The fourth annual Internet Governance Forum wrapped up Wednesday in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Among the major issues that the forum must tackle at its fifth meeting next year is whether to continue the forum, which was created following the United Nation's World Summit on the Information Society in 2005. Sha Zukang, the United Nations undersecretary general for economic and social affairs, sought feedback on whether to continue the forum. After obtaining feedback, the U.N. secretary general will make his recommendations in his annual report to the General Assembly next year on whether to continue the forum.
In a summary of the event from the forum, Sha described the IGF as fostering dialogue by giving voice to a wide range of views and bringing together diverse cultures. Many of the speakers favored continuing the forum, but some would like to see more focus on international public policy issues, increased participation by developing countries, greater transparency, and more focus on the outcomes and the ability to make recommendations on the issues discussed at the forum.
"There is no other forum where governments, civil society groups, and industry can meet and work together on equal footing on the important issues we have been discussing here in Egypt this week," TechAmerica Vice President Liesyl Franz said in a statement. Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamel said "with opportunities there were rights and also responsibilities, and in tomorrow's cyberspace the IGF should address important issues such as cross-border security, youth experience, multilingual content, and enhanced broadband capacity in developing countries, among others," according to the forum summary.
The top Swiss privacy official said Friday that he is suing Google for failing to include adequate privacy safeguards in its Street View service, which allows people to get street-level pictures of locations plugged into Google Maps. Swiss Data Protection and Information Commissioner Hanspeter Thür announced in a statement that he has decided to take legal action after Google refused to take various measures suggested by his office to protect personal privacy on its Street View service.
The statement noted that faces and vehicle number plates on Street View are not "sufficiently unrecognizable from the point of view of data protection, especially where the persons concerned are shown in sensitive locations, e.g. outside hospitals, prisons or schools." The commissioner's office added that even when faces are blurred by Google, the zoom function enables a user to enlarge images of individuals. In addition, Thür's office also noted that the zoom function allows users to see into private areas such as over fences and walls. "This means that privacy in enclosed areas (gardens, yards) is no longer guaranteed," the statement said. Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer said in a statement that the firm "met with the DPA before and after the launch [of the Swiss version of Street View], explaining our technology and, where requested, proposing steps that would reinforce Street View's privacy-protection technology and assuage any concerns." He said the firm believes "Street View is completely legal" and plans to vigorously defend it in court.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, New America Foundation and other advocacy groups urged the Obama administration on Thursday to open up negotiations pertaining to a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The groups wrote to President Obama expressing "deep concerns about the lack of transparency" surrounding the pact, which is the focus of a meeting in Seoul, South Korea this week.
In their letter, they reference Obama's day one memo pledging increased openness and participation in executive decision-making and directing agencies to "take affirmative steps to make information public." The continuing Open Government Initiative indicates a strong commitment to applying the principles in practice but multiple aspects of ACTA fail to meet those standards, they said. Read the text of the letter here (PDF).
[Updated 4:10 p.m.] New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against microchip giant Intel Corp. making his the first formal antitrust action against Intel by any U.S. agency in more than a decade. The FTC launched an examination into Intel in 2008 but has not made its probe official. Cuomo's complaint charges that Intel violated state and federal laws by engaging in "a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct" to maintain its dominance in the microprocessor sector.
"Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market," said Cuomo, who served Intel with a wide-ranging subpoena in January 2008. "Intel's actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers who were robbed of better products and lower prices," he added. Intel has repeatedly denied antitrust allegations and filed an appeal against a recent European Commission ruling.
More than 20 lawmakers recently urged Justice Department antitrust chief Christine Varney and FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to view the European antitrust ruling with a critical eye and weigh its impact on U.S. high-tech firms. The Sept. 18 letters to Varney and Leibowitz, spearheaded by Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, and Greg Walden, a Republican, argued the Intel ruling "is the latest evidence of a troublesome trend in Europe toward regulatory protectionism."
The latest round of negotiations on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has begun in Seoul, South Korea with little light shed on where the talks are headed. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and his team have tried to communicate the message that while they value transparency, keeping the details of the trade deal under wraps is essential. The USTR allowed some industry and advocacy groups to view documents as negotiators prepared for this meeting but notable watchdog groups were left out and took issue with the mandate that those privy to the text had to sign non-disclosure agreements.
One such group, Knowledge Ecology International, slammed the USTR for allegedly handpicking those who reviewed the draft and filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for "all records at USTR on the topic of the policy and practice of USTR regard the transparency of trade negotiations, including but not limited to [ACTA]." This week KEI spearheaded a letter to President Obama calling on the process to be opened up for public debate. A number of individuals and international advocacy groups signed the petition, which was circulated online.
The ACTA effort began nearly two years ago, and negotiators initially wanted to finalize the deal before the end of former President George W. Bush's term. Kirk told a crowd at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September that he couldn't put a firm date on when the pact would be complete. Internet piracy will be "a very strong part of our dialogue," Kirk said, noting that it would be helpful if industry stakeholders could arrive at "a more harmonious position" on the topic.
The founder of large illegal offshore sports wagering business BetonSports was sentenced to 51 months in prison on multiple charges, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Reap announced Monday night. Gary Stephen Kaplan, 50, entered a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to violate the racketeering statute, conspiring to violate the Wire Wager Act and violating the Wire Wager Act. He was sentenced by a federal judge in St. Louis, Mo.
As part of the plea, Kaplan forfeited to the U.S. government more than $43 million in proceeds and an additional $7 million in related earnings. Kaplan admitted that he launched an enterprise in Aruba, Antigua and eventually Costa Rica to provide sportsbook services to U.S. residents through Internet sites and toll-free phone numbers. Technologically, BetonSports phone lines terminated in Houston, Texas or Miami, Florida and were forwarded to Costa Rica by satellite transmitter or fiber-optic cable.
Kaplan's business became successful over several years and by 2004, BetonSports's principal base of operations in Costa Rica employed approximately 1,700 people. That year, BetOnSports had close to one million registered customers, accepted over 10 million sports bets in a cumulative gross amount that exceeded $1 billion. In mid-2004, Kaplan made a successful public offering of the stock of BetOnSports in the U.K. that netted him over $100 million.
"This case should serve as a warning to others who might choose to defy the laws of the United States on such a grand scale," Reap said. "Kaplan's business model itself was built on a wager that the U.S. could not and would not enforce its anti-sports book laws to reach Kaplan. Today, Kaplan lost that wager."
CongressDaily's David Hatch visited India recently where he spoke to Google about its "magic bus." "In teeming cities and dusty towns, Brahmans and peasants alike are lining up by the hundreds, even thousands," to experience the Internet, Google style, Hatch writes in the latest issue of National Journal magazine. "When you can't put a permanent Internet cafe in place, then you put a mobile one in," says Vint Cerf, Google's vice president and "chief Internet evangelist." Read more here (subscription required).
A high-tech watchdog group is circulating a petition to President Obama regarding transparency of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Knowledge Ecology's letter asks that negotiations regarding the intellectual property enforcement pact with a handful of U.S. trading partners be opened up for more public vetting. IP protection is critical but is also "a complex area where the 'solutions' to the enforcement issues are often controversial," the letter states.
Unlike nearly all other multilateral and plurilateral discussions about IP norms, the ACTA negotiations have been held in deep secrecy, the document argues. That has led to "a chorus of criticism," which prompted the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to offer some individuals access to documents in the negotiation after signing a non-disclosure agreement. Knowledge Ecology was not asked to review the paperwork.
The letter goes on to state that "the only rationale for keeping the proposed ACTA text from the public is to suppress criticism and critical thinking about the norms that are being proposed." The group calls it "Orwellian and an insult to our intelligence" to claim the secrecy of the ACTA text has anything to do with national security. Read more here.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' proposed expansion of top-level domains -- such as .biz, .info and .us -- as well as the group's introduction of non-Latin language Web addresses are still "some months away," ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush told reporters Monday in Seoul, South Korea at the organization's 36th global meeting. He said ICANN officials and the Internet community at large are "going through a problem solving phase" to address concerns about potential malicious use, trademark abuse and other issues.
Thrush was hesitant to offer more specificity about when the first round of applications for new generic top-level domains would be accepted. The timing "is up to the community [and] when the community is satisfied, they'll tell us," he said. ICANN has argued that bringing potentially hundreds of new domains to market will benefit consumers and companies that do business online but intellectual property owners have expressed skepticism. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others in Washington have been highly critical.
ICANN's board is poised to approve the related international domain name proposal when it meets on Friday. Thrush said that after several years of hard work by stakeholders, he was "reasonably confident that the board will find [the IDN plan] ready to launch." ICANN President Rod Beckstrom said the first non-Latin script entries into the so-called root zone would likely be in mid-2010.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will travel to Guangzhou and Hangzhou, China, next week to co-chair the 20th session of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, according to a Commerce Department press release. While there, Locke will stress the importance of strong intellectual property rights protection and enforcement around the world. The JCCT, established in 1983, is the main forum for addressing bilateral trade matters and promoting commercial opportunities between the United States and China.
On Tuesday, Locke will deliver a keynote address at an IP forum and meet with university students to discuss the criticality of IP rights for the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. On Wednesday, he will host roundtable meeting with energy companies to discuss opportunities and barriers to entry for U.S. firms in China's clean energy market. Thursday brings the JCCT ministerial meeting with Kirk and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. For more information click here.
A day after watchdog group Knowledge Ecology International slammed the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for allegedly handpicking a group of mostly industry executives to review and provide feedback on a controversial section of a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the watchdog has filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for "all records at USTR on the topic of the policy and practice of USTR regard the transparency of trade negotiations, including but not limited to [ACTA]."
KEI Director Jamie Love's appeal for information, which spans Jan. 1, 2009 to today, will be used "to evaluate the degree to which the USTR is providing the public timely and relevant information about important norm setting activities in the area of intellectual property right rules and practices." Among the documents expected to be relevant are the communications within USTR and between USTR and other federal agencies, the White House and the Congress, and between USTR and the private sector, on the policies regarding transparency of trade negotiations, he said.
In a same day e-mail to USTR IP negotiator Stan McCoy, Love asks whether the current ACTA text, which will be the focus of a November meeting in Seoul, South Korea, makes it clear that there is no obligation to stop goods at borders in cases where there is legitimate parallel trade of products. A global IP treaty known as TRIPS has a carve-out for such cases. "If we could review the text, as apparently every corporate lobbyist in Washington, D.C. can do, we might know the answer to this question," Love added. See original Tech Daily Dose post on this topic here.
A team from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will head to Seoul, South Korea, early next month to resume talks with a handful of trading partners on a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A portion of the discussion will focus on transparency issues since negotiators have been dogged for months over the secrecy of their meetings and a dearth of viewable treaty text. See CongressDaily's story here (subscription required).
In preparation for the latest round of talks, USTR broadened its consultations to include views from domestic stakeholders with expertise on Internet and digital issues. Officials from nongovernmental organizations and industry leaders in intellectual property and technology offered their insights -- after signing nondisclosure agreements. Watchdog group Knowledge Ecology International sent a Freedom of Information Act request for a list of all individuals who signed what amounts to a gag order.
USTR responded late last week with the roster of 42 Washington insiders who saw a highly controversial draft chapter pertaining to Internet piracy. Those who viewed the document include executives from the Business Software Alliance, Google, Dell, Intel, eBay, Verizon, Consumer Electronics Association, News Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Time Warner. Representatives from think tanks like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Public Knowledge were also privy to the proposal.
Days after an agreement was reached aimed at ensuring a permanent relationship between the U.S. government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, experts from civil society, government, industry and academia will gather to discuss their hopes and fears about the future of the Internet. Topics at the Friday summit, being held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, include cybersecurity, freedom of information in a Web 2.0 world, and privacy. Earlier this week, ICANN pledged to establish a review processes to help assess and improve its mission and operations. Read more in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Speakers at the Internet Governance Forum-USA include Markus Kummer of the UN Secretariat for the global IGF; National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Larry Strickling; and Lee Rainie of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Other participants include Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg; and TechAmerica President Phil Bond. The closing plenary, which will feature Ambassador Phil Verveer and Richard Beaird of the State Department, will cover upcoming deliberations over the global IGF - a process now in its fourth year. Read more about the event here.
A new law taking effect this week in the Bahamas, which would restore copyright protection for U.S. pay television content, is a small but important illustration of how ensuring respect for intellectual property and implementing trade commitments can create markets for American innovators, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Wednesday. The new law would provide legal protection against unauthorized broadcasts of American programming and, if properly implemented, could mean "that literally overnight, American cable companies will have a new export market for their shows."
Kirk told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce IP conference that his team is committed to creating similar opportunities with the country's larger trading partners as well as smaller ones. He said this can be accomplished with the help of tools like the USTR's "Special 301" process, which has evolved into a year-round affair, not just an annual report card on the world's worst IP offenders. The USTR on Wednesday launched five out-of-cycle Special 301 reviews that had been announced in April.
"We are committed to using the Special 301 process to highlight the need for reforms to address new challenges like Internet piracy, as we did this year with Canada, and also using the process to recognize meaningful progress, as we did this year with Korea," Kirk said. He added that his is committed to robust and results-oriented dialogues to make progress on IP issues. In the coming weeks, Kirk will travel to China and India for bilateral meetings and IP will be an important component of those talks.
For more coverage of Kirk at the Chamber's IP summit, read CongressDaily's PM Edition.
The Obama administration and the California entity that administers the world's Web addresses inked a deal late Tuesday to extend the formal relationship between the U.S. government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers hours before an existing contract was set to expire. Under the so-called "affirmation of commitments," ICANN promises to remain a U.S.-based nonprofit and continue its focus on transparency and accountability.
The four page document, which was released Wednesday morning, creates expert panels that will conduct regular reviews of ICANN's work in several areas: network security and stability; the evolution of generic domains such as .com and .net as well as domains not based on the English alphabet; and the continuance of a public database of Web site owners. An accountability panel -- the only one required to have a U.S. government representative -- is also set up under the plan.
In the months leading up to the pact, lawmakers offered a range of recommendations for preserving the link between the ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Among the most prescient was an August letter from Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va.
The European Commission on Monday continued to make its case against computer chip Intel by publishing a non-confidential version of a May decision, which carried a $1.45 billion fine for excluding competitors from the market for chips known as x86 central processing units. The documents, which include a summary of the key elements of the ruling, outline specific cases in which regulators believe Intel engaged in so-called conditional rebates and naked restrictions as well as how the firm allegedly sought to conceal its practices to disadvantage rival Advanced Micro Devices.
Intel reached an agreement with antitrust authorities in Japan but has appealed the European ruling and a similar decision in South Korea. The release of the Commission's analysis comes as Intel is being investigated in the United States by the FTC. The company has also faced scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Intel has argued that the model used overseas is worlds apart from the U.S. model and should not be seen as an indicator of how the FTC might proceed. Meanwhile, new Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney had vowed to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement in the Obama administration.
An Intel spokesman issued a strongly worded reaction, saying that there is nothing new in what the Commission released and its decision reflects "the underlying bias we have come to expect from the case team that ran this investigation." "We are convinced that the Commission's conclusions regarding our business practices are wrong, both factually and legally," he said, pointing out that the panel "relied heavily on speculation" and "ignored or minimized hard evidence of what actually happened."
Tuesday is One Web Day, an annual event intended to encourage Internet users to show how the medium impacts their lives. The annual celebration -- launched in 2006 by Susan Crawford (President Obama's special assistant for science, technology, and innovation policy) -- has attracted a global network of partner organizations and individual activists. Last year, One Web Day organizers documented volunteer-driven events 34 cities around the world. Here are a few events taking place in the nation's capital:
Bold Ideas for the Future of the Internet
Rayburn House Office Building Room 2203, 11 a.m.
Speakers include:
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting Senior Vice President Joaquín Alvarado
• Kenneth Boley, District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer
• Amalia Deloney, Media Action Grassroots Network
• Byte Back Inc. Executive Director Kelley Ellsworth
• Amina Fazlullah, U.S. Public Interest Research Group
• Susannah Fox, Pew Internet and American Life Project
• Verizon Assistant Vice President Link Hoewing
• Joanne Hovis, National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
• OneWebDay Executive Director Nathaniel James
• FCC Broadband Initiative Director Blair Levin
• John Wonderlich, Sunlight Foundation
One Web Day Happy Hour
Science Club, 1136 19th Street, NW, 6 p.m.
OneWebDay Yoga Class for Internet Users
Malcolm X-Meridian Hill Park, 16th St., and Florida Ave., NW, 7:15 a.m.
For more details on these and other events around the world, click here. For more of this week's tech-related event listings, visit CongressDaily's TechCentral page here.
A formal request from the British government to the Justice Department to obtain terrorist e-mails helped the United Kingdom obtain long-awaited guilty verdicts this week in a costly and high-profile case that has lasted more than three years. On Monday, three men were found guilty of conspiring to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners in 2006, using crude but potentially devastating handmade bombs. During the trial, the jury was shown e-mails containing coded references to the plot, which had been sent from the ringleader of the London-based cell, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, and his suspected minder in Pakistan, an Al Qaeda operative named Rashid Rauf.
Those messages had been sent through servers located in the United States. British law prohibits prosecutors from introducing intercepted electronic communications at trial but if the e-mails could be obtained legally by the U.S. government, they could be shared with the British. A DOJ spokesman told National Journal that following "requests for information from the United Kingdom...court orders were obtained and served, and we were able to provide [the] information obtained pursuant to the court orders."
It has been reported by several British newspapers that the e-mails were held by Yahoo, and that a court order for the messages was issued in California, where the company is based. The Justice spokesman said the U.K.'s request was made under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which allows two countries to gather and share information in a criminal case. According to British press reports the e-mails were initially intercepted by the National Security Agency in 2006, while the conspirators were under intense, around-the-clock surveillance by British authorities.
Days after visiting with South Korean leaders and praising them for their progress on the intellectual property enforcement front, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman admonished the Chinese government for its failure to provide adequate protections for IP rights. Berman and others met Thursday with the National People's Congress Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, NPC Foreign Affairs Chairman Li Zhaoxing, Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi and Commerce Minister Chen Deming in Beijing.
"China's efforts to stop intellectual property theft have been weak and ineffective - heavy on tough talk but light on implementation," said Berman, whose congressional district houses a number of TV and movie studios. "Hundreds of Web sites provide downloads and links to pirated movies, recordings and games. And sales of 'hard goods' such as illegally duplicated CDs and DVDs continue at close to ninety percent of what they were before China launched its vaunted anti-piracy campaign. It's time for more serious action."
Optical disc plants in China produce and export millions of CDs, DVDs, software and videogames in violation of Chinese law, his office said, while Web services such as Baidu provide direct links to recordings and video games without paying the people who produced them. The country's infamous track record for IP infringement costs U.S. creative communities anywhere from $2.2 to $3.5 billion in each of the past four years, Berman said, urging Chinese authorities to impose stiff fines and meaningful criminal penalties. The country routinely ranks among the world's top offenders in evaluations of global IP like the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's annual "Special 301" report.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman praised key government officials in South Korea on Tuesday for their efforts to protect U.S. content creators' intellectual property rights. In meetings about the proposed U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement with President Lee Myung-bak, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon, Berman emphasized the deal would bolster IP safeguards but said he remains concerned about its potential impact on the American automotive industry.
