June 2008

Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:

Call it the political counterpart of Moore’s Law: With each quadrennial national political convention, the use of information technology seems to grow exponentially. This year, with the Democratic and Republican gatherings barely two months away, officials of both parties involved in planning the conventions say they are utilizing technology to get their messages across in more ways than ever before.

For example, the Republican convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul has a YouTube channel and has launched a YouTube video contest to attract Internet users -- while the Democratic gathering in Denver also will make heavy use of the YouTube technology. Compare that to 2004: YouTube didn’t exist four years ago when the Democrats and Republicans met in Boston and New York, respectively.

Microsoft General Manager of Government Solutions Joel Cherkis said that the planning committees for both party conventions have shown much more interest this year in reaching out to tech providers and considering the role of technology early on in the planning process.

The non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center released statistics on Monday showing that the group's data breach count has reached an all-time high. The total number of breaches recorded by the ITRC between Jan. 1 and June 27 was 342 -- more than 69 percent higher than the same time period in 2007. The actual number of breaches is probably larger due to underreporting and the fact that some reported incidents that affect multiple businesses are listed as a single event.

The ITRC breach report sub-divides and tracks all breaches into five categories. The following is a comparison of 2008 (as of June 27) with annual totals from 2007 and 2006.

• Business: 2008- 36.8 percent | 07- 28.9 percent | 06- 21 percent
• Educational: 2008- 21.3 percent | 07- 24.8 percent 06- 28 percent
• Govt/Military: 2008- 17.0 percent | 07- 24.6 percent | 06- 30 percent
• Health/Medical: 2008- 14.9 percent | 07- 14.6 percent | 06- 13 percent
• Banking, finance: 2008- 10 percent | 07- 7 percent | 06- 8 percent

Identity intelligence firm ID Analytics also cooperated with ITRC in its 2007 breach study and found that 39 percent of data exposures in 2007 were related to missing or stolen devices and said the “malicious intent” categories comprised 25 percent of the total data exposure events. ITRC believes that this indicates an increasing awareness by thieves of the monetary value of personal identifying information. Read ITRC's report here.

Contrary to previous reports this election cycle, a new study by public relations firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide found that the proliferation of digital communications -- like social networking, blogs and Web sites -- not the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., is the key to engaging young voters (those 18 to 25 years old) in politics.

The study demonstrated that young Internet voters are not caught up as much in Internet campaigning as was previously thought from news accounts (i.e., “Internet Obamamania”). Only 23 percent of those surveyed perceived a new enthusiasm generated by candidates campaigning online and the increase in political sources on the Internet while 57 percent said they are more engaged because of digital communications.

When asked which party is doing a better job advancing digital communications and campaigning online, 55 percent said Democrat and 13 percent said Republican. When asked which candidate is their presidential preference, 48.9 percent said Obama, 29.2 percent said McCain, 10.2 percent said someone else and 11.6 percent said they were undecided.

"Just as radio and then later television in the 20th century vaulted American elections into distinctly new political eras, so will the Internet in the 21st century as even now the young Internet voters are transforming the way millions of voters want to be heard in this 2008 election," veteran political pollster Lance Tarrance said.

Meanwhile, another report released by MeriTalk, a new government professional networking portal, showed that 73 percent of "Generation Y" (42 million voters) plan to vote in the 2008 elections. Additionally, 48 percent of Ys report a Democratic affiliation, but 71 percent believe a Democratic candidate is best suited for the next administration.

Residents and visitors to the nation’s capital this summer are getting an eyeful of messages about the upcoming switch to digital television. Ads highlighting the Feb. 17, 2009 transition deadline have been placed in 15 Metrobus shelters located in high-traffic areas downtown as part of the National Association of Broadcasters’ campaign to educate Americans about the big change.

The bus shelters are scattered throughout popular neighborhoods, including Capitol Hill, Union Station, Eastern Market, Federal Triangle, Farragut Square and near the White House. The ads will run until early August, NAB said in a Monday press release. NAB has also supplied 2,000 receipts promoting DTVAnswers.com to the Yellow Cab Co., the city’s largest taxicab fleet, so drivers can hand them to passengers.

The District of Columbia has one of the country’s highest percentages of over-the-air households, NAB said. More than 20 percent of residents in the city rely exclusively on free broadcast television. Read more about NAB's DTV initiative here.

(Courtesy: Futureshop.ca via YouTube)

On Friday, Microsoft founder Bill Gates officially transitioned from his day-to-day role at the high-tech company to focus more time on his work with the foundation he started with his wife, Melinda. Gates will remain Microsoft’s chairman and will be involved in select projects based on direction from CEO Steve Ballmer and the leadership team. Watch the hilarious "last day" video [above] from this year's Consumer Electronics Show. I wonder if his real last day was similar...

From Microsoft's Web site:

• Video Tribute: Looking Back, Moving Ahead
• Virtual Pressroom: Video Clips, Images and Press Materials
• Feature: Iconic Albuquerque Photo Re-Created

A federal jury in Big Stone Gap, Va., has convicted the administrator for EliteTorrents.org, an Internet piracy site that, until May 2005, was a source of infringing copyrighted works, specifically pre-release movies, the Justice Department announced Friday. Daniel Dove, 26, was convicted on one count each of conspiracy and felony copyright infringement. EliteTorrents used BitTorrent peer-to-peer technology to distribute pirated works to thousands of members around the world, the agency said.

Evidence presented to the jury showed that Dove recruited members who had very high-speed Internet connections, usually at least 50 times faster than a typical high-speed residential Internet connection, to become uploaders. Evidence also showed that Dove operated a high-speed server, which he used to distribute pirated content. The case is the first criminal conviction after jury trial for P2P copyright infringement and the eighth conviction resulting from a nationwide sting against illegal P2P activity.

