Porn
Government Study Finds Web-Filtering Tools Satisfactory
by Drew Clark
Internet-filtering technology largely meets the needs of educational institutions in shielding minors from pornography, according to a study released Monday by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
But NTIA also urged schools to provide greater training about how to use software filters and other forms of technology to weed out pornography, and it urged Congress to clarify the kinds of software and computer-networking tools that can be used to meet the demands of the 2000 Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
The report, which also was mandated by CIPA, largely avoided the question about the status of software filters in libraries and how easily librarians should be able or unblock filtered sites.
The Supreme Court upheld the application of CIPA to libraries in June, but two of the six justices who upheld the law said that it must be easy for adults to request that the filters to be disabled. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the two plaintiffs in the case, has recommended that librarians be able to unblock a bank of computers from the filters every morning and still receive federal funding.
"NTIA recommends that Congress change the current legislation to clarify that the term 'technology protection measure' encompasses not only filtering and blocking software, but also other current and future technology tools," the report said. Some technologies that may not meet the law's definition include individual log-ins, the ability for system administrators to override blocked sites, image-recognition technology, and technology that scans content instead of relying on keywords, the report said.
"Existing technology protection measures have met many of the needs of educational institutions," the NTIA report concluded. It added that commentators who filed letters with the NTIA expressed an "overwhelming satisfaction with the development and effectiveness" of Internet child-safety policies.
Proponents of software filters said they are gratified that the study underscored the effectiveness of the tools. "Filtering is here to stay in libraries and schools, and in some cases, it is being implemented in statewide networks," said David Burt, a spokesman for the N2H2 filtering company, which is being acquired by Secure Computing, the maker of Smart Filter.
"I don't know how much to read into the administration's statement or study as to whether or not filters are good enough" for schools and libraries, said Robert Corn-Revere, a First Amendment attorney at Hogan and Hartson who has criticized both CIPA and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). "The interesting question is, if the administration has now concluded that filters are good enough, why [do] they need to continue to advocate the legality of the COPA."
Although CIPA blocks federal funding of libraries, schools and museums that fail to implement filtering technology by July 2004, COPA requires Web-site owners to shield sexually explicit material behind pages that seek credit-card authorizations.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals twice has struck down COPA; the Bush administration last week appealed it again to the Supreme Court.
Telecom
FCC Chair Sees Challenges With Call For More Regulation
by Teri Rucker
ASPEN, Colo. -- Corporate scandals and repercussions from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks resulted in calls for government protection and regulation of industries, a proposition that endangers innovation in the technology industry, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said Monday at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's summit here.
"I see a rise again of a regulatory ethos that believes regulators can do better ... than markets do," Powell said. He attributed that attitude toward "a natural consequence of the mood that results from 9/11 and the corporate scandals."
Half of the problem is the fault of corporations and the "despicable acts" that fostered a lack of trust in the markets, he said. Consumer unease requires a government response, but the push toward greater regulation, particularly in the telecommunications and media markets, poses problems for a rapidly changing industry, he added.
The telecom and high-tech sectors "are at a place where they can ill afford" to be subjected to that kind of thinking, Powell said. It requires "a boat load of money" to enter these industries, and the investments should not be endangered by burdensome regulations.
Powell also said he plans to stay at the agency and work toward implementing his vision of a modestly regulated world. "It is very important to stick that flag in the ground and say that is where we are going," Powell said, even though that kind of leadership can be tantamount to muddy trench-fighting.
Even companies that profess belief in free markets will come to the agency and try to make the case that their companies should not be subject to those same free-market principles, Powell said. "We ought to make decisions that are credible" and "not the product of undue influence or because a senator yelled at you loud enough," he said.
If the agency is seen as being buffeted by political winds and can be viewed as being less than independent, then perhaps the FCC should be folded into the administration, he said.
Powell said the structure of the agency, with five members from both political parties, creates conflict that often results in "mealy-mouthed" decisions "muddled up with too much compromise." Sometimes it is good to have multiple members, he said, "but at times it does not add to the clarity of the proceedings."
