Tech Daily Dose

Drudge Takes On Google Earth

The big headline on Drudge Report on Thursday morning was "Smile, You're On Google Earth!" The popular news and gossip Web site points out that the Internet search giant's gadgetry shows people's faces on streets and in houses; automobile license plates; people loitering outside strip clubs and adult bookstores; and Apple CEO Steve Jobs' house. I have to admit, that's a little creepy. You cannot, however, see inside Technology Daily's Watergate bunker. Whew!

Posted by Andrew at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gossip Blogger Bows To Copyright Complaint

Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton switched his site's logo after he was slapped with a copyright complaint from Creative Age Publications. The company, which produces spa and beauty magazines, claimed that Hilton ripped off their "sparkly eye and fingernail logo" from its Nailpro magazine.

After reviewing the $150,000 suit, the blogger changed the logo to animated cartoon renderings of himself, according to Radar Online. Copyright fights aren't new for Hilton. Last year, paparazzi agency X17 sued him for $7.5 million for "stealing" their photos. He smacked back, asserting his "fair use" rights.

Posted by Andrew at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Modern Marvels On Display At PTO

Just in time for Washington's summer tourist infestation, the Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday will unveil a showcase of the top 25 inventions from the 2007 Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge.

The competition was sponsored in part by the PTO and presented by the History Channel and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation. Inventions featured in the exhibit were chosen from 2,500 entries.

The winning creation was Mike Sykes' Enertia Building System, an eco-friendly construction tool. A few other inventions include the X-Finger, a high-tech artificial finger for amputees; the Tire Lift, which makes changing a heavy truck tire easier; and the Baser Door Handle, a new door handle that protects walls from damage.

The traveling exhibit will be open to the public through June 30 at PTO headquarters in Alexandria, Va.

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RIAA 'In A Better Place' Now, Lobbyist Says

The 463 Blog on Tuesday tossed three questions at Mitch Glazier, the Recording Industry Association of America's top lobbyist. When asked how he would describe his trade group's relationship with the technology sector now as compared to "the Napster years," he says his members are "in a better place."

Glazier goes on: "Like every relationship, it’s complicated and we have definitely matured together. When you think of what the record companies went through – changing almost every aspect of their business model for digital releases (which, despite legitimate criticism, can never happen overnight), giving up distribution, and gaining legal clarity – the Napster years almost seem like ancient history."

Read more of the interview here. He also reveals what he thinks is the single biggest misperception about the RIAA and talks about his group's party-throwing prowess.

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Broadcasters Hire GOP Trio For XM-Sirius Work

Here's a new wrinkle in the ongoing lobbying blitz surrounding the proposed merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. The Center for Public Integrity's Telecom Watch blog reports that the National Association of Broadcasters has hired lobbying firm Bluewater Strategies to combat the pending deal.

In a filing last week at the Senate Office of Public Records, lobbyists Tim Kurth, Andrew Lundquist and George Nethercutt, a former Republican congressman from Washington, said they would represent the NAB on the merger and other issues. NAB has led the crusade against the XM-Sirius union and officials have repeatedly testified that the merger would be harmful to consumers and the radio industry.

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MPAA Flack Flees, Launches PR Firm

Gayle Osterberg, who has been the Motion Picture Association of America's vice president for corporate communications for two years, is leaving the trade group to start her own public relations firm called 133 Public Affairs.

Before joining Dan Glickman's team at MPAA, she spent a number of years working for Republican Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma. She also served as a spokeswoman for Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., at the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Does anyone (aside from Osterberg) know the significance of the "133" in the new firm's name? It was Nickles' room number in the Hart Senate Office Building. Look out 463 Communications -- you're no longer the only boutique PR shop in town with a numerical moniker.

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New Project Targets Citizen Media And The Law

The Center for Citizen Media and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society launched a new project this week (with the help of a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation) aimed at providing practical knowledge and tools for citizen journalists.

The Citizen Media Law Project's Web site will soon feature a legal guide "that will cover everything from how to form a business to how to use freedom of information and open meetings laws," Dan Gillmor wrote on his blog. David Ardia, who previously worked in the general counsel's office at the Washington Post, will direct the project.

Gillmor said the initiative is one of many being funded by the Knight Foundation's 21st Century News Challenge. Read more about the rest of the winners here.

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Clinton Theme Song Frenzy Continues

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked YouTube users on Thursday for their help in choosing a theme song for her presidential campaign. There were some interesting entries (including Rick James' "Super Freak" and Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through The Tulips"). In a videotaped message, Clinton closed her eyes and swayed back and forth for a minute to Celine Dion's "You and I." The winner will be announced in the coming days.

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Novell & EFF Embark On Patent Project

High-tech firm Novell is teaming up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation to work on reforms to software patents worldwide. The news comes as Congress attempts to overhaul the U.S. patent system with considerable pushback from several sectors.

Novell Executive Vice President Jeff Jaffe said it is "increasingly obvious" that software patents are not a meaningful measure of innovation. He said his company believes that reforming the system is "necessary to promote software innovation going forward."

EFF and Novell, which holds more than 500 patents, plan to lobby governments and national and international organizations to develop policies around patents designed to promote innovation. A key area of focus will be the World Intellectual Property Organization, where United Nations member nations meet to coordinate IP issues.

In addition, Novell will lend a hand to EFF's ongoing "Patent Busting" project, which is designed to attack patents that impose heavy burdens on software developers and Internet. EFF Executive Director Shari Steele said in a press release that she hoped Novell's example encourages other vendors to join the effort.

