The Internet community's success in shelving controversial anti-piracy legislation is complicating efforts to pass unrelated cybersecurity legislation because some lawmakers fear doing anything that might anger Internet activists, The New York Times reports. Read National Journal's latest coverage of the cybersecurity legislation here.

As it works to exit from bankruptcy, Kodak plans to phase out its digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frame division and focus on digital printing, Bloomberg reports.

AT&T says mobile customers should not be too worried that they could be snagged by the wireless firm's policy of slowing down its biggest data users, The New York Times reports.

Oracle announced plans to buy Dublin-based cloud provider Taleo for $1.9 billion, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

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The Senate Indian Affairs Committee examined how any potential expansion of Internet gambling within states could affect Indian tribes that also offer gambling on their reservations.

The issue has come under more scrutiny in recent months following the release in December of a Justice Department opinion that reversed the department's opinion on the scope of the Wire Act, a federal law prohibiting some gambling activities. The department now says that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting. Some states are moving quickly to take advantage of the department's opinion and begin offering some online gaming within their states.

"The short answer to the DoJ opinion is that states are now free to do whatever they wish with respect to Internet gambling, except for, of course, sports betting," Patrick Fleming with the Poker Players Alliance told the committee. "This opens up an entire Pandora's box of possibilities."

Congress enacted legislation in 2006 aimed at barring online gambling in the United States by prohibiting financial institutions from processing payments for online bets. Critics of the law say it has not stopped Americans from gambling online using offshore sites. They argue that these players lack consumer protections and that the United States is losing out on potential tax revenues.

Witnesses told the committee Thursday that the Justice Department opinion puts more pressure on Congress to act on an issue that had already gained some steam in the last year. Bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House last summer that would legalize online poker. And in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., are working on Internet gambling legislation that may involve legalizing online poker. Kyl authored the Senate version of the 2006 anti-gambling law. Kyl recently told National Journal that the Justice Department opinion may force Congress to clarify the law.

"Quite possibly something will be done. As a result of that, there is probably a need to tighten up the law to address all forms of Internet gambling and in that context things like Internet poker, so I am involved in it because I am the author of the original legislation," Kyl said. He added that "Reid has supporters in Nevada" who want to deal with online poker. "And obviously the two of us therefore are talking."

Legal experts and the head of a New York tribe said that without intervention by Congress, Indian tribes, particularly smaller tribes with little political influence, could be harmed by the spread of online gambling at the state level. They urged lawmakers to ensure tribes will have equal access to licenses that might be given out by state or federal regulators to offer online gambling.

AT&T is once again on opposite sides of a major telecom issue with Sprint, a fierce critic of the AT&T-T-Mobile merger, and several other smaller rivals. The issue this time is over legislation aimed at freeing up more spectrum to meet the public's growing demand for wireless technologies.

Sprint, along with T-Mobile, C-Spire Wireless, Cricket and other smaller wireless operators want members of Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission discretion to design future spectrum auctions as it sees fit. They called on lawmakers Wednesday to strip a provision from House spectrum legislation that would bar the FCC from imposing restrictions on who can bid for spectrum given up for auction by broadcasters.

"The proposed provision would substantially limit the FCC's ability to promote competition and a competitive wireless marketplace for consumers throughout America. It would facilitate spectrum warehousing, inefficient use of scarce spectrum resources, and reduce spectrum auction revenues to the U.S. Treasury," they wrote in a letter to the House and Senate payroll tax conference committee.

The payroll tax cut package could include the spectrum legislation.

The provision in the House spectrum bill is aimed at ensuring the FCC can't keep the nation's two biggest wireless providers ,Verizon Wireless and AT&T, from participating in future spectrum auctions. Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who drafted the House spectrum legislation, said last month that he doesn't think it's good public policy to exclude any market players from participating in spectrum auctions.

