(*Thanks, Travelocity)
Technology Daily and Tech Daily Dose will not publish from Friday, Aug. 24, through Labor Day on Sept. 3. We will return Tuesday, Sept. 4.
If you're bored while we're on vacation -- and you have every reason to be -- catch up on some of our riveting FY08 budget coverage. The stats make for great conversation at backyard luaus or weekend barbecues. You'll need to know this stuff when Congress returns next month, anyway.
NOAA Funding Includes Tech Initiatives
Bills Eye Technology Improvements At VA
Federal R&D Budget For Nanotech Outlined
Funding Boost Planned For Justice's Watchdog
Chambers Split Over UAVs For The Border
Broadband Loan Money Divides Chambers
Plenty Of Tech Goodies In FBI Budget
Emergency System's Funding Is Endangered
Popular Tech Programs Rescued
Disagreement Over Telecom Program
More Money Proposed For IP Protections
Interior Bill Tackles Nanotech, Other Topic
Public D-TV Facing Fiscal Pressures
R&D Funding Analyzed
Advocates: Education Funds Lacking
Appropriations A Hurdle For Innovation Bills
Additional budget coverage
The Digital Media Association and digital royalty collector SoundExchange inked a deal Thursday afternoon after months of negotiations that stemmed from the Copyright Royalty Board's Internet radio rate hike.
Technology Daily has learned there are three parts to the agreement, the details of which will be announced later in the day: (1) Per-channel fees will be capped at $50,000 per service. (2) Licensed webcasters will provide a full census of songs to SoundExchange (3) DiMA and SoundExchange will form a committee to meet regularly to evaluate "stream-ripping" and possible technological solutions.
In an effort to make federal case law fast and easy to search, more accessible to the public and free, Columbia Law School and the University of Colorado Law School have launched a new Web site called AltLaw.org. The site has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of case law resources, according to a Columbia press release distributed on Thursday.
AltLaw.org contains nearly 170,000 decisions dating back to the early 1990s from the Supreme Court and federal appellate courts. The site’s creators, Timothy Wu, Stuart Sierra and Paul Ohm, said the site’s database will grow over time.
"It’s been more than 10 years since the start of the Internet revolution, and case law is one area that has not budged. Somebody has to take the initiative. We want to open the law to the public," Wu. said. He envisions the site being used by many who want to avoid hundreds of dollars per hour in fees for proprietary law databases and legal scholars.
Over at PrezVid, James Kotecki points out that most of the 2008 presidential campaigns may be violating copyright laws when they post clips of their interviews from cable and network TV news shows on YouTube. He says he hopes that drawing attention to this fair use question will force politicians to reexamine the country's dated intellectual property statutes.
National Journal's Beltway Blogroll says:
Add MTV to the list of citizen media innovators in the 2008 campaign. The music network that made "Choose or Lose" a part of the political vocabulary is recruiting young folks from every state and the District of Columbia to write stories, produce online videos and take photos on the campaign trail. The effort is being underwritten in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. MTV won a $700,000 grant for the mobile youth journalists in the Knight News Challenge.
Meanwhile, Technology Daily's AM Edition reports that social-networking site MySpace and MTV plan to bring together the 2008 presidential hopefuls and young voters for real-time, online conversations. The top candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties will participate, each holding individual dialogues with voters.
Congressional leaders beware, the American Civil Liberties Union is making good on its promise to make you look like sheep in your hometown newspapers -- literally.
Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a follow-up letter to supporters on Tuesday that the ACLU has raised enough money to put its "Congress as Sheep" ads in newspapers in the home districts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid next week. The ACLU is taking out the ad space to send a message to congressional Democrats about standing up to the Bush administration on domestic spying, restoring habeas corpus, shutting down Guantanamo prison and other issues.
"If the last 8 months have taught us anything, it’s that Congress will not act to restore our freedoms unless we force them to," Romero said. "That’s why our 'Congress as Sheep' ads have to be the start of something bigger: an all-out ACLU campaign to make sure Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi aren’t leading a Congress that will fail freedom and to put all members of Congress on notice." -- Michael Martinez
Salon.com's Machinist blog follows up on the weeks-old controversy surrounding FishbowlDC's annual "Hottest Media Types" contest. The author writes about how the election was rigged and how "trying to find the hottest reporter in the nation's capital is like trying to elect a president in Ukraine… Don't expect fairness."
Scruffy arts writer Kriston Capps and his housemate and friend Catherine Andrews, an editor at Washingtonian.com, both took home first place in the "off-air" category. The blog reveals that they "acknowledge that they won only because their online friends… built software bots that voted thousands of times for each of them."
"What's surprising is not that anyone cheated -- online polls are about as trustworthy as Soviet Bloc elections -- but how brazen, and how easy, the cheating was," the blog explains. Read the full post here. Also, Capps responds here.
The New York Times earlier this week ran an obituary for Joybubbles, a.k.a. Joe Engressia. According to the article, he was a pioneer of telephone touch-tone hacking or "phone-phreaking" -- the precursor to today's computer hacking subculture.
Engressia, who was born blind and died at age 58, happened to have perfect pitch and learned how to recreate the touch-tones necessary to move the switches at AT&T in the 1970s. Using this technique, he led a movement of hackers who reveled in tinkering with the telecommunications giant's system.
The obit is a fascinating read. It includes a number of interesting details about Engressia's life, including the fact that in 1988 he chose to "remain 5 forever, and had the toys and teddy bears to prove it."
A 1971 Esquire magazine article called Joybubbles a catalyst uniting disparate phreaks. "Every night he sits like a sightless spider in his little apartment receiving messages from every tendril of its web," the article's author wrote.
Engressia moved to Minneapolis on June 12, 1982, partly because that date’s numerical representation of 6-12 is the same as the city’s area code, the Times reported. There, he lived on Social Security disability payments and part-time jobs "like letting university agriculture researchers use his superb sense of smell to investigate how to control the odor of hog excrement."
Read more about Joybubbles on Wikipedia.
David Oxenford, an attorney for Accuradio, Radio Paradise and other small commercial webcasters, responded late Tuesday to SoundExchange's proposed deal on royalty rates for their streams through 2010.
He said the offer does not represent an agreement with all the small webcasters who were participants in the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding and who are parties to the appeal pending in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The proposal also "does not address many of the most significant issues raised" by his clients when SoundExchange first made the offer back in May. The plan does not allow the sector to grow -- limiting them to the same $1.25 million dollar revenue threshold that has been in place since 2002. It also imposes a new cap that will further limit the industry's growth, Oxenford told us.
"With these limits, investment in these companies will be eliminated as no one will invest in companies that, when they reach the revenue threshold, will have to pay more in royalties than they make in revenues," he said. Oxenford said his clients hope SoundExchange will continue to negotiate with them to reach a deal that will allow the businesses to grow.
Mark your calendars! A new $5 bill design will be unveiled online next month, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced Tuesday. The tech-savvy project is aimed at "staying ahead of counterfeiters by using the latest advances in technology to enhance the bill's security," officials said.
The Sept. 20 virtual launch will also provide an opportunity "to engage people in the public education process," said Dawn Haley, chief of external relations at the bureau. Moneyfactory.gov's "new money" page has already gotten 200 million hits since its launch in May 2003 and receives about 280,000 unique visitors each month.
The Fed is banking on its "'Wi-5" theme to "get consumers excited about the new bill" and encourage folks to learn more about its security features. An online Q&A for reporters and podcasts will round out the bill's digital debut.
Streaming video of man-on-the-street interviews will be posted on the site, which will showcase consumers identifying the new $5 bill's updated security features, the bureau said. What's next? The $100 bill will get a facelift after the $5 bill is issued in early 2008.
Care to send some free samples my way?
