5/4. President Bush continues to give speeches in which he advocates widespread deployment of broadband technologies. He made a campaign trip to the state of Ohio on Tuesday, May 4.

He gave a speech at a breakfast in Maumee, Ohio in which he said that "In order to make sure people are able to find work and America is the leading country in the world when it comes to economic growth, we need to promote an innovation society. We need to make sure we're on the leading edge of innovation. I'm a strong supporter in research and development. I believe there ought to be broadband technology in every home by the year 2007. And shortly thereafter, there ought to competing services so you get a better price and better quality. Broadband technology is going to be one of the important parts about changing America and to make sure we're on the leading edge."

Then, he gave a speech in Dayton, Ohio in which he said that "Government must put good policy in place that encourages the spread of innovative technology. My dream is for everybody in America to have broadband technology in their home by the year 2007. This is -- broadband technology, if done right, is going to revolutionize education and health care. It will make this society more entrepreneurial, make the people of America more productive."

He added that "We had a good break. The Senate passed a moratorium on access taxes to broadband. My view is there ought to be not any taxes on broadband. If you want it to spread across the country, don't tax it."

On Thursday, April 29 the Senate passed an amended version of S 150, the "Internet Tax Non-discrimination Act of 2003". See, text of bill as enacted by the Senate. See also, story titled "Senate Passes Weakened Version Internet Non-discrimination Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 889, May 3, 2004.

Finally, Bush stated, "Plus we got to get rid of regulatory hurdles so that it spreads around. Innovative society -- an innovative society is one that's necessary for us to compete, but there are -- there are problems with an innovative society."

5/4. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewers Improvement Act of 1999.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the Chairman of the Committee, wrote in his opening statement the SHVIA did not go "far enough in promoting regulatory parity and encouraging the growth of satellite delivered television programming against the entrenched cable monopoly. As we now look to reauthorize SHVIA, I believe we must keep the goal of real regulatory parity in mind."

He continued that "This time around Congress must ensure satellite operators have the right tools to bring robust competition to the video subscription market, which will lead to more programming options and lower prices for consumers. Additionally, Congress must review SHVIA in light of the looming transition to digital television and ensure that cable and satellite operators can provide consumers with outstanding high definition digital television content to facilitate this transition."

Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-SC) (at right), the ranking Democrat on the Committee, wrote in his opening statement that "it is my hope we will be able to move quickly in a bipartisan fashion to extend expiring provisions. I hope we can make other changes to serve the public interest, specifically preserving consumer access to community-oriented programming and providing satellite operators with proper incentives to expand their current offering of local broadcast channels in a non-discriminatory manner to all 210 television markets."

See also, prepared testimony of witnesses: Charlie Ergen (Ch/CEO of Echostar), Jim Yager (CEO of Barrington Broadcasting Company), Eddy Hartenstein (Ch/CEO of DirecTV), Araceli De Leon (Telemundo Communications), and Gigi Sohn [PDF] (Public Knowledge).

5/3. Several groups continued their assault upon Google's proposed Gmail service, asserting privacy concerns. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the World Privacy Forum wrote a letter to Bill Lockyer, the Attorney General of the state of California, asserting that "Gmail violates California Penal Code § 631, which governs eavesdropping on confidential communications." Not only do these groups argue that Google may be in violation of California law -- they also argue that "Users of the Service Could be Civilly and Criminally Liable" under § 631.

§ 631 provides, in part, that "Any person who, by means of any machine, instrument, or contrivance, or in any other manner, intentionally taps, or makes any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically, acoustically, inductively, or otherwise, with any telegraph or telephone wire, line, cable, or instrument, including the wire, line, cable, or instrument of any internal telephonic communication system, or who willfully and without the consent of all parties to the communication, or in any unauthorized manner, reads, or attempts to read, or to learn the contents or meaning of any message, report, or communication while the same is in transit or passing over any wire, line, or cable, or is being sent from, or received at any place within this state; or who uses, or attempts to use, in any manner, or for any purpose, or to communicate in any way, any information so obtained, or who aids, agrees with, employs, or conspires with any person or persons to unlawfully do, or permit, or cause to be done any of the acts or things mentioned above in this section, is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison, or by both a fine and imprisonment in the county jail or in the state prison." See, text of §§ 630-637.9.

