January 2008

As many of you already know by now, Thursday's issue of Technology Daily will be the publication's last. While Tech Daily Dose will carry on with the backing of Congress Daily, the Beltway Blogroll is calling it quits.

My editor Danny Glover launched the unique Web product (along with a companion column for NationalJournal.com) in June 2005 with the goal of proving that blogs would quickly gain power in policy circles inside the Beltway. Mission accomplished!

Glover posted a farewell to his readers here but he is by no means leaving the blogosphere. AirCongress, a portal to audio and video of, by and about Congress that he started in 2006, will stay online. He also kicked off a one-year blog project dubbed Taxation With Representation with the purpose highlighting America's tax troubles.

Glover's full-time career move into Internet video is just days away too, so stay tuned. I'm sure he'll let us know what he's up to.

Google Senior Copyright Counsel William Patry posted some interesting thoughts on his blog reacting to a quote I used from a Recording Industry Association of America official in Wednesday's Technology Daily PM Edition.

The sound-bite was from RIAA's Mitch Glazier, summing up his thoughts about a closed-door Capitol Hill discussion between key members of the copyright community. The Friday talks focused on a section of pending legislation that critics say would unnecessarily ramp up statutory damages in infringement cases.

Glazier told me that opponents of the provision tried to turn what was supposed to be a narrow conversation "into a referendum on the copyright system in general." That didn’t sit well with Patry who called his statement "completely false." He said the comment was "a sad effort to denigrate what was a productive exchange of views among a diverse cross-section of interests."

Patry said the section's foes as well as its supporters "stayed on the high ground … focusing on the question of statutory damages and how to recompense copyright owners for their monetary injury." "No one attacked the system of copyright, and no one suggested that copyright owners should not receive every penny of their actual harm, nor that they shouldn't receive statutory damages at their election."

Read more of Patry's comments here.

(Thanks, Politico)

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly decided late Tuesday that federal oversight of Microsoft's market power, which began in 2002 after a major antitrust settlement, will extend by 18 months [Read more in Wednesday's Technology Daily PM Edition]. Ten states, led by New York and California, lobbied the court to extend its watch over the software giant until 2012.

After deadline, Jay Himes, chief of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's antitrust bureau, sent us a statement from Cuomo saying he was "pleased that the court recognized how important it is to keep the antitrust decree against Microsoft in place to protect consumers and promote fair competition."

The extension will help "ensure that Microsoft fully complies with the requirements of the consent decree and helps stimulate competition in the personal computers marketplace," Cuomo said.

John Lopatka, co-author of a recent book on the Microsoft case e-mailed with a different view. He said Kollar-Kotelly seemed "frustrated that a remedial provision that had a shaky justification from the beginning and has proven competitively unimportant has been difficult to implement."

The Pennsylvania State University law professor said Kollar-Kotelly's stance on Microsoft "is a bit schizophrenic." "The judge lauds Microsoft for working to resolve problems and simultaneously condemns it for allowing the problems to arise," he said.

Two-thirds of voters believe that presidential candidates should have at least as much knowledge about the Internet as them, according to a new poll released by the Congressional Internet Caucus, 463 Communications and Zogby International on Wednesday.

Respondents were asked: "Do you think that the next president will know as much about the Internet as you?" Almost 45 percent said, yes, and they should because of the importance of the Web. More than 20 percent didn't think candidates would be as savvy of them, but wished that they would be.

More data (thanks to the 463 Blog):

• The top tech policy priority for the next president? Energy technology policy first (38 percent) with privacy and security policy next (29 percent), health IT, third, (14 percent) and the digital divide fourth (9 percent).

• Privacy expectation. When asked what would they would find to be the best example of a privacy violation, respondents said that the exposure of geo-location (GPS) data is tops (49 percent). Other exposures were ranked lower: 11 percent if someone posted a picture of them in a swimsuit; 11 percent if someone posted a picture of them visibly drunk; and, 9 percent if someone posted a video of them simply talking with their friends.

• Internet = smart. 89 percent of respondents said that the access to information found on the Internet has made them smarter. Four percent say that the distraction and time-wasting online has made them dumber.

Read more polling details here.

America Online, Hewlett-Packard and Intuit have been named the most trusted companies for privacy of 2007, according to Internet privacy group TRUSTe and the Ponemon Institute, a privacy think tank.

The winners were announced at the Congressional Internet Caucus annual summit. The award is designed to celebrate the companies who take active measures to protect and inform their consumers and to encourage a safer online ecosystem, TRUSTe said.

Firms were judged by rigorous criteria, which included the clarity and readability of privacy statements and notice, account information access and the ability to make changes, cookie practices, in-network and out-of-network data sharing practices, choice, regulation, infrastructure and customer service, among others. Read more here.

"HP realizes the importance of privacy and trust not only to our customers but also to the success of our business," HP Chief Privacy Officer Scott Taylor said in a press release. "It comes down to respecting individuals and their right to privacy, and that's why we hold ourselves accountable to a higher standard."

After covering high-tech policy issues for some time now, one thing I have realized is that when FTC Commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz gives a speech, you can always plan getting some useful information -- and a laugh or two.

During a luncheon keynote on Wednesday at the Congressional Internet Caucus' annual "State of the Net" summit, the former Senate staffer and Motion Picture Association of America executive, made some colorful observations about social networking sites.

"I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm new to social networking," he started off. "When I signed up for Facbeook, I wanted to understand the phenomenon better, but I'm having a lot of fun with it."

So far, Leibowitz said he has reconnected with an old high school friend and has received a "cyber heart" from his wife. He also discovered that his father is a member of the online community and when the younger Leibowitz tried to "friend" the elder, it took him two weeks to respond.

"Lots of it is interesting from a sociological perspective," said the Democrat, who has been a commissioner since 2004. "A Republican who never spoke to me in real life friended me on Facebook and has been trying to get me to be a supporter of [House Minority Leader] John Boehner," he chuckled.

Later in his riff, Leibowitz mentioned that he befriended venture capitalist and Barack Obama campaign adviser Julius Genachowski (who was featured on a panel earlier in the day). "That's not a candidate endorsement," he said, explaining that both are sports enthusiasts and Genachowski "tends to school me on the basketball court."

I just "friended" Leibowitz. Let's see how long it takes him to respond.

Update: Six hours after my post, he "friended" me back. Nice work!

Congressional Internet Caucus co-founder Rep. Rick Boucher told a small crowd on Tuesday evening that the Web has come a long way since he and former Rep. Rick White started the group 12 years ago as a way to encourage fellow lawmakers and their staffers to embrace what was then a nascent medium.

The Virginia Democrat's remarks kicked off a reception preceding the organization's annual "State Of The Net" conference, which will draw Internet policy enthusiasts of all stripes to the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

"Little did we think that [Internet] issues would evolve to where they are today," Boucher told the invitation-only cocktail party. The ubiquity of the Web is exemplified in the diversity of the summit's panel discussion topics -- from energy efficiency to healthcare, he said.

"Back in 1996 we never dreamed that broadband would take place over wireless technology," Boucher said. Now, with an eye on the FCC's auction of spectrum in the 700-megahertz band and increased attention to vacant broadcast spectrum known as "white space," the possibilities are endless.

To keep pace with the changing landscape, the Internet caucus has expanded in interesting ways, he said. The group recently held its first foreign gathering of global Internet experts in London and plans are afoot to host similar events in the future.

