New York Times (reg. req’d)

Microsoft to Introduce New Version of Office, May 31, 2001. “Office XP, which will sell for $499 and be available in 15 countries, is the sixth version of the program, which was first introduced in 1991.”

Not one to let a good PR opportunity go unchallenged, The Register reports that Office XP is a devil in thin disguise, as evidenced by this headline:

Windows XP Will Make Internet Unstable – Top Security Expert

Technology Review

Silencing Critics – But Still Facing Competition, Microsoft Receives E-Book Patent , June 1, 2001. Microsoft’s technology, called ClearType, is a pivotal component in the company’s effort to revolutionize the e-book platform. ClearType allows a purported 300 percent increase in resolution over conventional computer displays.

Silicon Valley

Spam Makers Settle Spat Over Double Meaning , May 30, 2001. This issue could reasonably have landed in court, rather than on more neutral ground. Hormel has agreed to the continued use of the word “spam” to define unsolicited email, while requesting that references to their product, canned meat, be made by using all capital letters, as in SPAM.

GAO

Internet Privacy – Implementation of Federal Guidance for Agency Use of “Cookies” , May 30, 2001. This report, dated April 27, 2001, comprises 15 pages in PDF. According to the report: “Of the 65 sites we reviewed, 57 did not use persistent cookies on their web sites. However, of the eight sites that were using persistent cookies, four did not disclose such use in their privacy policies, as required by OMB.”

Technology Review

Owning the Future: Looting the Library, June 1, 2001. This provocative article has a parallel theme to the recent book, Double Fold, mentioned in the Newstand last month. In this author’s opinion, however, it is publishers, not the librarians, who are the villains. Their purpose is to eliminate libraries by instituting a pay-per-access model for all current information, and their primary means of achieving this goal is through relentless attacks against fair use provisions of the copyright law.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

I.B.M. Meets With 52,600, Virtually, May 28, 2001. “I.B.M. invited all 320,000 of its employees to a marathon brainstorming session called WorldJam last week, capping a nine-month, multimillion-dollar effort to imagine and build a suitable room in cyberspace for an event that would be impossible to hold anywhere else.”

Traffick

Enterprise Search May Be Solution to Tech Start-Up’s Search For, May 28, 2001. “It’s becoming a familiar pattern. In order to stave off extinction, a dot com business reinvents itself as a software provider, consultant, or application service provider for the corporate market.”

Government Computer News

Here are 15 tips to make your website more accessible, May 28, 2001. This is an excellent resource for web masters who are in the process of redesigning their sites to comply with Section 508 access requirements. It includes specific recommendations and how to implement them, as well as links to free and fee applications and tools that will assist you in compliance.

Legal Information Institute

New search engine offering full text search of the decisions of any or all of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, May 27, 2001. The terrific professionals at the LII have added a new search engine, whose index is updated each week day evening. It currently contains approximately 60,000 documents, and throughput speed varies due to the format of the documents, and coverage varies by court.

LA Times

List of Federal Government Web Sites That Sell or Auction Items or Services, May 27, 2001. From the GPO to the Postal Service, this list makes for interesting reading, and goes hand-in-hand with this next story:

Government E-Sales Outpace Retail, May 27, 2001. Bet you didn’t know that the federal government was using e-commerce technology successfully. How does $3.6 billion in online sales for the year 2000 sound!

Link to the Pew Internet and American Life Report, Dot-Gov Goes Retail.

Slashdot

Your Rights Online; Google Owns Your UseNet Post, May 27, 2001. According to the Google Groups Posting – Terms and Agreements: By posting communications on or through the Service, you automatically grant Google a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicensees.

EPIC

Re: Petition Requesting Investigation of and Enforcement Action Against Amazon.com, May 25, 2001. This is a copy of the reply from the FTC concerning the joint petition by Junkbusters Corp. and EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) to investigate potential deceptive practices by Amazon concerning their privacy policy. The FTC rejected the petition.

Wall Street Journal (Public Access)

H&R Block Finds No Humor in Ex-Worker’s Online Advice, May 25, 2001. A former employee posted a message last year to a Yahoo board advising taxpayers on how to alter information on their W2 forms that would result in H&R block tax preparers submitting requests for unearned tax refunds.

