Tech Daily Dose

A Conversation With Google's Nicole Wong

Google Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong took a brief break from her busy trip to Washington on Friday afternoon to meet with a small group of reporters at the Internet search giant's D.C. office.

A day earlier, David Drummond, Google's vice president for corporate development, squared off against Microsoft General Counsel Brad Sherman at a hearing on Google's proposed $3.1 billion bid for the DoubleClick online advertising firm.

With the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee showdown still fresh in her mind (and ours), Wong responded to suggestions made by some industry and consumer advocates that the merger should hinge on specific conditions.

"I don't think there should be conditions on this deal [from an antitrust perspective]," she told us over an assortment of Corner Bakery sandwiches and cookies. Google's rivals similarly acquired firms with no strings attached, she pointed out.

Yahoo recently bought ad firm Right Media; America Online acquired the European-based player Adtech AG online and behavioral targeting firm Tacoda; and Microsoft paid $6 billion for the Web ad provider aQuantive.

But the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Marc Rotenberg told lawmakers on Thursday that the FTC, which is examining the union, should "act to block the deal or to impose substantial privacy safeguards as a condition of the deal’s approval."

Wong, a former partner at Perkins Coie, noted that "our mission to make all the world's information universally accessible and useful means we use a lot of data to deliver our services. That obviously raises privacy issues."

Nevertheless, "most of our strategies are based on transparency and choice," Wong said. "We try to write easy-to-understand policies… and it's very hard for lawyers to do that," she joked, adding that Google's privacy policy may get an update before the year's end.

Wong also addressed a recent report by Privacy International that slammed Google's attempts to safeguard user data. She indicated the document's treatment of her firm was unfair and there were "lots of allegations" that were not based in fact.

The European Union's data retention law was a topic of discussion too. The EU is intended to harmonize policies among its members but the mandate, which directs firms to keep data from six to 24 months "is not a harmonization from an operational standpoint," she said.

So far, at least three EU members have drafted their own data retention legislation and "they're all over the map," Wong said. Google decided to anonymize its search server logs after 18 months -- a timeframe that jives with the company's business needs and does not require an overhaul of its infrastructure.

The bottom line, according to Wong, is that it "takes a long time to develop norms for any given industry." Traditional media, which evolved from print to radio to broadcast TV to cable and satellite, had decades to figure it out.

"On the Internet … some new-fangled thing comes out every week, every month," she said. "There's very little time to create a social consensus. That's the challenge for all of us that work in this space."

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NAB Unveils Digital Transition TV Spots

The National Association of Broadcasters released the first of its digital television transition TV spots this week. The videos were sent to stations nationwide last week in an effort to boost consumer awareness of the Feb. 17, 2009 switchover. After a gentle nudge from yours truly, the spots were put on YouTube too. See above.

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Spector Judge Gets Web Threat

A posting on the social networking site MySpace that appeared to threaten the judge in music producer Phil Spector's murder trial has become the latest twist in the lengthy case, the AP reported.

On Tuesday, court officials disclosed the posting, which stated "I love Phil Spector" and "The Evil Judge should die!" The message was on a MySpace page called "Team Spector" and was taken down, officials said. The judge in the case is Larry Fidler.

Sheriff's investigators were looking into the messages, which were signed "xoxo Chelle," AP reported. Spector's wife is named Rachelle, but one of his defense attorneys, said she denied having anything to do with the notes.

Specter is charged with second-degree murder in the February 2003 death of actress Lana Clarkson. The case went to the jury on Sept. 10 and the jury could not reach a decision.

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Friday Feistiness

The 1991 Supreme Court copyright case, Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service, served as the basis for quite a bit of the discussion at an intellectual property summit held Friday by the Software and Information Industry Association.

At issue was whether Feist had copied information from Rural's telephone listings after Rural had refused to license the information. Rural sued Feist and the high court ruled that information in Rural's white pages was not copyrightable.

In all of the intellectual property policy roundtables that I've covered in recent memory, Feist has never come up. It may be acknowledged as a precedent-setter by those "in the know," but references to the ruling have obviously waned.

When someone mentions Feist these days, folks may think of Canadian crooner Leslie Feist whose tune "1234" is featured in the new Apple iPod ads. Her creative, colorful video is posted above.

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

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MPAA Piracy Crackdown Continues

Say sayonara to Cinematube.net and Ssupload.com -- two Web sites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement. The Motion Picture Association of America filed lawsuits against them this week in a California federal court.

It is estimated that Cinematube, believed to be operated out of Georgia, averages more than 24,000 unique users per day who view more than 85,000 pages of content. Ssupload's servers are in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the site averages 55,000 daily visitors who view over 190,000 pages of content, MPAA said.

Cinematube and Ssupload both highlight on their sites the availability of the latest in pirated movies that are frequently still in theatrical release. Both get significant profits via third party advertisers and user donations.

"No matter how you slice it, the sole purpose of these sites is to disseminate and profit from creative content that has been illegally reproduced and distributed," MPAA Executive Vice President John Malcolm said. Both sites were still online Thursday evening.

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Web Advertisers Pledge To Protect Privacy

The only trade association representing Microsoft, Google, DoubleClick, aQuantive and many others in the Internet advertising industry reaffirmed its commitment to consumer privacy and the role that the industry plays in the U.S. economy on Thursday.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau's comments came on the same day a Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee examined the pending $3.1 billion Google-DoubleClick merger. The plan has spurred complaints from rivals like Microsoft as well as some high-tech watchdogs (See Technology Daily's PM edition for more).

"The interactive advertising industry is proud of its long-term commitment to the protection of consumer privacy and to the fundamental principles of relevancy, transparency and accountability," IAB President Randall Rothenberg said. Web ads are the "principal pillar that supports the delivery of free, rich Internet content, as well as free access to unparalleled products and services."

The 2006 IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report showed Internet ad revenues reaching nearly $17 billion, a 35 percent increase over the same period from a year before. The surge continued an annual growth rate that has reached as high as 40 percent over the past three years.

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MySpace/MTV Start Candidate Interviews

MySpace and MTV brought a whole new level of accountability to a presidential townhall format Thursday. Technology has given voters more ways to ask candidates questions, but this was the first time they could rate the answers in real time using an online widget on MySpace.

