January 2012

A month after its bid to buy rival T-Mobile USA was derailed, AT&T announced it is reshuffling its management by putting a company veteran in a new position where he will help chart the company's future business strategy, Reuters reports.

Members of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee questioned calls to update a 1988 law aimed at protecting privacy of video rental records, PC World reports.

Amazon announced that its fourth quarter profits fell by 57 percent due to increased shipping costs and its Kindle Fire, which the Internet retailer is selling at a loss, according to Bloomberg.

USA Today reports that scammers are targeting those Facebook users who are wary of the company's plans to roll out its new Timeline service.

Apple has become the world's top PC maker -- if its popular iPad tablet is included in the definition of a personal computer, according to Information Week.

To read all of today's e-Reads, go to our Tech page.

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Tuesday to overhaul a subsidy program to provide communications services to low-income Americans.

The plan adopted by the commission would shift some of the focus of the LifeLine program from telephone to broadband service, while discontinuing most of the LinkUp program, which provided extra money to connect to communications services. The plan will also implement measures to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.

LifeLine is part of the FCC's universal service program, in which fees collected from telecom companies help subsidize service in underserved areas and communities.
U.S. Telecom, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and several Democrats on key congressional subcommittees praised the FCC vote.

"In addition to rooting out inefficiencies, the FCC has recognized with these reforms that broadband is an essential communications tool for all Americans," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee. "The establishment of a broadband adoption pilot program will help close our nation's digital divide, while addressing a key recommendation of the FCC's National Broadband Plan."

But AT&T's Bob Quinn expressed concerns over the fund's ability to pay for itself.
"While the steps the FCC announced today are commendable, we fear the speed of reform is getting far outpaced by the actual dollar growth of the fund itself," he said. "Policymakers must begin to discuss whether it continues to make sense for an independent agency to administer a fund this size with no Congressional oversight or decision-making input to the appropriate size of the fund."

Google is defending its proposed changes to its privacy policies against bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill, saying that it still gives consumers control and many tools to manage their privacy.

Google said last week that while it is streamlining privacy policies, it also will track and collect data about users as they move from one Google service to another.

"We believe that the relevant issue is whether users have choices about how their data is collected and used," Google Public Policy Director Pablo Chavez wrote in a letter Monday to lawmakers.

House lawmakers from both parties, however, have raised concerns about the changes, including why Google is not offering users an opportunity to opt out of being tracked while using all of Google's services.

Google argued in its letter that the company is not collecting any new information and still provides users with many tools to manage the level of privacy they want to have while using Google products. Chavez noted, for example, that if users have chosen to opt out of receiving targeted ads, that preference will not change.

"We give users choice and control over how they use our products. People can use many of our services, including Search, Maps, Google News, YouTube and more, without logging into their Google Account, or creating one in the first place," Chavez said.

Some of the lawmakers who wrote Google last week say they are not satisfied with the company's explanation. "Google did a little tap dancing in the letter, and Chairman Bono Mack intends to aggressively pursue the 'opt out' question in our briefing with the company later this week," said Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif. She chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over consumer privacy issues and plans to meet privately later this week with Google representatives to discuss its privacy changes.

And Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a senior Energy and Commerce member, said Google has yet to satisfy his concerns. "Sharing users' personal information across its products may make good business sense for Google, but it undermines privacy safeguards for consumers," Markey said in a statement. "Despite Google's recent response, it still appears that consumers will not be able to completely opt-out of data collection and information sharing among Google's services. Congress and consumers need more details, and I look forward to meeting with Google to get clarification about what the options are for consumers who wish to say no to these new changes."

Federal officials say all data on Megaupload's servers - legitimate or not - is due to be dumped this week. AP reports 50 million customers could lose their files.

Bloomberg reports on proposed legislation from Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, that would make carriers report on tracking software.

Reuters has a video on a nano-coating to protect your cellphone if you, say, drop it in the toilet.

The rich and privileged have already feasted on Facebook, even before its highly awaited IPO, Reuters columnist Rob Cox comments. And there's another commentary on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger.

Just where did Anonymous come from?

See more of today's e-reads on our Tech page.

Twitter is facing a backlash after it said it would selectively censor itself, the Guardian reports.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is dueling with hackers, Yahoo News reports.

And Motley Fool wonders if the iPhone is killing AT&T.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra has resigned, the White House said Friday.

"As the federal government's first Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra did groundbreaking work to bring our government into the 21st century," President Obama said in a statement. He credited Chopra with finding innovative ways to use technology to engage Americans.

The statement did not say why Chopra is leaving or what his plans are.

Chopra oversees the administration's technology agenda, from cybersecurity and job creation to health IT and broadband. He also helped author the administration's position on recent anti-piracy legislation. As the economy continued to suffer, Chopra focused on many innovation issues.

Chopra came to the White House in 2009 after three years as secretary of technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Former GOP social media consultant George Alafoginis will join Facebook's 2012 campaign team to focus on advertising efforts.

Alafoginis most recently worked for the consulting group New Media Strategies, where a pictorial bio describes him as a "crowd surfer" and a "jetsetter" who has celebrated two birthdays while at the firm. Alafoginis also previously worked for the Republican National Committee as deputy director for Online Strategy & Technology Deployment.

Facebook has launched a range of Election 2012 features, including a partnership with Politico, a presidential debate with NBC, and a politics webpage.

Facebook also conducted an analysis of reaction to this week's State of the Union speech.

Newt Gingrich's proposal to establish a permanent American colony on the moon elicited sharp rebukes and jokes from his rivals for the GOP presidential nomination at a debate in Florida on Thursday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said the plan is simply pandering to Florida interests, and said he would fire anyone who suggested such an idea to him.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, meanwhile, joked that he would send politicians to the moon.

The clash highlighted the conflicting values that brought down America's most recent efforts to revisit the moon.

President George W. Bush launched a moon program with a goal similar to that proposed by Gingrich, but budget realities and a lack of political will led President Obama to shelve the project in 2010.

More on how Gingrich's ideas jibe with old plans can be found here.

It's been a month since its bid to buy T-Mobile USA went south, and AT&T made clear Thursday that it hasn't forgotten the Federal Communications Commission's role in the deal's demise.

The two sides clashed Thursday after AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson complained that the FCC is taking too long and using inconsistent standards to decide spectrum transactions and other deals.

"This industry continues to see just explosive mobile broadband growth and it's providing one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy. But I think we all understand this growth cannot continue without more spectrum being cleared and brought to market," Stephenson said on a conference call Thursday morning to discuss the company's earnings report. "Despite all the speeches from the FCC, we are all still waiting. The last significant spectrum auction was nearly five years ago now and this FCC has made it abundantly clear that they will not allow significant [merger and acquisition] to help bridge their delays in freeing up new spectrum."

AT&T reported a $6.7 billion loss in the last quarter of 2011 in large part because of the break-up fee it must pay after its bid to buy T-Mobile failed. The company dropped its bid for T-Mobile last month after both the Justice Department and the FCC objected to the deal.

Stephenson complained on Thursday that the FCC used differing sets of standards related to how much spectrum AT&T can hold in each market for evaluating its bid for T-Mobile and in its recently cleared purchase of a swath of spectrum from Qualcomm.

"We are literally sitting here in a situation where we don't know how much spectrum we are allowed to hold...who we are allowed to do business with, and so forth," he said.