The trade deal would set penalties for those who abet piracy, including the seizure and destruction of pirated and counterfeit products; protect copyrighted performances on the Internet; and ensure the right of authors, performers and producers of recordings to determine use of copyrighted products. Earlier this year, Korea amended its copyright law to give producers and performers the right to remuneration for the public performance of their sound recordings and to impose obligations on Internet service providers to suspend the accounts of serial copyright abusers.
"South Korean authorities refuse to let the copyright pirates win," said Berman, whose California district is home to a number of major television and movie studios. "Through tightened legislation and international commitments, this country is taking important steps to protect the rights of the creative community, which in turn will safeguard U.S. businesses and jobs." Berman, however, noted that Internet music piracy remains a problem in Korea and urged police and prosecutors to coordinate more closely on enforcement actions.
The World Trade Organization has delivered a victory to the United States in its two-year-old case against Chinese restrictions on importation and distribution of copyright-protected movies, music, books and other entertainment products, CongressDaily reported Wednesday (subscription required). The decision found that the limits on sales of U.S. entertainment wares violated global trade rules. In a statement, Trade Representative Ron Kirk said it would "level the playing field for American companies" and represented a "clear win" for the United States, whose trade relations with China have been increasingly testy.
Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman said the WTO decision "points a way forward that will begin to even the playing field" in an important market. He noted that the Chinese system for distributing U.S. films to Chinese audiences is among the most restrictive and burdensome in the world and the ruling, coupled with a recent announcement that the Chinese government intends to lower market access thresholds for the cultural industry, may be an opening movie studios have been seeking.
Recording Industry Association of America Executive Vice President Neil Turkewitz said the fact that the United States has prevailed does not mean that China has lost. "The adoption of rules that enhance the operation of legitimate markets will inure greatly to the benefit of the Chinese creative community and to Chinese society," he said. Chinese and U.S. creators alike face illicit enterprises that claim at least 80 percent of the physical market and an estimated 99 percent of the online market.
The Obama administration established a strong position on intellectual property in connection with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at an international working group meeting in Bonn, Germany this week, according to Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global IP Center. Officials affirmed that "no treaty will be agreed upon that undermines or weakens intellectual property rights," Esper wrote on the Chamber's blog.
Nations are preparing for the UN convention in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December where negotiators will try to reach agreement on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some worry that countries like China and India will push for carve-outs that could diminish the IP rights of U.S. companies like General Electric that manufacture solar and other energy alternatives. "America's position was urgently needed to counteract the anti-IP rhetoric of developing nations," Esper wrote.
Read more on the Chamber's blog here and the latest coverage in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
Intellectual property think tank Knowledge Ecology International has asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to clarify whether the pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will cover patents. "There is considerable confusion on this point," KEI Executive Director James Love wrote Wednesday on the micro-blogging site Twitter. "If the ACTA text was not declared a national security secret by the White House, we could read the text on injunctions and damages," he added.
Officials from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico and other countries have resumed discussions so they can finalize the pact in 2010, according to Trade Representative Ron Kirk, whose team has been reviewing ACTA and other trade deals. He has vowed to move forward as transparently as possible. Watchdog groups have routinely called for more openness and public participation in negotiations that began under former President George W. Bush.
"This is big government and big business at its worst, creating rules without input or sensitivity to the concerns of consumers, overriding civil rights, undermining privacy, increasing prices to consumers," KEI said in a June statement. "The topics under review are not simple technical issues or directed at organized crime, they are big sweeping changes in our basic freedoms, and underhanded attempts to give lobbyists rules they can't get in a normal democratic setting."
Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, and Greg Walden, a Republican, want Justice Department antitrust chief Christine Varney to view recent European antitrust rulings with a critical eye and weigh the impact of those decisions on U.S. high-tech firms such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM and Qualcomm, CongressDaily's PM Edition reported Friday. Their effort comes on the heels of the European Commission's $1.45 billion judgment against Intel for excluding competitors from the market for chips known as x86 central processing units.
"That ruling is the latest evidence of a troublesome trend in Europe toward regulatory protectionism," they wrote in a draft letter circulating on Capitol Hill. Other successful U.S. companies have faced hefty fines, are under investigation, or possibly facing scrutiny from the Commission's competition directorate, they said. The Intel ruling "ignores the reality of a highly competitive marketplace," said the draft, noting that microprocessor prices have dropped drastically in the last decade. "The significant decrease in prices, together with the unprecedented increase in quality, speed, functionality and choice of microprocessors, reflects that market's robust health."
Read the full story here (subscription required).
With heightened international pressure facing Iran, some lawmakers are hoping to advance legislation that would crack down on foreign technology firms that do business there. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., introduced identical bills in late July that would punish companies selling equipment to aid the Iranian government in monitoring or blocking Internet and cellular phone communications. In particular, the bills would ban such firms from applying for U.S. government contracts or renewing expiring ones unless their ties with Iran were severed.
Electronics giant Siemens, for example, has thousands of federal contracts worth more than $250 million in 2009, and a joint venture with Nokia holds about $5 million worth of U.S. government contracts, Schumer's office said. Both have been implicated in Tehran's efforts to spy on its citizens and stifle communications, especially after the country's post-election unrest. Officials involved in the Siemens-Nokia joint venture have denied any wrongdoing. Nokia Siemens Networks Head of Corporate Affairs Robert Weisberg told Tech Daily Dose Monday afternoon that his firm has a stringent code of conduct and its work in Iran and other countries is done with an eye toward export control requirements and international human rights conventions. He added that the presence of companies like his are "a good thing" in Iran and have helped the world learn more about what is going on inside the country than ever before.
Read the full story in CongressDaily's PM Edition here (subscription required).
House Global Warming Chairman Edward Markey and ranking member James Sensenbrenner, who seldom agree on issues before their committee, will largely read from the same playbook at a hearing Wednesday intended to reinforce the importance of American intellectual property in conjunction with international climate change talks. The hearing comes as nations prepare for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December where negotiators will try to reach agreement on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers and the business community are working to make their views known to the Obama administration, and Sensenbrenner and Markey raised the issue during a trip to China with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in May.
The House has repeatedly made clear that IP needs to be protected. The House voted overwhelmingly in June to establish U.S. policy in opposition to any climate change treaty that could harm IP rights as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, and the State Department's appropriations bill includes text requiring the agency to certify robust IP protections. Cap-and-trade legislation that passed the House last month said IP rights are vital for R&D investment. Sensenbrenner wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in April asking for details about the administration's position on IP rights for energy technology, and Chu responded in May. In the letter, Chu affirmed his belief in protecting IP but noted opportunities to develop technologies through shared research investments.
Read a preview story in CongressDaily's AM Edition here (subscription required).
High-tech giant Intel lodged its appeal Wednesday in the European Court of First Instance against the $1.45 billion fine imposed by the European Commission earlier this year. The company did not give specific details of the legal grounds for its complaint but ZDNet UK reported that the European court will publish details of the appeal in several weeks. "We felt the EC decision was incorrect, and that evidence was ignored or misinterpreted," an Intel representative told ZDNet UK on Thursday. "We believe the Commission ignored the realities of the microprocessor market, which is highly competitive."
The fine for excluding competitors from the market for x86 central processing units was the largest penalty ever assessed by the European Union for a breach of competition, and it followed actions against Intel in Japan and South Korea. U.S. regulators are also getting involved. The FTC acknowledged in June 2008 that, after several years of scrutiny, it was opening a formal probe of Intel. Intel and rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, whose microprocessors are based on Intel's x86 architecture, have ratcheted up their Washington lobbying efforts. Read more in National Journal here (subscription required).
Eight public interest, consumer and public health organizations wrote to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Wednesday recommending the office and other federal agencies reduce secrecy and increase transparency in negotiations that involve global norms for knowledge governance. The groups' submission included a lengthy discussion of 21 specific recommendations, plus three attachments that describe transparency norms in a variety of multilateral and plurilateral norm setting fora.
The letter from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge and others is a product of a consultation with USTR officials that began in March and included a July 13 meeting between USTR and more than a dozen non-governmental organizations. One major area of concern is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Negotiations between the United States and a handful of trading partners are occurring largely behind closed doors with the goal of concluding in 2010.
The groups' recommendations go beyond ACTA, to address the transparency of all USTR negotiations that concern the setting of global norms for knowledge governance. "Transparency is the foundation stone for balanced policy making," EFF's Gwen Hinze said in a press release. "ACTA could lead to new invasive monitoring of Internet communications by ISPs and raise serious potential due process concerns for Internet users." KEI's James Love said he is heartened by the USTR's recent request for the public to offer concrete ideas about transparency. Read the 21 recommendations here.
The fifth round of negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement took place in Rabat, Morocco on Thursday and Friday. Participants included Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States. A spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the meeting was opened by Minister of Industry, Trade and New Technologies Ahmed Reda Chami who emphasized the importance of ACTA and pledged to make intellectual property a main priority.
The discussions focused on international cooperation, enforcement practices and institutional issues (as described in an April summary provided by the USTR). Participants also continued discussions on transparency matters, including providing information to stakeholders and the interested public. Participants agreed to release draft agendas before all subsequent negotiating rounds. The next round will be hosted by South Korea in November. Participants also confirmed their intention to conclude the agreement as soon as possible in 2010, the USTR spokeswoman said.
Earlier this week, tech watchdogs urged ACTA participants to set aside a portion of the negotiations dealing with "Internet distribution and information technology." Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade groups representing movie studios, music labels, video game and software companies and others wrote to the USTR.
See related CongressDaily items here and here (subscription required).
From CongressDaily's AM Edition...
FCC nominees Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Baker were generally noncommittal during their Wednesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, giving few, if any, hints on how they might decide policy and regulatory issues. That left lawmakers to use the hearing to reiterate their strong criticisms of the commission Clyburn and Baker would join, if confirmed, to fill the remaining Democratic and Republican vacancies, respectively. Read more.
Meanwhile... Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller has asked 11 federal agencies, including the FCC, the FTC and the Commerce, Homeland Security and Transportation departments, to report on their cybersecurity preparedness and the effectiveness of their incident-response capabilities. Read more.
And... A group of public interest, library and technology organizations are urging U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to set aside a controversial portion of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations focused on "Internet distribution and information technology." Read more.
Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., secured $30 million in federal funding for the State Department's efforts to promote Internet freedom as part of the agency's fiscal year 2010 spending bill. The program must be approved by the full Senate and the House before it makes its way to President Obama's desk. The money would promote widespread, secure Internet use by individuals residing in countries practicing repressive Internet monitoring, censorship and control. The outlay is "a low-cost method of allowing people, especially those living under repressive regimes, to access all-source, uncensored, unfiltered information," the senators said in a Friday press release.
"Tearing down these Internet cyberwalls can match the effect of what happened when the Berlin Wall was torn down," Specter said. "This funding seeks to enable freedom of thought, expression and the unimpeded flow of ideas and information, and I am pleased my colleagues have recognized the program's importance." Brownback added the battle being waged in the streets of Iran and China is also being fought on micro-blogging site Twitter, social network Facebook and other platforms. "This is a pivotal moment for people living in oppressive regimes. The best way to ensure their ability to communicate and share their story with each other and the world is to keep the Internet open," he said.
The House passed a State spending bill Thursday that did not include Web freedom funding but Energy and Commerce Committee member Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., earlier this week urged lawmakers to hold a hearing on the role of the Internet in giving a voice to those in repressive countries. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who in the 109th Congress chaired a high-profile Internet freedom hearing of the House subcommittee that oversees global human rights, has repeatedly introduced legislation that would prevent U.S. tech firms from working with nations that capture and convict citizens for engaging in democracy promotion and human rights advocacy online.
House Energy and Commerce Committee member Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., urged the panel's leadership Wednesday to hold a hearing on the role of the Internet and communications technologies in giving a voice to those silenced by repressive governments. Calling attention to recent events in Iran and China, where mobile phones and applications like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube delivered uncensored, citizen-fueled reports from the streets, Bono Mack said it is time that Congress examines the threat that Web censorship poses to free expression. "We cannot stand idly by while the voices of the oppressed are silenced," Bono Mack said in a press release and in a letter to Chairman Henry Waxman and ranking member Joe Barton.
Web sites developed in the United States provide opportunities for people whose words would otherwise never be heard and can foster respect for human rights and freedom across the world, she said. Following last month's disputed election in Iran, a "Twitter Revolution" allowed citizens there to broadcast firsthand accounts and on-the-scene footage of protests and violence in Tehran. At the same time, the government was doing everything in its power to control messages and images leaving Iran. Meanwhile, China has continued to use its "Great Firewall" to block content on a regular basis and researchers estimate that 30,000 or more Internet police monitor online traffic, Web sites and blogs for political and other offensive content.
In the 110th Congress, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin chaired a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee that examined U.S. companies' business dealings in Internet restrictive countries. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others were on the hot seat. In 2006, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chaired a similar high-profile hearing of the House subcommittee that oversees global human rights. Smith has introduced legislation on multiple occasions that would prevent U.S. tech firms from working with foreign governments that seek to conduct Internet surveillance to find, capture, convict and often torture citizens for engaging in democracy promotion and human rights advocacy online.
This week's crude and fairly ineffective attacks on U.S. and South Korean Web sites were a minor event, network experts said, but could represent a warning shot portending much more serious threats to worldwide communications and commerce on the Internet. James Lewis, a cybersecurity scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted the paradox in the attacks - that they were well-coordinated and broad in scope, but very limited in their aims. If they were the work of the North Korean government or affiliated forces, as South Korean officials suspect, said Lewis, it seems that the real purpose might have been to get the attention of foreign governments. Much like North Korea's missile and nuclear testing, this week's cyberattacks could be part of a diplomatic game aimed at extracting concessions from the United States and Western powers, he speculated.
On the other hand, any number of foreign governments, including North Korea, are capable of much more serious action that could do greater and long-term damage to Internet communications, Lewis said. Robert Beverly shrugged off the reported attacks this week as insignificant, but said that what keeps him up at night worrying is an attack on the domain name system - the computers that translate familiar words like Google into numerical Internet protocol addresses. Beverly, a network computing expert affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that a network of privately-owned computers around the world, known as root name servers, coordinate this activity.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, the only Cabinet secretary to join President Obama on his trip this week to Russia, stressed the need to combat intellectual property piracy and counterfeiting with Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, although the issue took a backseat to broader issues. "IP is on the agenda, but I wouldn't want to exaggerate its importance in these talks," a senior Commerce official traveling with Locke said Tuesday. Topics like Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, larger rule of law questions surrounding government transparency and import tariffs, and climate change were prioritized. But in same-day remarks at a business summit, Locke lauded Russia's recruitment of U.S. corporations like Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble, all of whom have a huge stake in fighting foreign and domestic IP crime. Locke said the United States and Russia must "increase the openness of our markets to trade and to investment" and during tough economic times remember to "not repeat the historic mistakes of protectionism of previous eras." Locke and Nabiullina will lead a business and economic relations working group under a bilateral commission co-chaired by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Read the full story in CongressDaily's AM Edition (subscription required).
On Saturday, President Obama will deliver a speech in Accra, Ghana and the White House is making sure Internet and mobile phone users around the world can get involved. In a message on the social networking site Facebook, administration officials said individuals will be able to submit questions, comments, and words of welcome in English or French via SMS text messages. SMS participants will also get live highlights from Obama's trip. The president will answer some questions following his speech in a radio broadcast.
Use a local SMS short code in:
-Ghana (1731) -Nigeria (32969) -South Africa (31958) -Kenya (5683)
-Long numbers for mobile registration pan-Africa: 61418601934 and 45609910343.
(Note: This SMS platform is not available in the United States)
Additionally, the White House will host a live Facebook-based chat during Obama's speech at http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive. On micro-blogging site Twitter, the White House asks participants to use the hashtag (#obamaghana) to find and share reactions related to his visit. The administration publicized Obama's June 4 appearance in Egypt using a range of high-tech platforms. The Cairo speech was translated into 14 languages on America.gov and spurred a flood of activity on Twitter.
President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held their first joint press conference in Moscow on Monday where they spoke about plans to reset the countries' relationship. The pair released a statement outlining a new framework for arms reduction and announced the creation of a bilateral commission with working groups focused on a range of topics including: nuclear energy; arms control; foreign policy and fighting terrorism; drug trafficking; business development and economic relations; energy and environment; agriculture; science and technologies; space cooperation; health; handling of emergency situations; civil society; and educational and cultural exchanges.
Additional working groups will be created and announced in the coming months, along with sub-groups under each working group as appropriate, officials said. While it was not explicitly mentioned, intellectual property policy -- namely anti-piracy and counterfeiting measures -- could easily fit into one or more of those categories. Russia regularly ranks among the top offenders in assessments of global IP infringement. In its annual "Special 301" report, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative noted serious concerns with Russia but credited positive steps taken by the government like the nation's accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Internet treaties.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which represents the American music, movie, software, and video game industries, told the USTR earlier this year that Russia's "enforcement efforts generally remain inadequate, and the copyright industries continue to await sustained, effective and deterrent enforcement, enhanced legal reform, and greater market access for legitimate copyrighted materials." The country has not met its obligations under a 2006 IP agreement with the United States and must take action against entities that knowingly distribute infringing products, combat the growing threat of Internet piracy, and address illegal optical disc manufacturing, IIPA stated. Read more from IIPA here.
The United States and Japan released the results of their work under a joint regulatory reform and competition policy initiative on Monday, citing progress in a number of areas, including several tech-related topics. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk welcomed the progress, noting it helps to further open Japan's market, improve its business environment, and stimulate new opportunities for growth. Japan is the United States' fourth largest trading partner and goods export market.
Some information technology progress from Japan:
• Strengthening protections for music and motion pictures by amending the copyright law to make illegal Internet downloads knowingly made from unauthorized sources.
• Creating new opportunities for certain electronic fund transfer providers by introducing the legal framework necessary to offer such services in Japan.
• Completing reviews by ministries and agencies of their privacy guidelines to ensure consistency with standardized cabinet office guidelines, thereby improving predictability for companies to comply with privacy requirements.
• Launching an improved database of government information systems procurements to provide more transparency for all IT vendors and potential bidders, including by posting procurement plans, specification documents and tender notice information.
A trade advisory body to the European Union and the U.S. government on Wednesday approved a resolution calling on policymakers worldwide to consider measures to moderate what its member argue are harmfully long terms of copyright and related rights. The TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue's declaration opposes protections that exceed the period required by a 1994 World Trade Organization agreement. That WTO's treaty says performers have the right to prevent unauthorized recording, reproduction and broadcast of live performances for no less than 50 years and producers of sound recordings have the same window to prevent unauthorized reproduction.
In cases where the WTO's guidance is not followed, TACD asks governments to introduce measures, such as limitations and exceptions to rights, or registration requirements. The 80-member group first discussed the resolution with representatives from the EU and United States in June during TACD's annual meeting in Brussels. "For too long, legislatures have accepted uncritically the assertions of industry that longer copyright terms necessarily lead to more creation. However, as terms reach multigenerational lengths, mounting evidence has shown that long terms can chill discussion, debate, analysis and revisiting of existing works," Public Knowledge's Sherwin Siy said in a press release.
Extending what amounts to a temporary monopoly without sound economic justification, does not facilitate the search for new business models, nor address the need for the increased provision of legal content, argued Kostas Rossoglou of the European Consumers' Organisation in Brussels. "Copyright should aim to keep a balance between rights holders and society as a whole." TACD's Anne-Catherine Lorrain noted that if policymakers decide longer terms of copyright protection are needed, "they still have the option to counter-balance the harmful effects of such policies, by adopting several measures to improve public access to knowledge goods."
