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Editor’s Note: As of today, our Tech Daily Dose blog, written primarily by Senior Writer Andrew Noyes, is a permanent feature of the site.
Intellectual Property
Copyright Board Proposes Royalties For Web Radio
by Andrew Noyes
The U.S. governmental body charged with determining royalties on sound recordings released to stakeholders on Friday a decision setting the per-performance rates for Internet radio stations through 2010.
In doing so, the Copyright Royalty Board rejected the requests of smaller online music providers that sought royalty rates based on a percentage of revenue. The three-judge panel said that contingent now will pay what larger webcasters and broadcasters pay.
The minimum fee will be $500 per channel, per year, but there is no clear definition of what constitutes a "channel," said Dave Oxenford, an attorney representing several webcasters involved in the case. SoundExchange will administer the fees.
Larger, noncommercial webcasters, which exceed the usage limitation covered by a flat $500 fee, also would face "huge new royalties," Oxenford said on his Web log. Overages would climb to more than four times the rate they pay now, he said.
Under the new rates, webcasters would pay for each song streamed to each user. In 2006, they would pay $0.0008 to stream one song to one listener, and the cost would increase to $.0011 in 2007, $.0014 in 2008, $.0018 in 2009 and $.0019 in 2010.
The parties had until noon Monday to request that the board keep portions of the decision that contain confidential proprietary information out of the public record, so the text of the decision was not immediately made public.
The ruling covers non-interactive webcasters, which operate like a radio station where no listener can dictate which artists or songs will be heard, Oxenford said. The decision also pertains to the Web transmissions of the over-the-air content of most broadcast stations.
Satellite radio pays similar royalties, as do services that provide background music to businesses, Oxenford said. Separate proceedings are under way to determine rates for those entities.
SoundExchange spokesman Willem Dicke said the decision "provides a fair basis for governing the webcasting industry [by] ensuring fair compensation to recording artists and record companies while implementing gradual increases that permit webcasters to grow their business."
The rate increases occur as Internet giants such as America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo, and radio station conglomerates such as Clear Channel "continue to see exponential growth in their revenues from webcasting," he said.
There is an appeals process, Oxenford said. Petitions for rehearing can be filed with the board, and appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia can be filed 30 days after the decision is published in the Federal Register, he said.
Oxenford, who has spoken with other webcaster parties, said it is "safe to say that all are disappointed with the outcome and are weighing next steps." His clients, which include Accuradio, Radio Paradise and others, are "very concerned" because the lack of a percentage of revenue option "essentially puts them out of business" as royalties rise.
Clear Channel, National Public Radio and Royalty Logic, which provides licensing and royalty management, did not return requests for comment by our deadline.
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Intellectual Property
Tool To Fight Global IP Infringement Faces Criticism
by Winter Casey
The Bush administration last week called the annual review of other countries' success in protecting intellectual property an "essential element" in engaging U.S. trading partners, but some public-interest advocates do not share that view and one lawmaker has called for a review of the tool for gauging global IP enforcement.
The list, known as Special 301, is published by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in April. U.S. trading partners placed on it are watched closely and can risk losing trade privileges if they fail to make enforcement progress.
"The administration will be intensifying its efforts in constructive engagement with the trading partners" included in the Special 301 report in hopes of achieving stronger IP regimes, the Bush administration said in its 2007 trade policy agenda released last week.
The tool has received support from both industry and members of Congress.
"Special 301 has proven to be an invaluable tool in identifying IP barriers to trade and achieving an end to those barriers," Californian Wally Herger, the House Ways and Means Committee Trade Subcommittee ranking Republican, said in a Monday statement.
Additionally, the International Intellectual Property Alliance, whose members include the Business Software Alliance and the Motion Picture Association of America, has applauded the list as a way to advise the U.S. government about impediments to IP protection in global markets. The group has submitted its recommendations on what countries should be considered in this year's review.
But others have criticized the trade tool for being ineffective and bad foreign policy.
"Special 301 has been a very effective tool for strong-arming U.S. trading partners into adopting American IP laws and conforming their laws to the wishes of U.S. content industry groups like the MPAA and Recording Industry Association of America," said Jason Schultz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The tool "raises serious ethical concerns about using the threat of trade sanctions to effect changes in other countries' laws in light of different legal and cultural traditions," he said.
