By Cameron | Published: July 29, 2005
Update: The Committee has posted the video archive of the hearing (RealPlayer required) — skip ahead approx. 17 minutes to get to the start of the hearing. Original post (7/28/2005): The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing today on implications of the Supreme Court’s MGM vs. Grokster decision. The witnesses were (their [...]
By Cameron | Published: July 29, 2005
Update (7/29/05): Here is the final text of the math/science amendment that was adopted. The larger bill passed the House Education and Workforce Committee by a 27-20 vote. This provision will probably be somewhat contentious as the bill moves forward, not because of substance but because of the program it replaces. We would be curious [...]
By Cameron | Published: July 27, 2005
Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf (who, along with Robert Kahn, won ACM’s 2004 Turing Award) and Information Technology Association of America President Harris Miller join the chorus of leaders expressing concern about the federal R&D enterprise in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required). They frame the argument very similar to those laid out by the joint [...]
By David | Published: July 26, 2005
Not to be outdone by other Congressional committees working to address the current data security and privacy crisis illustrated by this year’s numerous data breach disclosures and controversies, the Senate Commerce committee has decided to wade into the debate and is set to markup S. 1408 on Thursday. The bill, dubbed the Identity Theft Protection [...]
By David | Published: July 25, 2005
A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education [subscription req'd] points us to proposed rule changes from the Department of Defense that would create new restrictions on foreign researchers’ access to export-controlled technology: The proposed rules would require foreign researchers to wear badges and would require laboratories to contain segregated work areas to control [...]
By Cameron | Published: July 21, 2005
Earlier this week, the Congressional Internet Caucus held a good panel discussion about the implications of the MGM v. Grokster decision. (Here is the video — real, windows.) While the debate wades quite deep into the legal weeds at times, it is well worth a review. I’ve summarized a couple of the key points below. [...]
By David | Published: July 13, 2005
In part one, we took a look at some of the bill’s basic characteristics, its political context, and its likely prospects. In this part, we’ll address what we see as some areas of concern with the bill: Complexity, Imprecision — The bill sets forth a very dense, complex regulatory framework for data security and protecting [...]
By Cameron | Published: July 12, 2005
Business Week has an interesting article about South Korea’s efforts to remain an IT leader in the global marketplace. Most people think of South Korea’s aggressive investments in broadband, but it looks like they are articulating a strategy for leveraging those investments into new technology in the consumer market — the term “ubiquitous computing” is [...]
By David | Published: July 11, 2005
Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) recently added his support to the “Personal Data Privacy and Security Act” (S. 1332), an important bill from Senators Specter and Leahy that we described briefly in a recent post. At over 90 pages, the bill is a comprehensive (and complex) attempt to address the privacy and security issues that have [...]
By David | Published: July 1, 2005
CONTENTS [1] Newsletter Highlights [2] Supreme Court Rules Against Grokster, Preserves Sony Safe Harbor [3] Proposed Export Rules Could Stifle Innovation [4] Powerful Senators Introduce Privacy and Security Bill [5] USACM Urges Reconsideration of Real ID Provisions [6] PITAC Issues Computational Science Report, Then Expires [7] Cerf and Kahn Presented with ACM’s 2004 A.M. Turing [...]