Read the TACD resolution here.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Department are heartened by Tuesday reports that the Chinese government is indefinitely postponing a mandate requiring all personal computers sold and manufactured in the country include a controversial Internet filtering program. "We understand that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is delaying the implementation of the Green Dam software requirement. The United States welcomes the opportunity to engage with the relevant Chinese authorities on our concerns regarding the software," the agencies said in statement. The rule would have taken effect July 1.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke wrote to China last week arguing the government's plan could run afoul of World Trade Organization obligations. Their joint letter also laid out for Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong and Commerce Minister Chen Deming the fears raised by high-tech firms, Chinese citizens and media about the software's stability, the scope and extent of filtering, and potential security weaknesses. China is putting companies in "an untenable position" in its stated attempt to safeguard children from inappropriate content, they wrote. [Read more in CongressDaily here]
High-tech groups cheered the news. "This shows that when U.S. trade officials get involved, they get results," Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said. "For too long, companies have been left on their own to negotiate with other nations. Companies don't want to be caught in the middle. You need governments to fight governments." Black went on to say the Green Dam flap is part of a larger struggle between openness and repression -- not just in China but Iran and North Korea. He called for the U.S. government to negotiate Internet openness and freedom issues as part of future trade and other international agreements.
Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will soon introduce legislation to sanction any company that sells sensitive technology aiding the Iranian regime in monitoring or blocking the Internet connections or cellular phone conversations of protesters. The bill, which will be filed in the coming days, would require the Obama administration to identify foreign firms that export certain equipment to Iran and those companies would be barred from applying for contracts with the U.S. government, or renewing expiring ones, unless they first terminated those exports.
That requirement could be waived if the president determines such a waiver would be in the national interest of the United State but he would have to report to Congress on the reasons for the waiver. "It is utterly outrageous that Western companies sell equipment that allows the Iranian government to spy on their citizens, prevent communications between citizens and thwart any type of uprising against the regime," Schumer said in a press release. "This legislation is going to crack down on these companies so that we can do our part in preventing this regime from controlling the Iranian people."
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the systems used by Iran to spy on its citizens and stifle communications were installed by Nokia and Siemens. According to a federal spending Web site, Siemens has almost 2,000 contracts with the U.S. government, including 300 contracts with the Pentagon as well as other deals with the Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department, and the Department of Energy. The deals total over $250 million in 2009 alone. The joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, has at least six contracts with the U.S. government, totaling $5 million.
Foreign trade groups and their counterparts in the United States pressed Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday to halt a July 1 mandate for all computers manufactured and sold in China to be shipped with Internet filtering software, which the government has claimed would help protect children from inappropriate content. The letter from the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Business Software Alliance, Business Roundtable, Consumer Electronics Association, Information Technology Industry Council and others says the requirement "raises serious concerns for us and seems to run counter to China's important goal of becoming a vibrant and dynamic information-based society."
The correspondence comes on the heels of a similar message sent to high-level Chinese government officials by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke earlier this week and a letter from business groups the week before. "The Green Dam mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice," the most recent document said. The letter points out, however, that "effective and responsible parental controls" are the way to go. "Ensuring that our youth can enjoy the full benefit of the Internet while keeping them out of harm's way... is an important objective we all share." Read related coverage in CongressDaily here (subscription required).
A Chinese government rule slated to take effect next week that would require all computers produced and sold there to install controversial Internet filtering software has piqued the interest of lawmakers, according to Thursday's CongressDaily AM Edition. In the story, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force chairman; Helsinki Commission co-chair Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., each weigh in on the proposal. Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., also chimed in late Wednesday, telling Tech Daily Dose that China's purported plan "is just the latest example of China's obsession with controlling the free flow of information." "They have been unrelenting in making sure the government's position is the only position on every issue," he said.
The initiative also drew ire from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The high-ranking Obama administration officials sent a joint letter to the Chinese government warning the plan could run afoul of World Trade Organization obligations Their joint letter also laid out for Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong and Commerce Minister Chen Deming the fears raised by high-tech firms, Chinese citizens and media about the software's stability, the scope and extent of filtering, and potential security weaknesses. U.S. business and tech groups wrote to China last week saying the effort "seems to run contrary to China's own goal of becoming a leading IT and information-based society."
For the full CongressDaily story, click here (subscription required).
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and a handful of other senators urged President Obama on Thursday to protect intellectual property as talks begin on a global climate change treaty. Proposals have surfaced by representatives of some countries to allow foreign producers to copy or infringe patented technologies. "The United States government cannot afford to sit idle while others seek to weaken IP protections," they wrote. "America must continue to set the standard for IP protection, and be willing to confront those countries and organizations that attempt to weaken IP rights." Hatch collected signatures from Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; Robert Bennett, R-Utah; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Arlen Specter, D-Pa.; George Voinovich, R-Ohio; John Thune, R-S.D.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; and David Vitter, R-La.
The senators explain that some governments mischaracterize IP rights as an obstacle to progress and require compulsory licenses of IP or forced technology transfers. China and India claim they cannot meet future global emission requirements without free or significantly discounted access to climate change mitigation technologies. "These short-sighted approaches to IP rights will curtail growth and development, and stagnate the very industries that these countries depend on," they wrote. A coalition backed by the Chamber, General Electric, Microsoft, Siemens and other multinationals has been putting similar pressure on the Obama administration. A series of meetings will culminate at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, where parties will seek agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Two high-tech watchdog groups that filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2008 against the U.S. government over a perceived lack of transparency in Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations have reluctantly dropped their complaint. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge said Wednesday that the Obama administration's decision to support Bush-era concealment policies prompted the move. Federal judges have very little discretion to overrule Executive Branch decisions to classify information on national security grounds and government lawyers recently informed the court that they intend to defend the classification claims on those grounds, officials said.
Negotiating texts and background documents for the trade deal have been made available to representatives of major media copyright owners and pharmaceutical companies yet private citizens have had to rely on unofficial leaks for substantive information about the treaty, EFF International Policy Director Gwen Hinze said in a press release. "This can hardly be described as transparent or balanced policy-making," she said. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk on Friday announced that representatives from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico and other countries will meet in Morocco next month to resume ACTA discussions with an eye for completion in 2010.
Read related CongressDaily coverage here (subscription required).
A number of U.S. and international business groups expressed concern to the Chinese government Tuesday about a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notice mandating the installation of so-called "Green Dam" Internet filtering software on all computers sold in China, beginning July 1, 2009. "This mandate raises significant questions of security, privacy, system reliability, the free flow of information and user choice," the groups said. "A technology-specific mandate such as this also seems to run contrary to China's own goal of becoming a leading IT and information-based society." The signatories also urged "the use of effective and responsible parental controls" and said they would welcome a dialogue with China on how best to advance that objective.
Tech stakeholders signing the letter to Minister Li Yizhong included the Business Software Alliance, Consumer Electronics Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Semiconductor Industry Association, Software and Information Industry Association, TechAmerica, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. Broader business groups that joined them included the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, US-China Business Council, and the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Reports that the Green Dam software is compulsory on all computers are "a misunderstanding," according to China Daily. An official said the software's setup files must be present on all PCs or on an installation CD but installation is up to users.
A key European Union working group late last week released a report urging social networking sites to conform with the organization's data protection directive and to uphold and strengthen the rights of users. The report, which could have major implications for sites like MySpace and Facebook, comes as U.S. lawmakers prepare to scrutinize Internet companies' privacy and advertising practices at a Thursday hearing on Capitol Hill. The joint hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee and Consumer Protection Subcommittee will hear testimony from Google, Yahoo and Facebook executives. "Of paramount importance, [social networking sites] should inform users of their identity from the outset and outline all the different purposes for which they process personal data. Particular care should be taken by SNS providers with regard to the processing of the personal data of minors," the report stated.
The document recommends that users should only upload pictures or information about other individuals with the individual's consent and considers that SNS also have a duty to advise users regarding the privacy rights of others. The paper notes that online communities and, in many cases third party application providers, are data controllers with corresponding responsibilities to users. Robust security and privacy-friendly default settings are advocated throughout the opinion as the ideal starting point with regard to all services and access to profile information emerges as a key area of concern. Topics such as the processing of sensitive data and images, advertising and direct marketing on SNS and data retention issues are also addressed. Read the full report here (PDF).
High-tech attorney Jim Pooley, one of several top contenders for the job of Patent and Trademark Office director, was approved by World Intellectual Property Organization leaders on Monday as deputy director general for patents. Pooley has been a partner in the litigation department of the Palo Alto office of Morrison & Forrester and has practiced in Silicon Valley since 1973. He is immediate past president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and president of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Other new deputy directors general are: Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria), cooperation for development (including development agenda and WIPO Academy); Wang Binying (China), trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications; and Johannes Wichard (Germany) global issues (including enforcement, arbitration/mediation, communications, and the committee on genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore). For more, click here. (Hat tip, William New)
The House voted overwhelmingly late Wednesday to establish new U.S. policy in opposition to any global climate change treaty that weakens the intellectual property rights of American green technology as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act. The vote comes as diplomats prepare for December negotiations as part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. "American innovations in clean energy technology create good-paying jobs today and will fuel our country's economic growth in the future," said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who offered the amendment with Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Kirk, a member of the U.S. delegation to Kyoto in 1997, emphasized that jobs will not be created if foreign competitors are allowed to seize U.S. inventions.
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Howard Berman's core bill included language to increase resources and training for enforcement of intellectual property rights. Berman is a longtime leader on IP issues and chaired the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property in the 110th Congress. Under the bill, the Secretary of State would appoint 10 new IP attachés to serve in embassies or other diplomatic missions with priority placement given to countries with particularly egregious IP regimes. "This legislation will play a vital role in efforts to protect job-creating intellectual property abroad," said Mark Esper, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global IP Center.
France's Constitutional Court on Wednesday struck down a key portion of a recently enacted law that gave the government the ability to disconnect Internet users who illegally download music and movies. Under the so-called "three strikes" regime, which President Nicolas Sarkozy endorsed and lawmakers approved in May, users who download content without paying for it would get an e-mail from the government followed by a letter and a third warning before their Web connectivity is cut off for as long as one year. Concerns about a similar proposal permeated talks between the United States and a handful of trading partners as they work toward completion of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
The high court also found that access to the Internet in is among citizens' fundamental freedoms that cannot be curtailed or interrupted without intervention from a judge. The ruling came as a number of foreign entertainment industry executives gathered in Washington for the World Copyright Summit. French Minister of Culture and Communication Christine Albanel was scheduled to speak Tuesday but she canceled due to the likelihood that the court would rule this week. International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers Secretary General Eric Baptiste broke the news to attendees, saying his group was disappointed with the decision.
Sarkozy's supporters are not wasting time formulating a new plan. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Executive Vice President Shira Perlmutter told the conference that policymakers are already crafting a modified bill that will maintain the same graduated response approach but transfer some powers to a special court. The French movement was an important step forward in recognizing that music stakeholders need to work with Internet service providers, Perlmutter said during a session about the role of ISPs, which lacked a broadband provider representative. "It put in place a system that would be more effective and less draconian than having to sue a lot of individuals," she said.
One-size-fits-all policymaking does not produce favorable outcomes when developing countries are trying to formulate solid intellectual property regimes, World Bank Senior Vice President Anne-Marie Leroy told the World Copyright Summit on Wednesday. That's why her organization has supported a range of projects in various countries aimed at helping them stand up personalized IP protection processes and avoid the pitfalls of cutting and pasting regulations from other legal systems. In the late 1990s, the bank offered millions of dollars to Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico for that purpose, Leroy said. Additionally, a multi-million dollar trust fund program has supported investments in the music industries of Ghana, Senegal, Jordan and Nigeria.
"Domestic IP policies and laws should adapt standards that are well within their domestic institutional capacity to implement," she said, noting that it's important to avoid creating what she called "systemic internal inconsistencies" that eventually lead to failures in IP enforcement. Distortions in a country's IP framework provide gaps and opportunities for abuse and corruption, Leroy added. In the big development picture, however, intellectual property is only one component for stimulating competitive commercial infrastructures, she said. Other key ingredients include reforming tariff and tax policies; reducing the cost of trade; and advocating for export promotion policies.
Key business groups offered support Tuesday for a legislative amendment that would reaffirm intellectual property rights for U.S. technologies developed to deal with climate change, CongressDaily's AM Edition reported. The National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the United States Council for International Business said that as talks proceed on a climate change treaty, proposals have surfaced to allow foreign producers to copy or infringe patented technologies. On a parallel track, a coalition backed by the Chamber, General Electric, Microsoft, Siemens and other multinational firms is putting pressure on the Obama administration and key lawmakers as trade negotiators prepare for U.N. climate change talks this summer.
"While progress on these environmental negotiations is vitally important, such compulsory licensing is not the answer," the groups said in a letter Tuesday backing a proposal by Reps. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., offered as an amendment to the foreign relations authorization bill expected on the House floor soon. The House Rules Committee approved a slightly modified version of the amendment Tuesday that will be considered with the bill on the House floor. Business groups worry that countries like Brazil, China and India will push for mandatory carve-outs for alternative energy innovations. A series of meetings begin this month and will lead up to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, where parties will seek agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Read CongressDaily's recent coverage of this issue here and here (subscription required).
Geneva, Switzerland -- A persistent international shortage of books and other material adapted for visually-impaired people has led to a push in Geneva for a global treaty that would also mesh with U.S. efforts to address the problem. Technologies exist to overcome the disparity, but access continues to be limited by economic and legal arguments related to copyright, and the situation is even worse in developing countries. "There is no longer any technical reason that could bar a blind person from reading a book," Dan Pescod of the Royal National Institute for the Blind told the U.S. Copyright Office in a May 18 hearing.
That hearing was part of a consultation on the issue launched by the Copyright Office, which also included written submitted comments. Central to the consultation, according to the March 26 Federal Register notice, is a treaty on access for the visually impaired proposed by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay in late May at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The proposed WIPO treaty, the subject of domestic consultations by governments in the coming months until the next WIPO copyright committee meeting, would create rules for import and export of works in accessible formats.
The reasons for a new global instrument, according to Manon Ress of Knowledge Ecology International, include: "The legal uncertainly over cross-border sharing of works, the very limited role of voluntary licensing of works, the recent disabling of text to speech by all Random House owned e-books, the enormous inefficiencies of making duplicative accessible format versions of works, and the paucity of works available to reading disabled persons, particularly in developing countries, or in foreign languages." Read CongressDaily's "Issue Of the Week" feature here.
The globalization of criminal networks and advances in technology have made international criminal organizations a significant threat to the safety and security of the nation, Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday upon announcing the creation of a new International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center. The IOC-2 will marshal the resources and information of nine U.S. law enforcement agencies, as well as federal prosecutors, to collectively combat the threats posed by global gangs to domestic safety and security. Holder made the announcement in Rome at the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial. "We are answering that threat by developing a 21st century organized crime program that will be nimble and sophisticated enough to combat the danger posed by these criminals for years to come," he said.
Understanding that international criminal rings are profit-driven, IOC-2 will establish a team of financial experts to serve as consultants and identify opportunities and strategies to employ forfeiture as a means of disrupting targeted criminal organizations. The team will coordinate multi-jurisdictional forfeiture strategies and assist agents in the field in obtaining the necessary resources, such as financial auditors, investigators and forfeiture attorneys, to employ the strategy, according to a DOJ press release. Holder also emphasized the importance of continued cooperation with foreign law enforcement through existing police-to-police and mutual legal assistance mechanisms. The creation of IOC-2 will make the United States a more effective partner for joint investigations and prosecutions, he said.
CongressDaily's David Hatch writes in TechCentral's latest Issue Of The Week that officials have released an historic government plan to spend tens of billions of dollars constructing a nationwide, state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster than today's technology. The new infrastructure would reach every citizen, delivering affordable connections at taxpayer-subsidized rates, boosting access to education and telemedicine. Proponents promise myriad opportunities for online businesses and enhancements to energy efficiency, media distribution and public safety. Haven't heard about this yet? That's because the announcement was made last month in Australia.
Before you dismiss the approach as a radical idea that could never be implemented here, consider this: it's being touted by a high-level White House official who reports directly to President Obama. Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy and a member of the National Economic Council, recently said she is "personally intrigued" by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's ambitious goal. Even with this year's $7.2 billion cash infusion from Congress to stimulate domestic broadband investment, experts acknowledge that gaps in availability and bandwidth will remain, with pockets of the United States left with no service or antiquated technology.
Read the full story here.
The European Newspaper Publishers' Association said Monday that Google's decision to allow advertising on its news section will hurt newspapers' advertising revenue online and make it difficult for newspapers to form productive partnerships with Google. "With such a move, Google does not follow its public statements to publishers that it would not place advertisements on its news service. It also sends a very negative signal that there is no intention by Google to negotiate in an open and fair basis with newspaper publishers," wrote ENPA, an international association that seeks to promote the interests of the European newspaper industry. "ENPA encourages newspapers publishers, where this is found appropriate, to consider all legal and other means to ensure that Google understands the harm it is causing to readers, journalists and other employees and its impact in the industry, democracy and employment," ENPA said.
Meanwhile, The Times reported Tuesday that Google is arguing that newspaper mergers in the United Kingdom should be allowed to take place because of the competition from Internet firms. "Google supports the position of many newspapers for the need to allow for a 21st century merger regime, allowing local and regional news services to merge and consolidate in order to create...competitive news offerings," wrote Matt Brittin, the managing director of Google U.K., in a letter to the U.K. Office of Fair Trading.
-- Winter Casey
The United States is deploying new high-tech tools to meet challenges associated with the humanitarian crisis that is affecting Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced during a Tuesday briefing with the White House press corps. She said in addition to providing $100 million in aid, the State Department is working to support the Pakistani government in launching a text-messaging system that will alert local communities to assistance efforts and will help family members keep in touch. The initiative is part of a broader effort to help those who have fled their homes in Swat Valley, where troops are engaged in a battle with Taliban militants.
"We have been hard at work in this area for a number of weeks, looking for ways that we can get communications directly to people on the ground," Clinton said. "We know that a lot of the Pakistanis who are being displaced by the conflict have cell phones. So we're going to try to reach directly to them, not only to give them information that will be of assistance to them, but also to provide a way of connecting them up with other people, with the military, with the governing authorities." She said Americans can also help by texting the word "swat" to the number 20222 to make a $5 contribution for tents, clothing, food, and medicine to hundreds of thousands of affected people.
A trade group representing Dell, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft and other high-tech titans lauded President Obama's decision over the weekend to nominate Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to serve as the country's next ambassador to China. Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield said the Republican whose name has appeared on some lists of potential nominees for the 2012 presidential election, is a "smart choice and a good friend of the tech industry." During his tenure as governor, Utah has become a magnet for high-tech businesses and employment, Garfield said. ITI Vice President of Global Policy John Neuffer, a former colleague of Huntsman's while at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said he "knows the importance of trade to American competitiveness, is cool under fire, and is a seasoned China-hand, which will serve the United States well at a time when U.S. trade relations with China are a complex mix of opportunities and challenges." Huntsman served terms as deputy USTR, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for East Asia, and U.S. ambassador to Singapore. He has held positions in the private sector, including as president of Huntsman Cancer Foundation and CEO of Huntsman Corporation. In November 2008, Huntsman was elected to a second term as governor of Utah. A bonus for his potential new gig: He speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and has one adopted daughter from China.
