Courts
Supreme Court Nominee Once Represented Tech Firms
     Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers represented Microsoft and other technology industry clients in her previous employment as an attorney in Texas. President Bush nominated Miers, currently the White House counsel and a longtime Bush adviser, to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Bush said Miers "will strictly interpret our Constitution and laws." As a trial attorney at the Texas law firm of Locke Liddell & Sapp, Miers' clients included Microsoft, SunGard Data Systems and the Walt Disney Company. She also is listed as an attorney in a patent-infringement case against Microsoft and Yahoo in an opinion published this August by a federal district court in Texas. Not much is known about Miers' views on privacy and intellectual property.

Lobbying
Rural Groups Join Fight For Universal Service
     Four rural telecommunications lobbying groups have formed a coalition to fight for preservation of the universal service fund as Congress considers updating the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Coalition to Keep America Connected is backed by the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, the National Telephone Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, and the Western Alliance. The $6.5 billion fund, known as USF, is based on user fees from telephone customers. Some of the money is distributed to rural carriers to help offset the high cost of providing telecom service to their customers. The fund has come under increasing pressure as more carriers dip into it and fewer are paying in. Separately, FTC Chairwoman Deborah Majoras endorsed a Senate bill designed to improve the commission's ability to pursue purveyors of secretly installed computer "spyware" who are located abroad.

Digital Television
Broadcasters Press For 'Must Carry' Mandate
     Broadcasters affiliated with CBS, NBC and independent religious stations are pressuring the Senate to require that cable operators "must carry" their multicasting signals -- at least for local television programming. Broadcast industry officials are negotiating with Senate Commerce Committee staff to ensure that cable operators carry three or more hours a week of local programming on multicast channels -- additional channels made possible by digital TV technology. On Oct. 19, the committee plans to debate legislation mandating a fixed date in 2009 by which analog broadcasts must cease. Broadcasters are seeking the must-carry requirement in exchange for agreeing to the fixed date, but it is not clear whether the panel will agree. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders have rejected multicasting, but Senate committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, personally wants some form of multicasting in the bill.

Broadband
Entire Va. City Can Connect To Web Via Power Lines
     The city of Manassas, Va., became the first municipality in the United States to have citywide deployment of high-speed Internet access over power lines. Residents have had access to such broadband-over-power-line technology (BPL) in increments over the last two years thanks to a public-private partnership between Manassas utility officials and Chantilly-based Communication Technologies. COMTek provides the Web-hosting services and takes care of customer issues, while Manassas utility workers install COMTek equipment on power lines, COMTek founder and CEO Joseph Fergus said at a press conference here. The city now has about 700 existing customers, with 500 more people waiting to be processed, he said. Roughly 12,500 households have the option to connect to Manassas BPL. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., was on hand "to learn" about the benefits of BPL, he said, and to champion telecommuting as an option for those now equipped with broadband service.

Broadband
Telecom Experts Slam Fiber Municipal Networks
     A majority of high-speed Internet networks run by cities are financially hazardous investments that harm competition, according to a new study. The report, authored by former Legg Mason analyst Michael Balhoff and ex-Montana Public Service Commission Chairman Bob Rowe, found that most municipal fiber networks are running growing deficits. They also have performed poorly in terms of penetration, revenue, net profitability and returns on investment. The 205-page report was funded privately by telecommunications firms, but independently authored and reviewed by a series of independent networks. Former FCC Chairman William Kennard and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson have endorsed it. Although less data was available on municipal wireless networks, the report found that local governments considering networks based on the Wi-Fi technology are likely to underestimate operating costs and ongoing capital, and are overly optimistic of potential penetration rates and revenue.

Budget
'First Responder' Aid Set To Increase Only Slightly
     Despite urgent demands after Hurricane Katrina that "first responders" must be able to talk to each other, emergency personnel are set to receive only slightly more for new communications gear in fiscal 2006 than the amount initially proposed by President Bush in February. House and Senate negotiators on next year's spending bill for the Homeland Security Department last week agreed to provide $27 million to develop technology and expand initiatives on interoperable communications equipment. The amount is $15 million less than the House backed in May. The Senate's version included $15 million, and Bush requested $21 million. The two chambers are slated to debate the compromise spending bill later this week. Officials have been working to solve the interoperability problem since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when firefighters in New York City were unable to communicate during the crisis. The problem surfaced again last month when first responders in the Gulf Coast area could not talk after Hurricane Katrina.

Intellectual Property
Amazon.com In Court Dispute With 'Patent Troll' Firm
     For companies that have been dubbed "patent trolls," their conduct is not illegal, but critics say it is unethical. The term, coined by a former assistant general counsel for Intel, often is used to describe firms that work the system by acquiring patents for key technological ideas. They then seek settlements from companies that could be infringing on their patents. The firms often propose expensive licensing deals with large companies, or threaten or initiate patent-infringement litigation. Whether the law should protect such firms and companies that follow their creed came into sharp focus Tuesday during oral arguments between the online retailer Amazon.com and patent licensor IPXL. Arlington, Va.-based IPXL is appealing an August 2004 decision from a Virginia federal district court that sided with Amazon. The court said that IPXL had no basis to sue Amazon because Amazon's "one-click" ordering system does not infringe upon IPXL's patent on electronic funds transfer and transaction systems.

Government Reform
New Blog Serves As Place To Rant About Uncle Sam
     Government employees have a new place to sound off, and journalists have another source for information. A Washington-based nonprofit this week launched an online forum for federal workers to voice their thoughts on the best and worst of government's deeds. Understanding Government, a foundation dedicated to improving the performance of the executive branch by helping journalists cover it, started a free and anonymous online forum to cultivate discussion. The forum works like a typical Web log, or blog. Participants can respond to entries or post their own thoughts on government dealings, and Understanding Government administrators will include some of those comments on the home page. In other news, the Health and Human Services Department has awarded to public-private partners three contracts totaling $17.5 million to drive the adoption of health information technology.