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In recognition of Martin Luther King Day, Technology Daily will not publish Monday, Jan. 15. We will resume publication Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Health
Lawmakers Eye Medicine Imports To Cut Care Costs
by Aliya Sternstein
Lawmakers are working to splice soaring healthcare costs by letting consumers buy medications from government-sanctioned foreign pharmacies online, thereby injecting competition into the domestic market and driving down prices.
Pharmacies, wholesalers and individuals would be able to import regulated prescription drugs from Canada and other major industrialized nations, under legislation reintroduced Wednesday.
The bill is designed to give Americans access to more affordable drugs via telephone, Internet and neighborhood pharmacies. Companies reportedly have raised prices on many blockbuster drugs by 6 percent or more since last year. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are the lead Senate sponsors, and Reps. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois are behind the House companion measure.
"Within 90 days of this legislation becoming law, an individual would be able to purchase U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved medication from Canadian pharmacies, and within one year, wholesalers and pharmacists will be able to import these same medications from approved countries," Snowe said. Consumers could directly order drugs from Canada or purchase medications from Canada and other select countries at their local drugstores at more competitive prices, she added.
The bill contains e-commerce safeguards for consumers, according to sponsors. It would require the FDA Web site to post a list of the Canadian pharmacies authorized to ship prescription drugs to Americans, Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt said.
"Drug importation is already taking place over the Internet," he said. "The bill would make it safe for consumers."
Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro, a House co-sponsor, said "wholesalers could purchase drugs over the Internet from other countries in the European Union as long as those sites also have been approved by the FDA."
On Friday, Ken Johnson, senior vice president at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, released a statement that warned importation is dangerous.
"Importation schemes undermine the U.S. government's ability to assure us that our drug supply is safe and secure, and can expose Americans to counterfeit drugs and undermine the very system which protects us," he stated. "Consumers may be risking their health by purchasing imported prescription drugs from so-called Canadian Internet pharmacies, which have been known to sell fake and potentially unsafe medicines to unknowing American consumers."
He added that according to reports by Canadian authorities, counterfeit drugs are being sold in Canada at alarming rates; medicines crossing the border from Canada may originate from almost any country, including China, North Korea and Thailand.
Johnson noted that safe, affordable medications are now available in the United States through the new Medicare prescription-drug insurance program.
A physician who chose to speak on background said that claims of substandard drug imports are a red herring. When the doctor was practicing medicine near Mexico, some of his patients would cross the border to buy prescription drugs at discounts of up to 70 percent, and they never received inferior products to his knowledge.
He expects a relentless set of congressional efforts to bring down the cost of healthcare, namely laws affecting the sale of generic drugs.
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Intellectual Property
Debate About Satellite Radio Royalties Is On Again
by Andrew Noyes
A Senate bill to make satellite radio companies adhere to the same rate-setting and content-protection rules as Internet-based services is back in the Senate hopper as of Thursday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the same language last year, but it failed to move despite fierce lobbying by the music industry. The early play this year shows that lawmakers "continue to view parity among digital music services as a top priority," said Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America.
Under the current system, satellite radio has morphed into a digital distribution service, "shorting the creators of music, displacing licensed sales and threatening the integrity of the digital music marketplace in the process," he said. "This is simply no way to do business."
The National Music Publishers' Association also hailed the new bill, S.256. David Israelite, the group's president, said he hoped that 2007 "will be the year that Congress ensures that music publishers and songwriters are compensated for their works when they are transmitted over digital radio."
Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, said his trade group, which represents companies such as America Online, RealNetworks and Yahoo, agrees that sound-recording performance rights legislation is necessary.
The topic was the focus of a heated debated at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this week, during a panel that pitted RIAA General Counsel Steven Marks against Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn and other advocates for "fair use" of copyrighted content.
Marks said XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio should not be allowed to transform their performance-based business into a download-focused one without the appropriate license. Sohn argued that satellite radio players that record differ from downloading services because they do not let subscribers remove songs from the devices.