The FCC fired back Thursday afternoon noting that the commission has approved more than 150 commercial mobile transactions in the last year, including AT&T's Qualcomm deal.

"Unfortunately, these facts were completely ignored in the conference call," FCC spokesman Neil Grace said in a statement. On the AT&T-T-Mobile deal, Grace added that, "The DOJ and FCC staffs concluded that this action would violate the antitrust laws and result in higher prices for consumers, and less innovation and investment in the marketplace. Those conclusions surely disappointed AT&T executives, but they followed directly from the facts and the law."

It wasn't always this way between the telecom operator and its regulator. Just over a year ago, AT&T was among the few broadband providers to endorse the FCC's controversial open Internet order. Then again both sides got something out of it. For AT&T, the order's most controversial provisions did not apply to the growing wireless broadband market. At the same time, the FCC gained the support of one of the biggest broadband providers in the country.

The Obama administration is in talks with the European Commission about possible revisions to a 2000 agreement ensuring U.S. companies are in compliance with the European Union's privacy directive given proposed changes to those rules.

Commerce Department Senior Internet Policy Adviser Ari Schwartz told Tech Daily Dose Thursday that U.S. and EU officials are in discussions about whether the safe harbor agreement also will need to be revised.

The commission on Wednesday proposed several changes to the directive that would streamline compliance but also toughen some of the standards. It also makes it clear that the EU rules do apply to U.S. companies that do business in Europe -- even U.S.-based websites used by Europeans.

Schwartz and Federal Trade Commission member Julie Brill declined to comment on the proposed changes to the EU directive.

But both the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission voiced some concerns with an earlier draft of the commission's proposed changes.

AT&T's CEO complained about FCC regulation in discussing the company's $6.7 billion loss in the last quarter of 2011, which stemmed primarily from the break-up fee the company paid as part of its failed bid to buy T-Mobile USA, Information Week reports.

Despite a big jump in new customers from a year ago, the Wall Street Journal says AT&T is still attracting fewer new customers than rival Verizon Wireless.

Facebook has hired Bloomberg's former social media director to work as the social networking service's managing editor, Business Insider reports.

The Sunlight Foundation examines why Congress has such a hard time understanding technology.

Google says it will now allow teenagers to sign up for its social networking service Google +, Fox News reports.

Read all of today's e-Reads on our Tech page.

A bipartisan group of House Energy and Commerce members asked Google on Thursday to explain why it plans to start tracking users and collecting information about them across all the company's products.

"As an Internet giant, Google has a responsibility to protect the privacy of its users," the eight lawmakers wrote Google CEO Larry Page. "Therefore, we are writing to learn why Google feels that these changes are necessary, and what steps are being taken to ensure protection of consumers' privacy rights."

The letter was signed by Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., as well as Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who is the only signer who doesn't sit on Energy and Commerce.

Even before announcing its proposed privacy changes on Tuesday, Google was already under scrutiny after reaching a settlement last year with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that the company deceived its Gmail users in the rollout of its now-defunct social networking service Buzz. Google is also the subject of an antitrust probe by the FTC.

The lawmakers questioned why users are not allowed to opt out of Google's privacy changes. "Consumers should have the ability to opt out of data collection when they are not comfortable with a company's terms of service and that the ability to exercise that choice should be simple and straightforward," they added.

The representatives asked Google to answer by Feb. 16 a long list of questions about the changes, including what information it now collects and will collect after the changes go into effect on March 1, whether it shares such data with anyone else, how the privacy changes affect users of its Android mobile phone operating system, and what protections will be provided to children and teens.

In a new blog post Thursday, Google responded to some of the concerns raised about its privacy changes. It noted that users don't have to be logged into Google to use services such as search or YouTube. And for those who do log in and therefore would be tracked, the company says it offers a variety of privacy controls. "We're making things simpler and we're trying to be upfront about it. Period," Google Policy Manager Betsy Masiello wrote.

Google, meanwhile, now says that the privacy changes will not apply to government workers who use its Google Apps for Government enterprise email system. Google made the comments after Karen Evans, the former director of electronic government in the administration of former President George W. Bush, said the proposed changes would have a "serious impact" on government users.

Apple's record fourth-quarter profits have helped pushed it back into the lofty position as the world's most valuable company, knocking oil giant Exxon from that spot, USA Today reports.

Motorola is suing Apple for infringing its technology patents, according to Reuters.

Netflix stock soared after it reported much better than expected profits, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Read all of today's e-Reads on our Tech page.

Several tech industry organizations cited Tuesday's State of the Union as they reminded President Obama that technology companies can play a unique role in an economic recovery.

"The tech industry has been a consistent investor in this country -- on average each technology industry job supports three jobs in other sectors of the U.S. economy -- and now we're looking for cooperation and certainty from Washington to help us continue to be the world's leader," said Dan Varroney, acting president of TechAmerica. "[Tuesday's] speech held a lot of promise. What we need now is follow through."

During his speech, Obama outlined proposals for returning manufacturing jobs to the United States, and touched on other issues promoted by the tech lobby, including tax reform, education, and immigration.

But tech companies say they want to see more than just promises.

"We have a long way to go to revitalize this critical sector. What matters now is matching words with action," the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a statement.

More on reaction to the speech from the tech industry and members of Congress can be found here.

Some U.S. tech industry officials said Wednesday that they worry that the European Commission's proposed changes to its privacy rules could be costly for them to comply with and may hamper innovation.

"We welcome revisions that would make it easier for global companies to demonstrate compliance with the EU privacy regime, and to ease the administrative burdens," Software and Information Industry Association Vice President Mark MacCarthy said in a statement. "However, SIIA is concerned that the breadth of these proposed regulations threaten the Internet economy and impede economic growth and job creation."

The release of the proposed changes to the commission"s 1995 data privacy directive is the first step in a lengthy process.The commission has called for simplifying the current compliance process that requires businesses to deal with data protection authorities in each EU member country. Under the proposed changes, companies would only have to deal with one data protection authority.

But the commission also calls for toughening the current rules by requiring companies to get express consent from European users before collecting or using personal data. It also would require companies to give users a "right to be forgotten," which would allow users to delete personal data when there is no "legitimate" reason to retain it.

The rules would apply to U.S. companies that do business in Europe or offer services or websites targeted at Europeans. This could include a U.S. based website used by Europeans, such as Google or Facebook. Industry representatives worry it will increase the cost of doing business and possibly hamper innovation.

It's unclear what impact the proposed changes will have on an agreement the United States negotiated with the EU in the late 1990s after the directive first went into effect. The privacy directive bars the transfer of personal data about Europeans to non-EU countries that don't have privacy protections deemed to be "adequate" by EU officials. U.S. companies that adhere to the privacy principles in the safe harbor agreement negotiated between the U.S. and EU were deemed to be in compliance with the directive even though the U.S. lacks a broad consumer privacy law.

But Christopher Wolf, director of Hogan Lovells' privacy and information management practice, said while the EU has been silent on the issue, he expects the safe harbor agreement may eventually have to be revised to reflect the changes to the EU's privacy rules.

Some U.S. privacy advocates said they hope the proposed changes will force some rethinking of the U.S. approach to privacy, which relies on a mix of industry self-regulation and narrowly targeted privacy laws aimed at specific sectors such as finance and health. So far, efforts to pass broad consumer privacy legislation in Congress haven't gone very far.

