June 2014

Letter Warns Senate of Adverse Implications in DOTCOM Act

A letter was sent to the Senate supporting the National Telecommunications Information Administration's (NTIA) intent to shift the stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to an international multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.

The letter also voices concerns with the House of Representative's approval of the Shimkus (R-KS) Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which reflects the language of the Domain Openness Through Continues Oversight Matters Act (DOTCOM Act) of 2014.

The DOTCOM Act would effectively stop the NTIA from upholding its commitment to the global Internet governance multi-stakeholder approach.

The following can be attributed to Carolina Rossini, Vice President of International Policy: "The DOTCOM Act stops the United States from upholding it's decades long commitment to the rest of the world that NTIA's stewardship of IANA functions are temporary. A transition would reassure the world of the United States’ commitment to an open, participatory, and decentralized approach to Internet governance.”

She added: "Those who drafted the DOTCOM Act expressed concerns that the multi-stakeholder approach would open the door to Internet governance by authoritarian regimes. However, the DOTCOM Act could have the opposite effect in empowering nations seeing greater governmental control of the Internet."

The signees of the letter are as follows: Public Knowledge, Access, New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Democracy & Technology.

The Unintended Consequences of Modifying Copyright Law

[Commentary] The first sale doctrine as it exists today can most easily be understood in the context of books. Suppose someone walks into a bookstore and buys a brand new paperback book. After she reads the book, she could decide to lend it to a friend who lives down the street or donate it to the local library. Under the first sale doctrine, these actions are legal because she is the owner of that particular copy.

This proves difficult with digital versions of creative works. No longer are copyrighted works like CDs or books transferred physically from person to person. The transfers are occurring electronically and a new copy of the work is created at the destination of the transfer. The first sale doctrine does not allow the digital purchaser to electronically transfer their files to someone else pursuant to a loan or sale.

Although Villasenor states that if this first sale doctrine was changed to include digital works, the change would be exploited and would open up a Pandora’s Box of unintended consequences:

Short duration loans of digital works could be facilitated by web-based services that would match listeners and owners whose copies of requested songs were sitting unused on hard drives. In this situation, the recording artist would only sell a small number of copies to the web-based services as opposed to selling copies to every listener. This would dramatically reduce the market for digital music sales.
Normally, used printed books, CDs, and DVDs are less valuable than their brand new counterparts. On the other hand, a digital representation of a work can be transferred countless times and stay exactly the same with no wear-and-tear. “Used” digital copies never become less valuable and this would cause the market to behave differently.

Comcast Business Rolls Private/Public Wi-Fi Gateways

Comcast Business said it has introduced a wireless gateway tailored for commercial environments that enables its customers to assign one private signal for its own day-to-day needs and a separate, public signal for customers or visitors.

The new device is entering view as Comcast Business develops a new “amenity” Wi-Fi offering for small business customers that could, for example, provide access to a separate, company-branded SSID with usage rules, security components and other terms of service set by the business owner. The device being rolled out now delivers a second "Xfinity WiFi" SSID.

Comcast said the new Business Wireless Gateway, developed by Cisco Systems, is now included in most of its business Internet plans.

Facebook Acquires Mobile Data Plan Firm Pryte

Facebook is acquiring Pryte, a Finnish company that aims to make it easier for mobile phone users in underdeveloped parts of the world to use wireless Internet apps.

Facebook did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which spokeswoman Vanessa Chan said is expected to close by late June.

Pryte’s service, which has not publicly launched yet, seeks to make it easier for consumers without wireless data plans to use online services by selling short-term passes that would provide access to particular mobile apps, such as Facebook or Foursquare.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 1.28 billion users, is primarily interested in the team behind Pryte, led by Chief Executive Markku Makelainen, Chan said. The one-year-old, Helsinki-based company has valuable experience and relationships working with wireless operators, particularly in emerging markets, she said. The company has fewer than 30 employees, though it’s not clear how many will join Facebook.

How hard should it be for cops to track your location? A new lawsuit revives the debate.

Privacy advocates sued a Florida police department over a controversial surveillance technology that, they say, improperly lets authorities track the movements of thousands of cellphone users without a warrant.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and obtained by The Washington Post, revives a perennial debate about the judicial standards law enforcement officials must meet to gather geolocation information -- and once they receive a court's permission, how much of that data they can collect and store.

