12/15. The House passed S 30 [LOC | WW], the "Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009", by voice vote. The Senate passed it on February 23, 2010. It is now ready for the President's signature.

This bill amends 47 U.S.C. § 227 to provide that "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, in connection with any telecommunications service or IP-enabled voice service, to cause any caller identification service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value, unless such transmission is exempted ..."

It adds that "Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict any person from blocking the capability of any caller identification service to transmit caller identification information."

It also requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to write implementing regulations within six months.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on December 7, 2010, regarding caller ID information. See, story titled "FTC Releases Advance NPRM on Caller ID Information" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,273, December 9, 2010.

The bill also provides for criminal prosecution for persons who "willfully and knowingly" violate the prohibition. It also provides for enforcement by states.

The House previously passed related bills.

The House Commerce Committee's (HCC) Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet (SCTI) marked up HR 1258 [LOC | WW], the "Truth in Caller ID Act", on October 8, 2009. See, story titled "House Communications Subcommittee Approves Truth in Caller ID Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,000, October 9, 2009. The HCC marked it up on March 10, 2010. See, amendment in the nature of a substitute [4 pages in PDF], and story titled "House Commerce Committee Approves Truth in Caller ID Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,059, March 19, 2010. The full House passed it on April 15, 2010. However, the Senate did not pass it.

There is also a bill that takes the approach of criminal prohibition, HR 1110 [LOC | WW], the "Preventing Harassment through Outbound Number Enforcement Act of 2009" or "PHONE Act". The House passed that bill on December 16, 2009. However, the Senate did not pass it.

12/15. The House passed S 3386 [LOC | WW], the "Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act", by voice vote. The Senate has passed it. It is now ready for the President's signature.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced this bill on May 19, 2010. See, story titled "Sen. Rockefeller Introduces Bill to Regulate Aggressive Sales Tactics on Internet" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,086, May 21, 2010.

The SCC amended and approved it on June 19, 2010. See, story titled "Senate Commerce Committee Approves Bill to Regulate Aggressive Sales Tactics on Internet" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,096, June 17, 2010.

Sen. Rockefeller stated after House passage that "This legislation provides new standards that make sure businesses can’t bill online shoppers for services they did not want to buy." See, release.

See also, story titled "Sen. Rockefeller Discusses His Bill to Regulate Internet Sales Practices" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,162, November 22, 2010.

The bill provides that "It shall be unlawful for any post-transaction third party seller to charge or attempt to charge any consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account for any good or service sold in a transaction effected on the Internet, unless ... before obtaining the purchaser’s billing information, the post-transaction third party seller has clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the purchaser all material terms of the transaction ... and ... the post-transaction third party seller has received the express informed consent for the charge from the consumer whose credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account will be charged by ... obtaining from the consumer ... the full account number of the account to be charged; and ...the consumer’s name and address and a means to contact the consumer; and ... requiring the consumer to perform an additional affirmative action, such as clicking on a confirmation button or checking a box that indicates the consumer’s consent to be charged the amount disclosed."

The bill also provides that "It shall be unlawful for an initial merchant to disclose a credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account number, or to disclose other billing information that is used to charge a customer of the initial merchant, to any post-transaction third party seller for use in an Internet-based sale of any goods or services from that post-transaction third party seller."

The bill also provides that "It shall be unlawful for any person to charge or attempt to charge any consumer for any goods or services sold in a transaction effected on the Internet through a negative option feature, unless ... before obtaining the purchaser’s initial agreement to participate in the negative option plan, the seller has clearly and conspicuously disclosed all material terms of the transaction ..."

Jonathan Liebowitz, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), stated in a release that "We're pleased Congress passed this legislation ... Too many companies are trying to use phony monthly billing to rip off Americans and this bill will help strengthen our hand.  Consumers should be able to make informed decisions, so the terms and conditions of any offer must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously."