The jury in this case was presented with evidence that, at its height, EliteTorrents attracted more than 125,000 members and facilitated the illegal distribution of approximately 700 movies, which were downloaded more than 1.1 million times. Evidence presented to the jury also established that massive amounts of high-value software, video games and music were made available to members of the EliteTorrents group. Dove's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9, 2008. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

National Journal magazine reports:

Don't expect much conservative blogging at the Democratic convention in Denver. Or liberal online punditry at the GOP show in St. Paul. So far, credentialed bloggers are mostly splitting along political lines--but this time around there will be far more of them. In 2004, a grand total of 42 bloggers attended the two conventions. This year, planners are expecting up to 200 citizen-journalists per event.

"We have credentialed a pretty wide variety of blogs--some that are nonpartisan and others that have long Democratic activist histories," Democratic convention official Aaron Myers said. One blog, Bitch Ph.D., includes recipes, "Ultimate Bra Post," and "open marriage/boyfriend" discussions. On the Republican side, Matt Burns, director of communications, said in an e-mail, "We are finalizing our decisions, but we anticipate there will be some left-leaning bloggers extended an invite to blog at our convention--and that is in addition to anyone The New York Times may be planning to send."

Someone over at the National Association of Broadcasters is a fan of The Onion, one of the Web's most popular satirical news sources. The trade group sent an e-mail to reporters on Thursday with a six-year-old article (and I use the term loosely) about the Recording Industry Association of America suing radio stations for giving away music for free.

The NAB circulated the story on the same day that the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee considered and passed legislation aimed at eliminating an exemption granted to AM and FM stations that allows them to avoid paying certain royalties to musical performers. Read more about that mark up in CongressDaily's PM Edition.
________________________________

The Onion
RIAA Sues Radio Stations For Giving Away Free Music
October 2, 2002 | Issue 38•36

LOS ANGELES—The Recording Industry Association of America filed a $7.1 billion lawsuit against the nation's radio stations Monday, accusing them of freely distributing copyrighted music. RIAA president Hilary Rosen and attorney Russell Frackman answer questions in a Los Angeles courthouse.

"It's criminal," RIAA president Hilary Rosen said. "Anyone at any time can simply turn on a radio and hear a copyrighted song. Making matters worse, these radio stations often play the best, catchiest song off the album over and over until people get sick of it. Where is the incentive for people to go out and buy the album?" Read the full story here.

The Internet's key oversight agency relaxed rules today to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com," making the first sweeping changes in the network's 25-year-old addressing system. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- ICANN -- unanimously approved the new guidelines on the final day of weeklong meetings in Paris.

ICANN also was considering a separate proposal to permit addresses entirely in non-English languages for the first time, the Associated Press reported. New names won't start appearing for at least several months, and ICANN won't be deciding on specific ones quite yet. The organization still must work out many of the details, including fees for obtaining new names, expected to exceed $100,000 apiece.

For more details, see the full article on CongressDaily's TechCentral.

Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Russell Feingold, D-Wis., slammed the Homeland Security Department on Wednesday for demonstrating "its perverse belief that it is entitled to keep anything and everything secret from the public" by not sending a witness to a hearing that examined the agency's practice of searching and sometimes confiscating laptops and cellular phones of U.S. citizens returning from overseas travel.

Feingold wrote to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff last week urging him to reconsider but instead, the agency provided written testimony that was late and offered "little meaningful detail on the agency’s policies and raises more questions than it answers," he said. Witnesses included tech, legal and privacy experts as well as a travel industry official and a Muslim activist.

In April, Feingold questioned Chertoff about reports that customs agents have been conducting such searches and copying the contents. Reports surfaced earlier this year that some travelers believed they were targeted because they are Muslim or of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent. "When the government looks through the contents of your laptop, is that just like looking through the contents of a suitcase… or does it raise dignity and privacy interests that are more akin to an invasive search?" he asked.

Over at NextGov.com, Jill Aitoro writes that hostile code attached to e-mail messages is one of the most significant cybersecurity problems federal agencies face today, according to an industry analyst and former FBI investigator. “It’s getting scarier and scarier and scarier,” said Michael Gibbons, principal of security and privacy services at Deloitte and former chief of computer crime investigations.

Long recognized as a serious problem, phishing attacks send messages masquerading as notices from legitimate organizations or persons to computer users, with the expectation that they will click on a link and enter personal information, such as bank account numbers or passwords. Spear phishing attacks, however, target specific individuals, frequently using their name, and are therefore harder to spot and avoid. Read the full story here.

The Media Access Project hosted its third "Innovation ‘08" roundtable on Wednesday where tech and telecom experts discussed policy recommendations for the next president. The think tank, which is dedicated to open and diverse media access, held its first two forums in Silicon Valley in the past month.

Wednesday's event was scheduled to feature key representatives from the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain as well as other top industry and policy experts. Speakers slated to appear included former FCC Chairman William Kennard, AT&T Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Atwood, former FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, and others.

Details of the event (which I wasn’t able to attend due to pressing business on Capitol Hill) are available here.

A number of Internet visionaries, business leaders, legal scholars and public interest advocates kicked off the InternetforEveryone.org on Tuesday -- yet another buzzworthy initiative aimed at connecting all Americans to affordable, high-speed Internet.

Speakers at the unveiling, held at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City, included FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein; Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf; Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig; Columbia University law professor Tim Wu; Berkman Center for Internet & Society co-founder Jonathan Zittrain and others. Watch the press conference here.

InternetforEveryone.org backers are united by four principles:

▪ Access: Every home and business in America must have access to a high-speed, world-class communications infrastructure.
▪ Choice: Every consumer must enjoy real competition in lawful online content, as well as among high-speed Internet providers, to achieve lower prices and higher speeds.
▪ Openness: Every Internet user should have the right to freedom of speech and commerce online in an open market without gatekeepers or discrimination.
▪ Innovation: The Internet should continue to create good jobs, foster entrepreneurship, spread new ideas and serve as a leading engine of economic growth.

Superstar blogger Robert Scoble was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday where he visited House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and met with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and John Culberson, R-Texas. Ryan is a self-proclaimed Twitter-aholic and Culberson is a fan of Twitter and Qik video as well. Here's a new video of Culberson turning the tables on a TMZ.com cameraman, ambushing him near Longworth House Office Building. Brilliant!