Digital royalty collector SoundExchange began sending formal offers to small commercial webcasters that would allow them to continue streaming through 2010 under essentially the same terms they have enjoyed under the Small Webcaster Settlement Act, Technology Daily has learned.
The offer means that this sub-section of Internet radio providers would be guaranteed the same rates for the next several years that they have received since 1998 for the use of sound recordings owned by SoundExchange members. Sound recordings of non-members would still be subject to new rates.
Although webcasters of all sizes have started paying under the rates codified by the Copyright Royalty Board earlier this year, it had remained unclear to many small players what their obligations would be going forward.
This deal "takes the uncertainty out of the air" for most of their programming, SoundExchange Executive Director John Simson said in a press release, which was expected to go out late Tuesday. As part of the deal, small webcasters (those earning $1.25 million or less in total revenue) would pay royalty fees of 10 or 12 percent of revenue.
Small webcasters have until Sept. 14, 2007 to accept the agreement, officials said. Those who do not sign the paperwork but continue streaming will be responsible for paying the new, higher rates unveiled in March.
"We continue to negotiate with the relevant parties, and are hopeful that we can reach a solution that works for all small commercial webcasters," SoundExchange General Counsel Michael Huppe said. That kind of solution would have to get CRB approval.
Global piracy of recorded music has cost the United States $12.5 billion in economic output and 71,060 jobs annually, the Institute for Policy Innovation said Tuesday. U.S. workers lose $2.7 billion in earnings, including $1.1 billion from workers in the recording industry or “downstream” retail industries, and $1.6 billion by workers in other sectors.
The U.S. government loses at least $422 million in tax revenue, including $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes, the report by economist Stephen Siwek.
The IPI study is the second in a series of intellectual property papers examining the impact of piracy and patent infringement. IPI will publish an analysis of the combined copyright industries (movies, music, software and video games) in a forthcoming paper.
Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America, said the report "vividly illustrates the serious economic harm caused by the widespread availability of illegal music either via the Internet or on the streets."
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has decided to offer digital music free from technical restrictions. The chain announced this week that it will make available a new online MP3 music catalog that includes thousands of albums and songs from major record labels like Universal Music Group and EMI without copy-protection software.
The Digital Freedom Campaign, an effort backed by the Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge and others, lauded the move. "In the fight for consumer rights in the digital age, the tide has clearly shifted,” spokeswoman Maura Corbett said.
Wal-Mart gained its mega-store status "by putting their customers first and offering the products they want." Then the company "took that philosophy digital," she said. Corbett said the action could be a precedent-setter and urged other retailers to follow Wal-Mart's lead.
The DRM-free music will be available for $0.94 per track and $9.22 per album -- lower than most offerings from Apple's popular iTunes service. Wal-Mart will continue to provide its existing WMA-format music downloads for $0.88 per track.
The new format will give customers "the ease and flexibility to play music on virtually any device at a great value," said Wal-Mart Senior Director Kevin Swint. Read Wal-Mart's press release here.
ASPEN -- Harvard University Law School professor Larry Tribe referred to the infamous quote from the Supreme Court Justice he once clerked for -- Potter Stewart as he discussed first amendment rights and censorship Tuesday. Tribe said he would know violent content when he saw it.
But Tribe said censorship must be approached with caution during a speech at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit.
"You can say your purpose is noble, you're not trying to create uniformity, just trying to protect kids," Tribe said. "But that does not mean you can do it with a law that's imprecise."
Tribe clerked for Stewart from 1967-1968. Stewart is well known for the obscenity case Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964 in which he wrote that hard core pornography was hard to define, but "I know it when I see it."
Tribe joked he worked for Stewart back in the days when one of the benefits of being a clerk was watching porn in the Supreme Court basement to search for obscenity and said he did ask Stewart if he had ever encountered hard core pornography.
"He said 'just once off the coast of Algiers,'" Tribe said, noting Stewart had served in the Navy, but would not elaborate on what he actually saw that reached the mark while traveling near the capital of Algeria.
ASPEN -- Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic defended a policy some in Washington criticize -- the revolving door between government and the private sector. He spoke at lunch Monday at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual Aspen Summit.
Kovacic has served as an antitrust and consumer protection consultant to governments in Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Nepal, Russia, and Vietnam to name a few. He has also sat with European counterparts during his several stints at the FTC from 1979-1983 and again as general counsel for the FTC from 2001-2004. He said main difference in Europe is government bureaucrats remain in their positions throughout their career and do not have the perspective gained from time in the private sector.
"I can't imagine doing the job I do now without representing the other side," Kovacic said. He said it was precisely his work as an attorney trying to get through "the decidedly unreasonable government agencies" that is now a benefit for him as an FTC Commissioner.
ASPEN -- This hasn't exactly been live blogging, but there have been a few highlights from the Progress and Freedom Foundation summit this week that should not go without mention.
Scott Wallersten, senior fellow for communication policy at PFF, opened the first panel with strong motivation to keep the 10-minute opening speeches on track, warning those who go over may mysteriously find their return flights canceled. Some didn't look too worried about the prospect of remaining in Aspen.
Stanford University economics professor Roger Noll, who spoke about telecommunications policy in a converged world, said that threat didn't mean much for him as he drove to Aspen. The freedom also expanded to his speech.
Noll said the FCC "is not working," He cited one action as evidence that the FCC delayed digital radio, but fined Clear Channel "a few million bucks for taking payola." Noll also referred to the opening presentation by Harvard's Dale Jorgenson who showed charts to prove his point that job loss due to IT innovation ultimately boosted productivity.
"If the FCC is eliminated, I know you guys would be out of work, but as Dale's chart shows, there will productive jobs for all of you," Noll said as FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell sat at the panel on the far end of the table.
Excerpted from Government Executive's Tech Insider Blog:
Who is editing most of the entries on Wikipedia, the open online encyclopedia that anyone can edit? For government agencies, NASA wins by a large margin, according to the Web site WikiScanner.
The government agencies that have been cited by WikiScanner for more than 1,000 edits to Wikipedia entries are listed below. The number represents the number of times a computer at that government organization was used to edit an entry on Wikipedia.
1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa.gov) 6,846
2. Department Of Veterans Affairs (va.gov) 4,210
3. Forestry And Fire Protection (ca.gov) 4,148
4. Dept Homeland Security (dhs.gov) 4,081
5. Information Systems U.S. House Of Representatives (house.gov) 3,736
6. National Institutes Of Health (nih.gov) 3,019
7. U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov) 2,869
8. U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture (usda.gov) 2,435
9. City Of New York (nyc.gov) 2,404
10. Salem Public Schools (ct.gov) 2,398
Read the full blog post and lengthier list here.
The Consumerist blog reported Sunday on an interesting incident involving Internet telephone firm Vonage and a customer who called to cancel his service. "Tony" asked to have his service discontinued after Vonage was unable to explain their contingency plans for handling an interruption.
The customer service representative apparently explained as he typed that he was listing Tony's reason for canceling as: "Customer... lacks... the... courage... to... stay... with... us... due... to... litigation." Vonage is currently duking it out in court with Verizon.
Tony didn’t like being called a coward and fired off a letter to Vonage. Read more about it here.
Some folks are natural live-bloggers and some, well, simply give it the old college try. Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, tried his hand at it on Monday morning at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's conference in Aspen, Colo.
Here's the result, posted on the Technology Liberation Front:
8:17 am - Bacon! And there’s sausage patties too, but bacon is what really excites people.
8:25 am - Am I the only one wearing sneakers?
8:35 - A little chilly here in the conference room.
And - to summarize - I’m not too big on liveblogging.
But don't worry, Jim followed up with an interesting dispatch.
463 Communications' Sean Garrett is in Aspen too, blogging about what really matters: "The real interesting stuff happens here outside of the panels. Like watching DC-types jump over fountains of water at 2:00 a.m." Click here to see the fuzzy camera phone photo.