Posted by Andrew at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Next Stop, Margaritaville

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett was given control of a handful of domain names that were found to be confusingly similar to his own moniker, which is a registered trademark, the National Arbitration Forum said Wednesday. The domains included JimmyBuffettUniversity.com, UniversityOfBuffett.com and others.

In February, Buffett's company submitted a complaint to NAF about the domains. The panel decided that registered owner, Whapp Innovations, was using them for pay-per-click advertising revenue and had used them in bad faith. Only one question remains: What does one major in at Jimmy Buffett University?

Meanwhile, NAF also said it recently settled several other high-profile disputes. Disney Enterprises won control of DisneyComics.com, which was being cybersquatted by a man from India; and The Angels baseball team was denied the rights to Angels.com.

Posted by Andrew at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Future Of DRM Uncertain, Experts Agree

In an ideal U.S. copyright system, content creators would have control of the materials they create, rather than having to hand over the reins to "big commercial companies," which impose strict technological protections, digital libraries expert Karen Coyle said Wednesday.

Digital rights management "has been a market failure" due to consumers' dislike of "tightly controlled materials," she told a copyright summit at the University of Maryland University College. The only true success story, Apple's iTunes store, has thrived because people "love their iPods so much they'll go through anything to get songs onto it," she said.

Technological protections are not all bad, Coyle said. University libraries license material and limit access to their communities, she said. Shields are also needed "if we want to keep our private thoughts private" on PCs that are connected to public networks. "We live with certain amounts of protection that we're comfortable with," she said.

Center for Democracy and Technology Staff Counsel David Sohn said he favors pushing DRM in "a more flexible direction." "Our hope is that the public becomes sufficiently knowledgeable in the DRM debate and is able to apply pressure in the marketplace," he said.

EMI Music Group's recent news that it would make available DRM-free tracks on iTunes and Amazon.com generated a lot of buzz, but it is unclear whether other major labels will follow suit. "It remains to be seen to what extent the movement extends beyond music," Sohn added.

Read Technology Daily's PM edition for more coverage of the conference.

Posted by Andrew at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Spyware Still Harming Consumers, Web Advertisers

Harvard University spyware expert Ben Edelman says the most pernicious players are trying to clean up their images in the wake of recent FTC crackdowns, but the programs' core designs are unchanged. "They still track user behavior, still send browsing to their central servers, and still show pop-up ads -- behaviors users rightly disfavor due to serious effects on privacy and productivity," he wrote on his Web site this week.

The programs also continue to interfere with the legitimate business of Web ads, he said. In particular, Edelman's research shows that some vendors are overcharging affiliate merchants -- especially by claiming commission on organic traffic that the companies would have received anyway. Edelman posted a detailed article presenting six specific examples, followed by analysis and strategies for enforcement.

Posted by Andrew at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Bit Of Idol Banter

Bill Tancer of market research firm Hitwise said Tuesday that his latest Web search data indicates American Idol finalist Blake Lewis has a slight advantage over Jordin Sparks -- at least in the online realm. The winner of the popular TV show will be announced Wednesday night.

As of last week, Lewis, 25, edged out 17-year-old Jordin Sparks by 25 percent, Tancer said. Compare that to his searches for the prior week, which were 270 percent more numerous than hers. Yahoo Buzz is predicting that Sparks will win based on its data. Interestingly, Sparks has a higher proportion of Yahoo searches than Lewis. But Lewis dominated Google searches, Tancer said.

Posted by Andrew at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Clinton Sparks Theme Song Frenzy

You may have already heard that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants your help in choosing a theme song for her presidential campaign. According to her campaign team, more than 500,000 people have watched a video she posted on YouTube last week to launch the competition, and more than 100,000 votes already have been cast.

The nine nominees include well-known hits by the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain and the Temptations, as well as two U2 songs (one of which was used prominently by Sen. John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign). Voters also have been given the option of supporting write-in candidates, which has inspired an American Idol competition of sorts on YouTube. One YouTube enthusiast got ink from McClatchy for suggesting that Clinton use a song titled, "Cancer in My Backyard."

But Clinton isn't the first candidate in the field to solicit music advice online. Fellow Democrat Chris Dodd has been looking for new tunes to put on his iPod for several months at DoddPod. I guess he could pick his theme song from the ones that have been suggested to him on the site. But some of them, like "She's a Lady" by Tom Jones, aren't exactly campaign theme song material. -- Michael Martinez

Posted by Andrew at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Groups Praise Spyware Bill's Passage

Technology Daily's PM edition reports on the House approval of legislation aimed at curbing secretly installed computer spyware. Industry groups seemed pleased with the news.

The bill "offers potent means for addressing the serious problem of spyware without resorting to a sweeping regulatory regime that harms innovation," ITAA President Phil Bond said in a press release. He also called upon the Senate to take up the issue.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau also applauded the approval of H.R. 1525. IAB President Randall Rothenberg said the legislation sends "a strong message to individuals and organizations who attempt to steal consumers’ sensitive information for illegitimate gain and serves as further assurance that those who seek to defraud consumers will suffer the consequences.”

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Leahy & Specter Still Demand Answers

What happens when you're Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and you've neglected to answer burning questions posed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania? You get another letter.

The pair wrote to Gonzales on Tuesday seeking answers to longstanding questions about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The request follows testimony last week by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who revealed the Justice Department had concerns about the legal basis for the program.