The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus on Wednesday will unveil its 2009 watch list of countries that maintain inferior intellectual property protection regimes. The annual release comes on the heels of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's own analysis known as the "Special 301" report, which was made public in late April. Traditionally, the two documents are closely aligned in the nations they put in the spotlight. Rampant illicit copying of compact discs, online sharing of movies and music, and other violations in China, Russia, Spain and Thailand were emphasized by the USTR and Canada was added to the agency's "priority watch list" at the behest of U.S. music, movie, software and video-game industries.
At the time, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Canada's spot on the list next to China and Russia "underscores how widespread Internet piracy has become" and that legislative steps are needed. Hatch co-chairs the Caucus with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. and Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. The USTR report, now in its 20th year, moved Algeria and Indonesia to priority status and removed South Korea from a lower-level list in recognition of improvements its government has made since 2008. Caucus members will be joined at the briefing by Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman; Entertainment Software Alliance President Mike Gallagher; Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman and others.
The French Senate overwhelmingly approved a proposal pushed by President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday that gives the government the ability to disconnect Internet users who illegally download music and movies. The bill was adopted a day earlier by the parliament's lower house. Under the "three strikes" law, users who download content without paying for it will get an e-mail from a government officials followed by a letter and a third warning before their Web connectivity is cut off for as long as one year. "The new French law takes the right approach and sets an example to the rest of the world," John Kennedy, head of International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said in a statement. "It will introduce sensible, proportionate measures that will have a real impact on piracy while respecting ordinary, legitimate Internet users."
"Creative industries everywhere, including music, film, TV and books, are facing a fundamental challenge from the way online piracy is eroding the ability of creators to get rewarded for their work," Kennedy said. "In France the government has understood better than any other country the crisis which is looming if firm action is not taken to address the problem." Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement majority party voted to make up for the surprise rejection of the law last month, Bloomberg reported. The Socialists Party says it plans to ask the Constitutional Council, France's highest authority, to rule on the legality of the law, Agence France-Presse said. Concerns about a similar three strikes proposal have permeated talks between the United States and a handful of trading partners as they work toward completion of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
As U.S. military and government officials consider the best approach to fighting cyber threats, they are considering the relevance of historic approaches to national security dangers such as nuclear weapons and terrorism. Herbert Lin, chief scientist at the National Research Council's computer science and telecommunications board, said a range of topics are currently being weighed such as "strategy, escalation, and deterrence, as well as issues related to doctrine and employment policy for cyber weapons." Doctrine and employment policy refer to how the military plans to operate during a conflict and strategy refers to thinking beyond immediate engagement to develop a roadmap for how to win, he said. Deterrence involves persuading a bad guy to not attack and escalation refers to how to keep a war from getting out of hand, he said.
"The very concepts of what constitutes offense versus defense and what is contained within either is a new and nascent debate in cyber," wrote Rod Beckstrom of the Homeland Security Department's National Cybersecurity Center, in an email. Historic concepts that have emerged include preemptive war strategy or when an attempt is made to combat a perceived inevitable threat before the threat becomes a reality and, the "no first use pledge," or when a state with nuclear weapons promises not to use the weapons first. Another approach, known as mutually assured destruction, "reflects the idea that one's population could best be protected by leaving it vulnerable so long as the other side faced comparable vulnerabilities," NuclearFiles.org states. The U.S. has waged past wars against threats that are not easily defined and geographically diverse such as terrorism and drugs.
Microprocessor giant Intel Corp. took a beating by the European Commission on Wednesday as regulators fined the company $1.45 billion for violating antitrust rules by engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for computer chips called x86 central processing units. The Commission ordered Intel to cease the illegal practices immediately to the extent that they are still ongoing. The company has vowed to fight the ruling. "We believe the decision is wrong and ignores the reality of a highly competitive microprocessor marketplace -- characterized by constant innovation, improved product performance and lower prices. There has been absolutely zero harm to consumers. Intel will appeal," CEO Paul Otellini said.
But EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes disagrees. She issued a statement saying Intel has harmed millions of European consumers "by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years." "Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU's antitrust rules cannot be tolerated," she said. Intel rival AMD cheered the decision, saying it was a critical step toward a truly competitive market. "After an exhaustive investigation, the EU came to one conclusion - Intel broke the law and consumers were hurt," AMD Executive Vice President Tom McCoy said. "With this ruling, the industry will benefit from an end to Intel's monopoly-inflated pricing and European consumers will enjoy greater choice, value and innovation."
As Tech Daily Dose reported last month, Jenner & Block attorney Philip Verveer has now officially been tapped for the impossibly titled position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy. Verveer has practiced communications and antitrust law in the government and in private law practice for more than 35 years, according to a White House personnel announcement. From 1969 to 1981, Verveer was a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division; as a supervisory attorney in the Bureau of Competition at the FTC; and as the chief of the FCC's Cable Television Bureau, the Broadcast Bureau, and the Common Carrier Bureau.
Between 1973 and 1977, he served as the DOJ Antitrust Division's first lead counsel in the investigation and prosecution of United States v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., the case that eventuated in the divestiture of the Bell System. As a Bureau Chief at the FCC, Verveer participated in a series of decisions that enabled increased competition in video and telephone services and limited regulation of information services, the bio stated. Since 1981, Verveer has practiced law in the private sector and in 1995 and 1996 he chaired the federal advisory committee that identified spectrum requirements necessary to afford public safety organizations efficient and interoperable wireless communications. He has also served on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School and the Executive Committee of the Alumni Board of Governors of Georgetown University.
The United States, Japan, New Zealand, and Luxembourg had the lowest rates of software piracy in the world in 2008 -- all near 20 percent -- while Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, and Zimbabwe had the highest instances of infringement, each with over 90 percent, according to the Business Software Alliance's sixth annual piracy study with market research and forecasting firm IDC. The report, being released Tuesday, shows that governments are software firms are making progress in slowing the spread of illegal programs but progress has stalled in the United States and the challenge is greatest in the world's fastest growing emerging markets.
Overall, the rate of PC software piracy last year dropped in about half (52 percent) of the 110 countries studied and remained the same in about a third (35 percent), the study found. However, the worldwide piracy rate went up from 38 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2008 because PC shipments grew fastest in high-piracy rate countries. Meanwhile, piracy-related losses to legitimate software vendors grew by more than $5.1 billion (11 percent) to $53 billion from 2007 to 2008, although half the growth stemmed from changing exchange rates. Excluding the effect of exchange rates, losses grew by 5 percent to $50.2 billion and the legitimate software market grew by 14 percent.
"We are continuing to make progress against PC software piracy in many countries, which helps people working in the U.S.-led global software industry. That's the good news," BSA President Robert Holleyman said in a press release. "The bad news is that PC software piracy remains so prevalent in the United States and all over the world. It undermines local IT service firms, gives illegal software users an unfair advantage in business, and spreads security risks." BSA noted the impact of the economic crisis appeared to be muted in its effect on piracy in 2008, in part because significant spending cutbacks did not start until late in the year. Read the full report here.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., has become increasingly concerned about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has been in the works, largely behind closed doors, for more than a year. Amid fears from watchdog groups who argued the process between the U.S. government and a handful of key trading partners was too secretive, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in April released a six-page summary of ACTA talks. Lofgren told a crowd of high-tech executives Wednesday the outline may not be sufficient in quelling fears about requirements that could be imposed on Internet service providers and others. She said the document "makes me very nervous," particularly as European proposals have surfaced to regulate ISPs as part of efforts to crack down on copyright infringement.
In her remarks to the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Lofgren also spoke about the congressional movement to overhaul the U.S. patent system. Silicon Valley executives told her in recent meetings that a compromise bill, which last month passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, could be worse than no bill at all due to what they believe is watered down damages language. "Last year we had a strong bill," Lofgren said of the version that passed the House. The Senate measure stalled last spring after Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and then-ranking member Arlen Specter could not see eye to eye on damages text. "Now we have a bill that opponents of patent reform are rallying around," she said of Leahy's legislation as amended.
Lofgren also said the so-called "orphan works" issue is still on her radar. Legislation aimed at reworking a portion of U.S. copyright law that deals with musical tracks, writings, images, videos or other content whose owners cannot be easily gained some traction in the 110th Congress but did not make it to the House floor. Later in her speech, Lofgren said a bill she sponsored to provide for a five year moratorium on any new discriminatory wireless tax or fees should collect "a lot of cosponsors on both sides of the aisle." "I think we have an opportunity to move that," she said.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., reintroduced his Global Online Freedom Act on Wednesday with the bipartisan backing of Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., Frank Wolf, R-Va., and others. The measure would prevent U.S. technology companies from working with repressive foreign governments that seek to conduct Internet surveillance to find, capture, convict and often torture citizens for engaging in democracy promotion and human rights advocacy online. Smith's bill passed several House committees last Congress but he could not secure a floor vote before the session ended.
The latest version of Smith's bill would require American IT companies that do business with countries known for clamping down on free speech to keep records on and notify the Justice Department of demands for personal information about Internet users. The legislation also would give the attorney general authority to order tech firms not to comply with those demands if there is a reasonable likelihood that the request is not made for legitimate law enforcement purposes. Additionally, the bill would require the U.S. firms to disclose data they block when asked by foreign governments and disclose how they filter search engine results.
Smith's measure would prevent U.S. IT firms from blocking U.S. government Web sites and would create an Office of Global Internet Freedom within the State Department to promote freedom of expression online. "The reality is that dictatorships need two pillars to survive -- propaganda and secret police," Smith said in a press release. "The Internet -- when misused by authorities --gives them both in spades." He added that it is "unconscionable that American businesses... would even consider enabling repressive governments that seek to stifle basic freedoms."
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., wrote to members of the Canadian Parliament last week urging them to address inadequacies in the country's intellectual property rights enforcement regime. His letter came on the heels of an April 6 House Foreign Affairs Committee field hearing in California that heard from music and movie industry representatives who named the United States' northern neighbor -- along with China and Russia -- as havens for major piracy operations. Specifically, Sherman pressed Canada to provide its customs officials with ex officio seizure power. Currently, they lack the statutory authority to seize counterfeit products unless they have previously obtained a court order.
"Canada has not acceded to nor implemented World Intellectual Property Organization Internet treaties," he wrote. "Canada has continued to resist a 'notice and takedown' regime that would require Internet service providers to terminate the accounts of repeat or serious IPR infringers." Additionally, Sherman said Canada has not enacted rules clarifying that rights holders can get damages awards against entities that intentionally facilitate massive infringement. "Pirated goods are not just an economic concern but often times represent a serious threat to public health safety," the lawmaker noted. "Canada must assist its partner countries in making sure that dangerous goods do not cross its borders," he concluded.
Last May, the Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus slammed Canada for failing to update its IP enforcement regime despite promises to the contrary and the passage of a 2007 law that banned movie-theater videotaping of films. Earlier this year, the International Intellectual Property Alliance urged the U.S. Trade Representative to place Canada on its list of countries that warrant enhanced attention due to IP problems. The USTR's annual "Special 301" report, which highlights IP deficiencies and advancements of trading partners, is due out later this week.
In the next few months it is expected that Philip Verveer will become the State Department's next U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. Verveer will be filling the shoes of David Gross, who held the title of coordinator since 2001. The position also comes with the title of "ambassador." Sources say the White House is currently doing a background check of Verveer and his nomination will also be subject to approval by the Senate in addition to the administration. Verveer is currently counsel at the firm Jenner & Block's litigation department [bio]. He is also a member of the firm's communications practice with a focus on regulatory and antitrust issues.
Verveer has nearly three decades advising clients on communication regulatory issues before Congress, the FCC, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of U.S. Trade Representative, Federal Trade Commission, the State Department, and the Committee on Foreign Investment. Verveer, who served in the military, also worked as a partner in the Washington office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he founded the firm's communications practice. He has also served as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's antitrust division, a supervisory attorney in the FTC's Bureau of Competition, and as the chief of the cable bureau at the FCC. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1969 and is married to Melanne Verveer, who was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief of staff when she was first lady. President Obama has tapped her to be his ambassador at large for global women's issues. -- Winter Casey
A State Department-led delegation of U.S. high-tech executives visiting Baghdad this week met with President Jalal Talibani and Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih as well as the Iraqi minister for science and technology, technology executives, and university students. The trip by officials from Google, YouTube, AT&T, Twitter and others, was a fact-finding mission with the goal of listening and lending expertise -- not securing lucrative contracts, officials said Wednesday. The delegation reported during a conference call that the Iraqi government seemed open to new technology. For example, Salih has an iPhone, Gmail and promised to start a Twitter page. He said his daughter, who attends Princeton University, wants him to sign up for a profile on social networking site Facebook.
While the issue of government censorship of the Internet is a hot-button issue in many countries, YouTube's Hunter Walk said he and his colleagues heard just the opposite. "There was a lot of hope for a more transparent government process," he said on the conference call. Meetup CEO Scott Heiferman added that there is "a real commitment to building a real society." "I think the world looks to President Obama on how to self organize," he said. When asked whether the pace of technology was moving faster than the basic infrastructure in Iraq, State Department official Jared Cohen commented: "It's a good thing that they become more aware of what they don't have." Google's Ahmad Hamzawi pointed out that fiber is being laid throughout the country.
On the call, executives emphasized that the culture is changing steadily but challenges remain. "Too many people are dependent on the government. These are people who lived under dictatorship for years," Blue State Digital's David Nassar said. Google's Kannan Pashupathy added: "The young people have the spirit but not yet the decentralized psyche." Heiferman commented: "It's a fascinating moment in history where they are realizing their own power." For more about the trip, read this post on Tech Daily Dose.
* * * Updated 5 p.m. ET * * *
A handful of U.S. high-tech executives left for Baghdad Sunday on a trip arranged by the State Department, an agency spokesman said at a Monday briefing. The junket is the first of its kind for the CEOs, vice presidents and senior representatives from AT&T, Google, YouTube, Twitter, WordPress, Howcast, Meetup, Blue State Digital and others. Blue State Digital has strong ties to President Obama, having provided his campaign and the transition team with a number of services ranging from online fundraising and voter outreach to social networking and Web hosting. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and other company executives have also served as advisers to Obama.
"While in Iraq, the group will explore new opportunities to support Iraqi government and non-government stakeholders in Iraq's emerging new media industry," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. During their visit, they will provide conceptual input as well as ideas on how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building. "As Iraqis think about how to integrate new technology as a tool for smart power, we view this as an opportunity to invite American technology industry to be part of this creative genesis," Wood said.
Wood was unable to identify the names of the executives on the trip but said he would try to furnish a list later in the day. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton "has been a strong proponent of using a full range of tools, including emerging new media and communication technologies, to leverage capabilities that will allow for diplomacy not just with governments but also with people and between different associates," he said. Earlier this month, Clinton hired on as her senior innovation adviser Alec Ross, who served on Obama's transition team and co-founded the nonprofit One Economy, which uses technology to assist low income communities.
Intellectual property rights enthusiasts lauded a Swedish jury's decision Friday to hold the two founders and two operators of the infamous Pirate Bay Web site guilty of criminal copyright infringement. The court levied jail sentences and civil damage awards worth about $3.6 million against the defendants whose BitTorrent site attracted an estimated 22 million users worldwide. The Progress and Freedom Foundation's Tom Sydnor said the outcome delivered a simple message about the activities of the Pirate Bay: "Good riddance to bad rubbish." He commended Sweden for upholding the rule of law and urged the government to act swiftly to end the site's illegal activities.
Syndor also said the ruling was "an affirmation of the rights of the hard-working, law-abiding creators" whose efforts to stem the global recession were hampered by "socially destructive freeloading" by sites and distributors of piracy-adapted file-sharing programs. Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman also commented on the ruling, saying it "serves as a clear warning to other Web site operators who are knowingly offering illegal content, or enabling the illegal distribution of content, that their operations are immoral and punishable by law." The trade group executive called the case "a victory for copyright holders, who deserve to be rewarded for their creativity and hard work." Internet-based software piracy is a huge problem with serious consequences for consumers, the economy, and society, Holleyman said.
President Obama announced Monday that he will authorize U.S. telecommunications network providers to enter into agreements to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the United States to Cuba. Obama said he wants to promote greater interaction between the U.S. and Cuba and will allow U.S. telecom, radio and television service providers to offer services and enter into agreements with Cuban customers and service providers. The White House also said it will "license persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to activate and pay U.S. and third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio and satellite television services provided to individuals in Cuba, except certain senior Communist Party and Cuban government officials." The United States will further allow the export or re-export to Cuba of donated personal communications devices so long as national security concerns are recognized. The White House said Obama took these steps to promote the free flow of information to the Cuban people. In May 2008, then-President George W. Bush announced that Americans soon would be allowed to send cell phones to Cubans. Bush also acknowledged reforms the Castro regime had made toward becoming more technology friendly such as allowing Cubans to purchase mobile phones, DVD players and computers. -- Winter Casey
The value of information communications and technology exports in China increased at an average rate of 31 percent per year between 2004 and 2007, according to the 2009 fact book of international statistics published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Since 2004, China's IT exports have exceeded those of the United States. Other countries with higher ICT exports include Hungary, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland, Iceland, United States, Japan, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, France and Ireland. The report also found that spending on research and development in China has been growing at a faster rate than the country's GDP or from .9 percent in 2000 to 1.5 percent in 2007. In 2006 and 2007, Finland, Japan, Korea and Sweden were the only OECD countries in which the R&D-to-GDP ratio exceeded 3 percent, according to the report.
R&D spending has been growing the fastest in Iceland and Turkey with an annual growth rate of more than 10 percent. The average R&D rate is 2.3 percent. The report found that R&D expenditure relative to GDP has has decreased slightly in the United States (2.7 percent in 2007) and in the EU it has remained relatively stable (1.8 percent in 2006). The OECD report also found that computer penetration rates are the highest in Iceland, the Netherlands, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Korea, where 80 percent or more of households had access to a home computer by 2007. The number of households with access between 2001 and 2007 increased sharply in France, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Countries with low computer penetration rates include Turkey, Mexico, Greece, the Czech Republic and Portugal. -- Winter Casey
The use of additional spectrum for new wireless Internet and television services in the European Union will provide a boost to the gloomy economy, a top EU official said Tuesday. The spectrum is becoming available as the region switches from analogue to digital television in member states. The transition is expected to be completed across the EU by 2012. "Radio spectrum is a resource of huge economic, societal and cultural value, and it the basis for important services such as broadcasting, mobile communications, wireless broadband, navigation and public safety, " EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding after a meeting with Radio Spectrum Policy Group Chairman Dániel Pataki.
"As a result of the switchover from analogue to digital TV, tremendous spectrum resources will become available for other uses, especially for wireless broadband ... The digital dividend could allow Europe to extend its leadership in electronic communications services, creating growth and jobs, increasing productivity and giving greater access to broadband services for all Europeans," Reding said in a statement. She added that regulators will play a key role in helping the region make better use of new spectrum. The European Commission will offer recommendations on ways to make the most efficient use of spectrum by the fall. Tech Daily Dose reported in February that the EU said it "is leading the world in switching from analogue to digital television." -- Winter Casey
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
GENEVA, Switzerland -- After several years of stalemate, global discussions on patent policy have begun stirring again, this time with a public-interest twist. And it may just be coincidence that this comes at a time when domestic patent reform legislation is beginning to move in Congress. Member governments of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization met here last week and began setting the groundwork for a new global patent policy agenda that could contribute to broad policy concerns such as climate change and public health.
