Obama Signs Patent,
Economic Espionage and Intelligence Authorization Bills |
1/14. President Obama signed three bills that
contain technology related provisions. First, he signed HR 6621
[LOC |
WW],
an untitled bill that would make numerous non-controversial changes to patent
law.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced
this bill on November 30, 2012. See, story titled "Rep. Smith Introduces
Patent Bill" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,487, December 10, 2012. The House passed this bill
on December 18. See, story titled "House Passes Rep. Smith's Patent Bill"
in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 4,494, December 19, 2012.
The Senate passed it on December 28, but deleted one controversial provision
regarding pre-GATT patent applications. The Senate passed a substitute amendment
offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA).
See, "Senate Amends and Passes Rep. Smith's Patent Bill" in TLJ Daily
E-Mail Alert No. 2,499, December 30, 2012. The House then passed the Senate
version on January 1, 2013. See, story titled "House Passes Smith Patent
Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,501, January 1, 2013.
Second, President Obama signed HR 6029
[LOC |
WW],
the "Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012,"
a bill to increase the maximum fines.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX),
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), and others
introduced this bill on June 27, 2012. See, story titled "Representatives
Introduce Bill to Increase Penalties for Economic Espionage" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 2,405, July 9, 2012. The House passed this bill on August 1.
See, story titled "House Passes Bill that Increases Penalties for Economic
Espionage" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,418, August 2, 2012.
The Senate amended and passed this bill on December 19, 2012. See, story
titled "Senate Passes Economic Espionage Penalties Bill" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,496, December 21, 2012. The House then passed this
Senate version on January 1, 2013. See, story titled "House Passes Senate
Version of Foreign and Economic Espionage Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012"
in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,501, January 1, 2013.
Third, President Obama signed S 3454
[LOC |
WW],
the "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013". See, White
House news office
release.
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DC Circuit Grants
Petitions for Review in Echostar v. FCC |
1/15. The U.S. Court of Appeals
(DCCir) issued its
opinion in
Echostar v. FCC, granting the petitions for review of the Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) encoding rules for satellite companies, and
vacating.
On December 19, 2002, fourteen consumer electronics companies and seven cable
operators announced that they entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
regarding a national plug and play standard between digital television (DTV)
products and digital cable systems. However, the MOU contemplated imposing
rules, not only on cable service providers, but all multichannel video
programming distributors (MVPDs). The FCC then implemented this MOU with
rules.
It issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) regarding a
proposed set of rules pertaining to plug and play cable compatibility. It
received comments. It then released a Second Report and Order and Second Further
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (R&O). This R&O was FCC 03-225 in CS Docket
97-80 and PP Docket 00-67. The FCC also later released an Order on Reconsideration
(OR).
See also, stories titled "FCC Seeks Comments on Cable TV Plug and Play
MOU" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 581, January 13, 2003, and "Comment Period Closes
in FCC's Plug and Play Cable Compatibility Rulemaking Proceeding" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 655, May 5, 2003, and "FCC Adopts Digital Plug and Play Cable
Compatibility Rules" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 737, September 11, 2003.
Echostar Satellite (now Dish Network) is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS)
service provider. It challenged both the R&O and OR on the grounds that they
impose encoding rules, which limit the means of encoding that cable and DBS
service providers may employ to prevent unauthorized access to their broadcasts.
Dish argued that the FCC lacked statutory authority to impose these encoding
rules on DBS service providers, and that they are arbitrary and capricious.
The Court of Appeals held that the FCC lacked
statutory authority to impose these encoding rules on DBS service providers. It
did not reach the arbitrary and capricious argument. The Court of Appeals
granted the petitions, and vacated.
The FCC argued that it had statutory authority under Section 629(a) of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, which is codified at
47 U.S.C. § 549(a).
It provides that the FCC "shall, in consultation with appropriate industry
standard-setting organizations, adopt regulations to assure the commercial
availability, to consumers of multichannel video programming and other services
offered over multichannel video programming systems, of converter boxes,
interactive communications equipment, and other equipment used by consumers to
access multichannel video programming and other services offered over
multichannel video programming systems, from manufacturers, retailers, and other
vendors not affiliated with any multichannel video programming distributor."
The Court wrote that "§ 629 provides no explicit textual basis for the
encoding rules", and the FCC's interpretation founders on the second step
of the test set by the Supreme Court in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural
Resources Development Council, 467 U.S. 837 (1984).
The FCC also argued that it had ancillary authority under Section 629 and
Section 624A of the Communications Act, which is codified at
47 U.S.C. § 544a,
which gives the FCC rule making authority with respect to compatibility between
electronics equipment and "cable systems".
