October 2010

Despite last-minute deals that ended Fox's blackout of its television channels on Cablevision - and averted a similar fiasco on the Dish Network - the crisis over shutoffs that leave viewers stranded during contract disputes isn't over. In a Sunday statement, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry vowed to press ahead with legislation that would make it tougher for broadcasters to use abrupt signal shutdowns as a bargaining tactic.

"I don't believe it's really in anyone's interests to have these scenarios play out again and again on a regular basis," the senator said. "Certainly at a minimum Congress can bring greater transparency to this process and empower consumers with more information, and work to 'disincentivize' high stakes conflict."

"The goal should be a more rational system, and I look forward to working with stakeholders, colleagues and the FCC toward that end," Kerry added. Broadcasters oppose federal intervention, arguing that shut offs are rare and provide stations with much-needed leverage during negotiations over fees and other terms for renewing carriage agreements. Cablevision and Dish are among the video service providers urging Congress to fix what they say is a broken system.

Kerry weighed in one day after News Corp.'s Fox and Cablevision announced a breakthrough that ended the blackout for 3 million viewers in the New York/Philly region just before the start of the third World Series game. Fox reached a similar accord with Dish on Friday that averted its threatened shut down of broadcast signals carried by the satellite service in 25 markets.

The lawmaker plans to formally introduce his draft bill during the lame duck session and hold a hearing on it. National Journal magazine (subscription required) reported in its latest edition that Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller has endorsed Kerry's legislative effort.

Monday
Facebook hosts a DC Live show at 2:30 with National Journal's Sue Davis and Karen Tumulty form the Washington Post. They will discuss how social media has changed the way reporters cover campaigns and politics.

Tuesday
ELECTIONS!

Wednesday
The Commerce Department holds a closed meeting of the Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee. It's a two-day forum.

Thursday
The White House hosts a 9:30 am meeting of the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to hear presentations on science and technology enterprise planning, national security, and international affairs.

Ending growing anxiety about what was poised to become a TV blackout fiasco, Fox News and DISH Network announced Friday afternoon that the two companies reached an agreement over programming fees.

"After prolonged negotiations to reach a fair deal, we're pleased to enter into a long term agreement with Fox and to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy these channels," said Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming for DISH Network.

"I want to thank our partners at DISH Network who worked tirelessly to help us reach a successful conclusion," said Mike Hopkins, president of Fox affiliate sales and marketing.

How much DISH is going to pay Fox to carry its signal was not disclosed. Their current contract was slated to expire this Sunday.

News of the deal comes as Cablevision customers are left without Fox programming in the wake of the companies' inability to reach an agreement on carriage fees. Fox and Cablevision have engaged in an ugly PR battle over the dispute which appears to be at a stalemate.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski welcomed the news of the Fox-DISH agreement.

"I am pleased that Fox and DISH have kept in mind their responsibility to protect consumers from blackouts when they negotiate carriage terms," Genachowski said. "I urge Fox and Cablevision to complete their negotiations and end the impasse that has disrupted service to viewers."

When asked about the boundaries of the FCC's authority over the ongoing programming fee dispute between Fox and Cablevision, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell wouldn't opine saying it's not his problem.

Rainbow PUSH executive Kimberly Marcus, who convened the forum where Powell gave his comment, spoke out in defense of the consumer.

"Rainbow PUSH is concerned that the consumers are being punished," Marcus said. For nearly two weeks, Cablevision customers in the New York area have been without Fox channels, and currently the World Series, since the two companies failed to reach an agreement over carriage fees. "We would like for Cablevision and News Corp. [parent company of Fox] to come together and discuss their problems and keep running the programs while they negotiate."

Cablevision and Fox have engaged in an ugly PR battle blaming one another for being unable to reach an agreement. Cablevision has called on the FCC to intervene on their behalf, but federal law, as explained by current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, dictates that the negotiations must be handled by the private companies. What remains unclear is to what extent the commission can exercise its limited statutory authority over the matter to bring the dispute to an end.

Thus far, the commission has publicly chastised both companies and asked for them to prove that they have been negotiating "in good faith."

Powell, who gave the keynote address for the luncheon forum at the Rainbow PUSH media and telecommunications conference, waxed poetic about the importance of embracing modern technology.

The "torrential rain of technological change is carving through the rock of our society," Powell said. Those who want to "share in the glory" of the "bright digital future" will have to be "plugged into the grid of knowledge."

Powell echoed Genachowski's earlier remarks about the importance of the Internet and finding work saying that asking "whether you need broadband" is the same thing as asking "whether you need a job."

After noting that more people in the country subscribe to cable than to broadband, Powell brought some humor to the forum "I like Jersey shore and DC house wives as much of the next person but that's not what's going to help my children compete in the economy."

Seeking to score some public relations points against News Corp.'s Fox, Cablevision on Thursday urged federal agencies and non-profit groups to stream the World Series live on the Internet - at no cost to them or viewers - under a little-known clause in copyright law.

Fox yanked its broadcast signals from Cablevision two weeks ago as part of an ongoing dispute over renewing the terms of its carriage contract with the cable operator. The move has left an estimated 3 million viewers from New York City to Philly scrambling for access to Fox stations, especially to catch the heavily watched World Series and Sunday football games.

Cablevision insists the streaming is permissible under provisions of the 1976 Copyright Act that permit "secondary transmission" of broadcast programming by the government or non-profits if the content is free or viewers are charged nominal fees to cover costs.

Distributors of such transmissions would be barred from profiting or seeking any commercial advantage. "A governmental entity or nonprofit organization could do a tremendous public service and extend the reach of this broadcast programming," Cablevision said in a statement.

Civil rights, meet tech policy:

Professionals from both communities gathered at the Rainbow PUSH media and telecommunications symposium Friday in Washington.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave the keynote address. "I'm disappointed that Reverend Jesse Jackson is not here [he was originally scheduled to speak], but somewhat relieved so I won't have to suffer by comparison," he joked to the crowd.

For the most part, Genachowski spoke to the importance of closing the digital divide in a society where the "costs of digital exclusions are rising." More and more companies, he said, only post job openings online and some only accept applications electronically.

The chairman made the case that measures outlined in the national broadband plan, released by his office last spring, will help close the digital divide.

Other tech luminaries speaking at the event include David Honig, president of the Minority Media & Telecom Council; former FCC Chairman Michael Powell; and David Sutphen, co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance.

In an exclusive exchange with the office of Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, spokeswoman Jodi Seth detailed the lawmaker's plans for legislation that would make it tougher for broadcasters to pull their channels off cable and satellite systems during disputes over carriage fees.

The senator is preparing to introduce his bill in the lame-duck session as 3 million Cablevision customers grapple with the loss of Fox stations during the World Series, and as Fox threatens a nationwide shut-off of its broadcast channels on the Dish Network this weekend.

The measure, circulated in draft form last week, would arm the FCC with clearer authority to intervene, permitting the agency to require binding arbitration and/or impose penalties in some cases. The goal is to protect consumers by making it more difficult for stations to use blackouts as a negotiating weapon.

For the latest breaking coverage of the growing controversy, visit National Journal Daily, and for in-depth analysis on Congress' next step, see the Oct. 30 edition of National Journal magazine (subscriptions required for both publications).

Seth responded via e-mail to Tech Daily Dose's questions:

Tech Daily Dose: Broadcasters have been using TV blackouts as a negotiating tactic for years. Why is Congress threatening to intervene now?

Seth: This isn't the first time Congress has raised concerns. During the 2007 Mediacom-Sinclair dispute, [Senate Commerce Chairman Daniel Inouye and the late Sen. Ted Stevens, then ranking member] both wrote to the FCC urging it to intervene. Sen. Kerry has been outspoken in each and every dispute the last couple of years.

This spring, with disputes reaching a boiling point, Senators Kerry, Inouye, [Frank] Lautenberg and others, during a Commerce Committee hearing, again discussed the need to update the system. [Senate Commerce Chairman Jay] Rockefeller said it was under review.

What's become clear, however, is that what used to be an isolated occurrence has now become a regular event and an epidemic. Sen. Kerry is proposing legislation now because the old rules are not responding to the new reality and no regulatory solution has been offered.

TDD: Has Sen. Kerry lined up any additional support for his draft bill?

Seth: Senator Kerry is building support for his legislation and will be meeting with colleagues when they return, but there are clearly many frustrated senators out there who are hearing from their constituents about this problem, and no serious public servant is arguing that the system is working.

TDD: Will his measure be tough to pass because of opposition from the National Association of Broadcasters -- a powerful lobby run by former Senate Commerce member Gordon Smith?

Seth: John Kerry and Gordon Smith have been friends a long time, and worked very closely on a number of legislative initiatives as colleagues. Sen. Smith would agree that Congress and the Commerce Committee, in its capacity to oversee interstate commerce, isn't going to tolerate endless and repeated brawls that disrupt and displace consumers.

Sen. Kerry is eager to hear from all the stakeholders, he knows that there are a variety of ways to discourage these disputes, but what Sen. Kerry is proposing would be fair for all parties, protect consumers, and preserve our commitment to local broadcasting. It's a market-based approach.

TDD: The legislation would curb the practice of shutting off signals, but not completely ban it. Why not prohibit the tactic completely?

Seth: Sen. Kerry understands the market and he's not ideological about this issue. He's not looking to overreach. His goal instead is to change the incentives in the system without stripping broadcasters of the ability to pull a signal in a worst case scenario, which shouldn't be necessary if the system and process are changed to encourage more cooperative resolutions.

Nextgov.com reported that federal agencies are turning to their employees for input on how to improve customer service, and some agencies are gathering employee and customer input using social media platforms, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

GAO surveyed agencies involved in 13 different services, including direct student loans, passenger and baggage screening, passport services, Social Security and medical care for veterans. All 13 services reported that within the past year they gathered ideas for improving customer service from frontline employees through staff meetings, blogs, employee suggestion programs and employee surveys. The report also identified several customer service tools agencies have used to improve customer service, including engaging customers through social media, providing self service options and offering redress for unmet standards.

But although standards exist, GAO found that the surveyed services' standards were often made available in a way that would not be easy for customers to access. For example, five services made standards available in long, detailed documents, and many have not evaluated their results against standards or the private sector, GAO found. Click here, to read more.

The Justice Department said Thursday that two men have pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired to defraud the Federal Communications Commission's video relay service program, which allows people who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate by phone with others.

The department said that John Yeh, the owner of Viable Communications, and Joseph Yeh, the company's former vice president for corporate strategy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The men allegedly submitted $55 million in VRS claims to the FCC.

John and Joseph Yeh admitted to conspiring with others to pay people to make fraudulent VRS phone calls using Viable's service and then submitting claims for the fraudulent call minutes to the FCC for the VRS services, according to the Justice Department.

The VRS program allows those who are deaf or hard of hearing to communicate with people over the phone by having their sign language translated to a hearing person with the assistance of a computer or television. Firms that provide VRS services are paid by the FCC through fees assessed by telecom companies on their customers' bills.

The two defendants face up to 20 years in prison and fines of $250,000. Earlier this year, two other men pleaded guilty to charges related to the conspiracy.

Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to settle allegations from the Federal Communications Commission that the wireless provider erroneously billed millions of customers for unexplained data charges.

The settlement, the largest voluntary consent decree fine imposed by the agency, was announced after a 10-month investigation by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau into complaints from Verizon Wireless customers over "mystery" charges. The FCC said the company would provide a minimum $52.8 million in refunds to about 15 million customers.

The FCC probe focused on "pay-as-you-go" customers, who do not have data plans, and involved $1.99 per-megabyte data charges. The FCC said these fees were imposed erroneously for such actions as unauthorized data transfers initiated by applications, such as games, built into some phones; accessing some Web links that were supposed to be free; and unsuccessful attempts to access data.

"People shouldn't find mystery fees when they open their phone bills -- and they certainly shouldn't have to pay for services they didn't want and didn't use," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. "I am pleased that Verizon Wireless is now taking the appropriate steps to repay 15 million consumers a minimum of [$52.8] million dollars. Their $25 million payment to the U.S. Treasury -- the largest in FCC history -- is an important recognition of the harmful impact on consumers. It will serve as a significant deterrent to others in the future."

Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless announced that it would provide refunds or credits to customers for the mystery charges identified by the FCC. In addition to the refunds, the company also has agreed to take several other steps including stop charging its customers incorrect fees and take "affirmative steps" to prevent future unauthorized charges.

Verizon Wireless also has agreed to allow customers to place data blocks on their accounts so they will not incur data charges; launch several new initiatives to improve its customer service including providing "plain-language" explanations of its pay-as-you-go data charges and its data plans; and provide the FCC with updates on its efforts to address the problems identified by the commission's probe.

"Verizon Wireless works very hard to simplify the wireless experience for customers and to ensure that customer bills are accurate," the company said in a statement. "Nonetheless, internal billing processes can be complex and, in this case, we made inadvertent billing mistakes. We accept responsibility for those errors, and apologize to our customers who received accidental data charges on their bills."

The company noted that the biggest source of the erroneous charges related to those customers without data plans who accessed pre-loaded applications on certain phones, which triggered a pay-as-you-go data charge of $1.99. "We never intended to charge customers for this 'acknowledgment' data session," the company said.

In one of California's two marquee statewide races this year, CEOs from the state's top information technology companies appear to be betting on Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer even though she faces one of the industry's own.

Despite running one of nation's top tech companies for six years, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the GOP Senate nominee, has received far less campaign cash from her former peers at California's top IT companies than Boxer, according to an examination of the latest campaign finance figures for the 2010 campaign cycle compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Fiorina is locked in a tight race with Boxer and has raised nearly $18 million as of Oct. 13 -- including $5.5 million of her own money. Despite this, Boxer has outpaced her, collecting $26 million in total contributions.

Among those who have contributed to Boxer include Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who gave Boxer $4,800 last November - more than seven months before Fiorina won the GOP Senate nomination.

Other Boxer contributors include: Google CEO Eric Schmidt with $2,000; Autodesk CEO John Bass with $2,400; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings with $4,800; Cisco CEO John Chambers, a Republican who has given $4,800, and eBay CEO John Donahoe with $2,400.

Donahoe's predecessor at eBay, Meg Whitman, is the Republican gubernatorial nominee in California's other high-profile statewide race. She appears to have attracted more financial support from her former peers than Fiorina, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which tracks giving in state elections. Some of California's tech leaders who have contributed to Whitman's campaign include Chambers ($25,900), Donahoe ($25,900) and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz ($2,500), who has not given to either candidate in the Senate race.

A new study released Thursday found that up to 50 percent of healthcare providers have either adopted electronic health records or are partially using them.

The study released by CompTIA found that 34 percent of healthcare providers now use a "comprehensive" electronic health records system and 16 percent said they are using a partial system. About 29 percent said they are evaluating their options while 20 percent have not looked at the issue. The study, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, was conducted in two parts and surveyed 370 U.S. information technology firms, about 40 percent of which do business in the healthcare sector, and 300 U.S. healthcare providers.

Of those who have adopted electronic health records, 59 percent said they were "completely" or "mostly satisfied," and 36 percent said they were partly satisfied and partly dissatisfied, with dentists reporting higher rates of satisfaction, 70 percent compared with 57 percent for medical doctors. Reliability was cited as the biggest complaint by providers.

"Healthcare providers have clear objectives for their IT investments - reducing costs, saving time, improving productivity and most importantly, improving patient care," CompTIA Vice President of Research Tim Herbert said in a statement. "Anything that may disrupt patient care is a serious issue, so product reliability is especially critical."

In an interview, Alice Borrelli, Intel's director of global health and workforce policy, credited the billions included in last year's economic stimulus package for health information technology with helping to drive up electronic health record adoption rates.

"I don't think it would have happened" without the stimulus funding, she said, noting that in 2006, only 11 percent of healthcare providers had adopted electronic health records. "This is a program critical to really making a difference in health care. It saves lives," she added.

The stimulus included funding to help healthcare providers adopt health IT, providing $44,000 for each doctor to help defray the costs of switching to electronic health records.

While Borrelli gave high marks to the Obama administration's health IT efforts, she said she would like to see funding extended to so-called "hand-off" providers, such as physical therapists and others who step in to care for patients after they leave the hospital or a doctor's office. She said Congress would have to change the eligibility requirements and allocate additional funding for such providers.

Nextgov.com reported that as more federal workers rely on tablet computers and other mobile devices for tasks ranging from transmitting patient records on the battlefield to photographing safety violations at meatpacking plants, the number of data breaches might drop -- if users type in the cloud, Verizon officials said Wednesday.

"As the tablets become more integrated into the network -- the data, the sensitive data is not there to get," said Bernard McMonagle, associate director for Verizon Wireless, referring in an interview to the fact that video, images and files are not stored on a hard drive or memory card.

Cloud computing is a catchall phrase for off-site data servers, storage facilities and applications that workers access through an Internet connection on a subscription basis rather than using their own physical hardware or software.

On Oct. 19, General Services Administration officials announced that Verizon, Amazon and nine other companies had won slots on a $76 million contract to provide federal agencies with remote access to cloud information technology. The Obama administration is urging departments to transition to cloud computing as a way to lower costs and boost productivity.

Many cloud services providers, including Verizon, offer private network connections that also prevent intruders from accessing the data through the Web, Verizon officials told reporters. "We can take that content and put it into our private [network address] so that it stays away from the Internet," said Ken Biery, Verizon's cloud security strategist. Click here, to read more.

In an effort to make net neutrality a campaign issue and fight against corporate control of the Internet, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced 95 Democratic candidates Thursday that pledge to protect the openness of the Internet.

"A neutral Internet allows small businesses, especially in rural parts of New Hampshire, to compete in the online marketplace and create jobs," said Ann McLane Kuster, a candidate for the second district in New Hampshire. "If phone and cable companies put tollbooths on the Internet, big corporations could afford to pay, but small businesses could not -- and that would stifle innovation and jobs."

Kuster, the face of the coalition, will send an email to PCCC members later today to make a formal announcement.

"In the 'Live Free or Die' state, hurting Internet freedom by putting new tollbooths on the Internet is a non-starter," Kuster added.

The "net neutrality protectors" are pledging the following:

I believe in protecting Net Neutrality - the First Amendment of the Internet. The open Internet is a vital engine for free speech, economic opportunity, and civic participation in the 21st century. I stand with millions of working families and small businesses against any attempt by big corporations to control the Internet and eliminate the Internet's level playing field. In Congress, I'll fight to protect Net Neutrality for the entire Internet - wired and wireless - and make sure big corporations aren't allowed to take control of free speech online. Mark me down as a 21st century Internet champion!

Jason Rosenbaum, PCCC senior online campaigns director, claims that this is the "first time ever that congressional candidates have joined together to make net neutrality an election issue."

The coalition includes Senate candidates, and current Reps., Joe Sestak, D-Pa., and Paul Hodes, D-N.H.

The heated battle over television blackouts is increasingly being waged on another screen: computers. As Cablevision customers left stranded without Fox signals scramble to find a way to watch tonight's first game of the World Series - and as Dish Network customers brace for more shut-offs this weekend - sites are sprouting online with spin about the squabbles.

With hope fading for an eleventh-hour breakthrough for Cablevision customers, millions of baseball fans in the New York area will have ample opportunities to vent their frustrations on the Internet. Fox terminated its signals after Cablevision refused to grant its demands for financial compensation in exchange for carriage of several broadcast and cable channels.

At www.KeepFoxOn.com, visitors are urged to demand refunds from Cablevision and are advised about alternative methods for viewing the pulled channels, from free over-the-air television to competing video services offered by AT&T and Verizon. On its corporate website, www.Cablevision.com, the cable operator fires back by accusing News Corp.'s Fox of "corporate greed" and railing against what it calls a "TV tax."

Dish displays the most cyber chutzpah with at least six web addresses that lead to the same anti-Fox site: www.WeOfferedFoxAFairDeal.com, www.FoxRefused.com; www.HowMuchMoreCanWeTake.com; www.DISHWillContinueToFightForCustomers.com; www.ForceFedChannels.com and www.JoinTheFightAgainstFox.com.

Fox offers its take on this site, http://getwhatipaidfor.com, which includes a form that disgruntled viewers can use to dish their concerns directly to the satellite service.

How much Time Warner Cable pays Fox to carry its signal might be a principal reason that Fox and Cablevision have reached an impasse on their programming-fee dispute -- which is cold comfort to millions of households facing a blackout of the World Series opener tonight, National Journal reported.

Cablevision has offered to pay the same rate as Time Warner. Fox declined the offer Wednesday in pointed language.