"This committee has made no fewer than eight formal requests over the past 18 months – to the White House, the Attorney General, or other Department of Justice officials – seeking documents and information related to this surveillance program," the senators wrote. "You have rebuffed all requests for documents and your answers to our questions have been wholly inadequate and, at times, misleading.”

Leahy and Specter noted that the information is crucial for the panel to have before considering any of the administration's proposed changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They set a June 5 deadline for Gonzales to respond.

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Victory For 'Electric Slide' Fans

The man who claims to have created "The Electric Slide" has agreed to end his online video takedown campaign and to stop threatening those who use his "boogey-oogie-oogie" for non-commercial purposes.

The decision settles a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of a videographer who posted a concert clip on YouTube that included 10 seconds of audience members attempting to do the dance. Richard Silver then sent a takedown demand to popular video-sharing site under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Silver agreed to make the dance steps available under a Creative Commons license, which allows the performance, display, reproduction or distribution of any recorded performance of the dance in any medium for non-commercial means.

"New technologies have opened multiple avenues for artists and their audiences to create, share and comment on new works," EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry said in a press release. "We cannot let absurd copyright claims squash this extraordinary growth."

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Trend-Spotting With Google

A Google "hot trends" feature, unveiled on Tuesday, provides recent information on what people are searching for to keep users on the cutting edge of the Web world. The application combines elements of Zeitgeist and Trends -- two existing Google products that give a glimpse into Web search habits, but only in retrospect based on weeks-old data, Reuters reports. The list of hot trends will be refreshed several times daily.

Here are some of the top searches on the 100-item list as of 9 a.m. ET.
- Tanzania National Park
- Harry Belafonte's daughter
- Heroes season 2
- Daniel Pearl
- Hot trends
- Who won The Bachelor
- Heroes finale
- Paula Abdul broken nose
- XM satellite

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Summit Explores The Wireless World

The International Summit for Community Wireless Networks -- a major gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies -- took place at Loyola College in Columbia, Md. over the weekend.

Sessions explored a host of topics including: social networks and wireless applications; European and South American community wireless developments; low cost PCs and community networking; the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act; and national policy and regulatory battles affecting community wireless.
Read more about the conference here.

Posted by Andrew at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Copyfight Ensues Over NY Times Op-Ed

Sunday's New York Times had an interesting op-ed by novelist Mark Halprin titled "A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn’t Its Copyright?" In it, he laid out his argument for what amounts to perpetual copyright. "No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind," Halprin wrote.

Reformists are crafting a reply to Halprin's text at Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig's wiki. Contributors have provided arguments against what they view as Halprin's misguided sense of "public good," "public domain" and "value of arts and ideas."

Posted by Andrew at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Un-conference Begins For New Media Folks

After a morning sharing electrical outlets -- sort of -- and drinking mimosas and coffee, new media activists began introducing themselves ahead of the un-conference. Most of the big name bloggers and new media people for the campaigns attended the main Personal Democracy Forum conference Friday but did not stick around for the un-conference Saturday.

The exceptions were two new media consultants for the John Edwards campaign. One described their purpose as "win without evil" during the limited 2-3 word introductions. Most of the people staying on Saturday were activists helping different causes with new media.

The agenda was still evolving as of a few minutes before 11am with people voting for topics on a wiki site.
"This is your event -- not our event," said Andrew Raseij, who founded the Personal Democracy Forum website and organized the Friday conference.

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Presidential New Media Strategists Differ On Social Networking Strategies

New media strategists for presidential candidates John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, had a minor debate of their own during the final panel discussion at the PDF Conference in New York Friday.

Zack Exley, a consultant who worked for John Kerry in 2004, said that "nobody believes email especially from the candidates." Michael Turk, who worked for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, said many candidates are using the Web more as a broadcast medium than real social networking. Exley agreed, asking when we would see candidates spending time daily contacting groups on Facebook.

Peter Daou, who works for Clinton, said that is being done, but it will never supplant visits to meet voters.

Mindy Finn, who works for Romney, questioned whether responding to an individual blogger is the best use of a candidate's time, but said he thinks a candidate should leave messages on Facebook aimed at specific communities.

Posted by Heather at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Revolution Will Not Be YouTubed

Steve Heiferman, Meetup CEO said that information from blogs are useful and so are YouTube videos for generating interest in an issue, but he cautioned that "Content is not king. Contact is king."

"The revolution will not be YouTubed," Heiferman said.

He said candidates like Howard Dean used Meetup last election cycle to organize supporters at meetings and many more candidates are doing it during this presidential primary. Heiferman said it's great companies like Google organize the world's information, but organizing people is what changes democracy.

Heirferman offered a demonstration of Meetup at the end of the PDF conference in New York Friday. Afterwards conference organizer Andrew Raseij joked he had just copyrighted the quote Tthe revolution will not be YouTubed," -- a take off on the book titled "The Revolution Will Not Be Broadcast."

Posted by Heather at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Can Internet Smother Dictatorships With Openness?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said a dictatorship is a more challenging governing model in the age of the Internet. He said dictators typically control borders with tanks along with the national TV station to keep people in and information out.

But Schmidt said keeping information out is more of a challenge, offering examples of countries like Bahrain blocking access to Google Maps after citizens were using Google to peak at the palaces behind the walls of residences of those in power.

Schmidt said the irony was that an uproar led Bahrain to end the censorship and then the photos that initiated the original censorship got even more attention.