"Once Google and Facebook are following European rules, there will be no way for the companies to justify the obviously inadequate protection in the U.S.," John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, a vocal Google critic, said in a statement. Google has come under fire after it said Tuesday that it plans to begin tracking users and collecting data about them as they move from one Google service to another.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee said Wednesday he is confident that House and Senate negotiators will include his version of spectrum legislation in a payroll tax package given that it would generate more cash to pay down the deficit than the Senate Commerce Committee's version.

Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., outlined an aggressive agenda for his panel for this year, including pushing for legislation to free up more spectrum for wireless broadband and to help build a national broadband public safety network.

Walden and Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., are among the House conferees picked to help negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions of legislation that would extend a payroll tax holiday and other tax breaks. The House's payroll tax bill, passed last month, included the spectrum legislation authored by Walden that was approved by his subcommittee in November.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved its own version of spectrum legislation last summer. Both the Walden and Commerce bills would authorize auctions to entice broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum for a share of the money generated. Among the notable differences between Walden's measure and the Senate Commerce bill is that his would generate about $10 billion more for deficit reduction, Walden said.

Another provision that has emerged as a point of contention in recent weeks is language in the House bill that would bar the FCC from limiting which companies could participate in incentive auctions. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski earlier this month urged lawmakers not to limit the commission's flexibility to structure the auctions as it sees fit.

Following his speech, AT&T voiced concern that the FCC may try to keep it and other large wireless operators from bidding for the spectrum that broadcasters give up at auction. Walden said the language included in his bill would ensure the FCC can't pick winners and losers. He added that the commission would still have authority to address concerns over market concentration even after an auction is conducted.

"The only reason the chairman is upset about the provision is that he wants to exclude one of two market participants," Walden said, referring to the nation's two biggest wireless firms: AT&T and Verizon Wireless. "I don't think it's good public policy."

Walden said he believes it's likely that some version of the spectrum legislation will be included in the payroll tax package the House and Senate negotiators are trying to hammer out. The conference committee met for the first time Tuesday. "I would think given the need to pay for the various components of the [payroll] legislation...it would cause a problem if it dropped out," he said. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Walden's spectrum legislation would generate $16.7 billion for deficit reduction compared with just $6.5 billion for the Senate bill, authored by Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

Walden also said the full Energy and Commerce committee plans to mark up FCC reform legislation on Feb. 7. While praising Genachowski for making some progress in overhauling how the FCC conducts its business, Walden said changes promoting transparency need to be codified into law.

Democrats, however, have been critical of a provision that would limit the FCC's ability to demand conditions from merging companies in the name of the public interest. "All we're saying is that you can't use leverage on mergers...to achieve effects in the marketplace that you don't statutorily have the right to do," Walden said.

What were they thinking?

That was the sentiment expressed by the head of a key House subcommittee Wednesday when asked about how the Federal Communications Commission handled LightSquared's quest to build a nationwide wireless network.

"I am trying to figure out how the cart got so far ahead of the horse," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said during a news conference to discuss his 2012 agenda. Walden said he plans to hold a hearing on the controversy this year but didn't give a specific date.

Tests indicate that LightSquared's proposals would interfere with global positioning systems. LightSquared says it has solved the interference problems, but representatives of nine federal agencies concluded on Jan. 13 that no practical measures can allow LightSquared to overcome interference with GPS.

The finding, a significant blow to LightSquared's case, prompted a furious response from the beleaguered wireless startup, which accused the government panel of "a systematic disregard for fairness and transparency."

Walden said he has met with representatives from both GPS companies and LightSquared in hopes of figuring out if there is an "engineering answer here." He said he got two different answers.

The FCC says it will not give LightSquared final approval until tests show that the network can be safely built, but the agency has come under fire for its handling of the process.

Walden questioned how the FCC could allow Light Squared to obtain spectrum that it is now being told will interfere with GPS systems. "How did it get to this point?" asked Walden, a former radio broadcaster who has had to bid for spectrum licenses.

The FCC says it did nothing unusual in working with LightSquared, and has repeatedly said it will not give the company approval until all problems have been resolved.

Bearing the Republican banner in the party's response to Tuesday's State of the Union speech, Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Indiana, used a tech titan to hit back at the president's jobs proposals.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last year, did more to help the economy than government efforts, Daniels argued.

"Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits," Daniels said in his prepared remarks. "The late Steve Jobs - what a fitting name he had - created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the President borrowed and blew."

That may depend on how you count.

In October of 2009, the White House reported that 640,329 jobs had been created. But the method of counting those jobs came under fire and in 2010 the White House stopped providing a cumulative count of of all jobs. Now Recovery.gov, which tracks stimulus projects, reports the numbers by quarter.

Stimulus programs provided at least 400,000 jobs from July to September last year, according to data on Recovery.gov.

Jobs spent about two decades at Apple, which currently employs about 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 more overseas, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The New York Times reports that another 700,000 people work for contractors tasked with building the company's iconic electronic devices.

Mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad, which Apple pioneered, also helped lead to an explosive growth in mobile application development.

People who viewed Tuesday's State of the Union on the White House website were treated to a multimedia presentation.

The site featured a live video feed of President Obama's speech to Congress, complemented by graphs, statistics, and photos displayed in a sidebar.

"As the President outlines his plans for 2012, you'll see key facts and figures," White House senior adviser David Plouffe said in an e-mail announcing the new features. "We'll present charts and infographics so that everyone can get a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges ahead of us."

The graphics corresponded to Obama's statements on such issues as jobs and immigration.

Obama used Tuesday's speech to outline proposals that he says will help the economy, including the tech industry, recover.

Target doesn't want to be a showroom for online retailers, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Who's waiting for an iPhone 5? The Associated Press reports that Apple sold 37 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2011, double the number of the previous quarter.

Engineers at Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace have created a plug-in that they hope proves that Google's new social search function is biased, The Washington Post reports.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

The co-chairs of the Congressional High Tech Caucus plan to sit together when President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Congresswoman Doris Matsui, D-Calif., say they want to show that members of Congress can work together to boost the economy through issues such as tax reform, cloud computing, cybersecurity, spectrum, privacy, and intellectual property and copyright protection.

"The American technology industry continues to be the envy of the world and a proven job creator," Matsui said in a statement. "As we continue working to get Americans back to work and keep our country competitive, we are demonstrating that we must come together to accomplish these things,"

The official who led the antitrust case against AT&T's merger with T-Mobile, Sharis Pozen, is stepping down, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A new study says tablet and e-book ownership nearly doubled over the holidays, according to the Associated Press.

President Obama will visit an Intel plant in Arizona a day after the State of the Union address, The Hill reports.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, accused backers of LightSquared's proposed wireless network on Monday of seeking to pressure him into giving up an investigation into the company's plans.

Grassley said comments by Harbinger Capital's Philip Falcone, and another man who claimed to be representing LightSquared, could be interpreted as offering benefits in exchange for the senator's support. Here's the somewhat confusing letter to Falcone, who has helped finance LightSquared,

Grassley has been seeking documents from LightSquared and the Federal Communications Commission about the company's efforts to obtain approval for a nationwide wireless network. Tests show the network could interfere with global positioning systems.

The new accusations may not bode well for two FCC nominees, whose confirmations are being held up by Grassley over the LightSquared spat.

In an e-mail to a Grassley staffer, released by the congressional office, Falcone says he could help make the deal a "win" for Grassley politically. In a separate phone exchange, Todd Ruelle, who apparently works for a separate company, Fine Point Technologies, told a Senate staffer that a call center could be built in Iowa if the deal went through, according to Grassley's letter to Falcone.

