Privacy
Laughing All The Way To The Bank
     The Senate approved the Financial Services Modernization Act, 90-8, including the amendment pushed by Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-MD, that will allow states to override the bill's privacy protections. Several hours after the Senate vote, the House approved the measure 362-57. S. 900 and H.R. 10 would allow the creation of "supermarkets" that sell loans, investments and insurance policies. The bill was strongly supported by Republicans, with mixed reaction from Democrats.

Cyberporn
The Hottest Spot North Of Havana: Philly
     Judges on a federal court of appeals in Philadelphia openly expressed their skepticism that the Child Online Protection Act could be held consistent with the First Amendment and sharply questioned the Department of Justice attorney defending the statute late this week. The Supreme Court struck down the 1996 Communications Decency Act in 1997, and as a result last year Congress overwhelmingly passed COPA. Its supporters had argued that COPA was more narrowly crafted and stood a better change of passing Constitutional muster.

Crime
Anti Net Stalking Bill Approved
     People who stalk others over the Internet by harassing or threatening them with death or injuries could face prison under legislation approved by the House Judiciary Committee. The panel approved by voice vote an anti-cyberspace stalking bill, H.R. 1869, that tightens a 1996 federal anti-stalking law to apply criminal penalties upon conviction to stalkers who seriously harass or threaten others through cyberspace by e-mail or regular mail. While introducing her bill, Rep. Sue Kelly, R-NY, said that stalking is not a problem confined to celebrities or Hollywood stars but involves average people.

Privacy
Fumbling With FIDNet Funding
     Less than one week before the Clinton Administration's proposed network security plan is slated to be unveiled and discussed, Congress has refused a last-minute request to provide $39 million in funds — including $8.4 million for the controversial Federal Intrusion Detection Network — until at least January. Although House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-TX, has raised a number of questions about the privacy implications of FIDNet, the principal objection seems to be money. And with the House unwilling to dip into other sources to accommodate the administration's computer security proposal, the lack of funding could further delay the full-scale rollout of critical infrastructure plans.

Y2K
Keeping Up With The Joneses
     Never fear America, the FBI will still be able to arrest Samuel Jones after December 31 — and his cell door won't swing open when Y2K rolls around, either, said the Justice Department. Using the fictitious "Samuel Jones" as an example of a criminal suspect, the FBI ran a simulation for the media claiming that its National Crime Information Center computer systems will be ready for Y2K. The NCIC, among other uses, allows law enforcement access to criminal records. Although the system has been Y2K-compliant since July, the FBI used the event as an opportunity to reassure the public that 99 percent of the Justice Department's mission critical systems are ready for the date change.

E-commerce
Bets Pay Off For Gambling Bill
     The House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee quickly approved a bill that would ban most types of online gambling to the objection of Democrats who said they still had "issues" with the measure, H.R. 3125. With the 5-3 vote along party lines, the subcommittee sends the bill — introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA — on to the full House Judiciary Committee for consideration. But Subcommittee Chairman Bill McCollum, R-FL, it's unlikely the full panel will consider the bill until next year, after Congress' winter break.

On The Hill
Nipping Spam In The Bud
     Capitol Hill played host to a virtual spam-o-rama as lawmakers and think tanks worked to drum up support for legislation that would curb the unchecked growth of unsolicited e-mail, or spam, in consumer in-boxes. "It's like a telemarketer calling your cell phone — it costs the consumer," said Rep. Gary Miller, R-CA. Miller is the co-sponsor of H.R. 2162, a bill that would allow Internet service providers to enforce their anti-spam policies in court with fines against e-mailers of $50 per message or $25,000 per day. The proposal is based on legislation that Miller had enacted as a state lawmaker in California.

Intellectual Property
Can The Patent Reform Survive Senate?
     On a 17-0 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably reported a patent reform bill endorsed by a broad coalition of high-technology companies and independent inventors — but not until Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-NJ, warned that the bill won't clear the Senate until their concerns are resolved. Sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-UT, and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy, D-VT, the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999, S. 1798, differs only slightly from the House-passed compromise version of the same name. Earlier in the week, the Information Technology Industry Council wrote to Hatch and Leahy, saying that the bill would be a "key vote" in its 1999 voting guide.

Intellectual Property
Techies Push Chamber Into Opposition
     In a move demonstrating the increasing heft of the Internet economy players, a group of data-intensive businesses persuaded the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose a database protection bill many expected to come before the House this week. Acting on behalf of Chamber members such as Yahoo, Charles Schwab, Bell Atlantic, AT&T, and Bloomberg, Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue wrote to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, to oppose the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act, H.R. 354. The bill is sponsored by Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property Chairman Howard Coble, R-NC.