He also explained that even though China censors information in some Google search results, Google at least informs those doing the searches when they are not being given all the information. Schmidt said this happens in about one in every 10,000 searches in China.

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Where Are The Moderates Online?

Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-Utah, issued a challenge to political bloggers to have passionate discussions on middle ground rather than extreme political positions. "We need to push the conversation to the middle," Urquhart said. "Otherwise we're disenfranchising Americans and helping rot out the core."

But during questions and answers several audience members said that may be easier said than done. One said that it's easy to get people on one political extreme or another to talk than they middle. Her theory was the middle was just not passionate. Another chimed in that the attitude of many moderates is they'll pay attention and vote closer to the election.

Urquhart, however, questioned whether moderates were really apathetic or disgusted by the animosity in the political discussion.

Posted by Heather at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Appeal For a Tech President At PDF Conference

Andrew Raseij, who founded Personal Democracy Forum, challenged presidential candidates to become the tech candidate by committing to a platform of six policies -- or offer alternatives.

1) Declare the Internet a public good
2) Make wireless spectrum available for public use
3) Instead of No Child Left Behind education policies leave no child unconnected
4) Firm support of network neutrality to maintain equal access to content
5) More transparency in the democratic process by making information available online
6) Create a citizens tech corps to help get area back online after a disaster

Raseij asked online activists and bloggers at the conference to help press candidates for their response to such a platform.

Posted by Heather at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cerf Shares His Beliefs On NPR

Google's Vint Cerf, who is often called "the Father of the Internet," will share his belief in the importance of respecting others – both in person and online – in an essay for the National Public Radio series "This I Believe." A podcast of Cerf’s essay will be available at NPR.org on Monday.

The program is inspired by newsman Edward R. Murrow’s 1950’s radio show of the same name and features Americans from all walks of life expressing their core beliefs and values in short, personal essays, according to a press release.

In his essay, Cerf recalls feeling empathy for a limo driver in his 60s, only to discover that he was a retired CFO who took the job to meet interesting people. He also says he does not agree with claims that the Internet "isolates and dehumanizes us." "The net is simply a vehicle for people to communicate," he states.

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Porn Spam Down, FDA Scams Up

Microsoft online safety expert Craig Spiezle told a Direct Marketing Association conference on Friday that he has witnessed an evolution in the "three V's" -- volume of e-mail, vectors of attack and velocity of change. "It's not just unscrupulous marketers. We're seeing botnets, image-based spam and phishing," he said.

Bulk commercial e-mail containing pornography and sex-related offers has dropped a great deal in 2007, Spiezle said, but scams are on the rise. "We're seeing a tremendous amount of spoofed mail purportedly coming from the FDA," he said. Greater efforts to implement e-mail authentication could help diminish that threat, he added.

Read more about the DMA summit in Technology Daily's PM Edition.

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Personal Democracy Forum - Live Blogging

You didn't expect a roomful of new media folks to just sit and listen did you?

Dozens of laptop screens light the otherwise darkened audience section of an auditorium at New York's Pace University as bloggers write in real time about the Personal Democracy Forum conference. In addition to those filing for their own blogs like MyDD.com or Redstate.com, people can also chat and comment on the speakers at a special site set up for the conference. http://pdf2007.confabb.com/conferences/PDF2007/details

Google CEO Eric Schmidt joked that it looked like a Google meeting with people staring at computer screens rather than the speaker. He said it used to bother him and he even tried a laptop ban -- for about a week -- until he realized that instead workers were text messaging on their Blackberries under the table.

Posted by Heather at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Holding A Finger To The Blogosphere Wind

Reprinted from Thursday's PM Edition of Technology Daily:

By Gene J. Koprowski, for Technology Daily

MADISON, Wis. -- Political campaigns are now relying on blogs to "test market" new messages with small, niche audiences before transforming them into full-release commercials and press releases, Republican and Democratic consultants said Thursday.

The trend started on the state level but is going national with the 2008 presidential campaigns, experts said here at the Online News Association's regional conference.

Wisconsin Republican strategist Brian Fraley indicated that statewide blogs are an excellent tool to "test ideas -- and see if they are press release worthy." He said campaigns overall are now devoting more staffing and money to monitoring and cultivating bloggers and online sites.

Fraley cited this week's example of Fred Thompson, a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, releasing an online video in response to a recent trip to Cuba by liberal filmmaker, author and activist Michael Moore.

Thompson previously had criticized the trip, and Moore challenged him to a debate. Thompson answered the challenged in a video released through the Internet rather than the mainstream media. In the video, Thompson noted that another documentary filmmaker had been put in a mental hospital in Cuba. "He made quite a point of emphasizing the words 'mental institution'" when speaking to Moore through the video, Fraley said.

Democratic consultant Ted Osthelder agreed that the Internet video had a dramatic impact on Thompson's visibility as a potential player in 2008. "I don't think campaigns are going to spend $100 million on YouTube.com" like they might on traditional campaign ads, Osthelder said, but more people may well remember Thompson's inexpensive video.

That's because the mainstream media gave the ad national coverage, Osthelder said.

Fraley also said opposition researchers will be on the hunt during the 2008 campaign, with video cameras in hand to capture candidate miscues.

As a result, though, Jim Brady, the executive editor of the washingtonpost.com, said even routine campaign stops at diners will become even more scripted.