The Court wrote that "The FCC contends the encoding rules are reasonably
ancillary to its mission of assuring the commercial availability of navigation
devices because they removed one of the ``stumbling blocks´´ to the consumer
electronics industry's production of such equipment for retail: the ``inability
of industry to agree on a comprehensive set of technical copy protection
measures and corresponding encoding rules´´ that would ``ensure the availability
of high value content to consumers in a protected digital environment.´´ ... Yet
by this standard, there is little the FCC could not regulate in the name of
fulfilling § 629's mandate."
The National Cable and Telecommunications
Association (NCTA) intervened in support of the FCC. It wrote in its
brief that
"Section 624A provides the Commission authority to adopt such rules with
respect to cable operators. If Section 629 means anything, it means that the
Commission now has authority to apply the same encoding rules to all MVPDs. On
that basis, the Court should affirm the encoding rules."
This case is Echostar Satellite LLC v. FCC and USA, respondents, and
National Cable and Telecommunications Association, intervenor, U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia, App. Ct. Nos. 04-1033 and 04-1109,
petitions for review of a final order of the FCC. Judge Brown wrote the opinion
of the Court of Appeals, in which Judge Randolph joined. Judge Edwards wrote a
concurring opinion.
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Aaron Schwartz Commits
Suicide |
1/11. Aaron Schwartz, a troubled young programmer who was facing criminal
charges related to hacking and theft of academic articles, hung himself.
He held a deep disrespect for intellectual property rights in works that
contain contributions to knowledge. He used his skills in programming, hacking,
breaking and entering, and online distribution to make available millions of
such works for free.
He stood apart from most other prosecuted hackers and copyright infringers
in several respects. For example, he focused on works that contributed to
knowledge, such as scientific and academic journal articles and judicial opinions,
rather than music, movies, games, and productivity software. Also, he did not
seek to financially profit from his theft of other people's works.
One of his projects resulted in federal criminal charges -- theft and
redistribution of 4.8 million JSTOR system articles.
JSTOR Criminal Case. On July 19, 2011, the
U.S. District Court (DMass) unsealed
an
indictment [15 pages in PDF], returned by a grand jury on July 14, 2001,
that charged Schwartz with unauthorized access to a protected computer system in
violation of
18 U.S.C. § 1030,
and wire fraud, in connection with his unauthorized accessing of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT)
computer systems to download digital copies of 4.8 million articles from academic
journals in the JSTOR system.
The indictment stated that "JSTOR generally charges libraries, universities,
and publishers a subscription fee for access to JSTOR's digitized journals" and
does not permit users "to download or export content from its computer servers
with automated computer programs such as web robots, spiders and scrapers".
The indictment detailed a long running effort by Schwartz, which began on
September 24, 2010, and ended on January 6, 2011, to evade repeated
countermeasures taken my MIT and JSTOR to block his downloading.
The indictment alleged that Schwartz, among other things, "contrived to ...
break into a restricted computer wiring closet at MIT ... access MIT's network
without authorization from a switch within that closet ... connect to JSTOR's
archive of digitized journal articles through MIT's computer network ... use
this access to download a major portion of JSTOR's archive onto his computers
and computer hard drives ... avoid MIT's and JSTOR’s efforts to prevent this
massive copying, measures which were directed at users generally and at Swartz’s
illicit conduct specifically; and ... elude detection and identification".
He was not affiliated with MIT.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz
(at right) stated at the time in a
release that "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command
or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally
harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it
away."
See also, story titled "Grand Jury Returns Indictment for Unauthorized
Downloading of 4.8 Million JSTOR Articles" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 2,264, July 20, 2011.
This case is U.S.A. v. Aaron Schwartz, U.S. District Court for the
District of Massachusetts, D.C. No. 1:11-cr-10260-NMG.
Schwartz's Political Activities. Schwartz also campaigned against the
Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act. See, HR 3261
[LOC |
WW],
the "Stop Online Piracy Act" or "SOPA", and S 968
[LOC
| WW],
the "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of
Intellectual Property Act of 2011", "PROTECT IP Act", or
"PIPA".
He gave a speech
[22:52 minutes in YouTube] on May 21, 2012 titled "How We Stopped
SOPA".
Schwartz also wrote a piece
titled "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto" in 2008 in which he stated
that "The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published
over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and
locked up by a handful of private corporations."
"Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under
which they operate require it -- their shareholders would revolt at anything
less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving
them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies."
"There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into
the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our
opposition to this private theft of public culture." Schwartz continued
that "We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies
and share them with the world. ... We need to buy secret databases and put them
on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file
sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access."