Intellectual Property
Net Leaves Scientists In Digital Dilemma
     Technological changes wrought by the Internet make it necessary for scientists and lawmakers to fundamentally rethink copyright laws to maintain the balance between information producers and users, the National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences argued in "The Digital Dilemma," a report released this week.

On The Hill
Lawmakers Blast FCC Over Telecom, E-rate
     The House Judiciary Committee pummeled Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard over the e-rate and the time the agency takes to approve telecom mergers, following last week's equally aggressive meeting called by the House Commerce Committee's telecommunications subcommittee. "This process needs to be overhauled and frankly, the FCC needs to get out of the way," said Rep. David McIntosh, R-IN, referring to the agency's drawn-out merger review process. "Our ultimate goal should be to remove the FCC from the decision-making process."

Antitrust
Sprint, MCI WorldCom Plead To Merge
     MCI WorldCom's proposed $115 billion acquisition of Sprint would jeopardize competition in the Internet backbone market and would drastically inhibit consumer choice of service providers, opponents of the deal testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But those in favor of the merger maintained that it would only stimulate competition.

Trade
Free To Be... In Cyberspace
     A top U.S. trade representative this week once again urged governments that are gathering for an upcoming World Trade Organization meeting to liberalize trade in service sectors such as telecommunications, and keep cyberspace duty-free.

Taxes
By George, They Think They've Got It
     State and local organizations are putting the finishing touches on a plan they say will allow localities to collect sales taxes on e-commerce purchases. The groups completed a rough draft late last week of a proposal that still allows for the collection of sales and use taxes without putting undue burden on sellers or consumers, said Ralph Tabor, associate legislative director for the National Association of Counties. Although the local government organizations, such as NACo and the National League of Cities, are still looking over the plan before they fully endorse it, Tabor said the groups would probably organize the draft later this week and then offer it to businesses to receive their comments.

Domains
House Science OKs Domain Amendment
     The House Science Subcommittee on Basic Research approved an amendment to the "Home Page Tax Repeal Act" that would provide a refund to Internet users who paid a fee to register domain names. House Science Basic Research Subcommittee Chairman Nick Smith, R-MI, introduced the substitute bill to H.R. 2797, eliminating a provision to repeal the authorization of the National Science Foundation fees. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lee Terry, R-NE, addressed a 30 percent surcharge on the costs of registering "top-level" domain names, such as those ending in .com and .org, that was issued by NSF until 1998. The now-defunct fee was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. But the NSF already had collected $60 million from the fee before it was dropped, and Congress had allocated some of the monies. The current bill allows domain name holders to recover the cost of the fee through a tax credit to be paid out of general treasury funds.

Business
Not Enough Workers To Go Around
     The nation's large urban counties are suffering from a shortage of highly skilled workers, and the technology sector is the hardest hit by the supply gap, according to a report released by the National Association of Counties.

Privacy
Deadline Looms For Data Privacy
     Stakes are high at top-level meetings late this week between European and American negotiators attempting to ensure data sent through the United States to Europe is not disrupted. David Aaron, U.S. commerce undersecretary for international trade, and John Mogg, the European Commission's director general for single market and financial services, will attempt to hammer out the final sticking points of implementing the European Union's data privacy directive. The directive bans the transfer of personal information to third parties not providing "adequate" privacy protections. It looks unlikely the duo will make much progress before December 19, when negotiators had hoped a deal would be completed.

Net Governance
ICANN Approves Revised Deal
     The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved by voice vote a revised version of a deal that allows Network Solutions Inc. to continue to play a dominant role in the business of registering top-level Internet domain names. The agreement allows NSI to maintain exclusive control for four years over the registry, the database of all domain names that have been registered. This would be extended by an additional four years if NSI sells off either its registry operation or domain name registration business. As operator of the registry, NSI also will be allowed to charge registrars $6 per domain name each year to enter names into the registry.

Domains
Foundation To Its Monetary Mark At ICANN
     A private non-profit foundation announced that it was committing more than $1 million to improve Internet governance, spending about half that amount on increasing participation in ICANN and its efforts to elect nine at-large board members. The Markle Foundation made the announcement during ICANN's four-day meeting in Los Angeles. Part of Markle's initiative will include providing a $200,000 grant to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to set up a process to attract an at-large membership, who will in turn help elect nine new board members. The other half of the ICANN board was elected last month by ICANN's three supporting organizations.

White House
Clinton To Go Online For The People
     As a former leader of the New Democrat movement which has embraced policies to promote high-tech, it makes sense that President Clinton finally decided to hold his first town-hall meeting online next Monday evening. "Our mission is to modernize progressive politics for the information age…and if we are going to be leaders in the information age, we better use it," Al From, president and founder of the Democrat Leadership Council, a centrist Democrat group, said at a briefing for reporters. Clinton and other lawmakers such as San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen plan to take questions from up to 15,000 online users on the topic of how to govern in the 21st century.

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