While the evolution of the Web has raised new issues, some subjects have endured, Boucher noted. Questions about how to promote intellectual property rights "when copyrighted items traverse the net" was an issue then and remains a political hot-potato today, he said.

The following letter was posted prominently on Technology Daily's main page on Tuesday so I thought I'd share it with blog readers. The shutdown described below should not impact Tech Daily Dose... So please keep reading and thank you for your support!

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Dear Reader:

After nine years of publication, National Journal's Technology Daily bids farewell this Thursday.

In announcing this decision recently, we noted that National Journal Group is moving to increase technology-related coverage throughout all of its publications. In particular, National Journal's CongressDaily -- our twice daily publication for Capitol Hill insiders -- will be adding staff for this purpose.

And, beginning next Monday, Feb. 4, the online edition of CongressDaily will contain a new, continuously updated section that will include stories of interest to the technology sector in one convenient place. This section will also be home to several of the weekly features that have appeared regularly in Technology Daily over the years.

If you are interested in a trial subscription to CongressDaily, please call 800-424-2921 or e-mail us at memberships@nationaljournal.com.

With best regards,

Lou Peck
Editor In Chief

Recording Industry Association of America chiefs Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman sent an e-mail to senior executives of their major label members on Monday night informing them that the Copyright Royalty Board's effort to update a century-old portion of U.S. copyright law had begun.

Tech Daily Dose has obtained a copy of the lengthy letter, which you can read in its entirety after the jump. In the correspondence, Bainwol and Sherman explain the significance of the proceeding and why private negotiations between stakeholders have not worked.

Here's their bottom line: "The last thing we'd want is to damage the songwriters who are so crucial to the music community. But all of us -- songwriters and publishers, artists and record companies -- must recognize that our business has gone through a fundamental change, the effects of which are still reverberating."

The Copyright Royalty Board on Monday kicked off its examination of a century-old provision of U.S. copyright law that has not been updated for the digital age. The statute in question is "Section 115," which allows music licensing without permission from rights holders as long as licensees pay royalties and abide by certain terms.

You can read about opening arguments here, but one detail that was left out of my coverage was the all-star witness list. Here's a partial rundown.

National Music Publishers' Association:

Steve Bogard, songwriter, Rascal Flatts' "Prayin' For Daylight"
Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America
Roger Faxon, former president of EMI Music
Nicholas Firth, CEO of BMG Music Publishing
Jud Friedman, songwriter, Whitney Houston's "Run To You"
Phil Galdston, songwriter, Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best For Last"
Stephen Paulus, composer, "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
Irwin Robinson, chairman of Paramount Allegra Music
Victoria Shaw, songwriter, Garth Brooks' "The River"

Recording Industry Association of America:

Victoria Bassetti, vice president of EMI
Andrea Finkelstein, senior vice president, Sony BMG
Tom Mackay, Universal Music Group
David Munns, former vice chairman of EMI Music
JJ Rosen, vice president, Sony BMG
Ron Wilcox, former executive vice president of Sony BMG
Linda McLaughlin, NERA Economic Consulting
Richard Boulton, director, LECG
David Teece, vice chairman, LECG

The Digital Media Association, which represents America Online, Napster, Yahoo and others will also furnish their own expert witnesses.

The Ad Council is running public-service annoucements aimed at educating people about Wireless AMBER Alerts, text messages that are sent to mobile subscribers as soon as local law enforcers release AMBER Alerts about missing or abducted children. People can get the alerts by registering at www.wirelessamberalerts.org.

Here are two of the ads about the service:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce entered the blogosphere on Monday with the debut of ChamberPost -- a blog that will provide a public platform for issues of importance to the group's 3 million members.

Chamber Senior Vice President Tom Collamore said the online offering will "allow us to reach our audience as conventional methods of communication continue to change." The site is intended to be "a place where everyone can freely discuss topics relevant to businesses, and the challenges that face many business owners," the group said.

The blog will feature posts written by Chamber policy and issue experts and the organization's response to articles written by others, much like Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor that appear in the traditional media. "ChamberPost exemplifies our belief in straight talk and respectful engagement," Collamore said in a press release.

Can't wait until 9:01 p.m. ET on Monday night for President Bush's final State of the Union? Well, a special page on the White House Web site lets you relive speeches from the past seven years with an array of photo essays.

Some helpful links:
>State of the Union 2007
>State of the Union 2006
>State of the Union 2005
>State of the Union: The First Four Years
>State of the Union 2008: Guests of First Lady Laura Bush
>State of the Union 2008: Policy Initiatives

C-SPAN can also assist in your stroll down memory lane. The network's State of the Union Web page features video and transcripts of Bush's previous addresses as well as those made by his predecessors. Transcripts date back to President Harry S. Truman's 1945 speech.

(Courtesy Barack Obama campaign Web site)

Monday was a big day for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama as he won the support of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., at a boisterous rally at American University. If his campaign and the cable networks didn’t capture enough of the event, they can turn to countless members of the audience for audio, photos and video.

As Kennedy gave introductory remarks, one young man positioned on the risers behind him opened his cellular phone to let someone on the other end listen in. He also chatted for a moment or two. When Obama stepped up to the podium, several on-camera onlookers brandished their handhelds. Who knows how many others in the crowd preserved the moment digitally.

I understand the excitement of having a real, live would-be commander-in-chief on campus, but I found the glaring display of gadgetry -- combined with the fluttering "Change We Can Believe In" signs -- distracting from the real reason I watched in the first place.

Perhaps staffers for Obama and the rest of those running for the White House will put the kibosh on brazen, televised point-and-clicking at future campaign stops.

The Copyright Royalty Board -- a three-judge panel that sets rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and decides how royalties collected by the Copyright Office are distributed -- marked its second anniversary earlier this month with considerable cause for celebration.

The board, which Congress created in 2004 to replace a widely criticized predecessor, has tackled a number of challenges faced by the music industry in its short tenure. That includes one crucial rate-setting, which kicked off on Monday [read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition].

Judges James Sledge, William Roberts and Stanley Wisniewski have navigated a number of proceedings involving digital distribution services, music labels, publishers and songwriters, with an astonishingly small administrative and legal staff and, until recently, a temporary hearing room.

The CRB's new digs aren't too bad -- with bright lights, modern tables and chairs and fresh, white paint on the walls. One problem, however, is that the acoustics in the space couldn’t be worse. "This room is designed to have a sound system," Sledge said at the outset of Monday's hearing. "Let me know if you find it."

The ill-fated 1960s movie gimmick known as "Smell-O-Vision" (releasing odors during the projection of a film so the viewer can "smell" what's happening) might be revived in the wireless world -- or not.

In response to a question at the World Economic Forum panel on new frontiers in handheld innovation, Sony Corporation CEO Howard Stringer (jokingly?) said he was "prepared to think about" incorporating smell to make mobile computing a multi-sensory experience.

Stringer was part of a panel discussion on Friday (that also included FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker). They chatted about how the mobile phone is reshaping the consumer experience.

At the same session, Rep. Edward Markey, head of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, grilled China Mobile Communications Chairman Wang Jianzhou about the detailed information his company can collect from subscribers.

The Massachusetts Democrat said there is a "bone-chilling quality" to a company or country having access to the type of data that Wang said his firm was able to obtain. Markey asked if his corporation could "just start listening in on a device" -- an action prohibited by law in the U.S., unless permitted by a court order.

The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a clever campaign to draw attention to government and private sector data-collection activities that they believe could institute a 24-hour surveillance society.

