Privacy
Privacy Advocates, Tech Groups Wary Of Anti-Terrorism Bill
     Privacy organizations and technology groups expressed concerns about the Bush administration's anti-terrorism bill unveiled this week. The measure has more than a dozen sections on electronic surveillance and could significantly alter the judiciary's ability to check law enforcement investigations. Speaking at the launch of the Coalition in Defense of Freedom, Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said, "There are some serious questions about the constitutionality of some of the steps Congress is being asked to take." Meanwhile, in letters to Attorney General John Ashcroft and House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., said the federal government's reaction to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States should be "to examine how and why execution of current law was not successful," not to expand the police's investigative authority.

Trade
Trade Bill Still Active
     House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., said he wants to develop a bipartisan economic stimulus package in coming weeks to focus strictly on steps to spur economic activity during what could be a precarious short-term period. Thomas said passing presidential trade-negotiating authority also is a priority but added that it would move separately. Thomas stressed that it is more important to craft the right bill than to act in haste. He said the overall process could take up to three weeks. Several Ways and Means members commented more on the quality of discussion and diversity of views expressed at the hearing than whether any proposals -- such as additional tax rebates, capital-gains tax cuts and increased tax write-offs for businesses -- will be included or excluded in an economic stimulus package. Thomas said some tax items that will expire soon must be considered. Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., argued that changing the rules on expense write-offs and depreciation would help the tech sector.

Export
High-Tech Carefully Crafting Dialogue On Encryption
     The high-tech sector and privacy advocates are preparing to remind lawmakers why the government should not restrict the export and domestic sale of strong encryption products -- a hard-fought argument the sector won two years ago. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., called for the global community to require encryption products to include "back doors" for government surveillance. In 1999, the high-tech sector won a broad loosening of the restrictions on encryption exports and successfully blocked government efforts to include surveillance keys. They won in part because strong encryption already was widely available outside the United States.

Antitrust
Microsoft, Justice Lawyers Pitch Competing Trial Terms
     Microsoft lawyers asked the new district court judge in the antitrust case against the software company to limit the scope of potential penalties before beginning hearings on how to respond to antitrust violations upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 40-page joint status report that had been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, Microsoft said if the judge agrees to limit the legal remedies, the company could proceed to trial within three months. Without any limits, the company said, it would need six months to prepare for hearings. Attorneys at the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, meanwhile, proposed that hearings begin Feb. 4, nearly three months after the Nov. 9 date when they said they could submit their proposed remedies. They disagreed with Microsoft's call for limits on remedies. The next hearing in the trial currently is set for Sept. 28.

On The Hill
Financial Experts Urge Cautious Approach To Economy
     Financial experts cautioned Congress to act prudently on an economic stimulus package, saying the economy needs time to settle after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Layoffs and downturns throughout many industry sectors are expected as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill stressed that despite some lawmakers' calls for more tax cuts or business assistance, the country should let the ramifications of the tragedies run their course.

Education
Lawmakers Plan To Revive Education Bill
     More than three-dozen House and Senate lawmakers negotiating the provisions of an education reform bill, H.R. 1, plan to resume their work next week and vowed to complete the legislation this year. Remaining disagreements include how to hold schools accountable for low test scores, how much money to give schools to develop annual tests and how much flexibility to give states and school districts on spending federal dollars.

Courts
Judges Back Online Access To Some Court Documents
     The Judicial Conference unanimously approved two new policies that will govern the level of Internet-based access to court records and the privacy judicial employees can expect while using the courts' computer networks. The conference approved recommendations to offer Internet-based access to civil cases and bankruptcy court documents while deferring action on criminal case files for two years. It also approved an "appropriate use" policy regarding court employees' access to content and Internet Web sites but deleted a controversial element of that policy saying that employees had no expectation of privacy on court computers.

Telecom
FCC Imposes Surveillance Standards On Telecom Firms
     The FCC ruled that telecommunications firms must implement some law-enforcement surveillance standards by next month but gave the firms until June 2002 to comply with other surveillance capabilities requested by the FBI. The FCC said it found no reason to grant a blanket deadline extension for packet-mode, or data, communications that were to be enacted by Sept. 30 as part of the ongoing implementation of the 1994 Communications Assistance Law Enforcement Act, more commonly known as CALEA.

On The Hill
Lawmakers Urge No Regulation On Music
     Six members of the House Judiciary Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property Subcommittee this week urged colleagues not to push any legislation to regulate online music. The letter from Reps. Howard Berman, D-Calif., John Conyers, D-Mich., Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Henry Hyde, R-Ill., among others, said legislation to regulate the "quickly evolving" online music marketplace is premature. Congressional sources said new content deals between the recording industry and music publishers make action on such legislation less likely anyway.

Domains
Upton To Hold Hearing On .Kids
     Michigan Republican Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, plans to hold a hearing on proposed legislation to create a .kids domain-name suffix. According to his spokesman, Upton was looking at October as the timeframe for a hearing on the usefulness and effectiveness of a .kids domain that would contain material aimed only at children. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers last year refused to approve a .kids domain.

Trade
U.S. Tech Firms Welcome China Accession Package
     Technology industry officials hailed the successful conclusion of negotiations to bring China into the World Trade Organization. "All of the members of the [high-tech coalition for China's accession] have been hopeful that the detailed negotiating process would be completed this fall," said Tim Bennett, vice president at the electronics trade group AeA. "We look forward to China being subject to WTO rules." An agreement on Taiwan's entry into the WTO is expected to follow quickly.