The Thompson episode and another video featuring Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as "Big Brother" earlier this year demonstrate that campaign strategies are starting to change because of blogs, panelists said. There are risks to the strategy, however.

Fraley said campaigns can more easily "screw up" than they have before and have that information reverberate throughout the blogosphere and into the mainstream media. Others concurred. "This has resource implications for campaigns," Osthelder said. "Internet strategy must be integrated into the main campaign strategy."

Brady told the ONA audience of about 100 people, including some Wisconsin bloggers, that the 24-hour news cycle has become the "1/2-hour news cycle." The Washington Post has responded by hiring a blogger who updates his site several times a day, Brady said.

"Our audience is not satisfied with one post a day by David Broder or Dan Balz," he said of the paper's longtime political reporters.

Fraley and the other panelists, however, cautioned against campaigns focusing too heavily on technology. "Congratulations if you are on the cutting edge," Fraley said. "But politics is all about winning. There has to be a balance."

Posted by Danny at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Personal Democracy Forum Begins

Author of "The World Is Flat," Tom Friedman is about to explain the subtitle of this conference "The Flattening of Politics."

Stanford University professor and leader of the Free Debates Coalition, Larry Lessig, opened the conference explaining how technology has democratized political speech. He emphasized how the ability to remix video like presidential debate footage is critical. He said if proprietary networks don't want to put the footage in the public domain like CNN has done, they should not be allowed to host debates.

He offered the analogy of putting putting voting booths inside Disneyland and the need to buy a ticket to get in to exercise the right to vote.

Posted by Heather at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Joe Trippi's Priorities: Edwards First, Then Newsies

MADISON, Wis. -- Joe Trippi, the Democratic political consultant, who powered now-Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to prominence with an Internet strategy in 2004, was scheduled to speak at an Online News Association event here but canceled at the last minute by telephone.

His new role on the presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards created a conflict. "He phoned in his apologies," said Jeff Mayers, president of WisPolitics.com, which helped host the event. "He had some sort of high-level meeting he had to attend today for John Edwards."
-- Gene J. Koprowski, for Technology Daily

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Reminder: Bloggers In The Big Apple

Some of the greatest minds in Internet politicking will attend Friday's Personal Democracy Forum at Pace University in New York City. Our own Heather Greenfield will be reporting from the event. The annual conference draws a bevy of technologists, campaign organizers, politicos, bloggers, activists and journalists.

Some key questions being asked at this year's summit include: How is voter-generated content changing election campaigns? Why should advocacy groups adapt to the connected age? What new technology tools and practices are on the horizon? How are new technologies democratizing the political process? Which political leaders "get it"?

Scheduled speakers include: Peter Daou, Hillary Clinton '08; Becki Donatelli, John McCain '08; Esther Dyson, EDventure; Mindy Finn, Mitt Romney '08; Thomas Friedman, New York Times; author Seth Godin; Facebook.com's Chris Kelly; pundit Arianna Huffington; author Lawrence Lessig; Kim Malone of Google AdSense; Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo; Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; and Joe Trippi, John Edwards '08.

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Kerry Photo Still Making Waves

Ever heard of Leif Skoogfors? Probably not, but you might know his work. A photograph he took of actress Jane Fonda at a 1970 antiwar rally in Valley Forge, Pa. generated substantial buzz during the last presidential campaign because it showed Democratic contender John Kerry in the background.

The image was picked up by a number of Kerry foes and was spread widely on the Internet without Skoogfors' permission. The photographer said at a copyright event on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he documented more than 600 instances of infringement "and then I had to stop counting."

He said he confronted a number of people that used the image without his permission and "virtually no one took the photo down without a great deal of argument." Skoogfors still has several cases pending against the most egregious infringers -- including a professor who teaches Internet ethics, he said. "I grew up in an age when you were taught not to steal," the photographer added.

At the same event, renowned guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper spoke about the importance of copyright enforcement efforts. As a founding member of the band Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Cropper has strong feelings about piracy. He said too many people consider music a free commodity and "it's going to be a long, hard road" to reeducate them.

Challenging IP theft is not a question of going after individual listeners who download a song or two without paying for them, Cropper said. The companies that manufacture the equipment that people use to infringe "are the people we need to be talking to," he said.

Read more about the event in Technology Daily's PM Edition.

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Sensenbrenner Tries To Derail Patent Bill

Former House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner on Wednesday created some commotion at the mark-up of a patent reform bill. Although H.R. 1908 eventually passed the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee, the Wisconsin Republican claimed the bill was "not ready for prime time."

He said the panel should work out controversial components of the measure before handing it off to the full committee. If H.R. 1908 moves forward with stakeholders still unhappy, the bill would arrive on the Senate's doorstep, where one of two things will happen. "Either the Senate won't act on it… or the Senate will end up writing the final bill. Both alternatives are not acceptable," Sensenbrenner said.

Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., said it was not his intention to "ram things through with lots of people unhappy." Keeping the legislation stuck in subcommittee would not provide the incentive for players in the debate to hash out their differences, he said. Berman had hoped to introduce an manager's amendment but H.R. 1908 passed the panel without the change.

Update: Berman said in a speech on Thursday morning that Sensenbrenner "has decided to go back to his obstructionist mode now that he's not chairman." He said the lawmaker's insistence that problems be worked out in the subcommittee could have put policymakers in the same boat as they were in with the Copyright Act of 1976. Work on that mandate began more than a decade before it passed and Berman said he did not have the stomach for 12 years of patent reform negotiations.

