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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Leader Of The Nitty-Gritty Digital Band
by Bara Vaida
Fred McClure, the lead lobbyist and president of the new Alliance for Digital Progress, said that while he does not have the "nitty-gritty" grounding in high-tech issues, "I can run a computer. I am a man of the 21st century." And he added that plenty of people in the coalition can answer questions about software source code or online piracy if he cannot.
"I've been generally on the side of being against mandates all of my life," McClure said. "Will I learn more and have I learned a lot more about the nitty-gritty tech side of this? Yes ... but that isn't my job. My job is to evaluate what the government is doing and ... I don't have to be a tech specialist to talk about enforcing intellectual property laws and ... opposing tech mandates."
McClure, with the Winstead Sechrest & Minick law firm, said he was attracted to the alliance through the connections of several individuals involved with it, though he declined to say who. "We were approached ... around November because some of the folks involved in the coalition knew me from prior political experiences," McClure said. Some of that experience includes having shepherded through the Senate two controversial nominations -- John Ashcroft's nomination to be attorney general and Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court.
Still, the Texan with deep ties to the family of President Bush likes to keep out of the public eye. McClure, who likes to sprinkle his conversations with witticisms, joked during last month's press conference to launch the alliance that Hollywood is the group's "enemy" and then quickly corrected himself saying, "I mean the opposition."
Jack Valenti, president of Motion Picture Association of America, leaped on McClure's joke and challenged him to a rhetorical duel -- a public, one-on-one debate about online piracy. McClure declined, saying, "This [debate] isn't about me or Jack. ... This is about an issue that is important to consumers and the taxpayers ... and where we end up on a debate is immaterial."
Head Of Border, Transportation Security Chosen
Bush has announced that he intends to nominate Michael Garcia, to be assistant Homeland Security secretary for border and transportation security. Garcia is currently the acting commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and previously served as the assistant Commerce secretary for export enforcement.
From 1992 until 2001, he was assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he participated in the successful prosecution of four defendants in the first World Trade Center bombing trial. Garcia also previously worked as a law clerk for New York State Court of Appeals Judge Judith Kaye and at the Cahill Gordon & Reindel law firm.
Intellectual Property Agencies Make Changes
Jule Sigall has been named the Copyright Office's associate register for policy and international affairs. He will be on familiar ground, having worked on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the No Electronic Theft Act during a previous stint at the Office of Policy and International Affairs. In between those jobs, Sigall worked a senior associate in the intellectual property and technology practice of the Arnold & Porter law firm, where he specialized in copyright law and its application to new technologies.
Elsewhere on the intellectual property front, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has named Jo-Anne Barnard as the agency's chief financial and chief administrative officer. During the past seven years, Barnard has been director of PTO's Office of Space Acquisition and managed the selection and development of the agency's new campus in Alexandria, Va., which the agency will begin to occupy later this year.
Maria Campo, an attorney in PTO's Office of General Counsel, has been appointed director of the Office of Civil Rights. Campo has been at PTO for three years and has dealt extensively with labor, employment and civil rights issues. She also has several years of experience in the public, private and corporate sectors, primarily addressing employment and labor issues.
News At The Associations
The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) has hired Eva Wohn to be vice president of state affairs, a new department within CTIA's government affairs division. The group is responsible for the range of wireless issues emanating from state and local governments that have a national impact.
Wohn will work with industry and state officials to encourage cost-effective telecom solutions that address state concerns without diminishing the benefits consumers and businesses receive from having competitive wireless services. Wohn comes to CTIA from AT&T Wireless, where she was vice president of state and regulatory affairs. She was responsible for policy and compliance issues for all state activities affecting AT&T Wireless.
In other news, Erik Pages, policy director at the National Commission on Entrepreneurship, is leaving to start a consulting shop, EntreWorks Consulting. During his time at the commission, Pages worked on technology and economic development policy, including the issue of whether to mandate that businesses count stock options as expenses.
Pages previously was vice president at Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and also worked at the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration. Pages said that his new company would work with communities, organizations and civic leaders to design, implement and promote innovative economic development initiatives.
DCCC Hires Silicon Valley Fundraiser
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has named Brian Wolff as national finance director. Wolff has been a chief fundraiser for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for several years and has aided Pelosi in raising money to distribute to other House candidates.
A native of Little Rock, Ark., Wolff was the northern California/Silicon Valley fundraiser for Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000 and has worked on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
This Week's Honorees
FTC Chairman Timothy Muris has been named this year's recipient of the Privacy & American Business distinguished privacy leadership award. Muris is to accept the award at a dinner reception March 13. He won the award for his efforts at the FTC to address "important privacy issues through thoughtful approaches, which balance the concerns of consumers and the need of business to grow the economy."
At the award ceremony, Muris will speak about Internet privacy, spam, online privacy notices and information security on Web sites.
Meanwhile, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) honored Craig McCaw with its "industry legend" award last week for his work on creating a U.S. wireless network. CCIA said it presents the award only to executives, scientists, engineers and others who have made major contributions to the technology industry as a whole.
The association said it is presenting the award this year in recognition of McCaw's "tireless efforts to bring wireless communications to the masses." McCaw created a wireless network that AT&T purchased in 1994 and that is now AT&T Wireless.
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