Cryptome

Draft Convention on Cybercrime and Explanatory Memorandum Related Thereto, May 25, 2001. Prepared by: Committee of Experts on Crime in Cyber-Space (PC-CY). Submitted to: European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) at its 50th plenary session (18 – 22 June 2001).

European Parliament Investigation of Echelon, May 24, 2001.

Wall Street Journal (Public Access)

Software Uses Patterns Made on Keyboard, Mouse to Target Ads to Individual Users, May 25, 2001. Predictive Networks Inc. is a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing online behavior in order to customize ads aimed at individual types of users. Their new ‘biometric’ tool identifies Web users by gender and age via distinct patters a person makes when using a keyboard, mouse or TV remote. Some privacy advocates are rather worried about this technology.

CCH

CCH: Tax Legislation 2001. This free, and very useful resource from CCH, provides details of the new tax bill provisions, with charts indicating changes to: rate reduction, marriage penalty relief, alternative minimum tax, education, estate tax reduction, and retirement.

SFGate

Advertiser Site Allows People to Escape Internet Tracking, May 24, 2001. Web users seeking to retain some level of anonymity while browsing or shopping online may now complete the “opt-out” form sponsored by the Network Advertising Initiative.

Financial Times

Privacy Fears Over eTour Deal, May 24, 2001. Etour.com sold its database of 2.2 million subscribers to AskJeeves. This database includes e-mail addresses, names, gender and ages of users. So much for the site’s privacy policy that stated such information would not be shared with third parties….”for any reason, at any time, ever.” ‘Never’ sure doesn’t mean much any more.

Yahoo

EDS and EzGov Unveil Online Filing and Payment System for Annual Corporate Reports in Massachusetts, May 23, 2001. Corporations now may go online to www.state.ma.us/sec/cor; enter their customer identification number and a personal identification number provided by the state; then fill out and submit their annual reports.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Finding Free Internet Access for those Without, May 23, 2001. Although 98% of public schools in America provide Web access to their students, this access terminates when summer vacation begins. Using the ConnectNet.org database, nonprofit organizations are provides listings, in English and Spanish, to free access points in given areas. Nifty idea.

JAMA

Health Information on the Internet: Accessibility, Quality, and Readability in English and Spanish, May 23, 2001. The objective of this study was to evaluate health information on the Web covering four topics: breast cancer, depression, obesity and childhood asthma. The study took place between July and December 2000. An assessment was made of 14 search engines and 25 health web sites.

See also: Click With Care: New Study Spotlights Problems And Potholes in Health Information on the Internet

Business Week

Inside Yahoo!, May 22, 2001. “The untold story of how arrogance, infighting, and management missteps derailed one of the hottest companies on the Web.”

MSNBC

Corporate Filters Mean Big Business, May 22, 2001. Pornography and other Internet content that company bosses find objectionable is increasingly getting blocked on corporate networks.

Business 2.0

New Survey Dispels Myths On Citizen Engagement, May 29 Issue, 2001. A survey for the Pew Partnership for Civic Change indicates that despite the impact of the Internet and TV, Americans remain very much connected and engaged in their communities via volunteer work, donations to charities, helping neighbors, and what is more, they generally perceive their quality of life to be quite good.

Patently Absurd, May 29 Issue, 2001. According to the author, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is fast heading toward irrelevancy because of overwhelming demands on its budget-constrained staff.

MSNBC

The Day I Got Napsterized, May 28 Issue, 2001. This article is from Newsweek, and recounts the experiences of author Steven Levy, whose 1984 book, Hackers, was posted on a web site where it could be downloaded in its entirely. He had not given permission for this activity, and was shocked to discover that a professor at Stanford University had scanned the book for use by his students, thinking the work was out of print! As if this was not enough, the author’s most recent book, Crypto, had also been served up on a Web site.