12/14. Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech in which he advocated the importance of intellectual property enforcement, and stated that the Department of Justice's (DOJ) commitment "to combating IP crimes has never been stronger". He also discussed the DOJ's seizure of domain names in late November.

The DOJ and Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized 82 domain names of commercial websites engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works. See, story titled "DOJ and DHS Seize Domain Names of Web Sites Engaged in Infringing Sales" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,167 December 3, 2010.

Holder said that this was a "joint operation to disrupt the online sale of counterfeit goods and copyrighted media. Working together, ICE and DOJ executed seizure warrants against more than eighty Internet domain names that led to websites offering “bargain prices” for a diverse array of counterfeit goods. The deals, of course, were too good to be true."

He said that "By seizing these Internet domain names, we disrupted the sale of thousands of counterfeit items. We cut off funds to those seeking to profit from the sale of illegal goods -- and willing to exploit the ingenuity of others. Perhaps most important, we reminded consumers to exercise caution when looking for deals and discounts online."

He also said that "The Internet remains a haven for illegal pharmacies and other operations that pose a danger to the American people, and we need a concerted, collaborative effort to put these illegal operations out of business."

12/15. Officials of the U.S. and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are holding closed meetings of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) this week in Washington DC.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) stated in a December 15 release that "China committed to allocate sufficient budgets and implement a software asset management system to ensure that its government agencies use legal software in this week’s ministerial sessions of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). US and Chinese officials will work over the next 30 days to develop a sustainable way of verifying that China is complying with these commitments. China also announced its intent to promote legal software use in enterprises through a pilot project involving 30 major, state-owned companies."

However, the BSA added that "objective sales and export figures will serve as the ultimate indication China is successfully reducing its unacceptably high rate of software piracy".

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) issued a release on December 14 in which it praised the December 13, 2010, report of the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), and urged those participating in the JCCT meeting to take account of its findings.

See, USITC report [196 pages in PDF] titled "China: Intellectual Property Infringement, Indigenous Innovation Policies, and Frameworks for Measuring the Effects on the U.S. Economy". See also, story titled "USITC Releases First Report on IPR Infringement in the PRC" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,178, December 14, 2010.

12/6. The extended deadline to submit comments to the Department of Commerce's (DOC) National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in its notice of inquiry proceeding regarding the global free flow of information on the internet was December 6, 2010.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) submitted a comment [24 pages in PDF] in which it argued that information discrimination, such as that practiced by the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a form of protectionism -- a classic non-tariff trade barrier.

The CCIA wrote that the US "is an information economy, and U.S. companies are leading vendors of information products and services. In this context, information discrimination by other countries fundamentally undermines U.S. economic interests, including the interests of U.S. companies seeking to access foreign markets and those engaged in electronic commerce. Filtering American content and services has the effect of diminishing American competition, and combating it should be a priority."

It argued that "Information discrimination represents a classic ``non-tariff trade barrier´´, constitutes an unfair ``rule of origin´´ by filtering out (through a non-transparent process) U.S. originating content such as certain U.S. domains deemed “subversive”, and violates the fundamental free trade principle of ``national treatment´´ to U.S. services and service providers. By treating foreign firms differently than domestic firms, offending governments create barriers to market entry that would not otherwise exist, creating advantages for domestic firms and disadvantages for foreign competitors. Such advantages range from intentionally redirecting Internet traffic from foreign sites to domestic sites, to using filtering technology that cause foreign-based services to be degraded for domestic users."

The CCIA stated the the US government should "take steps to work with foreign governments and multilateral organizations to fully enforce existing trade agreements; close gaps in existing trade agreements in the area of Internet communications and trade; and negotiate stronger rules in future trade agreements to protect e-commerce, limit ISP liability, and stop Internet censorship."

See also, Google's November 15, 2010, paper [25 pages in PDF] titled "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information", and story titled "Google Releases Paper on Global Free Flow of Information on Internet" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,160 November 19, 2010.