Michael Geist, an e-commerce legal expert at the University of Ottawa in Canada, said Special 301 "frequently boils down to 'do what I say, not what I do.'"
Robert Weissman of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group, said "Special 301 is a tool by which copyright-based and other industries use the machinery of the U.S. government to pressure countries to create information monopolies that go beyond the levels required under international IP law. It should be scrapped."
Special 301 has received some critical scrutiny on Capitol Hill this year. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he would like a review of it and other trade tools to see if they are still effective, according to a Baucus aide. The tools were developed "at a very different time in our international economy," the aide noted.
Herger added: "As with all of our tools, we continually evaluate Special 301 to make sure it serves its purpose as effectively as possible. I am happy to consider mechanisms to improve it if they are effective and consistent with our own World Trade Organization and free-trade agreement obligations."
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Competitiveness
Senate Leaders Join Forces In Pushing Innovation Bill
by Heather Greenfield
Senate leaders have found an international battle they agree on -- American competitiveness. On Monday afternoon, they shared a podium to introduce the America Competes Act.
The legislation would increase funding for basic research by doubling the National Science Foundation's budget over five years, faster than earlier proposals by both President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The measure also would keep the Energy Department's science office on track to double its funding over 10 years by increasing funding from $3.6 billion in 2006 to $5.2 billion by 2011.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology would be directed to reserve 8 percent of its yearly funding for "high-risk, high-reward innovation acceleration research."
"The America Competes Act of 2007 will ensure that our nation's citizens are armed with the critical math and science resources and skills they need to succeed in the areas of science, technology and research," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joined Reid, as did: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.; Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; and GOP Sens. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.
"To keep our competitive edge, we need to embrace technology and ensure that our children receive a stronger education in the core subjects of mathematics and science," said Commerce Science, Technology and Innovation Subcommittee Ranking Republican John Ensign of Nevada.
Under the bill, NSF would host summer training workshops for thousands of math and science teachers, and states could compete for grants to better match teaching with skills needed by future employers. The national labs would create partnerships with local, "high-need high schools to establish centers of excellence in math and science education."
The National Academies of Science would conduct a study to identify "forms of risk that create barriers to innovation." The 2005 NAS report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" and its recommendations have been a blueprint for legislation on competitiveness.
The new bill also would establish a president's council on innovation to develop a comprehensive agenda to promote competitiveness. Currently, the Commerce Department has an advisory committee on competitiveness, which met for the first time last week.
"If Congress approves this new funding for research and education in math and science," said Electronic Industries Alliance President and CEO Charlie Robinson, "American companies and workers will be more competitive and prosperous for years to come."
"With this proposal as a bipartisan starting point, we hope congressional leaders can now move toward enacting many of these initiatives this year," Robinson added.
"This legislation, coupled with a permanent [research and development] tax credit and reforms that enable employers to hire top foreign talent from U.S. universities, will ensure a strong foundation for continued growth and innovation," said Paula Collins of Texas Instruments.
With the bipartisan team on board in the Senate, the only obstacle may be House. Pelosi has proposed similar ideas in her innovation agenda but also has promised not to raise the deficit.
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E-Government
Prosecutors Brainstorm About Tracking Sex Offenders
by Michael Martinez
State prosecutors on Monday traded notes with federal law enforcers on how to comply with legislation mandating uniform standards for sex-offender management systems.
At the spring meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General, law enforcers at the federal and state levels agreed that they need to combine their resources in implementing the so-called Adam Walsh Act, a 2006 law that created nationwide standards for registering and supervising sex offenders. The law was named after the murdered son of John Walsh, the host of the television program "America's Most Wanted" and a co-founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Laura Rogers, coordinator of the Justice Department office tasked with implementing the law, said she expects specific guidelines for state compliance within a few weeks for a public comment period. She said the rules are the top priority of her office and are in the final draft stages before a departmental review.
John Clark, director of the U.S. Marshals Service, said it is imperative that states take aggressive steps to account for all sex offenders. He said states are setting themselves up for failure if they wait for sex offenders to approach them about registering.
He also said state law enforcers will have access to the full resources of his organization as they improve their systems for tracking and prosecuting sex offenders. "We intend to be the muscle behind this act," Clark said.
Cara Smith, the policy director for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, said it is important for state law enforcers to understand that the Adam Walsh Act only outlines certain things that they should be doing at a minimum. "These regulations are a floor, not a ceiling," she said.