Some related links worth clicking:

▪ Rep. Ryan's Twitter feed
▪ Rep. Culberson's Twitter feed
▪ Rep. Culberson's Qik video page
▪ Scoble's Qik interview with Rep. Ryan
▪ Scoble's Qik interview with Rep. Culberson
▪ Scoble's Flickr photos from Capitol Hill

From: Xxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 4:16 PM
To: Democratic Press Secretaries
Subject: Correction: Please be aware that www.house.gov/membersites websites are down in some offices. HRIS is working on it.

A handful of major education associations on Tuesday launched a new print public service announcement themed "One Giant Leap for Kids," that urges the presidential candidates to make K-12 student access to education technology and modern learning environments a top national priority.

The PSA was developed by the Consortium for School Networking, the International Society for Technology in Education, the National Education Association and the State Educational Technology Directors Association. The ad, which is being sent to the campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, will appear in a number of education and tech trade publications. They also plan to send the presumptive nominees a questionnaire asking about each candidate's vision for American education.

"On July 20, 1969, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong planted the U.S. flag on the moon, helping America win the coveted space race. Our great nation realized this seemingly impossible dream by making sound investments in education," the PSA reads. "Student access to school technology, robust teacher technology preparation, and a renewed focus on 21st Century skills are critical to today's missions."

(Photo Credit: Missoula Public Library via Flickr)

The high-tech industry in the Washington, D.C. region area added 6,100 jobs for a total of 295,800 workers in 2006, making the capital region the second largest "cybercity" by high-tech employment, behind only the New York metro area, the American Electronics Association said in a new report released Tuesday.

The nation's capital also has the fifth highest concentration of high-tech workers in the nation, according to the most current metropolitan data available. High-tech firms employed 132 of every 1,000 private sector workers in 2006. The jobs are high paying too -- the average tech sector worker in D.C. earned $92,700 (67 percent more than the region’s average private sector wage).

Ninety-five percent of Washington's high-tech industry is in the services sectors, AeA noted. The area ranked first in the nation by employment in computer systems design and related services, with 137,100 workers in 2006. It also ranked first in engineering services, with 44,400 jobs, and 2nd in R&D and testing labs, with 40,200 jobs.

Guess who's coming to Washington this week? A pair of outside-the-Beltway Internet visionaries: Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuk. The former is a blogger, technical evangelist and author best known for his Scobleizer blog, which became a must-read in the high-tech community during his tenure at Microsoft. The latter has been called "the first wine guru of the Web video era."

While in Washington, Scoble expects to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein; National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow, and others.

On Wednesday evening, Scoble and Vaynerchuk will booze and schmooze with D.C. politicos and techies at MCCXXII. Capitol Valley Media has been working hard to plan the event with the help of Frank Gruber and the Social Times. RSVP here. Follow Scoble during his journey on his Qik channel, Twitter feed and through his FriendFeed.

Tech/telecom attorney David Oxenford posted an interesting item on his Broadcast Law Blog on Monday morning as newscasts reported the passing of George Carlin. The comedian effectively wrote the indecency regulations that most broadcasters abide by -- without the FCC ever having had to adopt the regulations that he attributed to them.

In the broadcast world, Carlin was probably best known for his routine about the seven words that you can never say on TV. When the shtick aired on a New York radio station, a parent complained and the resulting FCC action against the station went all the way to the Supreme Court. The court upheld the right of the FCC to adopt indecency rules for broadcast media to channel speech that is indecent, though not legally obscene, into hours when children are not likely to be listening.

Read Oxenford's full post here.

Computerworld reports that liberal blogger Chris Bowers has launched a 'Google bomb' project aimed at boosting Google search results for nine news articles showing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain in a negative light. Bowers, managing editor of the blog OpenLeft, is reprising a similar effort he undertook in 2006 against 52 different congressional candidates.

The articles Bowers is using range from a story about McCain voting to filibuster a minimum wage hike to an item about the Senate passing an expanded GI bill despite opposition from McCain. Bowers is aiming by Labor Day to have three of the nine articles appear in the top 10 search results for "John McCain" and "McCain," three in results 11 through 20 and three more in 21 through 30.

When he began his quest three weeks ago, none of the articles were in the top 100 search results for either keyword search, Bowers noted. Now, all nine are in the top 60 for "John McCain" searches and eight are in the top 60 for searches of "McCain." Bowers said he working independently and not affiliated with the campaign of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama. Read the full story here.

Jammie Thomas, a single mother who was fined $220,000 by a federal jury in Minnesota for allegedly sharing 24 music tracks on the Kazaa file-swapping application, might get a another day in court. The Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, and the U.S. Internet Industry Association filed a brief on Friday pushing for her to be given a new trial.

Thomas was found liable for unlawfully distributing music on Kazaa, notwithstanding the lack of evidence that she had in fact done so, CCIA said in a press release. Liability was based upon a jury instruction that the plaintiff record labels need not have proved that she actually distributed any music on the Internet to hold her liable. Hers was the first file-sharing case to be tried to a jury.

"If this outcome were allowed to stand, it would set a dangerous precedent for copyright law," CCIA President Ed Black said. "Before you hold someone responsible for an offense, in this case distributing protected songs, it’s probably a good idea to prove they actually committed the offense." The groups did not take a position on the merits Thomas's liabilities and defenses. Instead, the brief argues that the jury instruction had no basis in the Copyright Act.

Verizon lobbyist Tom Tauke and National Cable and Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow traded blows in the blogosphere on Friday. Finally, these characteristically sedate policy blogs are being used for a good, old-fashioned catfight.

Tauke posted an item offering his perspective about the potential impact of the FCC overturning a recommendation by the agency's enforcement bureau to deny the cable industry's complaint against Verizon's "win-back" marketing efforts. He said the rumored action would thwart consumer choice and would impose more restrictions on telecoms' communications with their own customers.