"We remain committed to negotiating a fair deal with Cablevision, but today's incomplete proposal is not acceptable. Cablevision is seeking a discounted 'package rate' without buying the entire package. We have told Cablevision all along we are willing to negotiate a deal - based on an entire suite of channels - under the terms we have reached with Time Warner Cable and other providers, or a stand alone agreement for WNYW FOX5, WTXF FOX29 and WWOR My9. Cablevision's offer - sent to the press just as it was provided to us - is yet another in a long line of publicity stunts," Fox said in a news release.

News Corp., Fox's parent company, "has claimed it cannot show any flexibility" over how much money it's asking to carry Fox "because it is bound by the 'Most Favored Nation' (MFN) clause" in an agreement with Time Warner, wrote James Dolan, CEO of Cablevision, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.

The MFN clause means that if Cablevision pays Fox a lower rate than Time Warner Cable, TWC would be entitled to the lower rate. Rewriting a deal with TWC -- which counts 14.4 million subscribers to its video, high-speed data, and voice services -- could mean a big financial loss for Fox.

A spokesperson for Fox declined to comment on the terms of the deal with Time Warner.

Cablevision called on the FCC to intervene to settle the dispute.

"On behalf of our customers, we are very disappointed that we offered News Corp. what they asked to be paid for Fox 5 and Fox 29 and News Corp. has said no. It is now clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that News Corp. is operating in bad faith," Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler said in a statement. "We call on the FCC to intervene immediately to restore the Fox signals to Cablevision's 3 million homes and order News Corp. to agree to binding arbitration to resolve this conflict."

To read more, click here.

The Federal Trade Commission informed Google Wednesday that it has dropped its investigation into what the Internet giant has described as the mistaken collection of information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, National Journal Daily reported.

In a letter to Albert Gidari, Google's outside counsel, David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, said the agency was dropping its probe given the actions Google has taken to improve its internal processes.

"Google has made assurances to the FTC that the company has not used and will not use any of the payload data collected in any Google product or service, now or in the future. This assurance is critical to mitigate the potential harm to consumers from the collection of payload data," Vladeck wrote. "Because of these commitments, we are ending our inquiry into this matter at this time." To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

The Center for Democracy and Technology launched a new website Wednesday aimed at providing artists with information about their legal rights and other information related to posting their work online.

OnlineArtRights.org includes information on legal protections for hate speech and nudity in art and on including copyrighted works in satire or remixes, CDT said. The site, funded by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, also provides information for artists on the potential risks they face when they post their work online including potential claims of copyright infringement and terms of service violations.

"The First Amendment provides critical protections for online speech, and artists should feel confident in their rights to display art online," CDT General Counsel John Morris said in a statement.

Among the most high-profile copyright infringement cases in recent years invovled the Associated Press and artist Shepard Fairey. The AP alleged Fairey infringed its copyright by using an AP photo as the basis of his well-known "Hope" image of President Obama, which was featured on t-shirts, buttons, posters and websites.

Among the many issues that garnered interest in both chambers this year but has yet to produce legislative action is an effort aimed at updating a 1986 law related to government access to electronic communications.

There is widespread agreement among many industry and public interest groups and even lawmakers that the Electronic Privacy Communications Act needs updating to reflect changes in technology, particularly the increasing use of cloud computing. Given the growing pressure, many observers expect the issue will gain traction in the next Congress regardless of which party is in charge.

The House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee held three hearings on ECPA this year and may hold another hearing when Congress returns for a lame-duck session after Tuesday's midterm elections. A spokesman for subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said his boss is still working with all the relevant stakeholders on possible legislation but is not ready to introduce a bill.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also has examined the issue and held a hearing on ECPA reform in September. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., indicated he expected Congress would need to update the law but did not give a timeline for when that may happen, a spokeswoman said.

"I think there is growing pressure from a lot of companies who believe, rightfully, that an update is necessary to allow for the adoption of new technologies," Center for Democracy and Technology Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim said this week.

A group of law professors are urging President Obama not to publicly endorse a proposed trade agreement aimed at increasing international cooperation in the fight to curb piracy and counterfeiting.

In a letter set to be sent to Obama Thursday, the professors take issue with the lack of public involvement in the crafting of the agreement and are asking the White House to ensure that the most recent, and possibly final text, is subject to "a meaningful participation process that can influence the shape of the agreement going forward."

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has been negotiated as a "sole executive agreement" and does not require congressional approval. The signatories argue that negotiating an agreement dealing with intellectual property and communications policy as a "sole executive agreement" is unconstitutional.

The current text is the product of three years of work and 11 rounds of negotiations, the most recent and likely last round of talks was held in Tokyo and ended earlier this month.

The draft letter takes Obama to task for not living up to his campaign promise of bringing a "new truthfulness and transparency to our public policy and law."

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has not held a single public hearing on the text, the letter notes. The professors also accuse USTR of preventing the release of the text during earlier rounds of negotiations. The first formal release of the text came last spring.

"This degree of secrecy is unacceptable, unwise, and directly undercuts your oft-repeated promises of openness and transparency," according to the letter signed so far by two dozen academics including those well known for their technology and digital law expertise such as Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig and Pamela Samuelson, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

National Journal reported that the Homeland Security Department has not developed an effective way to ensure that critical national infrastructure, such as electrical grids and telecommunications networks, can bounce back from a disaster, government auditors have found.

In response to criticism from lawmakers and private-industry officials, DHS has emphasized the need for critical infrastructure to be resilient, meaning it has the ability to absorb and recover from a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Critical infrastructure generally refers to structures and systems, whether physical or virtual, that are vital to national security, economic security, and public health.

The department has conducted surveys and vulnerability assessments of critical infrastructure to identify gaps, but has not developed a way to measure whether owners and operators of that infrastructure adopt measures to reduce risks, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released earlier this week. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., told the Federal Communications Commission late last week that former agency chairman Kevin Martin's new role as the voice of opposition against the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger is "highly suspect." Martin is representing a half-dozen clients opposed to the deal and is a principle of one of them: the National Coalition of African American Owned Media.

National Journal reported in early October that Martin's transformation into a consumer advocate is raising eyebrows because as chairman during the Bush administration he supported media concentration and promoted policies criticized as undermining media diversity and minority ownership. The magazine also reported on close ties between the coalition and Entertainment Studios, a black-owned enterprise that is one of the few, or perhaps only, programmers that would benefit financially from the conditions being sought by the African American group.

The accusations were made in an Oct. 21 letter sent to all five commissioners at the agency, which is reviewing the proposed $30 billion union along with the Justice Department. In the correspondence, Rush outlined his strong support for the transaction and urged the agency to approve it this year.

Referring to Martin without mentioning him by name, Rush asserted that "during his leadership of the agency [he] did virtually nothing to advance minority ownership opportunities in media or diversify media voices and content." The congressman, who heads the House Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, said that based on Martin's record, "I view his intentions as being highly suspect and lacking in credibility." The lawmaker also insisted that Comcast's diversity-related steps and commitments "respond to key priorities that members of this commission and I have identified as essential components of a transaction worthy of favorable consideration."

UPDATED: Responding via e-mail, Martin wrote: "I am surprised by Chairman Rush's comments. We worked closely together on the XM Sirius merger where he advocated a minority [programming] set aside, like minorities are hoping for in the Comcast-[NBCU] merger."

"Today, while Comcast serves many communities that have large African American populations, Comcast carries virtually no African American-owned independent programmers," Martin added.

Supporters of Martin, including watchdog groups that railed against him a few years ago but are allied with him now, maintain that Martin's transformation is sincere and that he is playing a pivotal role in raising awareness about the adverse impact of the planned merger on consumers and competition.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that trying to resolve the dispute over what should be done with a chunk of spectrum that public safety officials want to use for an interoperable public safety broadband network and the FCC wants to auction is one of his department's top priorities.

In a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which along with other public safety groups has called for Congress to reallocate the D-block spectrum for public safety use, Holder said the Justice Department has "facilitated a series of discussions concerning the public safety broadband network, including the future of the D-block." He said the department, working with the relevant stakeholders, has been tryng to "determine a path forward" to make sure the "communication needs of state, local, and tribal law enforcement are met."

Holder added in his prepared remarks to the group's annual conference, "This is a Cabinet-level priority. It is a Justice Department priority. And I will continue to advocate for meaningful, affordable access to radio spectrum when and where you need it. This continues to be a personal priority for me."

In its national broadband plan, the FCC called for auctioning the D-block to commercial bidders and using the proceeds to help pay for the construction of an interoperable public safety network. The FCC also has said that emergency first responders would have priority access to roam on the D-block during emergencies.

But some public safety groups have called on Congress to re-allocate the D-block to public safety officials. They argue that the spectrum the FCC has already provided to public safety officials for an interoperable network is inadequate to meet their needs.

A Justice Department spokesman would not comment on where Holder stands on the D-block dispute. However, Holder said in his speech last fall to the police chiefs group that he backed reallocating the D-block for use by public safety officials.

"In this regard let me be clear on one point -- I strongly support removing the D-block spectrum from auction so that it can be allocated directly to our nation's public safety officers," Holder said in his October 2009 remarks. "It is long past time to build the nationwide interoperable communications network we so desperately need in order to keep our nation safe during emergencies."

Cloud computing is being touted for its many benefits including helping to cut information technology costs and providing greater access to storage, but for it to grow and thrive policymakers must provide greater legal certainty about who is responsible for the data, a group of panelists said Tuesday.

During a discussion on privacy and security issues related to cloud computing, Center for Democracy and Technology Counsel Greg Nojeim said one of the key questions that needs to be clarified is what law applies to data that is stored remotely. Cloud computing involves the use of third-party computers or storage of information on third-party servers. He said he would expect that policymakers will decide that it's the law where the data is stored that applies when it comes to cloud services.

When it comes to law enforcement access to data under current law, different standards apply when data is stored on a user's computer, when it is in transit such as when it's sent over e-mail and when it is stored in the cloud, Nojeim said. For example, while access to information stored on a user's computer generally requires a warrant, that same user's information stored in the cloud can be obtained by subpoena.

"Why should there be discrimination between those two platforms," Nojeim said. "Our answer is there shouldn't be."

CDT is part of the Digital Due Process coalition that is calling on Congress to make changes to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which deals with government access to electronic communications. The coalition also includes such firms as Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Intel and Microsoft, which is making a big push into the cloud, and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Computer & Communications Industry Association.

Harry Wingo, Google's senior policy counsel, echoed Nojeim's call for legal clarity not just domestically, but internationally. He also voiced concerns about efforts by other countries to exert more control over the cloud. He said such efforts could lead to a "balkanization" of the Internet.

Darrell West, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation, said while some have called for an international treaty to address such issues, "it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve."

When it comes to security, Wingo argued that increased use of cloud computing might ultimately help consumers by allowing them to place more of the onus on cloud service providers to protect their data. He noted that Google's Chrome cloud-based operating system would be one way for consumers to leave the security to the provider.

Under such a model, a consumer "should be able to pick up a device, use it from anywhere and have it work and be safe," Wingo said.

A federal court has ruled that the North Carolina Department of Revenue's demand that Amazon.com provide the agency with the names of the firm's customers and other personal information is unconstitutional.

As part of an audit of Amazon's tax liability, North Carolina's Department of Revenue requested the names, addresses and other information related to Amazon's customers in North Carolina. In a lawsuit challenging the order, Amazon noted that it has cooperated with North Carolina in providing information about the firm's North Carolina sales such as the order number, city, county and zip code each item was shipped to and the price of each item shipped but refused to provide the names of its customers.

In its lawsuit, Amazon argued that North Carolina's demand for the names of Amazon's North Carolina customers is unconstitutional because it violates the company's and its customers' privacy and First Amendment rights. Late Monday, Seattle federal district Judge Marsha J. Pechman agreed and granted Amazon's request for summary judgment in the case.

"The First Amendment protects a buyer from having the expressive content of her purchase of books, music, and audiovisual materials disclosed to the government," Pechman wrote in her ruling. "Citizens are entitled to receive information and ideas through books, films, and other expressive materials anonymously."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in the case in June on behalf of seven Amazon customers, hailed the decision as a victory for "privacy and free speech on the Internet."

"With this ruling, the court emphatically reemphasized what other courts have found before - that government entities cannot watch over our shoulders to see what we are buying and reading," ACLU staff attorney Aden Fine said in a statement.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller sent a letter Tuesday to Facebook and MySpace requesting more information about privacy breaches highlighted by a recent news report.

According to the Wall Street Journal, users of Facebook and MySpace have had their personal information transferred to third-party companies without their knowledge.

"These reports raise serious questions about social networking sites' commitment to enforcing their own privacy policies on behalf of consumers," Rockefeller, D-W.Va, said. "I intend to find out whether today's social networking sites are adequately protecting their users' personal information."

In his letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Rockefeller expressed concern that if the Journal repot is accurate, "the privacy of tens of millions of Facebook users could be seriously compromised in violation of the company's stated policy."

Among the information Rockefeller is seeking includes the number of personnel Facebook dedicates to monitoring and enforcing its third-party application providers' compliance with Facebook's privacy policy and whether the social networking site imposes penalties on application operators and websites that violate Facebook's privacy policy.

"We look forward to addressing any confusion that has resulted from the Wall Street Journal article and we're happy to work with Sen. Rockefeller to answer any questions he may have," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said. "The underlying issue raised in the article isn't at all specific to Facebook and has existed across the Internet for years. The issue is caused by an inherent weakness in how web browsers work, particularly the amount of information about a user that browsers shared with visited websites."

To resolve the privacy issues highlighed by the article, Facebook has proposed encrypting all user identifications that applications access with a key that is only available to Facebook and the application being used.

Rockefeller took issue with MySpace not only for failing to adequately monitor third-party advertisers and applications, but also for a weak privacy policy.

"MySpace's privacy policy provides insufficient basic privacy protections that other social networks employ," Rockefeller wrote in his letter to MySpace President Michael Jones. Rockefeller pressed MySpace to explain why the company asserts that it can't control the actions of third-party applications on how they retrieve and use members' information when other social networks place limits on the use of personal information.

MySpace did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The National Association of Broadcasters voted in favor of a legislative "term sheet" on Monday that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers a fee for paying their music on air.

"Today's endorsement includes provisions that are essential to the future of free and local radio," NAB Radio Board Chair Caroline Beasley, said in a statement. "We're hopeful that the musicFIRST Coalition finds it in their best interest to say 'yes' to this proposal."

However, the term sheet includes a controversial measure to mandate the inclusion of a radio chip in all mobile devices and has received a lukewarm reaction from musicFIRST, the principle association fighting for performance royalty legislation.

"While we are pleased that the radio broadcasters have for the first time acknowledged their obligation to pay the artists who are the foundation of their business, we are disappointed that they failed to vote on the deal both parties agreed upon in July" said Tom Mattzie, a spokesman for musicFIRST. "After a quick review, this new term sheet differs significantly from that agreement. We will be reviewing their term sheet further."

NAB, which has historically opposed any form of performance rights' legislation, has been in talks with the music industry at the behest of lawmakers calling on the groups to reach a compromise.

Performance rights legislation has been approved by the House and Senate Judiciary committees, but has stalled with resistance from a host of lawmakers and the NAB. The broadcasters remain opposed to the legislation in its current form.

"NAB remains 100 percent opposed to performance fee legislation pending in Congress," Beasley stated.

A congressional mandate for a radio-chip is likely to be a nonstarter with powerful third-parties--the Consumer Electronics Association and CTIA Wireless, among others--vehemently opposed to such a measure.

Recognizing the difficulty of advancing a bill with the chip mandate, the term sheet left a window of opportunity for possible legislation to move forward without it. "If a legislative mandate (which musicFirst has agreed to support) becomes initially unattainable, radio broadcasters would agree to an initial performance fee payment of .25% of net industry revenue."

The NAB's vote is subject to ratification by the NAB Joint Board of Directors, which meets this afternoon.

UPDATE: In a letter Tuesday to NAB President Gordon Smith and NAB board officials, the Consumer Electronics Association said it would fight efforts to mandate the inclusion of FM technology in new mobile devices.

"We realize you are under pressure from the [Recording Industry Association of America], musicFIRST coalition and Congress, but assure you that your strategy of using us to kill this legislation is failing," CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro wrote, adding, "We have yet to identify one member of Congress willing to support your attempt to impose old FM technology on new portable products."

Shapiro urged NAB to give up the FM mandate effort and work with CEA on ways they can "meet the challenges and opportunities of the digital marketplace."

A group of online travel search sites Tuesday launched a coalition urging the Justice Department to challenge Google's proposed $700 million acquisition of ITA Software, saying the deal would give Google control over the technology behind the most popular Web travel search sites.

The FairSearch.org coalition said it is concerned that Google could extend its dominance in search to online travel. The group notes that while Google controls more than 70 percent of U.S. searches, ITA's technology supports 65 percent of all U.S. carrier-direct online flight searches and provides its technology to six of the top 10 air carriers in the United States. In addition, the coalition said Google's search engine is the source of 30 percent of all traffic to travel Web sites.

The coalition includes Expedia.com, Hotwire, KAYAK, Travelocity and others. Many of these firms are ITA customers.

"ITA plays a crucial role in online flight search and has been a key driver of competition and innovation in online travel," Expedia Counsel Thomas Barnett, who headed the Justice Department's antitrust division in the administration of George W. Bush, said in a statement. "The Justice Department needs to thoroughly investigate the proposed acquisition and to take whatever action is necessary to prevent harm to consumers in online flight search as well as online travel search more generally."

Google has defended the deal as aimed at "building new flight search tools for users that will make it easier for them to search for flights, compare available flight options and prices, and get them quickly to sites where they can buy their tickets." Google maintains in a fact sheet on the deal that it will "continue to have productive partnerships with as many online travel companies and industry players as possible."

Nextgov.com reported that Transportation Department websites that post economic stimulus spending results could be vulnerable to hackers looking to attack visitors' computers and manipulate data, according to the department's inspector general.

In December 2009, the IG's office began examining safeguards for the systems that track the $48 billion Congress authorized Transportation to spend on projects that create jobs, such as high-speed rail and road widening.

The economic stimulus requires agencies to update the public on stimulus spending via Recovery.gov, but most agencies also maintain in-house websites for financial management and more granular reporting. The IG published its findings on Transportation's sites in a report released on Monday.

The report uncovered 1,759 high-risk threats to the department's websites. Recovery-related databases and servers also were vulnerable to attack, but at a lower risk. The threats existed because Transportation failed to configure its sites, databases and servers according to standard controls, the audit said.

"These vulnerable websites could put users' computers in danger by allowing hackers to gain access to the users' computer and their personal information," Earl Hedges, acting assisting IG for financial and IT audits, wrote in the report. "One particular vulnerability, found on eight of the 13 websites, could allow hackers to use the websites to launch attacks on users' computers." To read more, click here.

The government has little ability to do anything about the continuing cable-fee dispute between Cablevision and the Fox network that now threatens to keep Cablevision customers from watching Major League Baseball's World Series.

The process to determine how much cable companies should pay broadcasters to carry their signal, formally known as retransmission-consent negotiations, is by and large the province of the private companies involved.

The FCC and several politicians have put pressure on the companies by admonishing them publicly and introducing legislation that would create a formal role for government intervention, but they are now without any enforcement tools to force a settlement.

"While federal law provides that the terms will be set by agreement between private companies, Fox and Cablevision share responsibility for protecting their audience's interests," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement issued on October 16. "I expect both companies to live up to this responsibility."

But beyond the action the commission has already taken, there may not be much incentive to do more.

When it comes to the cable-fee dispute, "the FCC is stuck between a rock and a hard place," said Jeffrey Silva, an industry analyst at Medley Global Advisors. "There is growing pressure for the commission to help bring the negotiations to an end, but a heavy hand is not politically palatable with the GOP railing against big government as we approach the midterm elections."

Meanwhile, Cablevision customers in the New York area have been without Fox programming for more than a week after the two companies failed to reach an agreement over how much Cablevision should pay Fox to carry its signal. According to Cablevision, Fox is asking for $150 million, more than twice the amount previously paid. Fox denies this figure, saying Cablevision is distributing false information.

If the spat is not resolved by Wednesday, Cablevision customers, who have been denied coverage of pro football games, won't be able to watch the World Series. The companies have not spoken to one another since last Thursday.

Citing a provision of the Communications Act that requires both parties to negotiate "in good faith," the FCC has requested that both parties submit information proving they have done so.

FCC Media Bureau Chief William Lake sent a letter to Fox and Cablevision last Friday asking them to "describe with specificity what has transpired" since the negotiations began and "detail the efforts" each company "is making to end the current impasse."

In its response to the FCC, filed with the agency today, Cablevision accused Fox of negotiating in bad faith.

"News Corp. [parent company of Fox] never engaged in real negotiations," Charles Schueler, Cablevision's executive vice president of communications, said in a statement. "They only made a 'take it or leave it' proposal for Fox 5, and they timed the Fox blackout to leverage major national sporting events to force Cablevision to accept unreasonable demands."

