House Bill Proposes FCC Regulation of
Internet Search Providers |
2/16. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced
HR 4504 [LOC |
WW], the
"Standards for Internet Non-Censorship Act of 2010", on January 26, 2010.
It has been over one month since Google announced that following cyber attacks on
its systems, and the systems of other companies, by the People's Republic of China (PRC),
for the purpose of surveilling "human rights activists", it is "no longer
willing to continue censoring" search results in the PRC, and that it may "shut
down Google.cn".
See, Google's January 12, 2010,
statement, and story titled "Google Accuses Red China of Cyber Attacks
Directed at Human Rights Activists" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,036, January
19, 2010.
See also, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's
speech of January
21, 2010, in which she stated that "Some countries have erected electronic barriers
that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world’s networks. They've
expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the
privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent political speech."
In the ensuing month there has not been a rush to file bills that propose
legislative solutions to protect global internet freedom. (Neither Google nor
Clinton proposed legislative or regulatory solutions.)
However, Rep. Foster has introduced a bill that grasps at several possible
approaches. He proposes to delegate legislative authority to the President -- to
write standards for internet search providers. He proposes that the "free"
nations of the world write international standards. Finally, he proposes that the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) write rules regulating internet search.
HR 4504 was referred to the House
Commerce Committee (HCC) and the
House Foreign Affairs
Committee (HFAC). Rep. Foster is a member of neither. He is a physicist who was
elected to the House in 2008. His bill is inexpertly drafted. The language of the bill
lends the appearance that Rep. Foster did not avail himself of drafting advice from the
Office of Legislative Counsel.
This bill states that it is the sense of the Congress that both the President of the
U.S. and a "coalition of free countries" should set internet search standards.
First, the bill urges the President "establish interim minimum standards of
non-censorship for Internet search providers and create programs to restrict access to
domestic online information by search providers determined to be censoring nonviolent
political speech".
Second, this bill urges that free countries should act in concert "to adopt
minimum standards for non-censorship of nonviolent political speech as a
condition for access to the Internet".
Third, the bill provides that the FCC "may" adopt regulations that
"restrict repressive Internet search providers from accessing domestic online
information". The bill further provides that the FCC may prevent "any other
person or entity from colluding to evade such regulations".
The bill defines "domestic online information" as "Web sites, databases,
and other digital information that is housed or hosted on computers located in the United
States or any territory or possession of the United States". Taken literally, this
would preclude offending search providers in the U.S. from spidering web sites to create
the indices upon their search services are based.
The bill defines "repressive Internet search provider" as "an Internet
search provider that censors search results for the purpose of suppressing nonviolent
political speech".
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) and
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) are cosponsors of this
bill.
On February 4, 2010, Rep. Wu introduced a more focused and less ambitious bill that
addresses internet freedom. He and Rep. Frank Wolf
(R-VA) introduced HR 4595
[LOC |
WW],
the "Internet Freedom Act of 2010".
HR 4595 would create a body at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) titled "Internet Freedom Foundation", and authorize the
appropriation of funding. The purpose of this body would be to "promote Internet
freedom through education, advocacy, and research". This bill was referred to the
House Science Committee.
On Wednesday, February 24, 2010, at 10:00 AM, the Center
for Democracy and Technology (CDT) will host a news conference to discuss "the
global challenges to Internet freedom". The CDT will also teleconference this event.
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Public Knowledge Proposes Changes to
Copyright Law |
2/13. The Public Knowledge (PK) released a
first paper
[15 pages in PDF] titled "Introduction to the Copyright Reform Act", and a
second
paper [37 pages in PDF] titled "Report 1: Updating Fair Use for Innovators
and Creators in the Digital Age: Two Targeted Reforms".
The PK has not released the entire draft of its "Copyright Reform Act". Rather,
its first paper presents arguments in favor of changing copyright law, and
summaries of numerous proposals for changes to the U.S. Code.
