1/20. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a redacted copy [306 pages in PDF] of another in a series of reports that finds misconduct at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in its communications surveillance.

The report discloses misconduct by the FBI in its use of "exigent letters" to obtain phone records from collaborating communications companies that "target" reporters at the Washington Post and New York Times.

In reports released in 2007 and 2008 the DOJ/OIG found abuse of National Security Letter (NSL) authority. The just released report, titled "A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of Exigent Letters and Other Information Requests for Telephone Records", provides much more detail, and finds misconduct in the use of exigent letters.

NSLs are a creature of statute. They do not require a warrant or other prior court authorization, and hence, are inherently subject to abuse. They enable the DOJ's FBI to obtain records, including subscriber, billing and call records of phone companies and ISPs. NSLs also apply to libraries to the extent that they are providing an electronic communication service.

The DOJ's FBI made up the concept of "exigent letter".

Since the enactment of the 2001 surveillance act (HR 3162, 107th Congress, October 26, 2001, Public Law 107-56) the FBI may use NSLs to obtain information from a "wire or electronic communication service provider" that is merely "relevant to an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities", and without judicial review or approval. See, 18 U.S.C. § 2709. Subsequent amendments have addressed the gag on disclosure of receipt of NSLs.

On March 9, 2007, the DOJ's OIG released a report [30 MB in PDF] titled "A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of National Security Letters". See also, story titled "DOJ IG Releases Reports on Use of NSLs and Section 215 Authority" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,551, March 13, 2007. That report covered the use of NSLs in 2003 through 2005.

On March 13, 2008, the OIG released a report [187 pages in PDF] titled "A Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters: Assessment of Corrective Actions and Examination of NSL Usage in 2006". See also, story titled "DOJ Inspector General Releases Second Report on FBI Misuse of National Security Letters" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,730, March 12, 2008.

The just released report finds that the FBI's "use of exigent letters and other informal means to obtain telephone records ... were seriously deficient and ill-conceived, and the FBI repeatedly failed to ensure that it complied with the law and FBI policy when obtaining telephone records from the on-site communications service providers." (See, pages 211-212.)

The report states that three communications service providers placed personnel in an FBI building, with networked computers that enabled access to the records of those service providers. These personnel had FBI e-mail accounts, attended FBI meetings, and were treated as FBI "team members".

The report adds that "the FBI entered into contracts with three communications service providers requiring the communications service providers to place their employees in the CAU's office space and to give these employees access to their companies databases so they could immediately service FBI requests for telephone records." (See, page 20.)

The report does not identify these companies. Nor does it discuss the affect of this collaboration with the DOJ's FBI upon DOJ's reviews of the mergers and acquisitions of these companies pursuant to antitrust law. Nor does this report discuss companies that did not so collaborate.

The report continues: "Also during this time period" (late 2003 through early 2007) "the FBI regularly issued after-the-fact NSLs, which were an inappropriate tool for remedying the FBI's improper activities. The FBI also issued 11 improper blanket NSLs to try to ``cover´´ or validate the improperly obtained records. These attempts were inconsistent with the ECPA NSL statute, the Attorney General's NSI Guidelines, and internal FBI policy." (See, pages 211-212.)

The report also discloses that "the FBI requested, and ... obtained from the on-site communications service providers, telephone records or other calling activity information for telephone numbers assigned to reporters. However, the FBI did not comply with the federal regulation and Department policy that requires Attorney General approval and a balancing of First Amendment interests and the interests of law enforcement before issuing subpoenas for the production of reporters' telephone billing records."

The report's subsequent discussion of these matters is heavily redacted. (See, pages 89-120.)

Subsequently, the report discloses the use of exigent letters to obtain reporter phone records from the on site company personnel. The letters contained no date ranges. The report adds that some of these "targeted" reporters worked for the Washington Post and the New York Times. (See, for example, pages 250-252.)

