2/6. The Senate Commerce Committee announced that it will hold a hearing titled "Protecting Children from Violent and Indecent Programming" on Wednesday, February 11 at 9:30 AM.

The House Commerce Committee announced that on Wednesday, February 11, at 9:30 AM, its Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing on HR 3717, the "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004". Then, on Thursday, February 12, the Telecom Subcommittee will meet to mark up HR 3717.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and others, introduced HR 3717 on January 21, 2004. These are the Chairmen and ranking Democrats on the Telecom Subcommittee and the full House Commerce Committee.

This bill would amend 47 U.S.C. § 503(b)(2) to increase the maximum monetary penalties that the FCC can impose upon broadcasters for broadcasting obscene, indecent, or profane language. The bill would allow the FCC to impose a fine of up to $275,000 per violation, or each day of a continuing violation.

The bill provides, in part, that "if the violator is (i) a broadcast station licensee or permittee, or (ii) an applicant for any broadcast license, permit, certificate, or other instrument or authorization issued by the Commission, and the violator is determined by the Commission under paragraph (1) to have broadcast obscene, indecent, or profane language, the amount of any forfeiture penalty determined under this section shall not exceed $275,000 for each violation or each day of a continuing violation, except that the amount assessed for any continuing violation shall not exceed a total of $3,000,000 for any single act or failure to act."

Also on January 21, Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and others introduced HRes 500, a related resolution. HRes 500 expresses the sense of the House that the FCC "should vigorously enforce indecency and profanity laws pursuant to the intent of Congress in order to protect children in the United States from indecent and profane programming on broadcast television and radio." SRes 283, introduced on December 9, 2003 by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and others, is very similar, but not identical, to HRes 500.

See also, story titled "House Commerce Committee Takes Up Broadcast Indecency" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 824, January 27, 2004.

The House Commerce Committee's Telecom Subcommittee has already held one hearing. On January 28 it held a hearing titled "Can you say that on TV?': An Examination of the FCC's Enforcement with Respect to Broadcast Indecency".

The witnesses were David Solomon (Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau), Brent Bozell (President of Parents Television Council), Robert Corn-Revere (attorney with the law firm of Davis Wright & Tremaine), and William Wertz (EVP of Fairfield Broadcasting Company).

Solomon (at right) wrote in his prepared testimony that the FCC "has taken indecency enforcement very seriously". He added that "Chairman Powell has supported increasing by a factor of 10 the maximum statutory forfeiture amounts specified in the Communications Act for indecency and we hope Congress will enact such legislation."

Brent Bozell disagreed. He wrote in his prepared testimony that "looking at the FCC's track record on indecency enforcement, it becomes painfully apparent that the FCC could care less about community standards of decency or about protecting the innocence of young children."

William Wertz, a broadcaster, wrote in his prepared testimony [13 pages in PDF] that "It’s my hope that the Government would permit NAB to establish voluntary guidelines and allow it to create a self-enforcement division to administer obscenity/decency on Radio and TV and also that NAB would accept this responsibility."

Robert Corn-Revere, the devil's advocate, raised "some of the constitutional issues that arise from the FCC’s regulation of broadcast content" in his prepared testimony.

Since the Telecom Subcommittee's January 28 hearing, the FCC has opened another television broadcast indecency matter. On February 2 the FCC opened an investigation into the display of a woman's breast during the half time musical performance that was a part of the TV broadcast of a football game.

Chairman Powell stated that "I am outraged at what I saw during the halftime show of the Super Bowl. Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration. Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt. Our nation’s children, parents and citizens deserve better." See, statement.

The other Commissions all issued statements supporting the opening of an investigation. See, Kathleen Abernathy's statement [PDF]; Commissioner Kevin Martin's statement [PDF], Commissioner Michael Copps' statement [PDF], and Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein's statement [PDF].

2/5. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the agenda [3 pages in PDF] for its meeting of Thursday, February 12. It includes consideration of a memorandum opinion and order (MO&O) regarding Pulver.com's voice over internet protocol (VOIP) petition, and a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) regarding internet protocol (IP) services, including VOIP. It also includes consideration of a NPRM regarding broadband over powerline (BPL).