"Taken together, these two statements implied an invitation to pull punches in my investigation. I won't be a part of that," Grassley wrote. He asked Falcone to confirm whether Ruelle was working for Harbinger or LightSquared, and if so, what his relationship with the companies is.

But Harbinger Capital spokesman Lew Phelps said the Ruelle "does not, nor has he ever worked for Mr. Falcone, Harbinger or LightSquared as an employee or a consultant," and was not speaking on behalf of the companies.

"If such conversations occurred, Mr. Ruelle was acting entirely on his own and without the knowledge, authority, or endorsement of Mr. Falcone, Harbinger or LightSquared," Phelps said in a statement. LightSquared referred requests for comment to Harbinger and a request sent to Fine Point Technologies was not immediately answered.

It's not the first time LightSquared has faced charges of political meddling. Last year congressional Republicans raised questions of inappropriate contact between the company's supporters and members of the Obama Administration. In the heat of the controversy In September, Falcone took to Fox News to argue that the process "shouldn't be a political issue."

The e-mails published by Grassley are available here, here, and here.

Facebook spent more than $1.3 million on lobbying efforts last year, passing the $1 million mark for the first time, according to disclosure documents.

In 2010, by contrast, Facebook spent less than $400,000.

And Facebook's fourth-quarter spending for last year was $440,000, up from $130,000 during the same period in 2010.

Facebook upped its advocacy efforts as scrutiny of its privacy policies increased. In recent years it has hired Joel Kaplan, a former deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush, and Marne Levine, former chief of staff to the White House's National Economic Council, among others.

The increase in spending, however, wasn't enough to catch up with Google, which spent about $3.7 million in the last months of 2011.

Politicians could pay politically for failing to support two controversial bills designed to combat piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites, Motion Picture Association of America President Chris Dodd, a former Connecticut senator, says.

"Candidly, those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd told Fox News. "Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

That prompted Public Knowledge legal director Harold Feld to accuse Dodd of "threatening" politicians.

"Threats like that are no way to conduct the serious, sober discussions needed to figure out exactly what ails the movie industry and to come up with solutions," Feld said in a statement. "It was Hollywood's arrogance in pushing bills through Congress without proper vetting that caused them to be withdrawn; these threats also are not helpful to figuring out what ails the industry and how to solve their issues."

The White House, meanwhile, appeared to dismiss Dodd's suggestion for a White House summit on piracy issues.

"I think this is a legislative process that folks on the Hill can take up, working with those with strong opinions on both sides of the issue," press secretary Jay Carney said during Friday's briefing.

Facebook's happy about the piracy delay.

Overall Web traffic dropped after federal officials shuttered Megaupload, Gigaom reports.

Megaupload wants to get back online ASAP after being shut down by the Justice Department, Reuters reports.Physorg takes a look at facts about the site.

And the FBI is looking into the attacks on government websites after Megaupload was taken down, USA Today reports.

Scientific American asks whether the Internet could actually ever be destroyed, even by bad legislation.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

Organizers of Wednesday's Internet protest against online piracy legislation touted the participation in the unprecedented event that led some of the Internet's most popular destinations to black out their websites for a day and helped place the Senate bill's future in serious doubt.

The event appears to have paid off for organizers and other critics of the Senate's Protect IP Act and the House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. Numerous lawmakers have withdrawn support for both bills in recent days and late Thursday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to shelve Tuesday's vote on whether to begin debate on Protect IP.

Fight for the Future, one of the groups that helped organize the protest, said Thursday that more than 115,000 websites and 13 million Internet users participated in the protest. The group said that 50,000 websites blacked out all or most of their sites Wednesday including Craigslist and Wikipedia, which are among the top 10 U.S. websites. The nation's biggest website, Google, also participated by blocking its name on its homepage and gathering support from 7 million users for its online petition against the legislation.

The group also said that 10 million Internet users signed petitions to Congress and 3 million sent e-mails to lawmakers calling on them to oppose the legislation. Fight for the Future's Tiffiniy Cheng said the numbers were gathered with the help of the many groups that helped organize the outreach to Congress and by monitoring the sites that blacked out their homepages.

"These bills have become a mainstream issue -- because of the strike, they were a top story for most news outlets, a trending topic on social media sites, and a buzz topic in offices and homes across the country," the group said in a statement.

Apple announced a digital textbook service, according to Reuters.

Fortune named Google as the best place to work in the United States in the magazine's latest list of the best 100 companies to work for, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

News Corp's British newspaper subsidiary has settled a string of lawsuits stemming from the phone hacking scandal that brought down the company's News of the World, Reuters reports.

A day after major websites protested legislation aimed at online piracy, the Justice Department shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites and charged its executives with violating piracy laws.

Seven Megaupload employees, including founder Kim Dotcom, face charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering. Dotcom and three others have been arrested in New Zealand, at the request of U.S. officials, according to a Justice Department statement.

According to the indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court of for the Eastern District of Virginia, Megaupload and a related website stole and distributed copyrighted content.

Megaupload had the support of many musicians, including Alicia Keys and Kanye West, according to the Associated Press.

Before Megaupload.com was taken down on Thursday, the company issued a statement disputing the charges.

"The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay," the company said, calling the case "grotesquely overblown."

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is fighting to have his anti-piracy Protect IP Act bill passed in the Senate, said the case underscores the need for his legislation, which targets foreign websites that offer counterfeit goods and pirated music, movies and other content.

"Today's action by the Department of Justice against the leaders of Megaupload.com shows what law enforcement can do to protect American intellectual property that is stolen through domestic websites," Leahy said in a statement. "Unfortunately, there are no tools in the arsenal to protect that same American intellectual property from theft by websites hosted and operated overseas."

Paul de Sa, a top Federal Communications Commission official who has taken a leading role in many of the agency's projects, is leaving in February.

As chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, de Sa helped oversee merger reviews, broadband adoption and deployment, and spectrum policy, among other issues at the FCC.

"Paul's rare combination of business insight, technical expertise, and policy smarts has made him indispensable to me and the agency as we've worked to unleash innovation and bring the benefits of broadband to all Americans," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

Before coming to the FCC, de Sa was a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. De Sa told Tech Daily Dose he does not have any specific plans.

Advances in wireless technology have created "cascades of innovation," and additional investment in new networks has the potential to help get the broader American economy back on track, according to a study released on Thursday by the progressive think-tank NDN and the National Policy Institute.

Researchers Robert Shapiro and Kevin Hassett concluded that transitions from early wireless networks to more advanced 3G and Internet technology led to some 1,585,000 new jobs from April 2007 to June 2011.

"Based on previous advances, the current transition to 4G technologies is likely to spur significant new job creation and growth which could help the American economy restore gains in incomes and business investment," the study predicted.

For every 10 percent increase in the adoption of 3G and 4G technologies, the study estimated that the U.S. economy could gain 231,000 jobs in "less than a year."

"The rapid deployment of 4G technologies and the innovations that will accompany them should generate significant and widespread societal gains, including a stronger economic recovery and expansion from the recent recession," the researchers wrote. "Policies to promote the full deployment of 4G, therefore, should be part of any national job creation and economic strategy."

Hassett is director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Shapiro, a former adviser to the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, is chairman of Sonecon, a private economic consulting firm.

Facing an online protest that appears to have gone viral, supporters of legislation that would crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites are trying to fight back by launching a new advertising campaign.