The second paper contains the text of a few of the PK's proposed changes: a
statement of purposes for the Copyright Act, a broadening of the fair use
exemption, and limitations on the recovery of both statutory damages and costs and attorneys
fees from an infringer where the infringer has asserted the fair use defense.
The PK stated that it intends to release the rest of the text of its proposed
legislation, over time, piece by piece, with accompanying explanatory language.
The first paper was authored by Pan Lee, Daniel Park, Allen Wang, and
Jennifer Urban of the UC Berkeley. The second paper was authored by Urban.
These legislative proposals contained in these papers, and forthcoming PK
papers, are likely an exercise in public debate. There is not likely to be
sufficient support in the current Congress to enact these proposals. Indeed,
some were included in bills introduced in prior Congresses, but did not advance.
Introductory Paper. This first paper argues that "the recent speed and
unpredictability of technological advances have sometimes outpaced the courts' ability
to address all of the relevant issues reactively through common law".
It further argues that "copyright policy debates have long been influenced by
entrenched interests protecting traditional distribution models, who have argued
for ever-longer copyright terms, ever-greater penalties for infringement, and
more severe limitations on use". (Footnotes omitted.)
This paper then proposes in broad strokes numerous changes to law. Most of
these changes would affect the Copyright Act, which is codified in Title 17.
However, the PK also proposes to amend the Federal Trade Commission Act, which
is codified in Title 15. The PK's first paper is not clear as to whether it will
propose changes to the criminal copyright infringement provisions of Title 18.
(The PK proposes changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Some
persons assert that the DMCA is not a part of the Copyright Act.)
First, this paper proposes "extending the list of explicitly favored uses in
the preamble to section 107 of the Copyright Act to include incidental uses,
non-consumptive uses, and uses that are both personal and non-commercial".
17 U.S.C. § 107 codifies the fair use exemption.
Second, the paper also proposes changes to
17 U.S.C. § 504 and
17 U.S.C. § 505, regarding the award of damages for copyright infringement, and the
award of cost and attorneys fees, respectively.
Third, it proposes that "incidental or transient copies necessary to
technological processes, such as running computer programs, transmissions over a network,
or other automatic processes, should not be considered infringements of copyright".
Fourth, it proposes that "copies of works made by a service
provider for the purposes of developing or maintaining information location
tools should not be considered infringements of copyright".
Fifth, it proposes amending the DMCA "to allow the use or
distribution of circumvention tools for solely non-infringing uses". This
would create a broader exemption than that proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA)
in the 107th, 108th, 109th and 110th Congresses. None of his bills were approved
by either the House or Senate, or any committee of either body. See,
story
titled "Rep. Boucher Introduces FAIR USE Act" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 1,545, February 28, 2007.
Sixth, it proposes that "the Federal Trade Commission Act and DMCA should be
updated to prohibit unfair and deceptive copyright notices and to require notice
of contractual or technological restrictions. Rights holders should not be
allowed to deceptively claim limitations that are not actually imposed by the
law, and should accurately describe any limitations imposed by contract or
technological measures."
Seventh, it proposed that the music licensing system be reformed.
Paper Regarding Fair Use, Damages, Costs and Attorneys Fees. The second paper
released by the PK offers actual statutory language regarding the purposes of the Copyright
Act, fair use, damages, and costs and attorneys fees.
First, the PK proposes statutory language setting forth the purposes of the
Copyright Act. These are as folllows:
"(1) to further innovation, to protect copyright holders, and to ensure
consumer access to new technologies;
(2) to protect the creative endeavors of artists and innovators from the
chilling effect of abusive practices, such as misrepresentation of the scope of
copyrights or the scope of lawful use;
(3) to improve the adequacy of information available to consumers, to prevent
deception, and to improve competition in the marketplace;
(4) to foster the delivery of nondramatic musical works through new
technological channels, to strengthen competition in the market for music, and
to assure that copyright holders reap the benefits of technological change by
clarifying the rights implicated by the digital transmission of such works and
by creating a simplified regime for licensing of such works; and
(5) to promote the fair use of copyrighted works, to enable the development of
information location tools, and to encourage creative building upon existing
works."