Pulver.com Petition. First, the FCC will consider a Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning Pulver.com's petition for declaratory ruling regarding the classification of its Free World Dialup (FWD) service.

Pulver.com's FWD is a closed network that uses specialized equipment. Traffic is carried by the users' ISPs using broadband connections. Pulver.com seeks a ruling that its service is neither "telecommunications" nor a "telecommunications service". It filed its petition [11 pages in PDF] on February 5, 2003. This is WC Docket No. 03-45.

There are several other pending VOIP related petitions. See, stories titled "Level 3 Files VOIP Petition With FCC" and "Summary of Other VOIP Proceedings at the FCC" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 815, January 14, 2004.

AT&T has filed one of these. It seeks a ruling that access charges do not apply to its service in which calls originate and terminate on circuit switched PSTN facilities, but are routed on internet backbone. AT&T filed its petition [37 pages PDF] on October 18, 2002. This is WC Docket No. 02-361.

On January 29, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), the Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, and the other FCC Commissioners, regarding AT&T's petition. He wrote that "I am extremely concerned that the Commission's continued failure to clarify the rules governing traffic over AT&T's IP backbone could jeopardize our ability to keep telephone rates in rural areas affordable." He requested that "by February 5, 2004 you provide me with a direct answer to the following question: Do the Commission's existing access charge rules apply to the long-distance service described in AT&T's petition?" See, story titled "Tauzin Asks FCC for Prompt Response on AT&T VOIP Petition" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 827, February 2, 2004.

IP/VOIP NPRM. Second, the FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) concerning issues relating to services and applications making use of the Internet Protocol (IP), including but not limited to VOIP.

Chairman Powell stated at the FCC's December 1, 2003 VOIP workshop that the FCC would soon issue a NPRM "to inquire about the migration of voice services to IP-based networks and gather public comment on the appropriate regulatory environment for these services".

See also, story titled "FCC Holds VOIP Forum", December 1, 2003, also published in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 790, December 2, 2003.

Broadband Over Powerline NPRM. Third, the FCC will consider a NPRM regarding new requirements and measurement guidelines for Access Broadband over Power Line Systems. This is ET Docket No. 03-104.

On April 23, 2003, the FCC adopted a Notice of Inquiry [21 pages in PDF] in this proceeding, which is titled "In the Matter of Inquiry Regarding Carrier Current Systems, including Broadband over Power Line Systems". It released the text on April 29. See also, notice in the Federal Register, May 23, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 100, at Pages 28182 - 28186.

See also, story titled "FCC Announces NOI Regarding Broadband Over Powerlines" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 628, April 24, 2003, and story titled "FCC Releases NOI on Broadband Over Power Lines" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 656, May 7, 2003. The NOI is FCC 03-100.

Fourth, the FCC will consider a Report and Order and Second Further NPRM regarding several interstate access charge and universal service reforms affecting rate-of-return local exchange carriers. This is CC Docket No. 00-256 and CC Docket No. 96-45.

Fifth, the FCC will consider a NPRM to amend its service disruption reporting requirements.

The meeting will be at 9:30 AM in the FCC's Commission Meeting Room, TW-C305, at 445 12th Street, SW. The meeting will be open to the public and webcast by the FCC.

2/5. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC ) published in its web site a copy of two e-mail communications [3 pages in PDF] from May of 2002 exchanged between personnel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) regarding the DARPA's interest in "huge databases of commercial transactions that cover the world", and in working with Acxiom, "the nation's largest commercial data warehouse company".

One e-mail message was written by Lt. Col. Doug Dyer of the DARPA's IAO to John Poindexter, who was the head of the DARPA's Information Awareness Office (IAO) until his resignation in August. The IAO's projects included Total Information Awareness (TIA), which the DARPA renamed Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA). The IAO's projects also included Futures Markets Applied to Prediction (FutureMap).

These projects have been terminated, and Poindexter resigned, effective on August 29, 2003. However, in May of 2002, the TIA project was active.

Also, Poindexter wrote a letter [5 pages in PDF] on August 12, 2003, just before his departure, advocating the merits of his work at DARPA. See also, story titled "Poindexter Writes About Uses of Information Technology to Fight Terrorism" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 719, August 15, 2003.