He cited the agency decision in February to revise rules affecting the telecom industry as an example. The final rules still have not been released, something Powell said he finds embarrassing and inexplicable. He predicted that the final rules will be released this week, targeting Thursday as the day.
Another case is the furor over the agency's revised media-ownership rules, which were announced in June. The howl of anger from Congress was immediate and loud, with efforts in both the House and Senate to repeal the changes.
Powell took aim at legislation introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., saying that the proposal is "downright illogical" and that any change in policy should be based on facts rather than on an emotional reaction.
Budget
Security Proposals Include Similar Science, Tech Figures
by William New
The congressional proposals for funding of science and technology initiatives for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2004 are largely aligned, according to the Appropriations Committee reports from the House and Senate.
The House version of the bill, H.R. 2555, would provide $900.4 million for science and technology, including $35 million for university-based centers of excellence and other university and fellowship programs, and $60 million for the research, development, testing and evaluation of an anti-missile device for commercial aircraft.
The Senate version would allocate $866 million for science and technology, including $55 million for university programs, $18 million for cyber security and $72 million for programs to protect critical infrastructures like telecommunications networks.
Both chambers proposed spending more than the $803.3 million that the White House requested. Fiscal 2003 spending on science and technology is $552 million.
The House voted to designate the department's science and technology directorate as an entity to centrally coordinate department efforts on testing and investing in various technologies to detect and inspect radiation, chemicals, biological agents and explosives.
The House bill also includes $72.5 million for information technology services, a cut of $2.5 million from the request of $75 million, which the Senate voted to provide in full.
Both the House and Senate would provide the $100 million requested for converting wireless radio communications to narrowband operations as required by law. The department must report to the House Appropriations Committee by Dec. 15 on how the federal wireless program would operate with state and local systems.
The House backed the White House request of $206 million for department-wide technology investments, a big increase from $63.3 million in fiscal 2003, but the Senate approved only $185 million. These investments are intended to enable the department to integrate systems and modernize business processes.
The House committee raised concern about consolidating and standardizing terrorist and criminal watch lists being maintained by the department. The committee directed the department to provide a detailed plan for that practice by Oct. 15.
But the House met the budget request of $31 million for consolidating watch lists and improving security-related information sharing among governments and with the private sector. The Senate would provide $10 million for the integration of federal watch lists.
The House committee encouraged the development of technologies to facilitate electronic information sharing by law enforcement and to link commercial and public databases. The panel further called for a department-wide inventory of existing records and a review by March 15 of the capability to convert critical records and information to digital format and online storage.
The Senate backed a plan for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for personal protective and detection equipment and for communications technology. The House committee, meanwhile, expressed concern about research and development and standards development within the department, and specified that other offices should coordinate work with the science and technology directorate.
Budget
One Stop On The Way To Better Education, Jobs, Health
by Chloe Albanesius
Lawmakers have emphasized the need to consolidate government-produced information on labor, education and healthcare into easily accessible networks in spending bills now before Congress.
The House included the language in its bill, H.R. 2660, to fund the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments in fiscal 2004, and the Senate also pushed for "one stop" systems in its competing spending bill, S. 1356.
The Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which provides job-training aid to workers who lose their positions as the result of trade deals, merited the attention of both chambers.
The House bill would allocate about $1.3 billion for federal unemployment benefits and allowances, emphasizing that some of those funds be used to integrate TAA into the Labor's one-stop program, a system intended to connect employment, education and training services via one network.
The Senate Appropriations Committee's report on the competing measure, meanwhile, noted that the committee is "concerned by a shortfall" in funding for TAA and called for a "melding" of the program into the workforce-investment program, under which the one-stop programs are included. It also recommended that about $1.3 billion be dedicated to the task.
On the state level, the Senate called for $99.3 million for one-stop career centers, publicly funded resources for job seekers and businesses that are part of the broader one-stop system.