Commentary on Section 1030. Section 1030 is a broadly and vaguely
worded statute. It does enable the government to prosecute malicious hackers who
deserve hard time in a federal penitentiary. However, it also enables abusive
application in both private rights of action and criminal prosecutions.
Its flexibility enables lawyers in civil cases to manufacture diversity
jurisdiction in some cases otherwise comprised entirely of state law claims.
It has also been used by employers against former employees for normal computer
and network uses. See,
story
titled "7th Circuit Applies Computer Hacking Statute to Use of Trace
Removers on Employee Laptops" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 1,326, March 9, 2006, and
story
titled "9th Circuit Construes Meaning of Without Authorization in Section
1030" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,983, March 15, 2009.
In criminal cases, there is no consensus regarding just which cases lack
merit. For example, some criticized the prosecutions of Schwartz or Lori Drew
under Section 1030 as prosecutorial abuse. Others defended these prosecutors.
See, stories titled "Lori Drew Pleads Not Guilty in Section 1030
Case" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,794, June 23, 2008, "Law Professors Argue for
Dismissal of MySpace Section 1030 Prosecution" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 1,810, August 11, 2008, and "Jury Returns Guilty Verdict in Lori
Drew Case" in TLJ
Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,865, December 2, 2008.
See also, stories titled "Groups Urge Reform of Section 1030" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail
Alert No. 2,279, August 4, 2011, and "SECURE IT Act Addresses TOS Violations
and Lori Drew" in
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,367, April 10, 2012.
More Information. Schwartz was one of the developers of RSS. Later, he
was one of the founders of Reddit, which Conde Nast acquired in late 2006.
Schwartz left the company in 2007.
The U.S. Attorney, Ortiz, filed a
Dismissal on
January 14.
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More IPR
News |
1/15. Authors Guild (AG) published
a short
piece on January 14 titled "Condé Nast Moves to Seize, Lowball
Freelancers' Film/TV Rights", and another short
piece on January 15 titled "Condé Nast query: What makes a rights
grab?" The AG complains that Conde
Nast, which owns Ars Technica, Wired, The New Yorker,
and numerous other publications, has changed its standard contract for free
lance writers to obtain an option in dramatic and multimedia rights to articles
appearing in its magazines. See also, January 13, 2013
article in the New York Times by Christine Haughney titled "Condé
Nast Writer Deals Stir Dispute".
1/15. David Kappos, head of the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office (USPTO), wrote a short
piece titled "Interviews and
Patent Quality". He wrote that "well-documented interviews lead to
high quality patents by enhancing understanding and issue-resolution for both
applicants and examiners". Moreover, the USPTO has just analyzed data to
back this up. Kappos wrote that "The findings, which are statistically
significant, show that interviews conducted prior to final disposition (allowance
or final rejection) of the application increase the probability that the
subsequent action will be in full compliance with all applicable quality
standards. The data shows that interviews help decrease both improper allowances
and improper rejections by approximately 40 percent compared to applications
without interviews prior to the final disposition." (Parentheses in
original.)
1/15. The U.S. Court of Appeals
(1stCir) issued its
opinion in Latin American Music v. Media Power Group, a music copyright
infringement case. The main issue was proof of ownership of copyrights.
The plaintiff, Latin American Music, lost in the District Court as to all
copyrights, either on summary judgment, or by jury verdict. The Court of Appeals
affirmed the judgment of the District Court. This case is Latin American
Music Co., Inc., et al. v. Media Power Group Inc., et al., U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, App. Ct. No. 11-2108, an appeal from the U.S.
District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Judge Howard wrote the opinion
of the Court of Appeals, in which Judges Torruella and Thompson joined.
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In This
Issue |
This issue contains the following items:
• Obama Signs Patent, Economic Espionage and Intelligence Authorization
Bills
• DC Circuit Grants Petitions for Review in Echostar v. FCC
• Aaron Schwartz Commits Suicide
• More IPR News
• Privacy News
• People and Appointments |
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Washington Tech
Calendar
New items are highlighted in
red. |
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Wednesday, January 16 |
The House will not meet.
The Senate will not meet.
Day two of a three day conference hosted by the
National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) titled "NIST Cloud Computing and Big Data
Forum and Workshop". Free. See, NIST
notice and
notice in the Federal Register Vol. 77, No. 243, December 18, 2012, at
Pages 74829-74830. Location: NIST, Red Auditorium, Administration Building,
100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD.