McSlarrow fired back with his own blog post, calling Tauke's talk "a little over the top." "Thwart consumer choice?” C’mon, Tom. This is really about Verizon trying to thwart competition . . . again," he wrote. What's really going on, according to McSlarrow, is that for the first time in history, Verizon's incumbent position in the phone marketplace is being challenged.

Read Tauke's take here and McSlarrow's reaction here.
Update: Ding! Ding! Round two. Tauke takes another swing.

(Photo Credit: jsome1 via Flickr)

Biotechnology visionary G. Steven Burrill made some pretty interesting predictions for his industry through 2020 at the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual conference in San Diego, Calif. this week.

By 2020 Burrill predicts that:

▪ Wal-Mart, plus other direct to consumer healthcare delivery institutions, will become the place to go for medical treatment.
▪ Nano-devices in the blood will diagnose and repair problems.
▪ Patients will carry their genome and health records on a smartcard.
▪ To be successful, companies will have to retool from being full-integrated to a virtually-integrated model
▪ People will be able to purchase organs off-the-shelf or grow their own.
▪ Implants and prostheses that mimic biological functions, restore functions to existing organs or tissues, or augment those functions will appear.
▪ Demand for bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, and other alternative energy sources will drive innovation in the sector.

Since it appears to be slow news day (at least so far), here are some tech headlines to keep your brains busy. Or you could always flip over to watch breaking news coverage of this guy stuck in a tree.

Yahoo, Google pairing has lawmakers searching for answers
House investigators prepare for hearings on FCC chairman
Homeland security subcommittee clears $31.4 billion FY09 funding bill
Apple's iTunes hits 5 billion mark
Mars lander loses some photos after data glitch
Regulators take aim at infant DNA-testing industry

Watchdog groups Free Press and Public Knowledge slammed online advertising firm NebuAd on Wednesday for allegedly intercepting Web browsing and altering Web site computer codes. The company's relationship with cable and telephone companies has raised privacy questions for House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., and House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton.

In a new report, “NebuAd and Partner ISPs: Wiretapping, Forgery and Browser Hijacking,” Robert Topolski, the chief technical consultant for the organizations, found that NebuAd uses special equipment that “monitors, intercepts and modifies the contents of Internet packets” as consumers go online. Topolski, if you recall, was the network engineer who made public Comcast’s throttling of BitTorrent applications.

“NebuAd commandeers users’ Web browsers” to load tracking cookies and collects information from users in order to place ads from ISPs, the study stated. “Apparently, neither the consumers nor the affected Web sites have actual knowledge of NebuAd’s interceptions and modifications."

Members of the American Antitrust Institute will have plenty to discuss at their annual conference, which kicks off on Wednesday at the National Press Club. It's been a busy year for competition and consumer protection issues, mergers and related topics in industry and on Capitol Hill.

In addition to the group's presentation of a forward-looking report on competition policy for the next administration, a few highlights include:

A More Expansive View of the FTC: FTC Watch's Art Amolsch; former FTC Commissioner Thomas Leary and former FTC adviser Robert Skitol.

Media Issues: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck shareholder Allen Grunes; University of Baltimore professor Robert Lande; Glover Park Group partner Jonathan Sallet; and Stanford Group researcher Jaret Seiberg.

The Politics of Antitrust: Computer & Communication Industry Association President Ed Black; Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook; and Harvard Law School professor Einer Elhauge.

More information is available here.

Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:

Regardless of which political party takes over the White House next Jan. 20, the new administration will have to move quickly to meet several looming deadlines in 2009 related to critical homeland security programs.

In addition, lawmakers and administration officials say the Homeland Security Department must be ready and vigilant for the upcoming presidential transition, especially since similar events in other countries have been marred by terrorist attacks.

But, without time to waste after the transition, the department will also face a series of imminent requirements under existing laws and regulations in the areas of border security, protecting the nation's seaports and helping states stay on track to begin issuing new secure identity documents.

Specifically, deadlines will quickly materialize in 2009 for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the US-VISIT foreigner tracking system, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program and the so-called Real ID law. Read the full "Issue of the Week" here.

It has been almost two years since billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban declared that "only a moron would buy YouTube and that Google was crazy for actually going through with it." Since that time, the video sharing site's traffic has skyrocketed but they have noted the difficulty in being able to monetize those eyeballs in a profitable manner.

This week, Cuban wrote on his blog that the YouTube business model "is broken and there is no light at the end of the tunnel." The reason, he explains, is Hulu, a joint venture by NBC, FOX and their cable networks that offers free streaming content. Hulu doesn't serve up more videos that YouTube -- they aren't even close -- but he writes that the site is "laughing at YouTube all the way to [the] bank."

Read Cuban's full post here.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives urged an appeals court last week to review a decision allowing random and alleged invasive searches of travelers' computers at the U.S. border. The action comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to hold a hearing on the topic.

In a typical search, U.S. border officials will turn on the computer and then open and review files, EFF said. If agents see something of interest, they may confiscate the computer, copy its contents, and sometimes provide a copy to the Justice Department -- even when the traveler is not suspected of criminal activity. In some cases, travelers have never gotten their computers back from the government.

EFF and ACTE asked the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear and reverse an appeals panel decision in United States v. Arnold, which upheld this blanket search and seizure power. The Supreme Court has ruled that customs and border agents can perform "routine" searches at the border without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion. Senate Judiciary's Constitution Subcommittee hearing will take place Wednesday, June 25.

The FBI and its partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), warned consumers on Friday of reports of malicious computer-based "phishing" attacks targeting users of EPPICards, which are similar to a debit cards and are issued by a state agency for the purpose of receiving child-support payments. The cards are currently used in 15 states.

Individuals have reported receiving e-mail or text messages indicating a problem with their account or asking them to complete an online survey, the FBI said. They are directed to follow the link, which actually leads to a fraudulent Web site where their personal information, such as account number and PIN, is compromised.

“This is yet another attempt by cyber criminals to take advantage of technology to gain access to your personal information," the FBI's Richard Kolko said. "We are asking citizens to be alert and not to fall victim to these schemes. If you receive one of these messages, please report it to IC3."