The filing and use of patents on innovation has led to enormous wealth for companies and economies in parts of the world like the United States, and patent filing is rapidly rising in others, like China. Proponents call intellectual property rights the main source of wealth for firms, and argue that they hold their value in economic uncertainty. But attitudes about patents and the use of patent systems differ around the world. Patent holders have been trying for years unsuccessfully to improve harmonization among those systems to ease barriers to protection and enforcement of their rights.
But many developing countries have resisted erecting new international rules on IP, in part because they are still struggling with implementation of the 1994 World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which raised commitments on IP rights protection. Read the full story here.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk's 2009 report to Congress, which describes significant barriers to U.S. trade and investment and actions being taken by officials to address them, flags a number of topics of interest to the tech sector. They include:
• Onerous testing and certification requirements on more than 1,200 consumer goods
• New requirements to register and inspect a broad range of imports
• Ineffective enforcement against trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy
• Cumbersome and non-transparent approval processes for biotech products
• Discriminatory excise taxes requiring imported products to pay rates 10 to 43 times higher than before
• Prohibited export subsidies (e.g., for "national" brands) that are highly trade distorting
• Limitations to foreign participation in telecom markets, both basic and value added, through a multiplicity of barriers, including high basic capital requirements, and non-transparent and lengthy investment approvals.
The USTR is beginning a review of the implementation of our existing trade agreements, including the enforcement of the labor and environment provisions, the office said in a press release. It is also initiating a process to prioritize trade barriers enumerated in the National Trade Estimate Report and to address the most significant. Additionally, USTR is identifying new cases where market access for U.S. goods and services is in jeopardy because of disregard for the rule of law and is planning to prosecute those cases through multilateral and bilateral dispute resolution.
Technology CEO Council Chairman Mike Splinter has some words of wisdom for President Barack Obama has he heads to the G-20 Summit in London on Thursday -- his first big international gathering since becoming commander in chief. Splinter advised Obama in a weekend letter to urge the other G-20 nations to adopt economic stimulus plans that promote investments in critical national infrastructures, as the U.S. did with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He also asked Obama to fight for open markets, recommit to a new Doha Round of trade negotiations and fend off protectionism.
"Along with unprecedented challenges, you have an unusual opportunity to help lead the world toward a more secure future. This will not come easy," wrote Splinter, who is CEO of Applied Materials. "The world's political leaders are confronted by severe economic anxieties at home, and these concerns are driving many countries toward protectionist measures... Unchecked, each nation's efforts to close off its own economy and advantage its own domestic industries will harm all nations." Fifty years from now, generations will look back at how the United States responded to the fears and crises of 2009, he wrote, noting: "Whether we react to short-term political pressures or invest in long-term reforms will determine how history judges us."
Read the full letter to Obama after the jump...
The European Union said Thursday that the United States is breaking the rules of the World Trade Organization and creating a barrier to trade in its enforcement of laws pertaining to Internet gambling. The Obama administration should consider the issue and the possibility of negotiating a solution, the EU wrote in a draft report. The paper, which is currently being sent to EU member states for comments on the findings, holds that European online gambling companies are still being subject to legal proceedings by U.S. authorities based on their business activities before the U.S. changed its gambling law in 2006.
The EU also said that while U.S. companies may have online gambling operations for horse racing sites in the U.S., EU companies are not permitted to do so. The EU holds that the problem stems for EU companies understanding that it was legal to supply Internet gambling services in the U.S. prior to 2006. U.S. government agencies, including the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Justice Department, are studying the report and will discuss it with the European Commission, a USTR spokeswoman said.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank plans to reintroduce legislation to effectively unhinge the Internet gambling ban, which passed as part of a larger port security bill in 2006 but was not implemented until recently. A bill introduced by Frank last Congress would have created an exemption to the gambling ban for properly licensed operators and set up a regulatory and enforcement framework for those online firms to accept bets and wagers. It would also have ensured protections aimed at underage users, compulsive gamblers, and potential victims of money laundering and fraud. Read more in CongressDaily here (subscription required). -- Winter Casey
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told a data security workshop on Monday that the United States and other countries must "move beyond the 'we agree to disagree' approach" to securing consumers' sensitive information in the global marketplace. Such harmony among nations, which have varying privacy rules and regulations, is "not beyond our reach," Leibowitz said, pointing to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 1980 privacy guidelines and a set of security guidelines adopted by the group in 2002. "Without adequate data security there really is no privacy," he said.
Corporations must protect their back doors from hackers, malware, spyware and other high-tech intrusion mechanisms and protect their front door by properly storing and disposing of consumers' data, Leibowitz said, noting that the FTC is "not shy about knocking on anyone's door." Since 1999, the agency has brought a number of cases alleging that companies failed to protect data, including a settlement this month with a consumer reporting agency that failed to properly screen prospective customers and, as a result, sold at least 318 credit reports to identity thieves.
The conference runs through Tuesday. Speakers include: Martin Abrams of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership; Oracle Chief Privacy Officer Joseph Alhadeff; Accenture Data Privacy Director Bojana Bellamy; TRUSTe Chief Privacy Officer Maureen Cooney; Intel Global E-Business Counsel David Hoffman and others. Click here to view the agenda for "Securing Personal Data in the Global Economy."
International organized crime isn't just about drugs, money laundering, extortion and human smuggling anymore -- the illicit activity increasingly involves piracy of feature films, with syndicates active along the entire supply chain from manufacturers to street sales of pirated movies, according to a new RAND Corporation report funded by major movie studios. The profits from film piracy also have been used on occasion to support the activities of terrorist groups, researchers at RAND's Center for Global Risk and Security found, according to a Tuesday press release.
RAND researchers detail 14 case studies of film piracy, providing compelling evidence of a broad, geographically dispersed and continuing connection between piracy and organized crime. As well as documenting cases in North America and Europe, the report outlines the involvement of organized crime with film piracy in South America, Russia and many parts of Asia. The research was based upon 2,000 pages of documents and interviews with more than 120 law enforcement and intelligence agents from 20 countries, officials said.
Film piracy can be even more profitable than drug trafficking or other enterprises commonly linked to organized crime, RAND said. In one example cited in the report, a pirated DVD made in Malaysia for 70 cents was marked up more than 1,000 percent and sold on the street in London for about $9. The profit margin was more than three times higher than the markup for Iranian heroin and higher than the profit for Columbian cocaine, according to the report. Worldwide, criminal penalties for counterfeiting are relatively light and prosecution is sparse compared to selling drugs, the paper stated.
A European government official expects that President Barack Obama's administration will improve the nation's relationship with the EU on privacy issues. "It may probably be the case that the first changes happen within the U.S. itself, meaning that the respect for data privacy in the fight against terrorism will be much stronger, in general," wrote Ignasi Guardans, a member of the European Parliament and a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, in an email. He added that he believes that the U.S. government "is very much aware that this is just one among the big examples of issues where the 'arrogant' image of the U.S. in the last years can be substantially improved."
Meanwhile, the EU has been engaged in discussions to maintain its own database of passenger name record data and to impose the collection of PNR data for flights that occur within the EU. Currently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security maintains a database of PNR data between the two bodies. Gaurdans expects the PNR data debate within the EU to last until after the European elections take place in June.
Gaurdans said the European Commission is putting pressure to harmonize PNR data plans to avoid ending up with 27 different plans. He said that only France, Denmark and the U.K. have actually adopted legislation on the use of PNR for law enforcement purposes. "There has been very strong criticism from the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Fundamental Rights Agency and the House of Lords [and] as far as there is no EU legislation in place, U.K. can in principle do what they want as long as they follow national, and to the extent it is relevant, EU data protection legislation," he added. -- Winter Casey
Criminals are increasing using the Internet to make phone calls in order to avoid the possibility of their mobile phone calls getting intercepted by law enforcement authorities, according to a European Union body established in 2002 to enhance the effectiveness of organized crime investigations in member states. Carmen Manfredda, acting national member of Eurojust plans to lead an EU investigation on issues related to phone calls that take place through the Internet by way of the popular service Skype and others. "The purpose of Eurojust's coordination role is to overcome the technical and judicial obstacles to the interception of Internet telephony systems, taking into account the various data protection rules and civil rights," the group stated.
According to background information provided by Eurojust, police in Milan say organized crime, arms and drugs traffickers, and prostitution rings are turning to VoIP systems to frustrate law enforcement. "Skype's encryption system is a secret which the company refuses to share with the authorities," the group said. "Investigators have become increasingly reliant on wiretaps in recent years." Customs and tax officials in Milan have highlighted the Skype skirmish and have overheard a suspected cocaine trafficker telling an accomplice to switch to the program to get details of a drug transaction, Eurojust said. "Investigators are convinced that the interception of telephone calls have become an essential tool of the police, who spend millions of Euros each year tracking down crime through wiretaps of landlines and mobile phones," officials said.
"The possibility of intercepting Internet telephony will be an essential tool in the fight against international organized crime within Europe and beyond. Our aim is not to stop users from taking advantage of internet telephony, but to prevent criminals from using Skype and other systems to plan and organize their unlawful actions," Manfredda said. "Eurojust will make all possible efforts to coordinate and assist in the cooperation between member states." -- Winter Casey
Continue reading Cyber Crooks Turning To Internet Telephony.
Despite the economic slump, broadband Internet penetration and digital television investments in Russia have been increasing, according to analysis released Thursday by the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. Russia is also continuing to push the use of third generation mobile services. "Based on the competitive environment and growth potential, we are likely to see further rollout activity, followed by a period of investment in products and services to capitalize on the network infrastructure over the next three years," the firm wrote. The Russian government is now focusing on the analog-to-digital TV transition with investments in that project expected to reach $12 billion through 2015. Private investors will provide the bulk of the funds, the report said.
However, while broadband Internet penetration grew in Russia in 2008, at 10 percent penetration the country still falls behind Western Europe, according to the research. The firm found that a number of Russian regions are increasing broadband penetration. But "when looking at Russia in terms of technology advancements, it is impossible to disregard the disparity between Moscow, other major cities and the country's rural areas," said Frost & Sullivan analyst Iwona Petruczynik in a statement. Read more about Frost & Sullivan's analysis here. -- Winter Casey
The Chinese government plans to give a boost to the country's electronics and information industry by spending more to promote the use of third-generation mobile communication services and digital televisions, Xinhua News Agency and Shanghai Daily and reported Thursday. China plans to encourage companies to set up shop overseas to build R&D centers, production facilities and marketing networks. The government said it will establish more policies to benefit the tech sector including offering tax rebates for product exports.
The plan will "tie in with the central government's effort to boost domestic consumption in the face of weakening global demand for Chinese exports," Shanghai Daily reported. China's imports and exports of electronics and information products reached $885.4 billion last year, up 10 percent from 2007, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, according to Xinhua. More than 75 percent of those exports were telecom products, computers and home audio and video products and more than 80 percent were processed or assembled in China with materials supplied by overseas clients. The government wants the industry's domestic market revenue to grow 12 percent this year. -- Winter Casey
The greatest challenges for U.S. telecommunications and high-tech companies continue to be difficulties in dealing with governmental restrictions on doing business, according to top U.S. telecom official David Gross. The former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy is joining the communications practice of Wiley Rein LLP in March. At the law firm, Gross will provide counseling on global telecommunications issues and assist U.S. and foreign entities looking for international business opportunities.
"U.S. high tech products and services are still as good as any in the world, but some governments -- especially in Africa, Asia and the Middle East -- need to be convinced to let them compete in their markets. These problems include spectrum licensing issues for wireless carriers, the provision of competitive, international telecommunications services, and attempts to restrict Internet-based services, including the free flow of information," Gross said. "Although a lot of great work has been done on these issues during the past few years, much still needs to be accomplished if the remaining billions of potential users and customers will be allowed to benefit from these transformational goods and services. I want to help make these potential benefits a reality by helping companies and other organizations with their market-opening efforts," the former ambassador added.
Richard Beaird is currently serving in Gross's place at the State Department in an acting capacity. Gross held the title of coordinator since 2001 when he was nominated by former President George W. Bush. According to the State Department's Web site, Gross led "more U.S. delegations to major international telecommunication conferences than anyone in modern history." As coordinator, Gross was responsible for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy for the United States. He had previously been a partner at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan. Before serving as Gross's deputy, Beaird was an associate administrator at National Telecommunications and Information Administration. -- Winter Casey
While the United States struggles with efforts to switch the country over to digital television signals, the European Union said Tuesday that it "is leading the world in switching from analogue to digital television." The EU government said the transition has been completed in five member states thus far: Germany, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden and the Netherlands. By 2010 "the process should be well advanced in the whole EU," officials said.
Specifically, the terrestrial TV switch-off is supposed to take place by the end of 2010 or earlier in Austria, Estonia, Denmark, Spain, Malta and Slovenia. The change is set to occur between the end of 2010 and the end of 2012 in Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels capital region), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. In Poland the final switch-off date is 2015 at the latest, according to the EU.
"[The European] Commission is working on a common approach on how to use the spectrum released by the digital switchover to achieve the greatest benefits for the single market and its 500 million citizens," a press release said. Japan's switch-off is planned for July 2011, South Korea for the end of 2012, Australia for 2013, and India and Russia for 2015, according to the EU. In the United States, President Barack Obama signed legislation Feb. 12 delaying the DTV switch from Tuesday until June 12. -- Winter Casey
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and four of its senior executives on Tuesday were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for stock option backdating. The SEC's complaint alleges that the Ontario, Canada-based company, its former CFO Dennis Kavelman, former Vice President of Finance Angelo Loberto, and Co-CEOs James Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis illegally granted undisclosed, in-the-money options to RIM executives and employees by backdating millions of stock options over an eight-year period from 1998 through 2006. The news comes ahead of President Barack Obama's one-day visit to Ottawa on Thursday.
SEC Enforcement Division Director Linda Chatman Thomsen said the action underscores the commission's resolve "to assure full and accurate disclosure to U.S. investors by foreign issuers." "Companies and executives who attempt to conceal their fraudulent conduct from investors and regulators will be held accountable," added SEC Enforcement Division Associate Director Antonia Chion in a press release. The SEC's complaint alleges false and misleading disclosures were made about how RIM priced and accounted for options. The backdating violated terms of RIM's stock option plan and a listing requirement of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the SEC said. RIM's stock is also listed on NASDAQ where it was down more than 8 percent in midday trading.
According to the SEC, all defendants have agreed to settle the matter, without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint. RIM consented to an order permanently enjoining it from violating the anti-fraud, reporting, books and records and internal controls provisions of federal securities laws. The settlement with RIM also takes into account the company's cooperation during the SEC's investigation. Kavelman and the others named in the complaint agreed to pay penalties ranging from $334,250 to $500,000 and to disgorge the in-the-money value of backdated options they had exercised. Earlier this month, the Ontario Securities Commission settled a related case against RIM and executives.
Canada, China, Russia and 10 other countries continue to pose the worst problems in 2009 with respect to protecting U.S. intellectual property rights, the American music, movie, software, and video game industries told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in an annual filing on Tuesday. The International Intellectual Property Alliance recommended that 13 nations be placed on the USTR's priority watch list and that 25 be placed or maintained on a less critical list when the official rosters are released by the U.S. government this spring. IIPA also requested that later this year, USTR conduct so-called "out-of-cycle reviews" of Malaysia, Spain and Saudi Arabia to evaluate their respective progress on specific IP issues.
"With the U.S. economy shedding jobs at an alarming rate, our government needs to redouble it efforts to stem massive global theft of U.S. copyrighted works in physical form and on the Internet," IIPA's Eric Smith said, noting that the USTR's Special 301 process is a critical tool in reducing piracy losses. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced legislation in the 110th Congress that would beef up the report, which some stakeholders believe has become what aides called a "shaming exercise." Their proposal would have required trade officials to create an action plan for the worst offenders and harsh consequences for countries that do not comply. A spokeswoman for Baucus said her boss remains interested in the issue and is working with ranking member Charles Grassley to determine the best way forward.
The Recording Industry Association of America, American Federation of Musicians, the National Music Publishers Association and other music industry stakeholders issued a joint statement commending IIPA's recommendations. "In these troubled economic times, it is more important than ever that the U.S. government take meaningful steps to ensure that the most competitive parts of the U.S. economy -- those that contribute to positive balance of trade payments -- can effectively compete in global markets without facing unfair competition," the groups said. "The copyright industries generally, and the music community in particular, are among America's most competitive sectors, and our contribution to the public welfare goes well beyond our economic contributions."
Continue reading IP Crusaders Want Robust Anti-Piracy Agenda.
The European Court of Justice ruled this week that a data retention directive, which the European Council passed in 2006, is legal. The Court did not address any privacy concerns related to the directive and found that the provisions of the directive are limited to the activities of service providers.
"The Court notes at the outset that the action brought by Ireland relates solely to the choice of legal basis and not to any possible infringement by the directive of fundamental rights resulting from interference with the exercise of the right to privacy," according to a government statement. "Finally, the Court finds that the provisions of the directive are essentially limited to the activities of service providers and do not govern access to data or the use thereof by the police or judicial authorities of the member states."
TJ McIntyre, a lecturer at the University College Dublin, said the court found the directive doesn't regulate access to data based on the seriousness of the crime. He holds that this decision undermines all of the previous justifications promised to privacy advocates who were told that access to data would be limited to serious crimes. McIntyre, who chairs a group that challenged the EU directive, said the case brought by Ireland was the first challenge to the directive that has been heard by the European Court of Justice. His group has asked Ireland's High Court to refer the case to the Court of Justice.
Internet telephony executive Daniel Berninger thinks information technology has the potential to transform Africa's modern economy -- and earlier this week shared his vision with a group of Washington tech policy watchers and President Barack Obama's Africa policy adviser, Witney Schneidman. "Although Africa remains last among world regions in estimated Internet penetration, it also features a growth rate of 1,000 percent between 2000 and 2008," Schneidman noted at the Wednesday event hosted by Qorvis Communications.
The benefits of increased Internet access have been bolstered by unprecedented adoption of cellular technology in Africa -- more than 20 percent growth annually, speakers said. The resulting economic turnaround on the continent has led policymakers from around the world to consider the potential computer and networking industry holds to develop the economy among the 53 African nations. "Trade, not aid, is the key to bringing Africa into the global economy, and infotech is the enabler," Qorvis partner Maura Corbett said.
Vijay Mahajan, author, Africa Rising and The 86% Solution, and James Moore, chairman of the Geopartners Foundation, also took part in the conversation. Click here to watch a video of the forum.
High-tech watchdogs are abuzz over leaked information from ongoing international negotiations surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Copyright Agreement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation sent an e-mail to supporters Friday claiming the pact between the U.S. and a handful of trading partners "threatens to shift the balance of copyright law across the world, with little or no oversight from lawmakers." A fifth round of deliberations -- the first on President Barack Obama's watch -- is slated to take place in Morocco next month. Some expect the document, which has been in the works for over a year, could be ready for signing by then, EFF states. [Read CongressDaily's recent coverage here]
Draft language from the closed meetings suggests provisions of ACTA will include mandated disclosure of personal information in alleged IP disputes, a new global requirement that "commercial scale" piracy will also capture non-commercial copies, and new powers to place injunctions on IP violations with lowered standards of proof and limited due process, EFF argues. An entire section is also reportedly devoted to "rights management technology/the Internet." Much of the language is reminiscent of entertainment industry demands, the group states.