A new animated video on the group's Web site warns that ordering pizza could be hazardous to your health -- and privacy. In the skit, a man orders a pie on the phone and Pizza Palace instantly knows everything about him -- from his work and home addresses and phone numbers to his travel habits, magazine subscriptions and blood pressure.

The ACLU claims that intelligence initiatives like the now-defunct MATRIX (the Multistate Anti-TeRrorism Information eXchange) and the FBI's Carnivore are destroying citizens' privacy. "They want to track your purchases, your medical records, and even your relationships," the ACLU argues. Makes you wonder how much your Domino's delivery guy really knows -- other than the fact that you like extra cheese and black olives.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is encouraging its supporters to turn to photo-sharing Web site Flickr to oppose foreign intelligence reform legislation that that would grant telecommunications companies legal protections for helping the Bush administration spy on U.S. citizens without warrants.

"Congress needs to hear from citizens like you!" EFF's Cindy Cohn said on the watchdog group's blog. A quick check on Friday afternoon showed that more than 80 people had posted photo messages on Flickr -- and some images were more creative than others. Kids, pets and activists of all shapes and sizes uploaded pics.

EFF partnered with People for the American Way to launch StoptheSpying.org as a catalyst for action. On the site, the groups are also urging people to send in 60-second digital videos telling their members of Congress to oppose telecom immunity.

From the O'Reilly Radar:
During a World Economic Forum panel on "New Models of Leadership," political consultant David Gergen asked Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales if the principles of his popular online user-generated encyclopedia could be applied to the global warming problem. Wales replied that wikis could be helpful to assemble the knowledge of the world about possible solutions.

From TVNewser:
CNBC's "Squawk Box" aired a segment on Friday morning in which Maria Bartiromo interviews rock musician Bono, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Dell CEO Michael Dell. During the chat, the Dell and Microsoft execs announced their partnership with the Red campaign. Bono said $58 million has already been raised. Click here to watch the interview.

A new documentary on government suppression of information has generated some buzz at the Sundance Film Festival in recent days. The aptly titled "Secrecy" was made by Harvard University professors Peter Galison and Robb Moss and has been screened a half-dozen times at the Park City, Utah cinematic carnival.

The festival's online movie guide calls the film "stylistically elegant and provocative" and says the documentary takes audiences "inside the inverted world of government secrecy." Its creators try to answer the questions: When does security erode, rather than enhance, democracy? Can burying too much information actually undermine national security?

"We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge dwarfs the production of open knowledge," the directors note on the movie's Web site. "In a single recent year the U.S. classified about five times the number of pages added to the Library of Congress."

It's no secret that Sundance appreciates the film. It has been nominated for one of festival's top honors -- a grand jury prize.

Video blogger Loic Le Meur is keeping tabs on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week. In this clip, he talks with tech blogger Robert Scoble, digital media guru Esther Dyson and goes on CNN to discuss the massive international conference.

How do celebrities, executives and politicians wind up with their names used as Web addresses and on Web sites without their consent? How do they get out of that sticky situation? The D.C. Bar Association tackled that topic on Thursday at a lunchtime briefing.

Neil Brown, a prominent lawyer and former member of the Australian House of Representatives, keynoted the event. He was expected to explain how the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, which took effect in 1999, is used to address the problem.

Brown, who works with the World Intellectual Property Organization, discussed what must be proved by celebrities and others to win a domain name feud. WIPO statistics show the number of complaints filed against cyber-squatters under the UDRP hit a record high in 2007 with 1,824 filings. In 2008, there have already been 108 complaints.

BuzzMachine's Jeff Jarvis is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where he live-blogged a surprise session on Thursday featuring Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and the Google Foundation's Larry Brilliant. The event was moderated by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Some excerpts:

Larry Page talks about the renewable-power-cheaper-than-coal initiative. Buying a lot of electricity, Google knows that the cheapest came from coal. The cost of electricity as a percentage is going up, he says, and is approaching the cost of the computers themselves. So they want to get it cheaply and get it green.

Startups can work selling green energy at 10 cents per kilowatt hour because there is a demand for renewable energy, he says, but that does not bring real change. “Our primary goal is not to fix the world,” he says, but they do have the power to drive things forward, to get to three cents.

Sergey Brin says they are concentrating on three energy sources: solar-thermal, deep geothermal, and high-altitude wind; if he had to add one, it would be photovoltaic. He says that windmills are on a par with coal but are intermittent and they think it can be even cheaper by using high-altitude wind, through kites, which are cheaper to make that metal windmills.

Friedman asks whether they can succeed in this space without taking more of a political position. Brilliant says very few of the people fighting against the climate change movement are bad people: “the have children, they have grandchildren.” He says that the movement has not done a good enough job to communicate.

Read the full post here.

Representatives from the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike since early November brought their message to Capitol Hill on Wednesday with a skit that delivered more humor than most of the TV networks' primetime comedies. See Technology Daily's PM Edition.

As you can tell from the photo, a large crowd of lawmakers, congressional aides, and members of the press turned up to watch a trio of writers face off against several Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers imposters. The scribes who took part in the performance work for Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show."

Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, who was a consultant to NBC's "The West Wing," moderated the debate. She began by asking both sides: "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?" Her remark poked fun at the infamous McCarthy hearings of the 1940s when movie industry titans were called to testify about their suspected ties to Communism.

At one point during the skit, one of the "witnesses" was asked how much money the entertainment industry made from Internet distribution last year. His answer was "I don’t recall." That was a hat-tip to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who gave senators a similar answer (repeatedly) when grilled about the controversial firing of U.S. attorneys last year.

One of the AMPTP pretenders warned against the ultimate power of Hollywood unions likening their influence to that of one of China's most legendary and contentious figures. "Before you know it, we'll be watching 'According To Mao' and 'Foot Binding With The Stars,'" he quipped.

(Courtesy World Economic Forum via Flickr)

The World Economic Forum's annual meeting kicked off in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday and technology is an integral part of the overarching discussion. See Technology Daily's PM Edition for all the details.

Several popular Web entities are covering the conference this year, including Jeff Jarvis of the BuzzMachine blog; progressive news site The Huffington Post; former Microsoft tech guru Robert Scoble who writes the Scobleizer blog; and TechCrunch.

You can keep tabs on what they're saying at www.davosconversation.org. BBC, CNN and others are also posting to the site.

I never looked to the 80s pop band Duran Duran for profound musical inspiration (hit singles included "Girls on Film" and "Hungry Like the Wolf") but now I'm certainly not awarding them any medals of melodic valor.

On the way to work on Wednesday, I heard a radio interview with the British boppers who recently put out a new album called "Red Carpet Massacre." In the XM Satellite Radio spot, they explain that the inspiration for their song "Zoom In" is the popular virtual world Second Life.

Apparently they were somewhat addicted to playing the computer game, which boasts 20 million online members, as they were coming up with songs for the album and that song was the result. Here's an excerpt:

"Now she arrives
In a flaming crash
Like a falling star
Heading straight for the dive
Gonna make some cash
With the avatar"

"We're not alone
In the second life
There are millions like us
Right here
In the stones
In the air too bright
All the new insiders"

Poetic? Prophetic? Pathetic? You decide. All I'll say is that I prefer the single "Falling Down" because it doesn’t hurt my ears.

Heads up! There's another progressive news Web site making waves on the Internets as the race for the White House heats up. Our newsroom received a manila envelope on Tuesday from something called 236.com. The t-shirt enclosed boasted the frontal catchphrase "236: Some of the news/most of the time." On the back: "Tagg Romney is a stupid name." The aforementioned is one of GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney's sons.

