Tech Policy Summit blog

President Signs E-911 Bill Into Law

President Bush signed the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008 yesterday, enacting into law several measures designed to ensure better Enhanced-911 services for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers and to work toward a national IP-enabled emergency network.

VON coalition founder Jeff Pulver, who's been a long-time backer of IP technologies for voice and video, celebrated it as "hugely important legislation" in a post on his blog. Below is an excerpt that explains the bill's impact on the VoIP industry and what Pulver believes it means for 911 services going forward:

This is the first major piece of telecommunications legislation signed into law this year -- and it happens to be a bill designed to help advance VoIP.

The bill provides tools that the FCC failed to provide 3 years ago when first adopting rules for VoIP 911. Even without these tools, VoIP providers have made extraordinary efforts and now provide E911 to a greater percentage of subscribers than any other kind of voice service. Its been the fastest and broadest onetime implementation of E-911 in the history of public safety. As a result of these unprecedented effort by VoIP providers, Americans who dial 911 using interconnected VoIP services can now rest assured they can reach help in an emergency. It is a particularly remarkable achievement considering that no underlying network connectivity provider can yet offer VoIP providers the ability to connect to all selective routers nationwide. This bill now gives VoIP providers a chance to expand their base, and VoIP consumers assurances that they can be safe and secure using a dependable VoIP service.

But more importantly, thanks to the work of the VON Coalition, the bill also recognizes that when we put VoIP at the heart of the 911 network itself, we can achieve breakthrough new advancements in emergency service for all Americans -- regardless of the type of service you use. It's no secret that America's 911 network is still providing 911 and E911 today using 1960s-era technology. The bill calls for a new national strategy for upgrading the nation's entire 911 network from 1960s era technology to 21st century IP and VoIP technologies at its core to help make Americans more safe and secure.

You can read more of his post here, and the text of the legislation is available here.

EU Parliament's Telecom Reform Raises "Three-Strikes" Concerns

According to BBC News, members of the European Parliament voted yesterday in favor of advancing new telecom reform legislation known as the Telecoms Package that includes a series of controverisal amendments that digital rights activists say would pave the way for a 'three-strikes' law against online copyright infringers in Europe.

MEP Malcolm Harbour, a key backer of the Telecoms Package, dismissed that idea, telling BBC that the amendments "have nothing to do with copyright enforcement. The interpretation of them is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights."

Opponents, led by a French group called La Quadrature du Net, warn that the legislation designed to harmonize Europe's telecom laws would instead threaten the openness of the Internet by requiring ISPs to give individuals suspected of downloading unauthorized copyright material two warnings before cutting off their Net access entirely. Another organization, Free Internet Infrastructure (FFII), went a step further, saying that a provision that would give the government the power to determine what type of software can be used online (and what can't) would lead to a "Soviet Internet" in Europe.

The European Parliament will vote on the legislation in September.

For more, read the full BBC article here.

Congress Proposes 'Orphan Works' Changes

Both the Senate and the House introduced legislation yesterday to clarify the use of so-called 'orphan works' -- copyrighted material for which the owner can not be found. Though there are differences between the two versions, they share a common goal of limiting the amount of money rights holders would be entitled to in a copyright infringment case.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) co-sponsored S. 2913, named The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 in honor of a former aide to Sen. Hatch. On the House side, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) teamed up on the Ophan Works Act of 2008, H.R. 5889.

Under current law, rights holders are eligible for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringment. That will change if the proposed legislation is enacted. Here's how Sen. Leahy described the Senate bill:

Our legislation permits the use of an orphan work only if the potential user performs and documents a good faith search for the copyright owner. If users cannot locate and contact copyright owners, they may use the orphan work. But if copyright owners later make themselves known, and if users have performed a search that qualifies under this legislation, owners are entitled to reasonable compensation.  The user will not be liable for full statutory damages in those circumstances, but if a user does not perform that good faith search, the user will face up to $150,000 in statutory damages. 

Public Knowledge and the Recording Industry Association of America are among those who've already expressed support for the legislation (though PK believes some changes are needed, particularly in the House version). On the other hand, the Illustrators' Partnership of America views the orphan works legislation as a "radical proposal" that will hurt artists, as they explain in this podcast that was recorded prior to the introduction of the bill.

