Security
Va. Shooting Spurs Technology Criticism And Planning
     This week's massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg has cast an unflattering light on communications practices at college campuses but also has brought attention to disaster-response technologies that may thwart future tragedy. Many observers have questioned whether the second shooting in a classroom building might have been prevented by better information-sharing technology, allowing officials to implement a lockdown after the first attack across campus two hours earlier. Thirty-three people were killed. "[T]here's no place in our society that should have been more on top of real-time, location-based info-sharing about something of this sort than a college campus because ... let alone a technology one," said W. David Stephenson, a crisis management expert. He pointed to geographically targeted messaging services for distributing emergency alerts to mobile devices and also said the university should have had a process for students to submit digital photographs and videos to increase situational awareness.

Intellectual Property
Long-Awaited Patent Bill Eyes 'First-To-File' Regime
     A sweeping bill to institute a "first-to-file" patent regime in the United States was unveiled Wednesday after months of negotiations with intellectual property stakeholders. The proposed change would give priority to the first person to send a patent application to the Patent and Trademark Office, regardless of the invention date. The United States is the lone holdout among nations with "first-to-invent" policies. The new legislation would preserve the rule that court-awarded damages in patent disputes cannot be less than a "reasonable royalty" for the infringed patent. It would limit the defense in "willful infringement" cases, in which a patent is challenged because the holder did not operate in good faith in its application. The bill would restrict "forum shopping" for courts thought most likely to issue favorable rulings, and it would institute a "second window" for challengers to disprove a patent's validity.

Competitiveness
Senators, Administration Clash Over Research Aid
     Senators and senior Bush administration scientists agreed on the need for an increase in basic research funding but had a few differences in how that should be done. A Senate Commerce Science, Technology and Innovation Subcommittee hearing gave the directors of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Science Foundation, and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy a chance to comment on Congress' plans to authorize an increase in basic research funds. Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., noted that such federally funded research led to digital mammograms and to the Internet itself. During questioning, Kerry criticized the administration for proposing flat to decreasing funds for basic research until recently. But OSTP Director John Marburger said some programs "need to be consolidated and optimized." In related news, a House Science and Technology subcommittee approved a bill that would reauthorize programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Campaigns
Sen. Obama's Fundraising Gets Notice Online And Off
     Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton topped the presidential fundraising charts for Democrats and Republicans in the first quarter of 2007, with $19.1 million in contributions and several million dollars more transferred from her Senate campaign fund. But Sen. Barack Obama finished a close second, with nearly $25 million, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, described Obama's fundraising as "remarkable on two fronts -- the number of contributions and the Internet part of it." Obama raised money from 100,000 donors to Clinton's 50,000, and claimed $6.9 million was raised online to Clinton's $4.2 million. Mitt Romney, currently the top fundraiser among Republican presidential candidates, counts California as his top state, with $1.2 million coming from southern California and $781,450 from the San Francisco Bay area. Romney was the only one to release online fundraising figures to the media, claiming $7.2 million in Internet dollars.

Intellectual Property
Web Radio Effort Launched As Royalties Are Upheld
     The lion's share of radio listeners probably have never heard of Reno, Nevada-based world-beat band Sol'Jibe, but if a recently approved music-royalty rate hike takes effect, the group argues that it will have an even harder time finding new fans. Sol'Jibe and other independent musicians have joined small recording labels and Internet radio providers to protest last month's Copyright Royalty Board ruling that webcasters should pay a higher fee to major labels beginning May 15. Backers of the SaveNetRadio initiative said the board's decision would increase rates that webcasters pay to play music by as much as 1,200 percent and would require a $500-per-station/per-channel minimum royalty. Such a structure could quickly put online radio stations out of business, the group warned. The creation of SaveNetRadio coincided with the royalty board's announcement that it will not rehear the case, despite pleas from some of the parties involved.

Digital Television
Lawmaker Is 'Terrified' By Fallout From Switch To DTV
     The potential public outcry if consumers are ill-informed about the transition to digital television troubles the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FCC budget. "I'm just terrified of what's going to happen here if people have no clue what's coming their way," Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said at a hearing. "I suspect that this will become a major issue, and it's going to hit in a way where folks are just going to be running to us [to complain]." Serrano cited a recent National Association of Broadcasters survey showing that 56 percent of viewers who watch analog-based broadcasts on older television sets "have never seen, read or heard anything" about the digital TV transition. At the NAB convention in Las Vegas, meanwhile, FCC Democrat Michael Copps raised dire concerns about the DTV transition. "We have got to start really taking this seriously," he said.

Telecom
Rep. Stupak Advocates Rural Broadband, USF Changes
     Federal programs that help rural communities provide new and better communications services must be preserved and improved, Rep. Bart Stupak told the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. The Michigan Democrat and co-chairman of the Congressional Rural Caucus' telecommunications task force said an Agriculture Department program that provides loans for high-speed Internet service must be reauthorized and could benefit from a funding boost. The Rural Utility Service, whose loan guarantees are set to expire Sept. 30, has provided about $1 billion in loans in the last five years, Stupak said. "That's not enough, but it's a good start," he said, pledging to shepherd the program through the reauthorization process as part of a forthcoming farm bill. Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher, meanwhile, said the so-called network neutrality debate has made it hard for lawmakers to move on other telecom issues like video-franchising, and he does not expect the dispute will be resolved anytime soon.