It also implicates decades-old privacy legislation that was written in the age of the telephone but has been liberally interpreted to allow much greater surveillance in the Internet era, according to the law's critics.

The ACLU alleges in the suit that law enforcement officials in Sarasota (FL), acting on behalf of the US Marshals Service, obtained judicial approval to use a type of surveillance tool known as a "stingray." Used in an investigation, stingray equipment can help police identify which cellphones may be operating in an area by establishing a fake cell tower; nearby devices then automatically try to connect with the stingray device, which logs the connections for forensic analysis unbeknownst to the cellphone users.

Sen Chambliss: House NSA reforms go ‘a little bit too far’

Sen Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) said the surveillance reform bill that passed the House in May goes too far in ending some of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) sweeping surveillance programs.

“I actually think they went a little bit too far on the bulk collection side of it,” Chambliss -- the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee -- said.

Sen Chambliss said he thinks the House bill is actually too aggressive, but said he is open to discussing some changes to the surveillance programs, including increased transparency measures and shorter retention periods for data. “It’s not going to be easy” to bring together the senators on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to surveillance reform, he said, adding that he welcomes the debate.

Sen Franken Holding Hearing on Stalking Apps Bill

Sen Al Franken (D-MN), chairman of the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee, will hold a hearing on his bill to end stalking apps. In March, Sen Franken reintroduced a location privacy bill, the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2014 that would outlaw so-called GPS "stalking apps" and give smart phone users control over very sensitive location information.

The bill also requires companies to get consumers permission -- an opt-in regime -- before collecting location data from smartphones, tablets and other devices. It would also require permission to share that information with third parties.

Witnesses at the hearing are Bea Hanson, Office on Violence Against Women, Department of Justice; Jessica Rich, director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission; Mark Goldstein, director, physical infrastructure issues, US Government Accountability Office; Sally Greenberg, executive director, National Consumers League; Detective Brian Hill, Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, Criminal Investigation Division, Andover, Minn.; and Cindy Southworth, VP, development and innovation, National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Rep Lofgren staffer joins tech industry group

Rep Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA) Communications Director is joining the Information Technology Industry Council, the tech trade group announced.

Duncan Neasham -- who worked for the House Small Business Committee before joining Rep Lofgren’s office in 2011 -- will start at the ITI, overseeing its “media strategy and messaging through its traditional and multi-media platforms,” the group said.

ITI represents giants in the tech industry, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo Qualcomm and Oracle.

Rep Lofgren -- who represents part of Silicon Valley and is a member of the House Judiciary Committee -- works on issues critical to the tech industry, including surveillance reform and copyright and hacking laws.

GOP questions health software regulator’s authority

Top Republicans are questioning whether an office within the Health and Human Services Department has the authority to regulate software applications used in the health industry and impose user fees.

In a letter to Karen DeSalvo, national coordinator for health information technology (IT) at HHS, GOP leaders questioned whether the Office of National Coordinator (ONC) has the statutory authority to regulate health IT products based on a new report and whether it has the authority to receive user fees under its budget request.

“It is not clear to us under what statutory authority ONC is now pursuing these enhanced regulatory activities, including the levying of new user fees, on Health IT,” said the lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee. They included Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Health Subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR).

The Health Data Revolution Enters An Awkward Adolescence

The Open Food and Drug Administration's database unveiled at the conference, for one, is intended to make it easier for the public to search more than 3 million reports on adverse reactions to prescription drugs.

Up until now, the information was available by reading quarterly reports, by filing a Freedom of Information Act request or by combing through the raw data. Any improvement would be a help for those of us not adept with relational databases.

That kind of data is "lazy data," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told the Datapaloozers; data that is locked away or difficult to access. "HHS is converting lazy data and making it active data," Sec Sebelius said.

Health apps have failed to reach the level of popularity and financial success that we've seen with apps for weather and geolocation, says Josh Rosenthal, chief scientific officer of RowdMap, a Web-based business management platform. He told participants in an entrepreneur's boot camp session. "Put it all together and you get a big bucket of fail."

Benton

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