Dyer's e-mail of May 21, 2002 to Poindexter states that "Axciom is the nation's largest commercial data warehouse company ($1B/year) with customers like Citibank, Walmart, and other companies whose names you know. They have a history of treating privacy issues fairly and they don't advertise at all. As a result they haven't been hurt as much as ChoicePoint, Seisint, etc by privacy concerns and press inquiries. Essentially, Acxiom buys or otherwise acquires transaction information, uses a key, proprietary technology they call Abilitec that links these transactions uniquely with a person/address pair (UUIDs for both), and then projects from this database to provide datasets to their customers."

"Acxiom also hosts supercomputers that enable their customers to do analysis and data mining." Dyer added that "Acxiom spends about $50M for data on US data and covers more than 80% of the population."

He then wrote that the DARPA can work with Acxiom in four ways.

"1) Engage Acxiom in conjunction with the Rand study to identify all relevant databases ..."

"2) Have Acxiom provide us with a statistical data set ... for use in the TIA critical experiment ..."

"3) Acxiom's Jennifer Barrett is a lawyer and chief privacy officer. She's testified before Congress and offered to provide help. One of the key suggestions she made is that people will object to Big Brother, wide-coverage databases, but they don't object to use of relevant data for specific purposes that we can all agree on. Rather than getting all the data for any purpose, we should start with the goal, tracking terrorists to avoid attacks, and then identify the data needed (although we can't define all of this, we can say that our templates and models of terrorists are good places to start). Already, this guidance has shaped my thinking."

"4) Ultimately, the US may need huge databases of commercial transactions that cover the world or certain areas outside the US. This information provides economic utility, and thus provides two reasons why foreign countries would be interested. Acxiom could build this mega-scale database."

Finally, Dyer wrote that "At any rate, there is little or no chance that Acxiom or any other commercial data warehouse/mining company is likely to advance the state of the art. Any innovation DARPA might pay for would be quickly intertwined with proprietary technologies. This doesn't reduce the security/economic utility of a system like the one described in (4)."

Dyer's e-mail was also addressed to a "rpopp", who  responded by e-mail to Dyer. "rpopp" was the username of Robert Popp, Deputy Director of DARPA's Information Awareness Office.

The EPIC obtained copies of these e-mail communications from the Department of Defense (DOD) in response to a request made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is codified at 5 U.S.C. § 552.

Six weeks before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Acxiom's Jennifer Barrett testified at hearing held by House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection titled "How Do Businesses Use Customer Information: Is the Customer’s Privacy Protected?"

She wrote in her July 26, 2001 prepared testimony that "Acxiom’s business includes two distinct components: database managment services and information products. Database management services represent 90% of our company's revenue. These specialized computer services assist companies in better managing their customer information by making accurate ``customer recognition´´ possible across multiple lines of business and across multiple points of sale. These same services also assist companies by helping them save costs and secure a better return on investment through more focused direct marketing."

She continued that "Our information product offerings provide needed intelligence for three primary functions: (1) our directory products provide telephone information necessary to locate, verify or contact consumers by phone; (2) our enhancement products provide the information businesses need to better understand their customers and their market; and (3) our list products provide access to consumers who are potential future customers."

See also, story titled "House Holds Hearing on Privacy" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 236, July 27, 2001.

On September 22, 2003, the EPIC submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in which it alleged that JetBlue Airways Corporation and Acxiom violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), codified at 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1), in connection with the disclosure of consumer personal information to Torch Concepts Inc., a defense contractor and data mining company.

The EPIC alleges that JetBlue collected personal information from its customers through its web site, and promised customers in its privacy policy that it would not share this information, but did in fact provide the information to an information mining company at the request of the DOD. The EPIC alleges that this constitutes a deceptive trade practice that violates the FTCA.

See also, story titled "EPIC Submits Privacy Complaint To FTC Regarding JetBlue" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 744, September 23, 2003.

2/3. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. entered into a Memorandum of Understanding [5 pages PDF scan] regarding the development of best practices in siting communications towers. See also, FCC release [PDF].

