Intellectual Property
Supreme Court Calls Extended Copyright Terms 'Rational'
     The Supreme Court this week upheld a 1998 law that extended the protection for most copyrighted works by 20 years. The 7-2 decision affirmed the statute and maintained a tradition of longstanding deference to Congress on the matter of intellectual property. Speaking for the majority in the Eldred v. Ashcroft decision , Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rejected almost all arguments raised by Internet publisher Eric Eldred and his attorney, Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig. Eldred and Lessig had argued that Congress' decision to expand copyright terms violated the constitutional provision that terms be for "limited times." They also argued that the law restricts the free-speech rights of individuals seeking to republish works that would have fallen into the public domain if not for the statute's retroactive extension.

On the Hill
Trio Of Senate Democrats Call Data-Mining Plan 'Extreme'
     Three Democratic senators outlined legislation that they said would force the Bush administration to more clearly justify its use of computers to assemble and analyze large volumes of personal information. Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold introduced a bill to suspend data-mining systems under development by the Defense and Homeland Security departments. Data mining is the capacity to glean valuable information -- including clues to potential terrorists -- from databases with financial, educational, medical and travel information on individuals. "The [Bush] administration has a heavy burden of proof that such extreme measures are necessary," Feingold said, joined by Senate Democrats Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon, as well as representatives from six privacy groups. A long-accepted practice in the commercial world, data mining by the government has become controversial with reports about a project of the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency that many have called a "Big Brother" surveillance system. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report arguing that a total "surveillance society" has become a realistic possibility.

Security
More Than 300 Foreigners Nabbed In Biometric Searches
     Biometric technologies led to the apprehension of more than 300 non-immigrant aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States over the past four months, a senior Justice Department official said. The department's National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which began operating Sept. 11, 2002, uses technology to obtain digital fingerprints from certain temporary foreign visitors at all U.S. ports of entry. For example, all adult non-immigrant aliens from "state sponsors of terrorism" -- including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria -- are required to have their fingerprints scanned. But certain individuals from more than 140 other countries also have undergone the fingerprint screening because immigration officials determined that they met certain "intelligence-based criteria."

Lobbying
Security Association Takes Its Appeal To Capitol Hill
     Congress has yet to clear an omnibus spending bill that would fund crucial homeland security efforts and other programs, and it is urgent that they do so within the next two months, a group of security and defense contractors said during a lobbying day on Capitol Hill. The Homeland Security Industries Association, which was launched last September, deployed 25 of its company members to meet with lawmakers that represent the districts where their companies are based and held a morning breakfast for congressional staffers, with the message that the country is vulnerable because of the federal budget impasse. "Without funding, you have no homeland security," said Bruce Aitken, president of the 100-member association. Aitken said his members want the government to double the research and development budget by 2010 and increase funds for teachers in science and math, among other things.

On the Hill
Senate Communications Panel's Chairman Unveils Agenda
     Sen. Conrad Burns identified 10 pressing issues that the technology and telecommunications industries face and said he plans to aggressively use his position as chairman of the Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee to seek support for his agenda. The three issues he plans to tackle during the first part of the year are: legislation to combat unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam; spectrum reform; and implementation of "enhanced 911" (E911) services to enable emergency personnel to locate wireless callers. He identified seven other issues for the remainder of the year, including encouraging high-speed Internet investments, protecting wireless and online privacy, finding ways to expand telecom services to all Americans, and reforming the organization that oversees the Internet's operations.

Telecom
New Senate Bills Aim To Boost Beleaguered Sector
     After Congress failed to pass telecommunications legislation during its past two sessions, senators attending a Commerce Committee hearing this week offered bills that they said would boost the beleaguered sector. "The costly, strenuous debate reached a stalemate," Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said of the fruitless battle over legislation to deregulate the Bell telecom companies the past two years, and it "fails to recognize new technologies." To address new technologies and their potential implications on high-speed Internet service, Allen, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced legislation to direct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to make more spectrum available for high-speed, wireless Internet technologies. The bill also would direct the FCC to craft technical rules to allow services to be deployed within that spectrum without interfering with others.

Intellectual Property
Music And Tech Groups Ally To Fight Piracy, Formulate Policy
     The recording industry and two leading technology groups announced their support for principles designed to guide their member companies as they combat online piracy, attempt to embrace Internet distribution and formulate public policy positions on digital rights. In a press conference, Recording Industry Association of America Chairwoman Hilary Rosen and the heads of the tech associations each said their accord could serve as a model for a still-broader alliance of entertainment and tech companies. "This agreement represents a sea change in the debate over protecting digital content," said Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project. Business Software Alliance CEO Robert Holleyman joined him and Rosen. Elements of the entertainment industry have been locked in a bitter battle in Washington and in the courts over whether they or the tech industry should bear the responsibility for combating digital piracy. In the agreement, the three associations committed themselves to opposing legislation that would "limit the use or effectiveness" of technologies to protect digital rights and to supporting tougher enforcement of copyright laws and "technical measures to limit illegal distribution."

Government
Washington State Lawmakers Eye 'Open Source' Software
     Defense Department officials were scheduled to meet with the staff of congressmen from Washington state to discuss the U.S. government's usage of "open source" software, a topic that is expected to garner increasing attention in 2003. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., organized the meeting between officials from the department's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Capitol Hill staff from the home state of Microsoft, the nation's largest proprietary software maker and a critic of the government's use of certain software licenses whose source code is open to inspection and alteration. "The congressman requested this interview because he is vice chairman of the [House] Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and he knows this will be an issue in the coming year," a spokeswoman for Nethercutt said. "It was DISA that asked us to open up this meeting to all of the Washington delegation staff."