Creative America, a coalition of movie studios, television networks and entertainment industry unions, launched a new campaign Wednesday in support of the Senate's Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House. The move came on the same day that thousands of websites went dark to protest both bills, which critics say will stifle innovation and free speech on the Internet.

Creative America has launched banner ads on some websites and a huge billboard in New York's Time Square advising Internet users to read a book, listen to music or go to a movie during the 24-hour blackout of sites like Wikipedia, Craigslist and Reddit. The coalition also is launching television, radio and print ads in select markets in support of the two anti-piracy bills.

"With the opponents of the bill trafficking in misinformation, fear tactics and public relations stunts like blacking out their websites--in essence censoring the Internet themselves--we thought it more important than ever to get the message out that these bills are reasoned, narrow, effective and necessary measures to combat foreign rogue sites, which are preying on American consumers and costing American jobs," Creative America Executive Director Mike Nugent said in a statement.

The campaign comes at a critical time as opponents appear to be making headway in Congress. The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on whether to allow debate to begin on Protect IP, while the House Judiciary Committee said this week it will resume its markup of SOPA next month.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who has helped lead opposition to SOPA in the Judiciary Committee along with Reps Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Jared Polis, D-Colo., and others, told Tech Daily Dose Wednesday that she will continue to try make improvements to the bill when work resumes and has 50 amendments ready to go.

While House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has pledged to remove a controversial website blocking provision from the bill, Polis said Wednesday that it's unclear what other changes could be made. He urged critics to keep the pressure on lawmakers in both the House and Senate to oppose the legislation.

"We will have to react to how these bills will be changed. In the House, we don't know what the chairman has in store for the markup or in the Senate how [that] bill will be brought to the floor or what the manager's amendment will contain," Polis said in remarks at the annual State of the Net conference. "Public interest has to be ongoing. Not just a flash in the night."

Smith told Tech Daily Dose Wednesday that he does not know if he will make additional changes to the bill before next month's markup.

The Supreme Court has ruled that people can sue telemarketers over nuisance calls, The Washington Post reports.

Protests over the Protect IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act caused several congressional websites to go down, CNET reports.

A New York filmmaker compares concerns over antipiracy legislation to irrational fears of government death panels in an op-ed for The Hill.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

While not going dark, Google Wednesday joined a World Wide Web protest by blocking its name on its homepage to highlight its concerns with two congressional bills aimed at curbing piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites.

Google is among several leading tech companies opposed to the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House and the Senate's Protect IP Act, which would allow a court to order online advertisers and payment processors to stop doing business with foreign websites primarily focused on infringement. The measures also would authorize a court to require search engines like Google and Microsoft's Bing to stop returning search results for such sites and require service providers to block U.S. access to foreign infringing websites. The bills' authors, however, have pledged in recent days to remove the website blocking provisions.

Despite this, opponents such as Google, Wikipedia and other websites argue that the legislation will stifle free speech and innovation on the Internet. Thousands of websites including Wikipedia and the social news site Reddit have gone black Wednesday to protest SOPA and Protect IP.

In a blog post early Wednesday, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said while fighting piracy is important, lawmakers should focus on cutting off funding to infringing foreign websites. Google urged users with a note on its homepage to sign an online petition against the legislation.

"Because we think there's a good way forward that doesn't cause collateral damage to the web, we're joining Wikipedia, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Mozilla and other Internet companies in speaking out against SOPA and [Protect IP]," Drummond wrote.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is expected Wednesday to introduce alternative legislation, which has been endorsed by Google and other tech firms, that would focus on a follow-the-money approach and give the International Trade Commission authority to enforce the bill instead of the Justice Department. Issa said Tuesday during a Capitol Hill briefing that he expects his measure will have more co-sponsors than SOPA. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the leading opponent of both bills in his chamber, introduced similar legislation last month.

House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has been critical of Google in particular, saying the Internet firm is benefiting financially from infringing websites. Google has vehemently denied such claims, noting in its blog post Wednesday that the it has been "investing a lot of time and money in that fight" against piracy.

Meanwhile, two groups opposed to the legislation have launched a new website, VoteForTheNet.com, urging political support for lawmakers who oppose the legislation.
The site is calling for support in particular for four senators: Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Wyden, who has been blocking Protect IP from moving to the Senate floor since it was approved by the Judiciary Committee in May. The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on whether to allow debate to begin on Protect IP.

The bipartisan site is being run by David Segal of Demand Progress, a former Democratic state representative from Rhode Island, and Patrick Ruffini of Don't Censor the Net, who was webmaster for former President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.

An Amazon executive said Tuesday that he sees a shift in momentum in favor of legislation his company supports that would authorize states to require online company's such as his own to collect sales taxes from out of-state customers.

"I'm optimistic because the political dynamic has changed," Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for global public policy, said during a discussion on the issue at the annual State of the Net conference.

Misener noted a bipartisan Senate bill that Amazon backs would allow the federal government to help cash-strapped states bring in additional revenues without having to provide any federal funds. He added that he is "heartened" that the debate appears to have shifted away from whether to pass legislation to how it should be crafted and how big of an exemption should be included for small businesses.

The Senate bill, authored by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., would authorize states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers if states agree to some tax simplification principles outlined in the bill or sign on to a multi-state tax simplification effort known as the Streamlined Sales Tax project.

States and some brick-and-mortar retailers have been pressing for congressional action since the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that retailers do not have to collect sales taxes from customers in states where those firms do not have a store or some other physical presence. While the decision at the time applied to catalog sales, it has since been extended to sales made over the Internet. States argue the loophole has cost them billions of dollars in lost sales tax revenues and that the problem will get worse as more sales migrate to the Internet.

After fighting state efforts to address the problem on their own, Amazon came out in support of the Senate bill late last year, saying it wanted to see a federal solution to the issue. Reps. Steve Womack, R-Ark., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., introduced similar legislation in the House but Amazon prefers the more limited small-business exemption in the Senate bill.

Bill Hughes, senior vice president of government relations for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said while his group expects to see an aggressive push by congressional supporters in both chambers, he questioned whether the current Congress could move such legislation. "There is such low expectations for this Congress to be able to accomplish anything," Hughes said. His group, which favors both the Senate and House bills, represents major brick-and-click retailers including Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart.

NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco, who represents two of the biggest critics of the Internet sales tax measures, eBay and Overstock.com, argued the legislation will impose new record-keeping burdens on small businesses and predicted it will spark a backlash from many small firms that sell goods and services on the Internet. At the same time, he said the legislation faces long odds in the House where "there is a strong sentiment against new taxes."

Yahoo announced its co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned from the Internet firm's board as the company struggles to find its footing following some recent stumbles, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Samsung is among the leading contenders to buy BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The New York Times reports that states shouldn't expect big revenues from legalizing and taxing some forms of online gambling.

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The Senate could move ahead with a broad-ranging cybersecurity bill in as little as a week, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the annual State of the Net Conference, Tommy Ross, Reid's senior intelligence and defense adviser, said the Senate is on track to meet Reid's goal of eventually bringing the legislation to the floor in the next three to four weeks.

While the bill, currently being developed by working groups, will not be truly comprehensive, Ross said it will cover a "pretty broad waterfront."

He said there are no insurmountable disagreements, despite years of wrangling over the specifics of cybersecurity legislation.

"What comes to the floor will reflect wide agreement," Ross said. If the bill does eventually clear the Senate, its future in the House remains murky.