International Herald Tribune

New Site Out Goggles-Google with Added Search Engine Features, May 21, 2001. The newest star that has been added to the firmament of the best Web search engines is iLOR, reviewed in LLRX Buzz on May 7, 2001. iLOR uses Google to collect search results, and then boosts these results using functionality that is triggered when the user “mouses over” each link.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

A Front Row Seat As Amazon Gets Serious, May 20, 2001. “Its watchwords have changed from the buoyant “get big fast” to the pedestrian ‘march to profitability.’ And instead of designing zippy new features for its Web site and plotting new industries to conquer, its employees are turning to the tedious work of ordinary companies: cutting costs and raising revenue.”

For Used Books, a Shelf in Cyberspace, May 20, 2001. Several used book dealers in Connecticut are maximizing their marketing by using their own web sites and eBay as a means of connecting with a wider potential audience of collectors. After a steady stream of articles recently bemoaning the demise of small book shops, this article gives one cause to rejoice, even if only a bit.

Silicon Valley

Adobe Co-Founder Says Media Integrating on Web, May 19, 2001. John Warnock co-founded Adobe in 1982, and in this interview he comments on a range of topics including; a new wave of network publishing, document authentication, electronic books, and digital copyrights.

Times Dispatch

Access vs. Excess: Use of Internet Filters Poses Thorny Question, May 19, 2001. Libraries throughout the country receiving federal e-rate funds are working on Web usage policies that will allow them to retain support while at the same time provide a reasonably open channel of access to useful information on the Web.

Scout Report

The End of Subject Specific Scout Reports, May 18, 2001. The end to these useful resources is attributed to lack of funds.

National Journal

This Year’s Model, May 18, 2001. This thought provoking article explains in blunt terms why high-end web site content (the author refers to publications including Slate.com, The New Yorker, The New Republic, among others) simply cannot generate a profit as it is inherently of interest to a very small segment of readers.

MSNBC

Open-Source Browser Aim: No Limits, May 18, 2001. A new open source browser, called No Limits, is under development by a group in Australia. The browser will be able to support two rendering engines, i.e., the code that displays a Web page. Users will be able to opt between the engine that displays a page the fastest or the most compatibly.

InternetNews

Speednames Launches Intellectual Property Claim Service, May 18, 2001. ” Digital domain name registrar Speednames has launched an intellectual property claim service for customers that have queued or want to queue for .biz domain names on q.speednames.com.

Financial Times

How to Squeeze More Into the Digital Attic, May 17, 2001. “According to a study from the University of California, mankind will generate more information in the next three years than it did in all of the previous 300,000.” InPhase Technologies, a Lucent spin-off, is developing technology to hold data in three dimensions, using the depth of a storage device, not only its surface.

PRN Media

Washington Post Archives, May 17, 2001. ” More than 120 years of archived content from the The Washington Post will be digitized by Michigan-based Bell & Howell. The digitalized files will be made available on the ProQuest online
information service. The electronic files will be released over the next
two years.”

CyberAtlas

The End of the Internet As We Know It, May 17, 2001. “The CEO of Forrester Research is predicting the death of the World Wide Web and the dawn of a new, application-based Internet. Two new waves of innovation — which Forrester calls the “X Internet” — will eclipse the Web: an executable Net that greatly improves the online experience, and an extended Net that connects the real world.”

Yahoo

Razorfish Teams With Elsevier Science to Create the First Comprehensive Search Engine Dedicated to Science, May 16, 2001. The search engine Scirus (www.scirus.com), will search for information sources freely available on the Web as well as specified access-controlled scientific information sources from the invisible web.

See also: SearchDay – Scirus – A New Science Search Engine

Silicon Valley

Infonomics 101, May 15, 2001. This is an interesting commentary concerning the monetizing of free information on the Web.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Hacker Gadfly at the Center of New Suit, May 18, 2001. “The man at the center of the landmark DeCSS case – a federal court battle over Corley’s posting of and linking to software code designed to decrypt DVD movies – is now being sued by the Ford Motor Company in a separate cyberspace matter.”

More Than a Palmtop, Not Quite a PC, May 17, 2001. Web pads and Web tablets are entering the market as alternatives to PDAs, with much of the functionality and power of the larger laptops and desktop computers.

Government Internet Subsidy Stretched to Its Limits, May 16, 2001. “School and library requests for discounted Internet connections and wiring are now far outstripping the resources available for the e-rate program, forcing federal officials to revisit how the funds are distributed.”