Madigan said the Internet has made it more difficult for law enforcers to tackle the problem because sex offenders who used to stalk children at schools and playgrounds now can contact at them at home online. She said adults need to take it upon themselves to learn more about how their children are using the Web and who they are contacting.
John Walsh said law enforcers should be able to overcome the technical difficulties of tracking sex offenders. He said a government capable of developing technologies for manned space exploration should also be able to track its most dangerous criminals.
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Telecom
Web Activist Calls For Dynamic Internet Structure
by Andrew Noyes
SILVER SPRING, Md. -- Preserving a dynamic Internet infrastructure uninfluenced by powerful telecommunications companies is essential for a thriving, user-empowered, 21st-century economy, the producer of an annual grassroots Web summit said Monday.
David Isenberg, a networking consultant and former AT&T technical expert, told the Freedom to Connect conference that the Internet is "more than just a series of tubes." "It is not a truck. It's not a basket of apples," he said in skewering Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, whose similarly worded attempts at describing how the Internet works last year drew ire by critics.
The Internet is "a place to meet each other, to make friends, to buy stuff, to express ourselves, to do deals and to exchange information," Isenberg said. A next-generation Web that is unobstructed and "always on" is "worth fighting for," he said.
Isenberg warned that the Internet of the future will either be one "we're afraid telcos will build for us" or one that "we ourselves create." The Web as it currently exists "owes everything to the end-to-end principle" and has been a miraculous invention "because it is stupid and because we, at its edges, are smart," he said.
Mike McCurry and Chris Wolf, who chair the AT&T-funded Hands Off the Internet coalition, said: "Consumers need a faster, better, smarter Internet and the proponents of net neutrality want to stick us with a slower, stupid Internet. How does that make sense?"
Whatever the future brings, Isenberg said three factors will remain: "Technology will continue to advance; the fundamental human need to create and communicate will persist; and the rich and powerful will do whatever they can to preserve their money and power."
But the U.S. government has a long history of succumbing to pressure by incumbent monopolies, Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said. AT&T, for example, was a "government-granted monopoly from the beginning," she said.
Sohn said she is "somewhat optimistic" that during the 110th Congress, activists will be able to push back on government-created problems -- like inefficiencies in the copyright and patent system -- that may negatively impact the high-tech arena.
Internet communities have transformed the way people participate in American culture but have yet to result in a change in policy, Sohn said. Groups like MoveOn.org helped stop what she called a "bad telecom bill" last year, but she wants to see online grassroots activists actually get something passed. That would be a real indicator of the power of digital networks."
Also at the conference, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas spoke about his ambitious plan to create the first "e-state" in the country. He has set out to achieve 100 percent high-speed Internet penetration and cellular telephone service across his small, rural state by 2010.
Douglas said his model would revolutionize the state's telecommunications infrastructure and build a basis for job creation and growth. The highly localized system also "would redefine citizen involvement," he promised.
Vermonters' access to broadband already has grown from 65 percent to 87 percent, Douglas said, admitting that "the last 10 percent will be the hardest to serve." "It's a bold vision for our state. For me, it's more than an image. I believe it can be a reality and it must be," he said. "We don't want to just catch up, we want to lead."
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Intellectual Property
Patent Office Criticizes 'Unintended File-Sharing'
by Andrew Noyes
Distributors of five popular file-sharing programs repeatedly deployed features that they knew or should have known could cause users to inadvertently swap content stored on their computers, a new report by the Patent and Trademark Office said Monday.
The report reviews public data about the behavior of BearShare, eDonkey, Kazaa, LimeWire and Morpheus, all of which have been targets of lawsuits by the entertainment industry. Investigators did not examine programs like BitTorrent because of their "significantly different architecture and functionality," according to PTO.
Congressional hearings in 2003 called attention to the practice after research indicated inadvertent sharing could be caused by "search wizard" and "share folder" features. After the hearings, many distributors banned those features, but in subsequent years many of the same firms deployed more aggressive versions, the study revealed.
Some distributors also launched other applications, like "partial uninstall" and "coerced sharing" features, that had a known or obvious potential to cause inadvertent sharing, the report said. Recent versions of that software make it difficult, but possible, for users to stop sharing downloaded files.
"Computer programs that can cause unintended file-sharing contribute to copyright infringement, and they threaten the security of personal, corporate and governmental data," PTO Director Jon Dudas said in a press release.