Technology Daily has publicly lifted the curtain on a series of profiles and stories that appeared on the subscription-only Web site last week. The package focuses on what presidential candidates are saying about tech issues and how they are using technology in their campaigns. The special report's key ingredients include: the main page, profiles on Republicans and Democrats and several meaty stories.
Summer interns Sandra Gonzalez and Sarah Myers scoured the Congressional Record, candidate sites, YouTube and other sources to gather information on what has been said or done on the tech policy front. Meanwhile, staff writer Winter Casey examined candidates' views on trade.
We plan to update the package as warranted throughout the campaign, with feeds from political reporter Heather Greenfield and The Hotline's Shira Toeplitz, who writes the "On The Download" column for both publications.
As you might have guessed from Sunday's night's introductory post, Technology Daily's own Heather Greenfield is in Aspen, Colo. this week for the Progress & Freedom Foundation's annual conference. The event is one of my favorite outside-the-Beltway gatherings for Washington insiders.
This year's speakers include Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Harvard Economist Dale Jorgenson, FTC Commissioner William Kovacic, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe and many others.
PFF Acting President Tom Lenard promised that "all the major issues that are very contentious will be discussed" -- including the FCC's 700 MHz auction, copyright issues, patent reform, online child safety issues and privacy. "The interplay between industry, government and academics produces fascinating discussions," he said in a press release.
Heather will be filing stories for the PM Edition over the next few days and contributing to the blog when she's not busy schmoozing at the swanky St. Regis Hotel, the location for the yearly assembly. The forecast in Aspen for the next few days is plenty of sun with highs in the low 80s. I hope she finds time to for an afternoon hike or two.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will meet in Paris, France in June 2008, the group announced on Friday. At its Aug. 14 meeting, the ICANN Board accepted the proposal put forward by Association pour la Gouvernance de l’Internet en France, en Europe, et dans le monde.
“ICANN is looking forward to working with AGIFEM and welcoming the global Internet community to Paris,” ICANN Vice President Paul Levins said in a press release. “We had two highly competitive proposals to host the meeting slated for ICANN’s European region -- a testament to the great local Internet communities in France and Serbia.”
ICANN holds three meetings per year in different regions around the world. The group's next conference will be in Los Angeles in late October.
ASPEN -- Ambassador David Gross of the State Department opened the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual Aspen Summit Sunday evening as those attending adjusted to the altitude and the wine, with the later not helping much.
Gross said there is no doubt people still look to the United States for intellectual leadership. He cited the tremendous growth of the communications industry. He said the number of Internet subscriptions has increased four times in just the last six yuears to 1.2 billion subscribers. Gross added that cell phone users have grown from 600 million in 2001 to 3 billion this year.
"What does this mean?" Gross asked. "The world is changing and changing in our direction."
It's August. It's Friday. And I had some down time today. So I figured it might be fun to run a basic YouTube search on every top-tier presidential candidate just to see which videos about them would come up first.
Much was written during last year's elections about "Googlebombing" and manipulating the information that turns up in basic search queries for political candidates. I thought it would be a good exercise to see what would happen on YouTube when I punched in the top three Democrats and the top three Republicans in today's polls -- plus Fred Thompson, the steady-polling Republican "non-candidate."
As a general rule, the first videos, or group of videos, that come up for candidates on YouTube portray them negatively. Try it yourself. Search for Rudy Giuliani, and you'll find a video of him dressed in drag up top. Go fishing for Mitt Romney, and a video about his "flip-flopping" will be your first catch. If you're looking for John Edwards, you'll see him fixing his hair before you see him doing anything else.
Hillary Clinton's infamous spoof on "The Sopranos," which her campaign produced, leads her YouTube hit list. But it's immediately followed by the "Vote Different" spot produced by a Barack Obama supporter and a clip of her butchering the National Anthem. The first two Fred Thompson clips also are harmless. But they're right in front of video of him being angrily confronted by a group called Houston911Truth.
OpenLeft.com's Matt Stoller interviewed FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on a YouTube video in which the Democrat addressed how AT&T's recent snipping of Pearl Jam concert relates to the "net neutrality" debate.
"I think you're dealing here with a technology that's perhaps the most dynamic and liberating maybe in all of human history with the internet and our challenge is to keep that open and accessible to folks and running in a neutral fashion and to avoid those who may be in control of the distribution of that technology from also controlling the content on it," he told Stoller.
Read more about the Pearl Jam/AT&T controversy here.
The American Civil Liberties Union doesn't think much of the Democrats who allowed the White House to win the dispute over updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act earlier this month. In fact, the ACLU thinks those lawmakers acted like sheep, and it's looking for money so that it can tell the whole world about it.
In a letter to members sent Thursday, Executive Director Anthony Romero said the ACLU is trying to raise cash so it can take out ad space in the hometown newspapers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The ad the ACLU wants to run features a picture of two sheep with "Pelosi" and "Reid" tags on their ears standing in front of the Capitol, and says that "when Democratic leaders follow Bush's plans to eavesdrop on Americans, it's BAAAAAAAD."
Romero said that Congress, especially the Democrats in control of it, can't afford to continue to lose these kinds of legislative battles to the Bush administration and that the ads are "only the beginning" of the ACLU's campaign to force Congress to fix the surveillance legislation.
"It’s gone from bad to intolerable," he said. "And we must let Congressional leaders know -- in no uncertain terms -- that it’s time to start standing tall and stop caving in." -- Michael Martinez
Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the death of rock legend Elvis Presley. In honor of the King of Rock & Roll, video blog Rocketboom featured a few tech-related tidbits including -- (1) the elvislives.net Web site, (2) the Elvis impersonator database, (3) Elvis' gold medallion for bid on eBay, (4) the complete album set of 95 33-inch LPs on eBay, Elvis image in 3 a billion year old rock on eBay (starting bid $20,000), and (6) the Web address Supercalafragilisticexpialaelvis.com (currently priced at $1). Meanwhile, check out my Elvis sighting at last year's Consumer Electronics Show. Long live The King.
The Markos Moulitsas world tour continued this week with a stop at Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” The Daily Kos founder -- or as Stephen Colbert called him, the leader of the “Blog-shtapo” -- hit the show fresh off of an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and a weekend contribution to The Washington Post’s op-ed page.
In the op-ed, he wrote: "A new day is dawning for the progressive movement. The distrust between Net-roots activists and more traditional progressive players in the party establishment and issue groups has given way to respectful cooperation as we all adjust to new technologies and the promise they hold for institutional change." -- Michael Martinez
William Hacker, co-chair of the National Governors Association health information protection task force, doesn't have to think hard to come up with a come-back for jokes about his last name. "My brother-in-law's name is Hatcher and he's an obstetrician, so I can diffuse the hacker point," he told us.
But the Kentucky public health commissioner has had to think hard about the verb, in his capacity as a government official and advisor to NGA's State Alliance for e-Health.
"In their wisdom, NGA recognized that public health entities have a lot to contribute to a health information exchange" that many others don't generally recognize, he said on Thursday. Public health departments use health data, stripped of personal identifiers, to track all manner of diseases and medical trends.
"We can back-up advisories with firm data, which the physicians don't have," Hacker said. "That reporting piece is done today by fax or telephone or paper. If we can make it electronic or automatic that decreases the burden on the private physician."
E-health improves efficiency both for the sender and the receiver of the digital information, he said. "The quicker we know about it, the quicker we can respond." But until we can assure patients that their sensitive health information is recorded in a secure manner, we will never experience the benefits available to us, Hacker added.
"The truth is the digital world today is probably more protective than a paper chart" because of the embedded audit trails, "but from the public's point of view, that is not the case." Read more about this in Technology Daily's PM Edition. -- Aliya Sternstein
Those crazy kids over at The Bryant Park Project, National Public Radio's new morning show for the 25- to 44-year-old demographic are at it again. This time, they've convinced GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee of Arkansas to talk candidly about his relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton… and face-off against hosts Luke Burbank and Alison Stewart in a ping-pong match.
