| CDT Criticizes Anti Spam
Bills |
| 6/1. The Center for Democracy
and Technology (CDT) issued a report
criticizing the version of HR 718 that was adopted by the
House Judiciary Committee on May 24. HR
718, the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act of
2001, was introduced by Rep.
Heather Wilson (R-NM), Rep. Gene Green (D-TX)
and others on February 14. It was amended by the House Telecom
Subcommittee, and again by the full House Commerce Committee.
The version approved by the House Judiciary
Committee is substantially different. It includes an amendment
offered by Rep. Melissa
Hart (R-PA) that would require that senders of unsolicited
commercial e-mail to label all e-mail containing sexually
oriented material. The CDT report states that the Hart
amendment "would set a terrible precedent. It is
fundamentally distinct from the requirement prohibiting false
header information, which applies to all commercial email,
regardless of content and which is subject to objective
determination. In contrast, mandatory content labeling is a
form of forced speech, which is as offensive to the
Constitution as forced silence. And deciding when something is
properly labeled or not involves the government directly in
the type of picking and choosing among otherwise legal content
that is also incompatible with the First Amendment." The
CDT report also supports "anti-spoofing provisions",
which are in both the Commerce and Judiciary versions of the
bill, but not the criminal penalties. The CDT report also
opposes "federalization of ISP terms of service",
which is in the Commerce version. |
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|
| DC Circuit Affirms FCC in
CNM v. FCC |
| 6/1. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (DCCir) issued its opinion
in Coalition
for Noncommercial Media v. FCC, a petition for
review of the FCC's order swapping the status of two
television channels licensed to the Western New York Public
Broadcasting Association. The petition was denied. |
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| People and Appointments |
5/21. The USPTO
named Douglas Bourgeois its new Chief Information
Officer. Before joining the federal service and USPTO,
Bourgeois was the Managing Director of Customer Service
Technology at Federal Express. He has also worked as an
engineer and program manager of aerodynamic testing at Allied
Signal Aerospace Company. See, release.
6/1. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft appointed Patrick
O'Toole interim United States Attorney for the Southern
District of California. He succeeds Gregory Vega who
resigned effective May 31. O'Toole has been with the United
States Attorney's office in San Diego since 1982. See, release.
6/1. The World Intellectual
Property Organization's Coordination Committee approved
proposals by Director General Kamil Idris to appoint two new
Deputy Directors General and extend the mandates of two
current Deputy Directors General and two Assistant Directors
General. The Committee supported the nominations of Ambassador
Philippe Petit of France and Ambassador Rita Hayes
of the U.S. to the posts of Deputy Director General. The
Committee also extended the mandates of Roberto Castelo
of Brazil and Shozo Uemura of Japan. The Committee also
extended the terms of Francis Gurry of Australia and Geoffrey
Yu of Singapore as Assistant Directors General. See, release. |
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|
| Normal Trade Relations
Status for the PRC |
| 6/1. President Bush notified the Congress of his intent to
extend Normal Trade Relations status to the People's Republic
of China. Also, Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote that
"The president's action is necessary despite passage of
legislation last October to give permanent normal trade
relations status to China, because China must accede to the
World Trade Organization before permanent status takes effect.
That accession has not yet happened, though negotiators from
many countries are hard at work on it right now." See, Powell
statement. Bush also released a statement
in which he said that "Normal Trade Relations status is
important if we are to promote American values of transparency
and accountability and ensure that the Chinese government
adheres to the rule of law in its dealings with its own people
as well as with the international community." See also,
Bush's letter
to Congress, and memorandum
of Secretary of State Powell. |
|
|
| New Documents |
USCA: opinion
in Clicks Billiards v. Sixshooters, a trade dress
infringement, 6/1 (PDF, USCA).