(Photo Credit: Digital Freedom campaign)

Did you know that in addition to making a persuasive argument for "fair use" of copyrighted material, Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn also deejays a party like a pro? Sohn, who spun some 80s favorites (and dressed the part), joined a number of other guest DJs to provide an eclectic soundtrack for a Digital Freedom campaign soiree on Thursday evening.

Sohn is pictured above with Consumer Electronics Association lobbyist Michael Petricone. Both groups back the initiative, which advocates for consumer use of technology without "unreasonable government restrictions." Organizers said about 150 congressional staffers, lobbyists, lawyers and others attended the invitation-only party at Lounge 201. Up-and-coming band The Kin also performed. More photos after the jump...

Stifel Levin analysts believe that Yahoo's Thursday announcement to team up with Google on Internet advertising could face serious antitrust scrutiny. The companies do not need to obtain advance approval from the government as they would for a merger, but the Justice Department could still move against them if it found the arrangement to be anti-competitive, they said.

Google had already notified the department of a prior experiment with Yahoo, and they have continued to "socialize" the deal, agreeing not to start the partnership until roughly Oct.1, giving Justice time to review it, analysts said. They added that by restricting the deal to the United States and Canada, the parties may be trying to avoid European Union antitrust scrutiny, where regulators have been viewed as more aggressive than DOJ.

Google and Yahoo executives need to do a better job than they have thus far to answer questions about "why the efficiencies of the deal won't ultimately lead advertisers to move to Google, leaving Yahoo without a viable search advertising product and Google as the only search advertising game in town."

Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., is going to keep a close eye on Google's newly announced deal with rival Yahoo, the lawmaker said in a Thursday statement. Several months ago, Kohl also pledged to watch over a proposed deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, which eventually soured.

"This collaboration between two technology giants and direct competitors for Internet advertising and search services raises important competition concerns," he said. "The consequences for advertisers and consumers could be far-reaching and warrant careful review, and we plan to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of this deal."

Google Vice President Omid Kordestani posted a message on Google's corporate blog saying that the Web giant was entering into a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo with access to Google's AdSense for search and AdSense for content platforms on their U.S. and Canadian Web properties.

The deal comes as the Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing on the privacy implications of online advertising next week. Witnesses are expected to focus on the key factors driving online behavioral advertising, the methods of online behavioral advertising employed by industry, and the protections the FTC and FCC should adopt to protect consumers from unwanted or unnecessary invasions of privacy.

Forget about presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain or his Democratic challenger Barack Obama -- we already know the big winner of the 2008 campaign season. It's Microsoft. The company has been named the official technology provider of the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.

The DNC announced the news in April and the RNC's press release went out on Thursday. "Microsoft stands as one of America’s success stories, always at the leading edge of technology," Republican Convention President Maria Cino said. "Our goal has always been to make our convention the most exciting, energetic, and tech-savvy in GOP history, and Microsoft will play an important role in helping us achieve our objectives."

Under the agreement, Microsoft will provide support for various products, including Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Forefront Security Suite, and its Office Communications Server. Microsoft will also manage convention infrastructure ranging from collaborative virtual workspaces to applications like Professional Volunteer Management System, Venue Scheduling System, and other endeavors to improve staff efficiency and reduce paper usage.

Microsoft will also showcase the next generation of computing, using Microsoft Surface and its natural user interface technology to provide a digital concierge for convention participants. Surface will enable attendees to interact with and consume the latest convention and local city information, including transportation routes, hotel locations, restaurant guides, and entertainment options.

From Wednesday's House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee hearing on performance royalties legislation: Pop singers Kristine W. and Crystal Waters sit with Nancy Sinatra, singer and daughter of Frank Sinatra, who testified on behalf of the musicFIRST coalition (another Sinatra pic after the jump). Read more in CongressDaily's AM Edition.

Lawmakers used a National Health IT Week event Tuesday to call for wide-scale adoption of electronic medical records, although they acknowledged the road to fulfilling that agenda might be long and complicated. "It's ready for us to take up [because] lives are in the balance," Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said at the event. Kennedy, who co-chairs the 21st Century Health Care Caucus, has introduced legislation to create a public-private partnership to promote transportable, consumer-controlled health records. Read the full story in CongressDaily's AM Edition. Additional members who attended the event included Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., Lois Capps, D-Calif., Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., Dennis Moore, D-Kan., Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and others.

The American Federation of Musicians, Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, and other proponents of legislation that would abolish a longstanding exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations allowing them to play music without paying certain royalties are gearing up for a Wednesday lobbying blitz to coincide with a hearing on the bill by a House Judiciary Committee panel.

On the eve of the music vs. broadcasting industry showdown, I spent some time with Kristine W. (born Kristine Weitz) and Crystal Waters -- a pair of chart-topping, dance club divas who are sure to turn heads as they roam the halls of Congress with officials from the musicFirst coalition. Both were well-versed on the issue and were eager to discuss how it impacts their life and work.

Weitz, who had had almost a dozen tracks hit #1 on Billboard's dance chart, didn’t waste time taking terrestrial radio to task, arguing that radio stations in the United States attract listeners by playing music and they make money from advertising that accompanies those tracks -- yet they take creative content for granted. "People tune in to hear their favorite artist, not to hear their favorite commercial," she quipped. "Music is significant. If it wasn’t there anymore, the sound of silence would be pretty boring."

Waters, the great-niece of jazz vocalist Ethel Waters, said performance parity is something she takes personally because it took years for her family to recoup royalties owed to them after the elder Waters passed away. The artist, best known for hits in the 1990s such as "100% Pure Love" and "Say... If You Feel Alright," writes much of her own music but feels bad for those who do not, because they are not reimbursed when their songs are played on AM and FM radio.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo unveiled landmark agreements on Tuesday with Sprint, Time Warner Cable and Verizon Communications to shutter major sources of online child pornography. The announcement comes as many on Capitol Hill are exploring legislative solutions aimed at curbing illegal Web content.

