May 2010

FCC Seeks Technical Advisory Committee Nominees

The Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) is seeking nominations for federal, state, tribal or local government officials to serve as members on an intergovernmental Technical Advisory Committee to the FCC's Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC). The Committee is being established to assist ERIC in carrying out its mission until a formal Federal Advisory Committee can be established to serve in this role (see corresponding Public Notice). The Committee members will be selected by the PSHSB and will responsible for making recommendations to the Commission and ERIC regarding the development of policies and rules concerning technical aspects related to public safety network design, such as: interoperability, authentication, encryption, national gateway functions and interfaces, among other aspects.

The Bureau seeks candidates for membership who possess the following qualifications:

Knowledge of 4G wireless standards and their implementation;
Working experience in technical management and operations of public safety mission critical communications and networks;
Working experience with radio frequency/wireless technologies and public safety applications;
Knowledge of interoperability and spectrum management; existing public safety standards; vendor products and systems; commercial wireless systems; and other key technical features of a network such as roaming and priority access; and
Experience with capacity planning and radio frequency network design.

Nominations must be submitted by May 19, 2010.

Supreme Court Conferences on Must-Carry Challenge

Cablevision's challenge to the must-carry rules is up for consideration at the Supreme Court justice's April 30 private conference. According to the court, the various briefs in the case were distributed April 14 for conferencing on April 30. NCTA, C-SPAN, Time Warner, and Discovery have all filed amicus briefs supporting Cablevision. The discussion of the case means a decision on whether to grant cert (hear the case) is likely to come Monday. That is not a guarantee. The court's recent decision to hear the video game violence case, for example, was conferenced last fall, pointed out one veteran attorney who has argued before the High Court. "But it is likely to come Monday." Even the court says so. "Generally, if a case is considered at a Conference, viewers can expect that the disposition of a case will be announced on an Orders List that will be released at 10 a.m. the following Monday," the court explains on its Web site.

China, Others Cited For Not Doing Enough To Protect IP

On April 30, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released its annual "Special 301" report that identifies countries that are not doing enough to protect U.S. intellectual property and noted that three Eastern European countries have been moved off the watch list by making significant progress on the issue.

The report "identifies a wide range of serious concerns, ranging from troubling 'indigenous innovation' policies that may unfairly disadvantage U.S. rights holders in China, to the continuing challenges of Internet piracy in countries such as Canada and Spain, to the ongoing systemic IPR enforcement challenges in many countries around the world," according to the report. USTR said it removed Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland from its watch list. On Hungary, the report notes that "it has taken proactive steps to address the growing threat of Internet piracy, and its customs and police officials have developed their ability to effectively identify infringing products." Hungary was praised for taking "some initial steps to address Internet piracy concerns," while USTR noted the Czech Republic's passage of a law enhancing penalties for IP infringement. Still despite this, the report highlighted several other trouble spots including China, which along with 10 other countries has been placed on its "priority watch list."

Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn criticized the report for not adequately scrutinizing the claims of IP interests. "Once again, the U.S. Trade Representative ... has produced a report that mirrors the views of big media companies," she said. "In judging the efforts of other countries to enforce intellectual property rights, USTR has failed to include any notion of balance in copyright law and failed to make public the statistics it used to support its pronouncements on the activities of other countries.

Ohio Attorney General Sides Against Google In Antitrust Lawsuit

A search marketer's antitrust lawsuit against Google in Ohio has caught the attention of the state's top law enforcement official, who this week filed a proposed friend-of-the-court brief against the search giant. Specifically, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray is asking the court to reject Google's argument that the case should be dismissed. Google says that a federal law protects interactive computer services providers from liability for moves aimed at protecting Web users from potentially "objectionable" content. But Cordray argues in court papers that Google's argument "would immunize an entire industry from the reach of this state's antitrust laws."

HIPAA Privacy Rule Accounting of Disclosures Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act expands an individual's right under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to receive an accounting of disclosures of protected health information made by HIPAA covered entities and their business associates. In particular, section 13405(c) of the HITECH Act requires the Department of Health and Human Services to revise the HIPAA Privacy Rule to require covered entities to account for disclosures of protected health information to carry out treatment, payment, and health care operations if such disclosures are through an electronic health record. This document is a request for information (RFI) to help us better understand the interests of individuals with respect to learning of such disclosures, the administrative burden on covered entities and business associates of accounting for such disclosures, and other information that may inform the Department's rulemaking in this area. Comments are due on or before May 18, 2010.