New Hampshire college students asked questions ranging from genocide to health care during the hour long interview with vice presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards wore jeans for the occasion and stood on a small platform featuring a screaming mouth bursting amid red and white rays with students surrounding him.

Host Gideon Yago invited online viewers to use the polling widget on MySpace to show "if you're feeling spun or inspired by his answers." Chris Cillizza, a political blogger for the Washington Post, announced that Edwards' answer to a question about Katrina recovery was a hit online, with most viewers giving giving him a thumbs up and 63 percent saying he had good ideas.

Afterwards Edwards learned that overall he gained a thumbs up rating from 92 percent of the more than 23,000 people voting. Edwards said if 100 percent of the people agreed with him, he'd be nervous, because anytime 100 percent agree with you, "it means you're not saying much."

The interview was webcast live at noon on MySpace and will be broadcast on MTV Thursday night. Other candidates will also be interviewed for these dialogues, but MySpace has not announced who will be next. Jeff Berman, MySpace's senior vice president of public affairs, said Edwards was the first candidate interviewed because he was the first to agree to the format.

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Hatch Touts Wikipedia On Senate Floor

Utah Republican Orrin Hatch went straight to the source on the Senate floor Thursday in a speech opposing a proposal targeting hate crimes -- the source anyone can edit, that is.

Hatch was speaking about legislation by Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy, which he believes would be "unwise, unnecessary and unconstitutional." To make one of his points, he cited the definition of "gender identity" on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia edited by readers around the globe.

The site has been used lately for a variety of political tricks. But it's not often that a politician cites the resource in discussions about policy. That may have something to do with the running disputes about its accuracy.

At one point last year, the Wikipedia entry for Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., claimed he was 180 years old. The entry cited by Hatch, though, closely mirrored the one for the same topic in Encyclopedia Britannica.

Hatch, himself a musician, finished his speech about the hate crimes bill by invoking the Rolling Stones classic, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." In that song, Mick Jagger reminds us that if we try sometimes, we can get what we need.

This nugget of wisdom might have applied to what he was saying about the bill, but it certainly doesn't seem to work for Wikipedia. Because if you can't find what you want there, can't you just write something up yourself and say that it's true? -- Michael Martinez

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Yogi Berra Parties Online With Rudy Giuliani

This is the latest report from the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

Yogi Berra stole the show at the first house party webcast for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday evening. "We want an Italian president," the Yankee legend said in introducing Giuliani to what the campaign said was 1,000 house parties in all 50 states.

Speaking from a party in New Jersey, Giuliani reiterated his campaign's focus on being offensive against terrorism and shrinking the size of government.

His first question came from another famous voice, comedian Dennis Miller, who suggested that the best way to end the threat from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad "is to have [Democratic campaign consultant]Bob Shrum run his re-election." Shrum has worked on seven losing presidential campaigns, including the 2000 race by former Vice President Al Gore.

"The first thing I would do is not invite him to the inauguration," Giuliani said of Ahmadenijad, in a jab against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Giuliani said the way to deal with terrorist leaders is to "ostracize, not engage."

Miller seemed convinced. "I know Yog feels it ain't over til it's over, but in terms of this election, it's over," Miller said. "You're it."

In an odd moment, Giuliani took a question from a nine-year-old about what he would do as president, and wound up speaking about how citizen vigillance against terrorism helped prevent the Fort Dix terrorism plot earlier this year. -- Matthew E. Berger

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Candidates Bet On Each Other With Google Ads

By Aswini Anburajan
© National Journal Group Inc.

It's not just Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama who believes in the power of Barack Obama. Republican John McCain believes in it, too. The McCain presidential campaign has at least two different advertisements with Google AdWords that use Obama's name to direct users to McCain's Web site.

AdWords are text-based advertisement that appear on a viewer's screen next to the list of Google search results. Advertisers bid on search terms using an automated process based on what users are searching for at that moment; placement of the ads is determined by who won the bid and the relevance of the ad. Advertisers pay per ad clicked.

Both of McCain's AdWords have the headline "Obama for President?" followed by a pitch for McCain. Under the heading, one ad asks, "Why not learn more about John McCain for President," with a link to the candidate's Web site. The second ad reads, "Learn more about John McCain's journey on the '08 campaign trail" and also includes a link to McCain's home page.

Searching for the term "Obama for president" brought up both McCain ads, which appeared in the top five search results on the first page.

Obama isn't the only presidential moniker that the McCain team has embraced. Searches for Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney -- as well as for the word "president" -- also bring up AdWords for McCain, with similar language to those appearing next to the Obama results.

Christian Ferry, McCain's deputy campaign manager, said bidding on the names is part of a much larger online strategy that takes advantage of frequently searched terms. "We buy hundreds or thousands of different AdWords -- that's monitored all the time," Ferry said. "It's based on what's going in the news cycle [that is] relevant to the 2008 cycle."

McCain's camp may not be alone in using other candidates' names to push its own Web site.

As a policy rule, Google won't disclose the names of search-term bidders. But Peter Greenberger, the director of Google's politics and issue advocacy arm, said Google already has sold more advertising to the presidential candidates for the 2008 election than it did during the entire 2004 presidential cycle.

"An increasing number of candidates are buying the names of their competitors and buying keywords around specific issues that voters are looking for," Greenberger said.

Obama staffers wouldn't comment on the McCain ad or volunteer any of the search terms Obama's campaign has bid on. In an e-mail, however, campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki noted that the "campaign purchases ads through Google Adwords on a variety of political sites to reach an expanded audience of people who might be interested in learning more about his campaign to change this country."

Google provides a big return on a small investment for candidates because campaigns only have to pay each time their ads are clicked. Campaigns also can micro-target supporters by tailoring ads based on browsers' geographical locations or users' preferences.

"If a voter is looking for information on health care and they're in New Hampshire, they could see ads that say, 'Granite Staters, learn about how my healthcare plan affects you,'" Greenberger explained.