Second, the PK proposes amending the language of Section 107, regarding fair
use, so that it would
read as follows (with the new language shown in bold
and in red):
"Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a
copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by
any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment,
news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
or research, or a use that is incidental, non-consumptive, or both
noncommercial and personal; is not an infringement of copyright. In determining
whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be
considered shall include--
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a
commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted
work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use
if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors."
This proposal contains three far reaching changes.
The PK's discussion of "incidental" offers examples where the copying is
accidental and de minimis, such as a few seconds of music playing in the
background of a family video. However, the PK offers no definition of the term
"incidental" that would limit it to these circumstances.
Non-consumptive uses would encompass, for example, many of the uses of
copyrighted books made by Google in its Google Book Search service, and by
others who provide related services.
Exempting copying for "both commercial and personal" purposes would do much
to remove rights holders' ability to protect and commercially exploit their works. This
exemption would reduce the likelihood of litigation against consumers for copying works
in their homes which they do not then sell. But then, except for the music industry's
short lived and ill fated litigation campaign against peer to peer infringers, consumers
have had little to fear. On the other hand, this proposal would do much to protect those
business models that are built upon providing technologies to consumers that enable them
to copy protected works. Currently, rights holders can use copyright law, and various
theories of secondary liability, to pursue these commercial operations. However, their
liability is only secondary, and can only exist if the consumers who use their services
are primarily liable. If the consumer is not to be liable, as the PK proposes, then the
businesses that exploit copyrighted works cannot be held secondarily liable.
The PK could have offered a legislative proposal that offers relief to
consumers for their personal and non-commercial copying, without letting
businesses that induce infringement off the hook. But, it did not.
The PK next proposes to amend
17 U.S.C. § 504 regarding the award of damages for copyright infringement.
Subsection 504(c)(2) provides for the award of statutory damages of up to
$150,000 for willful infringement.
However, the statute currently adds that "The court shall remit statutory damages
in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his
or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107, if the infringer
was" either "an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational institution, library,
or archives" or "a public broadcasting entity".
The PK proposes to amend this provision so that it applies to anyone -- not just a
non-profit educational institution or public broadcaster. That is, a business that has
been found by the court to have infringed willfully and for commercial gain would be
entitled to this remiture if it had reasonable grounds for believing that its copying
was fair use.
Next, the PK proposes to amend
17 U.S.C. § 505, regarding the award of cost and attorneys fees to the
prevailing party, by adding the following language: "The court shall not award
costs or an attorney's fee to a copyright holder in any case where an infringer
believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his or her use of the
copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107."
There is asymmetry and imbalance in these proposals. That is, in litigation
in which the copyright holder and copier have reasonable grounds for believing
in the merits of their arguments regarding fair use, the PK proposal would offer
relief to the copier, but not to the rights holder.
Fair use is a fact intensive and legally complex issue over which the federal
courts have exclusive jurisdiction. These three factors render it enormously
expensive to litigate. Legal fees in a case that turns on fair use can run into
the millions of dollars. In many of these cases both sides have reasonable
grounds for believing in the merits of their arguments. Yet, the PK proposes that
the copier, but not the rights holder, be relieved of paying the other sides
costs and attorneys fees, if it loses.
This could create a perverse incentive for a copier's attorneys not only to
litigate fair use defenses, but to prolong the dispute, and run up the costs and attorneys
fees of both sides. The copier's attorney would enter into such litigation with
the expectation that its client would face a much reduced likelihood of having
to pay either statutory damages, or the other side's costs and attorneys fees if
it lost, but would still be able to ding the rights holder for its costs and
attorneys fees if it prevailed.