Google's Gmail is a new free browser based e-mail service that provides users with one gigabyte of storage space, which is far more than any other free e-mail service. In addition, Google's equipment scans e-mail messages, searches for key words, and then displays targeted advertisements with e-mail messages in the browser. Google further states that no person reads the messages.

EPIC and other groups assert that this violates California's illegal wiretap statute. EPIC argues that "California Penal Code § 631 establishes expansive protections for ``communications,´´ which clearly includes e-mail messages. Specifically, § 631(a) prohibits a broad range of activities where any person attempts to extract the meaning or content of a communication without consent of all the parties to the communication".

EPIC continues that "Google is willfully and without consent of all the parties to a communication extracting the content of messages in targeting contextual marketing. The action is willful because Google's Gmail was intentionally designed to engage in e-mail scanning. Google has failed to gain the consent of all parties to the communication because individuals directing e-mail to the gmail.com domain have no way of knowing that the company is extracting content from the messages, or consenting to such scanning. Finally, scanning the text of e-mails for marketing placement constitutes an attempt to "learn the contents or meaning" of the communication. Google depends on the actual content of the communication to make decisions regarding which marketing offers to display."

Then, EPIC argues that Google users too could be in violation of the statute. It wrote that "Section § 631(a) specifies that any person who ``cause[s] to be done any of the acts or things mentioned above in this section, is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($ 2,500), or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison, or by both a fine and imprisonment in the county jail or in the state prison.´´ Accordingly, if Google's Gmail violates § 631, its users could also be held liable."

See also, stories titled "Google's New Free E-Mail Service Starts Privacy Debate" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 870, April 6, 2004; "Privacy Groups Request That Google Suspend Its New Free Gmail Service" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 872, April 8, 2004; and "EPIC Inquires About Use of Google Technologies by FBI" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 889, May 3, 2004.

5/4. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups sent a letter [2 pages in PDF] to the Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), asking that the House Judiciary Committee delay its markup of HR 3754, the "Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act". The Committee has scheduled a meeting to mark up several bills, including HR 3754, on Wednesday, May 5 at 10:00 AM.

Rep. Sensenbrenner is the Chairman of the Committee. Rep. Conyers is the ranking Democrat on the Committee.

The five signatories are groups with a history, to varying degrees, of supporting lessened legal protection of intellectual property. They are the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Library Association (ALA), Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Public Knowledge.

The letter states that "The WHOIS database requires that individual Internet users, when they register domain names, make their names, home addresses, home phone numbers, and home e-mail addresses available to the world, with no privacy protections. Users covered by this requirement include human rights activists, corporate whistleblowers seeking to avoid retribution, and ordinary Americans seeking to avoid spam, stalking, or identity theft. As long as WHOIS lacks safeguards to protect their privacy and security these users will feel compelled to place inaccurate data in the database for reasons that have nothing to do with furtherance of illegal activity."

Summary of HR 3754. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), the Chairman and ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, introduced this bill on February 3, 2004.

It addresses the registration of domain names with false information. For example, law enforcement authorities use the Whois database to identify and locate people who use web sites to commit crimes. False registration information makes identifying the fraud artists more difficult.

False registration information also makes it harder for trademark holders to pursue cybersquatters who register domain names that infringe their trademarks. False registration information also makes it harder for copyrights holders and manufacturers to locate online infringers and online sellers of counterfeit goods.

The bill as introduced creates no new civil or criminal prohibition of registering a domain name with false information. Nor does it impose any requirements upon domain name registrars to verify domain name registration information, to refuse to register domain names when it knows that the registration information is false, or to cancel registrations made with false registration information.

Rather, the bill adds new civil remedies and criminal penalties for violation of existing statutes, where the violation also involves registering a domain name with false information. For example, it amends the Copyright Act to provide that, for the purpose of calculating statutory damages for infringement, the infringement shall be considered willful if the infringement also involves registering a domain name with false information.

See, story titled "Representatives Introduce Bill to Deter Domain Name Fraud" and "House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on False Domain Name Registration Data" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 830, February 5, 2004.