The same goes for "psycho-targeting," which allows a campaign to tailor ads based on individuals' preferences or tastes. For example, voters who care about Vietnam veterans or prisoners of war will find ads for John McCain when they type those search terms into Google or Yahoo or visit other AdWords sites connected to the terms.

David All, a Republican consultant, said the ads have been tremendously successful for his clients, who have been able to expand their outreach through bidding on popular search terms.

"When illegal immigration was hot, you plugged in all the keywords associated with that and you would drive people to specific landing pages," he said. "You have them fill out an online poll or petition and you capture their information, and for a dollar or two per click, you end up building your lists."

The popularity of any Google search term is usually reflected by offline events that drive traffic online, according to Greenberger.

So what does that say about John McCain's candidacy, if he's relying on the popularity of his opponents' names to push his own Web site?

So far, the McCain campaign says the strategy is working and online advertising is a growing part of its outreach plan. "We've had incredible success driving people to our site, to John McCain's message and raising money as a result of keyword-buying on Google and other networks," Ferry said.

The author is one of the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

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Amazon.com Offers DRM-Free Downloads

Well, I guess we're about a day late and 89 cents short but it has been a busy week. Amazon.com officially opened its eagerly anticipated online music store on Tuesday that offers more than 2 million tracks free from digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The Digital Freedom campaign, which is backed by the Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge and others, congratulated the e-commerce site and urged others to follow Amazon's lead. The site will offer individual songs for 89 cents per download, 10 cents lower than Apple's iTunes store.

"Amazon.com’s recognition that giving consumers what they want – digital music – the way they want it … makes good business sense," campaign spokeswoman Maura Corbett said. The move is "a tremendous step forward for artists, consumers, and the music industry itself."

The announcement came on the heels similar decisions by Wal-Mart and music labels EMI and the Universal Music Group.

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Copyright Office Reacts To Web Watchdogs

The Copyright Office responded to Internet activist Carl Malamud and several others this week who recently wrote to Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters asking for bulk access to the copyright catalog of monographs, documents, and serials.

In the response, the office said it "neither sets the price nor receives any direct revenue from the sale" of materials in the database. Access to those records is a service offered through an arm of the Library of Congress that is mandated by Congress to charge "a production and distribution cost plus 10 percent."

The mission of that branch, the Cataloging Distribution Service, is "to share the library's vast bibliographic resources with American libraries, the American people and the international information community on a cost-recovery basis."

According to the letter, the databases and their weekly updates require "considerable personnel and other resources to maintain and deliver." Each year, CDS evaluates its fees and at the end of September will make recommendations to management about potential cost adjustments.

Any new pricing structure will appear first at on the CDS Web site in late October or early November, then in the 2008 CDS product catalog in January 2008. Meanwhile, the database is still accessible for free on a record-by-record basis through the Copyright Office site.

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Mark Cuban Cuts A Rug On ABC

For those of you keeping score at home, Internet billionaire Mark Cuban put up a 21 on Tuesday night in his “Dancing with the Stars” debut on ABC.

Cuban, who also owns the Dallas Mavericks, foxtrotted himself ahead of several competitors heading into Wednesday's elimination episode. News.com’s Caroline McCarthy has the full rundown on Cuban’s opening dance and the follow-through on his promise to “churn the butter.”

He also vowed to work “the motorboat” into a future routine as a tribute to fellow dancer Jane Seymour’s performance in the movie “Wedding Crashers." We’ll have to wait to find out whether he’ll get another shot at making that happen. -- Michael Martinez

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House Hearing Hip-Hop, Revisited

Tuesday's House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing was a big draw for the technology crowd. There was a fairly robust discussion among lawmakers and entertainment industry representatives about the harmful effects of violent media on American culture and how the Internet has contributed to the problem.

But the marathon session didn't really start to get interesting for me until Levell Crump and Percy Miller, better known as the rappers "David Banner" and "Master P," stepped forward to testify.

Miller, the founder and CEO of No Limit Records, promised to turn over a new leaf. He acknowledged that he tailored his lyrics in the past to be more violent and degrading so that he could sell more records.

Crump, on the other hand, was more willing to challenge the lawmakers on the panel. He insisted that "hip-hop is sick because America is sick," and that gang violence affected inner-city areas long before his musical genre became popular.

Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he was a fan of hip-hop. But Rush, a former Black Panther, also said Congress needs to seriously consider the "violence, hate and degradation" projected in popular culture.

Also, while we're on the subject of hip-hop, this Ron Paul-inspired ditty is worth checking out (via Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic): -- Michael Martinez

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Romney Announces Ad Contest Finalists

Just like the bigger election, voting is just open for a day at the presidential campaign Web site for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Supporters are being asked to vote on the best amateur campaign advertisement at http://www.mittromney.com.

The campaign posted the nine finalists on Tuesday after chosing among hundreds of entries. The winning ad will be aired on television. Voting is open until a minute before midnight Wednesday. Those voting will be required to give their e-mail address.

So far, Romney has spent almost $10 million on television and radio ads.

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Bork Balks At Opposition To Wiretapping

A controversial conservative legal scholar and failed Supreme Court nominee said on Tuesday that the furor over judicial oversight of the federal government's electronic surveillance program is "part of a much broader drive to judicialize everything."

Robert Bork, a former judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, told a Hudson Institute seminar that "all aspects of life" are being held up for judicial scrutiny "from grade schools to fire departments to police departments to the military."

"We have Harry Reid, the ACLU and MoveOn.org, but we have a lot of less extreme anti-war types too," Bork said. "Now we have something we've never had before -- extensive judicial supervision of various aspects of the war [on terror], including gathering of intelligence."

The Hudson fellow recalled the moment when he was informed of the previously secret warrantless wiretapping program while serving as acting attorney general. A pair of FBI officials briefed him on the initiative and he was asked to sign authorizations for the work. "I did and so did every other attorney general in our history that was asked."

Bork also noted that the extent of the spying during that era was "much broader than anything that takes place now or has been proposed today." Contrary to what many believe, Bork also said he was unaware of any abuses under the program.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that it was 20 years ago this month that Bork was the focus of a Washington City Paper story that detailed his video rental habits. The article fueled a national debate over individuals' rights to privacy. Read more about that here.

