Politics What The GOP Candidates Are Saying About Telecom by Heather Greenfield Editor's note: This is the first of two stories to examine the presidential candidates' views on telecommunications policy. Tuesday's story will focus on the Democratic candidates.      Hot-button topics like the Iraq war and health care have dominated the presidential race so far, but telecommunications issues are getting some attention -- both on the trail and in Congress because so many of the candidates currently serve there.      John McCain has the most active telecom record among Republican candidates. A senator from Arizona, he co-sponsored a bill, S. 2128, to make the moratorium on taxing Internet access permanent. The issue is important to the telecom industry because of its role in providing access. President Bush recently signed a seven-year extension of the moratorium into law.    TECH POLITICS For more about the candidates' views on tech policy, see our topic page      McCain said that while he prefers a permanent ban, the seven-year moratorium is a "strong compromise." He said his goal is to ensure the Internet is never taxed as heavily as cellular telephones. He is the sponsor of a bill, S. 166, that would block states from imposing discriminatory taxes on cell service.      McCain also has been an advocate for communications systems that can let emergency responders talk across jurisdictions. He authored a measure, S. 744, that would make more spectrum available for public safety. He also sponsored rural broadband legislation in 2002.      More broadband choices and priority communication of emergency responders are key to McCain's stance on network neutrality, a term that describes the push to mandate that broadband providers treat content equally. When speaking to the Northern Virginia Technology Council last year, McCain said such a mandate would not be needed if consumers had more choices.      In May 2006, McCain also led hearings on net neutrality, mapping out some middle ground. During his opening statement, he said that the Internet has always been content-neutral and that these "dumb pipes" have resulted in a lot of innovation. Companies investing in the infrastructure to connect those pipes deserve to make a profit, he added, but they should not stifle the Internet's growth by controlling content.      "Prohibiting consumers -- or significantly limiting them -- from legitimate use of the Internet is anathema to the principles of democracy and it goes contrary to our free-market economy," McCain said. "It may also jeopardize the tremendous innovation that has been such a key part of the Internet's growth and development."      Other Republicans advocated interoperable communications for emergency responders while serving as state and city leaders. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney testified before Congress in 2003 about the importance of radios that work on the same frequency, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has said he supports any FCC rules providing more frequency and better communications.      Giuliani also won applause at an NVTC speech this fall for supporting an extension of the Internet tax moratorium.      Republican Fred Thompson has not offered detailed views on telecom policy, but the Wireless Communication Association, which charts candidates' positions on broadband policy, noted that while in the Senate, Thompson voted for telecom deregulation in 1996.      Thompson wrote an editorial for RealClearPolitics.com last month, calling on Congress to pass a permanent Internet tax moratorium -- or at least extend it. "I don't think we need to be taxing broadband like it was a sin or a luxury," Thompson said.      If the telephone utilities industry has a preference among the candidates, it appears to be McCain. He leads both Democratic and Republican candidates by a wide margin, with $176,800 in donations, according to OpenSecrets.org. Telephone utilities gave $38,150 to Giuliani, $25,200 to Romney and $21,950 to Thompson.