Republican leaders in the House have decided to develop separate, smaller cybersecurity bills in as many as nine different committees.

One of those bills, being developed in the House Homeland Security Committee, addresses cybersecurity authority among federal agencies, and outlines ways to protect "critical infrastructure" such as power grids and water systems from cyber attacks.

But the committee's senior counsel, Kevin Gronberg, said it is unclear what will happen to the legislation if it is approved by the committee.

Industry and government officials, including the White House, have called for legislation to address the growing threat of cyber attacks. Among the proposals being considered are measures to clarify and increase the authority of agencies like the Homeland Security Department to handle cyber threats; protection of non-government networks that may affect national or economic security; and increase penalties for cyber crimes.

The war between big media and big tech over a pair of bills aimed at curbing piracy reached new heights on Wednesday.

Thousands of websites 'went dark' in protest of the bills before Congress, arguing that they effectively allow censorship of the Internet. Proponents of the bills -- the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and Protect IP in the Senate -- argue that the legislation simply gives the government the authority to pursue sites that enable piracy.

Some sites, such as online encyclopedia Wikipedia and social news site Reddit, blocked access to their content altogether, while others, including Google, prominently featured their opposition to the bills. Google, which obscured its logo with a black censorship bar, is the most popular website domestically and globally, according to traffic-tracker Alexa, while Wikipedia is ranked sixth.

The legislation is opposed by other leading tech firms, including Facebook and Yahoo, as well as entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, civil libertarians and a growing chorus of Internet activists. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said in recent days that he will go forward with a vote next week on a Senate version of the House bill known as Protect IP.

Critics argue that Protect IP and SOPA will stifle innovation and online free speech and in their current forms could harm the integrity and security of the Internet. Even though the bill's sponsors have offered to remove the most controversial provision calling on service providers and others to block access to foreign infringing websites, critics say that change isn't enough. During a conference call Tuesday, Reddit General Manager Erik Martin said the definitions in the bill are "vague and extreme."

The bill's congressional supporters, however, pushed back Tuesday, arguing that opponents are over blowing the impact of the legislation.

"It is ironic that a website dedicated to providing information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act," House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said in response to Wikipedia's announcement that it will join the blackout protest. "The bill will not harm Wikipedia, domestic blogs or social networking sites. This publicity stunt does a disservice to its users by promoting fear instead of facts. Perhaps during the blackout, Internet users can look elsewhere for an accurate definition of online piracy."

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet Subcommittee, also voiced frustration Tuesday that critics are not offering more concrete proposals to fix the legislation.

"I think that what we need to have is a discourse about what works and what doesn't work," said Goodlatte, who helped draft SOPA, following remarks Tuesday at the annual State of the Net conference. "A blackout doesn't accomplish that. The more important thing here is that people talk to each other rather than blackout their patrons."

Motion Picture Association of America Chairman and CEO Chris Dodd criticized the blackout as a "gimmick." Dodd, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Connecticut, added that the blackout is "designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this 'blackout' to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy." His group is part of a broad coalition of content producers and trademark owners that have been pushing for new tools to combat the growth in piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites.

Critics of SOPA and Protect IP argue that the blackouts show the level of concern at the grassroots level to the legislation.

While not joining the blackout itself, Google has indicated it would post a statement on its homepage Wednesday reiterating its opposition to SOPA and Protect IP. Websites like Craigslist already have posted similar messages on their homepages urging opposition to the legislation.

New international laws are not needed to protect human rights online, even as they are increasingly under attack, a top State Department official said on Tuesday.

Kicking off the annual State of the Net Conference, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner said governments should not feel entitled to repress human rights.

"Let me state for the record that international law applies to online behavior. Full stop," he said. "We do not need to reinvent international human rights law, or our enduring principles, to account for the Internet. No deed is more evil -- or more noble -- when it is committed online rather than offline."

The revolutions of the Arab Spring highlighted the power of the Internet -- and government efforts to suppress it, Posner said. "Repressive regimes trembled at the power of people connected."

While Posner argued that Internet access itself is not a human rights, governments and corporations have a responsibility to respect and protect rights online.

"We believe that creators and purveyors of technologies have a responsibility to respect human rights through their products and their practices," Posner said. "Moreover, the responsibility of corporations to respect human rights extends far beyond the creators of a given technology. It is the responsibility of every company."

The State Department and other U.S. agencies have spent some $70 million to promote Internet freedom, but Posner said those technology and programs aren't aimed at political goals.

"Let me be clear about U.S. policy: We don't promote Internet freedom or connective technologies as a means of promoting regime change," he said.

Following the lead of his counterpart in the Senate, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, announced on Friday that he will drop a proposal that Internet service providers block foreign websites that feature pirated content.

The provision is part of Smith's controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, which aims to reduce pirated content and counterfeit products online. But certain parts, including a requirement that ISPs block certain websites, have been met with sharp criticism.

"After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision," Smith said in a statement. "We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers."

On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he would drop that so-called "domain name system blocking" provision from his version of the bill.

The move by both chairmen earned praise from the bills' critics.

"It appears that lawmakers are beginning to realize how much damage their anti-'piracy' bills could cause to the Internet and to Internet-related businesses," Public Knowledge deputy legal director Sherwin Siy said in a statement. Still, the proposed amendments aren't enough, Siy said. "While we are pleased that some progress is being made, we are also firm in our opposition to both bills because some very bad provisions remain."

The time line for considering each bill remains somewhat uncertain. The House version has not been scheduled for markup while some in the Senate are objecting to a planned cloture vote at the end of this month.

Top Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Friday that Senate leaders are moving too quickly to approve a controversial piece of anti-piracy legislation.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy's Protect IP Act aims to crack down on foreign websites that feature pirated content or counterfeit products.

But GOP members of Leahy's committee told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that many problems remain unresolved. Reid has called for a vote on cloture when the Senate returns on Jan. 24.

"We strongly believe that the theft of American intellectual property is a significant problem that must be addressed to protect property rights," the senators said in a letter to Reid. "However, for both substantive and procedural reasons, the process at this point is moving too quickly and this step may be premature."

Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; and Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., signed the letter.

In a statement, Leahy, D-Vt., said the cloture vote would just be the beginning of the process.

"All Senators should agree that this is a debate we must have, and we should have, and should support cloture on the motion to proceed on January 24," he said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Protect IP Act in May, but concerns over privacy, security, and other issues have dogged the bill and its counterpart in the House.

The House version, called the Stop Online Piracy Act, has yet to clear the House Judiciary Committee. Rumors are circulating that the markup has again been delayed, but a committee spokeswoman said no date has been set.

The United Kingdom and United States lead other developing countries in their ability to withstand cyberattacks and develop strong digital economies, according to a new study by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The U.K. tops the rest of the Group of 20 nations, including the U.S., in the "Cyber Power Index." The European Union, considered the 20th member of the G20, was not included.

The index, which put the U.S. in the No. 2 spot, rates the countries on their legal and regulatory frameworks; economic and social issues; technology infrastructure; and industry.

"Overall, the top five countries exhibiting cyber power, as measured by the index--the U.K.; the U.S.; Australia; Germany; and Canada--illustrate that developed Western countries are leading the way into the digital era," the companies said in a statement.

Other major economies such as Russia, Argentina, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia, do not have cybersecurity plans, nor do they seem to be developing them, the study found.

