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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Consumed With Consumer Issues
by Sarah Lai Stirland
Jay Keithley, formerly the director of government relations and regulatory counsel at PCIA, The Wireless Infrastructure Association, has been named deputy chief for policy of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.
The position's profile became more prominent last year when the FTC and FCC started implementing and enforcing the national "do not call" list against unwanted telemarketing.
Keithley's other responsibilities include oversight of the consumer policy division, the disability rights office and the reference information center. The divisions focus on: "slamming," the practice of changing consumers' telephone service without their consent; the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and public access to the commission's public documents.
He succeeds Margaret Egler, who transferred to the FCC's Enforcement Bureau in San Diego in May. She is now counsel for the FCC's Western region.
A Busy Global Workload at AeA
The technology trade group AeA has a new senior vice president for international issues. Rob Mulligan, formerly an assistant vice president of international external affairs for Chubb Corp., joined AeA last week. He succeeds Tim Bennett, who is now AeA's chief operating officer.
Mulligan's new job sounds busy. A press release on his appointment says, "In his new position based in Washington, D.C., Rob will manage the international policy staff, oversee the office in Brussels, assist with management of a Beijing office, and represent AeA on international issues before the U.S. Congress and the U.S. and foreign governments."
The Lowdown On Tech Lobbying
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association has hired Catherine Nolan of the Jenner & Block law firm to lobby on cable, internet, broadband and telecommunications legislation. She is a former vice president for law and public policy at Time Warner and former counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Also on the lobbying front, Codespear, a software development company based in Birmingham, Mich., has registered to lobby on bills impacting the evolution of emergency communications. The company has hired Rhonda Grant of the Grant Consulting Group to do the work. Codespear develops software that enables people to communicate with each other during emergencies.
Harris Wiltshire & Grannis snagged a trio of new tech clients this month. They include Digital Broadband Applications Corp., DirecTV and Psvratings, a company based in Los Angeles that provides rates profanity, sex and violence in various forms of entertainment.
For DBAC, the law firm will lobby lawmakers about deployment opportunities for the digital company's wireless, high-speed Internet system for "first responders" to emergencies, according to a lobbying registration statement. For DirecTV, Harris Wiltshire & Grannis has registered to lobby on the transition to digital television and other TV policy issues. And Psvratings hired the law firm to lobby on issues related to broadcast indecency and the media's impact on children.
Intel, meanwhile, has hired Bill Phillips, a partner at Ryan Phillips Utrecht & Mckinnon, to lobby on financial reporting and accounting standards.
Jack Valenti Makes The Rounds
The new Personal Technology Freedom Coalition has touted its frequent trips to the offices of many members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection to tout a copyright bill. But three sponsors of the measure last week warned the coalition that it faces stiff lobbying competition.
The legislation, H.R. 107, would require entertainment companies to label copy-protected compact discs and digital videodiscs. The labels would warn consumers that the products might not operate in their players because of the copy-protection mechanisms. The bill also would allow consumers to bypass those mechanisms in order to make legal copies of digital content.
Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., noted in a press conference last week that he had heard that Jack Valenti, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), personally visited every member of the subcommittee and spent a half-hour with each to discuss the bill.
Texas Republican Joe Barton, the chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, also noted that Valenti has given him plenty of attention. "He had me out for dinner at his house last week. I've been in Congress for 20 years and it's the first time he's invited me," Barton deadpanned at the coalition's press conference.
An MPAA spokesman would not comment on its specific lobbying activities but called the legislation flawed and added, "We want to make sure all the members are aware of it."
Porn Parodies: John Ashcroft Exposed
Attorney General John Ashcroft has made it clear that one of his top priorities is to curtail pornography in any medium. Now he has become the leading man in a series of erotic video parodies published online by Nerve.
The company, which publishes sex-related books, online and offline magazines, and movies, is sponsoring a contest for the parodies of the attorney general. Judges have chosen 12 finalists among the one-minute videos, and those videos can be viewed online. Three of them can be viewed for free, and all seven are available for a $7 charge to credit cards.
Nerve asks viewers to rate the videos. It plans to announce the winners of the contest and the popular vote sometime after July 14. The creator of the winning video will receive $1,000.
"We created the contest because we've heard anecdotally that quite a few people have fantasies about our attorney general, an artistic muse even, and we wanted to provide an outlet for that passion," joked Rufus Griscom, Nerve.com's chief executive officer and publisher.
He noted that 99 percent of Nerve's audience is college educated, 37 percent have graduate degrees, and a third is in the arts, entertainment and journalism industries. "I think it's fair to say that among that demographic, our attorney general is widely disparaged," Griscom said.
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