George Washington University law professor Greg Maggs also spoke at the event about the controversy surrounding government data collection. He argued that U.S. counterterrorism efforts should not be defined as either law enforcement or military action, because terrorists act as enemy combatants in some ways and criminal suspects in others.

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FISA Hearing Begins With Warning To Protesters

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., started his hearing on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Tuesday by issuing a stern warning to a handful of protesters in the audience.

He noted that there seem to be more demonstrations in hearing rooms lately and did not want his to be one of them. The House Judiciary Committee's hearing on the same issue last week was interrupted several times by rowdy "Code Pink" members.

"Just so everybody understands, I want everyone to be able to watch this hearing and watch it comfortably," Leahy boomed. "If people stand up, they'll be removed [but] I’m sure that's not going to be necessary."

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

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Federal Database Misused For Cyber Stalking

A federal agent could face up to a decade in prison and a $250,000 fine for using a Homeland Security Department database to cyber-stalk his former girlfriend, eWeek reported recently.

Benjamin Robinson, a Commerce Department employee, was indicted Sept. 19 by an Oakland, Calif., jury for unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and making a false statement to a government agency.

When the 40-year-old's relationship with an unidentified woman fell apart, authorities allege Robinson accessed the TECS (Treasury Enforcement Communications System) at least 163 times to track the travel patterns of the woman and her family.

Agents are authorized to use the database to perform their official duties and not for personal reasons. The indictment also claims that Robinson threatened to have the woman deported or to have her and her family killed, according to eWeek.

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Pay-For-Pixel Ad Fad Gets Creative

Reach way back into your Internet pop culture memory banks for this one. Remember Alex Tew -- the British college student who successfully raised $1 million by selling pixels on his Web site? Once buzz started building about MillionDollarHomepage.com, advertisers scrambled to slap their logo on the page.

There have been a number of copycats since Tew launched his site in August 2005, all hoping to strike it rich by selling image-based links. But earlier this month, a new, creative entry appeared on the scene -- MillionDollarsOutOfMyButt.com.

The site, created by a St. Louis team (whose self-purported specialties include "Web design, snide commentary, and innovative problem solving"), is offering ad space at $1 per pixel with a hundred dollar minimum. So far, there's plenty of room on the page, so step right up.

Site owners Daniela Droke and Shawn Gaston devised the site as a way to minimize their student loan and credit card debt. The page features a photo of Droke's blue-jeaned derriere and provides an answer the humorous question: "How are we going to pay all these bills?"

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Wired Co-Founder's Death Clock

BoingBoing reports on Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly's latest creation -- a personal countdown clock that shows him how many days of life he has left. He came up with the Web-based clock to remind himself to make the best use of his remaining 8,500 days.

"I am now 55 years old. Like a lot of people in middle age my late-night thoughts bend to contemplations about how short my remaining time is. Even with increasing longevity there is not enough time to do all that I want," he wrote.

"My hope was that a reckoning of my numbered days would help me account for how I spend each precious 24 hours, and to focus my attention and energy on those few tasks and projects I deem most important to me. Indeed, it might help me decide which ones are most important, which is the harder assignment," he added.

I guess that Kelly believes when you're eligible for Denny's senior menu, you really have to start taking stock of life... and death. Now, that's deep.

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Irate Over Patent Reform Debate

When stakeholders in the ongoing patent reform debate on Capitol Hill don't get invited to a closed-door meeting with congressional staffers, they get a wee bit testy. Case in point: the Professional Inventors Alliance.

The group issued a press release on Monday announcing that staffers for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were going to meet later in the day with interested parties but PIA was snubbed. Instead representatives from large companies got a seat at the table, officials complained.

Upon hearing about the meeting last week, PIA offered to make intellectual property expert Irving Kayton of George Mason University and economist Pat Choate available. The group claimed a staffer turned them down.

In its release, PIA demanded that the meeting be canceled and rescheduled with all stakeholders invited. "This sort of conduct by Leahy's staff is an outrage," the group said. PIA also accused a named Leahy staffer of personally rebuffing prior attempts to include the inventor community.

The bill currently being considered by the Senate (S. 1145) "would kill America's economy by facilitating theft and transfer of American ingenuity to developing countries," PIA argued. When asked, a Leahy spokeswoman did not have details about meeting attendees.

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Upcoming: 'Securities Law's Roe v. Wade'

A securities fraud case before the Supreme Court this term could have repercussions for those harmed in the 2001 collapse of the Enron energy firm and other "mega-cases," Georgetown University law professor Donald Langevoort said at a Monday briefing.

In Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific-Atlanta, the court is asked to determine whether defrauded investors can recover money from third parties (read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition). It's not a stretch to call this "securities law's Roe v. Wade," he said.

The case involves a group of Charter Communications investors who want to sue the cable television provider's business partners Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta. The firms reportedly engaged in sham transactions to inflate Charter's revenue by $17 million.

Here's how it all went down, according to Langevoort: The two vendors sold set-top boxes to Charter at inflated prices; the extra money was used to buy additional advertising airtime; the ad sales helped Charter's revenue grow. Pretty clever, eh?

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Gingrich To Visit Second Life

The virtual version of Capitol Hill in the popular Second Life online community will host a presentation by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday. His speech will coincide with a real-world address the Georgia Republican is delivering in Atlanta.

Gingrich will appear in Second Life in the form of an avatar likeness and his presentation will be streamed in Second Life via a live audio feed, according to a press release. The event is sponsored by American Solutions for Winning the Future, as part of a new wave of citizen collaboration designed to apply real world know-how to public policy solutions.

Digital marketing firm Clear Ink created Capitol Hill in Second Life as a nonpartisan virtual destination for political discussion and education. The venue launched in January with a virtual visit by House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and a video stream of the opening of the 110th Congress.

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Supreme Court Readies For New Term

The Supreme Court is gearing up for its new term, which begins next week, and Technology Daily's PM Edition will have a preview story. But during my weekend review of the cases that have been granted certiorari, I couldn’t help longing for last fall.