Summary of ACLU Letter. The letter of the ACLU and others argues that the changes proposed by the bill "would chill speech online".

It provides two examples. First, "an online activist or whistleblower accused of infringing a trademark in the course of criticizing a company would be subject only to an injunction. Under HR 3754, he or she would face substantial monetary penalties, including all plaintiff’s attorney's fees."

The letter does not name any actual cases in which intellectual property laws were used to suppress web publication of copyrighted materials or registered trademarks. However, it could have cited Ford Motor Company v. Robert Lane d/b/a Warner Publications, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, D.C. No. 99-74205. See, District Court opinion.

The letter might also have cited Intellectual Reserve, Inc. v. Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Inc., Jerald Tanner, Sandra Tanner, et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Case No. 2:99-CV-808C. See, TLJ case summary and preliminary injunction order. However, in neither of these cases did the website publishers seek to conceal their identity.

Second, the letter states that "the author of an anonymous web log who innocently quotes a portion of a news article that a judge later decides to be too long to qualify for ``fair use´´ protection would be considered an ``innocent infringer´´ and subject to reduced statutory damages. Under H.R. 3754, the same ``blogger´´ would face damages up to $150,000 and potential criminal liability."

The letter concludes that "Domain name holders who submit inaccurate WHOIS data: 1) on the basis of bona fide concerns with privacy, or 2) to protect their legitimate rights to anonymous free speech, should not be branded criminals. Time is needed to address these serious concerns, which have not yet received adequate consideration. The undersigned groups ask that HR 3754 be held pending a further hearing or deliberation on its potential unintended consequences for privacy and speech online." (Emphasis in original.)

The letter does not contain any recommendations regarding how the bill might be amended to address any of the concerns raised in the letter.

Judge Posner. Use of intellectual property laws to suppress corporate criticism or whistleblowing often involves asserting copyright in unpublished documents that are not intended for publication. The plaintiffs alleged such in both the Ford and Intellectual Reserve cases.

Currently, the courts extend full copyright protection to unpublished works not intended for publication. See, Salinger v. Random House, 811 F.2d 90 (2nd Cir. 1989) and New Age Publications v. Henry Holt, 873 F.2d 576 (2nd Cir. 1989).

Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals (7thCir) recently wrote that these cases were incorrectly decided, and that extending such protection suppresses truthful information that is relevant to matters of public interest. See, Landes and Posner, The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law, at Chapter 5.

Posner and Landes do not go on to address domain name registrations in this context. Nevertheless, if the courts, or the Congress, were to follow the recommendation that copyright protection not extend to unpublished works not intended for publication, or if the fair use defense in this situation were enhanced, then corporate critics who obtain and publish corporate documents online would have much less to fear from providing accurate information when registering their domain names.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. See, Republican Whip Notice.

The Senate will meet at 9:30 AM for morning business. It will then resume consideration of S 1637, the FSC/ETI bill.

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. The Telecommunications Service Priority System Oversight Committee will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 16, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 74, at Page 20636. Location: 701 South Courthouse Road, Arlington, VA.

9:30 AM - 3:00 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host an event titled "Sarbanes-Oxley: A Review". At 12:15 PM, the luncheon speaker will be Dell CEO Kevin Rollins. See, notice. Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.

10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee will meet to mark up various bills and resolutions. The agenda includes 16 items. The Committee is unlikely to complete this agenda in one meeting. The agenda includes HR 3754, the "Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act", HR 1731, the "Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act", S 1301, the "Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2003" (see also HR 2405), HR 1302, the "Federal Courts Improvement Act of 2003", HR 3632, the "Anti-counterfeiting Amendments of 2003", and HR 338  the "Defense of Privacy Act". The meeting will be webcast by the Committee. Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202 225-2492. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Electronics Industry Association (EIA) will host an event titled "Creating a National Technology Strategy: EIA to Present Six-Part Playbook Addressing the Future of the U.S. High-Tech Innovation Economy". See, notice. For more information, contact Neil Gaffney at 703 907-7792 or Ngaffney@eia.org. Location: Room HC 5, Capitol Building.

