North Carolina Identity Theft Bill Wins Approval
North Carolina State Attorney General Roy Cooper has secured the support of the state Senate, and now the House, for an identity theft bill. See House Bill 1100 for the text of the legislation.
Verizon in Privacy Battle With RIAA
Internet Community Supports Verizon’s User Privacy Defense. See my previous related posting which provides background on this case.
Vote Delayed for Webcasting Bill
House Judiciary Chairman Sensenbrenner, sponsor of H.R. 5469, a bill that would have given webcasters a six month grace period before enactment of copyright royalty fees, pulled his bill before the vote. He did so based on a potential agreement under discussion between the recording industry and webcasters.
NSA signs Major Contract to Monitor Communications
CNN is reporting that the NSA will shell out $282 million to significantly enhance technology applications used to monitor and evaluate e-mail, telephone and other communications in its ongoing anti-terrorism efforts.
E-Government Bill Is Referred to Full Committee
The Electronic Government Act of 2002 (H.R. 2458), was passed by the House Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee , and sent it on to the House Government Reform Committee. The Senate companion bill is S. 803.
USPTO Information Quality Guidelines
Federal agencies are issuing their information quality guidelines as specified by OMB (see my previous posting here.) The Patent Office guidelines are available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/infoqualityguide.html. The Federal Register notice about these guidelines is here.
ACLU Advertisement Urges Limits To Homeland Security Legislation
The ACLU placed an ad in publications including the Congressional Quarterly Daily Monitor and Congress Daily, demanding “that any Homeland Security bill contain five basic civil liberties protections.”
OMB Guidelines Specify Integrity of Federal Government Data
According to this Washington Post article, “From now on, virtually every piece of information that the federal government makes public — through a rulemaking, a publication or a Web site — becomes open to challenge for its accuracy and veracity.” See the OMB guidelines at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/iqg_oct2002.pdf.
U.S. Corporations Seek Relaxation of EU Privacy Rules
ZDNet UK is reporting that a coalition of prominent U.S. high tech companies, calling themselves the Global Privacy Alliance (no web site available) wants the EU to relax its data protection laws to stimulate international e-commerce through the transfer of personal data collected on customers.
Net Gambling Bill
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act H.R.556, passed the House and was referred to the Senate. The bill would prevent banks, financial institutions and credit card companies from transferring payments to Internet gambling sites, most of which are offshore.
The Daily Enron
If you are interested in following the developments in the Enron case, a former hot news story that has been moved to the back burner in recent months, then visit The Daily Enron. This public interest site maintains an active collection of news, commentary, book reviews and documents on corporate and government accountability.
Supreme Court Will Hear Eldred v. Ashcroft October 9
On October 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the much heralded case of Eldred v. Ashcroft that challenges the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), which extended by 20 years (and in some cases even longer) the duration of existing and future copyrights. Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, will represent Eric Eldred, …