This is a report written by the DOJ's OIG which analyzes the propriety and legality of the FBI's activities in the context of Title 18 (regarding crimes and criminal procedure) and Title 50 (regarding national defense and intelligence) of the U.S. Code. It is not a report on the legality of the activities of the corporations that collaborated with the FBI, under Titles 18, 50 or 47 (Communications Act). Nor does it contain any analysis regarding whether the companies involved are fulfilling their public interest obligations under the Communications Act.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates communications companies, remains consistently silent regarding wiretaps, NSLs, exigent letters and other requests directed at the companies that it regulates, including issues involving application of 47 U.S.C. § 222, which contains no exemptions for investigations related to national defense, intelligence, or New York Times reporters.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC), stated in a release that the just released DOJ/OIG report "details the misuse of so-called `exigent letters´ by the FBI to obtain information about U.S. persons. The report describes how the FBI used these exigent letters without proper authorization to collect thousands of phone records, including in instances where no exigent conditions existed. The report also details how the FBI then compounded the misconduct by trying to issue National Security Letters after the fact."

Sen. Leahy (at right) continued that "This was not a matter of technical violations. This was authorized at high levels within the FBI, and continued for years. I understand that the FBI has worked to correct these abuses, but this report is a sobering reminder of the significant abuse of this broad authority. When Americans break the law, there are consequences. No one in the FBI should be above the law."

He also said that "I have said for years that we must have oversight and accountability when we give the government such expansive powers. That is why I insisted on including a sunset for National Security Letters in the USA Patriot Act Sunset Extension Act. The Senate should pass that legislation without delay, to ensure that we have the opportunity to revisit the scope and authority of National Security Letters."

The American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) Michael Ball stated in a release that "there is absolutely no excuse for Congress not to reform the NSL authority during the current Patriot Act debate ... Without an outside check, FBI agents are able to demand and obtain sensitive information at will. This is the kind of abuse that is inevitable when we broaden the government's surveillance power and don't modernize privacy standards. It has become very clear that the FBI cannot police itself. Congress must step in to institute and conduct rigorous and frequent oversight of the agency's use of NSLs and exigent letters."

See also, piece by the Center for Democracy and Technology's (CDT) Greg Nojeim.

1/20. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted, but did not release, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding limiting some, but not all, prerecorded telemarketing calls, or robocalls. The FCC issued a short news release, and each of the five Commissioners released prepared statements.

The proposed rules would not prohibit robocalling for contributions, as opposed to sales. Nor would the proposed rules prohibit commercial robocalling that is structured as information, rather than as advertising. The FCC did not disclose what is the difference between information and advertising.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wrote in his statement that this NPRM proposes "to prohibit telemarketers from making prerecorded telemarketing calls without first obtaining consumers, written consent, and to allow consumers who no longer wish to receive these calls to withdraw their consent through convenient automated methods".

Genachowski (at left) explained that "technologies have developed that allow telemarketers to conduct so-called ``robocall´´ campaigns, generating more than a thousand prerecorded message calls per minute at a cost of just a few cents per call".

Commissioner Copps wrote in his statement that this NPRM "tentatively concludes that harmonizing the Commission's rules, adopted pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, with the Federal Trade Commission's recently-amended Telemarketing Sales Rule".

On August 29, 2008, the FTC published a notice in the Federal Register that announced, described, recited, and set the effective date (September 1, 2008) of changes to its TSR.

The FTC's new rules provide, in part, that "Initiating any outbound telephone call that delivers a prerecorded message, other than a prerecorded message permitted for compliance with the call abandonment safe harbor ... unless ... in any such call to induce the purchase of any good or service, the seller has obtained from the recipient of the call an express agreement, in writing, that ... the seller obtained only after a clear and conspicuous disclosure ..." See, Federal Register, August 29, 2008, Vol. 73, No. 169, at Pages 51163-51204.

The new FTC rules also address the minimum length of calls and number of rings, opting out of further robocalls, and the practice of call abandonment. The new FTC rules do not address the sending of false, deceptive or incomplete caller ID data.