Yahoo Goes Beyond Initial Plan Against Adult Sites, May 16, 2001. “Yahoo has begun making it harder for users to find sexually explicit chat rooms and clubs. The action has sparked anger and fear among users, prompting thousands of them to sign a petition demanding that the company continue to maintain the popular online forums.”

Review of Revised Internet Names, May 15, 2001. Representatives from the Department of Commerce met yesterday with VeriSign Inc. and ICANN to review VeriSign’s contract agreement involving control over the Internet address system.

SiliconValley

Web Surfers Hunt Like Animals, Researchers Find, May 15, 2001. Researchers are studying and analyzing the searching habits of Web users to develop programs that determine a site’s usability, thereby making searching more intuitive and less complex.

Newsbytes

Newsbytes Has All New Look as of May 14, 2001. Click to Newsbytes today and you will find the site has been completely redesigned, and now appears under the masthead of parent company Web site, WashingtonPost.com. News areas covered and navigation of the site remain consistent with its former design, but now there is easy access to content sectors from the Washington Post site as well.

Wired

What They (Don’t) Know About You, May 11, 2001. This article is a follow-up to one that appeared on the front page of the WSJ April 13, 2001. It concerns data aggregator Choicepoint’s collection and sale of personal information to government agencies (including the FBI), and to the public as well (you can obtain a report on yourself for $20).

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Judges Seek Answers on Computer Code As Free Speech, May 11, 2001. “In what may signal a heightened significance for a case testing the constitutionality of a 1998 digital copyright law, a panel of appeals court judges has asked both sides of a case to answer a list of 11 questions on whether computer code can qualify as free speech.”

Digital Storage: Computer Age Gets a Valhalla, May 10, 2001. Two decades worth of computer and electronic equipment has been assembled into a collection by a group of computer pioneers. They goal is to preserve the history and examples of the evolution of computing, in the LA based Computer Museum History Center.

State of the Art: Palmtops Add Spice to Staple, May 10, 2001. Palmtops are aggressively competing with desktop and laptop computers to be the favorite technology of choice for everyone ranging from professionals to students. New designs that are innovative, colorful, and host a lot of practical applications in a little package have palmtop makers bragging about their products as replacements for computers of all kinds.

Gracenote

Gracenote Files Lawsuit Against Roxio, Inc., May 10, 2001. Gracenote alleges Roxio breached contract, infringed its patents, violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and improperly used its trademarks.

Cryptome

MPAA v. 2600 – Transcript of Second Circuit Court of Appeals Argument, May 10, 2001. The Court issued an order on May 8 modifying its instructions given at the close of oral arguments in the DeCSS case and inviting responses to 11 questions that focus on the First Amendment aspects of the case. The deadline has been pushed back to May 30 and the page limit increased to 25.

Newsbytes

CNN, Martindale-Hubbell Announce Alliance; Publisher of Lawyer Directory to be Exclusive Provider for CNN.com, CNNfn.com, May 10, 2001.

PRNEWSWIRE

Reed Elsevier Launches New LexisNexis Brand, Logo, and Expanded Global Focus for Global Legal and Information Business, May 10, 2001.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Looking Back at My First IBM PC, May 10, 2001. The author bought his first PC, an IBM, for $3,000, 20 years ago. He reminisces about computing “back then,” and many of us share these memories rather wistfully.

USA Today

The Privacy Dilemma in the Internet Age, May 9, 2001 . ” In the Internet age, as more and more personal information becomes publicly available and technology allows it to be stored and analyzed more easily, the laws that derive from Brandeis are becoming more and more inadequate.”

Amazon is Losing Customers Fast, May 9, 2001 . ” Amazon.com is disputing a report that suggests it may be losing customers at an alarming rate.”

Committee for Economic Development

The Digital Economy: Promoting Competition, Innovation and Opportunity, May 9, 2001 . The CED Report “focuses specifically on four key areas of public policy that have been roiled by technological and commercial developments: competition, privacy and security, intellectual property, and the gap in access and use related to skills and income.” The full text, in PDF, may be read at: http://www.ced.org/docs/ecommerce.pdf.