Cablevision is arguing that the FCC does have the authority to make Fox agree to binding arbitration.

Fox disputes these claims. "We have never made any 'take it or leave it' demands," Fox stated. "For Cablevision to still be making those claims is yet another example of their ploy to secure an advantage through government intervention."

In Fox's response to the FCC, the network declined to comment on whether Cablevision has been negotiating in good faith. Binding arbitration, Fox argued, is not an "effective path to the resolution of retransmission consent disputes."

But even if the agency finds that one or both companies did not negotiate in good faith, it can't force a settlement.

"The FCC doesn't have the authority to determine which side is right and what should be the financial terms of an eventual settlement," said Howard Waltzman, a former chief counsel of telecommunications and the Internet for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "The commission's authority here is largely limited to fines."

With a Republican Congress potentially on the way, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is running out of options--and time--to find a strategy for regulating broadband that his commissioners will accept and the courts will allow. Without it, he and his top advisers believe, Genachowski may be stymied in his drive to preserve the Internet's openness and extend affordable broadband to most Americans within 10 years.

After a court challenge prevented the chairman from implementing key tenets of his national broadband plan, a last-ditch compromise that might have elicited bipartisan support from the other FCC members has, instead, drawn resistance from three of the four, National Journal has learned.

Republican commissioners are urging Genachowski to scrap his original fix, which involves regulating broadband under a different provision, and instead defer to Congress--or else face a backlash. But Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps wants Genachowski to stop stalling and put the remedy up for a commission vote while he still can--and the clock is running down. "I would've liked to have taken that vote some time ago," Copps said.

As Jeff Silva, a telecommunications analyst with Medley Global Advisors, put it, "They're trying to thread the needle here by striving to get something that would be politically palatable and also moves the ball forward."

To read the rest of this magazine story, visit National Journal (subscription required).

Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps met with Robert Allbritton, owner of Politico and NewsChannel 8, on Friday to discuss the potentially harmful effects that Comcast's pending acquisition of NBC Universal could have on the Washington media market, according to a disclosure document filed with the commission.

Through a series of ads in his own publications, Allbritton has been fighting against the merger arguing that locally owned news, such as his own channel 8, could become a phenomenon of the past if Comcast is allowed to become a "media monopoly."

If the merger goes through, Allbritton fears that Comcast could put channel 8 out of business with discriminatory business practices. If NBC Universal launches its own local news channel for the Washington area, Comcast, as the owner of the distribution platform, will have financial incentive to favor its own content when it comes to carriage fees and channel placement, the disclosure document states.

Comcast categorically refutes the claims that the merger will hamper competition and harm media diversity. Conversely, Comcast executives argue that the media market remain competitive after the companies unite and will also benefit consumers.

Allbritton and Copps discussed possible conditions for approval of the merger such as "divestiture of the owned stations in markets where Comcast has a significant presence" and "enforceable requirements for non-discriminatory carriage terms at marketplace rates."

Out of the five FCC commissioners, Copps has been the most vocal critic of media consolidation and the most likely to vote against the merger of the two companies. The matter is currently under review by both the commission and the Justice Department.

There's still no "Glee" for Cablevision customers in the New York area that lost Fox channels last week after the two companies failed to reach an agreement over programming fees. Don't shed any tears for the media giants, though, who are taking in impressive profits.

News Corp., Fox's parent company, reported revenue of $8.1 billion for the second quarter of FY10 and Cablevision reported revenue of $1.8 billion for the same time period.

You wouldn't know the two parties are sitting pretty financially with all the insults they have lobbed at one another during this bitter fee battle. Cablevision has called Fox's request for $150 million to carry its signal "outrageous," "unfair," and an "act of corporate greed." Fox, who denies the $150 million figure, has called Cablevision "hypocritical," saying the company has a double-standard for how these negotiations should be conducted and "will say and do anything to protect its profits."

In light of the stalemate, the FCC has requested that both companies disclose details about the bargaining process to prove they have been negotiating "in good faith" by the end of business hours on Monday.

FCC Media Bureau Chief William Lake on Friday wrote the executives of Cablevision and News Corp, parent company of Fox, requesting information about the companies' ongoing dispute over programming fees.

Citing the commission's belief, per congressional intention, that broadcasters and cable companies have an obligation to negotiate carriage fees "in an atmosphere of honesty, purpose and clarity or process," Lake asked the companies to provide information about the nature of their current negotiations.

Specifically, Lake requested that each company describe how it "is satisfying this important statutory obligation in the context of your retransmission consent negotiations." He also asked both parties to "describe with specificity what has transpired since you initially began your negotiations, and detail the efforts your company is making to end the current impasse."

The commission requested that both parties respond with the information by close of business this Monday.

Cablevision customers in the New York area lost Fox channels on Saturday after the two companies failed to reach an agreement over how much Cablevision should pay Fox to carry its signals.

Cablevision has called Fox's request for $150 million to carry its signal "outrageous," "unfair," and an "act of corporate greed." Fox, who denies the $150 million figure, has called Cablevision "hypocritical," saying the company has a double-standard for how these negotiations should be conducted and "will say and do anything to protect its profits."

Still at an impasse after 8 days, Fox issued a public statement on Friday advising Cablevision customers to switch providers or purchase an over-the-air antenna to see the World Series.

Monday
TechAmerica hosts an 8:30 am news conference to release a paper in response to the White House IT review. Featured speakers include Phil Bond, president of TechAmerica.

The New America Foundation hosts a 9:00 am forum on the "Internet's Mid-Life Crisis." Featured speakers include Bruce Gottlieb, former Chief Counsel of the FCC and Link Hoewing, assistant VP for Internet and technology policy, Verizon.

Tuesday
The Heritage Foundation hosts a 10:00 am discussion on "What (If Anything) Will Congress Do About Cybersecurity?" Featured speakers include Brandon Milhorn, Republican staff director and chief counsel at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Brookings Institution holds a 10:00 am forum on security in the cloud computing age. Featured speakers include Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology and Irfan I. Saif, principal at Deloitte & Touche

Wednesday
The Center for American Progress hosts a 12:30 pm discussion on American rights and politics in the digital age.

Friday
Arizona State hosts an 8:30 am panel on open innovation and technology. Featured speakers include Diana Wells, president of Ashoka and Chris Thomas, chief technology officer of the Intel World Ahead program at Intel.

The Tennessee Valley Authority selected Duffield, Va., as a "prime location" for data center development, Rep. Rick Boucher, D -Va., announced on Friday.

"Data centers provide high-wage jobs to highly skilled employees, and Duffield has much to offer a company seeking a location for a data center," said Boucher, Communications Subcommittee Chairman. "It is home to the Scott County Business and Technology Park, which is fully outfitted with the water, wastewater and telecommunications infrastructure necessary to accommodate a data center. In addition, its multi-tenant Crooked Road Technology Center is available for occupancy."

TVA, according to a statement from Boucher, considered 50 sites throughout the Southeast for the distinction of "prime location" and chose 12 including Duffield. As part of a data center recruitment initiative, TVA will partner with local power distributors and economic development leaders to begin marketing the sites.

"I have been working with local officials for several years to transform the Duffield community into a prime location for technology based jobs, and today's announcement signals that our work has been successful," Boucher said.
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What do Meet the Press, American Idol and Chelsea Handler have in common?

They are all part of the awesome swag up for grabs at the Federal Communications Bar Association charity auction next Thursday evening.

Prizes to the event, which will be held at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza in Washington, include two pairs of tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman, four tickets to a Redskins game, two tickets to a taping of The Daily Show, and many more.

The grand prize is an entertainment packing featuring and 47" 3D TV, 3D blu-ray disc player and 3D glasses.

Proceeds will benefit Project Wait No Longer, an initiative that works to find permanent homes for foster youth, and the FCBA Foundation.

Comcast, AT&T, the Consumer Electronics Association, Google, Time Warner Cable, among other tech giants, sponsored the event.

Efforts to ramp up intellectual property enforcement in the digital marketplace are bumping up against free speech advocacy in an international treaty nearing completion and a pending Senate bill, CongressDaily reported.

Rights holders and many government leaders are determined to crack down on Internet piracy through stricter enforcement, but public-interest groups argue that such rules can jeopardize free speech, particularly in countries without the types of safeguard measures found in American law.

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office recently released the latest text -- and possibly the final version -- of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, an accord aimed at increasing international cooperation in curbing the piracy and counterfeiting of intellectual property. The current draft, which includes a section on the Internet, is the product of three years of negotiation and 11 rounds of talks.

"The general trend of ACTA is to shift enforcement standards from civil to criminal, from private parties to government entities, and to lower the evidentiary threshold for enforcement," said Sean Flynn, associate director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at American University. "All those shifts create more opportunities to use copyright enforcement as a pretext for censorship."

According to a USTR spokesperson, American officials crafting ACTA understand the concerns about free speech and address them in the agreement. Enforcement procedures in the digital environment must "preserve fundamental principles such as freedom of expression, fair process, and privacy," the text reads.

Read more here (subscription required)

Two potential GOP presidential candidates went to their Facebook accounts Thursday to blast National Public Radio for firing analyst Juan Williams for controversial comments he made about Muslims and to urge lawmakers to cut funding for the organization.

Williams was fired for telling Fox News host Bill O'Reilly that when he boards an airplane and sees "people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.''

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and possible 2012 presidential contender, took to her Facebook account, as she often does when making news, to blast NPR's action.

"If NPR is unable to tolerate an honest debate about an issue as important as Islamic terrorism, then it's time for 'National Public Radio' to become 'National Private Radio,'" Palin wrote. "It's time for Congress to defund this organization."

Her comments were echoed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who also is weighing a 2012 White House bid. He said he would decline future interview requests from NPR. "It is time for the taxpayers to start making cuts to federal spending, and I encourage the new Congress to start with NPR," Huckabee wrote on his Facebook page.

Free Press President Josh Silver denounced such calls. "It is time to stop playing politics with our nation's public media system," Silver said in a statement. "Calling for Congress to defund NPR is nothing more than political opportunism by public figures who have built a career on such shenanigans. Regardless of what you think about Juan Williams' dismissal, calling for the defunding of NPR is like asking for the death penalty in small claims court."

A group of 40 companies and business groups wrote Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Thursday to push for action on his legislation aimed at cracking down on online piracy and counterfeiting.

The coalition urged Leahy to push for Senate approval of the legislation when Congress returns in mid-November for a lame-duck session after the November midterm elections.

The legislation would give the Justice Department new authority to file a civil action against a domain name linked to a website trafficking in illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods. Under the bill, the company that sold the domain name registration to the website could be forced to revoke the domain name of the site if it is being used for copyright infringement or counterfeiting.

The Judiciary Committee was set to mark up the bill in late September but postponed action on the measure when the Senate recessed for the midterm elections.

"Rogue websites - many of which are hosted outside of the U.S. - have become
increasingly sophisticated in both design and operation, and often deceive consumers into believing they are legitimate," the letter said. "We believe that the tools S. 3804
would provide are essential to helping address these illegal websites and ensuring that the Internet is a safe and vibrant marketplace."

The letter was signed by such groups and companies as the Association of American Publishers, NBC Universal, the Recording Industry Association of America, Sony Music Entertainment, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Critics worry that the measure will hamper free speech, and by allowing domain names to be shut down, it could set a bad precedent that other countries might seek to immitate in order to stifle government critics.

The coalition of businesses and groups dismissed such claims, saying, "some foreign countries have engaged in political censorship long before this bill was introduced and they will continue to do so regardless of whether this legislation is enacted."

The head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration said Thursday that his agency has recommended that 115 megahertz of spectrum now controlled by some federal agencies be reallocated for commercial mobile broadband use.

During a speech at the Federal Communications Bar Association, NTIA Director Lawrence Strickling said the recommendation is included in a report for freeing up spectrum that is being reviewed by Obama administration officials. The plan is aimed at helping the administration meet a five-year goal, included in the FCC's national broadband plan, for freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum for wireless broadband technologies.

Strickling said the report, which will provide more detail on freeing up spectrum to meet the administration's goal, is working its way through the interagency evaluation process and would be released "soon."

Of the spectrum recommended by NTIA for reallocation, 100 megahertz is held by the Department of Defense and used primarily for radar systems for naval vessels. The additional 15 megahertz recommended for reallocation is held by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and used for weather balloons and satellites. Strickling said the agency also examined another chunk of spectrum in the 1755 band that has been attractive to industry, but he said the spectrum is being used be several federal users and will need to be examined more closely to see if it can be reallocated for commercial use.

If the NTIA recommendations are accepted, it will be up to the FCC to implement them, Strickling noted.

Strickling acknowledged that the spectrum recommended for reallocation is not "prime real estate." He added that "when we can identify spectrum that is suitable for wireless broadband and made available with minimal disruption, we think it's important ... to put it into the bank so industry knows there will be spectrum available in the future."

After the speech, Strickling told reporters that "more and more" federal spectrum users will have to find new ways to share spectrum, saying the days when big chunks of prime spectrum could be auctioned off for commercial use are gone. He also stressed the need for research and development into ways to make better use of existing spectrum.

The drive for additional spectrum is being pushed by the growing consumer demand for new wireless devices such as smart phones, e-readers and tablet computers. The FCC released a report Thursday that found there will be a shortage of spectrum of as much as 300 megahertz in the next five years.

"Additional spectrum is not only essential for the wireless industry, it is vital in meeting the needs of hundreds of millions of wireless customers," AT&T Senior Vice President Robert Quinn said in a statement. "More wireless spectrum will also support economic growth and job creation at an important time."

Given the growing U.S. consumer demand for mobile technologies, the shortage of spectrum is likely to reach 300 megahertz in the next five years, according to a new whitepaper released by the FCC Thursday.

The FCC's spectrum forecast found that "the amount of mobile data demanded by American consumers is likely to exceed capacity of our wireless networks in the near-term."

Driving the demand for spectrum is growth of the mobile technologies such as smart phones, tablet computers and e-books like the iPad and Kindle. The paper estimates that mobile broadband traffic will increase by 35 times the amount of recent levels.

Spectrum is the "oxygen of our mobile communications infrastructure," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said, emphasizing the importance of meeting the growing demand.
The value of this exploding spectrum market is about $120 billion, the paper found.

The paper was released in conjunction with a spectrum summit held Thursday at the FCC. Forecasting spectrum is far from an exact science, Morgan Stanley telecom analyst Simon Flannery said at the event, calling it something of a "dark art."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced Thursday that the commission will raise three items related to unleashing spectrum during the agency's November meeting. More spectrum (airwaves) is needed to power the rapid growth of mobile broadband.

The first item will be a notice of proposed rulemaking for implementing spectrum incentive auctions in anticipation of Congress approving such a measure. The incentive auction rule would explore a licensing framework to allow for channel sharing.

A notice of proposed rulemaking to expand experimental spectrum licensing will be the second item. The goal of this proposal is to accelerate innovation and reduce the amount of time it takes for an idea to "get from the lab to the market," Genachowski said.

The chairman noted that under traditional avenues, it can take six to 13 years to repurpose spectrum licenses.

The third item up for discussion at the November meeting is a notice of inquiry to accelerate the "opportunistic" uses of spectrum. This is an attempt to advance the use of secondary markets for spectrum through dynamic leasing, among other measures.

The High Tech Spectrum Coalition applauded the FCC for supporting voluntary incentive auctions as a means of bringing more spectrum to market. The HTSC counts the Consumer Electronics Association, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, among their members.

Genachowski's remarks came at a spectrum summit held at the FCC Thursday.

The federal government's point man on health IT this week urged vendors not to create a new "digital divide" by overlooking health care providers in minority communities, Nextgov.com reported.

"Electronic health records possess the ability to help improve both the quality and efficiency of medical care accessible by minorities," David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, wrote in a letter to the vendor community in his Coordinator's Corner blog. Yet providers serving uninsured black and Hispanic or Latino populations are less likely to have adopted electronic health records, he noted.

Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by chronic illness, Blumenthal wrote, citing data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Those illnesses, he said, contribute to "intolerably high" mortality and morbidity rates.

"It is absolutely necessary that the leading EHR vendors work together, continuing to provide EHR adoption opportunities for physicians and other healthcare providers working within underserved communities of color," Blumenthal said. He urged Regional Extension Centers and EHR vendors to coordinate with the government to "focus substantial efforts on these priority populations." To read more, click here.

Google is still feeling the fallout from its revelation in May that its Street View cars mistakenly collected information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks all over the world.

The Internet firm said Thursday that nearly a quarter of a million Germans have asked to opt-out of having their homes revealed on Google's Street View service, which provides street-level photos of addresses as part of Google Maps. Google has agreed to blur the photographs of the homes of those German citizens who sign up to opt-out of the service.

Google acknowledged in May that its Street View cars had mistakenly collected personal information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks as they photographed addresses. Google agreed to provide an online opt-out tool after Germany's data protection authority raised concerns about the Wi-Fi incident.

Google is preparing to launch Street view in 20 German cities and so far 244,237 of the 8.4 million homes that would be included in the service have opted out, Andreas Turk, Google's product manager for Street View in Germany, wrote in a blog post.

"We worked closely with the Data Protection Authorities to ensure all the right German privacy standards were met," Turk said.

Turk added, however, that given the complexity of the project, "there will be some houses that people asked us to blur that will be visible when we launch the imagery in a few weeks time. We've worked very hard to keep the numbers as low as possible but in any system like this there will be mistakes." Turk noted that some Germans who asked to opt out may not have provided the precise location.

Meanwhile, Google has come under scrutiny in other countries as well for the Wi-Fi incident. Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said Tuesday that Google had violated Canadian privacy laws when its cars mistakenly collected personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in Canada and has given the firm until February to comply with recommendations outlined by her office.

And Spain's data protection authority announced Monday that it is suing Google for violating that country's privacy laws when its Street View cars collected data from unsecured Spanish Wi-Fi networks, Agence France-Presse reported. The company could face fines of up to $840,000 for each of the five offenses it is facing in Spain.

Several U.S. attorneys general also have launched investigations into the incidents of Google's Wi-Fi snooping in the United States.

Google has repeatedly said the Wi-Fi collection incidents were a mistake and has pledged to work with authorities investigating the matter.

Phil Weiser, a senior White House aide for technology and innovation, said Wednesday that the Obama administration has not taken a position on whether a valuable and controversial band of airwaves, known as the D block, should be auctioned for commercial use or handed over to public safety officials.

The administration favors an "integrated" approach to the challenge of creating an interoperable public safety communications network, Weiser said.

The FCC, members of Congress, industry, and first responders are divided about what should happen to the D block of spectrum. Some public safety officials have argued that the D block is essential to the creation of a public safety network. Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has introduced legislation that would give the D-block to public safety officials but also direct the FCC to develop rules allowing for commercial users or others to use the spectrum on a secondary but preemptible basis.

The FCC supports an auction, as do some members of Congress, including the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee. The FCC's proposal calls for using the proceeds from the D-block auction to help fund the creation of the public safety communications network.

Weiser's remarks came at a forum convened by the Brookings Institution about the "looming shortage of wireless spectrum." Much of the shortage is due to a growing demand for wireless broadband.

Weiser said it's unclear whether the nation's ability to meet spectrum demand is hindered more by red tape or actual scarcity. Part of the issue, Weiser noted, is that nobody knows how technology will evolve.

Adele Morris, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that government control of spectrum has created "a mismatch between supply and demand."

FCC member Michael Copps issued a terse statement Wednesday on the continued standoff between the Fox broadcast network and Cablevision over retransmission fees, saying the commission needs to examine whether both sides are engaging in true "good-faith" negotiations.

At issue are the fees that Cablevision pays to Fox to provide its programs to the cable operator's subscribers in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Fox is demanding twice as much for its programming than what Cablevision currently pays, according to Cablevision. Fox pulled its programming from Cablevision's 3 million subscribers in the New York area on Friday after the two sides failed to reach agreement on a new retransmission agreement.

Copps, a Democrat, noted that the FCC's role in the dispute is limited by law to ensuring both sides are engaging in "good faith" negotiations. But he added that the commission may have a role to play in protecting consumers.

"I believe the commission should take a very serious look at whether 'good faith' negotiations are indeed occurring," Copps said. "What, indeed, does 'good faith' mean in the dog-eat-dog world of big media? If such talks are not taking place, we should move promptly to protect consumers."

Fox has tried to enlist the support of members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in urging the FCC not to intervene in the dispute. Cable companies, meanwhile, would like to see Congress overhaul the whole retransmission process. Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., proposed draft legislation Tuesday that would allow the FCC to intervene more directly when retransmission talks break down.

