542, on the basis that it deals with the regulation
of monopoly power, a subject which lies within his Committee's
jurisdiction. Also, Rep.
John Conyers (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House
Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Chris Cannon
(R-UT), another member of the Committee, announced that they
plan to introduce a bill on the same topic.
Meanwhile, the Senate
Judiciary Committee's Antitrust, Business Rights, and
Competition Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on the
implementation of the Telecommunications Act and its impact on
competition for Wednesday, May 2, at 2:00 PM. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH)
and Sen. Herb Kohl
(D-WI) are the Chairman and ranking Democrat.
The House Commerce Committee released a copy of an April 25 letter
from Robert Sachs, P/CEO of the NCTA,
to Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and other members of the House
Commerce Committee, stating that his group does not oppose HR
1542. However, the NCTA, which represents the cable industry,
"would strongly oppose efforts to classify cable Internet
services as telecommunications services or otherwise extend
common carrier-like regulation, including mandatory access
requirements, to cable Internet services and facilities." |
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|
| Trademark |
| 5/1. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (7thCir) issued its opinion
in S
Industries v. Centra 2000, a case regarding
attorneys fees in trademark infringement cases. S Industries
filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (NDIll)
alleging, among other things, that Centra 2000, a producer of
data management software, infringed its "Sentra"
trademark in violation of the Lanham Act. S Industries did not
hold a federal registration for the "Sentra" mark
for use on computer hardware or software. The District Court
held that the claim was unfounded, and eventually awarded
$136,803 in attorneys fees. The District Court based this
award on S Industries' unfounded claims, and procedural
maneuvering, including frivolous and dilatory tactics, that
increased the cost of defending the suit. The Appeals Court
affirmed. |
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| GAO Reports |
5/1. The GAO
released a report
[PDF] titled "Computer-Based Patient Records; Better
Planning and Oversight by VA, DOD, and IHS Would Enhance
Health Data Sharing."
5/1. The GAO
released a report
[PDF] titled "Electronic Records: Clinton
Administration's Management of Executive Office of the
President's E-Mail System." |
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| Nominations |
| 5/1. The Senate
Finance Committee unanimously approved several
nominations, including Kenneth Dam to be Deputy
Secretary of the Treasury, John Taylor to be Under
Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, David
Aufhauser to be General Counsel of the Department of
Treasury, and Grant Aldonas to be Under Secretary of
Commerce for International Trade. See, release
[PDF]. |
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| PRC Trade |
| 5/1. James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East
Asian and Pacific Affairs, testified to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee's Subcommittee on East Asia and
Pacific Affairs regarding trade with the People's Republic of
China. He stated in his prepared
testimony that "Our trade with China is in our
interest. That is not changed by the fact that trade also
happens to be good for China. As the President said to the
American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 5, the
marketplace promotes American values; trade encourages more
freedom and individual liberties. You can see that happening
today in China, where trade has led to greater openness and
fewer government controls on day-to-day life, particularly in
the coastal region most affected by international trade. We do
not claim that trade will remake China, but it helps. For
these reasons, as well as our economic interests, and to help
foster China's greater integration in the international
community of nations, we support China's WTO entry as soon as
China is ready to meet WTO standards. Taiwan is ready for
entry now, and we expect both to enter the WTO in close
proximity." |
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| NIPC Alert |
| 5/1. The FBI's National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) issued an alert
that it "has reliable information indicating a very
significant increase in attempts to exploit known weaknesses
in the lpd/LPRng and RPC daemons of Unix-based operating
systems." The alert adds that this "is consistent
with past activities involving the installation and operation
of the "mstream" Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
tool." |
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| Freeh to Leave FBI |
| 5/1. FBI Director Louis Freeh announced that he will retire
from the FBI in June. Freeh released a statement
in which he thanked various individuals and entities, and
reviewed the recent accomplishments of the FBI. For example,
he stated that "We have received the human, technical,
and financial resources needed to keep the FBI at the cutting
edge of investigations, particularly in the rapidly evolving
area of cyber-crime. Over the nearly eight years that I
have been Director, Congress has increased the FBI's budget by
more than $1.27 billion to the 2001 Budget Appropriation level
of $3.44 billion. That is a 58% increase over 1993's budget.
At the same time, we have benefitted from laws that have
strengthened our crime-fighting abilities, including the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act ..." He also
thanked former President Clinton for appointing him, and
President Bush for asking him to continue as Director of the
FBI. He also stated that Bush "brought great honor and
integrity to the Oval Office." He did not say what
Clinton brought to Oval Office. |
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| DeCSS and DMCA |
| 5/1. The U.S. Court of Appeals (2ndCir) heard oral argument
in Universal
Studios v. Remeirdes, a case involving DeCSS
and the DMCA. This is an appeal of the Final
Judgment of the U.S. District Court (SDNY),
Judge Lewis Kaplan presiding, enjoining the publication on web
sites of any computer program that may be used to decrypt or
unscramble the contents of digital versatile discs (DVDs) that
are protected by the Contents Scramble System (CSS). The
District Court Opinion
[98 pages in PDF] applied the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA). The appellants argue that the DMCA, as applied to
computer code, violates the First Amendment. |
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| Today |
10:00 AM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on nomination of Charles
James to be an Assistant Attorney General. If confirmed by
the Senate, he will oversee the Antitrust Division of the
Department of Justice (DOJ). He will have major responsibility
for determining whether or how to proceed with the
government's antitrust case against Microsoft. Location: Room
226, Dirksen Senate Office Building.
10:00 AM. The Senate Appropriations Committee's Legislative
Branch Subcommittee will hold a hearing on proposed budget
estimates for FY 2001 for the Library of Congress,
Joint Economic Committee, Joint Tax Committee, and the
Congressional Research Service. Location: Room 128, Dirksen
Senate Office Building.
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM. The National Academies' Computer Science
& Telecommunications Board and the FCC's Office of Engineering and
Technology will host a tutorial titled Internet's
Coming of Age. Location: Room TW-C305 (Commission Meeting
Room), FCC, Portals II, Washington DC.
12:15 PM. The Federal
Communications Bar Association's Telecommunications
Competition Issues Committee will host a brown bag lunch. Peter
Tenhula, Senior Legal Advisor to Chairman Powell, will
speak on the FCC's approach to merger reviews under the
public interest standard. Location: CTIA, Conference Center,
1250 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington DC.
2:00 - 4:00 PM. The House
Science Committee's Subcommittee on Research will hold a
hearing titled Improving Math and Science Education so that
No Child is Left Behind. Room 2318, Rayburn House Office
Building.
2:00 PM. The Senate
Judiciary Committee's Antitrust, Business Rights, and
Competition Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the
implementation of the Telecommunications Act and its impact on
competition in the industry. Location: Room 226, Dirksen
Senate Office Building.
3:00 PM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Courts, the
Internet, and Intellectual Property will hold an oversight
hearing on the U.S.
Copyright Office. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn House
Office Building. |
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| Internet Crime |
| 4/30. Edwin Saleh plead guilty in U.S. District Court (CDCal)
to one count of using the Internet to attempt to induce a
minor to engage in criminal sezual activity, and one count of
possession of child pormography.
Saleh was arrested following IRC and e-mail communications
with an undercover officer posing as a teenage girl. Law
enforcement authorities then obtained and executed a search
warrant at Saleh's residence. They found computer discs that
contained pictures of minors. See, release. |
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