2/3. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a reminder in the Federal Register. The FCC reminds video programming distributors, among other things, of their responsibilities under the FCC's closed captioning benchmarks for new English and Spanish language nonexempt video programming for the period between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2005. See, Federal Register, February 3, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 22, at Pages 5154 - 5155.

1/28. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released data on informal complaints that it received about wireless number portability. Wireless number porting began on November 24, 2003. The FCC released data for complaints since November 24, 2003, and through January 23, 2004. The FCC has received 4,734 informal complaints about wireless local number portability. Most of the complaints concern alleged delays in porting numbers from one wireless carrier to another. A much smaller number of complaints, just over 5 percent of the total, involve alleged delays in porting numbers from wireline carriers to wireless carriers. The carriers mentioned in at least 100 complaints are: AT&T Wireless (2297); Sprint PCS (1119); Verizon Wireless (739); Cingular Wireless (699), T-Mobile (625), Nextel (332); Qwest (195); ALLTEL (119). Many of the complaints concern more than one carrier so the total number of complaints received is smaller than the number of times a carrier is mentioned in a complaint. See, FCC release.

1/28. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its report [146 pages in PDF] "Tenth Annual Report" to Congress on the status of competition in the market for the delivery of video programming. See also, FCC release [10 pages in PDF]. The report finds that "Overall, due, in part, to Congressional efforts made over the past decade, technological advances and investment in new platforms for delivering video programming, the vast majority of Americans enjoy more choice, more programming and more services than any time in history. In addition to an increase in the number of video channels, cable operators and other MVPDs also now offer advanced video services and many non-video advanced services. Cable television, however, remains the predominant technology for the delivery of video programming. Ten years ago, cable operators served almost 100% of the nation’s subscribers. Today, cable’s share has fallen to approximately 75% of all MVPD subscribers." Robert Sachs, P/CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), stated in a release that the FCC "found that cable faces significant competition, evidenced by the fact that the two nationwide DBS providers now serve over 20 million subscribers or 22 percent of all multichannel video households. ... To the benefit of consumers, deregulation and competition have produced a vibrant digital video and broadband marketplace."

The Senate office buildings (Russell, Hart and Dirksen) will be closed due to the presence of ricin in a mailroom in the Dirksen Building.

9:30 AM - 11:00 AM. The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) will host a program titled "Reversing Rural America's Economic Decline: The Case for a National Balanced Growth Strategy". The speakers will be Robert Atkinson (PPI VP) and Dee Davis (President, Center for Rural Strategies). The program will not be about technology policy. However, Atkinson is Director of the PPI's Technology and New Economy Project, and among the topics that he will cover will be broadband as an enabler of rural growth, and how technology provides new challenges and opportunities with respect to where companies locate. Breakfast will be served. RSVP to 202 547-0001. Location: PPI, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 400.

CANCELLED. 12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Cato Institute will host a Capitol Hill briefing titled "Internet Taxation: The State of the Debate". The speakers will be Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Lee Goodman (Wiley Rein & Fielding), and Adam Thierer (Cato). Location: Room 325, Russell Building.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a luncheon program titled "The Copyright Office Speaks: The Ninth Annual Event with the Honorable Marybeth Peters -- Register of Copyrights". Prices vary. For more information, call 202 626-3463. Location: City Club of Washington, 555 13th Street, NW.

12:00 NOON. The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) will host a luncheon on voice over internet protocol (VOIP) technology. The speaker will be Vonage Ch/CEO Jeffrey Citron. To attend, contact Brooke Emmerick at 202 289-8928 or bemmerick@pff.org. See, PFF notice. Location: Salon D, J.W. Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

Extended deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [35 pages in PDF] regarding unlicensed devices. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 10, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 237, at Pages 68823 - 68831. The FCC adopted this NPRM on September 10, 2003. See, FCC release [PDF]. The FCC released the NPRM [35 pages in PDF] on September 17, 2003. This NPRM is FCC 03-223 in ET Docket No. 03-201. See also, stories titled "FCC Announces NPRM Regarding Unlicensed Devices" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 739, September 15, 2003, and "FCC Announces Deadlines for Comments on Unlicensed Devices NPRM" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 800, December 16, 2003. See also, FCC order [PDF] extending the deadline for reply comments from January 26 to February 7.