Copps also linked the retransmission dispute to his call for network neutrality rules aimed at prohibiting broadband providers or others from discriminating against or blocking access to Internet content. He argued that Fox's decision to briefly block Cablevision Internet subscribers from reaching Fox Web sites highlights the importance of protecting the openness of the Internet.

"For a broadcaster to pull programming from the Internet for a cable company's subscribers, as apparently happened here, directly threatens the open Internet," Copps said. "This was yet another instance revealing how vulnerable the Internet is to discrimination and gate-keeper control absent clear rules of the road."

Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Wednesday that delays and cost overruns plaguing the FBI's computerized case management system, which are detailed in a new FBI inspector general's report, are "alarming."

The report from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine's office examined the status of the FBI's Sentinel case management system and found "significant additional issues that we believe can affect the full and successful implementation of Sentinel." The report is the seventh in a series of IG reports that have monitored the progress of the $450 million Sentinel system, which was estimated to be completed in December 2009.

"Our review found that as of August 2010, after spending about $405 million of the $451 million budgeted for the Sentinel project, the FBI has delivered only two of Sentinel's four phases to its agents and analysts. Moreover, we believe that the most challenging development work for Sentinel still remains," the IG report found. "In addition, we found that while Sentinel has delivered some improvements to the FBI's case management system, it has not delivered much of what it originally intended."

In a statement, Leahy voiced concern that the latest IG report once again found problems with Sentinel and pledged continued oversight of the system until it is "working as it should be."

"Information exchange is critical to protecting our national security," Leahy said. " These stumbles continue to be alarming."

The public isn't convinced that the Obama administration is being fully open with Americans, more than a year and a half after the president launched a government-wide transparency effort, according to a new survey conducted by ForeSee Results and Nextgov.

But compared to regulated industries in the United States, the White House is doing a lot better. The White House earned a score of 46 out of a possible 100 on its attempts to be transparent about what the West Wing is doing; federal agencies came in with an aggregate score of 40; Congress rated 37; and the banking and health care sectors both were at 32. At the bottom of the list: the energy industry, with a 30 rating.

To measure perceptions of transparency, ForeSee Results, a market research firm, conducted an online survey asking participants to evaluate the thoroughness of the information various federal organizations and industries disclosed; the speed with which that information was released; and the ease of accessing it. To read more, click here.

Facebook said Wednesday that it has filed three lawsuits in federal court against defendants accused of using the social networking site to send unsolicited e-mail, or spam, and engage in other scams.

The social networking site alleges in the complaints, filed in U.S. district court in San Jose, Calif., that Steven Richter, Jason Swan, and Max Bounty, Inc., violated Facebook's terms of service and federal law by tricking Facebook users into signing up for mobile subscriptions and sending spam to those users' friends.

The complaints claim the defendants tried to attract Facebook users by offering fake or nonexistent products or services in exchange for allowing the defendants to spam the users' friends, sign up for mobile phone subscription services or provide other information. Facebook claims that such offers violated a variety of federal laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 1986 law targeting computer-related crimes, and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM), a 2003 law that set restrictions on sending bulk e-mail.

"We will press on with enforcement and collection efforts against spammers and fraudsters, and we're committed to applying continuous legal pressure to send a strong message to spammers that they're not welcome on Facebook," the company said in a news release.

In 2008, Facebook won the biggest fine, $873 million in damages, ever imposed under the CAN-SPAM Act against Adam Guerbuez and Atlantis Blue Capital for sending "sleazy" messages to Facebook users. The social networking site said it has other actions pending targeting "spammers and scammers."

The number of Internet users has doubled in the last five years and will surpass 2 billion users by the end of 2010, the International Telecommunication Union reported this week.

The greatest growth in new users is expected to come from developing nations, making up 162 million of the 226 million new Internet users in 2010, the ITU said in news release Tuesday.

Nonetheless, the United Nations agency found there is still a digital divide between developed and developing countries. Far more people in developed countries, 71 percent, are online compared with those in developing nations, where only 21 percent of the population use the Internet. The ITU also found that 65 percent of users in developed countries access the Internet from home compared to users in developing countries, where only 13.5 percent have access at home. In those countries, "Internet access in schools, at work and public locations is critical," the ITU said.

While fixed broadband subscriptions are still low in the developing world, about 4.4 subscriptions per 100 people, mobile broadband is becoming more widely available. The ITU data found that 90 percent of the global population has access to mobile networks.

"Mobile phone penetration in developing countries now stands at 68 percent -- higher than any other technology before," Sami Al Basheer, director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, said. "These countries have been innovative in adapting mobile technology to their particular needs and will be able to draw even greater benefits from broadband once adequate and affordable access is available."

The FCC approved an order this week requiring the satellite radio provider Sirius-XM to set aside at least 4 percent of its channels on the company's Sirius and XM services for independent programming.

The order, adopted Monday, is part of the ongoing conditions set by the FCC when it approved the merger of the nation's only satellite radio providers in 2008. The independent programming provision was added at the time to address concerns from critics of the merger that it would "harm viewpoint and program diversity."

As part of the order, the commission reversed a previous decision and will now allow Sirius XM to choose the independent programming, which is defined as having no financial tie to Sirius XM, that will make up this 4 percent requirement but does not allow the satellite radio provider to have editorial control over the programming. In addition, the company must submit the independent channels it plans to add to its XM and Sirius lineups to the FCC's Media Bureau for review before signing agreements with those channels. The company also must establish a transparent selection process that involves the creation of a public website detailing the criteria for proposed channels.

"This Order ensures that Sirius XM will reserve channels for programmers truly independent of Sirius XM, who will be new voices on the satellite radio platform, providing original programming of a type not already available, or service to historically underserved audiences," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

Genachowski's Democratic colleague, Michael Copps, opposed the commission's approval of the merger in 2008. In a statement released following the approval of Monday's order, Copps said he hopes the latest conditions will address some of the problems he raised about the merger when it was approved.

"The original merger condition for these particular programming commitments created legal vulnerabilities not only for the commission, but for the company, too," Copps said. "Hopefully this item corrects the original error and will open the way for more of the kind of diverse programming that our country so desperately needs."

The Media Access Project praised the order, saying it included some of the recommendations it made to the FCC aimed at addressing concerns with the merger.
"The requirements set by the commission allow people to access more content addressing the needs of minority communities, independent artists, and other niche audiences," MAP Senior Vice President Andrew Jay Schwartzmann said in a statement.

Nextgov.com reports that the Department of Homeland Security has bought itself time to decide whether to proceed with a beleaguered border security project by retaining the system's contractor on a temporary 30-day basis, according to House lawmakers who requested an audit of the program.

In 2006, DHS awarded Boeing Co. a three-year contract with several optional one-year extensions to roll out the Secure Border Initiative Network, in the hope of establishing better detection of illegal breaches at U.S. points of entry. The network was to feature an array of surveillance technologies, including cameras, radars, sensors and customized situational awareness software.

But the program has gained little ground, with deployments at only two Arizona patrol stations. The House Homeland Security Committee requested several independent reviews of the problems plaguing the $1.1 billion project, including one the Government Accountability Office released on Monday. In the report, GAO officials criticized DHS for lax oversight of Boeing.

A staffer for the committee said Monday's findings did not surprise members and they expect Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will decide to halt installation of the sophisticated surveillance tools across the Southwest border. In September 2009, DHS prolonged Boeing's contract by exercising a one-year option. But when that expired, the department allowed a 30-day extension rather than granting another one-year renewal, according to committee aides. To read more, click here.

Key members of Congress wrote the FCC Tuesday requesting information about the security of U.S. telecommunication networks in light of a proposed deal between Sprint, Cricket, and two Chinese-based companies.

At stake is whether the Chinese companies--Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation--could pose a threat to U.S. security if the deal goes through.

"We are very concerned that these companies are being financed by the Chinese government and greatly influenced by the Chinese military," Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., wrote. The telecom deal "may create an opportunity for the Chinese military to manipulate switches, routers, or software embedded in American telecommunications network so that communications can be intercepted, tampered with, or purposely misrouted."

According to the letter, the Chinese companies are in talks with Sprint and Cricket, which uses Sprint's wireless network, about supplying sensitive equipment for the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure and there may be other deals on the horizon.

It's possible, the lawmakers note, that U.S. telecommunications will be managed in whole or in part from China or by Chinese nationals if the market is unconstrained.

Citing their security concerns, the lawmakers asked FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for an exhaustive amount of information related to the matter ranging from the commission's legal authority to review foreign technologies to whether the FCC monitors the sale of foreign telecommunications equipment to U.S. carriers.

The FCC did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the letter.

Republicans are making aggressive use of Facebook in their bid to win back control of the U.S. House in this fall's midterm elections, new statistics released Tuesday by the social networking site show.

Four of the top five posters to Facebook in the past week were Republicans seeking to topple Democratic House incumbents. They were led by Republican Ilario Pantano who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C. Pantano had 64 wall posts in the last week, Facebook said.

Facebook also compared which candidates have more Facebook fans than their opponents. The race with the biggest gap is in Minnesota's 6th congressional district, where Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann has more than 100,000 more Facebook fans than her Democratic challenger Tarryl Clark.

Bachmann also topped Facebook's list of the candidate who has attracted the most Facebook fans in the last week with 2,445 new fans. Some of her support might be due to the fact that Bachmann, a tea party favorite, has attracted national fame and is a frequent guest on Fox news and conservative talk radio.

Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida also is a prolific Facebook poster. Grayson, who won praise from progressives for his aggressive attacks against Republicans during the health care debate, leads his GOP challenger Daniel Webster in Facebook fans by more than 25,000.

"It has been quite apparent that Grayson is using Facebook to take on his opponent directly as more than half of the posts over the past two weeks highlighted the policies of his opponent," according to Facebook.

Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry sent a letter to the FCC Tuesday with draft language for a bill mandating a federal role in negotiations over fees paid by cable companies for broadcasters' programming.

The draft legislation from Kerry, D-Mass., aims "to protect consumers during disputes between broadcasters and cable providers that sometimes lead to televisions going dark and often threaten to disrupt service."

Such a disruption in service is exactly what happened to about 3 million Cablevision subscribers in the New York area after Fox and Cablevision failed to reach an agreement over carriage fees last Friday.

"This system today isn't working for anyone," Kerry said. "It's not our job to take sides, but it is our responsibility to help find a better way forward."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Tuesday also voiced frustration with the Cablevision-Fox dispute. "I am deeply troubled that Cablevision and Fox are spending more time attacking each other through ads and lobbyists than sitting down at the negotiating table," he said in a statement. "The time for petty gamesmanship is over."

Genachowski said he called the CEOs of both Cablevision and Fox to stress the need for them to reach a deal, adding they "share responsibility" for the disruption to consumers caused by the blackout. He also said the FCC would "continue to scrutinize their actions very closely."

The Fox broadcast network is lobbying members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to sign a letter urging the FCC to stay out of the ongoing dispute between Fox and cable operator Cablevision over programming fees, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The letter urges the FCC "to refrain from intervening," and "not put the heavy thumb of the government between two sizable media companies."

At stake is how much Cablevision should pay Fox to carry its programming. Fox pulled its signal from Cablevision's subscribers on Saturday after the two parties failed to reach an agreement Friday night. According to Cablevision, Fox is asking for $150 million, twice the amount of their previous deal. Fox denies that figure saying Cablevision is distributing false information.

Cablevision has roughly 3 million subscribers in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area.

"Any government intervention would not only skew this process, but would color all future retransmission consent negotiations," the letter states. "There is no justification for government intervention."

A spokesperson for Fox declined to comment on the letter.

Several key lawmakers, including Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, have come out in favor of federal intervention in the wake of the parties' inability to reach a deal.

UPDATE: Energy and Commerce member Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying she would not sign on to a letter to the FCC. "Marsha has been watching the issue closely, and is confident that industry will reach a resolution without FCC intervention or letters from the Hill," a Blackburn spokesman said.

The Fox-Cablevision dispute mirrors a similar spat last spring between Cablevision and ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company.

The American Civil Liberties Union argued Tuesday that network neutrality rules barring broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content are "crucial" to protecting First Amendment rights.

The ACLU released a new report that argued for rules that would bar broadband providers from "discriminating against information by halting, slowing, or otherwise tampering with the transfer of any data (other than for legitimate network management purposes)." The group urged the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service so that it can implement net neutrality rules.

"Network neutrality is a consumer issue, but it is also one of the foremost free speech issues of our time," the ACLU report said. "Freedom of expression isn't worth much if the forums where people actually make use of it are not themselves free."

The FCC's authority over broadband, which the commission has treated as a lightly regulated information service, was put in doubt by an April federal appeals court decision. In the wake of that ruling, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed applying some aspects of title II, which applies to telecommunications services, of the telecommunications act to broadband.

Broadband providers and other critics of reclassifying broadband say it will stifle innovation and investment.

"The regulatory overreach being urged on the FCC by some is a major mistake that would adversely impact jobs and investment, and would likely be overturned in court," AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said in late September about the issue.

Intel announced Tuesday that it will be investing between $6 billion and $8 billion in a new U.S. factory and upgrades to existing U.S. fabrication centers to help in the manufacturing of the firm's next-generation microprocessing technology.

The new fabrication plant will be built in Portland, Ore., and will manufacture 22-nanometer process technology. In addition, Intel said it would be upgrading four existing facilities in Oregon and Arizona to also manufacture 22-nanometer process products. The new 22-nanometer technology will enable higher performance and extend battery life, Intel said.

The investments are "key to delivering next geneartion technologies," Intel Senior Vice President Brian Krzanich, general manager of the company's manufacturing and supply chain. He said the investments would fund 6,000-8,000 construction jobs and result in 800-1,000 new permanent jobs at the facilities.

When asked if the Congress' failure to extend the research and development tax credit made the decision to make such U.S. investments more difficult, Krzanich said "clearly we would like that passed." He added that having a large U.S. manufacturing base and access to skilled employees were the biggest factors in Intel's decision to invest in the U.S. plants.

"Today's announcement reflects the next tranche of the continued advancement of Moore's Law and a further commitment to invest in the future of Intel and America," Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement.

Canada's privacy commissioner said Tuesday that an nvestigation has found that Google violated Canadian privacy laws when the Internet firm collected personal information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in that country.

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart launched the investigation earlier this year after Google revealed that its Street View cars, which take street-level photos for Google's mapping service, had mistakenly also collected personal information from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in Canada and other countries including the United States. Several U.S. state attorneys general also have launched probes of the Wi-Fi incidents.

"Our investigation shows that Google did capture personal information - and, in some cases, highly sensitive personal information such as complete e-mails," Stoddart said in a statement. "This incident was a serious violation of Canadians' privacy rights."

In addition to complete e-mails, Stoddard said her office's probe also found that Google's Street View cars collected e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords, names and residential telephone numbers and postal addresses.

"Some of the captured information was very sensitive, such as a list that provided the names of people suffering from certain medical conditions, along with their telephone numbers and addresses," the statement said, adding that "thousands" of Canadians likely were affected by the incident.

In response to reports that third-party applications on Facebook have been collecting and distributing user information, Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, want to know how many people were affected, when Facebook found out, and what the company plans to do about it.

In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the lawmakers scolded the social media website for what appears to be a violation of consumer trust.

"Given the number of current users, the rate at which that number grows worldwide, and the age range of Facebook users, combined with the amount and the nature of information these users place in Facebook's trust, this series of breaches of consumer privacy is a cause for concern," Markey and Barton wrote.

The letter said Facebook must respond by October 27.

As co-chairmen of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, Markey and Barton have teamed up before on online privacy. In early August, they sought information from 15 top websites on their consumer tracking practices.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an e-mail that "the suggestion that the passing of a user ID to an application... constitutes a 'breach' is curious at best." Noyes wrote that, "As our privacy policy states, when a Facebook user connects with an application, the user ID is part of the information that the application receives."

Noyes said Facebook would be cooperative with the lawmakers, adding, "We look forward to addressing any confusion that has resulted from the Wall Street Journal article" that originally reported the data sharing. The newspaper found that third-party applications, like FarmVille and Gift Creator, were taking Facebook ID numbers (UIDs) and passing them along to advertisers and Internet companies. The UIDs can then be used to obtain names and information about users, which is against Facebook's privacy policy.

In a blog post, Facebook developer Mike Vernal admitted that a number of applications did in fact violate Facebook policy but described most cases as accidental due to the "technical details of how browsers work."

Vernal added, "Press reports have exaggerated the implications of sharing a UID. Knowledge of a UID does not enable anyone to access private user information without explicit user consent." However, he said, "we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy."

RapLeaf Inc., a start-up dedicated to customer tracking that was singled out by the Wall Street Journal as having passed along UIDs, has put up a blog post saying that the problem on its end has been fixed.

"When we discovered that Facebook IDs were being passed to ad networks by applications that we work with, we immediately researched the cause and implemented a solution to cease the transmissions," the post says. "As of last week, no Facebook IDs are being transmitted to ad networks in conjunction with the use of any Rapleaf service."

The majority of state and local counterterrorism centers across the country do not have federally approved plans to ensure they are protecting the privacy rights and civil liberties of U.S. citizens, raising concerns among privacy advocates that they lack proper oversight, CongressDaily reported.

The issue reveals the tension between government efforts to collect and analyze intelligence inside the United States in order to prevent terrorist attacks and fears that innocent Americans and law-abiding groups are being improperly spied upon.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. government encouraged and funded a proliferation of domestic counterterrorism centers, commonly referred to as state and local homeland security fusion centers.

Although 72 centers now exist, only 28 have privacy and civil liberties plans approved by the Homeland Security Department, CongressDaily has learned. DHS serves as the lead federal agency coordinating and funding the centers.

To address the issue, DHS this year began restricting the ability of centers to use state homeland security grants until they have an approved privacy and civil liberties plan.

"We've been complaining about the lack of a governance structure over fusion centers for a few years now," Michael German, policy counsel for the ACLU and former FBI special agent, said in an interview. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

A group of online marketers accused of claiming false ties to Google have been forced to cease operations as part of a settlement agreement reached with the FTC, the agency announced on Monday.

Back in July, the FTC announced a complaint against several defendants that were accused of selling a bogus work-at-home product under names including "Google Money Tree," "Google Pro," and "Google Treasure Chest."

The online marketers lured consumers into disclosing personal financial information to pay for work-at-home kit with the promise of potential earnings of $100,000 in six months. By signing up, consumers were automatically charged $72.21 for another product until he or she took steps to cancel.

Under the settlement agreement, the defendants must give up cash and other assets exceeding $3.5 million and are prohibited from selling products through "negative option" transactions. When a seller interprets consumers' silence or inaction as permission to charge them, it's referred to as a "negative option," transaction.

The FTC's final order on this matter pertains to the settlement only and does not constitute an admission by the defendants of a law violation. The order, which requires approval by the court, has the force of law when signed by a judge.

In an attempt to reach an agreement over their fee dispute, Fox and Cablevision met again Monday morning but no "significant progress" was made, according to statement released by Fox this afternoon.

Both parties continue to blame one another for their inability to reach an agreement over how much Cablevision should pay Fox to carry its signal. Fox pulled its programming from Cablevision subscribers on Saturday after the terms of their previous agreement expired Friday night.

According to Cablevision, Fox is asking for $150 million, twice the amount of their former deal, to carry its channels. Fox denies that it's seeking $150 million saying that Cablevision is distributing false information.

"It is increasingly clear that Cablevision's real intention is to continue making this their subscribers' problem in the hope that with enough inconvenience, politicians will intervene to protect Cablevision's huge profits - nearly $795 per subscriber last year," Fox said in its statement.

Cablevision, through the company website, continues to wage a campaign insisting that Fox enter into arbitration calling Fox's fee request "outrageous" and "unfair."

Read more here.

NextGov, a sister publication of Tech Daily Dose, came out with a new Expert Dialogue Series on Monday.

The first topic will be cybersecurity. More from NextGov on how this new forum will work:

Expert Dialogues is your chance to engage in conversations with leading practitioners and observers on key issues surrounding the government's use and implementation of information technology. In each dialogue, we take your questions for a week, forward them to an expert, then publish the responses. All the while, you can continue the conversation in our discussion forums.

For our first dialogue, we've selected the burning issue of cybersecurity in the federal sphere. Staying ahead of the rapidly evolving threats to information systems is a critical imperative not only for managers of those systems, but for all federal employees. Everyone has a role to play in ensuring the security of data.

Our expert is Adam Ross, managing editor at the SANS Institute, an information security training and research firm. He covers a wide range of cybersecurity issues for Nextgov's Cybersecurity Report.

This is your chance to ask Adam about everything from emerging developments in cybersecurity to tips on keeping your data secure. Enter your questions during the week of Oct. 18-22, then come back on Nov. 1 to see his responses.

Not once, but twice this past week, telecom officials used Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's age to highlight the need for modernizing several tech-related policies.