Campaigns Repeat House Candidates Raise Big Money Online by Michael Martinez      Some Democrats defeated in House races last year have kept close to the party's online fundraising resources while preparing for next year's contests.      Darcy Burner of Washington, Donna Edwards of Maryland and Christine Jennings of Florida all have collected significant donations in their war chests for 2008 campaigns. Those candidates all have benefited from steady flows of online donations.      Burner, a former manager at Microsoft, has raised more than $500,000 this election cycle. According to her most recent campaign finance report, she hauled in more than $300,000 in the third quarter this year alone. She has received nearly $120,000 through ActBlue, an online clearinghouse that directs donations to Democratic candidates.      GOP Rep. Dave Reichert edged out Burner last November by less than 3 points. He also has remained active on the fundraising front. His campaign reported to the Federal Election Commission in October that it raised $295,000 in the most recent quarter.      Edwards, who narrowly lost to Rep. Albert Wynn in a Democratic primary race last year, has netted more than $200,000 through ActBlue. A coalition of liberal blogs, including Americablog, DailyKos, Firedoglake, MyDD and Open Left, recently helped raise $100,000 for Edwards as an answer to an October fundraiser for Wynn attended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Many of the writers on those sites supported Edwards last year.      Open Left's Matt Stoller, who has described Edwards as a "progressive hero," recently blasted Wynn for his connections to corporate political action committees, including those run by AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications. Wynn raised more than $131,000 in the third quarter and has raised nearly $600,000 so far this cycle.      Stoller said the liberal online community has sent a message to Democratic leaders that it is not content to blindly support incumbent candidates. "We are going to organize, not just for more Democrats but for better Democrats," he said.      Jennings, meanwhile, has kept her eyes on the seat that Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan won last year when he defeated her by less than 400 votes. A House task force is still investigating Jennings' claims that e-voting glitches disrupted that contest in Sarasota County.      Since declaring her candidacy for the 2008 race, Jennings has received roughly $17,000 through ActBlue. Buchanan received about $412,000 in total donations last quarter, according to a campaign finance report.      Republican activists are attempting to emulate the online fundraising successes that Democrats have enjoyed through ActBlue. The new GOP fundraising site Slatecard so far has helped raise more than $50,000 for Republican candidates.      The candidate who has made the most use out of Slatecard, however, already has been defeated. Kevin O'Neill, one of the Republicans who made a run for the seat occupied by the late Rep. Jo Ann Davis, raised roughly $64,000 through the site for the special election. But earlier this month, state Delegate Rob Wittman won the GOP nomination to replace Davis, who died in October. Wittman now will face Democrat Phil Forgit on Dec. 11.

Net Governance U.S. Observers Oppose Call For 'Internet Bill Of Rights' by Andrew Noyes      Italy's top-ranking communications official on Monday called for the creation of an "Internet bill of rights" and a "high commissioner of Internet rights" to be appointed to oversee the international evolution of the World Wide Web.      Luigi Vimercati, a former professor of history and philosophy who now heads the country's communications ministry, was one of roughly a dozen political leaders who addressed the Internet Governance Forum's opening session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The forum this week is available via webcast.      A task force, which Vimercati said is slated to meet Tuesday, is working on a blueprint for such a document. The effort will be "a long and difficult process" that would involve "establishing governance principles of the largest existing space in world," he said.      The Internet has introduced "radical changes in every dimension of human behavior," from economic to social and political relationships, he said. Still, efforts by some to stymie free speech "show shortcomings of the measures adopted so far."      "Consistent rules to ensure freedom and access to the Internet together with forms of self-regulation" are needed Vimercati said. "An absence of rules doesn't necessarily mean a freer Internet," and such a framework would "guarantee the rights of single individuals and social groups, particularly the most vulnerable."      His comments riled some in the audience, including Internet watchdogs from the United States, who are concerned that a handful of international political leaders want the forum to craft policy rather than serve as a facilitator of global discussions among Internet stakeholders.      "Existing international human rights treaties and norms already provide an ample rights framework for the Internet," Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris said via e-mail. "There is no need to reinvent that global consensus, which dates back almost 60 years."      Steve DelBianco, executive director of the e-commerce trade group NetChoice, agreed. "I suspect this is yet another effort to saddle Internet providers with new obligations that aren't imposed on offline media," he said.      Other dignitaries spoke with a broader emphasis on the second annual forum's five themes -- access, diversity, openness, security and a category known as "critical Internet resources." The group first met in Athens, Greece, last year.      Brazil's science and technology minister, Sergio Rezende, said the technology divide that exists between developed and developing countries "must be eliminated." He noted that "digital inclusion is an essential objective to build a more just and harmonious world."      His counterpart from Portugal, Jose Mariano Gago, added that the Internet "has fulfilled a thousand times its initial promise and has opened up new challenges" against free access to the interconnected virtual world.      South African Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri spoke to the lack of Internet connectivity in her country and its impact on economic development. "You can't use it unless you have access to it," she said.      Hamadoun Toure, the secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, singled out capacity-building as "one of the most important things for our countries ... for all to really join the information society." For more on the Internet Governance Forum, visit out blog, Tech Daily Dose.

