Security
Ridge: Bush Should Veto Cabinet-Level Security Position
     White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said he would advise President Bush to veto any legislation creating a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security should Congress approve a bill this year. "I'd probably recommend he veto it," Ridge told a National Journal Group editorial-board meeting. In the past, Ridge has asked Congress to delay action on such legislation. That meeting was the first time he has told reporters that he would recommend a veto. Ridge said presidents should be "entitled to a few advisers" who owe their loyalty solely to the president. "I believe that the president and future presidents always would be well-served having an adviser coordinating the actions among [the] multiple agencies" charged with protecting homeland security. "I don't think you get that if you are accountable to Congress," Ridge said. While the homeland security director should be "accountable" to the president, he or she also should be "accessible" to Congress, Ridge said.

Privacy
Europe Moves To Boost Consumers' Electronic Privacy
     The European Union moved closer to enacting legislation that would enhance consumer privacy in electronic-data communications while allowing law enforcement groups continued access to that data for anti-terrorism and investigative purposes. The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a revision to the EU's 1997 telecommunications directive. That measure -- proposed by the European Commission, the European Union's regulatory arm -- was conceived to revise telecom law to protect consumer privacy in the face of new technologies. It would prohibit the transmission of unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, and use of location-tracking devices such as Web "cookies" without consumer consent.

Piracy
Poll Shows Extent Of Software Piracy, Support For Tough Laws
     A business group released poll results that indicate both the prevalence of software piracy and the widespread belief that companies and creators need better intellectual property protection. The poll, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the Business Software Alliance, found that nearly half of the 1,026 Internet users surveyed have downloaded commercial software, and 81 percent of them have not paid for their copies. Fifty-seven percent of the people who have downloaded material acknowledged that they either seldom or never pay for the works, while 12 percent admitted to committing piracy. But despite those numbers, 95 percent of the respondents believe software creators should be paid for their work, and 85 percent believe strong intellectual property protections are crucial for protecting companies. Software piracy costs the industry about $12 billion a year.

Courts
Patent Holders Pleased With Supreme Court Ruling
     Patent holders breathed a sigh of relief this week when the Supreme Court overturned a lower-court decision that made it more difficult for inventors to challenge rivals for patent infringement. But in a unanimous decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the high court still put strict limits on how patent holders can use the "doctrine of equivalents" after they narrow the scope of their patent claims. The doctrine is deployed when patent holders challenge knock-off inventions that change a minor element of their patented works. Called Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., the case split the technology community between those companies that seek greater patent protection and those that crave certainty of intellectual property protection. The former camp includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Bose Litton, 3M, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and many patent attorney groups; the latter includes Ford, Genentech, IBM, Intel, Kodak and the Consumer Project on Technology.

Courts
Foes Of Obscenity Laws Take Heart From High Court Ruling
     The Supreme Court's decision last month not to overturn the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) has breathed new life into a separate lawsuit challenging an earlier law against obscene materials on the Internet. Although the COPA ruling was not a win for free-speech advocates who have challenged Congress' ability to restrict content on the Web, an attorney for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom argued that six of the nine justices in Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union took a position that supports the group's case against enforcement of obscenity laws on the Internet. The group, including photographers of explicit sex scenes, is challenging the constitutionality of the bar against online obscenity within the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA). Last week, NCSF filed a motion to keep the Justice Department from enforcing the CDA's obscenity provision, which was not challenged in the 1997 Reno v. ACLU case that led to the rejection of a key portion of the CDA.

Broadband
Lieberman Criticizes Washington For Broadband Myopia
     The nation badly needs a comprehensive approach to the question of speeding the deployment of high-speed Internet services, according to Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and the Connecticut Democrat hopes the report he issued this week and a series of bills he plans to introduce this year will provide the impetus to spur economic growth. "Unfortunately, the case for making broadband deployment a pivotal piece of our economic puzzle has yet to be understood adequately by government," Lieberman said in an event at the Alameda, Calif., home of the Wind River company. "Many in Washington have been focusing, almost myopically, on short-term obstacles to the next small jump in speed," he said, noting that his report is designed to give policymakers a better understanding of the problems in the telecommunications sector and how government can help.