The court's previous calendar had a number of cases that were closely watched by the high-tech community, thus requiring me to be in the historic chamber pretty frequently. They included KSR v. Teleflex, Microsoft v. AT&T, MedImmune v. Genentech, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly and Credit Suisse Securities v. Billing (Read my round-up here).

But the upcoming term looks like it could be a sleepier one for us (with a few exceptions that you can read about in my coverage). I'm banking on the court's Monday closed-door conference where new cases could be added to the docket. A few more tech-centric ones would be appreciated.

Alas, there are some compelling cases outside of my bailiwick. The court plans to consider whether Guantanamo prisoners may bring habeas actions in U.S. civilian courts; whether the White House can direct Texas courts to engage in additional review of a murder conviction; and whether a judge can diverge from U.S. sentencing guidelines' rules for crack and powder cocaine cases.

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Hip Hop On The Hill

Via Monday morning's CongressDaily:

"On Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., holds a hearing on degrading media stereotypes, particularly in hip-hop songs and music videos. Rap artist Master P is a confirmed witness but at deadline it was unclear whether 50 Cent would testify."

This looks to be a can't-miss hearing for those of you who enjoy collisions of politics and pop-culture. I wonder if the committee considered inviting Flavor Flav to participate. He was in Public Enemy, after all. And the Parents Television Council just might be interested in what he has to say about the issue. -- Michael Martinez

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A Presidential Vote For One Web Day

Saturday marked the second annual celebration of One Web Day, an event previewed in Friday's PM Edition of Technology Daily, and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards used the occasion to tout his Internet policy agenda.

"I am proud to have outlined an agenda to build a universal, affordable Internet with a starting place goal of giving all U.S. homes and businesses access to real high-speed Internet by 2010," Edwards said in a statement. He said the Internet has given people the ability "to effect change and make profound differences for good in their communities," but a "digital divide" than leaves many rural and black Americans without technology access needs to be addressed.

Edwards, who along with his wife Elizabeth have actively engaged with the Internet political community, also reiterated his support for the concept of network neutrality in broadband content. "My commitment, as president, will be to ensure that the FCC preserves free expression and competition on the Internet by continuing to enforce net neutrality, ensuring no degradation or blocking of access to Web sites," he said.

Micah Sifry of techPresident lamented that Edwards was the only presidential candidate who "understood the value of One Web Day."

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John Edwards' Thoughts On Education

This is the latest report from the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

Elizabeth Edwards told New Hampshire voters this weekend that the education plan of her husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, is the latest example of him leading the Democratic field when it comes to addressing the issues.

Mrs. Edwards led a roundtable discussion on education Saturday morning, one day after John Edwards announced his platform on the issue. The discussion at Bow Memorial School focused largely on the perceived flaws of the 2002 education law known as the No Child Left Behind Act, which Edwards contended was really an excuse for the Bush administration to go to vouchers.

"Funding the fix is the way that you commit yourself to improving public schools, not by saying, 'That didn't work, so we're going to send you some place else,'" Mrs. Edwards said.

-- By Mike Memoli

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NYT Writer Sings About Bill Gates, iPhones

New York Times technology writer and Yale University graduate David Pogue spoke to students at his alma mater this week -- and regaled them with a song about Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Pogue, who once hoped for a Broadway career, was a music major at the pricey Ivy League institution.

Pogue has sung about technology before -- and gotten a lot of attention for it on YouTube. Watch his popular "iPhone: The Musical" video above.

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Group Seeks Changes For Green Cards

Reprinted from the Sept. 18, 2007 edition of National Journal's Technology Daily

Immigrant Group Wants Changes For Green Cards
By Aliya Sternstein

An alliance representing high-skilled legal immigrants said Tuesday that it is rallying members in an effort to fix a green-card visa system that is inherently designed to create backlogs.

Immigration Voice, a 3,000-member organization that promotes the interests of legal, employed immigrants with pending applications for permanent residency, is urging Congress to make legislative changes that would let high-skilled workers already in the United States stay legally.

"We appeal to Congress" to reform the immigration system by distributing more green cards each year and removing limits on the number of green cards per country of origin, Aman Kapoor, president and founder of Immigration Voice, said on Tuesday.

"The root of the problem" is the per-country limits, he said. "The population of the world is not evenly divided."

Immigration Voice member Jay Pradhan, who moved to the United States in 2000 from India, said that this year, the group's members spent considerable time trying to meet deadlines for federal paperwork because the due dates changed. "The deadlines are short. The paperwork is huge."

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., joined the group's leaders in calling for an end to the backlog. U.S. productivity depends on streamlining the immigration system for skilled workers, he said.

But he added that green card reform "is no substitute for investing in high-tech education in our own country." Immigration and U.S. education are critical and synergistic, Ellison said.

Ellison co-sponsored a bill, H.R. 1645, that would nearly triple the number of skilled worker visas and make it easier for foreign students with U.S. advanced degrees to stay and work.

Robert Hoffman, an Oracle executive and co-chairman of the Compete America coalition, told the gathering that the United States' ability to compete in the global economy "depends on whether we are able to recruit and retain the world's best talent." But today's green-card system forces that talent to wait nearly five years for permanent residency papers, he said, calling the resultant financial and professional limbo "unconscionable."

Compete America wants changes to both green card and high-skilled worker visa programs. Hoffman said many people awaiting green cards must rely on a limited supply of temporary visas.

Software and Information Industry Association General Counsel Mark Bohannon said changes are needed not only to keep innovators in this country but also to let foreign entrepreneurs create new jobs for Americans. "We want to keep our employment base strong," Bohannon said. "We also want to create new businesses."

But not everyone is convinced that visa changes are necessary. Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, who favors limits on skilled-worker visas, wrote in a Sept. 17 report that the green-card backlog is "a contrived crisis."

Green-card categories for tech professionals are prioritized by level of talent, with foreign nationals of extraordinary ability and outstanding professors having virtually no wait, "merely a few months," he stated. "Thus the industry lobbyists' claims that we are losing the 'geniuses' are completely unfounded."

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Delaware Shooting Renews Campus Safety Concerns

Months after a gunman killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus, a school shooting at Delaware State University on Friday prompted questions about how best to notify students, staff and faculty when an emergency occurs.