Government Computer News

GAO Knocks Clinton Administration’s E-Mail Recordkeeping, May 8, 2001 . Electronic Records: Clinton Administration’s Management of
Executive Office of the President E-Mail System, GAO-01-446, April 30, 2001.

Newsbytes

What’s Next for The Web? Ask the Inventor, May 8, 2001. Tim Berners-Lee, the individual credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989, wants voice input, e-commerce tracking and better standards. His new article co-authored with James Hendler and Ora Lassila, is called the Semantic Web. Subtitled, “A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of possibilities,” it is available, full-text, on the Scientific American Web site, at http://www.sciam.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html.

Association for Competitive Technology

An Assessment of the Costs of Proposed Privacy Legislation, May 7, 2001. This 51 page report in PDF, by Robert Hahn (Director of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies), estimates the cost of various aspects of proposed privacy legislation to be in the billions of dollars.

The Standard

FTC Can Restrict the Use of Consumer Data, Judge Rules, May 7, 2001. Credit reporting agencies lose a privacy decision in their fight to resell personal data. For a copy of the decision, Individual Reference Services Group v. Federal Trade Commission, please see http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/00-2087.pdf.

CNNfn

Web Sites Going Free-to-Fee, May 7, 2001. As more dot-com’s go under, those that remain are increasingly adopting fee-based strategies to stay afloat.

Martindale.com

The Controversy Over Outsourcing Library Functions, May 2001. Law firms are employing library service providers for filing and updating print resources, plus a range of other consulting services.

Searcher

Playing Twenty Questions to Test Low-Cost, Free or Subscription Databases for End User Online Service, May 2001. The author reviews several well known databases used by researchers. She ran a series of specific searches to evaluate the pros and cons of each service. Included in the review are: FindArticles, Northern Light Special Collections, and Contentville.

Digital Edge

Preventing Content From Being Napsterized, May, 2001. This is an informative article that warrants a read. Many sites, lead by major and lesser newspapers around the country, are using digital rights management solutions to stem the tide of online intellectual property theft.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Privacy Concerns for Google Archive , May 7, 2001. Google purchased from Deja.com an archive of more than 650 million messages, dating back to 1995, that had been posted to electronic bulletin boards (Usenet newsgroups). These messages, available at http://groups.google.com, are being called an “archive of human conversation.”

Patents: Requests for New Trademarks by Patent Companies Have Fallen , May 7, 2001. After two years of sharp increases in requests for trademarks with a “dot-com” tag or an “e-” prefix, the number of those applications plummeted last year at the same time that Internet stocks began to fall.

Questioning Continues in Copyright Case , May 4, 2001. This case, which is being touted as the first major challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, does not seem to be proceeding toward a positive outcome for the Webzine, 2600. The company’s lead counsel, Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan, was under attack by copyright law expert Judge Newman.

State of the Art: Unearthing Office Tools Long Buried , May 3, 2001. Before investing in the new Microsoft Office XP, you may want to read this insightful review that highlights the fact that in this software, many old things are new again, just with a different name and at a price, of course.

Salon.com

Defending the Cookie Monster, May 7, 2001. According to the author, “There are lots worse things in the world than Web sites leaving cookies on your computer.” Learn to exercise control over cookies and use them to your advantage, while deleting those that you deem useless and intrusive.

InfoToday/Searcher

A Review of Nicholson Baker’s Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, June, 2001. Mr. Baker’s book has generated press from high profile newspapers including the New York Times and Washington Post. His claims and rhetoric have also been perceived by many librarians as inaccurate and detrimental to their work, and services. Here is one such response to his position, authored by Barbara Quint.

PC World

Napster Alternatives, May 3, 2001. This review of four peer-to-peer music sharing applications discusses the pros and cons of each, provides a handy ‘Napster Alternatives’ comparison chart, and also mentions two new applications, Espra and BitBop Tuner, that are on the way.

OpenLaw: Open DVD

Documents and Information on the 2nd Circuit DeCSS Code Case. This site is an open public forum developing arguments to challenge publishers’ assertions of absolute control over digital media. Links to articles on the 2nd Circuit case, news links, FAQs, background information, and copies of the briefs may be found here.