Upon further exploration, we found that 236.com is a "co-production between the gigantic, vaguely Death Star-like IAC, and The Huffington Post, a progressive news hub where outraged people go in order to get more outraged before going to have dinner at Nobu."

The site's "corporate overlords" are Arianna Huffington (publisher); Sarah Bernard (president); and Michael Jackson (IAC's head of interactive programming, not the embattled pop star).

One thing is for sure -- the headline writers at 236.com are having fun. A few eye-catching samples: "The Economy's Passed Out, Naked, And Covered With Crap" and "Fred Thompson Wakes Up, Drops Out Of Race, Goes Back To Sleep."

I wonder what the folks over at 463 Communications... or the PR pros at 133 Public Affairs... think of the new numerical kid on the block.

I couldn’t help following up on last week's post about Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro's live, televised fight with CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. The CEA chief took Dobbs to task for his "anti-trade" agenda and the sparks flew.

A colleague sent me this video of funnyman Stephen Colbert's interview with the controversial pundit. In the skit, the Comedy Central fixture poses as "Esteban Colbert" and questions Dobbs en espanol. While much of the one-on-one focuses on immigration, there was this interesting exchange:

Colbert: Listen, Benjamin Franklin was a businessman.
Dobbs: He certainly was and an imminently successful one.
Colbert: Corporations have rights too. You don’t want to deny corporations their own American dream of outsourcing jobs.
Dobbs: I wouldn’t want to… I would prefer that they find a conscience and deny themselves that expediency.

Social networking site Facebook and user-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia are off limits to reporters at Agence France Presse, according to the news agency's bureau chief.

"We have internal rules that are regularly updated [on this matter]. Wikipedia for example, we have a written rule inside the company that forbids any journalist using Wikipedia," Pierre Lesourd told the Lord's Committee on Media Ownership and the News. "We have the same thing, updated last week, for Facebook because of the incident with Bilawal Bhutto in Oxford."

Speaking to Journalim.co.uk, Lesourd clarified the policy, stating that reporters working for the international company could not pick up information from these sites for news without referring to other, more reliable sources for factual clarification.

Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig announced on his blog last week that after "a productive and valuable conversation" with his publisher, , Random House has agreed to make available "The Future of Ideas" under a Creative Commons license. His 2001 tome can be downloaded here.

The book hit store shelves two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Lessig said he is "glad it now has a chance to flow a bit more freely." The development means that all four of the CC co-founder's books are licensed under the unique content-sharing regime.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers revved up its public participation Web site last week in anticipation of the group's upcoming meeting in New Delhi, India. The site boasts colorful graphics and improved functionality and usability.

The online destination will provide an estimated 700 physical attendees and several hundred virtual visitors with all the information they need to participate in the Feb. 10-15 meeting. Look for meeting agendas, presentations and transcripts as well as links to chat rooms and audiocasts from the event. More information about the meeting can be found here.

Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro finally got his chance to take on CNN’s Lou Dobbs during a live debate on the cable network on Thursday night. Since many tech policy watchers were at Google's Washington office launch party as the TV drama unfolded, here's a YouTube video of the showdown.

Shapiro previously condemned Dobbs for making "anti-trade comments" and "his refusal to grant equal time to opposing viewpoints." The newsman quipped: "I don’t know why you want to debate me, but fire at will."

When Nuala O’Connor Kelly joined General Electric as the conglomerate's privacy chief in October 2005, she knew there might be some perks. One of them, she told an American Bar Association conference on Friday, is getting a good deal on refrigerators -- and presumably other appliances manufactured by the multinational.

Her role, which she said is considerably less stressful than her previous post as the first Homeland Security Department chief privacy officer, has come with a steep learning curve. "We have so many divisions, I'm still trying to figure out what all of them do," O'Connor Kelly joked.

GE, which owns NBC (as well as businesses that manufacture electrical and lighting equipment, medical devices, aircraft jet engines and plastics), has "one of the biggest consumer databases in the world," she said. But don't worry, O'Connor Kelly is there to make sure that all the information GE collects about you stays safe and secure.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

Google christened its new Washington office on Thursday night with a star-studded party. VIPs included House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., as well as Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah; Steve Cohen, D-Tenn.; Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.; and James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate also stopped by. Other notables included ex-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, Washington Post legend Bob Woodward and veteran broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff.

The affair attracted a who's who of technology policy pros, a list of whom would take up too much room in this blog post. You know who you are and I saw you having a good time sipping neon drinks and munching on sushi and coconut-covered shrimp. More than 650 guests RSVPed.

Former Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge told a roomful of lawyers on Friday that despite his prior post within the Bush administration, he has been pulled aside for secondary screening at airport security checkpoints two dozen times.

"You ought to see the expression on the [faces of the] people at TSA when they put me in that plexiglass lane," he said during a morning keynote at an American Bar Association conference. "Some think I'm a plant and that I'm testing their procedures out." Ridge said fellow passengers have stopped to gawk (and laugh) when they see him being detained.

After a 25-year government career, adjusting to life as a public citizen has been difficult, he joked. The morning after Ridge left his DHS job, he recalls waking up to find that his kids took one car, his wife took the other and he had no way to get around. When he asked to borrow his son's vehicle, Ridge was advised: "Watch where you park it and don’t forget to fill it up with gas when you bring it home."

Capitol Hill watchers are chattering about what might become of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property in the next session of Congress. Read the full story in Technology Daily's PM Edition. I spoke with a number of experts on the topic but there was an interesting quote that I couldn’t include due to space constraints.

So, some food for thought from one industry official:

"It is a time of great transition for the entertainment sector with a number of recent creative industry actions signaling that they now understand the industry must change so it can take advantage of the opportunities presented by the digital world, and [Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher] has an understanding of and has encouraged new technologies. In the past, many on both sides have viewed this as a zero-sum game, content against technology, but now both sides are realizing the relationship is simbiotic and they need each other. It could be a good time to bring in a chairman who has a much less aggressive view toward technology."

The major movie studios' mouthpiece will move its 150-employee Los Angeles operation later this month to office space in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Starting Jan. 22, the Motion Picture Association of America can be found in the same complex as Ben & Jerry's, the Cheesecake Factory and Starbucks. Don't worry, there's a 24-Hour Fitness to work off that dessert.

"As the MPAA has evolved into an even more global operation and adopted new approaches to fighting piracy which require new technological capability, we have sought office space that meets different needs," MPAA chief Dan Glickman said. The new location will afford staffers "a larger, freer working environment" and new screening rooms for the panel that classifies and rates movies.

For the past 15 years, the MPAA's L.A. offices have been headquartered in Encino, along with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. AMPTP will make the move to the new digs along with several components of the Directors Guild of America. A division of Warner Bros. is located in the same complex.

After entering the blogosphere this summer and battling hackers who tried to post movie-copying code, the Library of Congress is now braving the social networking realm of online photo-sharing.

On Wednesday, the government institution announced it is making more than 3,000 photos available on the commercial picture-swap site Flickr. The library spokesman Matt Raymond explained that the Flickr page dedicated to the library's collections will only contain images "for which no copyright restrictions are known to exist."

Raymond is encouraging people to tag, comment and make notes on the photos -- the typical Flickr protocols. "The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over," he said.

Many library photos are missing key caption information like where the photo was shot and who is in the picture. If Flickr members privy to that kind of information type in messages, the comments "can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images."