Specifically, the committee emphasized that some of the funding should support America's Labor Market Information System, which is designed as a clearinghouse for consistent and accessible labor data. The system offers core employment statistics, career and occupational information, and a database to identify employers in specific areas, for instance.
The Senate bill also calls for dedicating $900 million to employment and training activities for adults, with services provided through the one-stop system. Youth services, which would receive a little more than $1 billion under the legislation, also should be connected to the one-stop system "as one way to link youth to all available community resources," the committee said.
The House also addressed youth services by requesting that the Education Department start a "one-stop shopping" site online, with information on the developing and operating quality of after-school programs funded via the $1 billion reserved for community learning centers.
The House also would allocate about $20 million for work incentives grants, which are designed to help people with disabilities find and retain jobs via one-stop career centers.
On the healthcare front, the House praised L.A. Care Health Plan's HealthExpress, a one-stop, online eligibility program that provides information on private healthcare options for individuals and families. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services partially funded the program, and the House Appropriations Committee requested in its report on the bill that the center submit by March 2004 a report detailing the progress of HealthExpress, as well as suggestions for improvements.
Defense
Pitch For Unmanned Flights Could Come By Year's End
by Greta Wodele
Supporters of flying aircraft without pilots in commercial airspace could approach the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by the end of the year with proposed standards and regulations for so-called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to a source familiar with the process.
The FAA has yet to certify UAVs as "airworthy" for flight in commercial airspace, but industry officials believe the planes could be used for firefighting, geological surveys, border patrol and other homeland security efforts, as well as for television and movie production. Currently, the military primarily uses UAVs in restricted airspace for surveillance and targeting missions.
UAVs are "on the cusp of evolving from military application to commercial application," said Pat Picariello, director of developmental operations for ASTM International, which last month assembled 170 industry and government officials to start drafting proposed requirements for flying UAVs in FAA-controlled airspace. He called the FAA "the gatekeeper" to commercial use.
FAA spokesman Les Dorr said the agency has not yet received a formal application to certify any UAVs for flights in commercial space. But under ASTM's leadership, government officials and industry representatives hope to submit a "rulemaking proposal" soon, and Picariello believes that the "new ASTM Committee on Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems should serve to position the UAV industry to approach the FAA by year's end."
The group is concentrating on three areas: airworthiness, flight operation and operation quality, with a focus on meeting the FAA's "see and avoid" requirement. The agency worries that unlike piloted aircraft guided by air-traffic controllers, UAVs do not have the equivalent capability to see and avoid other aircraft in flight.
"It's the largest hurdle" to gaining access to commercial airspace, Picariello said.
While the industry has developed "detect and avoid" technology such as lasers, sensors and cameras, the FAA has not said if the technology is equivalent to its see-and-avoid standard. "FAA has not told people exactly what they want," said Joe Hart, senior vice president for unmanned technologies at DRS Technologies.
The group also would like FAA to let UAV operators file paperwork and fly on the same day that they file rather than filing a "certificate of operation," a case-by-case approval process that can take from five to 60 days.
"It's the keys to the industry emerging," said one industry official, who asked to remain anonymous, arguing that waiting 60 days does not utilize a "responsive, technical and safe" way to fight fires, catch drug smugglers crossing U.S. borders and help with other policing efforts.
Today's Feature:
Issue of the Week
Special Correspondent Ted Leventhal reports that electronic surveillance and digital copyright issues have dominated the agendas of technology-focused advocacy groups this year. The organizations have been especially busy with the computer-related provisions of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act.
Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by Technology Daily staff
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E-briefs
Intellectual Property: The chairman of the Senate Government Reform Subcommittee on Investigations said Monday that he was satisfied by assurances that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was directing its subpoenas into the activities of peer-to-peer (P2P) network users engaging in copyright infringement to "egregious offenders who are engaging in substantial amounts of illegal activity." "The RIAA has promised to approach these suits in a fair and equitable manner," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "I look forward to continue to work with the recording industry to ensure that the process is indeed fair and equitable." But Coleman said he remains concerned about the potential for abuse of the subpoena process established in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Responding to a July 31 letter from Coleman, RIAA President Cary Sherman said that the association had issued 1,075 subpoenas in June and July.