The FTC's new rules state that they do "not apply to any outbound telephone call that delivers a prerecorded healthcare message made by, or on behalf of, a covered entity or its business associate, as those terms are defined in the HIPAA Privacy Rule".

Also, the FTC statutory authority provides that it cannot regulate the practices of numerous enumerated industry sectors, including telecommunications carriers, and most sectors of the financial services industry.

Commissioner Meredith Baker noted in her statement that the FCC's proposed rules would contain an exception for "health care-related calls subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996".

Commissioner Robert McDowell wrote in his statement that the proposed rules "apply only to commercial calls and do not apply to political calls, non-profit calls and, most importantly, emergency calls", including "calls that are permitted" under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network Act (WARN Act) and the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS).

The FCC's release also states that the FCC's proposed rules "would not affect ... calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt non-profit organizations; calls for political purposes, such as those made by politicians or political campaigns; calls for other noncommercial purposes; and commercial calls that do not contain unsolicited advertisements, for example, calls that deliver purely ``informational´´ messages notifying recipients of a flight cancellation".

See also, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's statement. This NPRM is FCC 10-08 in CG Docket No. 02-278.

1/20. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced in a release that it has reached a settlement with the Daily Gazette Company and MediaNews Group Inc., now known as Affiliated Media Inc.

On May 22, 2007, the Antitrust Division filed a complaint [19 pages in PDF] against the two companies alleging violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act and Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act in connection with the ownership and operation of newspapers. See also, story titled "DOJ Antitrust Action Takes Segmented View of Media" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,586, May 23, 2007.

This case involved one company acquiring both of the print daily newspapers in the city of Charleston, West Virginia. The DOJ asserted that the relevant markets are the sale of print newspapers to consumers in Charleston, and the sale of advertising space in these print newspapers to advertisers.

The settlement agreement requires that both newspapers stay in business under separate control. The DOJ also stated that the settlement agreement requires "the companies to offer substantial discounts of the Charleston Daily Mail in order to rebuild its subscriber base".

The DOJ's position fails to recognize that print city newspapers are experiencing declining sales and subscriptions, and declining advertising revenues, and in some cases are going out of business, because of competition from other media, and methods of dissemination of information, including those that make use of the internet.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) similarly continues to regulate media ownership as if there were not an abundance of news media.

Antitrust law provides that the DOJ must now publish a competitive impact statement and solicit public comment.

The settlement agreement must also be approved by the District Court.

The District Court noted in a June 19, 2008, Memorandum Opinion and Order that "Many daily newspapers find it increasingly difficult to compete in a media market so radically altered by the shift of readers and advertising dollars to the Internet." However, the District Court denied the defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint.

This case is U.S.A. v. Daily Gazette Company and MediaNews Group, Inc., U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Charleston Division, D.C. No. 2:07-0329.

1/19 Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke gave a speech in which he discussed innovation. This speech was similar to his January 7 speech.

He said on January 19 that in recent years, "Instead of working to engineer a breakthrough technology or build a great company; too many of our brightest minds were busy engineering credit default swaps."

Instead, said Locke (at right), "we need to encourage the right kind of risk-taking -- the type of risk-taking that allows successful entrepreneurs to build companies and discover technologies that allow people around the world to live wealthier, healthier and more productive lives."

He stated that the Obama administration is doing this, for example, by supporting a legislative increase in loan guarantees, by advocating reducing "to zero the capital gains on investments in small or startup businesses", and by advocating making the "research experimentation tax credit permanent".

Locke also said that the U.S. "create a better ecosystem for innovation".

On January 7, 2010, he gave a speech in which he argued that the way to promote innovation is to increase federal government spending on research and development (R&D). See, story titled "Locke Wants for More Government R&D Spending" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,034, January 7, 2010.