USCA:
opinion
in Coalition for Noncommercial Media v. FCC, 6/1 (HTML, USCA). |
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|
| McCormick Picked to Head
USTA |
| 6/1. The U.S. Telecom
Association (USTA), a trade association which represents
the baby Bell companies, named Walter McCormick to be
its new President and CEO. He replaces Gary Lytle, who had
briefly been Interim President and CEO following Roy Neel's
resignation. Neel, who is a longtime friend and advisor of Al
Gore, announced his departure after Gore lost the 2000
election. McCormick, in contrast, has Republican ties.
McCormick was previously President & CEO of the American Trucking
Associations. Prior to that he was a partner it the
Washington DC office of the law firm of Bryan Cave, where he was
head of the regulatory affairs group. Before that he was
General Counsel of the Transportation Department during the
Presidency of the elder George Bush. He served under
Transportation Secretary Andrew Card, who is now the younger
George Bush's Chief of Staff. And before that, he was on the
staff of the Senate
Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over
telecommunications issues, and oversees the FCC. He was the
General Counsel of the Commerce Committee in the 99th
Congress. The Democrats regained control of the Senate after
the 1986 elections. McCormick then became the Republican Staff
Director and Chief Counsel in the 100th, 101st, and 102nd
Congresses. The USTA is currently lobbying for passage of a
regulatory relief bill for the baby Bells sponsored by Reps.
Tauzin and Dingell, HR 1542. See, USTA
release. |
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|
| ITAA Opposes California
Discovery Bills |
| 6/1. The Information
Technology Association of America (ITAA) sent a letter [PDF]
to California State Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Senate
President Pro Tem John Burton opposing Assembly
Bill 36 and Senate
Bill 11. The letter states that "Simply by filing a
lawsuit, intellectual property, business plans, employee
emails, and medical records would be made public -- without a
requirement for evidence of wrongdoing. Trial lawyers are
proposing this self serving legislation under the guise of
consumer protection. However, this is nothing more than a
legal gimmick that will provide them more efficient ways to
force settlement and to line their pockets." ITAA
President Harris Miller stated in a separate release
that "The technology industry's most valued assets --
intellectual property and other proprietary information --
will disappear when disclosed to competitors and the public
under these bills. They are an attempt by certain California
lawyers to line their pockets by holding the high tech
industry hostage to frivolous claims and forcing fast
settlements rather than risk exposure of core business models
and ideas. It is the height of hypocrisy that they would push
this legislation under the guise of consumer protection." |
|
|
| PSINet Files Chapter 11
Petition |
| 6/1. PSINet filed a
Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court (SDNY).
In addition, four Canadian subsidiaries filed for protection
under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act statutes in the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice. See, release. |
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|
| CO Publishes Rule Changes |
| 6/1. The Copyright
Office of the Library of Congress published its final
regulations for filing a claim to royalties collected under
the cable statutory license, 17 U.S.C. § 111, and the
satellite statutory license, 17 U.S.C. § 119. Under the new
rules, a party who files a joint claim on behalf of multiple
copyright owners must list the name and address of each
copyright owner to the joint claim. The regulations take
effect on July 1, 2001. See, notice
in the Federal Register, June 1, 2001, Vol. 66, No. 106, at
Pages 29700 - 29704. See also, PDF
copy in Library of Congress web site. |
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|
| FEC Fines PACs |
| 6/1. The Federal Election
Commission (FEC), the agency responsible for enforcing
federal campaign finance law, assessed civil penalties against
33 entities for filing late reports during the 2000 election
cycle. It fined the E*Trade Group Inc. PAC $1,725 for filing a
late October Quarterly 2000 report. The FEC also fined the
Viacom International Inc PAC $800, and the Cincinnati Bell Inc
Federal Political Action Committee $425, for filing late their
October Quarterly 2000 reports. See, FEC release. |
|
|
| More News |
5/31. President Bush extended the life of the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee for two more years.
See, release.
6/1. The Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) approved a request for a special pay
scale by the USPTO
for patent examiner and patent examiner related positions.
See. USPTO
release.