Classes on the Dover campus were canceled after an early morning shooting that left two wounded and a suspect at large. Non-essential personnel were told not to report to work and students living on campus were asked to stay in their dormitories until further notice.

The bulletin was posted in the news section of the university's Web site, right above a press release about the debut of a DSU sociology professor's new book. Several cable news network pundits questioned whether the school had done enough to alert the community.

An internal review of the Virginia Tech massacre released earlier this summer offered some advice. The report recommended that the university improve security, enhance its communications system and better monitor at-risk students.

Technologies suggested for making the improvements included: creating electronic key-card access to some campus buildings, installing electronic banners in classrooms to notify students of critical information, and establishing an electronic location system that would track students and inform others of their whereabouts.

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MoveOn Responds To Senate Vote

MoveOn.org is promising to double its TV ad buy condemning Republican senators who voted against an amendment Wednesday to allow troops serving in Iraq equal time at home with their families between deployments.

The liberal netroots group escalated its attack on the Iraq War with more personal attacks against those who support it in a new TV ad Thursday. The latest one accuses Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Republicans of a "betrayal of trust" for their vote against the troop deployment amendment from Sen. James Webb, D-Va.

MoveOn announced the additional add buy about an hour after Senate Republicans pushed Democrats to denounce MoveOn for its New York Times ad with the headline "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" that ran earlier this month. Today the Senate passed a non-binding resolution condemning MoveOn for the newspaper ad targeting Gen. David Petraeus that passed 72-25. (link: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1465

Earlier in the day President Bush weighed in at a news conference Thursday in which he called the original MoveOn.org print ad "disgusting" and said he was disappointed more Democratic leaders did not criticize it.http://http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/09/presidential-pr.html (link: http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/09/presidential-pr.html)

In a statement emailed to reporters, "Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org’s political action committee, responded to Bush's statement, saying "what's disgusting is that the president has more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war."

The liberal blog OpenLeft promised to provide a list of Democrats who voted against MoveOn in a non-binding resolution condemning MoveOn for the newspaper ad targeting Petraeus that passed 72-25. Posted by Heather at 03:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

IRS Unresponsive To Scam Inquiry

Four days ago I sent an e-mail to the Internal Revenue Service notifying the agency that I had received an authentic-looking tax refund message in my inbox but I believed it to be a phishing scam. I still have not heard back.

Since I'm a techie, I know not to follow the link in the e-mail, but what about countless recipients of similar notifications who are not informed enough to click "delete" or patient enough to wait for a response from IRS.gov?

Perhaps it is time that the agency reviews its mechanisms for responding to reports of possible fraudsters. Follow the jump to view the text of the purported IRS e-mail. And if Uncle Sam does actually owe me $109.30, I certainly would like to know.

From: Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Date: Sep 15, 2007 1:02 PM
Subject: Tax Refund!
------------------------------
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.30. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it. A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. To access the form for your tax refund, please click here.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

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ACLU President Enjoys The Onion

Speaking at a conference on the state of free speech, association and the press in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 society, American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen on Thursday reflected on a memorable headline from a favorite news source.

The media outlet was The Onion, a popular satirical online newspaper, and the bold-faced type blared: "Bush Asks Congress For $30 Billion To Help Fight War On Criticism." The humorous article was posted July 2, 2003. [Read the full story here]

While the ACLU enjoys criticizing the Bush administration, "violations of civil liberties cut across party lines," Strossen said. Although many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle "have been too complicit in the administration's abuses," Democrats and Republicans have been working to rectify breakdowns in First Amendment rights, she said.

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Global Forum Addresses 'Participative Web'

A conference being called the "first-ever international policy forum on the participative Web," or the expanding use of the Internet’s capabilities for creation and exchange, will take place on Oct. 3 in Ottawa, Canada.

The forum, jointly organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Industry Canada, will ask questions such as: "What does the future hold for the participative Web? What are the implications for enhancing confidence and trust in the Internet? What is the government role in providing the right environment for stimulating Internet innovation and economic growth?"

The event will consider how governments are addressing emerging models for creation and distribution of digital information. "More open approaches to information creation, exchange and diffusion are being taken up extensively in government, education and other areas," OECD stated.

Discussions at the forum will contribute to a planned OECD meeting on "The Future of the Internet Economy" in Seoul, South Korea in June 2008.
-- Winter Casey

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Frenzied Britney Fan's Star Is Rising

As the new fall television season commences, I would be remiss if I failed to mention this little tidbit: Chris Crocker, Britney Spears' biggest Web fan, might be getting his own show. Apparently anything goes in Hollywood these days.

Crocker, 19, who lives with his grandparents in Tennessee, posted a passionate YouTube defense of the embattled pop star's lackluster performance on the "MTV Video Music Awards." He got a gajillion hits and notoriety on newscasts around the nation.

Now, Variety reports that Crocker has signed with a production company. "It's going to pretty much be 'The Chris Crocker Experience,'" 44 Blue founder Rasha Drachkovitch told the paper. "He's going to be a TV star."

Gossip blog Defamer weighed in on the news: "We're confident that 44 Blue will eventually be successful in delivering the 'Chris Crocker experience' … into America's living rooms. Assuming, of course, that the televisions in those living rooms have access to the Screamy Drama Queen Channel on which it will eventually run."

(If you aren’t familiar with this issue, you can watch the video here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

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DC Bar Weighs In On Metadata Mining

For all of you legal eagles out there, the Electronic Discovery Law Blog reports that the ethics committee of the District of Columbia Bar released an opinion on metadata mining.

The panel found that "a lawyer receiving electronic records from an adversary is prohibited from reviewing the records' metadata only when he has actual knowledge that the metadata was inadvertently sent."

In those instances, "the receiving lawyer should not review the metadata before consulting with the sending lawyer to determine whether the metadata includes work product of the sending lawyer or confidences or secrets of that lawyer’s client."

The full text of the ethics opinion can be found here.

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Funny Business At DHS Meeting

The Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee had a packed agenda on Wednesday morning but that didn't stop Chairman Howard Beales from having a little fun at the beginning of the meeting.

The former director of the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau told his colleagues and audience members that the "contest for the coolest cell phone ring tone is at lunch." He advised everyone to switch off their mobile devices so they wouldn't give away their favorite polyphonic jingles before the big event.