Security: House Homeland Security Chairman Christopher Cox on Friday announced that the committee will investigate the vulnerability of the nation's power supply and distribution system. Prompted by last week's massive power outages, the California Republican promised to hold a number of hearings to examine how major disruptions might affect the nation's cyber security and critical infrastructure. The hearings also will examine the role of the Homeland Security Department in coordinating a national response to attacks and in ensuring adequate redundancy and emergency plans. "We must determine accurately how vulnerable our power system is to attack and sustained denial, and what steps our government is taking to reduce that vulnerability and mitigate the potential damage through contingency planning," Cox noted.
Defense: The Defense Department's goal for the transformation of the military is "to provide people access to information from wherever they are, but only those with the right credentials," Priscilla Guthrie, DOD deputy chief information officer, told executives on Friday. "We need ongoing, persistent information assurance to secure our network." After Iraq, it is even more apparent that the military's plan to develop a single communications network would require adequate information assurance, Guthrie said at an event sponsored by market intelligence firm Input.
On The Hill: The moderate Republican Main Street Partnership is urging members of Congress during the August break to sponsor bills on employee stock options and the research and development tax credit that the group would like to see enacted this fall. But the group acknowledged that with a busy legislative schedule ahead, the measures are unlikely to go to a vote. Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the partnership, told National Journal's Technology Daily that making the R&D tax credit permanent is a top priority, adding that the group would at least like the credit to be extended. The other bill, H.R.1372, would place a moratorium on the idea of requiring public companies to tally stock options as expenses. Resnick said she is not sure either measure will get to the House or Senate floors because of time-consuming debates on issues like federal spending, prescription drugs and energy.
Intellectual Property: For the high-tech industry to thrive, industry and government must collaborate on promoting intellectual property (IP) rights, protecting consumers' online experience and ensuring that colleges graduate outstanding math and science students, Maggie Wilderotter, senior vice president at Microsoft, said Monday at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit. The erosion of those rights in the United States and abroad could stifle innovation, she said. "The government can help create a global environment that respects IP and allows American companies to compete on a level playing field," she said. While the industry must ensure security, privacy and reliability, "government policy makers have an important role to play in the battle against spam," she said, calling for federal legislation to allow service providers to shut down spammers by suing them. She also called for banning the use of automated searches that harvest e-mail addresses from the Internet.
Science: The Computing Research Association has outlined five "grand research challenges" based on the results of a recent National Science Foundation (NSF) workshop involving 65 researchers in computer science and engineering. The five "deliberately monumental" challenges relate to building the information systems of the future and providing long-term goals for the short-term activities of the research community, NSF said. The challenges are: creating a web of systems to reduce the impact of natural and man-made disasters; building a team where humans are aided by robots and software agents; providing enough teachers so that students of all ages can receive virtual one-on-one instruction, with unlimited digital resources; ensuring that reliability, security and availability are inherent in future information systems; and helping researchers overcome the complexity of large-scale information systems.
E-Government: The General Services Administration reiterated its support for allowing the Education Department to have access to Internal Revenue Service records to verify student financial aid information. In a recently completed study, the GAO found that while Education has access to some IRS information, such as locating loan defaulters and statistical data on overall borrower debt, a 1965 higher education law prevents it from accessing specific taxpayer information. The Education Department estimates that it overspent $602 million in grant overpayments during fiscal years 2001 and 2002 because of the lack of information sharing. Though the GAO did not make any specific recommendations in its study, it pointed to a report it completed earlier this year calling for legislation to allow the information sharing.
Cyber Security: The SANS computer-security institute on Monday noted that a new Internet worm targeting the recent "Blaster" worm has emerged. Experts say the new worm is programmed to patch any computer that contains a recent vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system, which the Blaster worm is designed to exploit. The new worm also deletes any trace of Blaster from a system. Ironically, the new worm uses the same vulnerability to enter a computer.
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