Policy committee member scrutinizes design of NHIN

A nationally regarded health information technology privacy and security expert had some self-described harsh words to say about the performance thus far of the federal government in designing a proposed national health information network that would protect patient privacy while permitting beneficial data-sharing.

The long-proposed NHIN, combined with a new design for a more simplified and supplemental message exchange system called NHIN Direct, would create "the least of each design, providing an NHIN with limited utility and privacy concerns," according to Latanya Sweeney, professor and director of the Laboratory for International Data Privacy at Carnegie Mellon University. Sweeney's remarks came in a written statement delivered before the House 21st Century Health Care Caucus at a meeting April 22 in Washington.

Health IT funding to create 50,000 jobs

Federal dollars being pumped into grant programs to spur students to enter IT careers in the health care industry should help to create between 45,000 and 50,000 jobs over the next five years, said National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal.

Speaking at the Health Information Technology (HIT) Conference, Dr Blumenthal said a portion of $2 billion in discretionary spending under Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is being targeted at education and training for electronic health record implementation. A large part of the training is for people to staff 60 regional extension centers, which are public, private partnerships that will assist rural hospitals and physician practices with 10 or fewer doctors in rolling out electronic medical records (EMRs) and supporting technology.

Can technology help make online content pay?

Newspaper articles are expensive to produce but usually cost nothing to read online and do not command high advertising rates, since there is almost unlimited inventory. News Corp's answer is to charge for online content. Content farms like Demand Media and Associated Content, in contrast, aim to produce content at a price so low that even meagre advertising revenue can support it. Demand Media has been called "demonic." But, argues Dan Gillmor, a professor of journalism at Arizona State University, "the firm is at least interested in what people want to know -- which is nothing to sneer at". And unlike many other services that take advantage of "user generated content", he says, Demand Media actually pays its contributors. The problem with content farms, Gillmor and others say, is that they swamp the Internet with mediocre content. To earn a decent living, freelancers have to work at a breakneck pace, which has an obvious impact on quality. Moreover, content that is designed to appear high up in the results produced by search engines could lose its audience if the search engines change their rules.

Does Privacy on Facebook, Google, and Twitter Even Matter?

[Commentary] Every few months the Web angrily flares up over some supposedly new invasion of our privacy, but the real problem may be that it is consumers' fault. These infrequent privacy blowups are actually a sideshow to a much bigger trend. We don't give a flying tweet about privacy. If we did, why are we willingly geotagging photos, telling friends when we're at our favorite restaurant, and revealing so many other once-private details of our lives? Run into the rare Flickr photo restricted to friends and family, or a private Twitter account, and only one thought comes to mind: This person doesn't get it. If we truly cared deeply about preserving a private sphere, none of the phenomenally popular Web services could exist. The lesson here is striking: Control matters. Privacy doesn't. And as long as we're secure in the knowledge that whatever cool, new Web toy can be turned off, we're fine letting the world peer deeper and deeper into our lives.

The Impact of the Proposed DISCLOSE Campaign Reform Act on Broadcasters and Cable Operators

In reaction to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision invalidating restrictions on corporate spending on advertising and other messages explicitly endorsing or attacking political candidates, new legislation, called the DISCLOSE Act, has just been introduced in both houses of Congress seeking to mitigate the perceived impact of the Court's decision.

While the announced goal of the legislation is aimed at disclosure of the individuals and companies who are trying to impact the political process, the draft legislation, if adopted would have significant impact on broadcasters and cable companies, including potentially extending lowest unit rates and reasonable access to Federal political party's campaign committees (and not just the candidates themselves). The draft legislation also proposes lower Lowest Unit Rates in political races where there are significant independent expenditures, more disclosure by broadcasters through an on-line political file, and even mandates for audits by the FCC of the rates charged by television stations to political candidates. The language could also be read as an expansion of the current applicability of the political rules to cable television - applying reasonable access to cable systems and lowest unit rates and equal opportunities to cable networks. As Congressional leaders are proposing to move this legislation quickly (with votes before July 4) so that it can be in place for the coming Congressional elections, broadcasters and cable companies need to carefully consider the proposals so that they can be discussed with their Congressional representatives before the bills are voted on by Congress.

Benton

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