AT&T has echoed Walden's view on the issue. "Auctions should be open, not closed. Any qualified carrier, including those on today's letter, should have a chance to bid on any spectrum available in an auction," AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi said in a statement. "This group, however, wants the FCC to stack the deck in its favor. Congress is right to resist this notion."

The spectrum language is just one of many thorny issues lawmakers are trying to resolve as part of the negotiations over the payroll tax deal. One of the biggest issues is how to pay for the cost of the payroll tax package.

The New York Times says one of the reasons why the two sides in the debate over online piracy legislation are having trouble finding a compromise is that they have yet to agree on the scope of the problem.

Sprint says it is close to shutting down parts of the Nextel network that have proved to be a costly distraction since the two companies merged seven years ago, CNET reports.

The wireless industry group CTIA in a blog post examines whether it's legal for political campaigns to call voters on their cell phones.

Fox News details why wireless carriers really don't like the iPhone.

In its first earnings report since going public, the online deal provider Groupon says it lost money in the last quarter of 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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The two groups behind the petition drive, Change.org and SumOfUs, allow Internet users to organize and collect online petitions calling for companies to change practices they don't like. Change.org has scored some big victories, including helping to persuade Bank of America to drop a $5 debit card fee and student-loan provider Sallie Mae to back off a $50 fee imposed on unemployed borrowers who want to temporarily stop re-paying their loans.

The petitions against Apple were prompted by reports of abuses in factories run by Foxconn, one of Apple's main suppliers in China. A recent New York Times story detailed explosions at one of Foxconn's factories and an apparent spate of suicides by allegedly overworked employees.

"Apple's attention to detail is famous, and the only way they could fail to be aware of dozens of worker deaths, of child labor, of exposure to neurotoxins, is through willful ignorance," SumOfUs Executive Director Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said in a statement. "That's why our members are asking Apple to clean up its supply chains in time to make the iPhone 5 its first ethically produced product."

The controversy has brought some unwanted attention to a company that has a cult-like following by its customers and keeps a low profile in Washington.

Apple, however, says it is taking concerns about its suppliers seriously and is working to address any abuses at factories that make its products. Apple has published reports in recent years about working conditions at its overseas suppliers.

The 2012 report detailed its response to two explosions at plants run by its Chinese suppliers. Apple also recently became the first tech firm to join the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit that works to improve working conditions at factories around the world. Apple said the group will have access to its overseas factors and conduct independent audits.

"We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made," Apple said in a statement Wednesday. "Our suppliers must live up to these requirements if they want to keep doing business with Apple."

House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Tom Petri, R-Wisc., asked the witnesses to focus on the broad issues "out of fairness" to LightSquared and the Federal Communications Commission, which were not invited to testify.

But that didn't stop the witnesses, or members of the subcommittee, from making LightSquared and the FCC a focal point of the hearing.

"Despite repeated requests, we were told there was no need to testify because LightSquared was not the subject of the hearing," LightSquared spokesman Chris Stern said. "It's outrageous that a congressional hearing set up to examine factual issues was only focused on one side of the story -- a side of the story supported by commercial GPS makers who designed faulty devices that depend on using spectrum licensed to LightSquared.''

A spokeswoman for Petri confirmed that LightSquared had asked to be included, but was not invited "because this hearing was not about LightSquared--it was about the broad issue of GPS' place in our aviation infrastructure. I believe they and others not testifying are welcome to submit testimony for the record."

LightSquared's proposals for a nationwide wireless network have been shown to interfere with GPS devices that operate on neighboring spectrum. The company says the fault lies with GPS companies for manufacturing faulty devices, but others, including Petri, blame LightSquared for the problem.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center said Wednesday that it planned to ask a federal court to order the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the privacy settlement the agency reached last year with Google. EPIC says Google's privacy changes violate that settlement.

"We haven't yet seen the filing so [we] can't comment on the specifics," Google said in a statement in response to EPIC's court filing. "Protecting people's privacy is something we think about all day across the company, and we welcome discussions about our approach."