12:00 NOON. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a press conference to announce its first enforcement action targeting violations of the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC notice states that "Reporters unable to attend the event may call in. Dial-in Number: 1-800-955-9331. Confirmation Number: 23744877. Chairperson: Bruce Jennings. The lines, which are for press only, will open at 11:45 a.m." Location: Room 432, FTC Headquarters, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

12:15 - 1:45 PM. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) will host a brown bag lunch titled "South Korea's 2nd Net Election -- The Screen Shots" and "US Election 2004 Online -- A Virtual Civil War?". RSVP by 12:00 NOON on Tuesday, May 4 to ari@cdt.org or 202 637-9800. Location: CDT, 1634 I St., NW.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOI & NPRM) [31 pages in PDF] regarding the interference temperature method of quantifying and managing interference among different services. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 21, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 13, at Pages 2863 - 2870. This NOI/NPRM is FCC 03-289 in ET Docket No. 03-237. See also, stories titled "FCC Announces NOI/NPRM on Interference Temperature Model" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 779, November 14, 2003, and "FCC Releases NOI/NPRM on Interference Temperature Approach" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 789, December 1, 2003.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. It may consider HR 4227, the "Middle-Class Alternative Minimum Tax Relief Act of 2004". It may also consider several non-technology related items under suspension of the rules. See, Republican Whip Notice.

9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an executive business meeting. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

9:30 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will hold a hearing titled "The 'Dot Kids' Internet Domain: Protecting Children Online". The hearing will be webcast. Press contact: Jon Tripp (Barton) at 202 225-5735 or Sean Bonyun (Upton) 202 225-3761. See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property will hold meet to markup the Committee Print of the "Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act of 2004". The meeting will be webcast by the Committee. Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202 225-2492. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing titled "Online Pormography: Closing the Doors on Pervasive Smut". The hearing will be webcast by the Committee. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) will preside. Press contact: Samantha Jordan (Barton) at 202 225-5735 or Paul Flusche (Stearns) at 202 225-5744. Location: Room 2322, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Jonathan Dudas to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

Day one of a two day conference hosted by the Computer Law Association titled "2004 World Computer and Internet Law Congress". Prices vary. See, event brochure [PDF]. Location: Park Hyatt, 1201 24th Street, NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the provision of international telecommunications service. This NPRM is FCC 04-40 in IB Docket No. 04-47. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 22, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 55, at Pages 13276 - 13278.

9:00 AM - 1:00 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Internet Policy Working Group (IPWG) will hold its second "Solutions Summit". This summit will focus on disability access issues associated with internet protocol technologies. See, agenda [PDF]. Location: FCC, 445 12th St., SW.

10:00 AM - 4:00 PM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Medal of Technology Nomination Evaluation Committee will hold a closed meeting to discuss the relative merits of persons and companies nominated for the medal. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 19, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 75, Page 20863. Location: Room 4813, DOC, 1401 Constitution Ave., NW.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Young Lawyers Committee will host a brown bag lunch. The topic will be "The Role of In House Counsel". The speakers will be Susan Fox (Disney), Phil Passanante (RCN), Doug Brandon (AT&T Wireless), and Lon Levin (XM Satellite Radio). For more information, contact Chris Fedeli at cfedeli@covad.net or Tony Lin at tony.lin@shawpittman.com. Location: Shaw Pittman, 2300 N Street, NW, Conference Room.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Wireless Committee will host a luncheon titled "Hot Topics for NTIA". The speaker will be Michael Gallagher (acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration), and NTIA staff. The price to attend is $15.00. FCBA registration form [PDF] required. Location: Sidley Austin, 1501 K Street, NW, 6th floor.

Day two of a two day conference hosted by the Computer Law Association titled "2004 World Computer and Internet Law Congress". Prices vary. See, event brochure [PDF]. Location: Park Hyatt, 1201 24th Street, NW.

Deadline to submit requests to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to participate as a panelist in its June 21, 2004 workshop on the uses, efficiencies, and implications for consumers associated with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. See, FTC web page for this workshop, and notice in the Federal Register, April 15, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 73, at Pages 20523 - 20525.

1:30 - 3:30 PM. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) World RadioCommunication 2007 (WRC-07) Advisory Committee's Informal Working Group on Broadcasting and Amateur Issues will meet. See, FCC notice [PDF]. For more information, contact Ben Fisher at 202 663-8154. Location: Shaw Pittman, 2300 N Street, NW.