Such vulnerabilities were highlighted in a 2005 warning by the Homeland Security Department that government employees who had used file-sharing programs to download music, movies and games had compromised national security by exposing files with sensitive or classified data.
Progress and Freedom Foundation senior fellow Jim DeLong pointed to a number of stories in recent years about unauthorized peer-to-peer programs "gulling users into becoming inadvertent sharers of not only copyrighted materials but their own personal information." The PTO study shows the reports are "not urban legends but real and serious problems."
The "evil impact" of the services on the content industries is only part of the problem, DeLong said. He said he hopes that enforcement agencies like the Justice Department, FTC and state attorneys general are "paying attention."
But Mary Lafferty, who runs the Distributed Computing Industry Association, which represents P2P firms, said his members are tackling security problems. The group has offered PTO assistance in accelerating P2P protections and plans to assemble a working group to respond to the report's concerns, he said.
"As copyright holders are becoming more comfortable with P2P technologies, which offer far greater efficiency at much lower cost than competing distribution methodologies, it is important that consumer safety concerns also be addressed," he said.
Lafferty noted that of the five services cited in the study, eDonkey has ceased operation; Kazaa is re-launching as an entertainment industry-sanctioned program; BearShare was acquired by iMesh and converted into a filtered P2P service; and Morpheus and LimeWire are revamping.
David Sohn of the Center for Democracy and Technology added that since the 2005 MGM v. Grokster Supreme Court ruling on file-sharing, the music industry "has had pretty good success forcing file-sharing software distributors to shut down" or make major operational changes.
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Education
Universities Ponder Move To Outside E-Mail Providers
by Aliya Sternstein
The University of Pennsylvania is in talks with Google and Microsoft to outsource student e-mail accounts to either Google's Gmail service or Microsoft's Windows Live Mail.
University officials have not decided which of the institution's 12 schools will switch to the outside vendor, but Penn's School of Arts and Sciences and its Wharton School of business are leading the effort, according to Ira Winston, executive director of computing and educational technology services for SAS.
Wharton Chief Information Officer Deirdre Woods confirmed that the business school is looking at a possible Google or Microsoft solution for its students.
"E-mail service has reached commodity status and can be provided as well, if not better, by outside vendors," he stated. "In addition, outside vendors are providing services like calendaring and social-networking that we don't currently provide to students." Both Google and Microsoft offer free campus e-mail hosting with commerical ads displayed.
Student e-mail accounts still will bear the university's upenn.edu ending but will come prepackaged with the vendor's popular online features, including calendar, address book and social-networking. Current students are not required to migrate, but incoming students will automatically be connected to the new system.
Penn has not chosen a provider yet, so the timeframe for rollout is unknown, Winston said.
Microsoft spokesman Keith Hodson said Penn is but one example of institutions contemplating Microsoft's free Windows Live @ edu program, which offers e-mail, instant-messaging, Web logs, mobile access and campus alerts.
Microsoft currently hosts e-mail for about 200 schools worldwide, including Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. "We can say it may be a fit for some universities. But is it a trend for all universities to outsource their e-mail [and calendaring and messaging services]?" Hodson said. "I would say it's just too early to say."
Penn's existing e-mail system crashed numerous times last semester. One episode in December left students deprived of e-mail access for 18 hours.
Google deferred to Penn's comments on the potential partnership.
Like Microsoft, Google offers a campus-tailored e-mail suite that resembles its popular commercial services. Google Apps Education includes up to 10 gigabytes of Gmail storage, instant-messaging, calendar and addresses. The free product also contains Google's new Web-based word processor and spreadsheet applications. Arizona State University was Google's first school deployment, according to the company.
Google and Microsoft can maintain students' e-mail accounts after they graduate, if the university chooses to let the students retain their addresses. Some colleges, like Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, transition graduates to alumni e-mail accounts and retire their student addresses.
Jeff Keltner, an enterprise specialist for collaboration products at Google, stated: "Our vision is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google Apps for Education gives universities an easy way to deliver online collaboration and communications tools to the entire community.
"Since Google manages the hardware and software, administrators are freed from having to install and manage software on their servers, and can direct those limited resources to more strategic education initiatives."