Google says the changes will make it easier for users to understand its privacy policies. It also denied a claim EPIC made in its court filing that the company did not obtain users consent before sharing data with third parties. Google maintains that it does not share user data with third parties and that will continue to be the case even after the privacy changes go into effect on March 1.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers says it's looking for volunteers to help evaluate which groups should get a big discount on the $185,000 fee to apply to run a new top-level domain name. Deserving applicants could pay a quarter of that cost - $47,000 - if they can show they need the financial help, that their proposed new domain name provides "a public interest benefit," and that they have the financial and technical means to run a new domain name. The support program appears to be aimed in particular at applicants from developing countries.

"These volunteers will be key to ICANN's effort to assure that the less-developed parts of the world are able to participate in the new domain name program," ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz said in a statement. "The panel members will make a real impact in ensuring that the opportunities for innovation and economic development created by the Internet are open to everyone."

ICANN's Support Application Review Panel, however, isn't open to just anyone. The group will be looking for volunteers who have experience running a small business, operating in developing countries, analyzing business plans, and have a knowledge of the domain name system. Potential volunteers will have until March 31 to submit an application to serve on the panel.

ICANN began accepting applications last month for its new domain name program, which calls for the introduction of an unlimited number of domain names. The application period for the program's first round ends in April.

LightSquared's bid to build a nationwide wireless network with spectrum near that used by GPS has been on hold after tests indicated its transmissions could interfere with the navigation systems. The company says the problem lies with GPS devices that should have been designed to filter out neighboring signals.

"It has become apparent that the commercial [GPS] industry has failed to design receivers that communicate with the U.S. GPS system in a manner that is compatible with the authorized use of adjacent spectrum bands," LightSquared wrote in documents filed with the FCC on Tuesday. "This failure has inhibited the deployment of licensed services in adjacent bands that would provide significant public interest benefits, such as increased competition."

While the FCC has traditionally relied on market forces to keep competing spectrum users from overlapping, LightSquared says this method has failed.

GPS manufacturers say it should be up to LightSquared to fix the problem because GPS devices were built with the expectation that the adjacent bandwidth wouldn't be used for a land-based network like LightSquared has planned.

"This latest filing yet again proceeds from the same false premises and claims that LightSquared has repeated ad nauseum in its ongoing effort to deny its obligation to avoid harmful interference to millions of government and private GPS users," Jim Kirkland, vice president at the GPS manufacturer Trimble, said in a statement. "LightSquared's continuing efforts to move the goal posts are too little, too late."

On Wednesday the House Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation plans to hold a hearing which could include the potential impact of LightSquared's plans on aviation navigation systems.

Google has launched a new initiative aimed at bringing together the brightest minds and experts to help solve the world's greatest problems, CNET reports.

A new report says that love is going digital with most romantic connections being made online, Fox News reports.

Led by a surging tech industry, Silicon Valley is recovering from the economic downturn faster than the rest of the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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House and Senate lawmakers on the payroll tax cut conference committee met again Tuesday to try and hammer out differences between the two chambers' versions of the legislation but did not discuss spectrum.

Still, House Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman of California, one of the House Democratic conferees, told Tech Daily Dose that staffers are meeting and making slow progress on ways to narrow differences between the House-GOP passed spectrum legislation, which was included in a one-year extension of the payroll tax bill, and a stand-alone bipartisan spectrum bill approved last summer by the Senate Commerce Committee.

Both bills focus on freeing up more spectrum to meet the nation's growing demand for wireless technologies and providing public safety officials with spectrum and funding to help build a national wireless broadband network. They also would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to conduct incentive auctions of spectrum voluntarily relinquished by broadcasters.

The major sticking points continue to be over how much flexibility the FCC should be given to set aside spectrum for unlicensed uses such as Wi-Fi, who should be allowed to participate in the incentive auctions, and the governance structure of the public safety network, Waxman said.

