Intellectual Property
College Officials, Librarians Seek Role In Anti-Piracy Debate
     Information technologists in the university and library communities are creating a list of principles for anti-piracy technologies, with the aim of balancing the needs of copyright owners and consumers, a university official said before the Congressional Internet Caucus. Mairead Martin, a software expert at the University of Wisconsin, said the current definitions of technologies for digital-rights management (DRM) developed by the business community are too limiting. As defined by panelist Shira Perlmutter, vice president and associate general counsel of intellectual property for AOL Time Warner, DRM is an "interface" between the creator of a work and consumers that enables the creator to be compensated adequately and consumers to enjoy the product in the format they choose.

Defense
Development Of Cyber Warfare Plan A Priority, Official Says
     The top Pentagon official for research and engineering said the Defense Department is making the development of cyber warfare techniques a priority. "Activities in each of the [military] services are ongoing, and in DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency], to bring that information piece to bear on how we will engage in warfare in the 21st century," said Ronald Sega, director of defense research and engineering. Technologies such as sensors, robotics and high-bandwidth communications are enabling "network-centric warfare," he said. Sega also said a DARPA-led advanced computing initiative to develop the next generation of supercomputers is ongoing despite not having a funding request for fiscal 2004.

Net Governance
Security Department May Oversee Part Of Net's Infrastructure
     The Homeland Security Department may take more of a direct role coordinating the security of the Internet's infrastructure, a top administration official said. Former Homeland Security Council adviser Howard Schmidt said in an interview that security experts and government officials are working to formalize a security apparatus for global Internet root servers, a series of computer systems that underpin the Internet's address system. After an attack on those servers and the Internet domain-name system last October, Schmidt, several agency officials, computer-security experts and root-server operators discussed in January how they could better respond to such incidents. Their talks identified the need to develop a framework for determining when individuals and companies that operate the Internet's mission-critical domain system should report an attack or disturbance to government officials.

Budget
Senators Hit Administration On Science Funding Imbalance
     Lawmakers again criticized top science and technology officials in the Bush administration for their failure to boost National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for the physical sciences when compared with funding for the life sciences at other agencies. "I am alarmed and troubled by this disparity because the decline in funding for the physical sciences has put our nation's capabilities for scientific innovation at risk and, equally important, at risk of falling behind other industrial nations," said Missouri Republican Christopher (Kit) Bond, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NSF. "I believe this is not an NSF budget, it's an OMB budget," Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., added in reference to the White House Office of Management and Budget. The lawmakers spoke at a hearing on the administration's fiscal 2004 budget requests for NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Government
Official Outlines Last Stages Of FBI's Electronic Transformation
     The FBI's history as a paper-based agency is transforming this year, as the agency completed its first phase of a half-billion-dollar effort to put computer and analysis tools in the hands of agents. Last Friday, the FBI completed the creation of its Trilogy network, which includes 20,000 new computers linked through a network in 521 locations. In the second phase of the upgrade, the FBI is creating an application known as the "virtual case file" for every agent and analyst to electronically input into a database information about each case so other agents can access it. The target completion for that system is December. The force behind the modernization effort is Wilson Lowrey, the FBI's executive assistant director and a 30-year veteran of IBM. Lowrey conducted a briefing for reporters to demonstrate the virtual case file, as well as to outline how the FBI is improving its internal and external information-sharing efforts.

Telecom
House Lawmakers Tout Overhaul Of Universal Service System
     Because many rural states face heavy expenses to provide telecommunications services yet get little or no money from the federal fund designed to ensure affordable and ubiquitous communications services, two House lawmakers said they would offer legislation to change the system. "All we are doing is righting a wrong," said Lee Terry, R-Neb., who will co-sponsor the bill with Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "Everyone who pays a phone bill is contributing to a fund for service in high-cost rural areas. Because of a poor formula, only residents of eight states draw any benefit." Under a formula designed by the FCC to allocate funds, about 70 percent of the $240 million in the fund goes to telecom firms in two states: Mississippi, which receives nearly $121 million, and Alabama, which gets $42 million. That leaves the big carriers in 40 states, including Idaho, Nebraska and North Dakota, without support.

On the Hill
Deal Reached On Class-Action Reform Legislation
     Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch and Sen. Dianne Feinstein reached a deal to modify legislation that would shift more class-action lawsuits to federal court. But Democrats balked at considering the amendment at a Judiciary Committee session, complaining that they had not had time to review it. Hatch, R-Utah, then agreed to delay action until next week. Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., will co-sponsor the amendment, said an aide to Feinstein, D-Calif. Although the pending class-action measure already has the support of a majority of committee members, bill supporters believe an affirmative vote from Feinstein means other like-minded Democrats in the full Senate will follow suit -- thus buoying the bill's chances of weathering an expected Democratic filibuster on the floor.