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U.S.-China Trade Progress In Trouble

The United States doesn't expect significant progress on the trade front with China this year, the U.S. Treasury attaché to Beijing told China Daily. David Loevinger said that "now is not the time for bold economic reform, now is not the time to take on strong domestic vested interests."

"Because of a strong political calendar this may be the year that we may be less able to deliver, for us," Loevinger is quoted as having told a news conference in Shanghai. He said that private discussions with Chinese officials are more beneficial than public pressure from the U.S. government.

Also on Wednesday, South Korea's Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon reportedly said that if the United States seeks changes to the proposed free trade agreement between the countries -- currently waiting approval from legislative bodies -- the deal will not be re-negotiated, according to Agence France-Presse. AFP also reported that South Korea and Australia may be considering a possible free trade agreement. -- Winter Casey

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College Experiments With New Health IT Program

For a person with prostate cancer, using information technology to consider possible treatment options may lessen the confusion as to what path to take, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia announced Wednesday.

Gerald Bennett, chair of the Department of Health Environments and Systems in the MCG School of Nursing, said that many options exist for the treatment of the disease but "the bottom line is that we often don't know enough scientifically to recommend one treatment over the other."

The college is part of a National Institutes of Health-funded study-- which nearly 500 patients will take part in across the nation -- to determine the impact a new computer program, known as the Personal Patient Profile Prostate program, which seeks to measure personal considerations and create an Internet decision-support system.

Bennett and his research team plan to recruit 72 cancer patients to test the impact of the Web site. He said in a statement that he expects the Web site will result in men feeling less inner conflict about what treatment decision to make. -- Winter Casey

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Musician Gives John Edwards YouTube Advice

Grammy Award-winning musician John Mayer gave Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards a tip about campaigning on YouTube this week: keep it short and sweet.

Edwards told New York magazine that he arranged a meeting with Mayer at the Time 100 gala, where Time magazine celebrated the release of its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Mayer was joined on this year's list by Edwards' wife, Elizabeth.

YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen also were on the list. Other honored techies included Apple chief Steve Jobs, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Nintendo Wii head designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

According to Edwards, Mayer is of the opinion that if YouTube videos are 25 seconds long, they're "five seconds too long." "He basically said, 'You’ve got to get me in the first twenty seconds,'" Edwards said. -- Michael Martinez

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GOP Silence Frustrates Online Activists

As reported in Tuesday's Technology Daily PM Edition:

Online activists from conservative and nonpartisan organizations and blogs are getting frustrated as they push Republican lawmakers for more transparency.

The party's own activists are among those working to expose the senator or senators behind an objection to a bill that would require electronic disclosures of campaign filings. The Sunlight Foundation has asked blog readers to call every Republican senator to see who is blocking the e-filing bill from Senate passage by voice vote.

Sunlight Foundation Director Ellen Miller said backers of the measure are frustrated that "numerous" telephone calls to Senate offices have been met with a wall of silence, and she blamed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

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Banking With PayPal?

Online payment service PayPal on Tuesday announced it was granted a banking license for the European Union by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, effective July 2. The San Jose, Calif.-based firm also said it planned to move its European headquarters to Luxembourg.

"Our goal is to give European consumers more places to shop securely and conveniently across the web by making PayPal available on virtually every retail website in Europe," PayPal Europe Vice President Brent Bellm said. PayPal has more than 35 million accounts and is offered on more than 100,000 Web sites in Europe.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the eBay-owned firm is fighting off competition from Google, which launched a rival system last month.

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The 463 Blog's 3Qs

The 463 Blog, an amusing online discussion forum run by high-tech PR firm 463 Communications, unveiled its new "3Qs" feature on Tuesday. In it, 463's Sean Garrett asks three questions of "an interesting person in the tech policy neighborhood." I was honored to be their first interviewee.

I was asked: (1) What constantly amazes you as you cover tech policy in D.C.? (2) Which politicians “get” technology the best? (3) On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the job that industry is currently doing to communicate its value and positions in D.C.? Click here to read my answers.

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ICANN Inks Deal With African Registrar

The organization that administers the Internet addressing system signed its first accreditation agreement with a Senegal-based registrar this week. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has similar deals with 890 firms across the globe and this is only the second in Africa, ICANN's Anne-Rachel Inné said.

Kheweul.com has been accredited to register domain names from the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, .org, and .pro top-level domains, the group said in a press release. CEO Mouhamet Diop said his company will work hard to "provide domain name services to local African communities." He also plans to promote the digitalization of African cultural heritage and preservation of African multimedia content.

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ACLU Decries 'Childish' Treatment Of Privacy Board

The American Civil Liberties Union ridiculed the White House for censoring a report submitted by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to exclude previously released information. The edits resulted in panel member Lanny Davis's resignation. Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the tweaks were "standard operating procedure."

ACLU Washington Legislative Office Director Caroline Fredrickson said attempting to keep civil liberties violations secret is "nothing short of childish." She also called the board "a toothless entity that blindly and obediently advances the Bush agenda." Read more about Davis in Technology Daily's PM edition.

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'Fair Use' Advocate Slams DOJ IP Plan

Public Knowledge president and "fair use" advocate Gigi Sohn on Tuesday criticized a Bush administration proposal to reform U.S. intellectual property laws because it included provisions that would make attempted copyright infringement a criminal offense. It would also boost penalties for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

“It is unfortunate that the administration felt the need to bring back a legislative package that was full of bad ideas when it was proposed in 2005 and continues to be full of bad ideas today," she said. Sohn's group supports protecting IP holders' rights but is worried that the Justice Department plan would "enforce copyright law in ways it has never before been enforced."