"If we can work out the policy, we want to move it ... The differences on this bill have never been so great that we couldn't resolve it in the House," Waxman said. He and most of the other Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee did not support the House GOP spectrum measure when it was approved by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee late last year because of their concerns over the restrictions on unlicensed spectrum and the public safety governance structure.

House Republicans may have the upper hand in the negotiations given that their spectrum legislation is in the House payroll measure and the Senate Commerce bill is not. In addition, the authors of the House spectrum bill, Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., are among the House payroll-tax negotiators, while no one from the Senate Commerce Committee is on the conference committee.

"We have to work to accommodate the positions of both the House and the Senate," Waxman said. "The House bill was only a partisan bill -- never voted on in full committee, went right to the floor and the Senate's not going to take it as is."

Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Tuesday he believes differences over how to structure the public safety network, which is his top priority, could be resolved by having the National Telecommunications and Information Administration oversee its development. "I'm hopeful," Rockefeller said about finally getting spectrum legislation enacted. "The problem is always on the House side."

Two years after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out U.S. support for global Internet freedom, efforts to crack down on online theft, increase surveillance, or block protests have proved those words to be empty promises, said Christopher Soghoian, a research fellow at George Soros' Open Society Foundations and a former technologist at the FTC's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.

"It's really time to stop quoting Hillary Clinton's speech on Internet freedom," he said at a Media Access Project forum on Internet freedom. "The last two years have shown those were hollow, shallow words."

While the copyright lobby is pushing for stricter Internet piracy laws, thousands of Internet companies have mobilized to protest proposed anti-piracy bills, which were eventually abandoned.

Soghoian called such proposals "truly heinous" and said they undermine the free flow of information online. "There are many bad things on the horizon and Hollywood is pushing them," he said. "In an attempt to protect their own failing and sinking business model, they are willing to take the Internet down with them."

Supporters of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's Protect IP Act said online theft of intellectual property is out of control and is hurting the economy as a whole. Fears of censorship and control are overblown by Internet companies that profit off the flow of illegal content, supporters like the Motion Picture Association of America have said.

But not all threats to global Internet freedom are homegrown.

While the gap between countries with relatively free Internet access and those that censor and control the Web has increased in recent years, Google's Bob Boorstin said he will be watching countries that haven't fully gone one way or another. "Are they going to go the right way? Or the wrong way and try to clamp down on information," he said.

First off, the FCC wants to review any studies on media access and ownership, the agency says.

"Section 257 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, mandates that the Commission review and report to Congress on (1) efforts to identify and eliminate regulatory barriers to market entry in the provision and ownership of telecommunications services and information services, or in the provision of parts or services to providers of telecommunications services and information services by entrepreneurs and other small businesses and (2) proposals to eliminate statutory barriers to market entry by those entities, consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity," it says.

Don't look for the FCC to do anything about the Super Bowl "fleeting finger," Ad Week reports.

Did the Opie & Anthony Show incite a wave of cyberbullying on Twitter?

Wired breaks down the privacy policies at top Internet companies into 100 words.

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

William Baer, a partner at Arnold & Porter, has been nominated to replace Sharis Pozen as an assistant attorney general over the DOJ's antitrust division, the White House officially announced on Monday. Last week Obama indicated he planned to nominate Baer.

Baer currently heads the antitrust office at Arnold & Porter, whose lawyers staffed top positions in AT&T's failed bid to buy T-Mobile last year. According to a confidentiality statement filed in May with the Federal Communications Commission, which also reviewed the merger, AT&T hired at least 32 lawyers from Arnold & Porter. Baer was not listed.

Pozen's antitrust division at DOJ spearheaded a court battle that ultimately led to AT&T's decision to abandon the deal. Pozen was serving as acting head of the division after Christine Varney left in August.

According to a profile on the Arnold & Porter website, Baer has represented clients like General Electric, Intel, Cisco, and Visa. He previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission when it blocked a1997 merger between Staples and Office Depot.