5/31. Lynn Turner, Chief Accountant of the SEC
gave a speech
on revenue recognition. |
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|
| 9th Circuit Rules in Trade
Dress Case |
| 6/1. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (9thCir) issued its opinion
[PDF] in Clicks
Billiards v. Sixshooters, a trade dress
infringement case. Clicks Billiards is a Texas corporation
that operates a chain of billiards halls in the Southwest,
including two in Phoenix, Arizona. Sixshooters is an Arizona
corporation that hired a key employee of Billiards, and then
opened a single billiards hall in Phoenix modeled after
Clicks' halls. Clicks filed a complaint against Six in U.S.
District Court (DAriz)
under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq., alleging that
Six infringed its trade dress. The district court granted
summary judgment to Six, finding that Clicks had not presented
sufficient evidence to raise a triable issue of fact on the
basic trademark issues of functionality, secondary meaning,
and likelihood of confusion. The Appeals Court reversed and
remanded. |
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|
| Today |
Neither the House nor the Senate is in session.
8:00 -10:00 AM. The Electronic
Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Harvard Information
Infrastructure Project (HIIP) will host two panel
discussions. Registration begins at 8:00 AM. Opening addresses
by Deborah
Hurley (HIIP), Marc
Rotenberg (EPIC), and John Anderson begin at 8:15 AM. The
first panel, titled "The Internet and Jurisdiction",
begins at 8:30 AM. The second panel titled "Privacy and
Global Society", begins at 9:15 AM. Location: National
Press Club, First Amendment Lounge, 529 14th St. NW, 13th
Floor, Washington DC.
8:30 AM. The EPIC and HIIP will host an academic panel
discussion on jurisdictional questions brought about by
Internet commerce. The speakers will be:
• Julie
Cohen (Georgetown Univ. Law Center).
• Jamie
Boyle (Duke Univ. School of Law).
• Dave
Farber (Univ. of Pennsylvania).
• Michael
Geist (Univ. of Ottawa Law School).
• Pam
Samuelson (Univ. of California at Berkeley).
• Barbara Simons (Assoc. for Computing Machinery).
9:15 AM. The EPIC and HIIP will host an academic panel
discussion on the prospects for global privacy protection by
both legal and technological means. The speakers will be:
• Anita Castellitto (Univ. of Pennsylvania School of
Law).
• Simon Davies (Privacy International).
• Whitfield Diffie (Sun Microsystems).
• Oscar Gandy (Univ. of Pennsylvania).
• Austin Hill (Zero- Knowledge Systems).
• Robert Smith (Privacy Journal).
• Paul Schwartz (Brooklyn Law School).
9:30 AM - 12:00 NOON. The U.S. State Department's
International Telecommunication Advisory Committee (ITAC) --
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITAC-T) Study Group
A will meet. The purpose of the ITAC is to advise the State
Department on policy and technical issues with respect to the
International Telecommunication Union and international
telecommunication standardization and development. See, notice
in Federal Register, May 23, 2001, Vol. 66, No. 100, at Page
28591. |
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| Tuesday, June 5 |
The House will meet at 2:00 PM for legislative business. The
House is likely to consider several non technology related
matters under suspension of the rules.
The Senate will reconvene at 12:00 NOON.
1:00 - 3:00 PM. The American
Enterprise Institute will host a book event titled Privacy
in Perspective. The author and speaker will be Fred Cate,
an AEI Visiting Scholar and Indiana University Law School
professor. Location: American Enterprise Institute,
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, 1150 17th
Street, NW, Washington DC.
2:00 PM. The House
Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on HR
1542, the Tauzin Dingell bill. Location: Room 2141,
Rayburn Building.
Evening. The Intellectual
Property Owners Association (IPO) will hold its 28th
annual National Inventor of the Year Award ceremony on Capitol
Hill. The award will be presented by Rep. Howard Coble
(R-NC), chairman of the House Courts, Internet and
Intellectual Property Subcommittee. For information call the
IPO office at 202-466-2396. |
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