As part of the project, Flickr has created a new layout for publicly-held photographic collections called “The Commons.” Flickr states on the page: "Hopefully, this pilot can be used as a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world." -- Aliya Sternstein

(via neatorama)

I wonder what Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, would think of this innovative use of HTML… or Vint Cerf, "father of the Internet." According to Wikipedia: "An [HTML] element usually has a start label (e.g. <-label->) and an end label (e.g. <-/label->)." Hence, these protesters want to <-/war->.

I hate to go on and on about Google's posh new Washington office, but when they sent me a few samples of their lunch menu, I nearly fell out of my chair. Journalists in D.C. are used to scarfing down a protein bar or fast food while running from hearing to hearing or meeting to meeting, but this makes me rethink my daytime dietary habits...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Island tuna cakes with homemade basil tartar sauce
Winter snap peas and pasta salad served with feta cheese
Roasted asparagus / Salad bar / Cranberry bread

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Beef fajitas served with sour cream and cheese
Cinnamon rice with black beans
Baja salad with tomatoes, red onion, and Mexican romaine
Winter vegetables / Tropical fruit skewers

Monday, January 14, 2008
Herb marinated chicken
Harvest grains: to include couscous, scallions, and quinoa
Salad bar / Winter green vegetables
Homemade chocolate chip cookies

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tropical chicken on a bed of grilled pineapple and mango
Brown rice, garbanzo, and black bean salad
Steamed broccoli with roasted red peppers
Salad bar / Banana creme brulee

With immigration as a top issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee launched a Web site on Wednesday to draft controversial CNN anchor Lou Dobbs as a presidential contender.

Dobbs has criticized U.S. firms that send jobs overseas and was challenged to a live, televised debate on the impact of international trade on the U.S. economy by Consumer Electronics Association chief Gary Shapiro last fall.

According to ALIPAC, Dobbs "has earned national recognition for his tough stance on border security and curbing illegal immigration" and has encouraged voters to register as independents. The campaign site is www.LouDobbsforPresident.org.

"Lou Dobbs could run and win because he could easily raise the funds and grassroots support he needs to be a historic and viable candidate quickly," ALIPAC's William Gheen said in a press release. "The public is eager to rebuke the DC status quo and would quickly rally to Dobbs."

The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday posted online the full transcript of its high-profile November hearing about Internet firm Yahoo's connection to the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist.

"Internet users worldwide should have ready access to the committee's public proceedings where Yahoo's complicity in the Chinese repression apparatus is concerned," Chairman Tom Lantos said. "It will serve to remind this company and others always to place privacy rights well above the bottom line."

"Although this one hearing is over, when it comes to scrutinizing the activities of U.S. high-tech companies' activities in China, the case is far from closed," the California Democrat warned. The transcript is available here.

When you've been a Supreme Court justice for more than a decade and you've heard all sorts of interesting (and not so interesting) cases, sometimes it helps to shake things up. That's what happened on Wednesday when Justice Stephen Breyer -- who his known for his pragmatism -- attempted to get his arms around a high-tech patent spat.

The case, which you can read about in Technology Daily's PM Edition, involves the complex "patent exhaustion" doctrine, which holds that a patentee or licensee cannot assert patent rights after the first sale or license to sell an article that embodies the patented invention.

In questioning attorneys for the companies at odds in the litigation, Breyer used the manufacturing, selling and repurposing of bicycle parts as an easier to understand example. He explained that he knows how a bicycle works but does not have a detailed knowledge of the inner workings of a computer chip.

At one point, Breyer's thought-provoking illustration elicited a wave of laughter from the chamber when he painted a mental picture of 90 patent examiners giving chase to the black robed one perched atop a Huffy or BMX. I started to zone out when Carter Phillips, one of the attorneys arguing the case, tried to change up the bicycle model for that of a StairMaster®.

The Progress and Freedom Foundation's Adam Thierer has published an analysis of the online child safety effort announced earlier this week by MySpace and 49 state attorneys general. In his paper, Thierer concluded that despite some concerns, the guidelines are a good alternative to federal or state regulation of social networking sites.

The proposed child e-mail registry, where parents would submit addresses that would be barred from opening a MySpace account, raises questions about privacy and security, he wrote. The database could also be circumvented by acquiring an alternate e-mail address.

Thierer also warned that a proposed online child safety task force must not become a rubber stamp for age verification mandates, as some state law enforcers seemed to imply. Age verification is a thorny, technical issue that has serious free speech implications, he said. Read the full document here.

IFI Patent Intelligence unveiled its annual compilation of the world's top-ranked U.S. patent holders for 2007, according to intellectual property policy blogger Peter Zura. The report shows that most of the top 25 companies attained fewer grants in 2007 than in 2006, with several exceptions including Samsung (up 11 percent); Microsoft (up 12 percent); and Nokia (up 14 percent).

“While 2007 didn’t bring any marked improvements in terms of reducing America’s backlog of patents pending, it wasn’t far off the annual average of the past seven years either,” said Darlene Slaughter, general manager of IFI. “Although the total number of patents issued is down from 2006’s record high, it did beat 2005’s relatively low showing."

"The List" Top 10
1. IBM - 3,148
2. Samsung - 2,725
3 Cannon - 1,987
4. Matsushita - 1,941
5. Intel Corp. - 1,865
6. Microsoft - 1,637
7. Toshiba - 1,549
8. Sony - 1,481
9. Micron Technology - 1,476
10. Hewlett-Packard - 1,470

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers responded to the Supreme Court's decision in the high-profile securities law case known as Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific Atlanta on Tuesday, calling the justices' majority opinion "wrong-headed."

In the 5-3 decision, the court found that investors seeking relief from third parties in corporate fraud cases cannot bring private lawsuits unless their investment decisions specifically relied on the "deceptive acts" of those parties. Read more about the case here.

"This is a sad day for those who believe perpetrators of fraud should be held accountable under the law to their victims," the Michigan Democrat said in a statement. Conyers said he was "particularly saddened" that the court ruled "without the benefit of hearing from the Solicitor General, who had been urged by SEC Chairman [Christopher] Cox to intervene on the side of the defrauded investors."

I love this quote from Colin Delany at e.politics:

If there’s any piece of the primary-season frenzy that seems designed to drive voters insane, it’s the unsolicited phone calls. The ones from real people are bad enough, but robocalls were clearly invented by someone with a deep hatred of the human race.

The Supreme Court handed down a verdict in one of the most important securities law cases in recent history on Tuesday [Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific Atlanta] and it involved allegations against two major high-tech firms. See Technology Daily's PM Edition for all the details.

The split ruling elicited a flurry of reactions, including an interesting one from the American Enterprise Institute's Theodore Frank. He told us that he did not find the majority opinion surprising and it was "good news for investors" -- but Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent was worth noting.

Stevens' disagreement "is a stirring defense of judicial activism and a call for judges to act even when the legislature has not given them the authority to do so," Frank argued. The justice's commentary speaks to the "central issue of our times in terms of the role of the judiciary," he said.

The larger question posed, according to Frank is: "What role do we want the Supreme Court to have -- judge as arbiter or judge as lawmaker?" "This really does a lot to emphasize the difference between [Chief Justice John] Roberts and Stevens," he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the decision, "coupled with last year's indictment of some of America's biggest class action trial lawyers for large-scale fraud and corruption charges, is a positive step for investors and all those concerned about America's competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace."

The American Association for Justice said it found the decision "surprisingly much narrower than expected." AAJ President Kathleen Flynn Peterson said the court "clearly stated that defrauded investors still have an avenue for recourse under this country’s securities laws."

The organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show took a breather after last week's extravaganza and then did some bean-counting. More than 20,000 products launched at the Las Vegas trade show and will soon be on store shelves and in consumers' homes.

Every major consumer electronics advance has been launched at CES, including the videocassette recorder, compact disc player, digital video disc player, high-definition television, satellite radio, videogame system Xbox, and more, officials said in a press release.

"No event on earth launches more new technology and devices," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association. "This year was bigger than ever, with the latest innovations, from new next- generation digital televisions, including OLEDs, 150-inch plasmas and laser TVs, to wireless HD, the coolest new multimedia phones and ultra mobile PCs."

The event featured 2,700 exhibitors and 30 product categories and tens of thousands of media reports captured this year's product debuts. More than 4,500 print, online, and broadcast journalists attended the show.

E-commerce trade group NetChoice on Tuesday weighed in on this week's pledge by MySpace and a collection of state attorneys general to work jointly on ways to keep children safe on social networking sites.

The roadmap outlined by MySpace at a press briefing on Monday is "a far better solution than some misguided legislative proposals that would be impossible to implement effectively," NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco said.

"Industry players have grown increasingly concerned about the safety and welfare of the millions of children that use these platforms every day, and have been exploring ways to make social networking safe for Americans of all ages," he said.

The only way to truly protect Web-surfing youngsters "is for industry, government, nonprofits and parents to work together to educate kids and to pursue and control predators" and the statement by MySpace and the states would do just that, he said.

When it comes to value of congressional Web sites, the Congressional Management Foundation will only go so far in its criticism.

As noted in yesterday morning's edition of Technology Daily, the group gave most lawmakers D's for their online presence. It named the lawmakers with the best sites but stopped short of calling out those who have the worst. "It is not our mission to shame people into change," project manager and co-author Tim Hysom said in an interview.

But that's OK because Ben Pershing, who writes the Capitol Briefing blog for The Washington Post, is happy to take the task upon himself -- and his readers. In writing about the foundation's "Gold Mouse" awards yesterday, Pershing invited readers to publicly name the "Gold Rats" who haven't a clue about how to use the Web.

There are no nominations yet, but Republican new media consultant David All, who used to work for Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., had this to say:

They're equally bad on both sides of the aisle. To be fair, most of the members aren't personally to blame for such bad Web sites, but it's in fact the byproduct of the outdated congressional rules which limit a member's use of the Web. In other words, it's against the "rules" to post YouTube videos.

Technology Daily's PM Edition on Monday included a story about social-networking firm MySpace and attorneys general from 49 states and the District of Columbia issuing guidelines for keeping kids safe on the Internet, with the aim of involving other high-tech and child-protection stakeholders [read the full story here].

It was noted that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was not among the state law enforcers who publicly backed the effort. His office did not return calls by deadline but later in the day, we received a letter written by Abbott to MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe addressing the issue.

In the letter, Abbott said he is concerned that sites like MySpace "do not adequately protect young users" and as a result he was unable to join the joint statement that other state attorneys general issued. However, he did note that he appreciates "the spirit of cooperation" that MySpace has fostered in recent months.

Abbott goes on to claim that MySpace and other social networking sites are unable to truly protect minors until an age verification system is effectively developed and implemented. Signing onto the guidelines "would be misperceived as an endorsement of the inadequate safety measures contained therein," he wrote.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

Google invited a handful of reporters over to see their new Washington office on Monday afternoon -- a sneak peek before their big housewarming party later in the week. The space, which is smaller and less ornate than the mother ship in Mountain View, Calif., is still a feast for the senses. Between the catered lunches, snacks, videogames, massage chair and music, I don’t know how those people get any work done. Follow the jump for more photos!

Eric Goldman of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University has posted his annual cyberlaw recap at InformIT. His #1 topic: "The Power to Tax is the Power to Destroy: Utah Tries to Tax Keyword Advertising Into Oblivion."

Goldman, who authors the Technology & Marketing Law Blog, writes:

"The state of Utah has an unrivaled record of Internet legislative incompetence, but they topped themselves in March when they passed the Utah Trademark Protection Act. This law set up a registry for trademarks and other identifiers and banned third party use of these registered marks as triggers for keyword advertising.

It's been hard to pin down exactly why Utah passed this law. Once the publicity spotlight shone on this law, everyone in Utah involved with the law started finger-pointing, making it difficult to do after-the-fact forensics. As far as I've been able to deduce, Utah hoped to get a little slice of the massive online advertising industry for itself--Utah could charge trademark owners to register their marks and charge online advertisers to check the registry, allowing Utah to tax online advertising even if none of the players (the advertisers, the keyword vendor and the trademark owner) had any relationship with Utah.

We may never know if this law would survive a legal challenge because Utah legislators started backpedaling almost immediately since their actions were publicized. In the end, this particular law is almost certain to fade away quietly--good news, to be sure, but a temporary win at best. The same drivers--greedy and incompetent legislators eyeing a big fat chunk of economic activity--almost ensure that other legislators will try again, making another battle inevitable unless preemptive federal legislation is passed."

Read the rest of his list here.

Reprinted from the Nov. 26, 2007 edition of National Journal's Technology Daily

Tech Case May Shape Rule On Patent 'Exhaustion'
By Andrew Noyes

The Supreme Court will usher in 2008 with a high-profile technology case involving a major patent dispute between a group of Taiwanese computer manufacturers and their South Korean competitor. Oral argument is scheduled for Jan. 16.

The plaintiffs, led by Quanta Computer, want the court to upend a 2006 ruling by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that they claim would let patent holders -- like rival LG Electronics -- inappropriately seek royalties from multiple companies.

Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge recently filed a brief arguing that the court incorrectly interpreted a principle that says patent owners "exhaust" their rights after a product is sold and cannot continue imposing post-sale conditions or filing infringement suits.

The watchdog groups, and numerous other Quanta supporters, claim that letting patent owners impose such use restrictions could harm consumers. They say contract law is the proper tool for protecting a patentee's legitimate interest in restricting post-sale uses.

The brief, authored by EFF staffers Fred von Lohmann and Jason Schultz and outside counsel Marc Bernstein, argues that failing to rule in Quanta's favor could lead to "increased information costs when trying to ascertain restrictions on patented goods."

Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and the online auction site eBay filed their own brief that elaborates on perceived problems with the current regime. The American Antitrust Institute and Computer and Communications Industry Association also weighed in, urging the justices to overturn the appeals court.

It's not often that we at the Watergate get to blog about our artsy neighbor, the Kennedy Center, but today is one of those days. I just received a packet of information about a February festival that showcases the richness and diversity of Japan -- and that, of course, includes technology.

Part of the month-long "Japan: Culture + Hyper Culture" extravaganza is an exhibit called "Robotopia Rising," which will highlight the science and culture of Japanese robotics. The display, which runs Feb. 7-17, will let guests get up close and personal with some of the most sophisticated robots in the world.

Kokoro's astonishingly human-like Actroid DER2 will greet visitors throughout the festival with a great range of vocabulary, gestures and facial expressions. Mitsubishi's Wakamaru, which has a vocabulary of 10,000 Japanese words, will also be schmoozing with attendees. Robots created by Honda and Toyota will take part in daily demonstrations -- and one will even play the trumpet for you.

For more information, visit this Web site.

A note to Technology Daily subscribers: Friday's full PM Edition was sent to readers via e-mail a little later than usual. Due to technical difficulties (a family of menacing squirrels possibly wreaking havoc in the IT room?) we were unable to post the edition to our Web site. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope that it is cleared up soon.

