Culture
Sen. Stevens Touts Progress Against TV, Radio 'Indecency'
     Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens this week nearly declared victory in the battle over transmitting "indecent" material on television or radio, whether delivered by broadcast, over cable or via satellite. At the conclusion of a hearing on decency, the Alaska Republican took credit for industry developments leading to new options for households served by 70 percent of pay-television providers. One development came at the hearing, where EchoStar Communications CEO Charles Ergen unveiled the satellite company's family tier of 40 channels for $19.99. "Everyone should recognize that what we have done so far has brought about a great change with regard to cable and satellite and broadcasting," Stevens said. "We are trying to find a way to find a bill that will improve the condition of American families."

Porn
Senators Try To Grasp Why Online Porn Is Rampant
     Senate Commerce Committee members sought answers from the Bush administration, from technology companies and from each other as to why pornography has become so prevalent on the Internet. "For years, this committee has wrestled with pornography and the issues that come with it," Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said at a hearing. "The growth of the Internet allows salacious material to be distributed far more easily to children." Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he wanted to find ways to help families filter Internet porn just as pay-television customers can avoid material they find objectionable through a family tier. "I don't think we should make up our mind about what to do with the over-the-air and cable and satellite [content] before we look at this problem on the Internet, which in my opinion is greater than all of the others," Stevens said.

Culture
Search Engines Don Role As Gatekeepers Of Smut
     Leading search engines strive to deliver accurate results, but most also quietly offer filters to those wishing to avoid online smut. Some of the indecency sentinels work better than others. Google offers its SafeSearch filter for both Web and image searches. The filter can be reached through the "preferences" link to the right of the Google logo. Users can choose between three settings: no filtering, moderate or strict. The setting also stays in place for subsequent searches through new browsers. Technology Daily covered various aspects of the "indecency" debate in the run-up this week's Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the subject. Other stories that ran this week covered international perspectives on indecency, pornography via cell phones and iPods, and Internet filtering technology.

Broadband
FCC's Copps Warns Of Communications Domination
     FCC Commissioner Michael Copps ratcheted up the debate over "network neutrality," with warnings that the Internet is under threat of domination by communications giants. "The more concentrated that our facilities providers become, the more they have the ability -- and possibly even the incentive -- to act as Internet gatekeepers," he said at a news conference conducted by the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and Free Press. "Our open and vibrant and freewheeling Internet is to me the last place on earth where we should tolerate gatekeeper controls," Copps argued, adding that the Web "wasn't built to be that way." He made his remarks as members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from both parties seek to finalize language on neutrality and other issues in a draft telecommunications bill floated by Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Republican colleagues.

Lobbying
Cable Rivals And Their Allies Challenge Adelphia Deal
     Two satellite television providers and a third company that competes with cable television announced a coalition with other groups to seek conditions on the plan by Comcast and Time Warner to acquire Adelphia Communications. Cable rivals DirecTV, EchoStar Communications and RCN joined with The America Channel, Center for Creative Voices in Media, Media Access Project and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network to form the Competition and Diversity Coalition on the Adelphia Transaction. The coalition wants the FCC or FTC, both of which are considering the merger package, to bar Comcast and Time Warner from discriminating against competitors in the distribution of content.

Security
FBI Chief Stands Firm In Defending Anti-Terrorism Law
     FBI Director Robert Mueller stood fast in his defense of the USA PATRIOT Act and said Congress should reauthorize and expand the 2001 anti-terrorism law. Speaking at a breakfast, Mueller told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that pending legislation to renew the law includes provisions to better protect civil liberties than under the current law. The chamber opposes the pending reauthorization bill. Meanwhile, military technology experts met this week to discuss strategies to manage a major base realignment and base closures, and the challenges and opportunities presented for the tech community.

Security
Chertoff Touts Multipurpose ID Cards, Defends ID Law
     Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he intends to invest in technology that will allow identification cards to serve multiple purposes, but he stopped short of advocating a national identification card. He said the department ought to be building toward the creation of a single, secure card embedded with biometric information and capable of working across jurisdictions. In other news, Chairman Christopher Cox of the Securities and Exchange Commission reiterated his push for modernizing the agency's technology system by calling for all companies to have access to interactive data for financial reporting within months.

Telecom
Media Experts Discuss Telecom Landscape For 2006
     Media ownership, Internet neutrality and video franchising are likely to be the biggest issues in telecommunications and media reform for 2006, three officials from the nonprofit activist group Free Press said. Two co-founders of Free Press spoke on Capitol Hill at an event organized by the Future of American Media Caucus, a group of left-leaning Democratic representatives and Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt. The Free Press officials outlined a broad critique of the FCC, the media and mainstream journalism. "I would argue that we are in a critical juncture" -- one of three or four in the history of the American republic -- where the policies affecting communications and the media will be set for decades to come, said Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor and co-founder of the group.