The first mention came from Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps at the agency's open meeting last Thursday. "When Congress acted in 1996 to encourage the commercial availability of new video programming navigation devices," Mark Zuckberg was 12-years old, Copps noted.

Copps made his remarks in connection with new rules the FCC approved that will make it easier for consumers to use devices of their own choosing to access cable or other video programming.

American Cable Association president Matthew Polka made the second comment on Saturday in response to the ongoing carriage fee dispute between Fox and Cablevision.

"This outdated [retransmission consent] law passed when Facebook's famous co-founder was just 8-years-old," Polka said.

The ACA, who represents small and medium sized cable companies, wants the government to play a formal role in carriage fee negotiations.

Story Updated at 12:22 pm

Key lawmakers called for federal intervention over the weekend after Fox News and Cablevision failed to resolve a fee dispute leaving millions of Cablevision subscribers without access to programming from Fox.

"Everyone who follows this market is disappointed but not surprised that Fox and Cablevision were unable to reach a deal," Senate Commerce Subcommittee Chairman, John Kerry, D-Mass., said on Saturday. "I think we need new rules of the road."

In a public statement, Kerry committed to introducing legislation that would give the FCC a formal role in arbitrating negotiations over carriage fees between broadcasters and content providers.

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote to the FCC on Saturday urging the commission to take action so that these "negotiations can be concluded in an equitable and expeditious manner."

Fox News, owned by News Corp., pulled its signal from Cablevision's three million subscribers on Saturday after the parties failed to reach an agreement on a retransmission consent deal by midnight on Friday. According to Cablevision, Fox is demanding $150 million for permission to broadcast their channels, more than double what Cablevision paid under their previous deal for that programming. Fox has declined to comment on that figure.

As of Sunday afternoon, the two groups continue talking but have yet to reach an agreement. This is the sixth time in one year that fee disputes between broadcasters and cable/satellite providers ended in television blackouts.

In the meantime, Cablevision subscribers, located in New York and New Jersey, were unable to view high-profile Football matches on Sunday including the New York Giants versus the Detroit Lions.

"While federal law provides that the terms will be set by agreement between private companies, Fox and Cablevision share responsibility for protecting their audience's interests," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said early Saturday. "I expect both companies to live up to this responsibility."

Media reports of Fox blocking Cablevision subscribers from Internet content belonging to Fox, such as Hulu.com, has turned the dispute into a net neutrality issue.

"I am particularly concerned by reports that access to Internet-based video from fox is being blocked selectively for Cablevision broadband customers," Markey wrote in his letter to the FCC. Blocking legal content is "patently anti-consumer," Markey noted, and goes against the commission's Broadband Internet Policy Statement of 2005.

"This case shows the dangers of unchecked media consolidation and of a retransmission consent regime badly in need of reform," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn. "Consumers should not have their access to Web content threatened because a giant media company has a dispute over cable programming carriage."

Fox did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

UPDATE 12:22 pm

Cablevision broadband subscribers are not currently blocked from Fox Internet content and Sunday talks did not produce any "material progress" but the two parties will continue to speak on Monday, a Fox spokesperson told TDD over email.

The spokesperson declined to comment on whether Fox would be willing to enter into arbitration but said that "Cablevision has been unwilling to serious negotiate," and "needs to stop hiding behind calls for government intervention."

Via the company website, Cablevision is waging a campaign to get Fox to accept binding arbitration and stop their "act of corporate greed."

Monday
The New America Foundation hosts a 9:00 am event on using technology in service of education. Featured speakers include Tim Vollmer, open policy fellow at Creative Commons and Sascha Meinrath, director of NAF's Open Technology Initiative.

President Obama holds a noon science fair at the White House to honor the achievements of students' work in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The event is part of the administration's Education to Innovate campaign

Wednesday
The Brookings Institution will host a 2:00 pm forum on the looming spectrum shortage. Featured speakers include Phil Weiser, a Senior Advisor on technology and innovation at the White House, and Steve Sharkey, chief of engineering and technology policy at T-Mobile.

Thursday
The FCC will host a spectrum summit highlighting the economic and social importance of solving the spectrum crunch for mobile broadband.

LockHeed Martin hosts a "Technology and Innovation Media Day." The event features exhibits and hands-on demonstrations based on the company's cutting-edge technologies. Ray O. Johnson, LM's chief technology officer, will be present.

The American Intellectual Property Law Association will host David J. Kappos, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as the keynote speaker for a luncheon meeting. The AIPLA annual meeting runs from October 21-23.

Friday
The Technology Policy Institute hosts a half-day event on "Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in High-Tech Industries." Featured speakers include Carl Shapiro, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics, DOJ and Joseph Farrell, Director of the Bureau of Economics, FTC.

The review of the pending $30 billion merger between Comcast and NBC Universal is likely to extend into early 2011, according to a new research report from the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus.

"We continue to believe that while a December conclusion is possible--particularly if Comcast trades additional concessions for speed--the most likely timing is that it will extend into early 2011," the report notes.

The proposed union of the two companies has come under much scrutiny with public interest groups and Comcast's industry competitors saying the merger will hamper competition and raise prices for the consumer. Comcast refutes these claims arguing that these concerns are misplaced and that the transaction will strengthen marketplace competition and benefit customers.

The FCC recently asked Comcast and NBC Universal for extensive information and documents on programming deals and other issues related to the commission's review. The request for this additional information is not uncommon, the report noted, but it "increases the likelihood the government's review will not be completed until early next year."

Comcast, who had hoped to complete the merger this year, did not respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: 4:20 pm

"we continue to expect regulatory approvals by year-end," a spokesperson for Comcast said.

At its core, enterprise architecture is less about computer applications and more about management. That's why Randy Hite, director of information technology architecture and systems at the Government Accountability Office, says assigning the responsibility to the IT shop is the tail trying to wag the dog, NextGov reported.

"Enterprise architecture has to be owned by the executive leadership, the business owners and the CXOs," he says.

In August, GAO released the second version of its Framework for Assessing and Improving Enterprise Architecture Management--first issued in 2003--which included seven hierarchical stages. Stage one, according to the report, is establishing "institutional commitment" to the IT strategy, with recognition from top executives.

"EA is a tool that is going to help the senior executives guide and direct the organization, so it has to be owned by them," Hite says. "There needs to first be an understanding by top executives of what EA is, followed by buy-in of this as a corporate strategic asset."

Defining enterprise architecture, which is somewhat conceptual, is not easy. Many equate it to IT consolidation and standardization: streamlining computer systems and applications so different business units borrow from the same resources. Though not wrong, the definition isn't comprehensive either, Hite says, since it focuses squarely on technology. Viewed properly, enterprise architecture focuses predominantly on the mission and how technology can support it.

"More times than not, the way an enterprise has been organized defines how it delivers services," Hite says. "But the promise behind EA is you suboptimize the parts in order optimize the whole."

This requires cooperation among many disparate entities, which in itself can be a challenge. GAO recommends agencies establish executive committees that include representatives from all business lines--such as acquisition, human resources, finance and information systems--to ensure the architecture is implemented properly and considered in daily operations and project planning.

"Within the federal government, there are different owners for [most] of the individual management disciplines you see. Everyone has developed their own turf, with the strategy being, 'I do my bit, throw it over the transom and move on,' " says Michael Dunham, manager for enterprise transformation services at WBB Consulting and former chief enterprise architect for the Treasury Department. "The enterprise architecture can help inform an organization's strategic plan by defining where an agency wants to go and where the agency currently is in terms of assets. But that dialogue is not as healthy as it could be. EA is just seen as background noise."

Read more here.

For a start-up founded a decade ago in a dusty L Street basement with the mission of delivering broadband to underserved communities, One Economy has come a long way. Today, the nonprofit is a multimillion-dollar global enterprise that has brought affordable high-speed Internet access to 360,000 residents in 42 states and has created technology centers and online hubs for low-income people in a dozen other countries.

With the help of Hollywood actor and producer Robert Townsend, One Economy also produces documentaries and dramas for its Public Internet Channel, including the critically acclaimed Diary of a Single Mom.

The group's success at promoting broadband connections is due in large part to its savvy at forging Washington connections. Chairman Rey Ramsey, former CEO and one of its four co-founders, is a longtime friend of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. The regulator, who was honored last week along with a large contingent of FCC officials at the nonprofit's 10th-anniversary celebration at the Newseum, said he was first introduced to One Economy in 2002 by co-founder Alec Ross, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's senior adviser for innovation. And in 2006, then-Sen. Barack Obama joined Ramsey at a news conference to announce the Internet channel's launch -- with Obama and Sen. John McCain serving as honorary co-chairmen of One Economy.

The group is just as well connected in the corporate world. Its new CEO, Kelley Dunne, previously held senior positions with two of the nonprofit's benefactors, AT&T and Verizon. Last November, Ramsey became president and CEO of TechNet, a political-advocacy group that represents Silicon Valley companies -- some of which are One Economy sponsors.

With ties like that and a mission that dovetails with the Obama administration's goal of expanding broadband (the nonprofit received a $28 million federal broadband stimulus grant), corporate America has flocked to One Economy. Since 2009, its business partners have included AT&T, Cisco, Comcast, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Wal-Mart. Its biggest donation to date came in 2006 from AT&T: an in-kind contribution valued at $30 million.

To read the rest of this article, click here (National Journal subscription required)

If investing in offshore wind farms and driverless cars wasn't enough, Google is also tinkering with creating a Price Index, the Financial Times reported.

By tapping its trove of web shopping data, the Internet giant is working on creating a 'Google Price Index' that would serve as a daily measure of inflation and eventually provide an alternative to official statistics.

The GPI, which is still a work-in-progress, is being pioneered by Google's chief economist Hal Varian, who spoke about it at the National Association of Business Economists conference in Denver, Colorado. Google has not decided whether to publish it, Varian said.

A GPI could complement, but not replace, the government's Consumer Price Index. The mix of goods that are sold on the web is not the same as the mix in the wider economy, Varian noted.

One major advantage of the GPI over the CPI is the speed through which economic data can be gathered on line. The CPI data is gathered by government employees calling or visiting stores.

Google has been contacted for comment.

UPDATE: 4:25 PM

A Google spokesperson responded with the following comment:

"The 'Google Price Index' is currently a research project that is underway at Google, but we have nothing further to announce at this time."

A new poll released Thursday confirms what most of us probably already know: cell phones, laptops, Mp3 players and other tech gadgets are becoming an ubiquitous part of most U.S. households.

The poll from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that 85 percent of Americans now own a cell phone, a rate that's even higher -- 96 percent - among 18-29 year-old adults.

The poll, which surveyed 3,001 American adults Aug. 9-Sept. 13, found three-quarters of adults own a laptop or desktop computer at home. Americans are increasingly looking for portability when it comes to buying a computer and the poll found a big jump in laptop ownership from 30 percent in 2006 to 52 percent today.

Ownership of Mp3 players, such as the iPod or Microsoft's Zune, also has seen a nearly five-fold increase to 47 percent of adults compared with just 11 percent in 2005.

Two of the latest gadgets, e-readers, such as Amazon's Kindle, and tablet computers like the iPad are still a novelty for most Americans. The poll found only 5 percent of those surveyed own an e-reader, while only 4 percent have a tablet computer. However, those rates jump among those earning more than $75,000 a year. About 10 percent of Americans in this group own either an e-reader or tablet computer, the poll found.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A top State Department official on Wednesday said despite global concerns about covert cybercrime, presidential administrations should not prohibit people from encoding their Internet messages, or rendering them indecipherable to law enforcement officials, Nextgov.com reported.

Nations, including the United States, are grappling with the problem of how to protect online communications from threats such as censorship, spam that clogs networks and cyberterrorists. But the solutions to the problem of safeguarding the free flow of information might unfortunately turn out to be counterproductive, said Ambassador
Philip L. Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy.

He was speaking at an event hosted by Voice of America, a broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. Officials from the FBI, State and independent research groups debated the issue of governments seeking more control over the Internet to defend national security.

"Some law enforcement [officials] say the way to contend" with cyber threats is to "basically make it illegal to encrypt electronic communications -- that, I think, is a mistake," Verveer said. "Our ability to speak freely on the Internet is in fact a function of the notion that it's not so easy to listen to us."

He argued that limiting the use of encryption would endanger freedom of speech and, perhaps counterintuitively, cybersecurity. Encryption secures networks and computer assets that are constantly under attack, Verveer noted.

But Richard McNally, FBI section chief for counterterrorism and counterintelligence, said law enforcement and security officials are having difficulty investigating communications that suspects are exchanging via "some of the more advanced technologies coming aboard right now."

During the late 1990s, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh fought, and eventually lost, efforts by industry to loosen restrictions on the export of more robust encryption. Industry officials argued that robust encryption was key to the promotion of e-commerce by protecting the security and privacy of transactions. To read more, click here.

Updated at 8:06 a.m. on Oct. 15.

Pursuant to recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, the FCC adopted a new proposal on Thursday to create a Mobility Fund that would help close gaps in service availability for mobile devices.

Under the Mobility Fund, carriers would compete for $100 million to $300 million to provide coverage in areas that are currently not served. The money comes from a portion of the Universal Service Fund voluntarily relinquished by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. The USF is a $9 billion fund that subsidizes the cost of telecommunications in rural and low-income areas.

"The new Mobility Fund will provide a much-needed down payment on closing America's digital divide," said Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps. "We've got a ways to go."

Republican Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker supported the initiative but expressed concern about it leading to runaway costs in the future.

A "one-time support mechanism" raises questions on "whether this effort will lead to a future further drain on resources to maintain the expanded infrastructure," Baker said.

As expected, the commission also approved proposed rules on bill shock aiming to curb the practice of confusing cell phone bills that result in unexpected charges for consumers.

The FCC adopted rules Thursday aimed at making it easier for consumers to use devices of their own choosing to access cable or other video programming.

In the 1996 telecommunications act, Congress mandated that cable and other video programming operators take steps to allow consumers to buy their own cable set-top boxes instead of leasing them from their cable company or other video programming provider.

The FCC attempted to implement this provision by requiring cable companies to separate the system that customers use to gain access to video programming from the device, usually a set-top box, that customers use to navigate the programming. Operators and other stakeholders agreed on a system whereby cable companies would provide CableCARDS to their customers that could be inserted into the set-top boxes to access cable programming.

"Although the CableCARD regime has made it possible for manufacturers to develop innovative devices that consumers can buy to access cable services, its full potential has not yet been realized," the FCC said Thursday in a statement outlining the changes adopted by the commission.

In its national broadband plan, the FCC detailed some of the problems that have hindered the growth in the market for CableCARD retail devices. They include that some retail devices are blocked from accessing all the channels provided by cable companies; that some consumers perceive the retail boxes to be more expensive -- a perception "partially driven by a lack of transparency in CableCARD pricing for operator-leased boxes and by the bundling of leased boxes into package prices by operators;" and problems consumers encounter in trying to install the cards and obtain support from cable operators.

So far, only half a million homes use CableCARDs in retail set-top box devices and only two companies even offer the devices, according to the FCC. The commission said that greater competition in the market for such devices would allow for more innovation and competition in broadband offerings.

The changes adopted on a unanimous vote by the FCC Thursday are aimed at making it easier for consumers to install the cards themselves; enhancing the transparency of CableCARD pricing and billing; improving the process for certifying retail devices, and ensuring that retail devices have access to all the video programming that is prescheduled by cable companies or other video providers.

"With today's FCC action, consumers may finally come to realize the benefits of competition in the marketplace for devices that attach to pay-TV provider networks. It has been 14 years since Congress responded to consumer frustration and required cable to allow cable boxes to be sold competitively," Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement. "We have felt like Lucy holding the football with every cable industry failure to support competition in the set-top box marketplace."

Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld also praised the FCC's action, saying it will allow consumers to "to install their own CableCARDs provided that manufacturers include instructions and, importantly, the commission will limit the ability of cable systems to subsidize their own boxes with service costs, which puts competitive devices at a disadvantage."

National Cable and Telecommunication Association President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow praised the FCC for adopting "targeted, sensible fixes" to the CableCARD rules and pledged to work with the commission to implement the changes.

"We agree with the commission that implementing these changes - including increasing options for self-installation, providing more transparency and properly equipping technicians - will assist customers who use retail devices that rely on CableCARDs," McSlarrow said in a statement.

Scads of technology and telecommunications professionals gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday evening for the seventh annual Public Knowledge IP3 awards ceremony.

The IP3 awards recognize individuals who have advanced the public interest in information policy, Internet protocol and Internet Policy.

Pamela Samuelson, professor at UC Berkeley's Law School and School of Information, took home the Information Policy prize. "I can't even program my way out a paper bag," she joked to the crowd about her lack of technical expertise while thanking everyone for appreciating her work on the legal side of digital issues.

Renowned Cardozo law professor Susan Crawford received the honor for Internet Protocol. Crawford previously served in the White House as special assistant for Science, Technology and Innovation and was a member of President Obama's transition team evaluating the FCC.

Canadian professor Michael Geist and New York filmmaker Nina Paley were honored for their work in intellectual property. Geist is the foremost expert on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and Paley fought, through the promotion of a film she created, not to let copyright laws impede original creation.

Guests enjoyed cocktails and appetizers and live entertainment by the Chris Grasso quartet.
Other tech and telecom luminaries spotted in the crowd include Free Press' Joel Kelsey, Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro, American University's Sean Flynn and a raft of Hill staffers.

Public Knowledge is a consumer advocacy group whose mission is to defend citizens' rights in the emerging digital culture.

At first blush, tea party members would appear to be uniformly opposed to increased government regulation in any sector of the economy. But some leaders are open to narrow legislation that would codify principles to preserve an open Internet, CongressDaily reported.

To be clear, there is no enthusiasm for Internet regulation among the tea party and its key affiliates. However, their aversion to the Federal Communications Commission reclassifying broadband from an information service to a public utility is so strong that it leaves open the distinct possibility of tea party support for tailored regulation.

"I thought the [House network neutrality bill] was a good starting point for a legislative approach," said Phil Kerpen, vice president of policy at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. "It was very encouraging to see Congress willing to act on this."

Americans for Prosperity works closely with tea party activists and considers itself a "key ally" of the movement.

Red State, a conservative blog that many tea partiers read, endorsed the House net neutrality bill. Red State tech blogger Neil Stevens wrote on Sept. 29 that "House Republicans need to get on board and support" Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman's legislation. That same day, Waxman's bill collapsed due to lack of GOP support. To read more, click here. (Subscription required)

The heads of the Defense and Homeland Security departments on Wednesday formally agreed to coordinate on cybersecurity in a newly established office, amid a debate over whether the Pentagon, Homeland Security or the White House should have chief responsibility for protecting information networks, Nextgov.com reported.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issued a memorandum of agreement outlining the personnel, tools and facilities the two departments will share to improve collaboration on cyber activities.

Nothing in the document changes existing laws on national security or privacy, according to the memo. Lawmakers and the Obama administration have made cybersecurity a government priority, but have not decided which agencies or officials should be mandated, under law, to lead the effort.

Under the memo, DHS will establish a department cybersecurity coordination director who will work at Defense's National Security Agency, but the official will not be in the NSA chain of command. The individual also will serve as a liaison to Defense's U.S. Cyber Command. Other DHS privacy and legal staff will support the director within the newly created Joint Coordination Element Office, which will be located at NSA.

For its part, Defense will assign a senior-level NSA official to work closely with the DHS cybersecurity coordination director at the new division.

DHS and Defense together will align the functions of Defense's proposed Integrated Cyber Center and the existing DHS National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. To read more, click here.

The Pew Center for People and the Press released a report Wednesday that argues that polls that only survey people reached on landline telephones may be biased.

The center noted that at least a quarter of the U.S. population only have cell phones and do not have a landline telephone, according to the latest statistics released in May by the National Center for Health Statistics.

"In three of four election polls conducted since the spring of this year, estimates from the landline samples alone produced slightly more support for Republican candidates and less support for Democratic candidates, resulting in differences of four to six points in the margin," the report said.

While some polling organizations include cell phones in their surveys, "virtually all" automated polls only call landlines, the center said. The center said the polls it conducts include samples of landline and cell phones.

In the center's latest poll of 2,816 registered voters, including 786 reached by cell phone, 44 percent favored the GOP candidate for Congress in their district or leaned Republican, while 47 percent said they would vote for the Democratic candidate or leaned Democratic. Among landline phone respondents, the poll, conducted Aug. 25-Sept. 6, found that 46 percent favored the GOP candidate, while 45 percent favored the Democratic candidate, a four-point shift in the margin, the center noted.

Cell phone customers experience ongoing problems with unexpected charges on their billing statements, according to a white paper released by the FCC Wednesday.