Jeff Blattner, senior vice president for public policy at XM, said a 1992 act created a royalty scheme that allows consumers to record content so long as certain conditions are met and serial copying is prevented. He called Marks's claim that XM is trying to skirt the law "malarkey."
XM spokesman Chance Patterson called the bill "ill-advised" and said he believes that "well-informed legislators will reject it once again."
The legislation is a "good step forward in addressing a real problem" in the music industry, Feinstein countered. New radio services allow users to "record, manipulate, collect and create personalized music libraries. As the modes of distribution change and the technologies change, so must our laws change."
Under the legislation, cable, satellite and Internet companies covered by Section 114 of the Copyright Act would have to pay "fair-market value" for use of music libraries rather than having different standards applied based on how the content is delivered. Over-the-air radio would not be covered, unless broadcasters simulcast their programs on the Internet.
"Consumers are demanding the ability to do more with digital media they lawfully acquire, not less," Sohn said in a statement Friday. The bill "looks to the past rather than to the future."
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Security
House Reworks Security Panels, Top Republicans Named
by Chris Strohm
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has reorganized his panel's subcommittee structure in an effort to improve oversight of the Homeland Security Department.
The panel now includes subcommittees on Emerging Threats, Cyber Security, and Science and Technology; Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response; Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism; Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection; and Management, Investigations and Oversight. The Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee was kept intact.
Thompson, D-Miss., had not announced the chairmen of each subcommittee by press time. But full committee ranking Republican Peter King of New York announced which Republicans would serve as ranking minorities of each subcommittee.
"There is no issue facing this Congress more important than the continued security of our homeland," King said. "Our subcommittee ranking members bring a wealth of knowledge and experience with them-including law enforcement, anti-terrorism and criminal prosecution. I look forward to working with them over the next two years to build upon this committee's many accomplishments."
Michael McCaul of Texas was selected as ranking member of Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology. Elected in 2004, McCaul already has been picked to serve in several GOP leadership positions, including assistant whip.
Before coming to Congress, McCaul served as chief of terrorism and national security in the U.S. attorney's office in Texas, and participated in the joint terrorism task force charged with preparing Texas to provide a coordinated effort in detecting, deterring and preventing terrorist activity, according to his Web site.
Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania was selected as ranking member for the emergency communications subcommittee. He was first elected in 2004.
Mark Souder of Indiana was named ranking member of the border subcommittee. Elected in 1994, Souder has been outspoken on the need for enforcement of border security laws, including the construction of more fencing and barriers along the southwest border.
He also said he wants to ensure that homeland security resources go to places other than the highest-risk urban areas like New York City and Washington. "Too often, less populous states, and smaller cities and towns, are forgotten."
Dan Lungren of California was picked as ranking member for Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection. Lungren was a primary author last year of a major maritime security bill. A former Attorney General for California, he said he "is personally committed to enhancing the quality and depth of congressional oversight of our government's intelligence-gathering and analysis and the provision of homeland security."
Dave Reichert of Washington was named ranking member of Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment. The subcommittee was previously chaired by Rob Simmons, R-Conn., who lost his re-election bid.
Reichert took a lead role last year in writing legislation to improve emergency communications for first responders and reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The main provisions in both bills were signed into law.
And Mike Rogers of Alabama was named ranking member of the management subcommittee. Elected in 2002, he has authored bills to boost the Border Patrol.
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Politics
Online Polls Add To Changing Presidential Dynamics
by Heather Greenfield
Another example of the Internet bringing more democracy to the democratic process of presidential nominations comes online Tuesday.
Pajamas Media, which is home to 90 Web logs on its main site and has relationships with 900,000 other blogs, plans to conduct a weekly presidential straw poll more than a year before the Iowa primary.