Sen. Kerry Turns to Blog for NN Feedback

In advance of tomorrow's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the future of the Internet, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is asking net neutrality supporters what they'd like to see discussed in the meeting.

In his second guest post at SaveTheInternet.com blog, a pro-net neutrality site operated by Free Press, Sen. Kerry writes:

This may be the only place I don't feel the need to play up the importance of tomorrow's Commerce Committee hearing on Net Neutrality.

When I've talked to other people - and when I post on other blogs - about this hearing, I always try to grab people's attention and tell them that, even with the primary tomorrow, we need to keep our eyes on the ball when it comes to Net Neutrality and the future of the Internet.

I know I don't have to tell all of you at SavetheInternet.com about that.

I know you realize the importance of the government setting the rules so that some traffic is not discriminated against in relation to other traffic...

The Senate hearing is scheduled for 10:00am ET; witnesses include actress Justine Bateman, Christian Coalition exec Michele Combs, Stanford professor Larry Lessig, NCTA's CEO Kyle McSlarrow, Patric Verrone of the Writers Guild of America and Dr. Robert Hahn of the American Enterprise Institute.

New Bill Links P2P Monitoring + Internet Safety

The issue of online child safety was raised several times during yesterday's FCC hearing on broadband network management practices.

For example, in her opening remarks, Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate emphasized the need to keep Internet safety in mind when considering regulatory actions that would encourage greater openness of the Internet. She expressed concern about the role of P2P networks in enabling illegal content distribution, including child pornography. Others at the hearing defended P2P technology as a neutral protocol, explaining that it's how it is used and not the technology itself that is the problem.

As it turns out, while we were watching the FCC meeting at Stanford, there was a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about online child exploitation taking place on Capitol Hill. And P2P again was part of the discussion. According to a report by News.com's Anne Broache, Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) called for passage of a bill known as the Combating Child Exploitation Act that would authorize $1 billion over the next eight years.

Among other things, the money would be spent on expanding use of a Wyoming-based monitoring system called Operation Fairplay that is being used by law enforcement officers fighting child pornography to "conduct undercover operations involving peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, chat rooms, Web sites, and mobile telephones." For more details on how Operation Fairplay works, and what the legislation would do, check out News.com.

Groups Clash in Compromise Over Senate Patent Reform Bill

Even though the House of Representatives passed its version of the Patent Reform Act last September, the debate over patent reform is still underway as the Senate considers its own bill co-sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

The now-familiar players on each side are again squaring off, in particular over the issue of how damages should be calculated in patent infringement lawsuits. Representing a group of technology, telecom and entertainment companies that want to overhaul the patent system, the Coalition for Patent Fairness submitted a series of recommendations to several Senators last week that called for limiting the amount of damages and including a provision to protect prior users.

As Andrew Noyes writes in a series of articles in CongressDaily (sub required), opponents at the Innovation Alliance called the Coalition's proposals "three giant steps backward," and other groups backed by the pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors have joined them in criticizing the recommendations.

With Senate leaders hoping to bring the bill to the floor after the Spring recess, it's an issue that will be part of the discussions taking place during this month's Tech Policy Summit conference. In fact, Mr. Noyes will host a fireside chat with Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) who co-sponsored the House version of the bill, and Jon Dudas, Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will deliver a keynote on the opening day of the Summit.

Senate's New Anti-Phishing Bill Raises Privacy Concerns

Citing data from Gartner that about 3.5 million computer users were tricked by phishing scams between 2006 and 2007, resulting in a financial loss of over $3 billion, Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Olympia Snowe (R-WA) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) introduced a bill earlier this week called the Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (APCPA).

APCPA is designed to crack down on online fraud and identity theft by creating "multiple enforcement mechanisms" and instituting strong civil and criminal penalties. Not everyone is convinced that the bill is a step in the right direction though.

According to The Iconoclast writer Declan McCullagh, who will be among the speakers at next month's Tech Policy Summit, there are plenty of anti-phishing laws already on the books and APCPA "appears to serve no useful purpose."

Declan writes: "If their bill merely duplicated existing criminal laws, it would be more redundant than worrisome. Except that one section is actively harmful to the privacy of Americans who own domain names and want to protect their privacy."

