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Broadband
Abortion Controversy Revives Net Neutrality Debate
by David Hatch
Powerful House Democrats are urging Verizon Wireless and other telecommunications carriers not to censor content carried over their networks following a news report that Verizon blocked an advocacy group's text messages.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the company had denied a request by NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion-rights organization, to use Verizon's mobile network to send text alerts to supporters. Verizon subsequently reversed course and permitted the transmissions, but supporters of network neutrality on high-speed Internet networks are pointing to the episode as an example of what can happen without a mandate that all broadband content be treated equally.
"Verizon Wireless' decision to block legal content from users of its service raised serious questions about whether it was adhering to basic network neutrality principles," Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, said in a statement.
Markey has championed legislation designed to mandate non-discrimination of content, but controversy over the issue has prevented his measure and similar bills from advancing this year.
While pleased about the reversal, Markey added, "I urge Verizon and other wireless carriers to ensure that their company policies do not interfere with the delivery of any lawful content, nor discriminate on the basis of who the sender of such messages may be."
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., said in a statement that Verizon's actions "raise troubling questions about a network operator's ability to determine what its customers receive and from whom." He urged Verizon "to decisively state that it will no longer discriminate against any legal content its customers request from any organization."
The company did not respond to a request for comment on Dingell's concerns. But on Thursday, Verizon Wireless pledged to "continue to protect the ability to communicate broadly through our messaging." It said the decision to bar the text-messaging was "incorrect" and that it has addressed the processes that prompted this "isolated incident."
The American Civil Liberties Union and media advocacy groups, including Free Press and Public Knowledge, pointed to the carrier's actions as an argument for network neutrality safeguards.
"This is just yet another example of why we can't trust the biggest phone and cable companies to be gatekeepers of the entire Internet," Free Press spokesman Craig Aaron said in an interview. "Every time one of these instances happens, they claim it was a glitch. For those of us whose glitches might not be covered in The New York Times, we need a little more assurance."
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Campaigns
Candidates Who Need Money Fast Turn To E-Mail
by Heather Greenfield
A trend has emerged in presidential politics this year: Every time the end of a fundraising quarter nears, the candidates turn to technology to help fill their coffers. So it is again this third quarter, which ends Sunday. Candidates are blasting their e-mail lists to score as much cash as possible.
Former President Bill Clinton was among the celebrities to send fundraising e-mails on behalf of a candidate. Those who contribute by Sunday to his wife, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, could win a seat next to the former president to watch a debate.
Democrat John Edwards, who announced yesterday that he will accept matching funds from the federal treasury for the money he raises, is offering five lucky donors a chance to help him with hurricane cleanup in New Orleans.
Those donating to Republican John McCain, who also is among the few top-tier candidates accepting public campaign funds, could win a ride on his campaign bus. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach made an e-mail pitch for McCain.
Republican Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, could get a fundraising boost after his public battle with the online activist group MoveOn.org. It ran a New York Times advertisement criticizing Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Giuliani responded with his own ad that criticized Clinton for questioning Petraeus during a Senate hearing.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani, said traffic to the Web site "increased dramatically" as a result of the MoveOn spat over the past two weeks, and she and others are "working to respond to that and get more people involved" in the campaign.
Both Giuliani and fellow Republican Mitt Romney are making an effort to recruit new small donors through house parties this week. Romney also invited communities to have Rally for Romney events, with a goal of raising $1,000 each.
Comella said Giuliani spoke to people who attended house parties Wednesday evening through a live webcast. The parties attracted some criticism after a couple of California donors charged $9.11 for admission in honor of Giuliani's service as mayor during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The campaign set a goal of raising $10,000 from the house parties.
The campaign of Democrat Joseph Biden offered a way for people to channel their anger. "We're tired of this exploitation of 9/11 and the flag," said Eric Carbone, Biden's online communications director. So the campaign is now asking for donations of $20.08 to raise $20,000 in hopes of making Giuliani "feel the pain."