In his January 19 speech, he argued again that the US needs to improve the "public and private research and development system". He said that the Obama administration is pursuing this through more federal spending.

He also made vague appeals for "focused research", connecting ideas with entrepreneurs, and creating incentives.

And, he announced that on February 24, 2010, the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship will hold a forum "on the roles of universities in innovation, economic development, job creation, and commercialization of federally funded research".

1/20. The Senate approved the nomination of Beverly Martin to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by a vote of 97-0. See, Roll Call No. 1.

1/20. Erroll Southers withdrew from consideration to be head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Among the objections cited by his opponents was his violation of individual privacy. As a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent he accessed government databases to conduct background checks for personal purposes. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) stated in a release that "Americans deserve a leader at TSA with integrity and with an unwavering commitment to putting security ahead of politics. The White House never responded to requests for more information relating to Mr. Southers false testimony to Congress and his censure by the FBI for improperly accessing files. And Mr. Southers was never forthcoming about his intentions to give union bosses veto power over security decisions at our airports."

1/19. Republican Scott Brown won the special election to the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate previously held by Ted Kennedy.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. The House will consider non-technology related items. See, Rep. Hoyer's schedule for the week of January 18.

The Senate will meet at 9:30 AM. It will resume consideration of HJRes 45, the debt limit extension bill

9:00 - 11:00 AM. The House Intelligence Committee (HIC) will hold a closed hearing titled "Cybersecurity Threats". Location: Room HVC 304, Capitol Building.

9:00 AM - 3:00 PM. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Clinical Operations' Vocabulary Task Force will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Pages 368-369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

9:30 AM. The Senate Banking Committee (SBC) will hold a hearing on numerous nominations, including those of Kevin Wolf and David Mills (to be Assistant Secretaries of Commerce for Export Enforcement) and Suresh Kumar (to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service). See, notice. Location: Room 538, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee's (HCC) Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet will meet to mark up HR 3125 [LOC | WW], the "Radio Spectrum Inventory Act", and HR 3019 [LOC | WW], the "Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act Of 2009". See, notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold an executive business meeting. The agenda includes consideration of the nominations of Rogeriee Thompson to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, and James Wynn and Albert Diaz to be Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. See, notice. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

POSTPONED. 10:00 AM. The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing titled "Japanese and South Korean Barriers to U.S. Auto Imports". See, notice. Location: Room 1100, Longworth Building.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host an panel discussion of "likely legislative developments relating to intellectual property". The speakers will be Capitol Hill staff. The price to attend ranges from $15 to $45. Most DC Bar events are not open to the public. Reporters are barred from this event. See, notice. For more information, call 202-626-3463. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1101 K St., NW.

EXTENDED FROM JANUARY 7. Deadline to submit comments to the Executive Office of the President's (EOP) Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) regarding public access to archived publications resulting from research funded by federal science and technology agencies. See, notice of extension in the Federal Register, December 31, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 250, at Pages 69368-69370.

The House may meet at 9:00 AM for legislative business. See, Rep. Hoyer's schedule for the week of January 18.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Privacy & Security Policy Workgroup will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Page 369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Annual Seminar Committee will host a brown bag lunch for planning purposes. Location: Wiley Rein, 1776 K St., NW.

Deadline to submit comments or objections to the Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJ) in response to their notice of proposed rulemaking regarding minimum fees for webcasters. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 23, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 245, at Pages 68214-68215, and story titled "Copyright Royalty Judges Announce NPRM on Webcaster Fees" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,027, December 24, 2009.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Public Notice (PN) [3 pages in PDF] requesting comments on the Petition for Reconsideration or Clarification [16 pages in PDF] of the FCC's Declaratory Ruling (DR) regarding cell towers citing requests and 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B). The DR is FCC 09-99 in WT Docket No. 08-165. The PN is DA 09-2629 in WT Docket No. 08-165. See also, stories titled "FCC Adopts Declaratory Ruling Regarding State and Local Tower Siting Procedures" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,017, November 23, 2009, and "State and Local Government Groups Seek Revision of FCC Tower Citing Application Shot Clock" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,029, December 29, 2009. See also, notice in the Federal Register, January 11, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 6, at Pages 1382-1383.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft SP 800-126 Rev. 1 [71 pages in PDF] titled "The Technical Specification for the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP): SCAP Version 1.1".