The PK could have offered a balanced legislative proposal that offers relief to both
copiers and rights holders in good faith disputes regarding fair use. But, it did not.
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More Intellectual Property
News |
2/8. The Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJ) published a
notice in the Federal
Register that announces, describes, recites, and sets the effective date (March 10,
2010) for, its regulations "governing the statutory minimum fees to be paid by
Commercial Webcasters under two statutory licenses, permitting certain digital
performances of sound recordings and the making of ephemeral recordings, for the period
beginning January 1, 2006, and ending on December 31, 2010." See, Federal Register,
February 8, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 25, at Pages 6097-6098.
2/3. The Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJ) published a
notice in the
Federal Register that announces, describes, recites, and sets the effective date
(March 5, 2010) for, its regulations "governing the rates for the preexisting
satellite digital audio radio services' use of the ephemeral recordings
statutory license under the Copyright Act for the period 2007 through 2012".
See, Federal Register, February 3, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 22, at Pages 5513-5514.
2/1. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
published a notice in the
Federal Register in which it announced that it has extended, through June 30, 2010, its
temporary program titled "Patent Application Backlog Reduction Stimulus
Plan". The USPTO notice explains that "a small entity applicant may have an
application accorded special status for examination if the applicant expressly abandons
another copending unexamined application. The Patent Application Backlog Reduction
Stimulus Plan allows small entity applicants having multiple applications currently
pending before the USPTO to have greater control over the priority with which their
applications are examined while also stimulating a reduction of the backlog of
unexamined patent applications pending before the USPTO." See, Federal Register,
February 1, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 20, at Page 5041.
2/1. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
published a notice in the
Federal Register that states that it is modifying the computer program it uses to
calculate patent term adjustments in light of the January 7, 2010,
opinion [14
pages in PDF] of the U.S. Court of Appeals
(FedCir) in Wyeth v. Kappos. The USPTO stated that it "expects
to complete this software modification by March 2, 2010. In the meantime, the USPTO is
providing patentees with the ability to request a recalculation of their patent term
adjustment without a fee as an alternative to the petition and fee required by 37 CFR
1.705(d). In order to qualify, a form requesting a recalculation of the patent term
adjustment must be submitted no later than 180 days after the patent has issued and the
patent must be issued prior to March 2, 2010. In addition, this procedure is only
available for alleged errors that are specifically identified in Wyeth. The USPTO is
deciding pending petitions under 37 CFR 1.705 in accordance with the Wyeth decision.
This notice also provides information concerning the Patent Application Information
Retrieval (PAIR) screen that displays the patent term adjustment calculation."
See, Federal Register, February 1, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 20, at Pages 5043-5045.
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In This
Issue |
This issue contains the following items:
• House Bill Proposes FCC Regulation of Internet Search Providers
• Public Knowledge Proposes Changes to Copyright Law
• More Intellectual Property News
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Washington Tech
Calendar
New items are highlighted in
red. |
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Wednesday,
February 17 |
The House will not meet the week of February 15-19, 2010. See, 2010
House calendar.
The Senate will not meet the week of February 15-19, 2010. See,
2010 Senate calendar.
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM. The The Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology's HIT Policy Committee will meet. See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 3, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 22, at Page 5595. Location:
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St., NW.
11:00 AM. The Consumer Federation of America
(CFA), Consumers Union (CU), Free Press (FP), Media Access Project (MAP), New America
Foundation (NAF), and Public Knowledge (PK) will host a news conference regarding the
Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) drafting of a document titled "National
Broadband Plan". Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
12:15 - 1:30 PM. The Federal
Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) International Telecommunications and Young
Lawyers Committees will host a brown bag lunch titled "Developing a Career in
International Communications". The speakers will be Steven Lett (Department of
State), John Giusti (Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor to FCC Commissioner Michael Copps),
Janet Hernandez (Telecommunications Management Group, Inc.), and Gonzalo de Dios
(Intelsat Corporation). For more information, contact Jennifer Hindin at jhindin at
wileyrein dot com or Micah Caldwell at mcaldwell at fh-law dot com. Location:
Wiley Rein, 10th floor, 1750 K
St., NW.