The three major Internet service providers for the first time have agreed to block customers' access to child porn-themed online bulletin boards known as "newsgroups" and will purge their servers of child porn Web sites. That "new standard of responsibility… should serve as a model for the entire industry," Cuomo said.

An investigation by his office uncovered 88 different newsgroups that contained more than 11,000 lewd photos. As part of the probe, Cuomo's staffers developed a new system for flagging online child pornography and digitally matching an image anywhere else it is distributed. The companies will also pay $1.12 million to fund additional efforts to remove child porn from the Internet.

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill last month intended to improve the federal government's response to Internet-based crimes against children and the House approved several bills in the fall. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who sponsored one of the measures, lauded Cuomo's announcement. "We need to think of this as a war -- a war we must wage against sex predators, a war for our children," she said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy will receive a top honor at the National Music Publishers’ Association annual meeting in New York City next week. Leahy, who has said he believes that "music inspires us, and it connects us to others and to matters larger than ourselves," will receive the group's 2008 President's Award, which was established in 2005 to recognize an individual who has been a leader on issues of importance to music publishers and songwriters.

Leahy is an avid music fan whose tastes range from opera to the Grateful Dead and in the 110th Congress he has champion a Senate bill that would establish new performance rights protections. He has also been a longtime leader on intellectual property and copyright issues, routinely authoring bills to safeguard IP rights.

The NMPA will also honor Grammy-Award winning singer/songwriter Amy Lee with its 2008 Songwriter Icon Award. Lee is the co-founder and lead singer of rock band Evanescence and is a classically trained pianist. Evanescence's album “Fallen” sold more than 15 million copies and spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Top 10. Former recipients of the Icon Award include Jimmy Webb and Neil Sedaka.

The Digital Freedom campaign, which advocates for consumer use of technology without "unreasonable government restrictions," extended tongue-in-cheek anniversary wishes to the Copyright Alliance on Monday as the content industry-backed group marked its first year of existence with the launch of a new "one voi©e" initiative aimed at promoting intellectual property protection at conferences and festivals around the country.

Digital Freedom, which is fueled by the Consumer Electronics Association and others who defend "fair use" of copyrighted content, noted in a blog post that its street team has already been "out in the field for close to two years on a mission to protect and educate artists and consumers." "We’ll look forward to seeing one voi©e on the road -- perhaps we can even share travel expenses!" officials said. Something tells me the two won't be sharing a tour bus (or a room at the Red Roof Inn) anytime soon.

Forty-four percent of all voting-age Americans contacted Congress in the last five years but the majority of those citizens do not believe lawmakers are interested in what they have to say, a new report by the Congressional Management Foundation finds. The paper is a follow up to survey results released by the watchdog group three years ago, which gauged attitudes of congressional staffers about the climbing volume of constituent mail.

At the time, 73 percent of staffers said their offices spent more time on constituent communications than two years before and about half said they had to reallocate resources to cope with the surge. The earlier study also showed that the Internet was thought to have a positive effect on the discourse between citizens and Congress. It also indicated that personalized messages have more influence on members' decision-making process than do identical form messages.

According to the new poll, two times as many citizens who contacted Congress did so via the Internet (40 percent) rather than by postal mail or the telephone -- but 62 percent of Internet users who sent a message did not feel like offices cared about their opinions. Additionally, 46 percent were dissatisfied with the responses they received from Hill offices.

American music impresario Quincy Jones received the National Association of Broadcasters' top honor at the trade group's annual education foundation gala on Monday night. Jones, who is best known as the producer of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album, took home the Service to America Leadership Award after being serenaded by renowned jazz singer Patti Austin (who happens to be his goddaughter).

In addition to his legendary work in the music industry, Jones founded the Listen Up Foundation in 1991 to connect impoverished children with technology, education, music and culture. In 2004, he helped launch We Are The Future to build youth centers in poor and war-torn countries. From 1994-1999, Jones was also chairman of Qwest, at the time one of the largest minority owned broadcasting companies in the United States.

The black tie gala at the National Building Museum brought out a number of Washington notables including FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate, each of whom presented an award. Adelstein appeared on stage alongside 2008 Miss America Kirsten Haglund -- an honor he is afforded annually. "I assume it's by request," Adelstein joked. "For the next couple of weeks, he is going to be insufferable," McDowell laughed. Copps, who presented an award solo, lamented: "They used to let me [appear with] Miss America."

Members of Congress were also part of the event. Presenters included Reps. Chet Edwards, D-Texas; Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; Hilda Solis, D-Calif.; and Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked a federal court on Monday to protect the free speech rights of an animal welfare group after its video critiques of animal treatment at rodeos were removed from YouTube due to copyright claims.

The group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) videotapes and photographs rodeos in order to expose animal abuse, EFF said in a press release. SHARK posted more than two dozen videos to YouTube but the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association filed takedown demands for 13 clips and they were stripped from the video-sharing site.

EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry called the copyright claim "completely baseless" and said the complaint was made simply to block the public from seeing SHARK's controversial videos. Read more here.

The Economic Club of Washington risked a journalistic coup on Monday when the organization sat roughly a dozen tech and telecom reporters in the back corner of the Ritz-Carlton ballroom to cover Google CEO Eric Schmidt's luncheon keynote. We weren’t expecting chow nor were we expecting a front row seat but the accommodations afforded by such an esteemed forum were disappointing to many.

Scribes were also barred from asking questions after his speech and were told that the right was reserved for several hundred club members and guests. One of my colleagues muttered: "They're certainly no Detroit Economic Club," which is known for its all-star speakers (and apparently a better relationship with the press).

To add insult to injury, several reporters who approached Schmidt with questions as he left the room were rebuffed. He had a flight back to Silicon Valley and didn't have time for walk-and-talk. Read speech coverage in CongressDaily's PM edition.

Members of the American Civil Liberties Union from around the country flocked to the Washington Convention Center on Monday for the watchdog group's annual conference. As you can see by the photo above, the annual event is a popular one (more than 1,500 attendees).