"We thought our audience is highly political and very interested, so we thought this would be a good way to monitor public opinion on both sides," Pajamas Media Chief Roger Simon said. "We think it will show interesting trends as events transpire. People's votes are not fixed -- at least I hope not."
The rules are one vote per person, or at least per computer, each week, though Simon notes that ballot stuffing could happen if someone is really determined. He plans to list both declared and what he calls "semi-declared" candidates.
This latest Internet straw poll adds to other real-time, online tests of candidate strength. Both the liberal ActBlue fundraising portal and its conservative counterpart, ABC PAC, will be raising money for declared and undeclared presidential candidates. People will be able to see who's leading at the sites via immediate updates.
"The Internet is going to be huge for a whole variety of reasons this presidential election," Simon said. "No candidate can avoid it. They will have to defend their views on the Internet."
In his 1976 book "The Invisible Primary," journalist Arthur Hadley argued that candidates had to pass through seven invisible primaries between the election of the most recent president and the start of the first state primary. He included the battle for staff, endorsements from key leaders like labor, and fundraising.
Carol Darr, the director of George Washington University's Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, said the Internet has become another invisible primary.
"What the Internet does is give you a window into a different population -- a population of activists," Darr said. "The gauntlet people have to run of this political primary used to be the gauntlet of the political elite."
Another journalist, Walter Shapiro, wrote "One-Car Caravan: On the Road with the 2004 Democrats Before America Tunes In." He said a new definition of the invisible primary is needed to reflect that the 2004 election cycle was ridiculously "frontloaded" with challenges like rising campaign costs and the rise of Internet tip sheets like National Journal's The Hotline. Shapiro said such publications have "spread hyperactive judgments of campaigns and candidates."
But Darr argued that the emergence of Democrat Howard Dean in 2004 showed that an outside candidate could raise enough to not just be more competitive but raise more money.
She said the impact of better fundraising, easier polling, and the online spread of information about those and other political issues ultimately will lead to greater political involvement of not just big donors but also activists and more average Americans.
The impact, she predicted, will be candidates who may not have had a chance otherwise and "a broader range of candidates from which to select."
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States
Governors Include Tech Goals In Annual Speeches
by Michael Martinez
Governors this week used their annual State of the State addresses to pitch technology-related wish lists for 2007 to lawmakers in their states.
In his first speech to the legislature, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said his state enjoyed an economic advantage in the "technology races" of the past two decades because of its abundant natural resources. But he said Colorado will lose its competitive edge if its public school system fails to produce students capable of thriving in the global economy. The education system must be retooled to produce more tech-savvy workers, he said.
Noting that opportunities abound in the state, Ritter said "it's our job to make sure our teachers, our schools and our kids can seize these opportunities."
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin used much of his speech to reflect on the one-year anniversary of the explosion at Sago that trapped 13 coal miners underground and killed 12 of them. The Democrat lauded the legislature for responding quickly to the tragedy by crafting measures to modernize mine safety.
Manchin played up the launch of projects to enable electronic reporting on the usage of hazardous chemicals by the state's industries, and another to store emergency responder information on all work sites. Verizon Communications has partnered with the state to build the emergency-response resource.
Manchin also focused on improving the Mountaineer State's infrastructure and boosting its economic competitiveness. He said his administration's goal is to ensure that every resident has high-speed Internet access at home and at work by 2010.
"Just like our efforts to expand water and sewer availability in West Virginia, broadband access is an essential piece of infrastructure that is critical to our future success," Manchin said.
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire unveiled in her speech a plan to improve mathematics and science and education by reducing class sizes down to the nationally recognized ratio of 25 studios per teacher. She also set a goal of recruiting 750 new math and science teachers via incentives such as loan forgiveness and scholarships to those considering the field.
"This nation met the challenge of President Kennedy in the 1960s to be the first to put a man on the moon," Gregoire said. "Our modern day moon challenge is to meet the math and science crisis facing our state and nation."