Of over 1,300 pages of ACTA background documents requested by EFF in a Freedom of Information Act request last year, 159 were released to the public by the U.S. Trade Representative. EFF and Public Knowledge are currently involved in a pending federal lawsuit to obtain more information. EFF has also urged Congress to do more by telling the USTR to "open up the ACTA process to true oversight and deliberation, and demand it keep to its original agenda of fighting counterfeit fake products and commercial piracy on behalf of consumers." Read more here and here.
Antony Taubman will assume the top intellectual property position at the World Trade Organization, Intellectual Property Watch reports. He is slated to start his new job on May 1. Taubman has been serving as acting director of the global IP issues division of the World Intellectual Property Organization. He has a background serving as a diplomat and previously worked in Australia, according to the WIPO Web site. President Barack Obama's agenda includes working "to ensure intellectual property is protected in foreign markets, and promote greater cooperation on international standards that allow our technologies to compete everywhere." -- Winter Casey
President Barack Obama spoke with China's President Hu Jintao on Friday morning about their intention to build a more positive and constructive relationship between the countries, the White House press office said in an e-mail. According to the summary, Obama and Hu discussed the international financial crisis and agreed that increased close cooperation between the U.S. and China is vital. Obama stressed the need to correct global trade imbalances -- an issue important to the high-tech sector -- as well as to stimulate global growth and get credit markets flowing.
The two presidents agreed to work together on several global issues, specifically mentioning North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan/Pakistan, counterterrorism, proliferation, and climate change. Obama expressed appreciation for China's role as chair of the so-called Six-Party Talks and they affirmed the importance of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. What is unclear is whether intellectual property protection factored into the conversation. The U.S. business community -- particularly those in the entertainment, software and manufacturing industries -- have urged the new administration take hard line against piracy and counterfeiting.
China has long been cited by the U.S. government as one of the world's worst IP offenders and regularly tops the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's watch list of nations that have weak IP protection regimes. In recent years, Hu has made speeches pledging to work harder to crack down on bootleggers but many policy watchers have been skeptical of whether change is actually happening on the ground.
The National Foreign Trade Council on Friday launched its Global Innovation Forum, which will focus on international innovation policy issues, including global trade rules and the protection of intellectual property rights worldwide. The U.S.-based business group for multinational companies believes innovation is critical to solving global challenges and is one of the single most important drivers of economic growth. Millions of workers depend on fair trade rules to produce solutions to pressing global challenges such as improving public health, creating environmental sustainability, securing access to food and nutrition and raising global living standards, the NFTC said.
"There are few more cost effective ways to stimulate the economy than to ensure a predictable global IP system that protects jobs," NFTC President Bill Reinsch said in a press release. The forum will set up a Web site next month focused on its core issues and the group intends to hold a series of meetings to advance a dialogue among business stakeholders and workers, consumer groups, international development organizations and policymakers. Forum Executive Director John Stubbs added that the global economic slowdown is creating new pressures on both innovators and consumers. "These challenges will be met by the hard work of creative minds in the United States and around the world."
Congress needs to pass comprehensive privacy and data security legislation and make sure companies that store and share individuals' information are held accountable, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said at a Wednesday event recognizing Data Privacy Day, which was being celebrated in Washington, around the United States and in 27 European countries. He said businesses should be required to encrypt data, employ an information security chief and retain an outside auditor to ensure compliance.
During his chairmanship of the House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee in the Republican-controlled 109th Congress, Stearns held more than a half-dozen hearings on privacy and technology. Various data privacy bills were introduced last Congress but were overshadowed. This year, consumer privacy has arisen as a hot topic within the multibillion-dollar health information technology provisions in the House and Senate economic stimulus packages.
On Monday, the House passed a resolution Stearns co-sponsored with Rep. David Price, D-N.C., that formally recognized Data Privacy Day in the United States. The Senate approved a companion resolution on Wednesday that was introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter. Dorgan issued a statement saying that modern technology has connected the world and led to new developments in every aspect of citizens' lives but with those advancements come the potential for people's privacy to be compromised.
On Wednesday, the United States, Canada, and 27 European countries will celebrate Data Privacy Day -- an international effort to raise awareness and generate discussion about data privacy practices and rights. For the second consecutive year, privacy professionals, the business community, government officials, academics and others will host events and take other actions in observance. The House on Monday got the ball rolling by approving a resolution by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., to formally recognize the event.
The Technology Association of America, the recently merged group formed by the Information Technology Association of America and the American Electronics Association, will host a Capitol Hill briefing featuring remarks by Price and Member of European Parliamentarian Alexander Alvaro as well as key representatives of the privacy community. A networking reception will follow.
Other Data Privacy Day activities:
▪ Protecting National Security and Privacy: Approaches of New Administrations in the U.S. and Europe, Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, Jan. 26-27.
▪ The Privacy by Design Challenge hosted by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the Toronto Board of Trade, Jan. 28
▪ Data Privacy Day Cocktail Event, Brussels, Belgium, organized by European Privacy Officers Forum and International Association of Privacy Professionals, Jan. 28.
▪ Microsoft will host an interactive community event highlighting online privacy concerns and solutions at the San Francisco Public Library, Jan. 28.
Read a comprehensive list of events here.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who ended his tenure as top dog at the high-tech company last year to devote his time to the charity he started with his wife Melinda, released his first annual letter on the work of the foundation Monday. In the 20-page document, Gates explains why he remains optimistic about the ability of government, business, nonprofit organizations, and individuals to expand opportunity and equity in the years to come. He said hoped his letter will begin a dialogue and inspires action on some of the most pressing issues on the world stage.
In the letter, Gates outlines new, ambitious goals for the foundation's work to improve global health, address hunger and poverty, and improve education in the United States including: cutting childhood deaths from rotavirus in half; helping millions of the poorest farming households in Africa and South Asia triple their incomes by 2025; and by 2025, helping 80 percent of U.S. students graduate from high school. "The wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity. This is especially true when the constraints on others are so great," Gates said. He added that if investments are not made, "we will come out of the economic downtown in a world even more unequal."
On the high-tech front, his letter states: "Our optimism about tech¬nology is a fundamental part of the foundation's approach. Ad¬vances in science have played a huge role in improving the living conditions in the rich world over the past century. Technology is also a personal passion of Melinda's and mine. So we try to point scientific research toward the problems of the poor, like agriculture. This is why we tend not to fund other important things like building health clinics or roads, which are better left to governments... Technology is only useful if it helps people improve their lives, not as an end in itself."
Two citizen journalists from the popular social networking community MySpace.com and video-sharing destination YouTube.com have been invited to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland following online contests on both sites. Rebecca McQuigg from Los Angeles and Pablo Camacho from Bogotá, Colombia will represent MySpace and YouTube, respectively, reporting to their Web fans from the summit, which begins Wednesday and will attract over 2,500 participants.
The MySpace contest asked contestants to submit a video explaining why they should be chosen to report on the meeting for the MySpace community, as well as answer one of the following questions: If you were given the opportunity to take one person (living or historical) to Davos to make an impact on the annual meeting, who would it be, and why? If you could engage the entire MySpace community in doing one thing to help make an economic difference, what would it be? Why do you deserve the chance to attend the meeting as the MySpace special correspondent, and how will your participation engage the audience? Follow McQuigg's coverage here.
Camacho was one of over 250 YouTubers who participated in the Davos Debates, sending in video replies from all over the world including Afghanistan, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. His coverage will be posted here. Tech leaders planning to attend the conference include Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett, Cisco Systems Chairman John Chambers, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and others.
A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel Monday found important aspects of China's intellectual property rights regime to be inconsistent with the country's obligations under a long-standing intellectual property treaty, Acting U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said. The United States brought claims against China out of concern about shortcomings in the country's legal regime for protecting and enforcing copyrights and trademarks on a range of products.
The WTO panel's ruling is an important victory, he said, because it clarifies key provisions of the IP deal that was negotiated for eight years ending in 1994. Specifically, the panel found that China's denial of copyright protection to works that do not meet its "content review" standards is impermissible. The panel clarified China's obligation to provide for criminal procedures and penalties to be applied to willful trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy on a commercial scale. Allgeier said USTR will "engage vigorously with China on appropriate corrective actions to ensure that U.S. rights holders obtain the benefits of this decision."
Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman issued a statement saying the WTO decision was "welcome news for creators" but he was disappointed that the panel "did not accept the strength of the U.S. argument that China's thresholds for taking criminal action do not deter rampant piracy." Copyright Alliance Executive Director Patrick Ross also cheered the announcement but said it took too long to conclude. "The Chinese government has been passionate in its words but passive in its deeds when enforcing intellectual property rights," he said.
The U.S.-India Business Council released a statement Friday saying it is hopeful that the India release of the hit film "Slumdog Millionaire" will prompt authorities to recognize the importance of protecting intellectual property and to increase enforcement efforts against film and video pirates. The movie about an orphan growing up in the slums of India received 10 Academy Award nominations this week, including best picture and best director. A recent study commissioned by USIBC as part of its Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative found that India's entertainment and media industry loses some 820,000 jobs and about $4 billion to piracy each year.
"Piracy translates directly into lost opportunities and lost jobs - and squandered creativity," USIBC President Ron Somers said in a press release. "Imagine how many 'Slumdogs' could be conceived, produced and premiered if only there were greater efforts to crackdown on film piracy." Indian media and entertainment is an $11 billion industry growing at over 18 percent annually, USIBC said. "Slumdog Millionaire is just the latest example of the growing connection between Bollywood and Hollywood," said Greg Kalbaugh, the group's director. "The entertainment industries of the U.S. and India are increasingly intertwined, but widespread piracy threatens industry in both countries."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has had a video blog since the fall of 2008 but as of Monday he has opened his blog up for commentary, according to Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti. His blog had over 3,500 registered users on Tuesday -- but they can be denied access if they use the site for commercial or advertising purposes or use bad words that promote discrimination or hatred. Comments, whose authors must include a screen name as well as their age, education, e-mail and country or region where they live, are edited before being published, the news service reported.
Medvedev had 603 comments on his blog on Thursday evening and 132 in line to be edited. There are 10 employees who handle the traffic on the president's Web site and some of the more interesting comments may be answered by the president himself. The news service notes that Medvedev has promoted the use of computers in Russian schools and he personally has three computer screens on his office desk. In 2008 The Guardian reported that Medvedev told government officials they should either learn how to use a computer or look for new jobs. The publication also reported that Medvedev would like to see increased Internet penetration in Russia and greater government use of the Internet to promote transparency.
Technology can be used to drastically transform economies in emerging countries, Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett and Cisco Systems Chairman John Chambers told a crowd of thousands at the Consumer Electronics Show on Friday. During his keynote, Barrett announced the launch of the Small Things Challenge -- a campaign based on the premise that every small action can make a big difference. He bolstered his message with some star power: Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine (pictured) and Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz -- both of whom support the Intel-sponsored effort. Each spoke on stage about the importance of nurturing the global community.
"Technology can be used in tremendous ways to impact people's lives on the ground," Barrett said. "There are huge opportunities today and real examples of how technology is changing the lives of people." Technology accessibility, connectivity and content are "absolutely key," but education is potentially the most powerful component, he said. "Ultimately, economies are competitive if they have smart people who generate smart ideas," Barrett said. The event also featured a panel discussion with Seven Fund cofounder Michael Fairbanks; Grameen Solutions CEO Kazi Islam; inventor William Kamkwamba; and Microsoft's Kentaro Toyama.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab urged President-elect Barack Obama's administration Thursday to continue the momentum on an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the United States and several trading partners have been working on for more than a year. Since the deal involves the rapidly evolving high-tech and content industries, time is of the essence, she told CongressDaily at the Consumer Electronics Show. "Unless we find a way to protect intellectual property we're going to continue to hemorrhage billions of dollars worth of income and jobs," she said. Read the full story in CongressDaily's AM Edition.
"Joe The Plumber," the Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site PJTV.com -- an offshoot of blogger network Pajamas Media, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The Toledo area resident whose name is actually Samuel Wurzelbacher said he will spend 10 days covering the fighting there. He told WNWO-TV that he wants to let Israel's "'Average Joes' share their story."
Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked now President-elect Barack Obama about his tax plan. He then joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail. Wurzelbacher has been keeping busy since Election Day. In November, he started working to educate people about the nationwide conversion to digital television coming this February and founded a watchdog group called Secure Our Dream. He is also promoting his book: "Joe the Plumber - Fighting for the American Dream," which was co-written by novelist Thomas Tabback.
China's State Council has given the green light to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to issue third-generation licenses to operators, China Daily reported Monday. Li Yizhong, head of the ministry, said that three permits will be issued in early 2009. The long awaited permits will enable the recipient companies to legally offer Chinese citizens upgraded mobile services.
Authorities have, however, opted to give China Mobile a license to operate services based on China's homegrown TD-SCDMA technology while China Unicom -- the country's second largest wireless carrier -- will get a license to offer services on WCDMA, which is widely used in the European Union. China Telecom will receive a permit for CDMA2000, which is used in the United States. China Daily said the change could influence the competitive landscape of China's mobile market as firms with the established international standard licenses could have a leg up. -- Winter Casey
The system used for rating movies could be applied to Web sites in an attempt to better police the Internet and protect children from harmful and offensive material, Britain's minister for culture told The Daily Telegraph newspaper. In an interview published Saturday, Andy Burnham said he is prepared to negotiate with President-elect Barack Obama's administration to draw up new international rules for English language sites. Such a proposal would likely enrage online free speech and First Amendment defenders. Previous attempts by Congress and Internet governance groups to cordon off areas of the Web deemed undesirable for kids faced controversy and were ultimately unsuccessful.
"The more we seek international solutions to this stuff -- the UK and the U.S. working together -- the more that an international norm will set an industry norm," the newspaper reports Burnham saying. Internet service providers could also be forced to offer services where the only sites accessible are those deemed suitable for children, the paper stated. "If you look back at the people who created the Internet they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn't reach," Burnham told The Telegraph. "I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now." Obama has defended Internet openness and has argued in favor of "network neutrality" but it remains to be seen how he will approach Web regulation on other fronts.
President-elect Barack Obama's pick of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for his U.S. Trade Representative slot on Friday was embraced by key intellectual property stakeholders as it was being panned by many in the labor community. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Mark Esper wrote on the business group's blog that Kirk has a solid track record of appreciating the value of America's IP-intensive industries and quoted from a 1998 Dallas Morning News article to make his point.
As mayor of Dallas, Kirk praised a plan to bring more biotechnology companies into the city calling it "an opportunity to develop an entire new economy based upon intellectual property that we already have principally coming from Southwestern Medical Center and our entire medical infrastructure.'" The plan, which developed a long-term vision for the city's future, was aimed at making Dallas a national hub for inventions. Esper noted that the next USTR will face a host of important IP issues and the Chamber is prepared to work with Kirk "in defense of innovation at home and abroad."
Meanwhile, Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Dan Glickman issued a statement congratulating Kirk, saying he "has the leadership skills and experience to forge a successful trade agenda." "Trade and related issues are crucial to the vitality of the film industry and paramount to the recovery of the global economy... We look forward to working with him," Glickman said.
From Thursday's CongressDaily PM Edition:
High-tech industry officials and privacy watchdogs hope President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to improve government transparency will apply to secret negotiations surrounding an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the United States and several trading partners have been working on for a year. The proposal was unveiled by Trade Representative Susan Schwab in October 2007, and those involved wanted to finalize the deal before the end of the Bush administration.
For months, groups potentially impacted by the agreement have said too much planning took place behind closed doors. Two organizations filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against USTR, and more than 100 public interest organizations have asked that the draft text of the document be made public. Now they may have to wait. Schwab's chief intellectual property negotiator, Stan McCoy, said recently he was in no rush to wrap up talks, and a meeting of stakeholders in Paris this week ended inconclusively. However, a USTR spokesman said today participants made "steady progress" this week and agreed on the importance of transparency and on holding further discussions.
Anurag Dikshit, a founder and former executive at PartyGaming, pleaded guilty in a New York federal court Tuesday to illegal Internet gambling and agreed to cooperate with the U.S. law enforcement officials in an investigation of the Gibraltar-based online gaming company. He entered the plea to one count of online gambling in violation of the Wire Act and will forfeit $300 million, the Justice Department said. Dikshit, 37, faces up to two years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.
From about 1997 through October 2006, PartyGaming operated a business that offered casino and poker games, among other games of chance, to customers around the world, including to individuals in the United States. During that time a majority of PartyGaming's users -- accounting for roughly 85 percent of PartyGaming's revenue in 2005 -- were located in the United States. Dikshit developed a proprietary software platform for PartyGaming, directed the firm's IT operations and was a principal shareholder for much of the time period.
A European high-tech trade group has fired a warning shot at the European Commission after hearing the body planned to offer a proposal to charge tariffs on "sophisticated" mobile phones. Handsets with increased functionality -- like GPS and mobile TV -- would face a tax of up to 14 percent, contrary to requirements of the WTO's Information Technology Agreement. The move, which was reportedly widely overseas but not in the United States, comes as a panel prepares to consider a case brought against the EU by Japan, Taiwan and the United States that grew out of the EU's imposition of what critics believe are unfair fees on a range of products like flat-screen monitors and set-top boxes.
"The net effect of these decisions is that European consumers will face rising prices for IT and telecom products, which not only contradicts the purpose of the ITA, but also is in total opposition with current measures to boost consumer purchasing power that feature in many national economic stimulus plans," according to EICTA, a group that represents Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Siemens, Sony and other firms. Companies with components based in Europe companies would face a "costly blow to their operations in the EU, at a time when many are struggling to maintain profitability," the group said.
At the time the initial complaint against the EU was filed by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab in May, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel and Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich., issued a statement saying legislation was needed "to ensure a more assertive approach to the enforcement of our international agreements and trade laws."
German engineering conglomerate Siemens AG and three of its subsidiaries, which did businesses across the globe, pled guilty Monday to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act -- a law that makes it illegal to bribe a foreign official to get business. More than $800 million in bribes were paid by Siemens and its various entities from 2001 to 2007, the Justice Department said. The firm will pay a $450 million criminal fine to the U.S. government and will retain an independent monitor for four years, officials said.
"These penalties are strong medicine, but they are commensurate with the conduct at issue here, which can only be described as egregious," Acting Assistant Attorney General Matt Friedrich said at a briefing, noting they are necessary to ensure that all companies, domestic and foreign, large and small, have equal access to the globalized markets. According to court documents, Siemens executives used off-the-books slush fund accounts and shell companies to facilitate bribes and made false entries on the company's books.
"Siemens is closing a painful chapter in its history," Siemens' Supervisory Board Chairman Gerhard Cromme said in a release. "Today marks the end of an unprecedented two-year effort to resolve extremely serious matters for the company. Based on robust leadership processes, Siemens has established a sustainable culture of compliance."
Read more details of the DOJ/SEC press conference here.
Microsoft on Thursday announced 63 legal actions in 12 countries against online auctioneers who allegedly orchestrated international marketing schemes and sold counterfeit software to unsuspecting customers. Of the actions, 16 were taken in the United States; 12 in Germany; 12 in France; and seven in the United Kingdom as well as proceedings in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand. Most of the cases involved counterfeit Windows XP software -- a product line that is coming to the end of its sales cycle but genuine XP products are still available through some channels.