"While he was president, when every media entity in the country would have more than welcomed my taking the stage to condemn Bill Clinton, I didn’t do it," Huckabee tells NPR. "I saw no future in it. There was a long line of people standing in line to condemn him. I always liked the short lines anyway."
Video of the interview and the competition will be available on the show's Web page after 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The newsmagazine has been offering online audio and video segments for a few months but the two-hour morning drive time show will premiere Oct. 1 on terrestrial, satellite and digital HD radio, and free streaming audio.
Update: See who wins the ping-pong match! The video is online here.
A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, a government official told Reuters on Thursday. According to the article, the name stands out especially in Chinese, which uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
Deputy chief of the State Language Commission, Li Yuming, told reporters that the name was an extreme example of citizens' increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions. Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name.
Incidentally, the Chinese couple isn't the first to have that idea. For years, I have signed my e-mails with "@," rather than my full name -- and have been given a collection of "@" tchotchkes to prove it (potholders, magnets, bookends, etc).
PoliticsTV points out that Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of former Sen. George Allen's "Macaca" comment. According to the site, on Aug. 11, 2006, S.R. Siddarth taped the Virginia Republican's fateful comment during a campaign rally.
Unable to get any TV station to use the footage, Democratic challenger Jim Webb's camp put the video on YouTube and the rest is history. Allen ended up losing what some thought would be a pretty safe race.
"In just one year, YouTube has gone from an obscure Web app to a household word and a political force," PoliticsTV stated. Can you imagine what fun is in store for the 2008 presidential campaign cycle?!
Technology Daily's AM Edition on Thursday reports on the legal battle that played out in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a day earlier between critics of the Bush administration's anti-terror surveillance programs and government lawyers who cited national security risks to try to get the cases thrown out.
Writers for Wired News' Threat Level live-blogged the hearing in San Francisco. The money quote, according to BoingBoing.net, was from Judge M. Margaret McKeown: "I feel like I'm in Alice and Wonderland."
When the lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which claims AT&T has collaborated with the government on electronic eavesdropping, attempted to argue the existence of a secret AT&T room is enough to prove dragnet Internet surveillance, McKeown offered more colorful commentary. "There's a Las Vegas quality to your argument," she said, alluding to the "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" commercials.
The event was well attended too. Threat Level reported that the courtroom filled "quickly with more than 20 attorneys" as well as 80 spectators seated and standing. Another 40 filed into an overflow room. Read our preview story from earlier in the week here.
HDNet's Dan Rather is making waves with his new report that Election Systems &Software, one of the nation's largest e-voting manufacturers, assembles voting machines in the Philippines -- in sweatshop-style factories.
Rather's hour-long report is available online. Rather digs deep and interviews a former ES&S worker from the Philippines who claims the company regularly provided voting jurisdictions in the U.S. with faulty equipment.
Kim Zetter at Wired News' Threat Level blog already has done some interesting follow-up work on the HDNet report. She wrote yesterday that ES&S failed to disclose its Manila facility to the Election Assistance Commission. Vendors are required to report to the EAC the locations of all their manufacturing and assembly facilities.
ES&S responded to Zetter's post this morning, and said it was an "unintentional oversight" that it did not report the Manila facility.
-- Michael Martinez
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick would spend less than a year in prison if he accepts the plea agreement offered to him by the federal prosecutors pursuing dogfighting charges against him.
But if a South Carolina inmate gets his way in a separate federal lawsuit filed against Vick this summer, the Virginia Tech alum would be forced to fork over $63 billion. Vick also would be required to be more considerate of the plaintiff's feelings.
Jonathan Lee Riches has accused Vick of stealing pit bulls from him, selling the dogs on eBay and attempting to use the profits to purchase missiles from the Iranian government. The complaint, which was handwritten because Riches did not have access to a typewriter in jail, also includes federal tort claims including, but not limited to, "injury to wildlife, conspiracy, illegal dogfighting, extortion, racketeering, gambling, copyright infringement, identity theft, fraud, threats to commit violent acts" and brutality.
According to Riches, Vick damaged the radio frequency identification chips in his dogs' collars so that he would not be able to track them after they were stolen. He also has accused Vick of violating copyright law by putting his name on his "personal football outfit and casual clothing" without compensating him accordingly and selling t-shirts, mugs and hats with Riches' name on them.
Intellectual property bloggers are commanding a lot more attention these days, especially as Congress considers a massive overhaul to the U.S. patent system and high-profile IP fights play out in courts across the country.
So, here's a new online resource to add to your list -- it's the Maryland IP Law Blog written by Brian Higgins, an attorney with Blank Rome. Higgins has experience counseling clients on the IP aspects of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, Internet-based products and more.
The blog provides news, analyses of case law, summaries of pending litigation, statistical information and miscellaneous commentary relating to IP issues impacting Maryland businesses, individuals, and governments.
His most recent post discusses a survey that asked corporations: "Overall, has your company made money from the patent system?" Pharma and biotech companies responded with a resounding "Yes," he said. Read more here.
Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright said Monday that she is no longer a technophobe. She has a BlackBerry, "which I'm addicted to unfortunately," and regularly users her computer -- but she still has not yet joined the blogosphere, attendees at the Aspen Institute's Forum on Communications and Society heard.
The Clinton Administration's top diplomat appeared at a multi-day event aimed at exploring the new uses and practicalities of emerging versus older media. She said there "needs to be a greater understanding of a lot of the technology that’s available" because "it's very hard to grasp in terms of what its effect is on foreign policy."
The key question is "whether one can get your arms around it enough to make it useful," Albright said of the countless tech tools currently available. "Information is a tool of foreign policy," she added.
Charter Communications Vice Chairman Marc Nathanson, who interviewed Albright on stage, asked whether she thought China was a friend or foe. "Friend," she responded, but said the relationship between the Communist country and the U.S. needs to improve.
The organization that manages the Internet-addressing system is taking on "domain tasting" -- the exploitation of its five-day add/drop grace period for Web addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is now collecting public comments on the topic, officials said Friday.
An ad hoc group within ICANN is inviting both qualitative and quantitative input, with a particular focus on statistical and other empirical evidence to support the statements received. The deadline for submissions to rfi-domaintasting@icann.org is Sept. 15, 2007. Comments can be viewed on this Web page.
Read Technology Daily's recent coverage of this issue here and here.
Electronic commerce entrepreneurs, rejoice. The American Bar Association is looking out for you. Over the weekend, the group launched www.SafeSelling.org, a free resource for individuals and small businesses interested in starting Web enterprises or venturing into online sales.
The Web site, which debuted at the ABA's annual meeting in San Francisco, is organized around frequently asked questions that arise during the creation, launch and operation of an online business.
"We wanted the site to be intuitive for the typical small business owner," said Jonathan Rubens, editorial director of SafeSelling.org. "From obtaining a domain name to protecting customer privacy, our SafeSelling.org site offers a complete range of logically listed mini-topics to help our target audience find the facts they need."
Other topics on the site include payment processing, delivery and fulfillment, selling out-of-state or internationally, advertising and marketing, and customer authentication and security, the ABA said in a press release.
SafeSelling.org is a companion site to Safeshopping.org, which provides information about purchasing items safely on the Internet. The ABA had a jam-packed agenda at this year's conference. Read more coverage in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
This week, The Hill newspaper reported on the summer's hottest Washington fashion accessory -- the Blackberry. Congressional aides and lawmakers "of all shapes and sizes" wear the handheld devices "strapped to their waists as though they were electricians, refrigerator repairmen, private detectives or crime fighters such as Batman."