Day one of a two day conference hosted by the
Armed Forces Communications and Electronics
Association (AFCEA) titled "Federal Networks 2010". At 1:30 PM,
US-CERT acting Director Randy Vickers will speak on cybersecurity. See,
notice.
Location: Hilton McLean Tyson's Corner, 7920 Jones Branch Road, McLean, VA.
Day four of a four day event hosted by the
National Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners (NARUC) titled "Winter Committee Meetings". See,
notice.
Location: Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 9th St., NW.
Statutory deadline for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
to submit a report titled "National Broadband Plan", as required by
HR 1 [LOC |
WW]. FCC Chairman
Julius Genachowski stated in
letters
on January 7, 2010 that the FCC will complete this report on March 17, 2010.
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Thursday,
February 18 |
8:30 AM. Day one of a two day partially closed
meeting to the Bureau of Industry and
Security's (BIS) Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC).
This meeting will focus on deemed exports. See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 24, at Page 5952. Location:
Room 3884, Department of Commerce Hoover Building, 14th Street between
Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
North American Numbering Council
(NANC) will meet. See, FCC
notice and
notice in the Federal Register, January 28, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 18, at
Pages 4557-4558. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St., SW.
RESCHEDULED FROM FEBRUARY 11. 3:00 PM. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) will hold an event titled "Open Meeting".
Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St., SW.
EXTENDED FROM FEBRUARY 16. 5:00 PM. Deadline for all
commenters (except foreign governments) to submit comments to the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
(OUSTR) to assist it in making determinations that identify countries that deny
adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) or deny fair
and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection.
The OUSTR is required to make these Special 301 determinations by Section 182 of the
Trade Act of 1974, which is codified at 19 U.S.C. § 2242. See,
notice in the Federal
Register, January 15, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 10, at Pages 2578-2580. See,
notice of extension.
Deadline to submit reply comments on proposals to be
designated database administrator in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
white space proceeding. See,
Public
Notice [4 pages in PDF]. It is DA 09-2479 in ET Docket No. 04-186. See also, story
titled "FCC Requests Proposals to Be Designated White Spaces Database
Administrator" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,018, November 30, 2009.
Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM) regarding its e-rate program, and the "Protecting Children in the 21st
Century Act". See,
notice in the Federal Register, January 19, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 11, at Pages
2836-2843, and story titled "FCC Adopts E-Rate NPRM" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert
No. 2,011, November 9, 2009. The FCC adopted this NPRM on November 4, 2009, and
released the
text on November 5, 2009. It is FCC 09-96 in CC Docket No. 02-6.
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Friday,
February 19 |
8:30 AM. Day two of a two day partially closed
meeting to the Bureau of Industry and
Security's (BIS) Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC).
This meeting will focus on deemed exports. See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 5, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 24, at Page 5952. Location:
Room 3884, Department of Commerce Hoover Building, 14th Street between
Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.
5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the Executive Office of the
President's (EOP) Office of
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) regarding the "modernized electric grid",
and especially "issues related to Smart Grid implementation options, including the
ways in which each option would support open innovation in home energy services". See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 9, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 26, at Pages 6414-6416.
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Monday,
February 22 |
Deadline to submit reply 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 reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regarding what data fields are necessary in order to complete simple
wireline to wireline and intermodal ports within the one business day porting
interval mandated by the FCC. See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 1, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 20, at Pages 5013-5015. This
proceeding is WC Docket No. 07-244.
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Tuesday,
February 23 |
10:00 AM. The
Senate Finance Committee (SFC) will hold a hearing titled "Trade and
Tax Issues Relating to Small Business Job Creation". See,
notice.