Fundraising reports from Republican Fred Thompson, who officially entered the race this month, will be watched closely for signs of strength. So will those from Democrat Barack Obama, who led fundraising during the second quarter with $32.5 million in contributions.
Obama's campaign is not offering any dollar goals but wants to report contributions from 350,000 people this quarter. Obama e-mailed supporters Friday with a video pitch to help reach that goal.
The campaign is offering a contribution matching system and an e-mail from the donor who is making the match. "What we're seeing is donors being able to excite each other," said Macon Phillips of Blue State Digital, which consults for Obama.
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Health
Health IT Standards Get A Quick Second Opinion
by Aliya Sternstein
The Health and Human Services Department has asked the Institute of Medicine to conduct a fast-track review of its progress in developing standards for a national health information network. Some critics have told the institute that small technology vendors and family doctors have been unfairly excluded from the process.
The evaluation, which commenced earlier this month, will produce a report next month. HHS' health information technology office, which is charged with developing and implementing standards for systems nationally, contacted the institute in July.
National Health IT Coordinator Robert Kolodner said that after starting the standards process in 2006, his office is "within sight" of the "first turn of the crank" in completing its two-year plan -- having identified priorities and sponsored working groups for standards-making, certification and harmonization.
"Through the whole process, we've heard some individuals say that we're moving too fast; and we've heard many in politics and others in business say, 'Why don't you have standards yet?'" he said. "We felt that we needed to, rather than just being defensive, have an independent look at what's going on."
The proposed national health network will require electronic medical records that can be exchanged securely among providers and patients across state boundaries. President Bush set a goal of transitioning to electronic records nearly everywhere by 2014.
The committee met in person Sept. 16-18. During the first two days, the panel heard presentations from project participants and selected experts. Members of the public also were invited to voice their opinions about the health IT office's progress.
Institute spokeswoman Christine Stencel said there will only be enough time to hold one information-gathering workshop. About 40 people gave presentations.
The public did not have much notice before Sept. 16 because the committee itself did not communicate for the first time until early September.
In his presentation, Steven Waldren, director of the of the American Academy of Family Physicians' Center for Health IT and a member of the HHS-sponsored standards and certification panels, argued that the standards panel has "a large-institution bias." He said small health IT vendors and medical practices have been left out of the process because most do not have the time, resources or money to participate.
The academy backs a standard called the continuity-of-care record, or CCR, which "has shown itself ready for prime time in the real world," Waldren stated. But the panel picked other specifications that do not have "any commensurate degree of testing."
Family physicians will face delays and increased costs in ordering health IT products when vendors have to upgrade to "untested and possibly overly complex standards that have not been proven in the real world," he added.
John Halamka, chairman of the standards panel, said the group chose a standard that is a hybrid of the physician-supported CCR and a format preferred by many hospitals. The combined standard "contains both [formats] in a single unified standard, meeting the needs of as many stakeholders as possible."
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Intellectual Property
Piracy Threats Go Beyond Entertainment, Industry Says
by Andrew Noyes
Illegal music downloads and pirated movies dominate discussions about U.S. intellectual property, but a Friday summit explored an often overlooked topic: the importance of protecting software and factual content like news, scientific data and academic reports.
"Copyright is under attack," Software Information and Industry Association President Ken Walsh said, and SIIA, which sponsored the conference, is worried that "thousands of companies that produce non-entertainment works" are not part of the public dialogue.
Software and information-producing businesses help drive American economic growth, but the sector is hard to quantify, said Michaela Platzer, president of research firm Content First. An SIIA-commissioned report on the topic is forthcoming, she said.
The U.S. government is better at quantifying goods- producing sectors, but IP-dependent industries are constantly emerging, she said. "The digital revolution's impact on American business and life is profound and pervasive," and SIIA members are "at the heart of this revolution," Platzer said.
The banking and financial services industries, for example, invested $240 billion in information technology in 2006 alone, and online publishing is expected to grow from a $1 billion business in 2004 to a $2.3 billion enterprise in 2008, she said.