Obviously, it was just a clever way of telling folks to silence their noisemakers, but that begs the question -- what does his ring-tone sound like? I forgot to ask him during an interview after the morning session. There were too many pressing privacy topics I wanted him to address.

Read more about the meeting in Technology Daily's PM Editon.

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Clinton Touts Healthcare Plan In Webcast

This is the latest report from the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton talked up her proposal to provide health insurance for everyone in a live webcast Tuesday night, calling it a "uniquely American solution" to a lack of affordable health care. She also stressed the challenges ahead in turning her plan into law.

The Democratic frontrunner answered a dozen questions from participants around the country who were asked to sign up online. In a nod to the new media for the new millennium, one question was submitted by text message.

The webcast was the latest installment of a major rollout for the plan. Clinton's campaign also debuted a television ad in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire , touting her record on health care. While the webcast was billed as interactive, it wasn’t exactly a conversation. Clinton's campaign blogger, Crystal Patterson, moderated the forum, reading the questions chosen.

Clinton said thousands of people had logged on to hear her talk about the $110 billion a year "American Health Choices Plan" she unveiled Monday in Des Moines, Iowa. The proposal would require that everyone have health insurance, give them a choice of plans and provide tax credits to help subsidize coverage. All of the initiatives would be paid for in part by repealing tax cuts for the wealthy.

Clinton called the plan her highest domestic priority and said she has the experience to work with Congress to get it passed, but she also sought repeatedly to manage expectations for how quickly it could become law.

"I't's not a decision for the president alone to make," she said. "I have to work with the Congress, and I look forward to doing that. I know the members. I feel very comfortable with what I believe to be the commitment of many of them, on both sides of the aisle, to try to lower costs, improve quality and cover everyone, but hammering out the details is what we're going to do in the congressional process starting as soon as I’m elected president."

For the most part, Clinton reprised her previous speeches and television appearances, stressing themes like the importance of having a choice of plans, covering pre-existing health conditions, and focusing on disease prevention and individual responsibility. She also talked about the need to do more to help improve women’s health.

Clinton said America needs to get generic drugs to the market more quickly and might try to reduce prescription costs by looking abroad. "We've got to drive a tougher bargain, and we have to even open up the possibility of re-importation of the drugs that we as taxpayers help to fund," she said.

Clinton talked about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about the need to take care of veterans, making an apparent reference to the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center reported earlier this year.

"I've got additional work that I'm doing in the Senate now to try to make sure that we fund the VA, that we take care of the special needs of our returning veterans and that we never ever leave them in decrepit facilities, without care, waiting months for an appointment,” she said.

In response to a question about how she would deal with criticism from Republicans, Clinton took the opportunity to try to set herself apart from her Democratic rivals, arguing that she has experience to handle it.

"I am absolutely confident that I will be able, and I know I will be ready, to take on any attack that comes my way," she said. "Whoever our nominee is, and I certainly I hope it will be me, they will face the full effect of the Republican attack machine."

Twice Clinton mentioned what she termed successes during her husband’s administration, making reference to the strong economy of the 1990s and the changes made to increase efficiency in the Veterans Administration, such as making medical records electronic.

-- By Athena Jones

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Fred Thompson To Visit Dell Facility

This is the latest report from the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

When Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson makes his first official campaign visit to Texas on Wednesday, a visit to the offices of the Dell computer maker there is on his agenda.

Thompson's campaign reports that he "will become the first 2008 presidential candidate to tour a Dell U.S. facility." The factory that Thompson will visit is Dell's Topfer Manufacturing Facility in Austin, which according to the campaign "assembles commercial and consumer desktops."

Thompson also will participate in fundraising activities in Texas in preparation for the close of the third fundraising quarter of the year. -- Adam Aigner-Treworgy

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So Why Should You Care About Iowa?

This is the latest report from the National Journal/NBC reporters embedded with the campaigns of top presidential contenders and in two key states.

Ads. Hillary Clinton launched a healthcare ad buy here after her policy rollout in Des Moines. Mitt Romney starts one today that voices his opposition to a ruling allowing same-sex marriage that's now pending before the Iowa Supreme Court. And Rudy Giuliani is up with a new radio ad that raises the volume on his spat with the liberal group MoveOn.org.

The ad saturation begs the question: Airtime can do wonders for a candidate's name recognition and visibility, but are people even listening anymore? Who's hitting the mute button every time they hear "And I approve this message"?

And while Romney's ad addresses a local constituency, Giuliani's banking on the fact that Iowan Republicans share the same caustic hatred of MoveOn that's second nature to the New York and Washington GOP crowd.

If they do, perhaps Romney -- like President Bush -- owes John McCain a thank you note. McCain educated his audiences about MoveOn's campaign against David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, at each of his Iowa stops last week. -- Carrie Dann

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Smiley Emoticon Turns 25 :-)

The horizontal smiley face, created by pairing a colon, a dash and a closing bracket -- like this :-) -- turned 25 years old on Tuesday. Carnegie Mellon University researcher Scott Fahlman says he invented the emoticon at 11:44 p.m. on Sept. 19, 1982.

On his university Web page, Fahlman claims the keyboard concept came to him because humorous comments posted on the school's bulletin boards were often misinterpreted.

"In at least one case, a humorous remark was interpreted by someone as a serious safety warning," he wrote. Fahlman said he also suggested the use of :-( to indicate a message was meant to be taken seriously, though that symbol evolved into a marker for displeasure or anger.

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Hillary Clinton Answers Webcast Questions

A day after releasing her health care plan, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., answered questions about it in a half-hour prime time webcast Tuesday evening on her Web site. Questioning began with Jay in St. Louis who asked a question Republicans plan to hit her with -- whether this is really any different than the plan she tried to offer as First Lady 14 years ago.

Clinton said her new health care plan has a big difference -- "it's not government run." She said people can choose from a wide variety of plans and those who like what they have won't need to change. Clinton said what she is offering is targeted at the 47 million uninsured Americans, those whose plan is too expensive or those who face problems getting coverage for a pre-existing condition or for a particular procedure their doctor has recommended.