Tisk, tisk says ProjectBeltway.com blogger Rachel Cothran. Blackberrys are "not a positive fashion statement," she told the paper. "Women especially have no excuse. If anything, having to carry work with you at all times via a BlackBerry is a reason to invest in a well-made bag."
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals heard a patent infringement feud involving cable giant Comcast on Friday and I was psyched to attend. Why? Because the cases I regularly cover don't typically make for sparkling cocktail party conversation.
Intellectual property legal battles frequently involve high-profile tech and telecom firms but are obscure and technologically sophisticated. This morning's case, while incredibly dense, focused on Comcast Digital Voice, the company's Internet telephony offering.
The two-year-old service, which recently surpassed three million subscribers, is the focus of a nationwide TV advertising blitz. The witty commercials, like the one shown above, air relentlessly in Washington. So, folks will "get" what I'm talking about -- at least in part. Plus, I couldn’t resist posting video of a goofy looking guy tattooed like a tiger.
See Technology Daily's PM Edition for coverage of the case.
Democratic presidential candidates faced off Thursday night at a Los Angeles forum hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality group. The event was televised on the LOGO network and streamed live on the Internet.
The panel of questioners -- HRC President Joe Solmonese, singer Melissa Etheridge, journalist Jonathan Capehart and columnist Margaret Carlson -- grilled the politicians, who appeared individually on stage, with GLBT-related questions.
Video clips from the first-of-its-kind event are available on LOGO's site and there's plenty of coverage in the blogosphere. HRC, for one, live-blogged the forum. Comments left by viewers on LOGO's site showed that Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who supports same-sex marriage, was "the total surprise breakout star of the night."
Pam Spaulding of the Pam’s House Blend blog thought "the questions were tough, and covered a lot of ground — and the candidates had ample opportunity to expand on their otherwise well-worn campaign thumbnail sketches on their positions re:LGBT rights." Read her rundown here.
Meanwhile, the Washington Blade reports on its Web site that "in an otherwise low-key presidential candidates forum dedicated to gay issues, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson drew gasps from the audience when he appeared to suggest that homosexuality is a choice." The newspaper's blog has a detailed recap of the event.
A series of YouTube videos that depict pranks being played on fast-food restaurant employees are causing quite a stir. The so-called "fire in the hole" footage shows teenagers tossing purchased drinks back through drive-up windows, startling and in some cases drenching the target.
Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV has surveillance footage of one worker getting showered with hot sauce. The Subway clerk told WPXI-TV that "as soon as it hit my face, my eyes were burning. All is I could think is how could someone do this? I mean, it's just not funny."
Police in several states are investigating similar incidents. Meanwhile, a YouTube search on Thursday turned up a number of clips but some had been taken offline for violating the video-sharing site's terms of use.
BOSTON -- The most YouTube-able moment of the conference this week so far has been the "Tea Party" the lawmakers threw at the harbor in protest of REAL ID and other laws they think are unfunded federal mandates. Unfortunately, no footage of this shindig has been posted to YouTube.
But fear not -- NCSL has done the heavy lifting and posted video of the event themselves to their own site. Apparently, I not only missed the event, but I also missed the sunshine. I arrived from Washington on Monday and today's the first day that Mother Nature and I have been on the same page. At least I'm not dealing with brutal D.C. heat -- yet. -- Michael Martinez
BOSTON -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came out on top here this week in a straw poll of presidential candidates conducted by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Roughly 31 percent of Democrats said they favored Clinton out of the pool of potential nominees for the 2008 race. Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., came in second at 26 percent. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois took home about 20 percent of the votes.
Romney beat the rest of the Republican field by nearly 14 points. Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who has not yet made his candidacy official, finished second. Almost 36 percent of the Republicans said they supported Romney.
According to NCSL, more than 500 lawmakers, aides and policy experts participated in the poll. -- Michael Martinez
President Bush on Wednesday gave a shout-out to online auction site eBay on Wednesday after lunching with Treasury and State Department officials. He said the entrepreneurial spirit has helped our economy keep pace with new technologies, and America is a leader in innovation.
"Twelve years ago, eBay did not exist. Today eBay is a global business that reported nearly $6 billion in net revenues last year," Bush said. He called the site an "entrepreneurial success story" that has helped thousands of Americans become entrepreneurs themselves.
It's worth noting that eBay CEO Meg Whitman was named chief California fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney earlier this year. In previous campaign cycles, she has supported Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and former GOP Sen. George Allen of Virginia.
On Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidates vied for the affection of the AFL-CIO (whose executive council is holding off on its endorsement for now). Tonight, they'll head to Los Angeles for a debate hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality group.
Confirmed attendees include New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, John Edwards, former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.
HRC President Joe Solmonese, singer Melissa Etheridge and journalist Jonathan Capehart will appear as panelists during the two-hour event and political columnist Margaret Carlson will moderate.
For a sneak peak of how the candidates have weighed in on GLBT issues, check out HRC's questionnaire (PDF).
Here's the tech angle: The debate will be televised live on Viacom's LOGO network and on its Web site. Viewers are also encouraged to send in questions via LOGO's site to be answered live by the candidates.
On a related note, the LA Times blog Top of the Ticket points out a study that shows that gays and lesbians get out the vote -- in much higher percentages than the rest of the population.
(Credit: TimeOut Chicago)
Rock band Pearl Jam reported some shocking news on its Web site on Wednesday that riled up some in the policy world. After concluding their Sunday show at the Lollapalooza festival, the band learned that portions of their performance were missing from a webcast provided by AT&T.
When asked about the missing portions, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that some parts of the show were snipped and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them, according to Pearl Jam's blog.
But the band doesn’t buy AT&T's explanation. During their performance of "Daughter," the following modified lyrics were sung but were cut from the online stream: "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home."
"This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media," the band wrote.
It troubled Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn too. She said the incident was "nothing short of appalling that AT&T should take it upon itself to censor a webcast because it didn’t like the content of lyrics being sung by a band."
"How can we trust a company that promises not to interfere with content on the Internet when it has its corporate finger on the button to cut off political criticisms it doesn’t like?" Sohn said in a statement. She urged the FCC and Congress to take note.
BOSTON -- Washington state Rep. Bob Hasegawa invoked his affection for "Star Trek" during the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual conference on Wednesday. "I come out of the closet on that issue," the Democrat announced at the morning business meeting.
In addition to proclaiming his love for the erstwhile television series, he criticized a proposed resolution on building 21st century communications infrastructure. According to Hasegawa, the proposed policy position was too conciliatory to private companies. When put to a vote, the resolution was rejected. -- Michael Martinez
Well, it was only a matter of time. Wildly successful MySpace and wildly successful satirical news outlet The Onion, have partnered to bring new Onion video, audio and articles to the social networking site.
The Onion/MySpace partnership will create a branded "Onion" community allowing fans to view exclusive content through the video hub as well as via the Onion’s new MySpace profile at http://myspace.com/onionnews.
"The news business is like the tobacco business: you want to reach new readers at as young and impressionable an age as possible," Onion's chief Sean Mills said in a press release. "MySpace was, of course, a natural partner in that regard."
The deal also launches The Onion’s first-ever staff blog. "The Wall Street Journal is all well and good, but The Onion News Network represents the best in hard-hitting investigative journalism," said MySpace's Jeff Berman. "Also, we lost a bet."
A prominent celebrity lawyer representing a doctor accused of being a sexual predator slammed "Dateline NBC" on Tuesday in a California courtroom, gossip site TMZ.com reported. Blair Berk, whose clients include Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson, is currently working for Dr. Maurice Wolin, an oncologist who was taken down by cops last year as part of Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series.
Prosecutors argue that Wolin made plans to have a sexual encounter with someone on the Internet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. In reality, the computer user was Xavier Von Erck, founder of Perverted Justice.
According to TMZ, Berk grilled a police officer whose department worked with the gotcha group and the NBC show during a preliminary hearing in Santa Rosa, Calif. Berk maintained that Perverted Justice got money for snagging alleged predators and therefore entrapped her client.