Making the "attempt" at copyright infringement the same as actual infringement is an ill-conceived idea, Sohn said in a statement. "The penalties in this bill are out of touch with reality. They range from destroying computers for potentially legitimate use, to life imprisonment for improbable uses of counterfeit goods."

Meanwhile, Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black called proposed alterations to permit wiretaps of attempted infringers "extreme and outlandish." "Will office workers be wiretapped for lingering too long near the photocopier? Will music fans be sent to prison if they fail to secure their digital devices to the satisfaction of the record companies?" he asked.

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Consumerist Ranks Winners, Losers

The Consumerist blog released a brief list of winners and losers from its American Customer Satisfaction Index on Tuesday. Several were tech-oriented. Scores were out of 100; format is company name (score, difference from last year's score).

Winners:
Cellphone Service: Verizon (71, +2.9)
Cellphone Makers: Nokia, Motorola (72, +4.3, +1.4)
Cable & Satellite TV: Echostar (67, -1.5)
Energy Utilities: Southern Company (82, +2.5)
Fixed Line Telephone Service: Verizon, Qwest (72, +4.3, +2.9)

Losers:
Cellphones: Sprint (61, -3.2)
Cellphone Makers: Samsung (70, -4.1)
Cable & Satellite TV: Charter Communications (55, 0)
Energy Utilities: Ameren Corporation (57, -23)
Fixed Line Telephone Service: Embarq (66, +3.1)

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PR Blog: Stayin' Alive

Potomac Flacks, the blog that chronicles "the highs, lows, quips, quotes, comings and goings of Washington, D.C. spokesguys and spokesgals" is fighting to keep its head above water (and is promising a handful of new contributors who hope to prevent the popular site from fizzling). PF founder and author emeritus Adam Kovacevich all but disappeared from the blog when he took a new PR job with Google and his second-in-command, Matt Mackowiak, recently announced his return to Capitol Hill to work as press secretary for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Stay tuned…

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Cuban's Call For New Content

Internet pioneer and billionaire Mark Cuban made an all-call on his blog Monday for new show ideas for HDNet, the high-definition cable television network he owns. Cuban testified last week at a House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee hearing on the future of video.

"One of the fun things at HDNet is listening to or reading pitch ideas for new shows. One of the most irritating and time wasting jobs at HDNet is listening to or reading pitch ideas for new shows," Cuban wrote. Most of the time the idea is a derivative of something that already exists "or something so obvious it's an insult that they are pitching it."

No cooking, pimp or poker shows, Cuban insisted. Anything involving sports or a deck of cards will be deleted, he added. But how about a reality show documenting the daily lives of a group of hard-working tech policy journalists in Washington? I know a very talented, capable cast that is ready for their close-up.

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DOJ's New IP Plan For Congress

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales sent a legislative proposal to Capitol Hill on Monday aimed at cracking down on intellectual property theft (Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition). Here are details about the Bush administration's plan that was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The proposal would:
▪ Increase the maximum penalty for counterfeiting offenses from 10 years to 20 years imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause serious bodily injury.
▪ Increase the maximum penalty to life imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause death.
▪ Provide stronger penalties for repeat-offenders of the copyright laws.
▪ Implement broad forfeiture reforms to ensure the ability to forfeit property derived from or used in the commission of criminal intellectual property offenses.
▪ Strengthen restitution provisions for certain intellectual property crimes (e.g., criminal copyright and DMCA offenses).
▪ Ensure that the exportation and transhipment of copyright-infringing goods is a crime, just as the exportation of counterfeit goods is now criminal.

The scheme would also give law enforcement "the full range of lawful investigative tools" when working on IP cases -- including wiretapping privileges. According to DOJ documents, the proposal "provides for voice intercept authority for offenses that are equivalent, if not greater, in impact to other predicate offenses that already give rise to such authority."

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Study: Internet Piracy Worse Than Speeding

About 69 percent of U.S. households believe that acquiring pirated content is wrong -- a lower level of moral outrage than when asked about cheating on their taxes (77 percent), a recent study by Parks Associates showed. Meanwhile, only about 44 percent of respondents said it is wrong to drive over the speed limit.

Attitudes regarding pirated content differed sharply by age, analysts said. About 50 percent of 18 to 25 year olds polled said downloading unauthorized content is wrong, compared with 75 percent of respondents over age 45. Read more about the study here.

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New Copyright Site Launches

Need to understand the complexities and myths of copyright law in plain, simple language but don't know where to turn? Check out ResearchCopyright.com, a new online resource from journalism professor and copyright law expert Bill Hadley.

The site offers free guides on copyright law, copyright search and how to use copyright protection. It also includes news, legal forms and other nifty resources. There's a blog and podcast too. "If we want to protect our creative work and honor copyright laws, then those laws and everything that pertains to copyright registration and copyright protection should be freely and easily available to everyone," Hadley said in a press release.

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Whistleblower Week Begins

The Government Accountability Project and a number of national public interest groups kick off Washington Whistleblower Week on Monday. A series of events are designed to "highlight contributions whistleblowers have made in society and to promote protections for whistleblowers who risk their careers to challenge abuses of the public trust."