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On The Download
Democrats Build A New System To Target Voters
by Shira Toeplitz, The Hotline
While Republicans have been able to streamline their state files into a smooth-running turnout machine over the past few cycles, Democrats have continuously stumbled on the road to coordinating voter files across the country.
But the Democratic National Committee might be on that same road to recovery starting this month, as states have begun integration into the Democrats' new national system, Vote Builder. The company behind the technology, Voter Activation Network, already was working with more than two dozen states last cycle, but the DNC expects to have at least 90 percent (or 45 states) sign up for the new system.
"This deal is a crucial step to creating a truly national voter file that will allow Democratic candidates to have access to the best possible tool for running their campaigns," said DNC Technology Director Ben Self, who oversaw the $8 million effort over the past couple of years to create an in-house voter file for the DNC.
Contrary to popular semantics, Vote Builder is not a replacement for Demzilla, the DNC's donor database. It also is not a replacement for anything else because the DNC has not had a national voter-file system and was continuously playing catch-up to the RNC's Voter Vault for the past few election cycles.
The DNC signed a data swap agreement with states over the last two years to help keep files updated, but state parties will have control over their voter information. That also means state parties still can sell their files to candidates at any price they name.
Jess Knox, the head of the coordinated campaign for Maine Democrats, said that providing the service for state parties and concentrating on data will certainly help play catch-up to the RNC. "The fact that the DNC is stepping up and taking a leadership role I think bodes well for 2008," Knox said. "Look, we've got to be unified on this issue."
Knox said Maine Democrats already were under contract with VAN and is "elated the DNC chose them."
The DNC is offering the service for free to state parties, but the question remains whether all of them -- in particular the swing states -- will accept the national party's deal.
California is one state that is sticking to its own system for now and not using Vote Builder, spokesman Bob Mulholland said. He said the state party has no plans to switch over because it already is using the "iPod of voter files in America."
"We know where the Jewish disabled woman lives with the Irish husband," Mulholland said of the targeted information collected in the state database. "And if they have a magazine subscription."
Editor's Note: "On The Download" is Hotline's weekly dispatch on politics, multimedia and the Internet.
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Today's Feature:
Issue of the Week
The Homeland Security Department's proposed regulations for new identification documents leave some of the toughest questions unanswered, such as how their implementation will be funded and what technology states will use to communicate with each other, observers say.
Every Monday, read the Issue of the Week by the Technology Daily staff.
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E-briefs
Security: A senior official at the Homeland Security Department said Monday that he expects as many as 10 states will be compliant by May 2008 with rules mandating nationwide standards for driver's licenses and identification cards. Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Richard Barth said at the National Association of Attorneys General's winter meeting that although he expects several states will be able to begin issuing licenses compliant with the so-called REAL ID Act by that original deadline, the department prepared for difficulties that states may encounter by offering them until the end of 2009 to begin distributing compliant licenses and ID documents. All states must finish replacing non-compliant licenses by 2013, a task the department estimated last week will cost as much as $23 billion. More than dozen states are considering legislation to reject REAL ID amid concerns about its cost and how it will affect civil liberties.
Telecom: Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, has joined the Congressional E911 Caucus as co-chairman. The 51-member caucus seeks to educate policymakers about so-called "enhanced 911" services offered by Internet telephone providers. The other co-chairs are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; and Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and John Shimkus, R-Ill. "Senator Stevens has shown a great deal of dedication and leadership in furthering 911 services, and my fellow co-chairs and I are delighted to welcome him to our leadership team," Clinton said in a statement. The co-chairs plan to unveil E911 legislation in the 110th Congress. Last year, Stevens authored a bill supported by Clinton that would have authorized $43.5 million in grants to improve emergency service.
E-Government: Some medical devices may malfunction when daylight-savings time takes effect early Sunday morning, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday. This year, DST begins three weeks earlier and ends one week later than in the past. Medical equipment, hospital networks and health information technology systems that record time information about patient treatments and that have not been updated by the manufacturers to reflect the new start time for DST could be adversely affected. "Medical equipment currently in use was likely made before the DST rules were changed and may cause patients' equipment to register the wrong dates for the start and end of daylight-savings time this year," an FDA notice stated. The result is that treatment or diagnosis could be incorrectly prescribed, provided at the wrong times, missed, administered at improper dosages or inaccurately recorded. FDA encourages healthcare professionals and consumers to view the agency's recommendations concerning time-sensitive medical equipment.
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