Federal Computer Week

DC Court Pilots E-Filing, May 3, 2001. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia has undertaken a year long pilot program to test the merits of electronic filing. This court has one of the highest per capital caseloads.

New York Times (reg. req’d)

Judge Weighs Copyright Suit on Unlocking DVD Shield, May 2, 2001. A lawyer for the Webzine, 2600, urged a federal appeals court in Manhattan yesterday to find unconstitutional a 1998 law that seeks to limit the unauthorized copying of digitized material.

CNET

Putting a Kind Face on Copyright Battles, May 2, 2001. And I quote …”In the content crackdown cases, plaintiffs have been sympathetic sorts such as librarians or educators.” [Editor’s note: Glad to know we librarians are considered to be sympathetic sorts.] “In cases such as DeCSS, the free-speech fight is being waged by marginal characters who might not have much appeal to mainstream Americans.”

CongressLine Links

Yahoo

Jeffords’ Move Will Most Likely Kill Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act, May 31, 2001 . H.R. 1542 was slated for likely passage by the Senate, but Jeffords’ departure from the Republican party has shifted the balance of votes on this issue.

Newsbytes

Lawmakers Reintroduce Social-Security Number Privacy Bill, May 30, 2001. H.R. 2036, the “Social Security Number Privacy and Identity Theft Prevention Act of 2001,” would ban the commercial sale, purchase and display of Social Security numbers, and would seek to limit the dissemination of the identifying digits by credit-reporting agencies.

Silicon Valley

Bill Prohibits Californians From Gambling Online, May 30, 2001. “A bill making Internet gambling a crime both for Californians and for online companies targeting them was approved Wednesday by the state Assembly.”

Law.com

Texas Lawmakers Pass Their Own Version of E-Sign Law, May 30, 2001. If signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, S.B. 393, by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, will enact a state law for regulating transactions conducted by electronic means.

SFGate

Tech Leaders in CA Unite to Challenge Pending Legislation, May 29, 2001. ” Local technology leaders united today to derail state legislation which they say threatens to expose their most valued trade secrets. The proposed laws, AB 36 and SB 11, are companion pieces which do essentially the same thing: Make information collected during the course of a civil lawsuit, but not used in it, public information.”

Las Vegas Sun

Nevada Internet Gambling Bill May Rise Again, May 29, 2001. The bill to allow Nevada casinos to become the first in the nation to offer Internet gambling died quietly in the Senate Monday, but supporters say it will rise again in the next few days.

Yahoo

ITAA Urges Vote on Permanent R&D Tax Credit, May 29, 2001. The R&D tax credit provision ($1.35 trillion) was deleted from the final conference report but remains an important issue to the ITAA as the organization believes it will provide a much needed economic stimulus.

CNSNews

Bill Would Declare English Official Language, May 28, 2001. The English Language Unity Act of 2001 would require that…”nearly all federal official government business to be conducted in English, and all documents to be printed in English, while protecting individual constitutional rights. Exceptions would include documents to protect public health and safety, law enforcement, court translations and tourism.”

ZDNet

FTC Readies to Confront Spam, May 24, 2001. The FTC is the recipient of 17,000 messages each day to its special database created to monitor spam received by users and ISPs alike. Despite the slow pace of legislation targeting spam, the FT continues to prosecute fraud related cases in this area.

Federal Computer Week

Senate Shift Shines on E-Gov, May 24, 2001. The switch of control for Senate committee chairmanships to the Democrats puts Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) in charge of the Governmental Affairs Committee, where he can champion his E-Government Act of 2001 through the Senate.

Yahoo

Analysts: Senate Switch May Shift Broadband Focus, May 24, 2001. The issue of promoting broadband access to under served communities via tax credits, is once again in turmoil as the balance of power in the Senate is shifted due to Jeffords switch from Republican to Independent.

PR Press Room

Committee Approves Anti-Spam Legislation, May 23, 2001. Today the House Judiciary Committee passed legislation targeting fraudulent commercial e-mail. This bill is a highly watered down substitute for H.R. 718. Among notable changes are the elimination of the right of consumers to sue those who send unsolicited email, as well as the ISPs used to communicate it.