Digital media executives from the music business took part in a Wednesday session at the Consumer Electronics Show that involved a wide-ranging discussion about a number of issues facing the industry [see Technology Daily's PM Edition for more].

To get the ball rolling, each panelist was asked what specialized ring tone they had chosen to alert them of a call on their cellphone. Surprisingly, several opted for a more traditional sound.

* Yahoo Vice President Ian Rogers: "Thelonious Monk."
* EMI Music Group's Barney Wragg: "The sound of the phone ringing."
* Attorney Fred Goldring: "Lurch from 'The Addams Family.'"
* Nettwerk Music Group CEO Terry McBride: "The old school 'ring, ring.'"
* ASCAP Vice President Matthew DeFilippis: "I can't remember the last time I put my phone on audible ring."

(Courtesy: Futureshop.ca via YouTube)

One of the highlights of this year's Consumer Electronics Show was an opening keynote by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. As Technology Daily mentioned earlier in the week, Gates poked fun at his decision to stop running the software company this summer by playing a video that featured cameo appearances by a few of his celebrity "friends," including musician Bono, actor George Clooney and former Vice President Al Gore. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Matthew McConaughey also make appearances in the short film.

Here's a heads up for Technology Daily subscribers. Throughout this week, the PM Edition is running a series of articles that examine the impact of Microsoft's epic antitrust battle nearly a decade after it began. The retrospective comes as the software company's settlement with the federal government and nine state attorneys general is set to expire. In addition to the articles, the package also features profiles of key players, audio from the landmark trial, a timeline of events, and related video clips. [Click here for more].

Attendees at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had a number of places to turn for news and information about the annual exhibition but one particular Web site offered a unique look behinds the scenes. That destination was BoothTruth.com, which was billed as an "undercover blog" for the gigantic trade show.

Unlike a slew of other blogs that focused solely on gadgetry, BoothTruth's creators pledged to provide "celebrity sightings, show rumors, free swag pointers, after-show party tips, cab confessions, hangover cures, the best booth shows, the best places to eat, to where all to get free WiFi access …" Readers could also send in tips.

The latest posts include reviews of a Whirlpool refrigerator that sports a docking station (suitable for a tablet PC, digital photo frame or iPod); a fashionable leopard-skinned taser; and an inside look at the CES Blog and Podcast Lounge.

Like many bloggers, members of Twitter are all abuzz about the results of the New Hampshire primary Tuesday after Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain won their parties’ races, surprising many observers.

A Web tool called Politweets launched Tuesday by independent developers allows a glimpse into the political debate on the micro-blogging social media site. The aptly-named site aggregates all of the candidate-related “tweets,” or Twitter logs, and ranks the presidential hopefuls based on the number of entries written about them.

Blogger Adam Ostrow writes about the rankings list at Mashable: "Not surprisingly, Obama and Clinton, who have dominated the press coverage in the past two days, are leading the conversation, while Internet sensation Ron Paul is disproportionately high on the list compared to where he places in national polls." -- Theresa Poulson

House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking Republican Joe Barton of Texas attended the Consumer Electronics Show this week and took part in a Tuesday discussion with two GOP colleagues -- Tom Davis of Virginia and California's Darrell Issa. Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.

At one point during the session, Barton addressed the fact that no Democrats were sitting alongside them on the stage. "None of them are here because we've changed all these ethics rules," he said. "It is truly a brave congressman or woman who will run that gauntlet to come here."

Barton also didn’t leave his sense of humor back in Washington and delivered several zingers for the crowd. His reasoning for why there were no senators on the panel: "They're all running for president."

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

Take a look inside the Consumer Electronics Show with our collection of photographs taken over the last few days in Las Vegas. The pictures provide only a small glimpse into the gigantic annual event.
[Photobook 1] [Photobook 2]

For a more comprehensive look at CES, search Flickr. There's plenty to see!

Cisco Systems Chairman John Chambers shared a bold vision for the future of the networked world in a rousing Consumer Electronics Show evening keynote on Tuesday. Chambers, who has grown the company from $1.2 billion in revenue in 1995 to $30 billion today, spoke for about a half hour.

Chambers, who first addressed CES in 1999, said a great deal has changed in the industry in the last nine years. Back then, when he spoke about the Internet's role, he had a "device-centric" mentality. In the future, the approach will be "network-centric," he told the Leaders In Technology dinner.

The West Virginia native also predicted that computing will move from an individualized experience to a community one and he cited the popularity of social networking sites as proof of that trend. Chambers, who was impressively unaided by note cards, also said the next generation of will be built around "visual networking."

Near the end of his speech, he touched on the importance of partnerships within industry and reaching beyond the United States' usual international high-tech allies. Chambers said Eastern Europe, India, China and the Middle East are making great strides and have a lot to offer.

His enthusiasm and optimism about the future of the industry may be best exemplified by a quip he delivered mid-speech: "You'll literally be able to 'beam me up Scotty' in a decade."

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin sat down with Consumer Electronics Show chief Gary Shapiro on Tuesday. He said the bulk of the outreach about the nation's shift to digital television should happen closer to the Feb. 17, 2009, transition. Read more in Technology Daily's PM Edition.

"American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest told a crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show that the huge annual event is "like going to the world’s biggest toy store for grown-ups." He said he felt like he walked into a science fiction novel of what tomorrow will look like.

He appeared on-stage alongside Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts to debut the cable company's new Fancast Web site, which lets subscribers find and watch their favorite television shows and movies.

As part of the demonstration, Seacrest showed attendees his personalized Fancast homepage that showed his entertainment preferences. Not surprisingly, the list included the aforementioned Idol and "E! News," a celebrity gossip show he also hosts.

Later in the presentation, the stars of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" took the stage to perform a cheeky song called "Business Time." Read more about Roberts' keynote in Wednesday's Technology Daily PM Edition.

When it comes to international deliberations about broadband policy, content is king, according to European Union telecommunications chief Viviane Reding. "People buy content and services. If you don’t have the right content and services," people won't invest in high-speed Internet connections in the first place, she told a crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show.

"I am a firm believer in content and I believe technology drives content but content most of all drives technology," Reding said at an afternoon panel where she sat shoulder-to-shoulder with David Gross, the State Department's international communications and information policy chief.

Gross agreed that content is a critical component of the high-tech revolution -- especially as more and more innovations are Internet-based. As applications become more Web-centric, they automatically become more global in scope, he said. "No longer do we think about content as being about us and our [domestic] situation. That's a historic change."

Part of the equation is reliable, affordable broadband access. That is "indispensable if you want to have growth and jobs," Reding said. "I want to get rid of all the barriers that exist in order to drive broadband for all." Part of that effort involves spurring competition in markets that have not historically been commercially viable, she added.

The colorful and candid Lady Kier, whose pop group Deee-Lite is best known for its 1990 dance hit "Groove is in the Heart," took part in a Consumer Electronics Show policy discussion on Monday [read more details in the PM Edition].

"We're living in a great, exciting time," she said of recent tech-fueled changes to music industry's business model. "Maybe not if I had a job at a major label, but for independent artists, it's a great time."

Later in the evening, Kier DJed a party at a swanky suite at the Palms hotel and casino that was hosted by the Digital Freedom campaign, which is backed by the Consumer Electronics Association and other supporters of "fair use" of copyrighted content.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

The organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show said they were expecting 4,500 members of the media and 2,200 financial and industry analysts at the massive annual event this week in Las Vegas. In 2007, CES hosted 1,150 journalists from 73 countries, a spokeswoman told us.