Education is being "completely transformed" as well. In 2005, 3.2 million U.S. students engaged in online learning, compared to 1.6 million in 2002. Federal Web sites offering full online services jumped from 22 percent in 2000 to 86 percent in 2007.
Platzer also noted that jobs in every state are "directly supported" by the software and information industry, and the annual wage for their workers is twice the average for many private-sector workers. "It's a half-trillion dollar industry" that rivals other major sectors, she said.
Software and information industries account for about 2.8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Its growth rate is 11 percent, compared with 3.2 percent for the entire U.S. economy in 2005, Platzer added.
Much of the morning dialogue focused on the legal underpinnings of intellectual property law.
A string of speakers mentioned the weighty 1991 Supreme Court copyright case Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service. At issue was whether Feist had copied information from Rural's telephone listings after Rural had refused to license the information. Rural sued Feist, and the high court determined that the information in Rural's white pages was not copyrightable.
Miriam Bitton of the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Law and Technology said there was a "rich and complex legal landscape" before Feist. The prevailing approach was to allow unfettered access to facts insofar as they were dispensable for academic and economic progress, she said.
The most notable aspect of Feist, according to Bitton, was what she called the "constitutionalization of originality." There is now a "lack of meaningful protection for unoriginal compilations," and there has been widespread "confusion and inconsistency" in interpreting the opinion in the years since, she said.
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Security
Asa Hutchinson Touts Emergency-Response Network
by Winter Casey
Former Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson is putting his political weight behind an information-sharing network that is being tested for emergency-response coordination.
During a National Press Club briefing held Friday by the Corporate Crisis Response Officers Association to tout the network, current association Chairman Hutchinson said his experience in government has helped him understand both the critical role of government and its limitations. Hutchinson, who served in Congress before joining the Bush administration, added that the network can fill a gap in disaster response and that the government can tap into the resource.
The goal of the network is to support immediate information-sharing and coordination at the local level and in the private sector. The network aims to provide interactive maps and breaking news alerts on wireless text devices, as well as a national database of community stakeholders.
Hutchinson's group is "recruiting private-, public- and community-sector leaders through media, pilot projects and organizational agreements" to be crisis-response officers in the network, according to a fact sheet released at the briefing. Test projects for the network are under way in three communities.
Currently, the network is free to verified users. It has been primarily funded by the association. The future structure and what it eventually will cost users has not been resolved, according to association President Jeb Carney. Providing something for free is not a productive system, he added.
The network is using the same technology the government uses for various portals, Carney said. The project could be combined with a government network, and the association is hoping the government will provide emergency information feeds into the system.
The network will be maintained by NC4, a for-profit corporation that has been involved in the network's creation.
Homeland Security did not respond to a press inquiry about the network by deadline.
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On The Hill
Federal 'Do Not Call' List Returns To Center Stage
by Theresa Poulson
A Senate bill introduced this week would automatically renew the numbers on the federal "do not call" list in an effort to ensure that registrants do not start getting unwanted telephone calls from telemarketers again. It was one of several technology-related measures filed this week.
The measure, S.2096, would prevent the FCC and FTC from removing telephone numbers from the registry unless requested by the owners of the telephone numbers. Sponsor Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said in a statement that most Americans are not aware that some of the numbers in the popular program are set to expire Sept. 30, 2008.
FCC and FTC regulations require that numbers stay on the registry for only five years. "That was not what Congress intended," Dorgan said Wednesday. "As things stand today, 52 million Americans will either have to re-register on October 1, 2008, or get ready to hear their telephones ringing during supper time again with unwanted, commercial solicitation calls."
Lead co-sponsor Ted Stevens, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said the registry is "a tool used by millions of people who do not want to constantly receive unwanted telemarketing calls. Consumers should not have to mark their calendars every five years to remind them to re-register their numbers on the do-not-call list."
The bill also would eliminate spending on a public education program to inform people in the program that they must re-register their numbers.