WashTech

Tech Issues Should Weather Senate Shift in Power Well, May 23, 2001. The much anticipated move of Sen. Jeffords’ of Vermont from the Republican party to new status as an Independent, is not seen as a crucial move in regard to hot button tech related legislation, including data privacy.

Newsbytes

Judiciary Committee Chews on Spam Bill, May 23, 2001. The Committee today marks up H.R. 718, a bill that grants consumers the right to sue companies and/or individuals who send unsolicited commercial e-mail or spam.

Silicon Valley

House Divided Over Telecom Net Restrictions, May 22, 2001. The GAO’s audit of the National Infrastructure Protection Center revealed serious deficits in the program to protect government against security attacks, due to lack of personnel and and poor communications.

Online Gaming Bill Headed for Vote in Nevada Senate, May 22, 2001. Nevada may be the first state with legalized Internet gambling, with estimated revenues of $83 million per year.

Los Angeles Times

Staff Shortages Hamper Government Anti-Computer Crime Unit, May 22, 2001. The GAO’s audit of the National Infrastructure Protection Center revealed serious deficits in the program to protect government against security attacks, due to lack of personnel and and poor communications.

Wall Street Journal (fee-based)

Baby Bells Face Potential Setback With a Review of Broadband Bill, May 21, 2001. Spam may be an unwanted staple in your in-box, but don’t expect lawmakers to serve up new regulations anytime soon.

digitalMASS

Congress, Critics Wrinkle Nose at Spam Bills, May 21, 2001. A second congressional committee will review proposed legislation that is aimed at making it easier for Bell telephone companies to sell high-speed Internet access.

ComputerWorld

Senator Kerry: Online Taxes, Privacy Changes Coming, May 18, 2001. ” To help Web business survive and thrive, Kerry said he plans to push for a national “opt-out” privacy policy for all Web-based transactions except those involving financial data and medical information.”

Newsbytes

Tech Leaders to Lawmakers: Don’t Forget R&D Tax Credit, May 17, 2001. ” With the Senate rushing to put the finishing touches on an enormous tax cut, high-tech industry leaders have mounted a last-minute lobbying push to ensure that a permanent extension of the research and development (R&D) tax credit is not left out of the final bill. ”

See also: Music Industry Again Heads to Congress, May 17, 2001

House Subcommittee Questions Need For Compulsory License, May 17, 2001. ” …digital music providers and record companies asked a House subcommittee today to consider a proposal to extend current copyright law to include streaming online music and content. Music publishers and at least one notable artist, however, chafed at the prospect.”

See also: Music Industry Again Heads to Congress, May 17, 2001

Bill Ties E-Rate Funds to Net Anonymity Blockers , May 16, 2001. H.R. 1846, the Who Is E-Mailing Our Kids Act, is sponsored by Felix Grucci (R-NY). It is part of an initiative he calls HOOK (Hands Off Our Kids), aimed at ‘supposed’ radical, fringe elements that are inciting acts of violence by youth, specifically for environmental causes.

See also: Anonymity Takes a D.C. Hit, May 19, 2001. This legislation may require schools and libraries receiving federal funds to block access from their computers to anonymous Web browsing or e-mail services, such as HotMail accounts.

digitalMass

MusicNet to Preview at Congressional Hearing, May 16, 2001 . ” MusicNet — an Internet music subscription joint venture backed by three major record labels that waged a bitter fight against song-swap service Napster — will get its first demonstration on Thursday at a Congressional hearing into online music.”

House Ways and Means Committee

Shaw Announces Hearing On Protecting Privacy and Preventing Misuse of Social Security Numbers, May 15, 2001 . Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr., (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on protecting the privacy and preventing misuse of Social Security numbers (SSNs).

The Standard

Senate Anti-Gambling Bill Forces Schools to Spy on Students, May 15, 2001 . Legislation to foil betting on amateur sports would require colleges to police students’ Net usage – or else get no federal funding.

Computer World

U.S. Senator: Cyberattacks Could ‘Devastate’ Nation, May 14, 2001 . Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT), who led the Y2k effort in Congress warned today that a cyberattack by a hostile nation could be as disruptive as a nuclear missile exploding over a U.S. city.