He's referring to provisions that would make it illegal for an individual to use false or misleading information when registering a domain name in a WHOIS database if that domain is used for commercial purposes, as well as a rule that would require domain name registrars who use proxy services to keep registrant.data private to make that info public if they receive notice that the domain name was used for phishing purposes.

You can read the full text of the bill here.

RIM and MOT Sue; Senators Push Patent Reform

Over the weekend, Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) filed a lawsuit against Motorola in U.S. District Court in Texas. According to reports by The Wall Street Journal and The Canadian Press, the BlackBerry maker accused Motorola of infringing on nine of its patents and engaging in "anticompetitive conduct" by failing to license its intellectual property to RIM "on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis."

Motorola, which filed its own patent suit against RIM, responded to the allegations in a statement by saying it "believes in the value of its IP and will move aggressively to protect that value on behalf of our customers, partners and shareholders."

Just the day before, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote an editorial in The Washington Times about the Patent Reform Act of 2007. The bill passed the House last September and has been awaiting action in the Senate.

The two Senators, who co-sponsored the legislation, wrote: "It is time to dust off and refresh our patent laws. If we are to maintain our position at the forefront of the global economy and continue to lead the world in innovation and production, we need an efficient and streamlined patent system that issues high-quality patents while limiting wheel spinning and counterproductive litigation. Our bipartisan reform bill is a solid step toward achieving these goals."

For now, the wheels of patent litigation keep spinning.

Bringing Net Neutrality Back

Coverage of the net neutrality issue may have quieted down for a time. But rumblings about Comcast allegedly interfering with file-sharing traffic late last year sparked a new round of debates, and Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS) made it official today by introducing legislation called the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008."

Congressman Markey, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, was quick to refute claims that the bill sought to regulate the Internet. In a statement announcing the legislation, he said, "It does no such thing...It does, however, suggest that the principles which have guided the Internet's development and expansion are highly worthy of retention, and it seeks to enshrine such principles in the law as guide stars for U.S. broadband policy."

It requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct a thorough evaluation of broadband providers' practices in areas like traffic management, pricing and parental controls. The Commission would also be required to organize eight regional summits on broadband and to report their findings to Congress within 90 days of the last one.

The bill's introduction coincides with Comcast's FCC filing yesterday in which it explains and defends its network management procedures. You can read more about the report at Ars Technica; the Progress and Freedom Foundation also submitted comments supporting the use of network management techniques.

The Wall Street Journal summed up the kerfuffle with this observation:

"Regulators now face a challenge to set rules in a rapidly shifting market where changes in technology and consumer tastes are running faster than Washington's ability to react."

It's a familiar observation.

Peek at the Tech Policy Summit Agenda

While we're still planning to announce a few additions to the program, you can now preview the agenda for next month's Tech Policy Summit -- which is taking place March 26th-28th at the Renaissance Hollywood hotel in southern California.

We're excited about the mix of interesting, influential and insightful people who are participating -- both on stage and off. By design, the nonpartisan Summit brings together people who don't necessarily agree with each other on the issues but who share a common interest in understanding policy's impact on technology, and how tech is changing policy. Which is why our theme, and our mission, is about collaborating to drive tech innovation and adoption.

There are over 60 confirmed speakers and session hosts, including FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, Congressman Howard Berman, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin, Sunlight Foundation founder Ellen Miller, Verizon CTO Richard Lynch, YouTube's Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine, cyberlaw professor Susan Crawford, Facebook's policy chief Chris Kelly, Craig Newmark of craigslist.org, Steve Wildstrom of BusinessWeek, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD.com and Andrew Noyes of Congress Daily.

Those individuals aren't the only ones we look forward to hearing from though. There will also be a series of open mic "mark-up" sessions where participants can share their views on pending legislative proposals. And the Summit will conclude with birds-of-a-feather roundtables that will give attendees a chance for focused networking before heading back to the office.

If you're already registered, you'll be receiving updates on the program and the evening networking activities in and around Hollywood like the TV taping of "Real Time with Bill Maher" as we get closer to the event. To secure a spot at the 2008 Summit, sign up online at TechPolicySummit.com.