10:00 AM. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to examine the Department of Homeland Security's budget for FY 2005. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.

Day one of a two day conference hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) titled "Knowledge Based Authentication: Is it Quantifiable?". See, notice and event web site. Location: NIST, Administration Building, Green Auditorium, Gaithersburg, MD.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) Cable and Legislative Practice Committees will host a brown bag lunch. The speakers Bill Bailey (Majority Counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee) and James Assey (Minority Counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee). For more information, contact Catherine Bohigian at Catherine.Bohigian@fcc.gov. RSVP to Wendy Parish at wendy@fcba.org. Location: Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 1875 K Street, NW.

7:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day conference hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) titled "Public Safety Spectrum Management Forum". See, notice. Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, NW.

9:30 AM. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on President Bush's defense authorization request for FY 2005 and the future years defense program. See, notice. Location: Room 325, Russell Building.

Deadline to submit comments to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding "Changes to Representation of Others Before the United States Patent and Trademark Office". See, notice in the Federal Register, December 12, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 239, at Pages 69441-69562. See also, USPTO release.

Day two of a two day conference hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) titled "Knowledge Based Authentication: Is it Quantifiable?". See, notice and event web site. Location: NIST, Administration Building, Green Auditorium, Gaithersburg, MD.

Deadline to submit comments regarding the workshop to be hosted by the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on application of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines on February 17-19. See, notice.

7:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day two of a two day conference hosted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) titled "Public Safety Spectrum Management Forum". See, notice. Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, NW.

9:30 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing on HR 3717, the "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004". The hearing will be webcast. See, notice. Press contact: Ken Johnson or Jon Tripp at 202 225-5735. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing titled "Protecting Children from Violent and Indecent Programming". Press contact: Rebecca Hanks (McCain) at 202 224-2670 or Andy Davis (Hollings) at 202 224-6654. See, notice. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will hold a hearing on cable industry competition. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan will deliver the Federal Reserve's semiannual report on monetary policy to the House Financial Services Committee. Location: Room 2128, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) will hold an event titled "Presentation for New ULS Online Services, MDS and ITFS". Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room 3-B516 (3rd Floor South Conference Room).

12:00 NOON - 1:00 PM. The New America Foundation (NAF) will host a brown bag lunch. The speaker will be David Dorman (Ch/CEO of AT&T). The topic will be "Making the Right Choices about the Future of Communications". See, notice. Location: NAF, 7th Floor, 1630 Connecticut Ave., NW.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Online Communications Practice Committee will host a brown bag lunch titled "Legislative and Regulatory Update on Internet and E-Commerce Privacy Issues". The speakers will be Chris Hoofnagel (EPIC) and Heidi Salow (Nextel). For more information, contact Vincent Paladini, Karlyn Stanley (CRB, 202 828-9835), or Amy Wolverton. Location: Cole Raywid & Braverman, 1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 200.

2:00 PM. The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on President Bush's FY 2005 budget proposal. The witness will be Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Joshua Bolten. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

3:00 PM. The House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities will hold a hearing titled "Department of Defense Information Systems Architecture: Are we on the Right Path to Achieving Net-Centricity and Ensuring  Interoperability?" Location: Room 2118, Rayburn Building.

5:00 - 7:00 PM. The Congressional Internet Caucus's Advisory Committee will host a reception and technology fair. For more information contact Megan Kinnaird at 202 638-4370. See, notice. Location: Room 902, Hart Building.

Lincoln's Birthday.

9:00 AM. The House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight will hold a hearing on "IRS Efforts to Modernize its Computer Systems". See, notice. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

9:30 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will meet to mark up HR 3717, the "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004". The event will be webcast. See, notice. Press contact: Ken Johnson or Jon Tripp at 202 225-5735. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

9:30 AM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a meeting. The event will be webcast. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C05 (Commission Meeting Room).

9:30 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in NCTA v. FCC, No. 03-1140. Judges Edwards, Roberts and Silberman. Location: Location: 333 Constitution Ave. NW.

10:00 AM. The Senate Budget Committee will hold a hearing to examine President Bush's FY 2005 budget proposals. Location: Room 608, Dirksen Building.