Location: Room 215, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The
Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold a hearing titled "Are
Foreign Libel Lawsuits Chilling Americans' First Amendment Rights?" The
witnesses will be Kurt Wimmer
(Covington & Burling) and Bruce
Brown (Baker Hostetler). See,
notice.
Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
9:00 - 10:30 AM. The
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel
discussion titled "Preserving the Open Internet: Is a Consensus Emerging?".
The speakers will be Richard Bennett (ITIF), Link Hoewing (Verizon), Julius
Knapp (FCC), Paul Misener (Amazon), Morgan Reed (Association for Competitive
Technologies), and Rich Whitt (Google). See,
notice. The ITIF will
webcast this event. Location: ITIF, Suite 610A, 1101 K St., NW.
10:00 AM. The
Senate Commerce Committee
(SCC) will hold a hearing titled "Improving Energy Efficiency
Through Technology and Communications Innovation". Location:
Room 253, Russell Building.
12:00 - 1:30 PM. The
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel
discussion titled "Counterterrorism 2.0: Using IT to Connect the Dots".
The speakers will be Robert Atkinson (ITIF), Paul Rosenzweig (Red Branch Law and
Consulting) and Kim Taipale. Lunch will be served.
See, notice. This event is fee
and open to the public. Location: ITIF, Suite 610A, 1101 K St., NW.
12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC
Bar Association will host a closed lunch. The speaker will be Marybeth Peters,
Register of Copyright. The price to attend ranges from $55 to $65. 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: City Club of Washington at Franklin Square, 1300 I St., NW.
TIME CHANGE. 6:00 - 8:15 PM. The
DC Bar Association will host an event titled
"Protecting Content on the Internet". The speaker will be
Jay Westermeier (Finnegan
Henderson). The price to attend ranges from $89 to $129. Most DC Bar events are not
open to the public. See,
notice. This event qualifies for continuing legal education (CLE) credits.
For more information, call 202-626-3488. Location: DC Bar Conference
Center, 1101 K St., NW.
TIME? The American Bar
Association's (ABA) Section of Science and Technology Law will host a program
titled "Dangerous Curves Ahead: When Legal Ethics and Technology Collide".
The ABA will webcast and teleconference this event. See, notice for registration
and call in information.
EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 26. 5:00 PM. Deadline for
foreign governments to submit comments to the Office of
the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) to assist it in making determinations that
identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property
rights (IPR) or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on
intellectual property protection. The OUSTR is required to make these Special 301
determinations by Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, which is codified at 19 U.S.C. §
2242. See, notice in the
Federal Register, January 15, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 10, at Pages 2578-2580. See,
notice of extension.
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Wednesday,
February 24 |
8:30 AM - 5:15 PM. The Catholic University of America's (CUA)
Columbus School of Law will host a one day
conference titled "Implementing the National Broadband Plan: Perspectives
from Government, Industry and Consumers". Prices vary. See,
registration
form. Location: Wiley Rein, 1776 K
St., NW.
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. The The Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology's HIT Standards Committee will meet. See,
notice in the
Federal Register, February 3, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 22, at Pages 5595-5596. Location:
Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St., NW.
10:00 AM. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee
(SHSGAC) will hold a hearing titled "Department of Homeland Security's Budget
Submission for Fiscal Year 2011". The witness will be Janet Napolitano,
Secretary of Homeland Security. Location: Room 342, Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The
Center for Democracy and
Technology (CDT) will host a news conference to discuss "the
global challenges to Internet freedom". The CDT will also
teleconference this event. The call in number is 1-800-377-8846;
the participant code is 92 87 41 58#. Location: CDT, 11th floor,
1634 I St., NW.
2:00 PM. The
House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee's (HOGRC) Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and
National Archives will hold a hearing titled "The 2010 Census
Communications Contract: The Media Plan in Hard to Count Areas". See,
notice. Location: Room 2154, Rayburn Building.
2:00 PM. The
Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold
a hearing titled "Nominations". See,
notice. The SJC
will webcast this event. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
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