In recent months, Microsoft received complaints from victims of a new online auction scheme by auctioneers selling discounted software from a fabricated marketing program dubbed “Blue Edition.” The entirely fictional “Blue Edition” scheme fools unsuspecting consumers into purchasing low-quality counterfeit software burned onto a compact disc, the company said. Certain online auction sites like eBay proactively cooperated with Microsoft in its investigations and none of the latest actions were brought against the sites themselves. The lawsuits were part of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, a program intended to advance antipiracy education within the software ecosystem.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Wednesday that the Chinese government's "continued assault on civil liberties and political expression proves the fallacy of China's public relations campaign designed to create a façade of an open and tolerant society." Ros-Lehtinen was responding to reports in Hong Kong that authorities are requiring Chinese-made replacements to Microsoft Windows XP operating systems in Internet cafes.
"The Chinese continue to oversee a program of censorship and surveillance designed to completely eradicate any organized political dissent, and remove any discussion about democracy and human rights," Ros-Lehtinen said in a press release. "Chinese citizens are prevented from accessing or disseminating information critical of the regime, and if they somehow learn to operate around the regime’s security walls, they are hunted down and thrown in prison." Government officials there grasp the power of the Internet and are determined to squelch any criticism the moment it appears, she added. China has 253 million Internet users -- the most in the world.
Continue reading House Foreign Affairs Leader Slams Chinese Web Rules.
The European Union's antitrust investigation of Intel is "discriminatory and partial," the computer chip manufacturer argued in an action that is detailed in a recent edition of the EU's official journal. The company, which has come under fire in the United States and in several other countries, complained that it is not being allowed to properly defend itself against charges that it has tried to shut out rival Advanced Micro Devices.
In the filing reported by the Financial Times and other news outlets, Intel claimed the European Commission failed to obtain "documentary evidence" from the complainant in the case, an apparent reference to AMD, and rejected Intel's assertion that it cannot respond to the antitrust charges without these documents, the journal stated. Intel said that decision was "manifestly illegal" but did not describe what documents it wants to see or how they would bolster the firm's claims of innocence.
Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black issued a statement saying he was disappointed that Intel "has apparently chosen to attack the law enforcement organization that is investigating it" -- a tactic he said other companies have employed when they have concluded they cannot effectively argue the merits of their wrongdoing. Black said the EC's credibility is "strong" and the body has "consistently struck the right balance in antitrust action in recent years."
The State Department, Facebook, Google, MTV, AT&T and others will bring leaders of 17 organizations from 15 countries together with technology experts next month in New York City for the first-ever summit to empower youth against violence and oppression through the use of the latest online tools. These young leaders will form a new group, the Alliance of Youth Movements, which will produce a field manual for youth empowerment. The Dec. 3-5 event at Columbia Law School will also be streamed live online by Howcast.com and on ThinkMTV.com.
The manual will stand in stark contrast to the Al-Qaeda guidebook on the basics of terrorism, found by Coalition Forces in Iraq, officials said in a Monday press release. The gathering was inspired by the success of the One Million Voices Against the FARC, a group started on Facebook by young people in Colombia who led 12 million people in 190 cities to take to the streets in protest against the longstanding extremist Colombian group. Summit speakers include "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy James Glassman.
Panel topics include: How To Build Transnational Social Movements Using New Technology, How To Use New Mobile Technologies and How To Preserve Group Safety And Security. Participants will also be honored at a red-carpet event featuring celebrities, business leaders, and civil society figures at MTV's Times Square headquarters. Glassman said at a briefing that State provided "a small amount of money on the order of, I believe, $50,000" to help bring participants to the United States. Howcast.com, a Web site that offers how-to videos -- like how to tie a tie and how to avoid jet lag -- is the event's main sponsor, he said.
Continue reading State Dept., Tech Leaders Unveil Anti-Extremism Effort.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Thursday recommended that Congress carefully examine any agreement involving Internet service providers that addresses pressures from the Chinese government to provide personally identifiable information about Internet users and that Congress periodically review the effectiveness of such arrangements. In its annual report to lawmakers, the bipartisan panel also called on Congress to investigate the possibility that Chinese government press and Internet censorship violates the country's obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization.
The recommendations come on the heels of considerable attention to the issue by several House and Senate panels whose members probed U.S. high-tech companies' relationships with China and other countries with restrictive governments. Internet networking giant Cisco Systems took the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary Human Rights Subcommittee hearing in May for reportedly having a role in China's construction of a system for monitoring, censoring and prosecuting online dissidents who speak in favor of democratic values. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo executives also testified on related topics at various junctures during recent sessions of Congress.
A coalition of information and communications companies, human rights groups, academics, investors and technology leaders last month launched a long-awaited effort to protect freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet. The Global Network Initiative will be supported by specific commitments to provide a systematic approach for companies, nonprofits and others to resist efforts by governments that want to enlist tech firms in acts of censorship and surveillance. The initiative requires commitments from participants including: greater transparency with users; assessing human rights risk; and challenging human rights violations.
Continue reading Congress Pressed To Examine Chinese Web Activities.
Academics, industry experts and government officials convened Thursday in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the standards-setting process and the important role standards can play in the information, communication and technology sector. The forum, sponsored by the Intellectual Property Institute and the Center for European Law and Economics, was one of several taking place in the de facto capital city of the European Union this week on standards.
Forum participants felt that the value of ICT standards in today’s interconnected economy cannot be over-stated. “We have established an important precedent in this debate,” IPI's Christopher Stothers said in a statement. The collaborative, open dialogue among key players "sheds light on the issues surrounding possible improvements to the standards system and brings diverse voices into the discussion,” he said. “Standards can promote innovation and competition, fuel market growth and protect investment," added CELC's Mattias Ganslandt.
At the meeting, there was a general consensus that standards can improve efficiency and interoperability. They allow different products and services to work together better and improve product safety and productivity for businesses and consumers. For instance, standards mean that travelers can get cash from an ATM anywhere, any time, and from any bank while standardized wireless technology allows users to connect to more than 2.3 million Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide; granting access to the Internet at Starbucks in London or Sydney, Australia.
The new Congress should consider providing additional money for military, intelligence, and homeland security programs that safeguard the nation’s critical computer networks -- specifically those tasked with protecting against damage caused by cyberattacks -- according to recommendations released today by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The bipartisan panel’s annual report to Congress, portions of which were obtained by CongressDaily, also calls on lawmakers and the Obama administration to work with international allies in dealing with cyberattacks originating in China.
To maintain the security of computer networks used by U.S. agencies and defense contractors, the Commission suggests that Congress examine the security and integrity of the supply chain for computer equipment employed by government and contractor networks -- particularly those used by the Defense Department -- and, if necessary, supplement existing funding to ensure that high-tech equipment is purchased from secure sources. Additionally, the panel will recommend that the new administration engage China “in a military dialogue on its actions and programs in cyber and space warfare, including threat reduction mechanisms, transparency initiatives, and international laws of conflict as they apply to the cyber and space domains.” Read more in CongressDaily here.
Canadian regulators on Thursday rejected the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell Canada cease the traffic-shaping practices it has adopted for its wholesale Gateway Access Service. However, in the future, the telecommunications firm will be required to notify its wholesale customers at least 30 days in advance of making changes that impact on the performance of its gateway service. "Based on the evidence before us, we found that the measures employed by Bell Canada to manage its network were not discriminatory," said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission.
"CAIP’s application asked us to only consider the specific issue of wholesale traffic shaping within a specific context. The broader issue of Internet traffic management raises a number of questions that affect both end-users and service providers," von Finckenstein said in a release. "We have decided to hold a separate proceeding to consider both wholesale and retail issues. Its main purpose will be to address the extent to which Internet service providers can manage the traffic on their networks in accordance with the Telecommunications Act."
The growing popularity of certain Internet applications, such as online video, can lead to network congestion. To deal with this congestion, some Internet service providers are managing the flow of traffic on their networks or adopting new business models. In the case of the CAIP application, the Commission’s assessment of traffic shaping was limited to Bell Canada’s practice of slowing down the transfer rates of peer-to-peer traffic at certain times of the day, officials said. Read more here.
Surf on over to CongressDaily's TechCentral for a new "Issue of the Week." Here's a taste:
GENEVA, Switzerland -- The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization was once viewed as a technical intellectual property protection body whose decisions got the attention only of copyright holders, patent-processing lawyers and their clients. Times have changed. Last month, the Geneva-based body came under the leadership of an Australian patent attorney, Francis Gurry, with a far broader vision: to tackle global economic decline, climate change and other threats through innovation and technology using the incentives of intellectual property rights.
"Humanity has always turned to technology for solutions in the face of global threats and challenges," Gurry said in a recent interview. "So, naturally, intellectual property as a system which seeks to incentivize investments and stimulate the creation of new technology, innovation and its diffusion is very pertinent to all of these challenges." Gurry plans to create a special division devoted to issues such as climate change, desertification, access to medicines and health, biodiversity preservation and food security. The organization has advertised for a global challenges czar as well as a chief economist, reflecting a trend toward economics at intellectual property bodies such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
"In the past, the WIPO secretariat has often been seen as a cheerleader for intellectual property owners. The hiring of chief economist is a big step toward the international leadership on intellectual property issues that WIPO should be providing," said Brian Kahin, senior fellow at the Computer & Communications Industry Association. "It is recognition of the need to understand and promote the economic goals of the system by improving how intellectual property works in the real world -- as opposed to simply amplifying the views of the most interested stakeholders."
The Center for Democracy and Technology's Sophia Cope posted an item on the high-tech think tank's PolicyBeta blog on Election Day eve urging the next president -- be it John McCain or Barack Obama -- to devote considerable attention to global Internet freedom, the concept that governments around the world will not interfere with the free flow of information and ideas on global communications networks, particularly the World Wide Web.
Political leaders in many countries are "successfully remaking the Internet into a tool of government control" and the United States has not led by example, Cope argues, noting that "we can’t just be a leader in words; we must also be a leader in deeds." The Bush administration has spoken out of both sides of its mouth: decrying the human rights record of the Chinese government before the Olympics while defending National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping, she said.
"A vow from the highest reaches of the U.S. government to uphold the digital human rights of freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet and other communications technologies will echo throughout the world," Cope wrote. "Repressive regimes will be put on notice that the U.S. government holds itself to a high standard and expects other governments to follow suit." Read the full blog post here.
The Patent and Trademark Office unveiled a blueprint Friday for work-sharing among five major intellectual property offices to address the common challenges they are currently facing. The heads of the agencies met in Jeju, Korea, Oct. 27-28 to discuss a unified vision for work sharing and collaboration.
The meeting, which was chaired Jung-Sik Koh, commissioner of the Korean IP office, was attended by PTO Director Jon Dudas; European Patent Office chief Alison Brimelow; Takashi Suzuki of the Japan Patent Office; and Tian Lipu of China's IP office. Their joint vision: “The elimination of unnecessary duplication of work among the offices, enhancement of patent examination efficiency and quality, and guarantee of the stability of patent right.”
The offices established a cooperative framework of 10 projects devised to harmonize the search and examination environment of each office and to standardize the information-sharing process. The projects are expected to facilitate the work-sharing initiative by enhancing the quality of patent searches and examinations and building mutual trust in each other’s work, PTO said. Each office will oversee two projects and agreed that by the end of April 2009, they would exchange detailed proposals on the initiatives.
A broad coalition of leading information and communications companies, human rights groups, academics, investors and technology leaders on Tuesday launched its long-awaited effort to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy on the Internet. The Global Network Initiative, founded on a list of agreed upon principles, will be supported by specific implementation commitments and a framework for accountability and learning that will provide a systematic approach for companies, nonprofits and others to resist efforts by governments that want to enlist high-tech firms in acts of censorship and surveillance.
Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin indicated in an August press release that stakeholders, who worked for more than 18 months on the project, had agreed on a voluntary code of conduct. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee said the guidelines would be an important step toward "promoting freedom of expression and protecting the privacy of Internet users around the world." He and Senate Judiciary Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee ranking member Tom Coburn, R-Okla., wrote to the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo in July urging them to act ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
The initiative was launched in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and requires significant new commitments from participating companies, including: establishing greater transparency with users; assessing human rights risk; requesting the legal rationale for government actions and policies; training employees; challenging human rights violations; and providing whistle-blowing mechanisms through which violations of the principles can be reported.
Continue reading Internet Giants Unveil Global Code Of Conduct.
The Copyright Board of Canada last week issued a decision setting Internet music royalties retroactively for a 10-year period, beginning in 1996 and the board will review rates going forward from 2007 in the near future, officials said. The ruling came as a result of the second part of a proceeding involving the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. The first decision was issued in October 2007 and dealt exclusively with online music services.
The rate for commercial radio stations' Web sites is set at 1.5 percent of Internet-related revenues for low music use stations and at 4.2 percent for the others. A rate of 1.9 percent of Internet operating costs will apply to non-commercial radio stations, a rate these stations already pay for their conventional operations. Additionally, in recognition that not all pages of a radio station’s site contain sounds, rates will apply to no more than half of a site’s ad revenue or operating costs. Users will be allowed to further reduce the proportion in the event that less than 50 percent of a site’s pages contain sound.
The panel decided not to impose a tariff on a number of disparate sites for which the main activity is not related to music. Those include, for instance, restaurants, hotels, bars and any other business sites that use music. It also includes amateur podcasts, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and video sharing sites such as YouTube, as well as sites operated by individuals who use music. Such a tariff, if certified, could potentially target hundreds of thousands of users who either make very limited use of music or attract little or no attention, officials said.
High-tech behemoth Microsoft unveiled its Global Anti-Piracy Day on Tuesday, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the sophisticated, illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software. The programs include intellectual property awareness campaigns, business partnerships, consumer outreach, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged counterfeiters and pirates.
The anti-piracy day serves as a 24-hour snapshot of the range of initiatives that take place on an ongoing basis around the world, the company said in a press release. For example, in the United States, Microsoft filed 20 civil lawsuits in federal court in nine states against resellers alleged to be distributing computers with preloaded unlicensed and/or counterfeit Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office software. In Brazil, Microsoft has partnered with the American Chamber of Commerce to launch an educational blog and in Turkey, Microsoft announced it is providing the government with training sessions on cyber crimes and their impact.
“Software piracy and counterfeiting is a sophisticated, global trade with a damaging impact on consumers, businesses and economies, and Microsoft is committed to working with others around the world to stay a step ahead of this illegal industry,” Microsoft's associate general counsel David Finn said. INTERPOL IP chief John Newton added that transnational criminal organizations are involved in counterfeiting, which is "a global problem with global sources of supply." "This is why we need to work together -- the public and the private sectors -- to stop this trade."
The FBI in conjunction with a number of international law enforcement partners on Thursday announced the conclusion of a two-year undercover sting targeting members of the online “carding” forum known as Dark Market. Cyber criminals using this forum represented a virtual transnational criminal network involved in the buying and selling of stolen financial information including credit card data, login credentials as well as equipment used in carrying out financial crimes. FBI cyber czar Shawn Henry hinted that the announcement was coming in this CongressDaily story.
A primary objective of this operation was to infiltrate the forum, which at its peak had over 2,500 registered members; develop intelligence on key players; and in coordination with our U.S. and international partners, systematically identify, locate, and arrest them over a sustained period. The sting resulted in 56 arrests worldwide and $70 million in economic loss was prevented from the seizure of compromised victim accounts, the FBI said in a press release. Separate from those successes, the operation created new leads and more investigative information to pursue, officials said.
U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Scott Elmore said negotiators of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement "reaffirmed their goal to combat global infringements of intellectual property rights" at a meeting in Tokyo this week. The talks, which took place Wednesday and Thursday, included representatives from Australia, Canada, the European Union (represented by the European Commission and the EU Presidency), Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States.
The meeting was the latest in a series of gatherings to discuss proposals concerning various aspects of the pact. The discussion at this meeting focused on criminal enforcement of IP but participants also continued previous discussions about civil enforcement. Negotiators made "steady progress in these discussions, and decided to continue their work at another substantive meeting to be held at a mutually convenient time in the near future," Elmore said. Read more ACTA coverage here.
NationalJournal.com Q&A: Jim Burger
In advance of a public briefing on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement last week, Intel and other stakeholders sent a letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative requesting that language from a key domestic law be included in the forthcoming international pact. Specifically, they asked the USTR to be sure that any language referring to Internet service providers include provisions agreed upon under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The legislation gives providers "safe harbor" from liabilities for copyright infringement being committed across their networks.
NationalJournal.com's Theresa Poulson spoke with Jim Burger, intellectual property attorney with Intel, about the letter and other issues surrounding the controversial agreement being negotiated in secret. He shared his thoughts on the threat the pact could possess if it doesn't include language from the U.S. copyright law, as well as standards for secondary liability that have been defined in U.S. courts.
Read edited excerpts from the interview here.
On the eve of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, Internet security firm MessageLabs has discovered targeted malware being distributed in legitimate looking International Olympic Committee e-mails that have been sent to participating nation’s national sporting organizations and athlete representatives. The e-mails contained press release and media information that appears to have been taken from the IOC Web site with the malware hiding inside a PDF file.
The e-mails appear to be coming from Gmail accounts and examples of the subject lines include: Beijing Olympics cancelled, moved to Atlanta; Obama buys 10 million Olympics ad; 2008 Olympic Games will possible not take place; FW: Learn Chinese for the Olympics.
Why does this matter? MessageLabs says broadband adoption in China exceeded the United States earlier this year, with more than 71.6 million subscribers in China. China also has the greatest number of Internet users and the .cn domain name is the most used domain worldwide, the firm said. The .cn domain is also one of the most targeted because it’s cheap to own and sites are harder to close down. With the games slated to begin Friday, this makes Olympic-targeted spam even more attractive to spammers.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has released its annual patent report as part of the global continuing effort to "improve statistical information on patent activity covering as many countries as possible across the world and to develop and provide new indicators that are relevant to current policy issues."
Some notable statistics (via Peter Zura's 271 Patent Blog):
• Patent applications filed across the world are estimated to be 1.76 million, representing a 4.9% increase from the previous year. The number of filings worldwide by applicants from China, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America increased by 32.1%, 6.6% and 6.7% respectively.
• Although the number of patent applications filed across the world has increased at a steady pace, the rate of increase is less than the rate of increase observed for other economic indicators such as GDP and trade.
• Approximately 727,000 patents were granted across the world. Similar to patent filings, patent grants are concentrated in a small number of countries. Applicants from Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea and Germany received 73% of total patent grants worldwide. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of patents granted to applicants from China and the Republic of Korea grew by 26.5% and 23.2% a year, respectively.
• Approximately 6.1 million patents were in force in 2006. The largest number of patents in force were in the United States of America (1.8 million in 2006). However, the majority of patents in force were owned by applicants from Japan.
View the full report here.
BPI, which represents record labels in the United Kingdom, reached what the trade group called a "groundbreaking" agreement on Thursday with major Internet service providers and the government on measures to help significantly reduce illegal file-sharing. The organization signed a pact that places joint commitments on the signatories to continue developing consumer education programs and legal online services. For the first time ISPs will be required to work with rights holders toward a “significant reduction” in illegal content-swapping.
To achieve their goals, in the first year hundreds of thousands of informative letters will be sent by participating ISPs to customers whose accounts have been identified by BPI as being used illegally. In addition, under the auspices of the British government, the signatories will work to identify effective mechanisms to deal with repeat offenders. The deal represents "a significant step forward, in that all ISPs now recognize their responsibility to help deal with illegal file-sharing," BPI chief Geoff Taylor said in a press release.