Read more at TMZ.com.
BOSTON -- Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu told the state lawmakers gathered here this morning that he's excited that the National Conference of State Legislatures will be coming to the Pelican State for its annual meeting next summer.
Landrieu reminded the audience that the two-year anniversary of the hurricanes that rocked the Gulf Coast in 2005 is fast approaching. He said that New Orleans has become a "tale of two cities" and that some areas of it have "stood up" while others are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
The Democrat added that rebuilding efforts would continue to require an "American response" and he urged the lawmakers to learn from the mistakes that were made at the state, local and federal levels in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"The moral authority of this country has been compromised by the response that we have had to Katrina and Rita," he said.
I incorrectly noted on Tuesday that Landrieu would be participating in a panel discussion with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. They all addressed the conference separately. For full coverage, check out Technology Daily's PM Edition. -- Michael Martinez
(Credit: Euphonix.com)
There's something slightly humorous when a museum dedicated to the legacy of American journalism can't meet its deadline. The massive new building on Pennsylvania Avenue was supposed to open Oct. 15, but officials say that won't happen.
Newseum officials told the Washington Post on Tuesday that, because of construction delays, the debut of the $435 million project has been pushed back. A new opening date has not been set.
According to the newspaper, the setbacks are due to "the complexity of the building and the final installation of state-of-the-art electronics that has to be done after the general contractor, Turner Construction, is finished."
The building, at Sixth Street NW, will have seven levels totaling 643,000 square feet, with the tech-heavy museum occupying 250,000 square feet and 70,000 square feet dedicated to exhibits. It will house 14 galleries, 15 theaters, two broadcast studios and 130 interactive touch screens.
Hotline On Call offers additional debate reactions:
MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "It was not an NFL football game, but it was pretty close." On Obama: "He definitely had home field advantage. ... He was like a Judo master, kind of. The harder they came at him, he seemed to twist it and turn it. He would have made a million dollars."
NBC's Chuck Todd: "Clinton found out she had allies tonight in Dodd and Biden, and I think the fact we're seeing these candidates pair up and you almost wonder, is this a transitional moment where you are going to see folks starting side with Clinton because they think maybe they smell a winner."
Ex-White House adviser David Gergen: "The big question tonight is did John Edwards make a lot of headway with the labor unions? He was there tonight to try to get labor union endorsements in the next few weeks."
Pat Buchanan: "There's a little man there, Kucinich, who did extraordinarily well. He was clear, tough on NAFTA. He had the audience cheering. He was humorous. He was upbeat."
BOSTON -- Perhaps my only disappointment with my trip so far has been that the Red Sox, the ultimate source of pride and pain of New Englanders, are out of town. It's not that I haven't ever seen a game in Fenway Park -- I went when I was 15. And as a lifelong D.C. native, I actually grew up detesting the BoSox. But even still, baseball was the first thing on my mind when I was told I would be going to Boston for the conference this year.
There's nothing I would have liked to do more here than ask odd-ball sluggers David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis their opinions on free trade with China, network neutrality or streamlined sales taxes. Pitcher and videogame entrepreneur Curt Schilling may well have already staked out his positions on those issues -- he seems to have an opinion on just about everything, and has the blog to prove it.
He also might even have enjoyed a chance to interact with a reporter from outside the sportswriting universe, because judging from one of his recent posts, he's not very happy with them. The interview invitation's still on the table, Curt! -- Michael Martinez
Some random reactions from the blogosphere to Tuesday night's AFL-CIO sponsored Democratic debate:
Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic Online: "A hometown crowd cheered Sen. Barack Obama as he volleyed with his Democratic rivals over his judgment and experience during tonight's AFL-CIO debate in Chicago. But it was Sen. Clinton who, in what might be a metaphor for the entire race, earned the loudest jeers and the most sustained applause."
Pajamas Media's Vodkapundit Stephen Green: "Edwards says, 'Lawyers are better than lobbyists!' Yes, and ebola will kill you faster than AIDS. Small comfort, I suppose… Kucinich is claiming a leadership role in Congress. Which is kind of like saying that snouty-faced guy in the Star Wars cantina scene held a leading role in Episode IV."
Matt Stoller, OpenLeft: "Clinton has made some more major mistakes that open her up to charges of being an elitist and out-of-touch insider. In the argument over Pakistan, Clinton just said that if you are running for President you "shouldn't say everything you think", and got booed."
NewsBusters Blog: "Keith Olbermann a 'fair and balanced' journalist for a day? Did the sweltering Chicago temperatures somehow get to him? The MSNBC host who is notorious for anti-Bush, anti-conservative rants employed a more balanced approach when he moderated Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate."
Right Wing News: "The best debater: Kucinich, who can't possibly win. Runner-up: Hillary, who's good in this format where all she has to do is giggle about 'women cleaning house' and how she doesn't like Bush and she gets applause. Edwards, I would put in the third slot as much as anything because his message appeals to this audience."
The Democratic presidential debate hosted by the AFL-CIO on Tuesday night has come and gone. So, who came out on top? That's not our call but feel free to play Monday morning quarterback by posting a comment here.
One thing was clear -- all seven candidates desperately, desperately wanted to be "The Labor Candidate." No surprise there. The folks at the AFL-CIO blogged throughout the event and they had some interesting thoughts…
-- "Diana" from Cooksville, Tenn., who submitted her question via the Internet, said she lost her job and can't find health insurance. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio touted the bill he introduced to offer health care coverage to all Americans.
-- Many of the candidates talked about how withdrawing troops from Iraq would help us focus more on al Qaeda around the world.
-- Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said a "robust" diplomacy effort is needed. "We shouldn't be selling arms to Saudi Arabia while they're refusing to help us in Iraq."
-- John Edwards said if he were president today, 40 to 50,000 troops would be withdrawn from Iraq immediately.
-- On lobbying, Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois touted the fact that they don't accept donations from registered lobbyists.
-- Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden was asked about considering hiring a Republican for cabinet positions. He said he would because he wants to bring the country together and hire the best people for the job.
-- Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York called for someone to report directly to the president about rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
-- The last question was about the lengthy presidential campaign cycle. "Campaigns last too long, and they cost too much money," Obama said.
Read more on the AFL-CIO blog. The Huffington Post was also live-blogging.
A new, highly critical analysis of the a la carte scheme that Sirius and XM hope will better their chances of getting regulatory approval on their merger is flawed, a merger supporter told us after deadline on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by the National Association of Broadcasters (see Technology Daily's PM Edition for more), argued that consumers will end up paying more under the a la carte models unveiled by Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin last month.
But a paragraph between NAB charts claims that "even the so-called 'best of both worlds' offer -- the 100 channel a la carte plan -- provides only a pre-selected sampling of the other service (a mere 11 channels and you have to buy a new radio)."
According to the source, NAB has incorrectly combined one a la carte plan, which does require a new radio, with a separate plan that would let the subscriber listen to all Sirius and select XM programming (with the same old receiver).
The NAB analysis is "misinformed and self-serving" and fails to mention that Sirius and XM would reduce the price for entry level service to $6.99 -- a reduction of 46 percent from the current base rate, the merger backer said.
BOSTON -- What do the American Civil Liberties Union, the Consumer Electronics Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Point.Click.Drink, Ringling Bros. and Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign have in common?...They've all taken out space on the exhibition floor here at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting.
Regrettably, I didn't make it down to the exhibition hall today before it closed at 4 p.m. I was too busy churning out stories on e-voting and REAL ID for Technology Daily's PM Edition. But I did get a pretty good snapshot of it from through the glass on the second floor walkway. I'll make sure to squeeze in a visit to the floor on Wednesday.
It's already shaping up to be a big day tomorrow with issue sessions on e-health, information technology spending, new media and online sexual predators all on the schedule. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu also will be swinging through for a morning panel discussion.