10:00 AM. The Supreme
Court will hear oral argument in City of Arlington v. FCC
(Sup. Ct. No. 11-1545) and Cable, Telecommunications and Technology v.
FCC (Sup. Ct. No. 11-1547). See, Supreme Court
calendar. See also, FCC
merits brief. At issue is whether, in reviewing an agency's interpretation
of its statutory authority, a court should apply the two part analysis set
forth in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 837
(1984). Location: Supreme Court, 1 First St., NW.
10:00 AM. Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC), will give a speech titled "The
Agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee for the 113th Congress".
Reporters may register by contacting mediarelations at law dot georgetown dot
edu. Location: Georgetown University law school, Hart Auditorium, McDonough
Hall, 600 New Jersey Ave., NW.
12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The
Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy (GCBPP) will host a panel
discussion titled "U.S. Trade Policy: Where We've Been and Where We're
Going". The speakers will be Linda Dempsey (National Association of
Manufacturers), Bill Reinsch (National Foreign Trade Council), Howard Rosen
(Peterson Institute for International Economics), Bradford Jensen (GCBPP),
and Robert Vastine (GCBPP). Location: Room B-318, Rayburn Building.
12:10 - 1:30 PM. The
Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Wireline Committee will
host a brown bag lunch titled "The Lifeline Broadband Pilot
Program". Location: Wiley Rein, 1750 K St., NW.
4:00 - 5:30 PM. The
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host an on site and webcast event
titled "Still a series of tubes? The dynamic Internet and competition
policy". The speakers will be
Jeffrey
Eisenach (Navigant Economics),
Christopher Yoo
(University of Pennsylvania law school),
Jonathan Nuechterlein
(Wilmer Hale), and Kevin
Hassett (AEI). See,
notice. Free. Open to the public. Location: AEI, 12th Floor, 1150 17th
St., NW.
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Thursday, January 17 |
The House will not meet. See, House
calendar
for 113th Congress, 1st Session.
The Senate will not meet.
Day three of a three day conference hosted by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) titled "NIST Cloud Computing and Big Data Forum and Workshop".
Free. See, NIST
notice and
notice in the Federal Register Vol. 77, No. 243, December 18, 2012, at
Pages 74829-74830. Location: NIST, Red Auditorium, Administration Building,
100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD.
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC)
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration's (NTIA) Commerce Spectrum Management
Advisory Committee will meet. See,
notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 224, November 20, 2012, at
Pages 69597-69598. Location: DOC, Hoover Building, Room 4830, 1401
Constitution Ave., NW.
1:00 - 5:00 PM. The
National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) will hold another in its series of meetings
regarding mobile application transparency. See,
notice. This event will also be teleconferenced. The dial in number is
888-957-9870 or 210-839-8914. The passcode is "privacy msh". Location:
American Institute of Architects, 1735 New York Ave., NW.
1:00 PM. The US
Telecom will host a webcast presentation titled "LTE
Essentials". The speaker will be Annabel Dodd (Northeastern University).
See,
notice.
5:15 - 6:45 PM. The
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host a panel
discussion titled "Chased by the Dragon: Competition and Innovation in
China and the United States". The speakers will be
Robert Atkinson
(ITIF), Nicholas Bloom (Stanford),
Philip Levy (University of Virginia),
Jimmy Goodrich
(ITIC), and Alan
Wolff (McKenna Long & Aldridge). See,
notice. Location: ITIF/ITIC, Suite 610A, 1101 K St., NW.
6:00 - 7:30 PM. The
Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) International Committee
will host a reception in honor of WCIT Ambassador Terry Kramer. Location: Wiley
Rein, 1776 K St., NW.
Deadline to submit comments to the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in response to its request for comments
regarding how to "block illegal robocalls on landlines and mobile
phones". The FTC states that this is a "competition". See,
notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 205, October 23, 2012, at
Pages 64802-64808.
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Friday, January 18 |
The House will meet at 3:00 PM in pro forma session. See, House
calendar
for 113th Congress, 1st Session.
The Senate will not meet.
Supreme Court conference day. See, Supreme Court
calendar.
12:00 NOON. There will be a closed event titled
"Evolving Your Facebook Strategy". The speaker will be
Mary Nahorniak (USA Today Social Media Editor). This event is open only
to members of the National Press Club (NPC).
Sold out. See,
notice. For more information, contact Anthony Shop at anthony at
socialdriver dot com. Location: NPC, McClendon Room, 13th Floor, 529
14th St., NW.
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Sunday, January 20 |
Inauguration Day.
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Monday, January 21 |
The House will meet. See, House
calendar
for 113th Congress, 1st Session.
The Senate will meet at 11:30 AM.