Food for thought: A study by Entertainment Media Research found that simply sending letters should have a measurable impact on online piracy. A survey of 1,600 Brits found that 70 percent would stop unauthorized downloads if they received a warning from their ISPs. More than 60 percent said they would stop if they had a better chance of being caught.
Thursday was a bad day for Intel. European regulators announced new antitrust charges against the computer chip maker, accusing the firm of providing rebates to a prominent European retailer conditional on them only carrying Intel products. The European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition also accused Intel of providing rebates to a leading PC manufacturer to delay the launch of an AMD-based product line and rewarding the same company for stocking laptops exclusively with Intel-based products.
Intel is already under investigation by European regulators on charges it used rebates to discourage manufacturers from using AMD chips in PCs and low-cost servers. The EC had said earlier it would rule on those charges by September, though Intel will have two months to respond to these additional allegations. In the United States, Intel faces a civil suit in New York and an FTC investigation on whether the rebates were illegal.
Intel issued a statement saying it was disappointed with the news and will evaluate the Commission's complaint and respond fully. "It's clear that the allegations stem from the same set of complaints that our competitor, AMD, has been making to regulators and courts around the world for more than 10 years," the company said. "We are confident that the worldwide microprocessor market is functioning normally and is highly competitive in Europe and elsewhere."
But Computer and Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said there is "now a clear pattern of ongoing and durable anti-competitive practices by Intel." “The European Commission has the reputation of being thorough yet fair,” he said. "Their judgment and findings will be very important because they will move us beyond current rhetoric and shed light on what is actually happening on many different levels."
A member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands has announced plans to introduce legislation this week modeled after a bill introduced this Congress by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., Smith said the proposals are, "a historic partnering, the quintessential example of transatlantic cooperation" and are "absolutely necessary to end -- or at least mitigate -- the complicity of [tech] companies with dictatorships like China."
During a media event, hosted by human rights organization Freedom House, EU MP Jules Maaten, the sponsor of the EU version of the legislation, called the parallel initiative a "collaborative effort to increase Internet freedom." Both bills would prohibit Internet firms from cooperating with repressive regimes that restrict Web speech and use personally identifiable information to track down and punish democracy activists.
Reporters Without Borders lauded the European effort, saying that "online freedom is not just threatened by Yahoo’s cooperation with the Chinese authorities. Some European companies are also the accomplices of online censors." Telecom Italia, for example, owns part of the Cuban telecommunications company ETECSA, the only ISP available in Cuba, the group said. The French ISP Orange is involved in China, Vietnam and Egypt, which are all on the watchdog's list of "Internet Enemies."
Stakeholders involved in a proposed anti-counterfeiting trade agreement met at the U.S. Mission in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday and Wednesday for one of a series of meetings aimed at developing various aspects of the deal, an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative official said Thursday.
The main focus of the discussion was border measures -- particularly how to deal with large-scale intellectual property infringement, which can frequently involve criminal elements and pose a threat to public health and safety -- the USTR official said. Participants considered the talks useful and were satisfied with the progress to date, he said.
Negotiations will continue in the coming months and parties are scheduled to meet again in mid-July where they will discuss border issues and civil enforcement mechanisms for fighting IP theft. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States attended this week's meeting.
From CongressDaily's TechCentral Issue Of The Week:
United Nations agencies are still capable of addressing problems not solvable by national governments or the marketplace alone. Last week, the World Health Organization, perhaps best known for statistics and reports, took several actions -- including negotiating an agreement on innovation into neglected diseases disproportionately affecting the poor that could have consequences for developed countries.
While key elements of the innovation agreement that could have affected U.S. bilateral trade agreements were removed, enough was kept to possibly bring a change in the status quo for innovation and intellectual property rights related to public health. In some ways, the negotiation was more about limiting the role of the WHO in intellectual property issues -- reflecting a common national-level debate between typically more public-minded health officials and economics and trade officials who focus on the bottom line.
Read the full story here.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday joined international police agency INTERPOL in announcing a major seizure of counterfeit and other illicit goods in South America. The sting, known as "Operation Jupiter," resulted in 185 new arrests and the seizure of $115 million of goods.
Counterfeit medicines, toys, sub-standard electrical products, and agro-chemicals were nabbed in addition to illicit drugs, firearms, ammunition, and other products. To date, Operation Jupiter seizures netted over $165 million worth of illicit goods, officials said in a press release.
"It’s hard to rest easy knowing that this is just the tip of the iceberg, but this bust is an important step towards protecting workers and families from the devastating and lethal consequences of counterfeiting and piracy," said Chamber Global IP Center CEO David Hirschmann.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith on Wednesday weighed in on the U.S. Trade Representative's request that the World Trade Organization dispute the European Union’s settlement consultation regarding tariffs on certain high-tech products. His statement, which came too late for my story in CongressDaily's PM Edition, lauded Susan Schwab's action and said it was "an important step toward promoting free trade and protecting American businesses."
"Information technology products are a driving force in the American economy," he said. "The federal government has a responsibility to promote the interests of these American companies by challenging tariffs imposed by the European Union on certain technology products that are not produced in the EU." Further, Smith noted that in a global economy, "countries must work together to encourage innovation, rather than stifling it with taxes and duties that harm both businesses and consumers."
From CongressDaily's TechCentral Issue Of The Week:
A new cybersecurity initiative aimed at bringing together a swath of stakeholders to improve the global capacity to prevent and respond to digital-age dangers debuted last week with great fanfare -- and an impressive list of backers, including top-level government officials, leading security firms and tech opinion leaders.
But the project's unveiling begs the question: What will this group do that a host of other similar-sounding endeavors have not?
Launched at the World Congress on Information and Technology in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, IMPACT -- International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Terrorism -- secured $13 million seed money from the Malaysian government, and has the support of Internet pioneer Vint Cerf and former White House cyber czar Howard Schmidt, as well as security vendors Kaspersky Labs, Symantec, and TrendMicro.
Read the full story here.
The U.K. government is considering floating a bill that would centralize all data collected by Internet service providers. It's an issue that has gotten little press attention and could be "the biggest surveillance story in years," according to Internet expert Susan Crawford.
Arstechnica.com reports that under current law, communications providers are required to retain certain kinds of data about their customers for a year, and to make that data available in response to government subpoenas. Under the new proposal, these records would have to be automatically submitted to a centralized government database.
The plan is being drafted by the British Home Office, which performs many of the same functions as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Home Office claims that new legislation is needed to cope with changes in the way Britons communicate, the article states. The government points to the increased use of e-mail, instant messaging, and other communications technologies, which it claims are hampering lawful surveillance.
On her blog, Crawford points out that the U.K.'s data retention laws, which have been in place since October 2007, "require phone companies to hang onto phone and text records, and this next step would make all of that data plus email, Internet usage, and VoIP data available in a single place - accessible by a mid-level policeman who wanted to know more about his traffic-stop suspect."
(Photo Credit: rjs1322 via Flickr)
The FBI warned the public on Tuesday to beware of e-mails claiming to be raising money to help victims of the recent earthquake in China. The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech shooting and other tragedies have prompted online criminals to solicit contributions for charitable organizations.
Some of the Chinese earthquake scam messages claim to be offering free vacation trips to the largest donors and even use fake logos of legitimate online pay services to fool people, the FBI said. The bureau urged individuals not respond to unsolicited e-mail; not to click on links contained within those spam messages; and to make contributions directly to recognized organizations.
"People should feel free to make donations, just make sure you know who you are dealing with and where the donations are going," Special Agent Richard Kolko said. "This way you can make sure your money really makes a difference and helps out a needy person, not a greedy criminal."
From the Silicon Valley Insider:
Want to know what that giant earthquake in China's remote Sichuan looked like? Better yet, want to know what it's like to experience a 7.8 magnitude quake? Someone claiming to be a Sichuan University student posted a video to Tudou, where it's No. 2 on the homepage, and it was reposted on YouTube. The video shows interminable shaking, creaking and groaning of what appears to be a college dorm.
Plus the Insider notes that search engine Summize shows lots of Twittering about the earthquake; unclear how many of the Twitters are actually near quake-affected areas. More coverage: U.K. Telegraph, Poynter Online.
Childnet International launched a global awareness campaign on Wednesday aimed at explaining the world of legal and illegal music downloading to teachers and parents. A new pocket-sized guide will be distributed at schools and colleges; libraries; record stores; and Web sites in 21 countries, the U.K.-based group said in a press release.
The booklet, "Young People, Music and the Internet," helps young people use the Internet and mobile phones safely and legally to acquire their favorite tunes. "There are so many wonderful online music services but there are risks to children including breach of copyright the threat of viruses, loss of privacy and security," Childnet's Stephen Carrick-Davies said. Read more about the effort here.
David Oxenford's Broadcast Law Blog pointed out on Tuesday that while U.S. webcasters may think they have legal issues -- the Internet radio music royalties that have been such a concern or the copyright and other liability issues that surround user-generated content -- they face nothing like new administrative rules that were enacted on Jan. 31 for webcasters in China.
According to Oxenford, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine who represented small U.S. webcasters in royalty setting proceedings, the new rules require government permits from two separate Chinese government agencies before webcasting operations can begin. In addition, the rules appear to require ownership and control of webcasting operations by state-owned companies. A memo on the rules, prepared by attorneys from his firm's Shanghai office, can be found here.
(Photo Credit: Eschlaik via Flickr)
The Chinese government has blocked Internet users in the country from accessing video-sharing site YouTube after clips of a recent government crackdown on Tibetan protesters challenging Chinese rule were posted on the site. The U.K. Guardian and local feeds of broadcasters including BBC and CNN were also censored, according to media reports.
CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz wrote on the In The Field blog that amid the blackout, modern technology created a loophole for disseminating news: "Our intrepid researchers found one Chinese Web log, a local version of Twitter, which collected and disseminated reports from citizen reporters who sent them in by SMS and Internet."
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday issued a statement on his Web site deploring the use of violence by both protesters and the government. He said the region is facing "cultural genocide."
Google has joined a consortium of six companies that have agreements to build a high-bandwidth sub-sea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan. The construction of the new Trans-Pacific infrastructure will cost an estimated $300 million, according to a Tuesday press release.
The new cable system named Unity will address broadband demand by providing capacity to sustain the growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and America. The TeleGeography Global Bandwidth Report showed that trans-Pacific bandwidth demand grew by nearly 64 percent annually between 2002 and 2007 and is expected to continue to climb through 2013.
The consortium is a joint effort by Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, Pacnet and SingTel. Unity selected NEC Corporation and Tyco Telecommunications to construct and install the system. That work will begin immediately, with initial capacity targeted for the first quarter of 2010.
From CongressDaily's AM:
News that Internet service providers in the United Kingdom might be legally required to take action against computer users who access pirated material raised concerns on Capitol Hill Tuesday and among those who track U.S. intellectual property policy. The British newspaper The Times recently reported a leaked proposal that calls for those suspected of downloading illegitimate movies or music to get an initial warning e-mail, followed by a suspension for a second offense, then a termination of their service contract for a third offense. [Read the full story]
A spokesman for the U.K. Internet Services Providers' Association told Tech Daily Dose after deadline that the trade group is "currently in talks with the Motion Picture Association of America and liaises with government on this issue." ISPs are "mere conduits" of information and bear no liability for illegal file-sharing since the content is not hosted on their servers, the official said.
"ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the post office is able to open every envelope," the spokesman said. "ISPs deal with many more packets of data each day than postal services and data protection legislation actually prevents ISPs from looking at the content."
In the United States, ISPs also have "a strong record of responsibility and cooperation when it comes to protection of intellectual property online," said Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association. He pointed out that American laws differ from those abroad. "Here in the U.S., we must balance our desire to support content companies with the mandates of fair use, state and federal privacy laws, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," McClure said.
Six months from now, the Beijing Summer Olympics will begin and Reporters Without Borders is concerned that Chinese authorities have not made good on promises they made to improve human rights conditions there and grant "total press freedom" before and during the festival.
About 80 journalists and Internet users are currently imprisoned in China and some have been detained since the 1980s, the watchdog group said this week. The government also blocks access to thousands of Web sites and the cyber-police watch Internet users closely. Meanwhile, 180 foreign reporters were arrested, attacked or threatened in China in 2007.
"The repression is continuing without any let-up, sidelining all those who dare to call for concrete improvements before the start of the games," the group said in a statement. Blogger Hu Jia, for example, is being held on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power" despite global protests.
The recording industry on Monday took a series of steps to try to develop a music business in China based on respecting intellectual property rather than blatant violation of copyright laws, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
After months of negotiations, legal proceedings were filed against the country's biggest Internet firm, Baidu. Separate actions were taken against Sohu and its associate company Sogou. Yahoo China also faces fresh proceedings, IFPI said.
The firms involved operate similar services based on delivering music to their users via "deep links" to hundreds of thousands of infringing tracks on third party sites, with the aim of driving their own advertising revenue, the group said.
"The music industry in China wants partnership with the technology companies - but you cannot build partnership on the basis of systemic theft of copyrighted music and that is why we have been forced to take further actions," IFPI Chairman John Kennedy said.
China has potentially the largest online music-buying public in the world with as many broadband connections as the United States, the organization noted. But right now, more than 99 percent of all music files distributed there are pirate. China's total legitimate music market ($76 million) accounts for less than one percent of global music sales.
Read more about the smackdown here.
Social networking site Facebook and user-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia are off limits to reporters at Agence France Presse, according to the news agency's bureau chief.
"We have internal rules that are regularly updated [on this matter]. Wikipedia for example, we have a written rule inside the company that forbids any journalist using Wikipedia," Pierre Lesourd told the Lord's Committee on Media Ownership and the News. "We have the same thing, updated last week, for Facebook because of the incident with Bilawal Bhutto in Oxford."
Speaking to Journalim.co.uk, Lesourd clarified the policy, stating that reporters working for the international company could not pick up information from these sites for news without referring to other, more reliable sources for factual clarification.
Georgetown University on Tuesday launched the Journal of Globalization, Competitiveness and Governability -- a collaborative project with Universia.net, an online portal for universities in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.
The Web journal will be published three times a year and will be stocked with "rigorous thinking, creative ideas and innovative proposals to improve the competitiveness and governability of companies and governments in an increasingly globalized world."
"Georgetown University is the best partner we could possibly have for this project, since we share the same goal which is to improve cooperation and dialogue among cultures and countries," said Universia President Emilio Botín said in a press release.
The journal will be available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. It's inaugural issue features articles on topics including tax reform; budget surpluses and deficits; and multinationals in Latin America.
Jose Maria Azner, former prime minister of Spain; Roberto Danino, former prime minister of Peru; Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico; and others were scheduled to attend the journal's unveiling.
A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, a government official told Reuters on Thursday. According to the article, the name stands out especially in Chinese, which uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
Deputy chief of the State Language Commission, Li Yuming, told reporters that the name was an extreme example of citizens' increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialization and the Internet break down conventions. Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name.
Incidentally, the Chinese couple isn't the first to have that idea. For years, I have signed my e-mails with "@," rather than my full name -- and have been given a collection of "@" tchotchkes to prove it (potholders, magnets, bookends, etc).
Malaysian investigators, with the assistance of the world's first optical disc sniffing dogs, Lucky and Flo, have raided a suspected piracy outfit in Kuala Lumpur. Three disc replicating machines (capable of producing millions of discs per year) were seized.
It took more than 22 officials from the Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs and the Motion Picture Association to break down the factory doors. Authorities detained four suspects for questioning, according to a press release.
The bootlegging business had been running out of the building for three months, masquerading as a fertilizer plant. Hundreds of sacks of the stinky stuff were piled outside the premises. Lucky and Flo saw through the ruse.
About 18,000 illegal discs were confiscated including copies of "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Spiderman-3," and "The Simpsons Movie."
While the feud over Internet radio royalties plays out in the United States [see Technology Daily's PM Edition for details], a different kind of musical war is being waged in Australia.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, health clubs down under could be forced to play cover versions of popular tunes as they try to avoid a 30-fold hike in license fees for playing copyrighted music in fitness classes.
The possible rate increase follows a ruling by the country's copyright tribunal that said nightclubs and dance parties should pay $1.05 and $3.07 per patron respectively. Fitness Australia's Lauretta Stace said the change could raise class license fees from $0.92 to $31.67 a class.
An typical health club that offers 40 classes per week would have to pay annual license costs of $65,000, up from $1,900. Smaller independent gyms could also close, Stace said.
Facilities could look into playing other musicians' versions of songs to avoid the rate hike. "Whether it's [Abba tribute band] Bjorn Again or the real thing, we don't think it's going to affect the class," Stace told the newspaper.
Following news Thursday that European negotiators had reached a provisional deal with the United States on how to share information about trans-Atlantic air passengers that Washington says is necessary to fight terrorism, the European Union released a statement on what has transpired.
The EU said the U.S. has addressed its members' data protection concerns and set conditions concerning the handling of personal data originating from the European Union.
European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini welcomed the move. "The EU and its most important strategic partner in the fight against terrorism, the USA, have to join forces in this fight… These activities should be done in full respect of fundamental rights, including notably data protection rights and the right to privacy of EU citizens," he said.
-- Winter Casey
Clarification: The quote from Franco Frattini below was included in a release concerning a separate deal the European Union made with Washington for using bank-transfer data in terrorism investigations. However, an EU spokesman said Frattini's comment would apply to how he views the passenger agreement, too.
(AP Photo via Washington Times)
Looking at this photograph, Tech Daily Dose wonders which interested the Albanians more: touching President Bush during his weekend visit to their country or capturing his photo on their cellular phones. Say cheese!
-- Theresa Poulson
Robin Gibb, best known as a member of the disco trio the Bee Gees, told BBC News that he plans to campaign for a change to copyright laws on behalf of musicians in the United Kingdom. Performers there receive royalty payments for 50 years, at which point their work enters the public domain.
"Artists should be getting royalties for the records that they make for life," Gibb said in an interview. The singer has just been named president of CISAC, a group representing creative artists around the world.
The 57-year-old singer wants to launch a record label for U.K. artists, giving them easier access to digital download stores like iTunes. "There are still many major writers who still don't own their catalogue," he said. "It's a moral issue that people should get a bigger piece of the pie."
The United States doesn't expect significant progress on the trade front with China this year, the U.S. Treasury attaché to Beijing told China Daily. David Loevinger said that "now is not the time for bold economic reform, now is not the time to take on strong domestic vested interests."
"Because of a strong political calendar this may be the year that we may be less able to deliver, for us," Loevinger is quoted as having told a news conference in Shanghai. He said that private discussions with Chinese officials are more beneficial than public pressure from the U.S. government.
Also on Wednesday, South Korea's Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon reportedly said that if the United States seeks changes to the proposed free trade agreement between the countries -- currently waiting approval from legislative bodies -- the deal will not be re-negotiated, according to Agence France-Presse. AFP also reported that South Korea and Australia may be considering a possible free trade agreement. -- Winter Casey
Online payment service PayPal on Tuesday announced it was granted a banking license for the European Union by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, effective July 2. The San Jose, Calif.-based firm also said it planned to move its European headquarters to Luxembourg.
"Our goal is to give European consumers more places to shop securely and conveniently across the web by making PayPal available on virtually every retail website in Europe," PayPal Europe Vice President Brent Bellm said. PayPal has more than 35 million accounts and is offered on more than 100,000 Web sites in Europe.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the eBay-owned firm is fighting off competition from Google, which launched a rival system last month.
New Media
Online Politics
Tech Policy