Law.com

The Slippery Fight Over E-Mail Spam, May 14, 2001 . Bills aim to slash junk mail while protecting e-commerce.

WashTech

IT Training Tax Credit Bill Introduced in House, May 14, 2001 .

Civic.com

Massachusetts Gives State Agencies Deadline for Privacy Policies on Web Sites, May 11, 2001 .

Newsbytes

Senate Bill Would Ban Sale of Social Security Numbers, May 10, 2001. S. 848, co-sponsored by Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Judd Gregg (R-NH), would make it a criminal offense to reveal a citizen’s social security number without their expressed consent.

CNET

Congress Urges Global E-commerce Growth, May 10, 2001. Lawmakers introduced a resolution in both chambers of Congress on Thursday calling on the Bush administration to make the growth of international electronic trade a top priority.

Spam Bill Collides with Opposition, May 10, 2001. There was a giant pile-on against H.R. 718, the bill that includes fines against companies that send unsolicited emails to customers, without their request. Banking, retail and e-commerce groups oppose the bill, as do vocal House members, including Bob Barr (R-GA).

Yahoo

House Committee OKs Internet Measure, May 9, 2001. “A measure that would make it easier for the nation’s largest phone companies – the regional Bells – to offer high-speed Internet access won approval Wednesday from a House committee.”

The Standard

Old Foes Squabble Over Secrecy Bills, May 8, 2001. California Assembly Bill 36 and Senate Bill 11 would prohibit secrecy agreements deemed to be against the public interest, and thus allow information concerning harmful products and services to be made public. High-tech companies vigorously oppose this legislation stating as it would expose their trade secrets.

Newsbytes

Privacy Commission Bill Clears Subcommittee, May 8, 2001. H.R. 4049, which was defeated last year, is seen by some as a stalling tactic. It creates a commission to study privacy intitiatives by industry and government.

House Bill Mulls Financial-Fraud-Fighting Computer Network, May 7, 2001. H.R. 1408, would create a virtual network connecting some 200 state and federal agencies responsible for regulatory oversight of the banking, insurance, and securities sectors.

Excite

Senator Wants to Aid Cyber Security by Secrecy, May 7, 2001. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), one of Senate’s techie members, plans to introduce legislation within the next two to three months that would protect information about computer networks from public scrutiny.

GAO

Financial Privacy: Too Soon to Assess the Privacy Provisions in the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act, May 7, 2001. This 22 page PDF concluded that “As of March 31, 2001, federal regulatory and enforcement agencies had not taken any enforcement actions or prosecuted any cases under this law. FTC staff have begun to monitor firms’ compliance with the statute’s provisions and have several pending nonpublic investigations. However, FTC staff and Department of Justice officials told us that until they have fully prosecuted cases under the statute, they would lack the necessary experience to assess the effectiveness of Subtitle B provisions.”

NewsForge

Red Hat Works with UCTIA Backers to Change Law, May 3, 2001. Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening is expected to sign a bill that exempts Open Source software from “mandatory warranties” found in the state’s Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act, on the urging of Red Hat and the Open Source Initiative.

Newsbytes

Arizona State CIO Opposes Infrastructure Bill, May 3, 2001. T he legislation authorizes the creation of a Statewide Infrastructure Protection Center (SIPC) that would be charged with safeguarding Arizona’s electronic and physical infrastructure in “emergency situations.”

Armey Seeks Change in Medical Privacy Regs, May 1, 2001. In a letter to HHS Secretary Thompson, the House Majority Leader calls for new language to ensure that HHS personnel would require a warrant before obtaining information from health plans.

New Legislation Calls for Federal CIO, May 1, 2001. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Conrad Burns, R-Mont., introduced a 95 bill called the E-Government Act of 2001. The asks for the establishment of a CIP position as well as an online national library, an online federal phone directory and other Internet-enabled government services.

The Standard

New Roadblock for Broadband Bill, May 1, 2001. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., blasted the proposal in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and demanded that Hastert allow the committee to amend the bill to make it more to his liking.

Washington Post

Senators Delay Vote on Internet Tax Bill, May 1, 2001. The vote was delayed due to the fact that negotiators failed to reach agreement on business income taxes for Internet retailers.