Martin Luther King's birthday. This is a federal holiday. See, OPM list of
2013
federal holidays.
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Tuesday, January 22 |
The House will meet. See, House
calendar
for 113th Congress, 1st Session.
10:00 AM. The
House Commerce Committee (HCC) will hold its organizational meeting
for the 113th Congress. See,
notice. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
3:30 - 5:15 PM. The
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host an event titled "China in
2013 and Beyond". The speakers will be Frank Lavin (Export Now), Carolyn
Bartholomew (US-China Economic and Security Review Commission), Dan Blumenthal
(AEI), Phillip Swagel (AEI), and Danielle Pletka (AEI). Webcast. Free. Open to
the public. See,
notice.
For more information, contact Lara Crouch at lara dot crouch at aei dot org or
202-862-7160. Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.
5:00 PM. Deadline to submit reply comments to the
Copyright Office (CO) in response to
its
notice in the Federal Register regarding its proposed fee schedule for
filing cable and satellite statements of account. See, FR, Vol. 77, No.
235, December 6, 2012, at Pages 72788-72791.
Day one of a two day conference titled "State of
the Net Conference". Prices vary. See,
notice and
registration page.
Location: Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW.
Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [18 pages in PDF] regarding the
amateur radio service. The FCC adopted this NPRM on October 1, 2012, and
released the text on October 2. It is FCC 12-121 in WT Docket Nos. 12-283 and
09-209. See,
notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 206, October 24, 2012, at
Pages 64947-64949.
EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 13. Deadline to submit
reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response
to its Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding its licensing and operating
rules for satellite services. The FCC adopted and released this NPRM on
September 28, 2012. It is FCC 12-117 in IB Docket No. 12-267. See, original
notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 217, November 8, 2012, at
Pages 67171-67201. See also, extension
notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 77, No. 250, December 31, 2012, at
Pages 77001-77002.
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Wednesday, January 23 |
The House will meet. See, House
calendar
for 113th Congress, 1st Session.
Day two of a two day conference titled "State of
the Net Conference". Prices vary. See,
notice and
registration page.
Location: Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW.
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Privacy News |
1/15. The National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) released a
discussion draft [5 pages in PDF] titled "Mobile App Voluntary
Transparency Screens". The NTIA will host an on site and telecast meeting
on this subject on Thursday, January 17 from 1:00 to 5:00 PM at the American
Institute of Architects, 1735 New York Ave., NW. See,
notice.
1/10. The California Department of Justice released a
report [27 pages in PDF] titled "Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for
the Mobile Ecosystem". It offers a "set of privacy practice
recommendations to assist app developers, and others, in considering privacy
early in the development process".
1/9. The Association for Competitive
Technology (ACT) announced the launch of an "ACT 4 Apps
Initiative" to "educate app makers on issues including privacy
and data security". See, ACT
release.
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People and
Appointments |
1/15. The National Telecommunications
Cooperative Association (NTCA) appointed
Don Richards of the law firm of Richards Elder & Green it chief
counsel. See, NTCA
release.
1/15. David Grim was named Deputy Director of the
Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC)
Division of Investment Management. See, SEC
release. Grim is a
long time SEC employee.
1/15. Greg Berman was named Associate Director of the
Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC)
Division of Trading and Markets' (DTM) Office of Analytics and Research. See,
SEC release.
1/14. Gene Kimmelman joined the
American Antitrust Institute's (AAI) Advisory Board. See, AAI
release. He recently worked for three years in the Obama Antitrust Division.
Before that he worked for the Consumers Union. He has also worked for the Senate
Judiciary Committee's (SJC) antitrust subcommittee, and for Public
Citizen's Congress Watch.
1/14. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued its
judgment in Her Majesty The Queen v. Frank Dunn, Douglas Beatty and
Michael Gollogly, finding the three former Nortel executives not guilty
of financial fraud.
1/3. Member countries of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) nominated nine persons for the position of WTO Director
General. The nomination period closed on December 31, 2012. The nine are
Roberto Carvalho de Azevędo (Brazil), Taeho Bark (Korea), Tim
Groser (New Zealand), Herminio Blanco (Mexico), Alan John Kwadwo
Kyerematen (Ghana), Anabel González (Costa Rica), Mari Elka
Pangestu (Indonesia), Amina Mohamed (Kenya), and Ahmad Thougan
Hindawi (Jordan). The WTO stated in a
release
that "The selection process will conclude with a decision by the General
Council no later than 31 May 2013.". The current DG is Pascal Lamy.
His term expires on August 31, 2013.
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About Tech Law
Journal |
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