See also, stories titled "NTIA Seeks Comments on Governments' Restrictions of Free Flow of Information on the Internet" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,137, October 1, 2010, and "NTIA Extends Comment Period for NOI on Global Free Flow of Information on Internet" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,160 November 19, 2010.

12/15. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) issued a statement regarding the US Korea free trade agreement: "Please note that Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler and Korean Deputy Trade Minister Choi Seok-young will meet in Seattle, Washington, December 17-19 to work on legal text for the recently concluded accompanying agreement to the U.S.-Korea trade agreement."

12/14. The European Commission issued a release that states EC Trade Commissioner Karol De Gucht, EC Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes, and others will meet with Canadian and US officials on December 14-17, 2010.

12/9. President Obama said that Russia belongs in the World Trade Organization (WTO). He stated in a speech on December 9, 2010, at a meeting of the President's Export Council (PEC), that "I believe that Russia belongs in the WTO and that we should support all efforts to make that happen. I think President Medvedev is doing important work trying to reform and move Russia forward on a whole host of issues, and I told him that the United States would be a partner with him in that effort. Welcoming Russia to the WTO would be good for them; it would also be good for us and good for the global economy.

12/15. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) released a paper [34 MB PDF file] titled "Speed Matters: Affordable High Speed Internet for America". It contains a ranking of states by broadband data rates. It also advocates network neutrality.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech on December 15 in which he praised the CWA and its paper.

The CWA paper states that "We must protect free speech on the Internet so that people can go where they want and download or upload what they want when they want on the Internet."

It asserts that "There is now a consensus around a set of policies that would protect an open Internet, spur investment, innovation, and job creation. The consensus position includes these elements: wireline broadband Internet access providers should not block lawful content, applications, or services, or prohibit the use of non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management; wireline broadband providers should not unjustly or unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful traffic (which means they could not negotiate exclusive deals with application, service, or content providers); wireless broadband Internet access providers should not block access to any website, nor any competitive voice or video application; all broadband Internet access providers should provide information regarding price, performance (including actual speed), and network management practices; and the FCC would enforce these provisions on a complaint driven case-by-case basis." (Parentheses in original.)

It continues that "The FCC estimates that it will cost $350 billion to build truly high-speed networks capable of 100 megabits per second to every corner of our nation. Private capital will largely fund those investments. In order to pay for these enormous investments, network operators must be able to sell specialized services such as video and to manage their networks efficiently."

12/15. The Technology Policy Institute (TPI) released a paper titled "Residential and Business Broadband Prices Part 2: International Comparisons". The authors are the TPI's Scott Wallsten and James Riso. See also, TPI release.

This paper states that it "decomposes broadband prices and compares price levels and changes across OECD countries using a unique dataset of more than 25,000 residential and business broadband plans. We find that residential prices fell in many OECD countries between 2007 and 2009. In the United States, meanwhile, they have remained fairly constant. Business prices in the U.S., however, decreased by 15-25 percent during this time period."

It also states that "Prices for standalone broadband service in the U.S. lay at about the middle of OECD countries, while prices for triple play plans are among the most expensive."

This paper is the second of two by Wallsten and Riso on this subject. See also, paper titled "Residential and Business Broadband Prices Part 1: An Empirical Analysis of Metering and Other Price Determinants".

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business. The House may consider HR 4853 [LOC | WW], the vehicle for extending certain expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit. The Senate approved this bill on December 15. The House may also consider HR 3082 [LOC | WW], which contains further continuing appropriations for FY 2011, technology related provisions, and the Food Safety Enhancement Act.

The Senate will meet at 9:30 AM. It will consider the START treaty.

8:00 AM - 2:00 PM. The Atlantic and Government Executive will host an event titled "Cyber Security Forum". See, notice. Location: National Press Club,13th Floor, 529 14th St. NW.

9:30 AM - 5:00 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) North American Numbering Council (NANC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 30, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 229, at Pages 74051-74052. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room (Room TW-C305), 445 12th St., SW.