Organizers hope activities will build on the momentum from the House passage of H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, earlier this spring. Read more here. Meanwhile, the perfect way to commemorate this special week is by sending tech news tips my way.
Don't be shy… Blow your whistle!

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Reax To Cuban's Net Neutrality Remarks

Randolph May of the Free State Foundation has some interesting thoughts on dot-com billionaire Mark Cuban's testimony at a Thursday hearing of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet -- particularly on the HDNet chairman's network neutrality comments.

In a Friday blog post, May asks: "If net neutrality mandates were adopted, would they be more or less likely to cause bandwidth constraints to 'go away?'" He believes Cuban understands that such a law, if adopted, "would constrain the development of consumer-friendly business models as the Internet continues to evolve, thereby dampening investment and innovation incentives--and thereby killing the chicken that is laying the golden egg."

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Using Technology To Save Dinosaur Tracks

Rapidly eroding dinosaur tracks imprinted near vertical rock faces in a Spanish quarry will no longer be lost forever thanks to cutting-edge technology. Scientists are using a laser scanning system with a built-in digital camera and global positioning system that feeds information to an attached laptop. Computer software then constructs a detailed three-dimensional representation of the extinct animal's foot.

Without the technology, University of Manchester scientists said the fossil site is "so delicate that experts cannot get physically close enough to the tracks to examine them.” The tracks "preserve important information on the locomotion of dinosaurs, which can be properly accessed for the first time,” said palaeontologist Phil Manning, who is leading the project.
-- Winter Casey

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TiVo Chief Touts Consumer Choice

In his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on Thursday, TiVo CEO Thomas Rogers said the panel was "uniquely positioned to shape the future of television." In this new consumer-controlled era, he said, it is crucial that lawmakers ensure choice among video providers and not get "derailed by incumbent interests that are threatened by innovation and competition."

In his written testimony, he said one of the biggest potential threats to his firm is the prospect of CableCARDs (which are used to view and record digital television) being "rendered useless" by video distributors' technologies that could limit the number of channels received by consumers who have the devices.

"Retail CableCARD devices must not be placed at a competitive disadvantage versus cable supplied set-top boxes," Rogers said. "The subcommittee must ensure that competitive retail set-top boxes have access to all of the television programming that consumers would expect to get from a cable set-top box," he said.

Interestingly, Rogers served as chief counsel to the subcommittee in the 1980s. He told Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., that he was "exceedingly uncomfortable" testifying before his alma mater. "I'm not sure if it's like being a cheering alum returning to a football game or a former student returning for disciplinary action," he said.

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Friday Funnies: Conan Visits Intel

Late night funny man Conan O'Brien visited Intel's Silicon Valley headquarters during a trip to California this month. O'Brien's journey to San Francisco was sponsored by Intel, which gave him an up-close look into the daily lives (and cubicles) of its employees. For the record, I would never mess with anything in Tech Daily Dose czar Andrew Noyes' cube.
-- Michael Martinez

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YouTube PR Machine: Ed Markey

It seems that Rep. Edward Markey, chairman of the House Subcommittee Telecommunication and the Internet, cannot get enough of YouTube. In an interview posted on the video-sharing site, the Massachusetts Democrat heaps praise upon "historic figure" YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and asks him questions about his site's impact on the Internet and politics.

The video was shot on Thursday after Markey's panel heard about the future of video from Hurley as well as CEOs from Sling Media and TiVo. At the hearing, Markey made congressional history by filming a brief video from his chairman's seat and posting on YouTube as well. Chad, you cannot buy better publicity inside the Beltway.

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More Info Sharing Needed, Witnesses Say

The over-classification of information and intelligence hurts local and state officials' ability to share information, Lee Miller of the Virginia State Police told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment on Thursday.

“Local, state, tribal and federal agencies as well as private industry have individual pieces, and we must have an IT mechanism as well as trusted relationships to put these pieces together… Local and state professionals must also be given the same opportunity as their federal counterparts regarding access to classified systems,” he said in prepared testimony.

Miller, who currently coordinates the day-to-day operations of the Virginia Fusion Center, said the center “utilizes a vast array of networks and databases to assist in the fusion process” but “the number of systems that are available causes duplication and does not promote an effective business process.”

Meanwhile, Donald Kennedy, executive director of the New England State Police Information Network, said that for fiscal 2008 President Bush has proposed $38.5 million to go toward a national program that seeks to fight crime through communication and coordination known as the Regional Information Sharing Systems. Based on increased demand, Kennedy said RISS has requested $53.7 million.

Read more about this in Technology Daily's PM Edition. -- Winter Casey

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Stupak On YouTube's 'Community Guidelines'

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a prominent child safety crusader on Capitol Hill, on Thursday questioned YouTube CEO Chad Hurley about his video-sharing site's so-called "community guidelines," which are intended to keep child pornography and other illicit clips offline. Stupak said sexual predators and pedophiles can trade illegal images and videos "just like baseball cards" and he wanted to make sure that is not happening on YouTube.

"We make it clear that we don’t tolerate that in our system," Hurley responded at the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing. YouTube staffers monitor activity across the site and they also receive tips from members when they spot inappropriate content. "Our users have done a good job of letting us know what doesn’t belong," he said. Those who violate YouTube's terms of use are promptly kicked off and their videos are taken down, Hurley added.

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Markey's YouTube Video

Well, that was fast. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., made good on his promise to post a video from the chairman's seat of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on YouTube. If you pause the video and squint, you can see all of us scribes, hard at work.

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Product Placement 2.0