Gregoire, a Democrat, said Washington has an economy strong and innovative enough for it to be considered a "nation-state," a phrase used by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to describe his state in a speech earlier this week. But she said the state still needs to do more to attract 21st-century investments and business, much of which she claimed could be accomplished by establishing regional "innovation zones" and improving broadband connectivity in rural areas.
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E-Commerce
India's Budget Preparations Spur Talk About Internet
by Winter Casey
As the presentation of India's new economic outline and annual budget draws near, interest groups in India are lobbying the government on behalf of their priorities, and a moratorium on Internet-related taxes is among them.
"We have requested for a five-year moratorium on certain service taxes on Internet-related businesses," said Internet and Mobile Association of India President Subho Ray.
Specifically, the group of players on the Internet and in mobile value-added services wants a ban on service taxes on online databases and information services for a set period of time to "allow the nascent Internet economy to grow and attain some scale."
On Feb. 28, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will go before the country's Parliament to announce the budget.
Rick Rossow, director of operations at the U.S.-India Business Council, which represents the largest U.S. companies investing in India, said Chidambaram will outline plans for income and spending issues, tax issues and new programs. The finance minister also will discuss the government's plans for economic reforms in the coming year.
The budget speech has a big influence on the market, said Rossow, who noted that the country has started to announce reforms leading up to the budget to reduce the impact of the speech.
A memorandum of the Internet and Mobile Association to India's government notes that e-commerce is still in the early stages in India.
The Internet economy is still emerging in both India and China, said Richard Ainsworth, a law professor at Boston University.
Many large enterprises currently prefer to host their Web sites in countries outside India largely due to cost, according to a shortened version of the pre-budget proposal as released by the association. "In Korea, Japan and China, less than 25 percent [of] traffic goes abroad, while in India more than 75 percent [of] traffic goes abroad," it said.
"India should be promoted as the location of choice for Web hosting," the group said, noting that online information providers are the "backbone of the Internet economy in India" and that "there are no large Internet and online companies in India" by international standards.
The association further said that for small and medium-sized businesses, the "Internet is the only medium available to access domestic and international markets." According to the group, only 1.4 percent of Indians own credit cards, and the government needs to encourage e-commerce.
Ainsworth said an effort by the Indian government to have electronic IDs for citizens could help if the IDs also work as driver's licenses or passports, with credit functionality added.
Rossow said previously Indian credit cards could be used only within the country, hindering e-commerce, but now more and more cards can be used internationally.
Another issue for e-commerce, remains the low Internet penetration rates, he said.
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On The Hill
Privacy, Net Neutrality Top List Of New Legislation
by Brittany R. Ballenstedt
As the 110th Congress completed its first full week, lawmakers introduced technology-related legislation aimed at ensuring network neutrality and protecting consumer privacy.
Sen. Byron Dorgan reintroduced legislation designed to ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all consumers and competitors. The bill, S. 215, is intended to restrict high-speed Internet providers from discriminating against competitors by offering preferential treatment to companies for a fee.
"It is clear that an open and neutral Internet can co-exist and thrive along with competitive and profitable business models," said Dorgan, D-N.D.
The measure is expected to trigger another round of fierce lobbying over Internet regulation, extending last year's telecommunications debate into 2007.
On the privacy front, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., reintroduced legislation that would require federal agencies to report on the use and development of programs to mine information from commercial and government databases. The bill, S. 236, would require all federal agencies to report to Congress within 180 days and every year after that on certain data-mining programs and how they impact the civil liberties and privacy of Americans.
"Data mining and other technologies can be essential tools in detecting predictive patterns and possible outcomes from anonymous records," Feingold said. "However, it is imperative that we understand the impact of such technology on Americans' personal privacy."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reintroduced two privacy bills aimed at protecting individuals from identity theft.
The first measure, S. 238, would prohibit the sale or public display of Social Security numbers without the owners' consent. The legislation also would require a study on the current uses of the numbers and the impact that displaying such information has on privacy and data security.