9:30 AM. The House Judiciary Committee (HJC) will hold a hearing titled "Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks". See, notice. The HJC will webcast this event. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.

9:30 AM - 4:00 PM. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Right Division (CRD) will hold a hearing regarding its four notice of proposed rulemakings (NPRMs) that propose to expand the scope of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to regulate certain communications and information technologies. See, story titled "DOJ/CRD Releases Advance NPRMs Proposing Expansion of ADA" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,111, July 26, 2010. Location: U.S. Access Board, 1331 F St., NW.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) will host a lunch. The speaker will be Erwin Chemerinsky. The topic will be "Approaches to First Amendment regulations with the distinctions between traditional mediums disappearing with a lot of discussion of the Fox indecency case". The price to attend ranges from $25 to $40. See, registration form. Registrations and cancellations are due by 12:00 NOON on December 14. Location: Hogan Lovells, 555 13th St., NW.

5:30 - 7:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Homeland Security and Emergency Communications Committee will host an event titled "Holiday Happy Hour Mentoring Opportunity for Young Lawyers. The speakers will include James Barnett (Chief of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau). For more information, contact Jeff Cohen at jeff dot cohen at mail dot house.gov or Mark Brennan at mark dot brennan at hoganlovells dot com. Location: Mandarin Hotel, Empress Lounge, 1330 Maryland Ave., SW.

TIME? U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and European Commissioner for Trade Karel DeGucht will hold a closed meeting. See, OUSTR calendar.

TIME? Miriam Sapiro (Deputy USTR) will hold a closed meeting with the member companies of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC). See, OUSTR calendar.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [58 pages in PDF] regarding universal service subsidies and certain 3G and next generation wireless services. The FCC adopted and released this item on October 14, 2010. It is FCC 10-182 in WT Docket No. 10-208. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 1, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 210, at Pages 67060-67077. See also, story titled "FCC Adopts NPRM Regarding Universal Service Subsidies for 3G and Next Generation Wireless" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,142, October 19, 2010.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding expanding the FCC's universal service program to subsidize certain 3G and next generation wireless services. The FCC calls this its "Mobility Fund". The FCC adopted and released this item on October 14, 2010. It is FCC 10-182 in WT Docket No. 10-208. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 12, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 218, Page 69374-69395. See also, story titled "FCC Adopts NPRM Regarding Universal Service Subsidies for 3G and Next Generation Wireless" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,142, October 19, 2010.

The House may meet at 9:00 AM for legislative business. The schedule for the week also includes HR 4853 [LOC | WW], the vehicle for extending certain expiring tax provisions. See, Rep. Hoyer's notice.

10:00 AM. Deadline for foreign governments to submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) regarding its Special 301 out of cycle review of the Philippines and Thailand. These reviews pertain to identifying 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. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 12, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 218, at Pages 69519-69520.

11:00 AM. The Broadcasting Board of Governors will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 13, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 238, at Page 77613. Location: Cohen Building, Room 3321, 330 Independence Ave., SW.

12:00 NOON. Deadline to submit initial comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) regarding its review of the operation, effectiveness, and implementation of and compliance with various telecommunications agreements, including the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 18, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 222, at Pages 70770-70771.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) regarding the appropriate date for the termination of analog operations in the low power television and Class A television services. The FCC adopted and released this item on September 17, 2010. This item is FCC 10-172 in MB Docket No. 03-185. See, notice in the Federal Register, October 18, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 200, at Pages 63766-63773.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding assignment of telephone numbers associated with internet based Telecommunications Relay Service (iTRS), Video Relay Service (VRS) and IP Relay. The FCC adopted this item on September 16, 2010, and released the text on September 17. It is FCC 10-161 in CG Docket No. 03-123, WC Docket No. 05-196, and WC Docket No. 10-191. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 2, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 211, at Pages 67333-67341.