Intellectual Property WIPO Examines Policy Issues Amid Internal Strife by William New, for Technology Daily      GENEVA -- The World Intellectual Property Organization is recalibrating policy work following the collapse of its annual assemblies due to efforts to remove the director-general and a fight over how to spend a budget surplus. The assemblies failed to approve a new budget, leaving the organization funded at 2006-2007 levels.      The effort to get Director-General Kamil Idris to leave the position in the prominent U.N. body he has held since 1998 is being spearheaded by the United States, Switzerland and the European Union. They claim that Idris has lost the ability to govern the organization following concerns about his having used different birth dates on official documents, arguably to his advantage, for more than two decades while at WIPO.      Idris, originally from Sudan, acted last year to officially change his birth date in WIPO records but denies wrongdoing in that or other allegations that have been raised. His current term ends in late 2009.      The 40-year-old WIPO appears to be undergoing a transition. Besides the gut-wrenching possibility of a new leader, it is preparing for construction of a large office building starting in February and is facing many questions on the policy front.      One policy change comes from the assemblies' approval of a "development agenda" that will ensure that the development dimension is considered in all of WIPO's activities. Developed countries resisted the more far-reaching proposals in the agenda.      Implementation of the 45 adopted proposals will be monitored in a new Committee on Development and Intellectual Property. The new agenda will be slightly hampered, as it must operate under the lower budget of the last biennium.      Another policy area in flux is the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, which last summer saw the collapse of negotiations on a broadcasters' rights treaty it had been working on for almost a decade. The committee postponed a meeting this month to further consult on its future work. The broadcasting treaty remains on the agenda but may be pushed aside by new topics such as limitations and exceptions to copyrights, according to officials.      Still another changing area is the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement, which failed last week to agree on its own future work.      Developing countries such as Brazil sought to increase the focus on developing country needs in the committee, in keeping with the development agenda, to have more say in committee symposia, and to ensure that the committee does not become a policymaking body. The United States kept a low profile at the meeting.      And finally, the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents will be restarted after a year's hiatus, with a broad plan to consider countries' needs and set a new committee agenda early next year. Developed countries have sought unsuccessfully for years to get WIPO members to harmonize their patent systems.      Perhaps the only key policy committee continuing on a similar path is one on genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, whose longstanding mandate was renewed for two more years.

Intellectual Property Copyright Body Sets Fees For New Audio Services by Andrew Noyes      The U.S. governmental body charged with determining royalties on sound recordings unveiled its proposed rate structure Friday for companies that want to deliver new audio services with satellite and cable programming.      Parties involved in the proceeding -- MTV, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio -- agreed to pay the digital-royalty collector SoundExchange 15 percent of revenue or a per-subscriber fee, whichever is greater. The deal would expire in December 2010.      A fee structure for a related class of subscription services, which existed when an overhaul of U.S. copyright laws was adopted, was announced Oct. 31. Music Choice, the key service covered by that plan, would pay up to 7.5 percent of revenue.      The rulings come nine months after the Copyright Royalty Board arrived at a controversial computation for royalty rates for Internet radio stations. That plan, the details of which are still being negotiated, was challenged on Capitol Hill and in court.      The latest proposal, which is being circulated for public comment through Dec. 10, uses the same "willing buyer, willing seller" standard used for Internet radio, according to David Oxenford, an attorney who writes the Broadcast Law Blog.      The new services in question cannot technologically track performances or listeners and thus cannot pay according to the Web radio decision, he wrote. Due to uncertainties with that model, the parties seem to have agreed to a royalty double that of pre-existing services even though their outputs are essentially the same, he added.      The incongruence of recent judgments by the board "fuels complaints about the arbitrary nature of the copyright royalty process," Oxenford said. Some have questioned why various services that are part of a single, broad market are being treated so differently.      SoundExchange General Counsel Michael Huppe said "it would be a drastic oversimplification for the same rates to apply to each and every service," and many factors help the board determine a fair royalty in individual proceedings.      A per-subscriber, per-month royalty rate of three-fourths of a cent would be retroactive for services offered by MTV, Sirius and XM, with modest increases for subsequent years covered by the arrangement. Sirius offers its music channels through Dish Network, and XM has a similar partnership with DirecTV.      Unlike the royalty board's Internet radio ruling, which critics said had the potential to put many webcasters out of business, this deal conveys a "fairly nominal rate" that does not have major financial implications for satellite radio providers, Sirius officials said.      They said their Dish Network offering is essentially a promotional platform, and the company does not report any revenue associated with the deal. Sirius would not disclose the amount of royalties owed thus far or the number of Dish Network customers reached.      Fees from the two categories of services paid to SoundExchange for distribution to copyright holders could amount to roughly $5 million in 2008, but without a track record for the new services, it is difficult to predict, officials said.