POSTPONED TO JUNE 14. 2:00 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age will meet. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, and possible steps to accelerate such deployment. The FCC is required by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to provide an annual report to the Congress on this subject. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 8, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 68, at Pages 18508 - 18515. This is GN Docket No. 04-54.

Deadline to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the Emergency Alert System (EAS). See, notice in the Federal Register, April 9, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 69, at Pages 18857 - 18859.

Deadline to reply submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) requesting data and information on the status of competition in the Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) industry for the FCC's Ninth Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions with Respect to Commercial Mobile Services. This NOI is FCC 04-38 in WT Docket No. 04-111. See, notice in the Federal Register, April 23, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 79, at Pages 22032 - 22042.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Second Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) regarding two plans that propose establishing optional alternative regulation mechanisms for rate-of-return carriers. See, notice in the Federal Register, March 24, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 57, at Pages 13794 - 13803.

9:00 AM - 1:30 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host an event titled "How Well Does U.S. Government Broadcasting Work in the Middle East?" There will be two panel discussions, titled "The Role of Broadcasting in Public Diplomacy" and "How Do We Measure Success?". Then, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary will deliver the luncheon keynote address. See, notice and registration page. Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.

12:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Cable Practice and Legislative Committees will host a brown bag lunch. The speakers will be Neil Fried (Majority Counsel for the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet), and Gregg Rothschild (Minority Counsel for House Commerce Committee). For more information, contact Cathy Bohigian (Legal Advisor to FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin) at catherine.bohigian@fcc.gov. RSVP to Wendy Parish at wendy@fcba.org. Location: Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 1875 K Street, NW.

Day one of a two day convention hosted by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) titled "Washington Caucus". Prices vary. See, registration page. Location: St. Regis Hotel.

5/4. SBC Communications named Randall Stephenson Chief Operating Officer. In addition, SBC named Rick Lindner Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He was previously CFO of Cingular Wireless, of which SBC is the part owner. See, SBC release.

5/3. Mary Greczyn was named Executive Director of Freedom Technologies, Inc. She previously wrote about wireless and spectrum issues for Communications Daily. Freedom Technologies is a Washington DC based telecommunications consulting firm. Its principals include Janice Obuchowski and Albert Halprin.

5/5. Twenty executives of television programming companies wrote a letter [3 pages in PDF] to members of Congress urging the Congress "to oppose legislative proposals to require cable and satellite providers to offer programming on an a la carte basis or dictate the terms of private contracts between program networks and multichannel video distributors, including terms regarding the packaging and marketing of programming." The signatories, which include representatives of the National Geographic Channel, Disney, MTV, VH1, BET, and A&E, are all women. The letter further implies that gender is relevant to this policy debate. The letter further argues that "Government efforts to dictate how our programming is packaged or marketed would be bad for consumers because it would give them less choice and less diversity in programming, and it would increase the price they would pay for this inferior set of offerings."

5/3. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael Copps gave a speech [8 pages in PDF] in Washington DC. He addressed at length media consolidation and the public interest in terms that he has used frequently before. He stated that "What I see at this particular Commission is a tectonic shift in policy-making across the whole wide range of media and telecommunications issues that are under our jurisdiction. It is a shift in decidedly the wrong direction. We are endangering competition by putting too much power into the hands of too few people." He also briefly touched on digital television and radio, multicasting, and lower power FM.

5/5. The Executive Office of the President's (EOP) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a notice in the Federal Register that contains, and requests comments on, a draft report of it Small Business Paperwork Relief Act Task Force. This draft report makes recommendations concerning the improvement of electronic dissemination of information collected under federal requirements. It also contains a plan to develop an interactive government wide internet program to identify applicable collections and facilitate compliance. Comments are due by June 4, 2004. See, Federal Register, May 5, 2004, Vol. 69, No. 87, at Pages 25147 - 25157.

5/4. The Department of Justice (DOJ) published in its web site its complaint against Bill Gates alleging violation of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976 in connection with his purchase of securities in the ICOS Corporation, a drug company based in Washington state. The DOJ also published its Motion for Entry of Judgment and a Stipulation.