In the first half of 2010, the paper said 764 people complained to the FCC about "bill shock." Of those complaints, 67 percent related to amounts of $100 or more and 20 percent had bills of $1,000 or more.

"This complaint record is more evidence that bill shock is a widespread consumer problem," Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said in a statement. "We're getting hundreds of complaints per year on bills that have gone up by a thousand dollars or more. That's a serious issue by anybody's standards, and one that we're moving to address."

International roaming charges, confusion about promotional rates and fees imposed when customers exceed the limits of their monthly plans are some of the common causes of bill shock, the commission said.

The release of the white paper followed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's speech Wednesday outlining new rules the agency proposed aimed at curbing the bill shock phenomenon.

A federal district court is expected to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by Amazon.com against the North Carolina Department of Revenue, which has sought records of the state's residents who have bought items from the Internet retailer.

A federal district court in Seattle will hear arguments in a motion by North Carolina to dismiss Amazon's lawsuit, which was filed in April.

Under current law, companies are not required to collect sales taxes from customers who live in states where the companies do not have a physical presence. Consumers who live in states with sales taxes, however, are generally obligated to pay them on items they bought from an out-of-state retailer.

Given the growing budget problems facing numerous states, many states have sought to close this loophole or to try to collect the taxes they are owed from remote sales. According to Amazon, North Carolina sought the names and addresses of Amazon customers who live in North Carolina along with every item they bought and the price paid since 2003.

"Small businesses, the brick and mortar operations, are at a competitive disadvantage when they have to collect sales tax that other businesses do not," North Carolina Secretary of Revenue Kenneth R. Lay said in a news release a few days after the Amazon lawsuit was filed. His office noted that a University of Tennessee study found that the state is set to lose $161 million this year in lost revenues from uncollected taxes on e-commerce transactions.

In its lawsuit, Amazon noted that it has cooperated with North Carolina in providing information about the firm's North Carolina sales such as the order number, city, county and zip code each item was shipped to and the price of each item shipped but has so far refused to provide the names of its customers.

In its lawsuit, Amazon argued that North Carolina's demand for the names of Amazon's North Carolina customers is unconstitutional. "If Amazon is forced to comply with this demand, the disclosure will invade the privacy and violate the First Amendment rights of Amazon and its customers on a massive scale," the lawsuit said.

Among those arguing on behalf of Amazon at Wednesday's hearing include the American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in the case in June on behalf of seven Amazon customers.

"The Amazon customers we represent -- indeed, anyone who's purchased books, movies or any other legal thing online -- should be able to make purchases freely without the government looking over their shoulder," the ACLU's Suzanne Ito wrote in a blog post Wednesday. "We hope the court agrees."

As part of a new consumer empowerment agenda, the FCC will propose new rules on Thursday to tamp down on mobile phone companies' confusing billing practices that result in unexpected charges for consumers, the agency announced on Wednesday.

The commission's "bill shock" proposal would require mobile companies to send customers alerts before and when they exceed their plan limits resulting in increased charges. The FCC also is exploring the idea of whether all carriers should have to offer the option of capping usage based on limits set by the customer.

The proposed rules don't go as far as a bill recently introduced by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., which would require carriers to receive permission from customers that have surpassed their plan limits before allowing them to continue accumulating charges.

"Companies should compete on value, price, and service, not consumer confusion," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said during a speech at the Center for American Progress outlining the proposal. "Cell phone bills have proven to be a fertile ground for 'mystery fees'".

Anticipating potential pushback from some companies, Genachowski argued that his proposal is both pro-consumer and pro-business because more transparency will help highlight those companies offering the best products at the best prices.

Center for American Progress Executive Vice President Sarah Rosen Wartell echoed this claim, saying it's a "good way to keep consumers happy, not an expensive regulatory mandate."

The wireless phone industry's main trade group CTIA, however, took issue with such claims.

"We are concerned that prescriptive and costly rules that limit the creative offerings and competitive nature of the industry may threaten to offset" positive trends in customer satisfaction, Chris Guttman-McCabe, CTIA's vice president of regulatory affairs, said. "We agree with the FCC that the goal is to keep all customers happy."

Genachowski singled out Verizon Wireless, which is under investigation by the commission, for incorrectly charging 15 million wireless phone customers fees for data services they didn't use. Earlier this month, Verizon said it will issue refunds of roughly $2 to $6 per customer.

Verizon Wireless already sends free text messages to customers who are at or nearing their voice, messaging or data allowances, according to a fact sheet distributed by the company.

Genachowski also mentioned consumer concern over early termination fees, which wireless firms impose on customers who break their wireless contracts early. The FCC has been examining the issue, but Genachowski did not say whether the commission would take any action to address concerns about ETFs.

Privacy groups are stepping into the political fray by urging their supporters to press candidates to state where they stand on key civil liberties, consumer protection and privacy issues.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and other groups Wednesday launched the Privacy 2010 campaign that provides a list of 10 questions that can be posed to candidates for offices at all levels of government for this fall's midterm elections. The list includes whether candidates oppose the federal government's plan to install body scanners in U.S. airports and calls to expand the National Security Agency's surveillance authority and whether they support open Internet rules and online consumer privacy rights.

EPIC is not providing any campaign donations or backing any particular candidates. "The goal is to raise the visibility of privacy issues," EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said.

Lillie Coney, EPIC's associate director, noted that privacy cuts across both political parties. "It's a great unifier," she said.

Rotenberg said his group would be releasing a privacy report card next week for the Obama administration that will focus on such issues as civil liberties, consumer privacy, cybersecurity, and medical privacy.

Stakeholders involved in the debate over the FCC's proposed open Internet rules appear to be lining up along predictable lines on whether net neutrality rules should apply to wireless and specialized broadband services.

Several groups filed comments this week with the FCC, which is seeking input on whether wireless broadband and specialized services should be exempted from proposed rules that would bar broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content. The deadline for initial comments was Tuesday and reply comments are due by Nov. 4.

Free Press, one of the most vocal advocates for net neutrality rules, voiced concern about exempting wireless and specialized services from open Internet rules.

"Specialized services, to the extent that they are not voice or video services already under the panoply of Title II and VI consumer protections, are at this stage merely a hypothetical, one that could be used as a loophole for carriers to evade open Internet protections," the group said in its comments with the FCC. When it comes to wireless services, Free Press said the FCC should not allow the Internet "to be broken up into an open wired network and a closed wireless network."

A coalition of public interest groups led by Media Access Project offered similar comments on whether to exempt wireless services, saying "whatever the distinctions between different networks and network architectures, it is imperative that the same principles and rules apply to wired and wireless networks alike."

When it comes to specialized services, the coalition urged caution, saying this category should not be used as way to avoid open Internet rules. The groups, which include the Benton Foundation, Center for Media Justice, Consumers Union, New America Foundation and Public Knowledge, said these services are still "undefined at present" and urged the FCC to initiate a separate proceeding to "consider the scope of the category at greater depth."

The Defense Department has launched an ambitious project to transform its electronic identification card into an electronic wallet that eventually could be used as a transit card, a debit card and an ATM card, Nextgov.com reported.

Bob Gilson, customer development branch chief at the Defense Manpower Data Center, who is spearheading the project, said the new type of card could go government wide. All federal agencies use roughly the same type of electronic ID badges, mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, issued by then-President George W. Bush in June 2004.

Randy Vanderhoof , executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, an industry group, said the Pentagon's plans to add multiple functions to its ID card constitute the largest smart card project in the world in scale and scope. To read more, click here.

Facebook announced new security controls Tuesday, including allowing the social networking site's account holders to use one-time passwords.

The one-time-only password will allow users to access their Facebook accounts more securely from a public computer such as one at a hotel or cyber café, Facebook Product Manager Jake Brill said in a blog post. "If you have any concerns about security of the computer you're using while accessing Facebook, we can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password," he wrote. Users, however, will have to provide Facebook with a mobile phone number to receive a one-time password.

Other changes announced by Facebook include allowing users to sign off of their accounts remotely by checking their "Account Settings" to see if they are still logged on to another device. "These session controls can be useful if you log into Facebook from a friend's phone or computer and then forget to sign out," Brill said.

Key congressional staffers said Tuesday that if Congress fails to act on legislation that would give a chunk of spectrum being sought by public safety officials for a national broadband interoperable public safety network, the FCC is required to auction the spectrum under current law.

During a forum on broadband regulation, Daniel Sepulveda, a senior adviser to Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said he did not think Congress will act on the issue during its post-election lame duck session expected to take place in mid-November.

The FCC has proposed auctioning off the chunk of spectrum known as the D-block to a commercial bidder and using the proceeds to help finance the creation of the public safety network. It also has proposed giving public safety official different spectrum than the D-block for the network and allowing first responders priority access to roam on commercial networks during emergencies.

Public safety officials say the FCC plan is insufficient and would not provide them with enough spectrum for a public safety network. They also argue that the quality of the D-block spectrum is better suited for their needs. They have been pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that would re-allocate the D-block spectrum to them.

Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has introduced a bill that would re-allocate the D-Block of spectrum to public safety officials and direct the FCC to establish standards that allow public safety officials, when not using the network, to lease capacity on a secondary, but preemptible basis, to commercial users or others.

Both Democrats and Republican leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee favor the FCC's approach. "There was consensus in the House that the best approach is to auction it and use the money to build a public safety network," Neil Fried, senior counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Republican staff. He added that in the absence of legislation redirecting the D-block to public safety officials, the FCC is "required under current law to auction it."

Tim Powderly, a Democratic senior counsel to the Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee, said despite the differing approaches being pushed by the House and Senate, Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., "is committed to finding a successful way forward on this."

Key congressional telecom staffers said Tuesday they believe Congress should address issues related to the FCC's authority over broadband but they broke down along party lines as to how quickly lawmakers need to act.

During a Capitol Hill forum sponsored by the Free State Foundation on the future of broadband regulation, key staffers from the House and Senate commerce committees discussed the recent breakdown in efforts to pass net neutrality legislation being led by House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. The legislation was aimed at addressing the stalemate over the issue of whether the FCC should reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service after its authority over broadband providers was put in doubt following an April federal appeals court ruling in a case involving broadband provider Comcast. Reclassification would allow the FCC to move forward on its net neutrality proceeding, aimed at barring broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content.

Waxman's legislative effort stalled late last month before Congress recessed after he said he was unable to persuade Republicans to sign on to a draft bill that had the support of large broadband providers, some Internet firms and some public interest groups. The draft bill would have applied nondiscrimination principles to wireline broadband but not to wireless and directed the FCC to deal with enforcement on a case-by-case basis, rather than through rulemaking.

Waxman "is open to revisiting [the issue] in the lame duck session," after the November midterm election, Tim Powderly, senior counsel on the Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee said. "He thinks that if Congress can't act, the FCC must go forward with what it's going to do on reclassification."

Neil Fried, senior counsel to the Energy and Commerce Committee's Republican staff, however, argued that the GOP did not sign on to the effort because "there wasn't sufficient time to get Republicans comfortable with the approach being taken." He said Communications Subcommittee ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., would have liked to have seen lawmakers attempt to resolve the issue much earlier than they did.

He said he believes Congress should now focus on telecom issues where there is more consensus, such as universal service reform and spectrum management, and put the issue of net neutrality aside.

"From my perspective, it's a matter of priorities," Fried said. "There is no great net neutrality problem that needs solving right now." He added that the FCC would create a problem if it moved ahead with reclassification, an effort that would likely spur litigation and a push for action on Capitol Hill.

David Quinalty, a Republican staffer on the Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee, said he agrees that the FCC should not move forward with reclassification, but does believe the Comcast ruling did leave some open questions that Congress may need to resolve.

He added, however, that it's "not terribly helpful to have Congress having a gun pointed at its head to negotiate a delicate" issue, particularly given that a majority of members of Congress have said they are opposed to reclassifying broadband.

Powderly noted that the draft bill Waxman had been working on with Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., was intended to be an "interim measure," which would expire in two years, and was aimed at ensuring that the commission "would be there to be the cop on the beat to address issues if they arise."

Daniel Sepulveda, senior adviser to Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., rejected Fried's assertion that net neutrality should be set aside. "There are a whole bunch of issues at risk because of the Comcast decision," he said. "The idea that we can set those questions aside [isn't realistic]. ... We need to come to some decision on the proper regulatory authority for this sector."

During his decades of federal service, Dave Wennergren has witnessed a massive shift in the way government views and relies on technology. But what the deputy chief information officer at the Defense Department now sees isn't so much how technology has become woven into agencies' everyday work, but how that dependence creates a critical need for information technology workers, Government Executive reported.

Wennergren, who co-chairs the federal Chief Information Officers Council, is no stranger to the government's resounding alarm that agencies face an unplanned exodus of middle- and senior-level managers. Almost every executive has heard that warning for years. But what makes it even more unsettling for the IT workforce is the transforming landscape of federal technology, given the advent of Web 2.0, cloud computing, and easy access to applications and handheld devices. Combine that with the culture of young IT professionals who are part of an Internet-savvy generation that expects its workplace to be connected to the latest technology and you have a storm brewing.

"It's crucial that information leaders understand these two sets of challenges; the pace of technological change and what that means to get your job done, and the need to have a workforce that's adept at using that technology and leveraging it to create innovation and new ideas," Wennergren says. To read more, click here.

California Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina has released a new Web ad defending her controversial tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

The ad aims to push back against charges made by her Democratic opponent, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and other critics of Fiorina's tenure at HP. Fiorina has been criticized for laying off workers and shipping jobs overseas and for pushing through an unpopular merger with rival computer maker Compaq. She was eventually forced out as CEO at HP.

"As the CEO of HP, Carly Fiorina laid off 30,000 workers," one Boxer ad claims. "...And While Californians lost their jobs, Fiorina tripled her salary, bought a million dollar yacht and five corporate jets."

Fiorina's new ad, however, features several former HP employees defending her tenure and touting her leadership skills.

"We needed someone to come in and make changes and that's what they brought Carly in to do," Glenda Gilliland, former HP administrative supervisor, said in the ad. Former HP Process Supervisor Vince Blecha defended Fiorina's decision to layoff HP workers saying, "What would've Barbara Boxer have done. Would she have just raised product prices so we could have cut even more jobs." Former HP Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman added that, "She's [Fiorina] a leader. She focuses on what needs to be done."

Fiorina has been locked in a close race to unseat Boxer. Recent polls, however, show Boxer edging ahead of Fiorina.

Tuesday
The Free State Foundation will host a policy luncheon to consider Congress's various ides for legislation clarifying the FCC's authority to regulate broadband.

Featured speakers include Neil Freed, senior counsel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; David Quinalty, Senate Commerce Committee staffer; Daniel Sepulveda, senior adviser to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Bruce Wolpe, senior advisor at the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Aspen Institute hosts a noon roundtable discussion on transforming teaching through technology. Featured speakers include Blair Levin, lead author of the national broadband plan. *the event is invite only

Wednesday
The National Institute of Standards and Technology hosts a two-day meeting of the Visiting Committee of Advanced Technology. Speakers include Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra.

The Center for American Progress hosts a noon discussion on "Avoiding Cell Phone Bill Shock." FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will discuss his consumer agenda and outline the findings of a new white paper on bill shock, when customers find unexpected increases in their mobile bills.

Thursday
The FCC hosts its monthly open meeting at 10:30 am. Cell phone bill shock, among other issues, will be considered.

NextGenWeb hosts a 10:00 am discussion on "telework-commuting on the super broadband highway."

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke met with a raft of Silicon Valley executives in Northern California Friday to discuss steps the administration has taken to grow the economy and create jobs.

Lock and the business leaders will also talk about the innovation economy, cyber security issues, and the national export initiative, according to a department spokesperson.

"This is also an opportunity for the business community to bring to the table their ideas on strengthening the economy and job creation," the spokesperson added.

The meeting was closed press.

Here is the list of attendees from the business community:

Mike Klayko, CEO, Brocade Communications; Carl Guardino, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Tom Ayers, President and CEO, Tropos; Sandra Beach Lin, CEO, CaliSolar; David Cush, Co-Owner, Virgin America; Harrison Dillon, President and CTO, Solazyme; Christine Gorjanc, CFO, NetGear; Tim Guertin, President, Varian Medical Systems; Jeff Housenbold, CEO, Shutterfly; Robert Johnson, VP, cisco; Dave Bell, CEO, Intersil; Mark Thompson, CEO, Fairchild Semiconductor; Steve Laub, CEO, Atmel.

A host of major American companies that operate websites have defended their online privacy practices in letters to Congress, saying their consumer protections are robust while asserting that some collection of information is essential to their business model.

"In order to continue to provide our audience of over 20 million users with free content, we are required to run advertising," John Morse, president and publisher of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, wrote to Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton, R-Texas, co-chairmen of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus.

"Advertisers that run advertisements on our sites, and most major sites, require some targeting capabilities which are achieved through cookies and other devices," said Morse, whose letter was released with those of other business executives by the lawmakers today.

Internet tracking devices known as cookies and beacons have become a source of concern for privacy advocates and lawmakers seeking to protect consumers online and shed light on the practice of behavioral marketing.

In August, Markey and Barton requested information about data-collection practices from the 15 websites identified by the Wall Street Journal's "What They Know" series as installing the most tracking technology on visitors' computers. The letters released today are in response to this query.

In addition to Merriam-Webster, About.com, AOL, AT&T, CareerBuilder.com, Comcast, Microsoft, MySpace.com , Photobucket.com, Verizon Wireless and Yahoo sent letters to Markey and Barton.

Read more here (subscription required)

President Obama signed the 21st Century Communication and Video Accessibility Act into law Friday afternoon.

"The bill I'm signing into law today will make it easier for people who are deaf, blind, or live with visual impairments to do what many of us take for granted," Obama said. "I'm proud to sign this bill."

The legislation modernizes disability accessibility requirements in the Communications Act, updating existing mandates as TV and phone services connect via the Internet and use new digital and broadband technologies. The Senate passed the bill in early August and the House followed suit last week.

Stevie Wonder and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, were among the people present for the signing.

Obama thanked the legislators who worked to champion the bill through congress. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., were the lead sponsors.

From this week's magazine:

When a teenager named Alyson in Bloomington, Ill., posted a Twitter message earlier this week about her dog's penchant for Cheetos, she had no idea that her whereabouts were being broadcast globally on ICanStalkU.com. Using just the tweet, the site posted her full name and photo, highlighted her precise location on Google Maps, and linked to a picture of her toy poodle, Fendi, being offered one of the puffy, orange-colored snacks.

"This is absolutely shocking," said her mother, Gayl, whose name was easy to find on Alyson's account on MyLife.com, a website that helps people connect with friends and relatives. "I would never have thought that a Twitter message could circle somebody back to that amount of information and that amount of detail," added the mother, who asked that the family's surname not be published.

Fortunately, ICanStalkU.com is an educational tool designed to demonstrate how easily personal information can be compromised online. Some experts fear that as Americans increasingly gravitate to social media and Internet-enabled devices, laws to protect them are not keeping pace.

"We're moving to a society where all of our major transactions are going to occur online," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a watchdog group. "We need to create a set of safeguards, certainly around the most critical of those transactions."

With privacy breaches involving such Web giants as Facebook and Google regularly in the news, Congress and the Federal Trade Commission are poised to take action. But as consumer advocates make the case for stronger laws, powerful corporations and trade groups are trumpeting the virtues of self-policing.

Read the full story here (subscription required)

A poll released Friday shows that most parents are concerned that their children are sharing too much information online, and both parents and teens say more restrictions should be placed on what information is shared about children.

The poll, released by Common Sense Media, found that 92 percent of parents say they worry that their children are sharing too much information online, while 79 percent of teens say they believe their friends share too much information online.

The poll, which surveyed teens and adults, shows both groups would like to see greater privacy protections, with 85 percent of teens responding that social media sites should obtain their permission before using their personal information for marketing purposes. And 88 percent of parents say they would support a law requiring social networking and other websites to obtain a user's consent before using their personal information to market products to them.

"Parents want far more education and leadership about online privacy, and they clearly want the industry and the federal government to update privacy policies," Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer said in a statement.

The issue has gained new attention with the growth of advertising-supported free content on the Web. Many sites collect information about a user's browsing habits so they can target ads at them based on the user's preferences.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides reviews on kids' movies, websites, games and other forms of media, called for several measures aimed at protecting children online. They include the creation of a do-not-track list for kids, which would allow them to opt-out of having their Web activities tracked for advertising, and establishing an opt-in requirement for collecting information from children.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski were scheduled to discuss the poll's findings at a news conference Friday. The FTC is in the process of reviewing its rules implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to see if they need to be updated to reflect changes in technology.

