Taxes
Ban On Some Internet Taxes Inches Toward Permanency
     The current ban on some Internet-related taxes, including those on Internet access, has moved one step closer to becoming permanent. The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill that was modified to make the definition of Internet access technology-neutral and to try to ensure that the fund designed to encourage affordable communications services would be unharmed by the ban. However, some senators expressed concern that the new definition is too broad, and they want changes to the legislation before it goes to the Senate floor. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., offered a substitute to his bill, S. 150, that would permanently extend the current moratorium, which expires in November. In addition to access taxes, the ban applies to multiple taxes on telecommunications firms that provide Internet connections and to "discriminatory" taxes that treat Internet activity differently than other commercial venues.

Privacy
Security Official Touts Advantages Of Updated Privacy Rules
     The Homeland Security Department's chief privacy officer had praise for the department's modified privacy rules. Nuala O'Connor Kelly said the proposed rules governing airline-passenger data represent a victory for limiting the collection of personal information. Although the new version says that individuals who have "outstanding state or federal arrest warrants for crimes of violence" may be flagged by the department's Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System, Kelly characterized the policy as narrower than the original version. She acknowledged "concerns about what appears to be a change" from previous Bush administration statements. Also this week, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a bill that would make federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies' funding contingent upon reporting to Congress how they use citizens' private information.

Privacy
White House Calls Critical Privacy Study 'Irresponsible'
     A new study by the General Accounting Office (GAO) found that government agencies are not adequately complying with the 1974 Privacy Act, which requires agencies to notify citizens before collecting personal information on them and prevents improper disclosure of data. But Bush administration officials who enforce the law disagreed. The GAO study surveyed privacy officers from 25 agencies and departments about their compliance with the law and found that compliance varied from 71 percent to 100 percent. Mark Forman, head of OMB's Office of E-Government and Information Technology, and John Graham, head of its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, countered GAO's claim, saying, "With all due respect, these statements border on the reckless and irresponsible."

Privacy
Treasury Chief Opposes Changes To Financial Privacy Law
     Treasury Secretary John Snow urged the Senate Banking Committee not to modify financial privacy provisions in a 1999 banking law as the panel works to reauthorize parts of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. "I think it's premature at this time," Snow told the panel, after Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, asked whether the administration would consider a shift from an "opt out" approach to sharing consumer information to an "opt in" policy. The former method lets financial institutions share customers' personal data unless they request otherwise; the latter approach forbids information sharing unless consumers directly authorize it first.

Net Governance
Senator Blasts ICANN, Commerce Department Officials
     The chairman of a key Senate subcommittee blasted the organization that oversees the Internet domain-name system for failures in security, accountability and representation, even as the organization's head and the responsible U.S. government official tried to defend it. The organization in question is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body created and overseen by the Commerce Department. Montana Republican Conrad Burns, chairman of the Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee, decried what he called ICANN'S continued shortcomings. He put Commerce on notice that it must report back by September on how it would ensure that ICANN addresses the shortcomings. Burns said he is considering introducing legislation designed to ensure that ICANN meets the principles drafted when the organization was created.

On the Hill
Panel Votes To Reauthorize NTIA, Restore Tech Program
     The Senate Commerce Committee voted to reauthorize the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for four years and to restore funding for a program that the Bush administration sought to eliminate. The legislation would authorize funding for NTIA and the Technology Opportunities Program through fiscal 2008. The bill, S. 1478, would authorize $18.9 million for NTIA in fiscal 2004 and gradually boost the agency's budget to $21.2 million by fiscal 2008. The Bush administration has proposed reorganizing the Commerce Department, where NTIA is housed, and folding NTIA and other technology and telecom programs into the Technology Administration, which also calls Commerce home. Congress would have to approve that change, and the administration recently forwarded related model legislation.

E-Commerce
WTO Ministerial Unlikely To Advance E-Commerce Policy
     As some World Trade Organization ministers meet in Montreal in an attempt to move trade negotiations, new reports on e-commerce issued by the WTO show that little progress is likely in that area. "There really wasn't any progress" on e-commerce issues, a WTO source said. While the issue touches many areas covered by the WTO, a key sticking point continues to delay it. That issue is whether to classify "virtual" products -- for instance, music or software purchased online and downloaded -- as goods or services. Barring a breakthrough on classification, there is little likelihood of significant developments on e-commerce issues at the full WTO ministerial in Cancun, Mexico, in September.

Intellectual Property
Patent Chief Compares P2P File Sharers to Shoplifters
     The head of the Patent and Trademark Office said intellectual property has come under increasing attack because of copyright infringement on peer-to-peer computer networks and arguments that compare patent holders to monopolists. "The foundation of the intellectual property system for over 200 years is now being weakened in the halls of academia and the homes of most people that own computers," James Rogan said at a Frontiers of Freedom Institute. "Taking songs off the Internet is no different from walking into Tower Records" and shoplifting. "It is someone else's private property, it is their creation, and they have the right to determine how it will be disseminated and how they will be compensated."