Another Dunkin' Donuts coffee, please!
I didn’t really even want to be on Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, LinkedIn et al (peer pressure). But now I'm also a member of Pownce, the social-networking and file-sharing service launched by Digg.com founder Kevin Rose.
I received an invitation from a friend and fellow tech policy writer and couldn’t resist the chance to be among the first to test it out. The site, whose catchphrase is "send stuff to your friends," is in its beta phase and is expected to launch publicly in September.
According to Pownce's home page, the new venture is "brought to you by a bunch of geeks who were frustrated trying to send stuff from one cube to another." So, what can you send? Messages, links, files and events.
The interface is clean and simple, which is a delight after being inundated with dizzying, noise-making, content-heavy MySpace pages (you know who you are). The downside is that the page templates are limited and the ability to customize is pretty minimal.
Overall, it makes for an easy profile-building process, but I haven’t really gotten an answer to my big question. "Now what?"
The daughter of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is no longer an Obama girl. Caroline Giuliani, 17, withdrew Monday from the Facebook group for Democratic candidate Barack Obama, according to Slate magazine.
Slate reported she quit the group shortly after a reporter saw it and sent her an email asking about her support for Obama. Caroline will attend Harvard in the fall and is the daughter of Giuliani's second wife Deborah Hanover, whom he divorced.
Giuliani told reporters yesterday he was proud of his daughter, but declined comment on her political views. Obama said he was glad his campaign was attracting young people.
Just when I was beginning to wonder what on earth was going on with National Public Radio's forthcoming morning show aimed at a younger, hipper demographic, the staff of the program, code-named The Bryant Park project, put out a fun behind-the-scenes video.
The 15-minute documentary features compelling footage like a morning meeting (where producer Matt Martinez talks about iPods and pricey soccer shoes), a shot of co-host Alison Stewart eating popcorn and watching TV as well as other tasty tidbits.
NPR's new drive-time joint, geared toward adults 25-44, will premiere in September and they can invite us on any time to talk about the fascinating world of tech policy (hint, hint).
BOSTON -- Beantown will no doubt be a busy place this week, with thousands of state lawmakers descending upon it to discuss policy matters running the gamut from broadband access to election integrity. And my engine will be in fifth gear for Technology Daily and Tech Daily Dose until Thursday night -- thanks largely to the high octane powers of Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
But before I dive into today's tech happenings, I'm going to check out a general session with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough. The good folks at the National Conference of State Legislatures are actually pumping Neil Diamond's "America" on the PA system in the main ballroom right now. They've also plugged their blog, The Thicket, a few times on the big-screen monitors. So you know I'm psyched. It's going to be a fun week. -- Michael Martinez
It's early August, the mercury is rising and it's time for another presidential debate! Democratic contenders will face-off Tuesday night at a forum in Chicago organized by the AFL-CIO, the country's largest federation of trade unions. About 15,000 union family members are expected to attend.
Jobs and wages, health care, retirement, education and Iraq will be the topics du jour and a number of potential questions were submitted by visitors to the AFL-CIO's Working Families Vote 2008 Web site.
The debate, which will be moderated by MSNBC "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann, will be broadcast live on the network at 7 p.m. ET. XM Satellite Radio will also air the forum on its POTUS '08 channel.
Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO sent questionnaires to "every viable major-party candidate running for president in 2008." The surveys ask, in detail, for policy proposals to address key issues facing working families. Read more about that effort here.
I hate to be catty about broadcast news reporters (especially since I'm a print journalist and probably couldn’t do much better) but this interview from ABC News Now is too horrifying to ignore (and it has nothing to do with tech policy).
Gossip site Gawker.com called this "What's the Buzz" segment, which was taped for ABC's streaming video service, a "celebrity fluff piece gone bad." At one point, I thought actress Holly Hunter might reach through the screen and strangle ABC's Merry Miller.
Incidentally, Hunter's new show on TNT called "Saving Grace" is a dark, kooky masterpiece... and it's on Monday nights at 10 ET. And if you want to know more about Miller's credentials check out this article.
Update: ABC is holding a contest where the "prize" is a guest shot hosting the "What's the Buzz" segment and the interviewer is speaking out about the incident that more than a million Internet users watched.
The FTC will host a two-day town hall meeting this fall aimed at bringing together consumer advocates, industry representatives, tech experts, and academics to discuss issues raised by the practice of tracking consumers' activities online to target advertising.
The conference on "behavioral advertising" is a follow-on to conversations that emerged at a November 2006 FTC forum on tech and business developments expected to shape consumers' experiences in the next decade, the agency said.
The town hall will be held Nov. 1-2. Read more here.
State legislators reenacted the Boston Tea Party on Sunday as a way to send a message to their counter parts in Washington: quit passing the buck to the states. The event kicked off the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual conference in Beantown.
More than 12 crates were loaded aboard a schooner -- each representing mandates that have not been funded by the federal government. Among them were the so-called Real ID Act; the education law known as No Child Left Behind; and the Help America Vote Act, which requires states to develop voter databases.
"States can ill afford to absorb the costs of federally mandated programs which are taxing state budgets," NCSL President Leticia Van de Putte said in a press release. "Congress must start making the difficult decisions and stop passing the buck to the states."
Technology Daily Staff Writer Michael Martinez is headed to Boston to cover the multi-day meeting, which draws state legislators from all 50 states. He will be covering a portion of the more than 200 policy sessions for the PM Edition and plans to file dispatches to Tech Daily Dose as well. Stay tuned!
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the Web-addressing system, launched a new monthly magazine last week that will provide the latest news and developments within the organization to online subscribers.
Each issue will review developments in policy topics and provide details of recent board meetings as well as relay ICANN news from around the world. "We want people to understand what issues are pending before ICANN, how interested stakeholders can contribute and when decisions will be made. This magazine will help that understanding," said ICANN Vice President Paul Levins.
The publication is the latest in a series of enhancements to ICANN's accountability and transparency. Other changes included improved board reporting, a blog, an annual report and an improved Web site. Read more about the magazine here.
The YearlyKos convention in Chicago has come and gone. Some tidbits...
Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga addressed the masses. Watch the video here.
Due to "the people's business" back in Washington, the stars of the "Meet the Leaders" panel were unable to make it to the Windy City. The no-shows included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Attendees got a sneak peak at a trio of not yet released films -- "The 11th Hour," an in-depth look at environmental policy; "Chicago 10," which relives the trial of eight prosecoturs who protested the Vietnam War; and "In The Valley of Elah," an examination of the personal cost of the Iraq war.
Former Washington Post writer and senior Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal set the stage for a discussion among bloggers Rob Levine, Cara DeGette, Ezra Klein and Abdi Aynte. Read more from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., reportedly "blew the money question" and got booed by a crowd of lefty bloggers and slammed by her rivals for saying she would keep taking cash from lobbyists to fuel her presidential bid. The New York Daily News has more.
The New York Times recounts a particularly interesting exchange between gun control advocate Nancy Robinson and Andrew Rasiej, the co-founder of techPresident.com.
The Young Turks from Air America Radio live-blogged at the convention.
Of course, there's plenty more from the big event. Search the blogosphere for additional perspectives.
Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate on Friday appeared entrenched in their differences over updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It was a riotous day on Capitol Hill and I need a stiff drink.
[Cross-posted from National Journal's Beltway Blogroll].
The Daily Kos community is reveling in the political and media spotlight in Chicago for the next few days, but for folks who couldn't make it, Beltway Blogroll is the next best place to be.