Senate Judiciary ranking member Arlen Specter will speak to the group later in the day about legislation he and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy have championed to protect reporters from being forced to reveal confidential sources in federal court. The Pennsylvania Republican's keynote will open a panel discussion titled "The War on Terror: An Exchange About Censorship, Surveillance and Guantanamo."

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter will attend a luncheon honoring ACLU President Nadine Strossen who will leave the organization later this year.

Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, met with intellectual property stakeholders on Thursday to discuss potential next steps for a bill they introduced early in the 110th Congress aimed at helping U.S. law enforcers fight piracy and counterfeiting. Their bill, which predated related measures by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, would create a global task force for tracking IP criminals and would establish a Senate-confirmed IP czar.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Chris Merida, who attended the closed-door briefing, said Bayh and Voinovich "want to be a constructive part of the dialogue" that will soon take place in the Senate Judiciary Committee and seemed willing to work with Leahy and other key members even though their measure is conceptually different with respect to how IP enforcement is coordinated. Merida said Bayh and Voinovich also noted that "time is of the essence" as August recess creeps closer.

The House passed its IP enforcement package in May and Leahy is expected to hold a hearing on his bill in the coming weeks.

The Copyright Alliance marked its one-year anniversary on Monday with the announcement of a campaign to engage, educate and enlist creators nationwide in the dialogue about intellectual property rights. The "one voi©e" initiative will include targeted online outreach and a new presence at key trade shows, festivals and other events, officials said.

Those who join the effort, which is backed by CBS, NBC Universal, News Corporation, Time Warner, Walt Disney Co. and others, will have access to a network of creators concerned about copyright via an interactive members-only Web site, which launches this week. In addition, the alliance has updated the look of its public site and is unveiling a monthly e-newsletter for policymakers.

The one voi©e campaign will visit the National Music Publishers’ Association annual meeting in New York City in June and the Americana Music Association conference in Nashville in September. Other events will be added in the near future.

The customary gift for a first anniversary is paper -- so perhaps the trade group has its fingers crossed that members of Congress will be able to find a compromise on pending IP enforcement legislation and tie it up with a big ol' bow. The House passed one such bill earlier this year and a Senate measure is pending before the Judiciary Committee.

Stakeholders involved in a proposed anti-counterfeiting trade agreement met at the U.S. Mission in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday for one of a series of meetings aimed at developing various aspects of the deal, an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative official said Thursday.

The main focus of the discussion was border measures -- particularly how to deal with large-scale intellectual property infringement, which can frequently involve criminal elements and pose a threat to public health and safety -- the USTR official said. Participants considered the talks useful and were satisfied with the progress to date, he said.

Negotiations will continue in the coming months and parties are scheduled to meet again in mid-July where they will discuss border issues and civil enforcement mechanisms for fighting IP theft. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States attended this week's meeting.

The Center for Democracy and Technology unveiled a draft document on Thursday that lays out the think tank's Internet and technology policy recommendations for the next administration and Congress. The group also launched a companion collaborative Web page that lets the public help craft a final version of the document.

Internet stakeholders -- users, innovators and experts alike -- will be able to submit comments virtually on any section of the "Internet in Transition: A Platform To Keep the Internet Open, Innovative and Free." If appropriate, comments will be included in CDT's finished product, which will be presented to the new White House and Congress.

"The challenges to the Internet are growing both in the United States and globally," CDT's Leslie Harris said in a press release. "It is critical that our new political leaders understand these challenges and be prepared to provide strong leadership to ensure that the Internet continues to be a growing, open and transformative tool for politics, commerce and community."

The Web site poses six key questions for candidates, which are intended to spark discussion. They include:

(1) Do you agree that speech on the Internet should be given the strongest protection under the Constitution?
(2) What actions will you take to restore reasonable checks and balances on government surveillance?
(3) Will your administration support enactment of baseline federal privacy legislation that protects personal information online?
(4) What will you do to preserve the open, innovative and non-discriminatory Internet?
(5) How will you promote global Internet freedom?
(6) How will your Administration use the Internet to create greater openness and transparency of the federal government?

U.S. Electronics, which used to produce receivers for Sirius Satellite Radio, has filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint against the FCC to try to get information from Sirius and rival XM before the commission rules on their proposed merger. The materials sought are "directly relevant to the FCC’s determination whether the public interest will be served or harmed" by the pairing, the complaint states.

According to a press release, the documents requested relate to Sirius and XM's alleged noncompliance with various FCC regulations, including: failure to make available an interoperable radio almost 10 years after the FCC required them to do so; noncompliance with tower and antenna placement authorization and allowable transmitting levels; and deliberately exceeding FCC emission standards.

"These documents are likely to speak directly to the candor of Sirius and XM." U.S. Electronics' Kathy Wallman said, noting that the satellite radio providers are "fighting awfully hard to keep these documents from seeing the light of day; it makes you wonder what they are trying to hide."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked a judge in Illinois Wednesday to reject an attempt to identify an anonymous MySpace user who allegedly posted fake profiles of a government official because the request would violate both the First Amendment and federal statute.

In May, Cicero Town President Larry Dominick asked a Cook County Circuit Court to order the disclosure of the identities of the author of two MySpace "spoof" profiles that allegedly included defamatory comments and unnamed privacy violations. In its amicus brief, EFF argued the petition violates the First Amendment right to remain anonymous until a litigant can demonstrate a viable legal claim.

If Dominick's claims are genuine, he may be able to obtain the information that he seeks, EFF said in a press release, but until he meets his burden, the court should not grant his request. The First Amendment requires courts to guard against attempts to unmask critics who have simply made statements litigants don't like, especially when such requests are made by elected officials, the group said. Read more about the case here.

What do Aimee Mann, They Might Be Giants, and Wilco have in common? In addition to being several of this writer's favorite bands, they've also all donated tracks to a compilation album, which will be released next month, to benefit a proposed federally mandated "network neutrality" rule for broadband Internet providers.