"The Cyber Power Index identifies those countries that understand what it takes to operate in a digital era...and those that don't," Booz Allen Vice Chairman Mike McConnell said in a statement.

While the study concluded that the U.S. "has the most supportive economic and social context for fostering cyber power," other powerful countries like China exhibit relatively modest levels of strength in cyber issues.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center Thursday urged the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether Google's new personalized search results violate antitrust laws or a privacy agreement the Internet firm reached with the agency last year.

Google's new "Search plus Your World" service uses information from its social networking service Google + and other data to provide personalized search results. In a blog post Tuesday about the new service, Google said it would make it easier for users to find more personalized information on the Web, "the people you know and things they've shared with you, as well as the people you don't know but might want to... all from one search box."

Already under scrutiny over privacy mistakes it made in the launch of its now-defunct social networking service Buzz, Google said it "set a high bar" in protecting the privacy of the personalized search results, which are not available to others and are encrypted.

But EPIC said the service still raises privacy concerns. A previous FTC complaint filed by the group against Google's Buzz led to a major privacy settlement with the company last year. The agreement required Google to build privacy into its products, establish a comprehensive privacy program and agree to periodic independent privacy audits. At the same time, the FTC is conducting an antitrust probe of Google examining whether it favors its own products in its search results.

EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said during a conference call that the rollout of the new search service has parallels with the launch of Buzz in that Google is requiring Google + users to opt out of receiving personalize search results. "Although data from a user's Google + contacts is not displayed publicly, Google's changes make the personal data of users more accessible," Rotenberg wrote in a letter Thursday to the FTC.

EPIC also said incorporating results from Google's social networking service into its popular search engine may put competitors at a disadvantage. "Incorporating results from Google + into ordinary search results allows Google to promote its own social network by leveraging its dominance in the search engine market," Rotenberg said.

In a statement, a Google spokesman said the goal of the new service is to provide users with the most relevant information. "Search plus Your World doesn't change who has access to content, it simply helps people rediscover information they already have access to," the spokesman said in a statement. "We've taken special care with our new features to provide robust security protections, transparency and control for our users."

The Chamber of Commerce, which is leading a broad coalition pushing for legislation that would crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites, pledged Thursday to work with critics of such measures who argue that they will stifle free speech, innovation and could harm the Internet.

The chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center has helped lead a coalition of content creators and trademark owners in support of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP bill in the Senate. The bills would give the attorney general authority to seek a court order to require online advertisers and payment processors to stop doing business with foreign websites that provide pirated music, movies and other content or counterfeit goods. In addition, the legislation also allows a court to order search engines to stop showing results for such websites and to require service providers to block U.S. access to such sites.

The measures, however, have sparked fierce opposition from Internet firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter, as well as privacy advocates, Internet users and others.

"We knew this would be a difficult issue. We believe that there are serious objections and legitimate ones that have been raised by some of our friends in the Internet business and we're working very, very hard to get those resolved," chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue said at a news conference following his annual State of American Business speech. But he added that, "There is a fundamental reality here that if the things we're talking about were going on in a store down the street the police would go in and arrest them. It's not only the question of selling illegal goods. It's the question of selling fundamentally dangerous goods."

Donohue also was asked whether he is concerned that the chamber's aggressive lobbying efforts in support of SOPA and Protect IP may be alienating some of the group's members such as Google and the Consumer Electronics Association, which oppose both bills.

"I think that's a bunch of bunk," he said. "I talk to the Google people all the time. They've got 15 things they're worried about around here. A lot of this is being run by the Washington guys that are trying to make a name for themselves. We've got to work this together. We will."

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Protect IP Act in May but it's been blocked from moving to the floor by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The Senate has scheduled a Jan. 24th cloture vote on whether to begin debate on the bill. Meanwhile in the House, the Judiciary Committee began marking up SOPA last month but postponed final action after a day and a half of debate. The committee is expected to resume work on the bill sometime after the House returns next week from its holiday break. Critics have pledged to continue trying to fix what they see as major flaws with the bill. They offered more than two dozen amendments during last month's markup.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., one of the bill's leading critics, plans to hold a hearing in his panel next week on how SOPA could impact innovation as well as the integrity and security of the Internet's domain name system. He said Wednesday he will be looking for input on possible fixes from the technical experts testifying at the hearing and may hold additional hearings in his committee on the issue.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wants global positioning manufacturers to disclose their correspondence with the Federal Communications Commission over LightSquared's plan to launch a nationwide wireless network.

Grassley has criticized the FCC and LightSquared for a lack of transparency as the agency considers LightSquared's plans, which have been shown to interfere with GPS devices. In October Grassley sought similar documents from LightSquared, which began releasing some information in December.

This latest request to the GPS companies is in response to complaints from LightSquared that Grassley was singling it out. But Grassley said the focus remains on LightSquared.

"My focus on this investigation has not changed, and I am aware of no allegations concerning the communications of the GPS community with the FCC about the LightSquared waiver," he said in letters to Garmin, Trimble and John Deere.

Grassley is blocking Senate confirmation of two nominees to the FCC after the agency and LightSquared declined to provide their communications with each other. The Senate Commerce Committee approved the nominees last month.

Trimble, for one, says it will work to comply with Grassley's request.

"Trimble's communications with government decision-makers are entirely in line with these concerns, and will provide Senator Grassley a more complete picture of the information that was made available to these decision makers," said Trimble vice President Jim Kirkland.

After more than six years of debate and negotiation, the group that manages the domain name system will finally launch its program Wednesday evening to dramatically expand the number of new names available on the Web, but it could take up to a year or longer before the new dot-something actually becomes available.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers formally opens up the application process Wednesday at 7:01 pm Eastern time (12:01 am GMT) for those seeking to operate a new top-level domain, the name to the far right of the dot. The application period will remain open until April 12. The process could result in the introduction of hundreds or even thousands of new names to compete with the 22 existing generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and .org.

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said Tuesday that the group still does not know how many applications it will get but has planned for about 500.

"Our goal is not to create any number of applications," Beckstrom said during a speech Tuesday in Washington. "Our goal is to serve the global public interest and to administer this program fairly and professionally for the benefit of global Internet users, while ensuring the security and stability of the global Internet."

Companies that want to try to operate their own domain name must first submit a lengthy application and a $185,000 fee. The evaluation process includes several stages beginning with a criminal background check of the proposed applicant's top officers and an examination of each applicant's business history.

ICANN also will examine whether the proposed domain name violates an existing trademark or sparks other concerns. If an application clears these hurdles, ICANN will then look at whether the group seeking to operate the domain name has the "technical, operational, and financial capability to operate a registry." ICANN has proposed a bidding process for those entities that are seeking the same name after initially urging the parties to try to resolve the dispute on their own.

The application process could take as little as nine months and up to two years, ICANN said. ICANN will release the list of applicants after the first round closes and allow for public comment on each proposed domain.

In the meantime, many companies and groups may try to keep their applications secret to keep others from seeking the same name while the application process remains open. Despite this, some companies already have announced plans to seek particular names such as the photography firm Canon, which said it would apply to operate .canon.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse estimates ICANN could get as many as 1,000 applications and that at least two-thirds of them will come from companies that are defensively registering names for strategic and competitive reasons, the group's president, Josh Bourne said.This is one the reasons why the group, along with many major companies and other trademark owners, have voiced concern about the expansion. Some critics want ICANN to delay the program's rollout and include additional protections for trademark owners.