Some news and commentary about the event:
-- Netroots Event Becomes Democrats' Other National Convention (The Washington Post)
-- YearlyKos Forum A Magnet For Bloggers, Pols (The Chicago Tribune)
-- 1,500 Bloggers Flex Here (Chicago Sun-Times)
-- Cyberactivists Are A Must-See For Candidates (U.S. News & World Report)
-- Political Pariahs (Time)
-- Blog Convention Hails A Political Revolution (Denver Post)
-- Netroots Activists Carry Political Weight (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
-- The Vast Left-Wing Establishment (National Review)
-- The New Bosses Congregate At YearlyKos (MoJo Blog, plus more on the Democrats' ground game for 2008 and the Democratic message)
-- YearlyKos Draws Democratic Leaders (The Huffington Post, plus more about the blogosphere's coming of age)
-- Kos Revels In The Limelight (CongressBlog)
-- Kos: 'We Are The Center' (Pajamas Media)
-- Howard Dean Wows The Crowd At Kos (techPresident, plus more here and here)
-- Clinton And The Bloggers (The Caucus, plus more at Americablog and by Marc Ambinder)
-- YearlyKos Does Foreign Policy (The Washington Note)
-- YearlyKos Day 1.5 (TalkLeft)
-- The Press Lives Off Politics, Kossacks Live For It (PressThink)
Malaysian investigators, with the assistance of the world's first optical disc sniffing dogs, Lucky and Flo, have raided a suspected piracy outfit in Kuala Lumpur. Three disc replicating machines (capable of producing millions of discs per year) were seized.
It took more than 22 officials from the Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs and the Motion Picture Association to break down the factory doors. Authorities detained four suspects for questioning, according to a press release.
The bootlegging business had been running out of the building for three months, masquerading as a fertilizer plant. Hundreds of sacks of the stinky stuff were piled outside the premises. Lucky and Flo saw through the ruse.
About 18,000 illegal discs were confiscated including copies of "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Spiderman-3," and "The Simpsons Movie."
Sean Garrett over at The 463 blog posted some thoughts about Sen. Mark Pryor's child protection bill, which won Senate Commerce Committee approval on Thursday. The measure would direct the FCC to study advanced blocking tools that could keep kids from viewing inappropriate content (see Technology Daily's coverage for more).
He writes: "Regulation doesn't have to happen in a big swooping gesture. More frequently, it happens through little drips -- until suddenly you're standing in three feet of water. Well, kids, the roof just sprung a leak."
While the Arkansas Democrat's intentions are sincere, the legislation could pose serious unintended consequences, Garrett said. "It's the regulatory creep toward treating Internet and wirelessly delivered video the same as broadcast content… Efforts in the name of protecting kids could be the bridge drug toward justifying regulations across platforms."
Adam Thierer at the Progress and Freedom Foundation also has concerns about the bill.
Grammy-winning soul singer Sam Moore is demanding an apology from COX Radio CEO Bob Neil for an "offensive and arrogant" comment he made earlier in the week on the heels of Moore's testimony on Capitol Hill.
Moore, best known for his hit "Soul Man," told the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee on Tuesday that musicians should be paid when their songs are played on AM and FM radio (read Technology Daily's coverage).
A day later, during COX Radio's quarterly earnings call, Neil said: "The reality is a lot of those people would be sitting in a shack somewhere in a small town if it wasn’t for the fact that radio supported their music when it was coming up."
Moore responded, "I've spent nearly six decades touring, performing, and entertaining my fans to support myself and my family. The only folks who have never paid me for my performances are corporate radio."
He added that Neil should publicly apologize "to the thousands of artists like myself, you know -- ‘those people,’ he insulted.”
Update: Neil said late Friday that when he made his remarks, it was in response to a financial analyst's question on the earnings conference call. "I had no idea who had testified at that point, so for anyone to say I'd made racist remarks is just plain wrong."
The New York Times' political blog reported Thursday that an e-mail battle is brewing between two Republican presidential hopefuls -- Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.
The skirmish started with an e-mail written by the Rev. Tim Rude, a Huckabee backer, asking two Brownback supporters to consider switching sides. According to The Caucus blog, the e-mail contained some typical pitches, but there was also this:
Huckabee is an evangelical. He has not learned how to speak to evangelicals; i.e. Bush 41 & 43. He is one of us. I know Senator Brownback converted to Roman Catholicism in 2002. Frankly, as a recovering Catholic myself, that is all I need to know about his discernment when compared to the Governor’s. I don’t if this fact is widely known among evangelicals who are supporting Brownback. [sic.]
Then the gloves came off. Read more about the feud here. MSNBC ran detailed statements from both politicians here.
"The Internet to me is the political equalizer of the age. ... We have a campaign that is growing rather rapidly ... but a lot of our success has come through the Internet." So said Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas during his time in the YouTube Spotlight this week.
Watch what he has to say about how the Web has spontaneously boosted his presidential campaign:
And hear Paul's thoughts on two hot-button civil liberties issues: the REAL ID Act, which mandates standardized driver's licenses, and the anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act:
The blogosphere is buzzing about this, so I thought I'd add to the chatter. The Sun ran a story under the byline of Sir Elton John that quotes the pop star as saying the Internet has ruined music.
Some particularly juicy excerpts from the U.K. tabloid:
"The Internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records."
"Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the Internet. Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging."
"I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano."
The story generated biting comments from readers. One wrote: "If we didn't have to pay through the nose for music which often turns out to be very poor then maybe the Internet wouldn't be such a big problem." Another said: "I think its time we closed Elton down for destroying good music… the overrated drama queen pub singer."
As noted over at National Journal's Beltway Blogroll and in Technology Daily this morning...
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill designed to shield journalists, including bloggers, from federal prosecution for protecting confidential sources.
CongressDaily and News.com report that the bill was approved by voice vote, despite numerous complaints that its definition of who is a journalist and exactly what protections would be available still need work.
The bill states that federal prosecutors may not compel testimony from journalists unless a crime has been committed, to prevent terrorism or or protect national security, or if prosecutors prove that the "public interest" in disclosure is greater than in disseminating news."
The suits at NBC-Universal, one of several content creators named in an FTC complaint filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association, were fit to be tied Wednesday afternoon.
CCIA, which represents tech firms like Google and Microsoft, alleged that NBC, DreamWorks, the Major League Baseball and the National Football League have misrepresented their intellectual property rights through warnings that precede a sports game, movie or book. Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.
"There is nothing unlawful, untruthful, or inaccurate about the warning labels on our movies, which adhere to long accepted legal standards and are nearly identical to the warnings used by some of CCIA's own members," NBC said in a statement.
Content creators are "working overtime to develop new digital distribution models to reach our audience" and CCIA "could be a serious and constructive participant" in reducing piracy, the media giant stated. Instead, the trade group has acted irresponsibly "by filing a frivolous complaint for the sake of little more than publicity." Zing!
Update: The NFL responded late in the day, saying that the Copyright Act grants the league, "as the exclusive owner of its game telecasts, a number of valuable rights." The notice has been used for many years and is well understood by viewers to ban uses that would violate the law as opposed to private or non-commercial uses, a spokesman said.
CNet's news blog reports a first for the popular recurring summer rock concert Lollapalooza. The festival, which will be held August 3-5 in Chicago, will be webcast live thanks to AT&T.
The online video feed at AT&T's Blue Room Web site will begin at 12:30 p.m. central time on Friday. Included in this year's lineup are Pearl Jam, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Amy Winehouse, Modest Mouse, Patti Smith, Spoon and Interpol.
The Blue Room was launched in October 2006 to build on the success of several content-driven properties developed by the telecommunications giant in recent years. The site features exclusive gaming, music, sports and pop culture content.
The FCC voted Tuesday to adopt ambitious new rules designed to impose "open access" conditions on a slice of the wireless airwaves' spectrum. The conditions, a compromise championed by Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, divided the communications sector and Capitol Hill recently.
Technology Daily's David Hatch has a thorough article on the topic here and our very own Theresa Poulson worked up a handy chart that breaks down the spectrum of opinions on the auction rules.
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