11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Heritage Foundation will host a panel discussion titled "Federalism and the Internet Tax: A Conflict of Two Conservative Principles?" The speakers will be Sen. George Allen (R-VA), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Edward Fuelner (Heritage), and James Gattuso (Heritage). See, notice. Location: Heritage, 214 Massachusetts Ave NE.

Extended deadline to submit comments to the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which is also known as the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA), regarding its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement a revised version of the BIS's Simplified Network Application Processing (SNAP+) system. This proposed rule also would mandate use of SNAP+ for all filings of Export License applications (except Special Comprehensive Licenses), Reexport Authorization requests, Classification requests, Encryption Review requests, and License Exception AGR notifications, unless the BIS authorizes paper filing for a particular user or transaction. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 12, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 218, at Pages 64009-64023 (setting January 12, 2003 deadline), and notice in the Federal Register January 12, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 7, at Page 1685 (extending deadline to February 12) .

12:00 NOON. Deadline to submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) regarding foreign countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. The USTR is required under Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, codified at 19 U.S.C. § 2242, to identify which countries should be identified as Priority Foreign Countries. This section is also know as "Special 301".  See, notice in the Federal Register, January 6, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 3, at Pages 718 - 719.

Extended deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding digital plug and play compatibility. The FCC announced its Second Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at its September 10, 2003 meeting. See, story titled "FCC Adopts Digital Plug and Play Cable Compatibility Rules" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 737, September 11, 2003. The notice in the Federal Register states that the NPRM seeks public comments "on the mechanisms and standards by which new connectors and associated content protection technologies can be approved for use with unidirectional digital cable products". It further seeks comments on "the potential extension of digital cable system transmission requirements to digital cable systems with an activated channel capacity of 550 MHz or higher; whether it is necessary to require consumer electronics manufacturers to provide pre-sale information to consumers regarding the functionalities of unidirectional digital cable televisions; and whether the Commission should ban or permit the down-resolution of non-broadcast MVPD programming." This item is FCC 03-225 in CS Docket 97-80 and PP Docket 00-67. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 28, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 229, at Pages 66776 - 66781. See also, notice [PDF] extending deadlines.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) regarding revisions to the FCC's high cost universal service support mechanism. This is FCC 03-249 in CC Docket No. 96-45. This is also known as the "10th Circuit Remand". See, notice in the Federal Register, December 15, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 240, at Pages 69641 - 69647. See also, stories titled "FCC Announces Order on Remand Regarding High Cost Universal Service Support Mechanism" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 761, October 20, 2003, and "FCC Publishes Notices Regarding 10th Circuit Universal Service Remand" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 800, December 16, 2003.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regarding it proposal to dispose of 27,866 magnetic tape cartridges containing copies of e-mail records of the Clinton administration created from July 15, 1994 through December 1999. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 30, 2003, Vol. 68, No. 249, at Pages 75286 - 75287.

2/4. The House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Capital Markets held a hearing titled "The Role of Attorneys in Corporate Governance". See, opening statement [PDF] of Rep. Mike Oxley (R-OH), Chairman of the full Committee, opening statement [PDF] of Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH), opening statement [PDF] of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee, and opening statement [PDF] of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL). See also, prepared testimony in PDF of witnesses: Linda Madrid (American Corporate Counsel Association), Stanley Keller (Palmer & Dodge), Richard Painter (University of Illinois College of Law), George Cohen (University of Virginia Law School), and Thomas Morgan (George Washington University Law School).

2/3. The Department of Justice (DOJ) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that the deadline for state and local law enforcement agencies to submit applications to the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to participate in the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program is March 19, 2004. See, Federal Register, February 3, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 22, at Pages 5187 - 5193.

2/3. The Copyright Office published a notice in the Federal Register announcing "the initiation of a voluntary negotiation period for determining reasonable rates and terms for two compulsory licenses which, in one case, provides for a public performance of a sound recording by a new subscription service, and in the second instance, allows for the making of an ephemeral phonorecord of a sound recording in furtherance of making the permitted public performance. The rates and terms will be for the period beginning January 1, 2005 and ending on December 31, 2006." See, Federal Register, February 3, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 22, at Page 5196.