1:00 - 2:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a program titled "Privacy and Data Security Relating to Medical Records". The speakers will include Loretta Garrison of the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. The ABA will teleconference this event. It is free and open to the public. See, notice.

2:00 - 3:30 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) World Radiocommunication Conference 12 Advisory Committee's (WRC-12 AC) Informal Working Group 1: Maritime, Aeronautical and Radar Services will hold a meeting. See, notice [PDF]. Location: FCC, South Conference Room (8th Floor, Room 8-B516), 445 12th St., SW.

Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Computer Security Division (CSD) regarding its draft NIST IR-7657 [32 pages in PDF] titled "Privilege Management".

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) [31 pages in PDF] regarding empowering "parents to help their children take advantage of the opportunities offered by evolving electronic media technologies while at the same time protecting children from the risks inherent in use of these technologies". This NOI is FCC 09-94 in MB Docket No. 09-194. The FCC adopted this NOI on October 22, 2009, and released it on October 23, 2009. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 24, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 225, at Pages 61308-61316.

Deadline to submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) on trade related intellectual property, e-commerce, competition, procurement, and other issues being negotiated for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 16, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 240, at Pages 66720-66722. See also, story titled "OUSTR Seeks Comments on IP and Tech Issues for Negotiation of Trans Pacific Trade Agreement" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,026, December 22, 2009.

9:00 - 10:30 AM. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel discussion titled "Info-communism: A progressive path forward or a political and intellectual dead end?". The speakers will be Robert Atkinson (ITIF), Milton Mueller (Syracuse University), and Patrick Ross (Copyright Alliance). See, notice. Location: ITIF, Suite 610, 1101 K St., NW.

9:00 AM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee (SITAC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 11, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 6, Page 1339. Location: DOC, Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th Street between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues,  NW.

10:00 AM. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing titled "Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack". See, notice. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Implementation Workgroup will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Pages 368-369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

3:00 - 5:00 PM. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Privacy & Security Workgroup will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Pages 368-369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

TIME? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will host a seminar for chief compliance officers. See, SEC release.

TIME? The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host the fifth of five public workshops regarding amending the Horizontal Merger Guidelines (HMG). See, DOJ release, FTC list of questions, and FTC HMG Project web site. See also, stories titled "Antitrust Division and FTC May Amend Horizontal Merger Guidelines" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1987, September 23, 2009, and "DOJ's Shapiro Discusses Upcoming Revisions to Horizontal Merger Guidelines" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,015, November 16, 2009. Location: FTC Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Ave., NW.

Deadline to submit comments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regarding its document titled "Special Trademark Issues Review Team Recommendations". See, notice.

8:00 AM - 4:30 PM. The Center for Democracy and Technology's (CDT) Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee will host its annual conference titled "State of the Net Conference". The scheduled speakers include Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Brian Roberts (Ch/CEO of Comcast), Robert Katz (USDOJ Antitrust Division), and Edward Tsang Lu (Google). There will be panels titled "Online Copyright Piracy", "Antitrust in the Internet Era", "Cyber Security and Cyber War", "Legislating Online Privacy", "Internet Global Freedom", "Can the Internet Save the Planet with Smart Grid?", and "The Liability Exemption of ISPs: Can Section 230 Hold Up Under Pressure?". See, notice. Prices vary. Location: Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW.

9:00 - 10:30 AM. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel discussion titled "Explaining International Intelligent Transportation Systems Leadership". The speakers will be Robert Atkinson (ITIF), Stephen Ezell (ITIF) and Scot Belcher (ITS America). See, notice. This event is fee and open to the public. Location: ITIF, Suite 610, 1101 K St., NW.

