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Spectrum
Google 'Probably' Will Bid On Airwaves, Schmidt Says
by Heather Greenfield
ASPEN, Colo. -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday that his company "probably" will bid in next year's auction of airwaves in the 700-megahertz band of spectrum.
Google had told the FCC it would bid $4.6 billion if rules for the auction met specific "open access" requirements that could lead to more competition and another pipeline to wireless Internet access. Earlier this month, the FCC approved some but not all of those conditions Google wanted.
At the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summit here, Schmidt responded to a question from a T-Mobile executive by saying that the initial rules the FCC announced are acceptable. "When we look at the FCC ruling, we felt we got the spirit of what we asked for," he said.
While he would like to see further detail, Schmidt said it is "highly likely" that Google will bid on what has been called the beachfront property of the wireless spectrum, and the company is now in the "collaboration" process.
Schmidt also used his speech to issue a four-part call to action for fellow technology executives and lobbyists.
He said the need to defend free speech has grown as more speech comes online. He highlighted the need for universal, high-speed Internet access with faster speeds and more consumer choices. He said the government needs to continue to make its activities more transparent online. Finally, Schmidt said, network neutrality is important.
Net neutrality has become so controversial that many people don't even like to use the term, but it refers to laws aimed at keeping broadband network owners from favoring certain content. Broadband providers, who have opposed net neutrality, could create different-speed lanes on the Internet and charge more for preferred customers to get faster service.
Knowing that he would be grilled about net neutrality by telecom and cable representatives during a question-and-answer session, Schmidt said he hoped they all could at least agree on one principle: "No entity that controls the last mile -- telco, cable or local government -- should be able to control the content that flows [through]."
Schmidt said he agrees with net neutrality opponents that carriers should be able to offer value-added services, but he would want to ensure that those services are available to everyone.
Another area where some people from either side find common ground is the idea that the need for net neutrality protections disappear if consumers have broadband choices. It is a point made by FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, who also attended the summit.
"If people have real choices, the market will sort it out," Schmidt said. "The problem is, in many cases they don't."
During some tough questioning, Schmidt said it is important to look holistically at what consumers face, and he would want to find three to four viable carriers.
Asked if he would object if that many carriers were offering service and one wanted to exclude some content, like from Google, Schmidt said he would be fine with letting market forces prevail in that situation. But he added that businesses generally "don't do well when they exclude choices from their customers."
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Intellectual Property
Is The Divide Between Techies, Content Firms Thawing?
by Heather Greenfield
ASPEN, Colo. -- The technology industry and content providers are seeing "a decided thaw" in discussions on how to digitally distribute content, a Microsoft attorney said here Tuesday.
Thomas Rubin spoke as part of a panel optimistically titled "Let's Make A Deal" at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summit. He said content has long been "frozen for fear of losing control over distribution," but that appears to be changing.
The debate may be shifting not so much because of goodwill as online advertising revenue and innovations, like the ability to link digital fingerprints to content. Another reason may be signs that more choice in how and where consumers play music and video is inevitable.
Just this week, Wal-Mart announced plans to offer an online catalog music that is free from technical restrictions. The Digital Freedom campaign praised the move toward music without digital rights management tools.
"DRM is neither good nor bad -- it's just a technology," Alan Bell, the chief technology officer for Paramount Pictures, said at PFF. "The only way I believe to go forward is for every company to ... focus on what's best for the consumer."
But Bill Rosenblatt, the founder of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and author of the newsletter DRMwatch.com, still said of tech and content providers, "One side is from Mars and one side is from Venus." He said content providers have argued that piracy must be stopped and the battle should be fought on all fronts, while the tech industry has said content should be free and no one should hinder innovation.
"These principles get in the way of what really should be a business discussion." Rosenblatt said.
Stan Liebowitz, a University of Texas at Dallas economics professor, blasted Google and its YouTube video-sharing unit for not doing more to protect copyrighted material on YouTube or as part of the Google Books project. He suggested that every video be previewed before it is posted.
But later, Google government affairs director Alan Davidson said the company already makes it easy for content providers to withhold material. He also cautioned that creating a gatekeeper, whether it be Google or another entity, "does a lot of violence to open markets and free-speech ideas that we discussed."
Bell said digital fingerprint technology could resolve that argument -- especially if a fingerprint submission were required when applying for a copyright. Then companies like Google or Microsoft could check lists of banned materials instead of responding to complaints.
Rubin said digital fingerprints are a great tool for cooperation between tech and content providers because the cost is shared.
Liebowitz noted that the current ability to use small bits of copyrighted content under the "fair use" concept may no longer be needed. "When things become digital," he said, "costs are lower, so it's conceivable we don't need fair use in the future."
That worried Computer and Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black, who said after the roundtable that fair use is vital not just to consumers but some industries.