To be clear, I cannot and will not take sides on the contentious congressional debate, but I will note that the Future of Music Coalition and Thirsty Ear Recordings brought together 15 acts for the "Rock the Net: Musicians for Net Neutrality" compact disc. Look for it on July 29. Regardless of one's stance on the issue, good music is good music, right?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer braved wet weather on Tuesday night to share his vision of the future with more than 700 attendees of the American Electronics Association's annual Technology for Government dinner in downtown Washington. His big revelation of the night -- we're "on the verge of a fifth [computing] revolution."

The early 1980s ushered in the age of the personal computer; then the Internet was born; then came the world of Web 2.0 (and I guess I must have missed a fourth revolution in between the entrée and dessert). Now, society is facing a new era that will be "enabled by hardware but powered by software;" one where computing components are infinitely faster, smaller and cheaper, he said.

Wireless broadband networks are practically everywhere and that innovation puts the "whole world at your fingertips, wherever you go," Ballmer said. Soon, speech, touch and language will dominate personal computing, he predicted, and technology users will want to be able to interact meaningfully with their devices.

"All information will be consumed digitally [and] everything you need will be delivered on an IP network," he told the crowd. "The ability to find and analyze information will go up an order of magnitude," he said, noting that software will morph into something that exists in the "Internet cloud."

Privacy and consumer advocates urged Internet giant Google on Tuesday to post a prominent link on its homepage to its privacy policy. Their letter to CEO Eric Schmidt urges the Mountain View, Calif., company to comply with state law and "the widespread practice for commercial Web sites as soon as possible."

The effort is being spearheaded by the Electronic Privacy Information Center; Privacy Rights Clearinghouse; World Privacy Forum; Consumer Action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation; the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California; and the Consumer Federation of California. The groups hosted an afternoon conference call with reporters to further articulate their message.

Google has been criticized recently for failing to post the privacy policy link because officials said they did not want to clutter the search engine's homepage. Several experts, including the head of the California Office of Privacy Protection, have said that Google should include the link.

"Consumers should be able to access Google's privacy policy with just one click from its homepage -- this is an industry-wide best practice that Google is not exempt from," WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon said. EPIC's Marc Rotenberg added: "This is not rocket science -- and the word 'privacy' is not going to take up a lot of space."

A Google spokeswoman said her company shares the view that privacy information should be easy to find "and we believe our privacy policy is readily accessible to our users." Privacy information should also be easy to understand, she said. That's why in addition to offering a Privacy Center, Google created a YouTube privacy channel with videos explaining its practices and products.

Security expert Bruce Schneier, founder and chief technology officer of BT Counterpane, offered some insight (and humor?) at a Monday briefing by the Center for American Progress about the state of identification authentication in the United States in the years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Schneier's talk was accompanied by a slideshow presentation that featured a fictional Transportation Security Administration "Airport SecurePASS" with a headshot of al Qaeda's most famous face and the following information:

▪ Name: Osama bin Laden
▪ Nationality: Saudi
▪ Residence: Varies
▪ Profession: Evildoer

"We pretend there's some linkage between identity and intentionality," Schneier said. "That’s where we're making the mistake. Evildoers all have ID cards and they'll continue to get them." His bottom line -- "there are limitations to ID-based security."

Read more about the event in CongressDaily's AM edition.

The Media Institute, a nonprofit First Amendment and communications policy think tank, will launch its very own blog on Tuesday at www.mediacompolicy.org. The blog, called "Media & Communications Policy," could be a welcome addition to an already vibrant online community that discusses how the media affect and are affected by technology, commerce and politics.

The blog will feature insight from the organization's experts who have been avid observers and active participants in communications policymaking for more than 25 years. The creators' aim is to offer observations that "will be insightful -- and in no way constrained by the reigning ethos of political correctness," according to an e-mailed announcement.

Intriguing! Too bad the blog's name isn't -- but I'll withhold judgment until I see the finished product.

(Photo Credit: MPAA)

New York City and the Motion Picture Association of America have expanded their joint anti-piracy campaign to the Big Apple's subway system. Beginning this week, a new advertisement (shown above) will appear on subway platforms to heighten consumer awareness about DVD bootlegging. The new ads feature the city's 311 citizen service hotline giving people a local resource to report piracy.

According to MPAA investigators, the last phase of the campaign and the enforcement efforts in New York helped to eliminate much piracy vending on the streets. However, some of the piracy has moved underground -- literally. Court documents show that since the beginning of 2008, the NYPD Transit Police have arrested almost 80 people and seized 8,251 pirated DVDs -- much of this action in or around subways.

FYI: If you're reading this from Manhattan, keep an eye out for the ads. If you happen to see one posted next to someone selling "Sex And The City" (or any other film currently in theaters) out of a suitcase, whip out the cameraphone and send me the evidence.

From CongressDaily's TechCentral Issue Of The Week:

United Nations agencies are still capable of addressing problems not solvable by national governments or the marketplace alone. Last week, the World Health Organization, perhaps best known for statistics and reports, took several actions -- including negotiating an agreement on innovation into neglected diseases disproportionately affecting the poor that could have consequences for developed countries.

While key elements of the innovation agreement that could have affected U.S. bilateral trade agreements were removed, enough was kept to possibly bring a change in the status quo for innovation and intellectual property rights related to public health. In some ways, the negotiation was more about limiting the role of the WHO in intellectual property issues -- reflecting a common national-level debate between typically more public-minded health officials and economics and trade officials who focus on the bottom line.

Read the full story here.

The Supreme Court said Monday that it will not hear a case involving an online publisher known as Perfect 10 that claims credit card companies are enabling the Internet piracy of its pictures of nude models. The firm said in court filings that its business has been harmed by pirate sites, many of them overseas, which have used its images without permission.

Perfect 10 sued several intermediaries, including Google, Amazon.com, MasterCard and the Visa International Service Association. The lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard was previously dismissed by a district court and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The financial firms argued in their brief that Perfect 10's claims of infringement would further "a radical new theory that would impose substantial liabilities on a wide variety of enterprises for providing services that may be described as 'critical support' to infringers, regardless of whether the services specifically involve or promote the infringing conduct."