This year, CES introduced a new blogger category as well. While officials won't have the final verified numbers until after the show, the spokeswoman said 300 bloggers pre-registered to attend. Reporters, bloggers, photographers, videographers and others took full advantage of fully-equipped press rooms (see photo above and another here).

While I was busy covering a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show about how technology has forever changed the political process [see the PM Edition for more], some sat in on a session called "The True Cost of DRM: What Can't We Do Now?" If only I could be two places at once…

Discussants at that event pondered whether digital rights management will become a thing of the past since companies like Apple and America Online have begun offering digital music free from such technological protections.

Panelists included American University professor Patricia Aufderheide; attorney Russ Frackman; Media Defender Vice President Jonathan Lee; Yahoo Vice President Ian Rogers; and Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Fred Von Lohmann.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivered a rousing pre-conference keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show on Sunday night (see our previous blog post for details) and even tried his hand at the popular videogame "Guitar Hero."

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, challenged his boss to a showdown and I couldn’t bypass a mention of the duel since many of our readers (you know who you are) have become a bit obsessed with the game.

Bach brought out a ringer to assist: "Guitar Hero" champ Kelly Lyon. Not to be outdone, Gates unveiled his own ringer: Slash, the famed guitarist from the rock band Guns N' Roses. He closed out the session by wowing the crowd with his real-life strumming skills.

Who would have thought that department store chain Target would be the breakout favorite at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday morning? The enterprising company set up a free coffee cart outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, much to the delight of travel weary attendees.

Perky Target employees wearing signature red and white outfits offered regular and decaf java at a booth just steps away from lengthy conference registration lines. Brilliant! Their ploy was especially appreciated by yours truly who couldn’t bring himself to buy another $3.75 coffee at the Venetian or the convention center. Highway robbery!

Verizon is also serving free cappuccinos, espressos and lattes with fresh-baked cookies in their lounge, which is adjacent to the press pit. It's essential to stay hyped up on sugar and caffeine.

Consumer Electronics Show Rule #1. When you're a big-shot executive and you're scheduled to deliver a keynote here, it always helps to bring along some star power. Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts will do just that when he takes the stage at the Las Vegas extravaganza on Tuesday morning.

The cable giant announced on Monday that Roberts will be joined at the event by "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest and the stars of HBO's series "Flight of the Conchords," a fictionalized folk music sitcom based on the lives of two real-life New Zealanders.

Comcast is slated to make a number of announcements at CES involving Internet and video content; phone growth; and two-way interactive television. I'm sure Roberts will elaborate on all of that during his speech. I have no idea what Seacrest or the Kiwis will have to say, so stay tuned.

Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates poked fun Sunday evening at his decision to step aside from running the software giant this summer with a video at the Consumer Electronics Show featuring cameo appearances by a few of his celebrity “friends,” including Bono, Hillary Clinton, George Clooney, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart and Jay Z.

It was all part of an imaginary newscast by NBC’s Brian Williams about Gates’ final day in his Redmond, Wash., office. “All of us here at NBC News will miss reporting every night on this brilliant, powerful – let’s face it – sexy and good-looking leader who just doesn’t believe in paying more than seven dollars for a haircut,” Williams ribbed.

During a keynote address in a massive ballroom at the Venetian that was packed beyond capacity, Gates outlined his vision of future technologies. Among them is visual recognition software, which enables a cellphone pointed toward a building or person to recognize the image on its screen and display pertinent information, such as a restaurant’s menu or a colleague’s name and business title.

Even as Gates reduces his role at Microsoft, he still commands rock-star status among his legions of fans. Tech geeks who lined up hours before the event, many likely aware this would be his last CES keynote, bided their time with so many electronic gadgets that some journalists began photographing and filming them.

We're quite fortunate at Technology Daily to have well-equipped, modern office space at one of the premiere addresses in Washington but our home-away-from-home for the next few days is pretty posh too. During the Consumer Electronics Show, we'll be reporting from the exhibition floor, the CES press suites, and our "bureau" at The Venetian (we have a pretty nice view).

Some exhibitors at the Consumer Electronics Show couldn’t wait until the official start of the event on Monday to make news. A number of companies held press conferences on Sunday. Unfortunately, flight scheduling and the longest airport shuttle ride of my life forced me to miss most of the action.

High-tech giants that tried to woo reporters included Casio, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba. Plus, BMW's Formula One racing team, Sauber F1, launched its Pit Lane Park outside the Las Vegas Convention Center. Attendees got a peek inside BMW's garage and got to see a real race car zip around the track.

It's always fun to see what celebrities are hauled out to wow the crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show and next week's extravaganza is no exception. NBC's convention blog has a sneak preview.

On Sunday, "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner will help Panasonic unveil their new product line and on Thursday, actor Michael Douglas will be on hand to unveil XSTREAMHD's home streaming innovations. Sony will host comedians Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey and "Wheel of Fortune" letter-turner Vanna White on Monday.

The debut of a recording studio on wheels named after the late, great John Lennon may also serve as a prime destination for star-gazing. Yoko Ono along with recording artists Natasha Bedingfield, will i. am of the Black Eyed Peas and Pat Monahan of Train are all expected to get on board.

Soul singer Mary J. Blige will perform on Tuesday night and the legendary Tony Bennett might belt out a few numbers at the Sony booth on Monday. Actor Kevin Costner will show his musical side when he performs on Monday at the Gibson Guitar tent. (Thanks for doing the legwork, NBC!)

NBC Universal is ramping up its involvement in the Consumer Electronics Show this year with a number of special events and appearances by network news celebrities. All the details are available at NBCatCES.com, a Web site designed especially for the event.

NBC, which is the first-ever official broadcast partner for CES, will unveil a giant booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center (Central Hall #12533), which will feature live broadcasts and showcase the network's entertainment, lifestyle, news and sports content.

On Monday, Al Roker of the "Today Show," "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," and Nancy O'Dell, host of "Access Hollywood," will each report from the exhibition hall floor. MSNBC, CNBC and NBC affiliate stations will also take advantage of the space for broadcasts throughout the week.

Update: NBC announced on Sunday that Williams' broadcast from CES has been changed to Wednesday.

The Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off Sunday, is getting a lot greener in 2008. The annual convention, which is expected to draw 140,000 attendees, has taken a number of steps to become more environmentally sensitive this year. The CES blog reveals how:

* CES will work with CarbonFund.org to invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy and reforestation projects to offset emissions created by all exhibition space, show freight, shuttle buses and 600,000 hotel rooms.
* 75 percent of food containers and utensils used at the Las Vegas Convention Center will be fully biodegradable and there will be more recycling containers on the show floor.
* LVCC's Central Hall will use recycled carpet and cleaning crews will use non-hazardous solvents and soaps.
* All attendee literature will be printed on recycled paper with soy ink.
* All light bulbs, batteries and electronics used will be recycled.

Read more about what CES has done (and what attendees can do) to be more eco-friendly.

(Photo Credit: Andrew Noyes)

The Consumer Electronics Show is right around the corner and the Technology Daily team will be bringing you as much news as you (and we) can handle over the course of the next couple of days.

My colleague David Hatch and I will be on the ground in Las Vegas starting Sunday, Jan. 6, covering a number of keynotes and panel discussions through midweek. Check the PM Edition and the Tech Daily Dose blog for all the details as the fun unfolds.