Clinton said everyone has a role to play to improve the nations health including Americans choosing healthier habits. She said insurance companies will have to change how they do business. "The way insurance companies make money now is by figuring out how not to insure [certain] people," Clinton said. "It really undermines the quality of our health care."

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Activists Ask Copyright Czar For Database Access

Internet watchdog Carl Malamud and a handful of other high-tech watchers wrote to Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters this week asking her to provide bulk access to the copyright catalog of monographs, documents, and serials on the Internet.

Currently, the information is available through a Copyright Office online application that allows the public to search for individual records -- but no bulk access is available, meaning that the entire database cannot be downloaded.

Alternatively, the Library of Congress's cataloging and distribution service sells a subscription to the current database for $31,500 and makes a retrospective database available for $55,125. The grand total for cost of entry is $86,625 and it comes with copyright restrictions, the group said.

The catalog "is not a product, it is fuel that makes the copyright system work," the letter stated. "Anybody should be able to download the entire database to their desktop, write a better search application, or use this public domain information to research copyright questions."

The $86,625 price tag also "places this database beyond the reach of university libraries, small businesses that wish to provide a better copyright search service, and academics or citizens wishing to analyze the copyright registration process," the group said.

Patents and trademarks, the other two legs of the U.S. intellectual property system, are available in bulk and at no charge on the Internet, the letter points out: "Anybody can build a better patent or trademark system, and many people have."

Officials from Digital Library Federation; Harvard University; Public Knowledge; Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; and others signed the letter.

Malamud most recently pressured the Smithsonian Institution to free up images on a Web site run by the museum's photographic office and successfullly challenged the C-SPAN public affairs network to loosen its copyright policy for congressional video footage.

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Experts Discuss Social Networking, Privacy

High-tech experts debated the interplay between social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and users' privacy expectations at the Pike & Fischer "Legal Risk Management in the Web 2.0 World" summit.

Panelists included Xanga.com Chief Security Officer Stephen Kline; FTC attorney Phyllis Marcus; Microsoft's Rob Dolin; Cyveillance General Counsel Adam Palmer; and Holch & Erickson partner Markham Erickson.

Questions addressed included whether consumers give up substantial privacy rights when they post their information on social networks and what responsibilities Web sites bear in protecting their users from cyber criminals.

Moderator Christopher Wolf of the Proskauer Rose law firm, said social networks are "turning notions of privacy absolutely inside out." Congress, agencies, state attorneys general and privacy advocates are all wrangling with the issue, with different beliefs about what needs to be done.

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Protesters Interrupt Spying Hearing

Sign-toting protesters interrupted the House Judiciary Committee's government surveillance hearing on Tuesday, eliciting an angry response by Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich. The panel heard testimony from National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein.

Conyers called activists' disturbances "counterproductive" and threatened to clear the room unless they stopped disrupting his proceedings. "We're working under a very serious time restraint. I have 30 members who want questions answered," Conyers said. "I'm not in a mood to tolerate this. This is not a place for demonstrations rallies or protests."

Read more about this hearing -- and a similar one being held concurrently by the House Intelligence Committee -- in Technology Daily's PM Edition.

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Your Chance To Quiz Clinton And Romney

Two of the leading presidential contenders will spend quality time on the Internet tonight -- one to talk health care and the other to take questions on an array of topics.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton released a healthcare plan yesterday and will make that the focus of a webcast at 8 p.m. The plan, which would cost an estimated $110 billion a year, includes health information technology provisions. In fact, Clinton expects to pay part of the cost of the plan with savings achieved by modernizing the American health system.

If you want to ask Clinton about that or other tech aspects of her plan, though, you'll have to RSVP for the webcast.

On the Republican side, meanwhile, candidate Mitt Romney will hold his first "Ask Mitt Anything" online chat at 7:15 p.m. So if you're curious about Romney's "Ocean" ad and his plan to cleanse American culture by attacking Internet pornography and videogame violence, register to ask him a question.

More than 1,700 people already have registered and submitted questions, according to the campaign.

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Dan Glickman Tells A Joke

Kansas congressman turned agriculture secretary turned Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman started Tuesday's Pike & Fischer "Legal Risk Management in the Web 2.0 World" summit with a joke.

I'll spare you the details, but it involves a Jewish rabbi, a Hindu priest and a congressman driving cross-country together. Why? Who knows. They wind up getting stuck in a snowstorm, can't travel further, and approach a farmhouse looking for refuge.

The farmer's home is full but he says the trio can sleep in the barn with the farm animals. The weary travelers agree and about 15 minutes later the farmer is awakened by a knock at the door. It's the rabbi who explains that he cannot lie next to a pig. Next comes the Hindu priest who complains he cannot sleep with a cow.

Finally, there's a third knock at the door. It's the cow and the pig.

Wiley Rein partner Bruce Joseph, who moderated the panel that followed Glickman's talk, tried to one-up the Hollywood lobbyist. He told a joke about how the National Institutes of Health had decided to stop using white mice in clinical trials and instead use lawyers.

The agency gave three reasons, Joseph said. There are more lawyers in the Washington area than white mice; researchers were getting attached to the fuzzy, cute rodents and that wouldn’t happen with lawyers; and the final reason: "There are just some things a white mouse wouldn’t do."

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Tuesday's Topic Du Jour: Government Surveillance

Two House committees are slated to hold hearings on the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act on Tuesday. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell and Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth Wainstein are scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.

The House Intelligence Committee will host Jim Dempsey, policy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology; former Secretary of State James Baker; Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies; and David Rivkin, an attorney at Baker Hostetler.

Technology Daily will have full coverage in the PM Edition, so stay tuned.

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DoD Database Details Published

The National Security Archive on Monday published a collection of documents concerning the operation of the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity and its anti-terrorism database known as TALON.

The Defense Department announced earlier this summer that it would close the controversial information gathering program preserve the data collected in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements (Read Technology Daily's coverage).

The archive's declassified papers include the key departmental directive on the collection of information about Americans, as well as documents on CIFA, an evaluation of charges of mismanagement by CIFA executives, and examples of TALON data collected about protest activities.

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