Rep. John Boehner's (R-OH) office announced on December 14 that "Members are advised it is possible the House could be in session and voting into the weekend".

EXTENDED TO JANUARY 31. Deadline to submit initial comments to the Library of Congress's (LOC) Copyright Office (CO) in response to its Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding federal coverage of sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 3, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 212, at Pages 67777-67781. This proceeding is LOC Docket No. 2010-4. See also, story titled "Library of Congress Issues NOI on Extending Copyright Act to Pre 1972 Sound Recordings" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,150, November 8, 2010. See also, extension notice in the Federal Register, December 1, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 230, at Pages 74749-74750.

10:30 AM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold an event titled "open meeting". The agenda [PDF] includes adoption of two items: broadband internet access service (BIAS) rules and a 911 notice of inquiry (NOI). See, story titled "FCC Releases Agenda for December 21 Meeting" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,179, December 15, 2010. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St., SW.

12:00 NOON - 2:00 PM. The DC Bar Association will host an event titled "False Patent Marking: Now What?". The speakers will be Elizabeth Winston (Catholic University law school), Robert Shaffer (Finnegan), Maureen Browne (Covington & Burling). See, 35 U.S.C. § 292, regarding false marking. See also, the December 28, 2009, opinion [16 pages in PDF] of the U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) in The Forest Group, Inc. v. Bon Tool Company construing Section 292. See also, HR 4954 [LOC | WW]], an untitled bill, and HR 6352 [LOC | WW], the "Patent Lawsuit Reform Act of 2010"; both would amend Section 292; the House has passed neither. And see, story titled "Representatives Introduce Bill to Amend Patent Act Regarding Remedies for False Markings" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,067, March 30, 2010. The price to attend ranges from $40 to $55. For more information, contact 202-626-3463. See, notice. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, B-1 Level, 1250 H St., NW.

No events listed.

No events listed.

2/15. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in its final week before adoption of its report and order regarding the regulation of broadband internet access services (BIAS).

The Public Knowledge (PK), a Washington DC based interest group that advocates reclassification of broadband internet access service (BIAS) as a Title II service, issued a statement on December 15 regarding AT&T, a BIAS provider that would prefer that the FCC refrain from any regulation in the internet space.

The PK stated that "On the first day of closed deliberations on the crucial Net Neutrality order, AT&T staff went through the Federal Communications Commission giving out dozens and dozens of cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes. Georgetown Cupcakes, which go for $29 per dozen. How much would these 1,530 cupcakes cost at retail price? $3,703."

The PK also released a spreadsheet listing the names of cupcake recipients at the FCC.

AT&T's Robert Quinn responded with a statement in the AT&T web site. "It's Christmas. It's time to make merry. It's time for some cheer. Yet, inexplicably, Public Knowledge has suddenly adopted an anti-cupcake agenda. For many years AT&T has provided sweets to policymakers as well as journalists and others, who we work with daily. Used to be cookies, now it’s cupcakes. We just figured that after being served hot coffee and waffles the Commission was up for something sweeter. Perhaps Public Knowledge is just upset that we didn't send any to them. Well consider it done. They're on the way."

The Free Press (FP), another Washington DC based interest group that advocates reclassification, issued a release on September 30, 2010, in which it stated that "On Thursday morning, members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition cooked up a protest outside Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, greeting agency staffers on their way into work with a hot breakfast and an important message: ``Don't Waffle on Net Neutrality!´´"

The SavetheInternet.com Coaltion includes the PK on its list of members.

The FP release added that "We've tried all the traditional methods, including petitions, comments and phone calls, to tell the FCC to protect Net Neutrality, so this time we decided to resort to tastier tactics ... The waffles, replete with butter and syrup, were handed out in advance of the FCC's monthly open meeting".

Disclosure. TLJ has received no cupcakes from AT&T, and no waffles from the PK or FP. The author of this article did, however, eat two glazed donuts at a panel discussion on copyright law and policy last week. TLJ does not know who paid for the donuts.

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