The second bill, S. 239, would require businesses to notify consumers in the event of a security breach. The measure was included as part of a comprehensive privacy bill approved only in committee in the 109th Congress.
Other tech-related measures introduced this week were:
-- H.R. 338, which aims to improve the ability of emergency communications to work across jurisdictions;
-- S. 211, which aims to facilitate nationwide availability of the 211 telephone service for information and referral on human services;
-- S. 234, which would make high-speed Internet available to unconnected communities by exploiting unused frequencies in the broadcast spectrum known as "white spaces;"
-- H.R. 355, which would require a study on the feasibility of expanding the National Incident-Based Reporting System in identifying crime data relating to elementary and secondary schools;
-- H.R. 372, which would direct the FTC to revise regulations regarding the do-not-call registry against unwanted telemarketing;
-- S. 256, which aims to harmonize rate-setting standards for copyright licenses, focusing on the emergence of satellite radio;
-- S. 258, which aims to clarify provisions relating to copyright licenses for satellite carriers;
-- And H.R. 390, which would establish a national database to preserve records of emancipation and post-Civil War Reconstruction.
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Correction
Thursday's PM Edition incorrectly reported that Sen. Daniel Akaka is now the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. The new chairman is Sen. Daniel Inouye. Both are Hawaii Democrats.
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Today's Feature:
Executive Summary
The Supreme Court this week voted 8-1 in a ruling that could make it easier for companies to challenge patents.
Every Friday, read the Executive Summary by K. Daniel Glover
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E-briefs
Crime: Three Internet pharmacy executives and a pharmacist have been arrested for allegedly selling and distributing addictive drugs, including the weight-loss drug phentermine, without obtaining appropriate prescriptions, the Justice Department said Thursday. In addition to being charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, two of the executives for United Care Pharmacy are faced with seven counts of money-laundering, and three were charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. An unidentified citizen informed a local outpost of the Drug Enforcement Agency of the scheme. "Those who operate rogue Internet pharmacies now have a new sworn enemy -- their own customers," DEA Special Agent in Charge Javier Pena said.
Intellectual Property: The main trade group for the software and digital content industry collected more than $1 million in software piracy settlements in 11 cases in December, officials announced Friday. In addition to paying settlement amounts demanded by the Software and Information Industry Association, defendants agreed to delete unlicensed copies, purchase replacement software and adopt software management policies, and agreed to future compliance audits. The volume of settlements shows that "there are still many companies that do not have adequate software compliance practices in place and that many businesses need to be more vigilant about ensuring proper software use," said Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA's vice president for intellectual property policy. "Businesses should know that using fully licensed software is part of their corporate responsibility and know that they are liable if they do not," he said.
E-Government: The U.S. government's official Internet home has a new name because comments from the public indicated that the old moniker -- FirstGov.gov -- was confusing and hard to remember. The site is now USA.gov, according to a notice on the Web site and the site's URL. Last year, more than 600,000 people typed "USA.gov" into their Web browser when searching for government information, the notice stated. In a 2006 telephone survey, 79 percent of respondents said they preferred the name USA.gov. Today, Internet users who enter Firstgov.gov into their browsers are redirected to USA.gov. General Services Administration officials said they could not comment on the alteration, except to say that the site is still in beta phase and the name change "won't be official" until they announce it at a press event Thursday.
E-Government: The Louisiana Supreme Court will begin broadcasting its oral arguments live on the Internet this month. Arguments will be available to the public on the court's Web site starting Jan. 16. Three cameras have been deployed in the courtroom so that the full bench, an individual justice, and the attorney addressing the court can be broadcast in real time. "The Louisiana Supreme Court is pleased to be able to facilitate this access to the public and looks forward to additional innovations in technology presently in the works, maintaining the court's position as one of the most technologically advanced courts in the nation," Justice Catherine (Kitty) Kimball said in a release.
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