The poll was conducted in mid-August by Zogby International and surveyed 2,100 adults and 401 teens. The adult poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, while the survey of teens had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

The Consumer Electronics Association urged the National Association of Broadcasters not to pursue a Congressional mandate that would require manufacturers to install FM radio chips in all mobile phones in a letter sent to NAB on Thursday.

The "free market, not government mandates," wrote CEA President Gary Shapiro "holds the best hope for ensuring that [manufacturing and broadcasting] continue to innovate and thrive."

"We will vigorously oppose any effort to force manufacturers by legislative fiat to include legacy technology in devices," Shapiro added.

This is the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute about the chip mandate which is a byproduct of negotiations between the recording industry and broadcasters over performance royalties. NAB, in exchange for their support of a bill that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers a fee for playing their music on air, has asked Congress for the inclusion of a chip mandate.

In the wake of NAB's proposal, third parties including CEA and CTIA Wireless have been fighting against the possibility.

"It is premature to discuss a legislated mandate related to radio chips in cell phones, since no legislation has been introduced," NAB spokesperson Dennis Wharton said. "Nonetheless, the public safety benefits of having free and local radio's lifeline service in mobile devices is undeniable, a fact underscored by the disability community's recent endorsement of this technology."

See a related story here (subscription required)

A key Senate lawmaker said Thursday that a new GAO report that shows the White House has made slow progress in implementing the recommendations from a May 2009 cybersecurity review underscores the need for legislation that would provide the administration with more tools to do the job.

In a report released Wednesday, the GAO said the Obama administration has fully implemented only two of the 24 recommendations in the 2009 report, while 22 have been partially implemented.

"While the Administration has done an admirable job to date in recognizing and attempting to address the cyber threat, in many ways they are fighting this battle with one hand tied behind their back because they lack the tools and resources necessary to make real progress," Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management and Government Information Subcommittee, said in a statement.

"In order to maximize our security efforts we need to ensure that a fully capable civilian agency is at the helm of our cyber security efforts, working as an open and transparent partner with the private sector to defend our nation from these threats."

Carper urged passage of legislation he introduced with Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would establish the office of cyber policy in the White House to lead the federal government's cybersecurity efforts. The measure, which the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel approved this summer, also would establish a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications within the Department of Homeland Security that would enforce cybersecurity policies throughout the government and includes measures aimed at improving private sector cybersecurity.

President Obama signed legislation Thursday aimed at reducing the over-classification of government documents as secret.

The bill, introduced by House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., will require training and incentives to ensure materials are classified properly, mandate that portions of a document that are not sensitive can be stamped as unclassified, and create a classified information advisory officer to assist state and local law enforcement officials and the private sector access intelligence and other information about terrorist threats.

"H.R. 553 curbs over-classification - the practice of stamping intelligence 'secret' for the wrong reasons, often to protect turf or avoid embarrassment," Harman said in late September when the House cleared the bill. "Over-classification prevents the sharing of accurate, actionable and timely information horizontally across the government and vertically with state and local law enforcement."

Three prominent tech companies have come out in support of privacy legislation offered by a key House lawmaker, saying the bill provides "the appropriate balance."

On Monday, Intel, eBay and Microsoft wrote Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, voicing support for his privacy legislation, which was introduced in July.

Specifically, the bill would allow websites and other firms covered by the bill to use online information collected about users but they must provide clear notice about what information is being collected and how it is used and an opportunity for consumers to opt out. The measure also would require that consumers opt-in to having their information disclosed to a third party. The bill would exempt firms from this opt-in provision if they participate in a "universal opt-out program" operated by self-regulatory groups and monitored by the FTC.

"We support the bill's overall framework, which is built upon the Fair Information Practices regime. We appreciate that the BEST PRACTICES Act is technology neutral and gives flexibility to the Federal Trade Commission to adapt to changes in technology," Intel's David A. Hoffman, Microsoft's Fred Humphries and eBay's Scott R. Shipman said in their letter. "The bill also strikes the appropriate balance by providing businesses with the opportunity to enter into a robust self-regulatory choice program."

They urged Rush, however, to remove a provision allowing consumers to sue companies for violating the bill's provisions, saying it would create "unnecessary litigation costs and uncertainty for businesses" while failing to protect consumer privacy.

"Despite their differing business models, eBay, Intel, Microsoft and other content providers must be free to execute business plans that will generate sufficient revenue in exchange for providing 'free' content and services. I am glad that these companies view the legislation my staff and I worked so hard to produce as a major step in the right direction," Rush said in a statement Thursday.

Raking in nearly $1 million in campaign contributions, the legendary rainmaker Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., so far has received the most financial support from the communications and electronics sector this election cycle, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The top 10 congressional recipients of contributions from the communications and electronics sector are all Democrats. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is in a tight race for re-election, came in second behind Schumer, taking in roughly $700,000. Despite playing a major role in crafting tech and telecom legislation, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., came in tenth place with nearly $360,000.

None of the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and its Communications Subcommittee, which have jurisdiction over communications issues, made the top 20 list. On the House side, however, Energy and Commerce Chairman Committee Henry Waxman, D- Calif., ranked 17th, with $231,000 in contributions from the communications and electronics sector.

In total, the communications/electronics sector has given close to $58 million this campaign cycle with 65 percent going to Democrats and 34 percent going to Republicans. The party split is not much of a change from the 2008 cycle when 70 percent of the sector's contributions went to Democrats and 30 percent to the GOP.

The top five contributors of the Communications/Electronics Sector are not surprising.

AT&T donated the most, $3.3 million, followed by Comcast at $2.6 million. Microsoft trailed in third with $1.7 million while Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Associations were close behind at $1.5 million and $1.3 million, respectively. The figures reflect the amount donated by a company's political action committee and employee contributions.

Out of CRP's list of top 50 industries giving to members of Congress this cycle, business grouped in the TV/Movie/Music category came in at 12th contributing $11 million, telephone utilities ranked 36th donating $5.1 million and telecommunications services/equipment squeaked in at 50th giving nearly $3 million.

Boucher received the most ($78,900) from the telephone utilities industry and Reid took in the most ($74,500) from the telecom services/equipment industry.

The computers/internet industry gave most generously to Schumer, who does not face a tough fight for re-election, filling his coffers with $240,000. Schumer took in another $424,800 from firms grouped in the TV/movies/music category, topping their list of congressional recipients this cycle.

CRP is a non-profit organization that tracks money in politics. The industries referenced in this story reflect some, but not all, of the industries grouped with in the communications/electronics sector. For a full breakdown, see here.

A group of state utility regulators voiced support Thursday for legislation that would require cell phone operators to notify customers when they are getting close to their monthly voice or data limits.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners wrote Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, voicing support for the legislation offered by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. Although the group said it has not taken a position on "all aspects of the bill," NARUC backs efforts to ensure consumers have clear information about the rates, terms and conditions of their cell phone contracts.

Udall's legislation aims to address what has been described as "bill shock" when customers receive a much higher wireless bill than they anticipated because they have exceeded their monthly minutes, text messages, or data downloads. Udall's measure would require cell phone companies to notify customers by e-mail or text message free of charge when those customers have used 80 percent of their monthly limits under their plan. In addition, wireless providers also would be required to obtain a customer's consent before charging them for services not covered by their regular monthly service plan.

"To make informed decisions and to avoid bill shock or other unforeseen charges and fees, consumers need easy access to real-time information. The FCC complaint and survey data make clear that wireless bill shock is a concern," NARUC President David Coen wrote. Udall's bill "would ensure that consumers have access to the data needed to avoid bill shock and we urge Congress to adopt this legislation."

The FCC also has been studying the issue and is expected to vote next week at its monthly meeting on whether to seek comment on a proposed rule that would require wireless carriers to provide usage alerts and related information that will assist consumers in avoiding unexpected charges on their bills.

An FBI initiative that would make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap the Internet appears to be at odds with a recently launched cybersecurity public awareness campaign, NextGov reported.

Bureau officials are pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require manufacturers of Web-based technologies to equip their products with programs that allow the government to intercept messages from suspected criminals, according to media reports published last week.

Simultaneously, Obama administration officials are beginning an initiative aimed at teaching Americans how to defend themselves against hackers. The seemingly conflicting policies raise questions about the ability of the government to protect the security of the Internet while at the same time protecting the nation's security.

The Homeland Security Department on Monday kicked off its 7th annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month with its Stop. Think. Connect campaign. The department is suppling communities, organizations and individuals with materials that instruct Internet users how to safeguard personal information and online communications.

Civil liberties groups largely support the campaign. The initiative is "a great start," said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "If consumer's took the campaign's top-level advice to make sure they have antivirus software and firewalls that are properly installed, properly configured and kept up-to-date, a significant part of the cybersecurity problems that we face would be solved."

Read more here.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday announced more changes to the popular social networking site, including a new feature that allows users to decide with whom among their Facebook friends they want to share their information.

During a webcast from the firm's Palo Alto, Calif.,-headquarters, Zuckerberg announced Facebook would be adding two other new features to the site in addition to the new Groups settings, which will allow users to share information among a smaller group of Facebook friends.

"Some people talk about it as a privacy problem," Zuckerberg said of the inability up until now to share information with just some Facebook friends. "But a lot of time it's an annoying problem," in that users don't want to annoy some of their friends by posting pictures or other information that only some of their Facebook friends will want to see.

The other changes include allowing users to more easily download all their Facebook information - messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information - to their computer in one file. Most likely sensing the potential security and privacy implications, Facebook Product Manager David Recordon urged users to take their "security seriously" and said Facebook would take steps to ensure that it is the actual Facebook user who is asking to have their information downloaded.

The other change announced by Zuckerberg includes the creation of a dashboard that will display a Facebook user's privacy settings and the applications that are using the user's data and allow users to manage those settings.

In a blog post, Center for Democracy and Technology Policy Analyst Erica Newland said the changes to Facebook's Groups settings in particular represent "a revolution in approach for Facebook. The company that over the past year has repeatedly used questionable means to encourage users to share more of their information with the general public has finally returned to its roots and acknowledged that people use Facebook for different types of interactions with different types of people, be they friends, coworkers, or relatives."

The GAO said Wednesday that the White House has made slow progress in fully implementing a set of recommendations included in a cybersecurity review released by the Obama administration in May 2009.

The GAO report says the White House has fully implemented only two of the 24 recommendations in the 2009 report, while 22 have been partially implemented. The two that have been implemented called for appointing a cybersecurity coordinator within the National Security Council and a privacy and civil liberties official. Howard Schmidt was tapped by the president last year to serve as the federal government's cyber security coordinator, while the administration has designated a privacy and civil liberties official, according to a July National Security Council update on the cybersecurity report.

Among the recommendations that have been partially implemented include the call for developing "research and development strategies." GAO noted that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is developing a framerwork for cybersecurity research and development strategies that is expected to be completed next year.

Some of the key agencies involved said they have been slow to implement the recommendations because they have not been assigned roles and responsibilities related to the recommendations.

To help complete the other recommendations included in the report, the GAO urged Schmidt to designate "roles and responsibilities and develops milestones and plans for the recommendations that lacked these key planning elements."

The FCC slammed the Phoenix Center on Wednesday for releasing a paper that claims the FCC's regulatory agenda will harm new job creation.

The commission's Paul deSa wrote a scathing blog post calling the Phoenix paper a "frothy mix of algebra and math jargon," that, he sarcastically notes, is anything but obvious to understand. DeSa is the chief of the Office of Strategic Planning.

The commission took on the report's primary assertion head on saying a better title would have been "23 pages of Theory Actually Says Nothing at All About the Practical Effect of FCC's Agenda on New Job Creation."

The Phoenix paper found that, over a five year period, various FCC proposals could result in the loss of 130,000 information-sector jobs and the loss in earnings of $36 billion due to a decline in investment. The Phoenix Center is a free-market think tank that focuses on telecommunications and technology, among other areas.

Adding insult to injury, deSa jested that it would be "fun to wander over to the Phoenix Center to sip lattes," while developing convoluted technological jargon, but the FCC "would rather do the hard work of implementing real-world policies that help incumbents and innovators create real jobs and investments."

DeSa faulted the think tank for overlooking actions the FCC has taken--unleashing new spectrum, and blessing the Verizon-Frontier merger, among others--that helped spur job creation.

"We appreciate the FCC's amazingly rapid analysis of a very complex econometric study that took us some months to complete," said George S. Ford, chief economist at the Phoenix Center. "While we certainly recognize and commend the FCC's efforts to promote [broadband] investments by proposing reforms such as lower rates for pole attachments...the hard reality is that the FCC has simultaneously proposed heavy-handed price regulation in its Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking." The result of such regulation on the Internet, Ford says, is disincentive for the private sector to invest and subsequently, job loss.

UPDATE: 4:38 pm

After reading the blog entry by deSa (Ford's comments were in response to statements deSa made Tuesday evening) The Phoenix Center responded again:

"While we always welcome the opportunity to sit down with our good friend Dr. de Sa to enjoy a beverage of his choice, we would like to make clear that our analysis was never meant to take away from the good work the FCC has done to develop and implement a truly excellent National Broadband Plan,"said Lawrence J. Spiwak, president of the Phoenix Center.

"As we and others have pointed out, the FCC risks sabotaging its own efforts by trying to impose common carrier regulation on broadband transport,"Spiwak added. "Our paper simply provides an econometric multiplier to measure the effect of these proposed regulations on jobs, finds this effect to be significant, and will serve to undermine any good that they've done."

A union representing online, film and television writers Wednesday called on federal regulators if they approve the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal to require the combine company to donate at least $10 million a year for a decade to support public affairs programming on television and online.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Writers Guild of America East said it hopes the commission and the Justice Department will block the proposed merger. But if regulators approve the deal, the combined company should "contribute significant resources to the production of truly independent content," the guild said.

It suggests the funding be allocated in the same way that public television funding is provided through a nonprofit corporation similar to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

"Although we are also deeply concerned that the merger will limit the ability of independent producers of entertainment programming to reach their audiences, the effect will be particularly profound in the area of news and public affairs programming," the guild wrote.

The group and other critics say the combined company, which will merge the nation's biggest cable provider with a major broadcast network, movie studio and several cable channels, will have "enormous power over what people watch and a clear economic incentive" to direct viewers to the content it produces.

In response, Comcast noted in a statement that it has been a long-time supporter and funder of the public affairs cable network C-SPAN and has received support for its merger from other entertainment industry groups such as the Independent Film and Television Alliance and the Directors Guild.

"We've committed that the NBC-owned and operated broadcast stations will produce [an] additional 1,000 hours per year of local news and information programming for distribution on traditional and new media," Comcast Vice President of Government Communications Sena Fitzmaurice said in a statement. "While this is a thoughtful proposal, it ignores the fact that, taken as a whole, the range of public interest commitments already made by the combined companies promises to deliver more diverse programming and more independently produced programming than any entity has ever committed to before."

The Copyright Alliance announced Wednesday that its executive director, Patrick Ross, is stepping down from his post to return to a full-time writing career.

Ross has served as the group's chief since its launch in May 2007. Prior to that, he spent a decade as a journalist, working most of that time for Communications Daily and its sister publication Washington Internet Daily.

Ross will stay on in his current post while the alliance searches for a successor. "Patrick has been an unwavering and passionate advocate for the small and large creators of works protected by copyright, and has helped an organization grow into being an established voice on behalf of the creative community," the alliance's board said in a statement.

The alliance, which advocates for policies aimed at protecting and promoting copyrighted works, includes companies and groups such as the Association of American Publishers, the Business Software Alliance, CBS, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the Walt Disney Company.

A new report released Wednesday from the Center for Democracy and Technology argues that "meritless" calls to take down online campaign ads because they allegedly infringe copyrights are stifling online free speech.

CDT examined a dozen cases in which YouTube and other online sites were sent notices demanding that online videos be taken down because they allegedly infringed the senders' copyrighted material. CDT claimed in its report that all 12 cases it examined involved short clips of copyrighted works that are covered under the U.S. doctrine of fair use and therefore should not have been removed.

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides protection from liability for Internet service providers, online sites and other intermediaries who take down infringing material when notified of its existence on their networks or Web sites.

"We actually think the DMCA notice and take-down process ... is a good and balanced approach," CDT Senior Policy Counsel David Sohn said during a conference call with reporters. "The problem is that the process is being abused."

Given the growing importance of online ads in modern campaigns, meritless requests for take-downs under the DMCA sent to sites like YouTube threaten online political speech, Sohn said.

"Advocacy organizations and individual candidates increasingly rely on [user-generated content] platforms to communicate more directly with voters. In addition, such sites have given individuals powerful new platforms for expressing their opinions and participating in the political process," according to the report. "Therefore, if spurious DMCA takedowns targeting such online advocacy are widespread, the impact on political speech - highly protected under the First Amendment - could be significant."

CDT noted that its report was prompted by an incident from the 2008 presidential campaign when Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign complained in a letter to YouTube about several incidents when online videos posted by the campaign on the site had been taken down after YouTube was sent take-down notices under the DMCA from parties claiming infringement. In the letter, the McCain campaign argued that such take downs were unjustified because the material at issue was covered under fair use.

The allegedly meritless take-down notices CDT identified involved a number of news organizations including Christian Broadcasting Network, Fox News, MSNBC and National Public Radio, CDT said.

CDT said the cases it examined were not motivated by copyright concerns but often related to issues not covered by the DMCA such as "concerns over reputation and false endorsement." CDT also argued that given the widespread use of what it deems as meritless take-down notices, safeguards included in the DMCA to challenge such notices "have not been effective," particularly when they involve ads from campaigns that may not have the time or resources to challenge take-down notices.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

After three years and 10 rounds of talks, the United States and several other countries appear to have wrapped up formal talks over a proposed trade agreement aimed at increasing international cooperation in the fight to curb piracy and counterfeiting.

The parties released the latest text Wednesday following the final round of talks in Tokyo last week over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Despite public release of a text, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement that the "draft agreement will undergo final legal review and relevant domestic processes before signature."

"This text reflects tremendous progress in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy - a global crime wave that robs workers in the United States and around the world of good-paying jobs and exposes consumers to dangerous products," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. "...We must now work quickly with our partners to finalize the results achieved in the Tokyo."

In addition to the United States, other countries involved in the ACTA talks included the member countries of the European Union as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland.

"Today's release of the ACTA text marks an important step forward in the negotiations between 40 countries working to raise the bar for intellectual property enforcement," Rob Calia, senior director for counterfeiting and piracy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center, said in a news release. "Better enforcement of IP rights around the world will help strengthen the global economy, create new jobs, and protect consumers from dangerous products."

Some public interest and technology groups as well as U.S. and European lawmakers have criticized the secrecy surrounding the ACTA negotiating process. Critics also voiced concern with some of the proposed provisions in previous drafts, particularly those related to online infringement and counterfeiting. They said the proposed deal would export IP protections in U.S. law without including provisions balancing the rights of users.

The MusicFIRST coalition Tuesday urged Congress to pass a measure that would require AM and FM radio stations to pay performers a fee for playing their music on air, saying the music industry groups will use all of their power to advance the bill during a lame-duck session to be held in mid-November, CongressDaily reported.

"The MusicFIRST coalition is growing impatient," said Jennifer Bendall, executive director of the coalition, which represents recording artists, music businesses and performance rights advocates. "Congressional leaders have said they want this issue resolved this year and if broadcasters can't agree among themselves then we expect Congress to act."

Performance rights legislation has been approved by the House and Senate Judiciary committees, but has stalled with resistance from a host of lawmakers and the National Association of Broadcasters.

For many years, the NAB has flatly refused to support performance rights' legislation, but for the first time, the broadcasters have engaged in talks with the entertainment industry at the behest of lawmakers calling on the groups to reach a compromise.

"The broadcasters have never been willing before to even talk to us," said Hal Ponder, director of government relations at the American Federation of Musicians. "Things are changing and we think we have good momentum."

Continue reading here (subscription required)

Some members of the European Parliament are demanding that the European Commission provide the final text - if talks have indeed concluded - on a proposed trade agreement aimed at increasing international cooperation in the fight to curb piracy and counterfeiting.

Following the most recent round of talks late last month in Tokyo, negotiators involved in drafting the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement issued a statement Saturday indicating that they had "constructively resolved nearly all substantive issues and produced a consolidated and largely finalized text of the proposed agreement."

They added that the negotiating parties have "agreed to work expeditiously to resolve the small number of outstanding issues that require further examination in capitals, with a view to finalizing the text of the agreement as promptly as possible." In addition to the United States and the EU, other countries invovled in the ACTA talks include Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland.

U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel told Tech Daily Dose Tuesday that the ACTA text may be released this week.

The ACTA talks have been criticized for lacking transparency. Some public interest groups have been pushing the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and others invovled in the ACTA talks to release more details about the draft treaty.