ICANN has said it may make additional changes to the application guidelines but has not committed to any immediate major modifications. Still, Bourne said his group will continue to press forchanges including allowing trademark owners to pay a fee to the operator of each new domain name to block the registration of their trademarks by others in perpetuity.

The Atlantic Wire takes a look at different "gadget fantasies" at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Slate wonders if Microsoft can reclaim the top spot in the tech industry in 2012.

Weeks after a Christmas cyberattack, the think-tank Stratfor has relaunched its website, Reuters reports.

More of Today's e-Reads can be found on our Tech page.

The beleaguered wireless company LightSquared brought out the big guns in a meeting with top Federal Communications Commission officials last week.

Billionaire financier Philip Falcone, who has been the major source of funding for the company, joined LightSquared vice president Jeffery Carlisle to press the commission to approve LightSquared 's planned nationwide wireless network.

The proposed network has bogged down because tests show it interferes with global positioning systems, and LightSquared is reportedly running low on cash.

"We... reiterated that LightSquared has invested millions of dollars during the past 12 months in conducting tests and developing filtering solutions to resolve issues with GPS receiver design that causes devices to look into spectrum licensed to LightSquared," the company wrote in disclosure documents posted on the FCC website. "As a result, the scope of the GPS technical issues has been narrowed considerably."

Falcone, Carlisle, and a consultant met on Jan. 4 with Edward Lazarus, chief of staff for FCC chairman Julius Genachowski; Amy Levine, Genachowski's special counsel & legal adviser; and Paul de Sa, chief of the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis.

The FCC has promised not to give LightSquared a green light until the interference issues have been resolved.

Google has rolled out a new search service that combines information from its Google + social networking service to provide personalized search results, the Associated Press reports.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that Google has profited from automated ads touting illegal products such as unofficial ticket resellers to the 2012 Olympics in London.

Hedge fund billionaire and LightSquared investor Philip Falcone is urging the FCC to help resolve the interference issues that have delayed approval of LightSquared's wireless broadband service, Bloomberg reports.

Microsoft is suing two Chinese retail chains for allowing computers with pirated versions of Windows and Microsoft Office software to be sold at the electronic retailers' stores, IDG News reports.

Read all of today's e-Reads on our Tech page.

People are dumping TV, Forbes finds: only 48 percent watched broadcast or cable TV in 2011.

A new smartphone that run on faster networks, thin "ultrabooks" to compete with the MacBook Air, and the Cloud will all feature at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las vegas, the Washington Post predicts.

Bloomberg reports on the struggle to compete with smartphone cameras.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said on Monday he plans to reform a program designed to subsidize phone service for help low-income Americans to provide broadband access.

The FCC's Lifeline program provides up to $10 in discounts on monthly telephone service for people who are at or below 135 percent of the poverty level or are covered by one of several assistance programs, such as Medicaid or food stamps.

As part of a broader effort to reform the Universal Service Fund, which was designed to help develop phone networks in rural or other areas, Genachowski said he will unveil an order switching Lifeline to broadband and enacting measures to reduce fraud and waste on Tuesday.

"These are vital programs, grounded in a longstanding national commitment to the idea that essential infrastructure and platforms--electricity, highways, telephone service, and now broadband--should be available to all Americans, and that we all benefit from universal service," Genachowski said in a speech at the Third Way on Monday.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee, praised the plan, noting that Lifeline has been beset by problems for years.

"It's time to modernize the program by bringing it into the 21st Century, with support of broadband access for low-income Americans," she said in a statement.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., officially came out against controversial anti-piracy legislation after weeks of criticism from activists who thought he supported it.

"The internet is one of the most magnificent expressions of freedom and free enterprise in history. It should stay that way," Ryan said in a statement.

He said the House version, the Stop Online Piracy Act, "creates the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse."

Users of the social website Reddit targeted Ryan after mistakenly believing he was a cosponsor of the bill, known as SOPA.

Those users raised thousands of dollars for Ryan's Democratic opponent. In trying to tamp down that controversy in December, a Ryan spokesperson didn't go as far as to say Ryan opposed SOPA.

The legislation, as well as its Senate counterpart, seeks to reduce online piracy and copyright infringement by allowing companies and law enforcement to take more aggressive action against offending websites.

Its sponsor, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says criticism is unfounded.

AT&T says its ahead of schedule in expanding its next-generation wireless network known as LTE, Bloomberg reports.

The New York Times examines whether changes in the leadership of Research in Motion will fix the ailing maker of the BlackBerry.

Apple is trying to put the kibosh on a new action figure that strongly resembles the company's late founder Steve Jobs, CNet reports.

The Associated Press reports that a Swedish file-sharing group has been recognized as a spiritual community by the Swedish government.

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Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski named Zachary Katz as chief of staff on Thursday, to succeed Eddie Lazarus who leaves at the end of January. Genachowski also named a new chief counsel and senior legal adviser, promoting Sherrese Smith from senior counsel.

Amy Levine, currently a special counsel, will move to Smith's job and will keep her responsibility for the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and Office of Engineering and Technology.

Michael Steffen will move to Genachowski's office as legal adviser from the Office of General Counsel.

"The agency is fortunate to have an extraordinarily accomplished senior team to lead an ambitious policy agenda as we start the new year. Building on the successes of the past few years, this team will be focused on unleashing the benefits of broadband, driving economic growth, and opportunity for all Americans," Genachowski said in a statement.
Katz helped create the FCC's Connect America Fund, a $4.5 billion plan to subsidize rural broadband that the agency says will bring broadband to 7 million people over the next six years.

Katz came to the FCC from the White House Counsel's office and was a lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles.

Before joining the FCC, Smith was vice president and general counsel at Washington Post digital.

In addition, the FCC said Josh Gottheimer, currently senior counselor to Genachowski, will direct a new team on public-private initiatives, including a plan to bring call-center jobs back to the United States.

A group of House and Senate lawmakers want the State Department to investigate whether some telecom companies,including the Chinese tech firm Huawei, may have violated a U.S. law barring companies that export sensitive telecommunications technology to Iran from doing business with the U.S. government.

They wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pointing to an October story from the Wall Street Journal that identifies Huawei's dealings with Iran given that the State Department has yet to identify any companies that might be violating the 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act. The article claims that Huawei has supplied to Iranian mobile phone companies sensitive technology covered by the law that allows Iranian police to track users.

The letter, dated Dec. 22 and signed by Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., and Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., also notes that the Journal article and other news stories have identified other companies that may have supplied sensitive telecom technology to Iran.

"We ask you to expeditiously investigate whether Huawei and other telecommunications
firms have violated section 106 of CISADA by providing sensitive technology to the Iranian government that is or has been used to restrict the speech of the Iranian people and the free flow of unbiased information in Iran, and that you ensure taxpayer funds are not being used to support companies engaged in such activity," they wrote.

Kodak may file for bankruptcy if it can't sell some of its digital patents, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Microsoft and its partners are reportedly investing up to $200 million to help market its struggling Windows Phone, according to ZDNet.

The Washington Post outlines some of the tech gadgets that will be on display at next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion may be shaking up its leadership, Reuters reports.

Users of the social news website Reddit have raised $15,000 to defeat Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., partially over his stance on anti-piracy legislation, according to Talking Points Memo.

Is Google paying bloggers to plug its Chrome browser? Search Engine Land says yes.

The Washington Post editorial board calls for a "narrowly tailored" bill to crack down on online piracy.

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