Health Experts Weigh Value Of 'Trustmarks' For Health Sites by Aliya Sternstein      A seal of approval on a health information Web site should not automatically instill consumer confidence, according to experts who discussed the role of such "trustmarks" at a Health Improvement Institute workshop Monday.      Whatever rating "you come up with has to be page-specific, rather than just domain-specific," Tom Eng, president and founder of health search engine Healia, said in explaining the difficulty of putting trustmarks on health sites.      The Good Housekeeping seal of approval does not apply to information on the Internet, despite such claims as "certified by the American Heart Association" or "dermatologist recommended," many of the participants agreed.      The dialogue regarding site ratings -- part of a daylong workshop on the quality of health information on the Internet -- was intended to stimulate ideas for policy-making. Participants included representatives from Consumer Reports WebWatch, Indiana University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and WebMD.      In theory, consumers should be able to click on a trustmark symbol and be taken to a page that lists the requirements for earning that certification, said Jorgen Wouters, senior Web producer at Consumer Reports WebWatch. But he added that sometimes the links are dead, the ratings are outdated or the information is not helpful.      Some in attendance said that nowadays, a brand name such as WebMD is perceived to be the same thing as a trustmark -- though neither is conclusive in measuring quality.      Murray Turoff, information systems professor emeritus at NJIT, who is now consulting the National Library of Medicine on a national disaster information system, noted that the critical issue in making trustmarks trustworthy may be transparency. Web users should be able to see the qualifications of the individual graders that entitled them to evaluate the information.      William Liss-Levinson, vice president and chief strategy and operation officer for Castle Connolly Medical, said the words "trust" and "trustmarks" convey different concepts to different people. The meaning depends on whether someone is a patient, physician or other healthcare provider, and the level of trust that person is seeking.      Personally, Liss-Levinson said he is "terrified" when customers tell him they choose their physicians based solely on the information in his company's top doctor listings.      Eng added, "We'd all want consumers to have the best information" to make the best health decision, but "trust is only one factor."      If a cancer patient is considering radiation, perhaps the best information is not a rating but a profile of another individual with a similar background who just went through the procedure.      Turoff questioned how well consumers can trust details from even lofty institutions like the U.S. government when it outlaws Canadian drugs.      Perhaps the purpose of such endorsements is "to remove distrust," Indiana University marketing professor Kim Saxton said.

Today's Feature: Issue of the Week It has been a year since Democrats won control of Congress in an election and began debating their agenda and priorities. Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by the Technology Daily staff.

E-briefs Telecom:   Supporters of capping the universal service fund, which reduces telecommunications connection costs in rural and impoverished areas, will release the results of a nationwide poll Wednesday, indicating that the FCC should curb the flow of money into the program. The Cap the Fund campaign said in a release that it is taking the action days before the agency is expected to announce an overhaul of USF. The Seniors Coalition and the Maryland Taxpayers Association are spearheading the campaign. The groups said USF funds increasingly are flowing to large wireless companies that provide "what is often purely duplicative service competing with unsubsidized service providers." They noted that the fund has grown from less than $4 billion in 1998 to $7 billion today. The FCC is expected to limit subsidies to wireless carriers.

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