European Parliament Vice President Stavros Lambrinidis and three other Parliament members who have been active in pushing for more transparency in the ACTA talks said in a statement Monday that "there is no credible way of knowing whether the negotiations are actually concluded or not" and once again criticized the secrecy surrounding the process.

"In case the agreement has indeed been initialed, we demand from the Commission to present the final ACTA text to the European Parliament as soon as it is procedurally possible," the European Parliament members said. "It is the Parliament that will ultimately have to decide on rejecting or accepting the agreement, and a complete and thorough briefing of its members is now more urgent than ever."

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday morning to determine whether NASA's implementation of a 2004 presidential directive violates contractors' privacy rights by requiring them to submit to extensive background checks for federal identification badges, Nextgov.com reported.

The high court will review a 2008 9th Circuit Court of Appeals injunction blocking NASA from probing the backgrounds of scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., operated by the California Institute of Technology. The appeals court found the investigations were too intrusive, prompting the Justice Department to petition the Supreme Court in November 2009 to review the injunction.

NASA argued the background checks were necessary to comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, which established a common identification standard for federal employees and contractors to access government buildings and computers. Under the directive, agencies are responsible for determining the level of background investigations, based on the degree of risk assigned to a position.

"At issue is a NASA demand that employees who don't do classified work undergo unconstrained background investigations into the most intimate details of their private lives," Robert Nelson, lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement outside the court following oral arguments. "The information being demanded is irrelevant to our ability to perform our jobs. NASA has made this demand without providing justification. NASA has no need to know." To read more, click here.

Following Verizon Wireless' recent announcement that it will refund millions of customers for charging them for inadvertent Internet use, three senators wrote the FCC Tuesday urging the commission to maintain strong oversight of wireless firms' billing practices.

"As Verizon Wireless' recent decision makes clear, wireless consumers are often faced with confusion over wireless charges and uncertainty about their bills," Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., along with Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. They added, "In light of these statistics, we urge the FCC to maintain robust oversight of billing practices in the wireless industry. "

Verizon Wireless said in a statement Sunday that it would provide refunds to about 15 million customers for "mistaken past data charges." The company said that a review of its billing practices found that these customers, who did not have data plans, were billed for Internet use "they did not initiate." The firm said most of the credits or refunds would total $2 to $6 in most cases, with some receiving larger credits or refunds. They will reportedly total as much as $90 million.

While praising Verizon's move as a "positive step" for consumers, the senators said the incident "highlights the need for the Federal Communications Commission to remain committed to vigorous oversight of billing practices in the wireless industry."

FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison said in a statement that the commission began investigating complaints from Verizon customers about the data charges 10 months ago and will continue to examine the possibility of imposing additional penalties against Verizon Wireless.

"We're gratified to see Verizon agree to finally repay its customers," Ellison said. "But questions remain as to why it took Verizon two years to reimburse its customers and why greater disclosure and other corrective actions did not come much, much sooner."

The FCC has proposed rules aimed at addressing concerns over "bill shock," which would require mobile carriers to better inform consumers so they aren't surprised by unexpected charges. The commission is set to vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking related to bill shock at its Oct. 14 public meeting. The agency also has probed concerns over early termination fees, which wireless carriers charge when a customer breaks their wireless contract. Klobuchar has been particularly active on that issue, introducing legislation late last year that would restrict ETFs.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that it is seeking comment on ways to protect copyrighted works on the Internet while still fostering technological innovation.

The department's Internet Policy Task Force issued a notice of inquiry that seeks comment from a variety of stakeholders including copyright holders, technology companies, Internet service providers and Internet users. The task force, which was formed in April, is made up of officials from four Commerce Department agencies: the International Trade Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Patent and Trademark Office.

Among the questions the task force is asking of copyright holders include what challenges copyright holders have experienced in trying to develop new online business models and to counter online infringement and what technologies are available to help detect or prevent online infringement and how effective are they.

The NOI asks Internet intermediaries such as Internet service providers about requests under such laws as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to take down content that is infringing a copyrighted work. The notice asks how frequently ISPs and other intermediaries are asked to take down infringing content, how accurate such requests are, and what processes copyright holders use to ensure their requests are legitimate.

Internet users are asked to comment on such issues as the prevalence and effectiveness of initiatives aimed at educating users about copyright infringement. They also are asked whether current methods for detecting copyright infringement hamper their ability to obtain legal copies of such works or to "share legal user-generated content."

The department said the comments will be used by the task force in a report that will provide suggestions to assist the Obama administration as it crafts new policies related to domestic and international online copyright protection. Stakeholders have until Nov. 19 to submit comments.

"The Department of Commerce has played an instrumental role in the development of policies that have helped digital commerce flourish," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. He added that, "Our ongoing challenge and commitment is to align the flexibility needed for innovation in the Internet economy with effective means of protecting copyrighted works that are accessible online."

The issue of online piracy has gained new attention in recent months with the release in June of the White House's joint strategic plan on copyright enforcement, the introduction last month of legislation from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., aimed at cracking down on online piracy and counterfeiting, and the ongoing effort by the United States, European Union and other countries to develop an international trade agreement to increase cooperation on efforts to curb online piracy and counterfeiting.

Curbing Internet piracy is a big priority for the administration, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel said on Tuesday.

The administration does not have an official position on the Combating Online Privacy Infringement and Counterfeits Act, a measure recently introduced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., but looks forward to working with Congress on finding an appropriate legislative solution, Espinel noted.

Espinel's remarks came at the Future of Music Coalition policy summit where she spoke about the work her office is conducting and fielded questions from the audience.

"My job is to protect the creativity of U.S. citizens," she said. To that end, her office is working to carry out a strategic plan the White House released in June.

Espinel highlighted a few initiatives of the plan: A call to the private sector--rights holders, Internet service providers, search engines--to reduce the flow illegal content online and a review of domestic IP laws aiming to ensure they are keeping pace with technology.

"IP enforcement should stop the work of those that steal from others, but not stop those who are building on the work of others," Espinel said, noting the importance of the fair use doctrine. To balance copyright laws, the fair use doctrine allows an individual to reproduce a particular work for certain purposes including reporting and teaching.

When asked by a reporter what the administration's position is on net neutrality, Espinel deferred to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski (who was not present) saying the topic is under his bailiwick. The administration, however, sent a statement to Tech Daily Dose about the matter citing a House effort to advance a net neutrality bill as a positive indication of possible compromise on the issue.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released a new report on Tuesday delineating the landscape of American digital politics.

"Digital politics, if not the greatest issue of our age, will be central to the life of our nation in the years ahead," the guide states.

The report describes who the major players in the information technology space are and where their attitude falls on cross-cutting policy dynamics such as government regulation versus laissez-faire and individual empowerment versus societal benefit.

According to ITIF, there are 8 major political actors in the IT world: cyber-libertarians, social engineers, free marketers, moderates, moral conservatives, old economy regulators, tech companies and trade associations, and bricks-and-mortars.

Cyber-libertarians "believe they launched the Internet revolution," and think "'information wants to be free' and that all software should be open-source," the report notes. The Free Software Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are cited as examples of groups that fit into this category.

The basic worldview of each actor is detailed in the report.

Lastly, the guide provides a summary of where the players stand on policy debates of on-going issues such as net neutrality, copyright protection, Internet sales tax and privacy issues.

ITIF is hosting an event Tuesday morning to discuss the paper. Speakers include Tech Daily Dose editor Juliana Gruenwald and ITIF president Rob Atkinson. Find out more here.

The CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, announced he will step down on Monday in order to shift his focus to product strategy.

Twitter chief operating officer Dick Costolo will replace Williams as the new CEO effective today.

"I am most satisfied while pushing product direction," Williams noted, citing the principle reason for letting Costolo take his spot.

During his tenure at Twitter, Costolo has been "a critical leader in devising and executing our revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office," Williams wrote. He made his announcement over the Twitter blog (in more than 140 characters).

When Williams started as CEO two years ago, Twitter employed roughly 20 people and users created about 1.25 million tweets a day. Today 300 people work for Twitter and users create some 90 million tweets a day.

Twitter has been contacted for further commentary.

Read more at TheWrap.

If "The Social Network" didn't satisfy your hunger for Facebook-themed entertainment, try Facebook the comic book!

In December, Bluewater productions will publish "Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook," a 48 page biographical comic book. The comic, written by Jerome Maida and penciled by Sal Field, will sell for $6.99.

"This is a fascinating story," Maida said. "Mark was offered loads of money at a young age and turned all his suitors down because deep down he knew he had higher goals than to work for someone else."

The book attempts to identify the real Mark Zuckerberg, someone in between a cold-blooded business man and a benevolent donor of millions to public schools.

"Rightly or wrongly, Mark dealt harshly with some people on his way to where he is today," Maida said. "I try my best to be fair here."

Facebook declined to comment on the pending comic.

In other news about the social media giant, Facebook DC Live launched on Monday with a broadcast from the Future of Music Coalition's policy summit. Check out the video here to see attendees chat with FB spokesperson Andrew Noyes about net neutrality and how social media has impacted the music industry, among other topics.

*Incidentally, Jerome Maida is not the alter-ego of Sara Jerome, the technology reporter at The Hill.

A coalition of public interest groups and private organizations sent President Obama a letter on Monday pressing the administration not to rush the regulatory review of the proposed $30 billion merger between Comcast and NBC Universal.

"We urge your administration to ensure this unprecedented combination receives the scrutiny that it deserves," the letter concluded.

The signatories, also known as the Coalition for Competition in Media, attacked Comcast in the note saying the company's lobbying efforts "are a complete affront to the regulatory process and the job asked of your administration to protect consumers and competition."

In particular, the coalition took issue with Comcast's recent announcement that Steve Burke, currently chief operating officer at Comcast, will lead the united companies upon completion of the merger. The release wrongly assumed "the merger was a foregone conclusion," the coalition noted.

Opponents of the merger say it will harm competition and consumers by potentially leading to higher prices and fewer choices for programming. The matter is currently under review by the FCC and the Justice Department.

The letter comes shortly after it was revealed that Comcast executive vice president David L. Cohen had a meeting last April with Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff. A spokesperson for Comcast told Broadcasting and Cable that Emanuel and Cohen discussed the merger among other topics. Cohen and Emanuel have been friends for several decades, the spokesperson noted.

UPDATE: 3:30 pm

In response to the letter, Comcast refuted the assertions made by the coalition in the following statement:

"The Comcast NBCU transaction has already been the most thoroughly reviewed merger in media history - with the longest FCC comment period and the most congressional hearings, six, of any similar transaction. For a lobbying coalition funded by our competitors to imply the review of this transaction has not been deliberate and thorough is insulting to the Congress, the FCC, and the Department of Justice. We're proud of the over 1,000 local community organizations, elected officials, diversity organizations and others that have expressed their support for this transaction that is pro-competitive and fully in the public interest."

AT&T executive Hank Hultquist said on Friday that reclassifying broadband from an information service to a public utility would not prohibit carriers from prioritizing some content over others.

"Reclassification is not much of a threat to prioritization," Hultquist said "the FCC has decades of precedence of tariffs that were deemed lawful for the provision of prioritization."

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski proposed placing broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime, last spring when a court case cast doubt on the commission's authority over the Internet. Genachowski called his plan "the third way" saying he would exempt broadband from the more onerous provisions of Title II such as price controls.

Industry and many members of Congress oppose his plan while consumer advocates seeking to protect the openness of the Internet will settle for nothing less.

Hultquist's comment suggests that the FCC's third-way approach may not lend the commission the power to stop "paid prioritization", the most-feared practice by net neutrality advocates.

Paid prioritization, public interest groups say, will hurt average users by allowing corporate gatekeepers to pick winners and losers on the Internet. Internet service providers refute that claim arguing that providing businesses with premium service and individuals with quality connections is not a zero-sum game.

Hultquist's remarks came at a forum held by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation on the role of managed services on broadband networks. The AT&T executive also noted that Title II has "many warts" and that the net neutrality debate suffers from being hyper-political.

ITIF senior fellow Richard Bennett, who also spoke at the event, suggested that lawmakers need to develop a principle of non-discrimination that gives carriers the ability to prioritize content as needed for smooth performance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed a $5 billion deal with 30 vendors that will compete for information technology work during the next decade, CDC officials said on Thursday, NextGov reported.

The agreement, which consolidates several expiring IT contracts, continues and expands a seven-year initiative called the CDC Information Technology Support Project, which Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. won in 2003 to provide service to more than 200 information systems. The agency now operates about 400 major systems, according to the solicitation for the new information management services project.

The incumbent companies are among the winners of the new contract, which was awarded on Sept. 23.

Some analysts said the pact makes sound business sense given the fact that the billions of dollars will not be paid out all in one year and CDC's good track record on fiscal responsibility.

For example, every major spending category at CDC is either flat or declining going into fiscal year 2011, according to Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president at market research firm FedSources. He also noted the agency recently combined its 13 IT infrastructure services to cut operating costs by 21 percent, or $23 million, according to CDC officials.

Read more here.

Monday
Frontier Communications hosts a 9:00 am breakfast with their CEO, Maggie Wilderotter. Frontier describes themselves as the "largest pure rural communications provider in the country."

The Future of Music Coalition, as part of two-day forum, hosts an 11:00 am policy panel to discuss ways government can foster the presence of music in American culture. Speakers include Ron Sims, Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Michael Bracy, co-founder and policy director, Future of Music Coalition.

Tuesday
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation hosts a 9:30 am discussion about the political landscape of the Internet. Speakers include ITIF president Rob Atkinson and Tech Daily Dose reporter, Juliana Gruenwald.

The Future of Music Coalition, as part of a two-day forum, hosts 10:00 am speech by Victoria Espinel, US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at the Office of Management and Budget.

The New America Foundation hosts a 4:00 pm discussion on "Public Media in a Digital Age: Broadcast, Broadband and Beyond." Speakers include Josh Silver, president and CEO of Free Press and Mark Thompson, director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The Institute for Policy Innovation holds an evening reception on the Capitol as part of the communications summit, "Crisis or Opportunity : A Regulatory Crossroads"

Wednesday
The Institute for Policy Innovation holds a all-day communications forum, "Crisis or Opportunity : A Regulatory Crossroads." Speakers include Veronica Bloodworth, VP of network management at AT&T and Larry Plumb, executive director of emerging issues and technology policy at Verizon.

When Kevin Martin stepped down as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in early 2009, many thought that his days as a force on regulatory issues were over. Today, he has re-emerged as a power broker, corralling significant opposition to the proposed $30 billion union of Comcast and NBC Universal, the first blockbuster communications deal to go before the Obama administration, which must decide whether to approve it.

As co-chairman of the technology practice at Patton Boggs, Washington's highest-grossing lobbying firm, Martin represents a half-dozen clients who are seeking to derail or heavily condition a joint venture that would create an entertainment juggernaut. Among the proposed entity's holdings: dozens of television networks and websites, including NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC; broadcast stations in 10 markets; Universal Studios and its library of several thousand films, its theme parks; and a sports arena.

The stakes in the lobbying battle engulfing Washington couldn't be higher. In addition to worries about consumer choice and competition, on the line are the business model for accessing programming through the Web and network television's role in the Internet era. Perhaps more important, so is the template for the Obama administration's review of future communications mega-mergers.

Martin's new role seems a natural fit, given his well-documented history of sparring with the cable television industry and in particular Comcast, already the nation's largest provider of cable and residential broadband service. But he is also raising eyebrows for his dramatic makeover that would impress even the most sophisticated image expert.

As the FCC's top regulator during the Bush administration, Martin presided over unprecedented telecom-industry consolidation and championed a controversial relaxation of media ownership rules criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. Opponents faulted him for failing to promote media diversity and ownership opportunities for minorities and women.

Now, the North Carolina native and Harvard Law School graduate has refashioned himself into an advocate of the disenfranchised, with a client list that includes the National Coalition of African American Owned Media. The group, formed after the Comcast transaction was announced in December, has drawn scrutiny for its demands and motives -- and raised questions about Martin's tactics.

To read the rest of this National Journal magazine story, click here (subscription required)

To see an accompanying interactive graphic, click here

For a city like Washington that lives on the latest morning polling results, waiting 10 years for the results of a survey to gauge popular sentiment on an issue is hell.

But this is what the astronomical community does every decade since the early 1960s to prioritize the allocation of federal funding for billions of dollars worth of astronomy programs and projects, funded by NASA, the Energy Department and the National Science Foundation.

With the release of "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics," which outlines the results of the most recent survey, it's worth pondering how realistic it is to expect federal funding for the astronomical community's wish list. After all, we're in an atmosphere of debt and tight budgets, run against the backdrop of the midterm election.

The wish list includes projects ranging from the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope and other international space- and ground-based observatories -- the American shares of which are projected to cost up to $2.5 billion -- to small technology development programs at NASA costing a few million dollars. The pre-publication copy of the final report can be viewed at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/bpa/BPA_049810 for recommendation details.

The survey, which is organized by the National Research Council, got its start with prompting from members of Congress, many of whom found it difficult to assess competing requests for astronomical funding, said Debra Elmegreen, president of the American Astronomical Society and a professor at Vassar College.

Continue reading on CongressDaily [subscription required]

David Honig, president and executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, urged the FCC Friday not to proceed with his regulatory proposals for broadband, but to instead give Congress another shot at passing network neutrality legislation during the upcoming lame duck session.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has proposed expanding the agency's net neutrality guidelines designed to preserve the Internet's openness, and has recommended tougher regulation for providers of the technology. Strong resistance from industry and both parties forced him cede to Congress, which failed this week to settle on a legislative fix.

Honig's view is at odds with other watchdogs and several prominent Democratic lawmakers who have urged Genachowski to act following the collapse of last-minute legislative efforts. The minority media advocate backs enhanced net neutrality safeguards but opposes reclassifying broadband as a telecom service subject to stricter regulation. He contends that such a step would undermine opportunities for minority enterprises. "The tide is in favor of getting the legislation that almost crossed the finished line," he insisted.

With the collapse of efforts to forge a House network neutrality bill Wednesday and Congress in recess until after the election, stakeholders are working hard to spin the outcome in terms that favor their position. The legislation at hand would have codified some principles aiming to protect the openness of the Internet.

Much of the rhetorical battle will come down to interpretation of the House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman's statement conceding his inability to gain bipartisan support for the measure and thus, move forward.

In his release, Waxman noted that he would continue to push for a bill during a lame-duck session but also called on the FCC to move forward with reclassifying broadband under Title II of the Communications Act, a more stringent regulatory regime, if lawmakers' fail to take action.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed reclassification last spring after a court ruling cast doubt on the commission's authority over broadband. Despite Genachowski's word that broadband would be spared the more onerous provisions of Title II, such as price controls, industry and many members of Congress have come out in fierce opposition to his idea.

Groups in favor of giving the FCC greater regulatory authority over broadband are running with Waxman's statement as a mandate for the commission to reclassify while organizations on the other side of the issue say Congress must lead the way and a legislative compromise is still possible.

"We are in full agreement with Chairman Waxman that the FCC must act now to protect consumers by reinstating its authority over broadband," GiGi B. Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said in a statement.

"While bipartisan efforts to set rules of the road were unsuccessful, the FCC still has the power to break the grid-lock on net neutrality," said Amalia Deloney, policy director at the Center for Media Justice. "We hope Waxman follows through on the words of his office, 'The bottom line is that we must protect the open Internet.'"

CMJ describes itself as a coalition of out-the-Beltway community organizations that fight for the rights for small businesses, minorities and low-income Americans.

Opponents of reclassification, meanwhile, have promoted the possibility of a legislative solution.

"This agreement [Waxman's bill] demonstrates that when all parties act in good faith, and resist extreme voices, it is indeed possible to find a reasonable middle ground on the net neutrality issue," Jim Cicconi, head of external and legislative affairs at AT&T, said. "We remain convinced that the proper course is for Congress to decide the scope of authority it wishes the FCC to have in this area."

The Internet Innovation Alliance echoed that sentiment.

"The Waxman bill shows that a compromise to create jobs, preserve investment and protect consumers is a realistic goal," IIA co-chairman David Sutphen said. "Forging ahead with Title II reclassification is an unnecessary answer to a complex debate that has been unfolding for months."

For the imminent future, all eyes will be on the FCC now to see whether the agency will act on broadband regulation.

According to Sascha Meinrath, director of the Open Technology Initiative at the New America Foundation, the FCC may not act unless the White House comes out with strong public support for it. "In many ways that becomes the linchpin," Meinrath said.

When asked if the administration will support reclassification in the wake of the House's failed efforts, the White House issued a statement, saying, "The leadership of Chairman Waxman in bringing a range of parties together in support of an agreement shows that it is possible to forge a productive path forward on this issue."

"The administration strongly wants to see this issue addressed effectively," the White House said while affirming President Obama's support for preserving an open Internet.