Other tech-related measures introduced this week were:
-- S. 2088, which aims to place limitations on the use of "national security letters" (see separate story);
-- H.R. 3678, which would extend the moratorium on certain Internet taxes;
-- H.R. 3679, which would prohibit discrimination in state taxation of multi-channel video-programming distribution services;
-- H.R. 3676, which calls for a "child-safe" viewing area on airplanes for video programming without violence;
-- H.R. 3677, which would authorize grants to states and localities for projects that implement continuous bridge-monitoring technology;
-- H.R. 3674, which aims to assist Iraqi refugees and the neighboring countries sheltering them. The measure aims to increase security by strengthening travel documentation authentication and deploying security technologies, including biometric identification and a corresponding database, as well as surveillance tools;
-- H.R. 3688 and S. 2113, which would implement the U.S-Peru trade agreement;
-- H. Con. Res. 218, which would reaffirm federal immigration and security laws, including the 2006 laws that authorized a border fence and standardized driver's licenses;
-- And H. Res. 673, which would recognize the importance of National Preparedness Month. It is aimed at increasing public awareness about the importance of preparing for emergencies and at encouraging individuals to take action.
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Today's Feature:
Executive Summary
The Senate Commerce Committee this week pulled from consideration legislation that would extend the federal ban on taxing Internet access.
Every Friday, read the Executive Summary by K. Daniel Glover.
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E-briefs
Porn: The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday approved a bill aimed at strengthening efforts by parents, industry, law enforcement and educators to protect children online. The legislation, sponsored by committee Chairman Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and ranking Republican Ted Stevens of Alaska, now awaits consideration by the full Senate. The measure, S. 1965, would require that schools receiving federal funds for Internet access offer age-appropriate education about online behavior. It also would create an interagency panel to identify technologies to help keep children away from inappropriate Web content. The measure further would require a public-awareness campaign and authorize $5 million for fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009.
Civil Liberties: The White House on Friday criticized Burma for blocking Internet access and called on "all civilized nations" to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters, AP reports. Burma has been the scene of bloody anti-government protests that have drawn tens of thousands of demonstrators. The Wall Street Journal reports that "technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups" follow the protests, but the government there reportedly has blocked Internet access in an attempt to keep information from being sent around the world. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, meanwhile, said it has compiled satellite images that provide evidence of village destruction, forced relocations and a growing military presence. Lars Bromley of the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project said he had received more than 70 reports of rights violations.
Telecom: The city of St. Louis this week won a federal court dispute with Level 3 Communications over fees for access to streets and rights-of-way for telecommunications services. A U.S. district court in Missouri decided Thursday that the fees imposed on the company by the city did not affect or prohibit its ability to provide services in that area. Level 3 argued that the city inappropriately tried to force the company to obtain a license before it could build infrastructure there. U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw found that the fees did not have any kind of prohibitive effect on the company's ability to provide services.
Budget: With just days left in the fiscal year, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has called on President Bush to "put down his veto pen and pick up the telephone." "Our differences on fiscal year '08 are, I suggest to you, relatively minor," said Hoyer, D-Md. He said Bush has never vetoed a spending bill before, and now he's threatening to veto eight of them over $23 billion. Hoyer said that while it sounds like a good amount of money, it is just a fraction of 1 percent of the entire federal budget and not quite half what Bush requested Wednesday for the Iraq war. But Hoyer later criticized the president for not holding the line on spending while Republicans controlled Congress and thus turning a budget surplus into a deficit. New deficit figures to be released next week are expected to show a reduction.
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President -- John Fox Sullivan, 202-739-8468
Editor in Chief -- Louis Peck, 202-739-8481
Editor -- K. Daniel Glover (bio)
Assistant Editor -- Theresa Poulson
Senior Writers -- David Hatch (bio), Heather Greenfield (bio), Andrew Noyes (bio) and Aliya Sternstein (bio)
Special Correspondent -- Chris Strohm (bio)
Staff Writer -- Michael Martinez
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