9:30 AM. The U.S. Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument en banc in Speechnow.org v. FEC, App. Ct. No. 08-5223.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a program titled "Irreparable Harm and Other Presumptions in Lanham Act Advertising Cases After eBay". The Supreme Court's May 15, 2006, opinion [12 pages in PDF] in eBay v. MercExchange, held that the traditional four factor framework that guides a court's decision whether to grant an injunction applies in patent cases; but, the Supreme Court did not address Lanham Act cases in that opinion. See, story titled "Supreme Court Rules on Availability of Injunctive Relief in Patent Cases" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,371, May 16, 2006. The speakers will be David Bernstein (Debevoise & Plimpton), Rebecca Tushnet (Georgetown University law school), and Richard Leighton (Keller & Heckman). The ABA will teleconference this event. It is free and open to the public. See, notice.

Deadline to submit comments to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) regarding its Draft Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Model for new generic top-level domains. See, notice.

9:00 AM - 12:00 PM. The Department of State's (DOS) Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP) will meet. The topics on the agenda include "upcoming international telecommunications meetings and conferences ... bilateral and multilateral meetings that have taken place recently ... future generation communications technology issues, international market access, Internet governance, ICT development issues, international spectrum requirements and harmonization, cyber-security, and data protection and privacy". See, notice in the Federal Register, January 6, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 3, at Pages 881-882. The deadline to request permission to attend is 5:00 PM on January 26. Location: Room 1107, Truman Building, 2201 C St., NW.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Meaningful Use Workgroup will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Page 369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a program titled "HITECH Act: Avoiding Penalties in a High Penalty World and the Evolution of Business Associates". Division B, Title IV, of HR 1 [LOC | WW], the huge spending bill enacted in February of 2009, is the "Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act" or "HITECH Act". The ABA will teleconference and webcast this event. Prices vary. It is open to the public. See, notice.

12:15 - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will host an event titled "New Year, New (FCC) Media". The speakers will be the FCC's Haley VanDyck, Bill Cline, and Gray Brooks. They will discuss the FCC's web site titled "reboot.fcc.gov". For more information, contact Jennifer Walker at jmayer at fh-law dot com. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) asserts that this is an FCBA event. Location: FCC, Conference Room 2-B516, 445 12th St., SW.

2:00 - 4:00 PM. The Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONCHIT) Clinical Quality Workgroup will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, January 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 2, at Pages 368-369. The DHHS will webcast this meeting. The webcast is open to the public. The physical location of the meeting is closed to the public. Written comments are due two days prior to the meeting.

Day one of a two day event titled "Republican Conference Issues Conference". See, 2010 House calendar.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) [25 pages in PDF] regarding universal service and the High-Cost Universal Service Support. The FCC adopted and released this FNPRM on December 15, 2009. It is FCC 09-112 in CC Docket No. 96-45 and WC Docket No. 05-337. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 29, 2009, Vol. 74, No. 248, at Pages 68763-68774, and story titled "FCC Releases FNPRM Regarding High Universal Support" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,027, December 24, 2009.

Tech Law Journal publishes a free access web site and a subscription e-mail alert. The basic rate for a subscription to the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert is $250 per year for a single recipient. There are discounts for subscribers with multiple recipients.

Free one month trial subscriptions are available. Also, free subscriptions are available for journalists, federal elected officials, and employees of the Congress, courts, and executive branch. The TLJ web site is free access. However, copies of the TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert are not published in the web site until two months after writing.

For information about subscriptions, see subscription information page.

Tech Law Journal now accepts credit card payments. See, TLJ credit card payments page.

TLJ is published by David Carney
Contact: 202-364-8882.
carney at techlawjournal dot com
P.O. Box 4851, Washington DC, 20008.

Privacy Policy
Notices & Disclaimers
Copyright 1998-2010 David Carney. All rights reserved.