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Intellectual Property
New Rules For Patent Reviews Earn Praise, Criticism
by Andrew Noyes
New Patent and Trademark Office rules aimed at making the patent examination process more efficient by encouraging applicants to use greater precision in describing the scope of their inventions received mixed reactions from intellectual property experts this week.
Under the revision, which takes effect Nov. 1, applicants can file two new continuing applications and one request for continued examination. Each application may contain up to 25 claims -- no more than five of them independent claims -- without additional effort on the part of the applicant, PTO said.
The agency has a backlog of more than a million pending applications. Filing continuations, which allow applicants to restart the process, is unique to the U.S. system and has become a common practice, the Computer and Communications Industry Association said.
CCIA President Ed Black, whose trade group represents Google, Microsoft and other technology firms, said the change "means that the PTO is serious about putting its house in order." The move also shows the agency "is willing to discipline some of the abuses that have spurred demands for reform," he said in a statement.
Mike Kirk, who heads the American Intellectual Property Law Association, said the PTO's rule change is "a significant improvement over the draconian proposal they initially came out with." Still, "not everyone will be happy," he said.
After reading the 129-page filing, which appeared in the Federal Register on Tuesday, popular patent law blogger Peter Zura said the document made it clear that if applicants are "looking for gracious understanding, they will no longer find much of it at the USPTO."
Although potential patentees "should do all they can to provide easy-to-read and understandable applications," Zura said the continuation rules are problematic. He said the change "disconnects the 'patent cycle' from the 'product cycle'" because patents are filed at various stages of research and development.
As a result, situations often arise where applications embody incomplete concepts, Zura said. Before the new rules, applicants "could find solace in the fact that if new or unappreciated advantages were found in a patent application, continuation applications could be filed."
It remains to be seen how the alterations will affect patentees overall, he noted. But there are many uncertainties being introduced by the changes "and if there's one thing that attorneys hate," Zura said, "it's uncertainty."
Courtenay Brinckerhoff, a Foley & Lardner partner who represents biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, said the rules will "have a big impact on strategy and require a lot of changing our approach to how we write, file and prosecute patent applications."
"The general theme of the rules is to limit your time before an examiner, limit opportunities to get claims allowed and shift the burden to the applicant to provide more information and analysis," Brinckerhoff said.
The modification will be felt most in the biotech and chemical fields rather than by electronics manufacturers and other tech players who typically enjoy a faster patenting process, she said. "But I don't think any one group is going to be unscathed. Everyone will have to re-evaluate their policies," she said.
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Budget
Appropriations Bills Eye Tech Improvements At VA
by Chris Strohm
House and Senate lawmakers are poised to boost spending to record levels for the Veterans Affairs Department when they return from their August recess, with some money reserved for technology. Pending appropriations bills would provide new funds and requirements for improving information systems and sharing electronic medical records.
The fiscal 2008 bills, H.R. 2642 and S. 1645, would provide about $109 billion in total spending, of which about $65 billion would be for discretionary spending.
The funding would be the largest increase in VA's 77-year history and is about $3.8 billion more than the Bush administration's request, said House Appropriations Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Chet Edwards, D-Texas. The increased spending is largely a result of congressional outrage in response to reports of poor treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"This bill is about respect and honors the promises made to our veterans with historic increases in funding to provide them the health care and benefits they earned when they put on our nation's uniform," Edwards said. The House passed the legislation in June, while the Senate is expected to consider it next month.
The bills would provide about $1.9 billion for VA technology systems -- about $645 million more than Congress allocated for fiscal 2007. The funding is largely targeted to help ensure that electronic medical records, or EMRS, follow patients as they transition from the Defense Department health system to the VA system.
"It is imperative that future electronic medical-records systems, as well as systems designed to expedite the processing of benefits claims, be interoperable with systems being developed by the Department of Defense," the Senate Appropriations Committee wrote in its report on the bill. "The committee remains concerned that any deviation from interoperability would lead to further stove-piping of information, increasing lag times in processing medical records and benefits claims."
The Senate bill would direct VA to report to Congress by Jan. 31 about the steps being taken to ensure interoperability.
In its measure, the House Appropriations Committee scolded VA for developing EMRs with programming language that is not compatible with Defense health systems.
The committee report calls for blocking any expenditures on EMRs that won't work with Defense systems. It also urges VA "to involve leading software companies" so that veterans' "will be interoperable with existing systems used by the private sector, and the report advocates "a portable EMR so that veterans may have a personal electronic record of their care."
A presidential commission said in a report late last month that Defense and the VA "must move quickly to get clinical and benefit data to users." The commission, which was created in response to reports on the conditions at Walter Reed, said the two departments must make patient data much more accessible within 12 months.
The panel also recommended an online, password-protected Web site that would enable servicemen and veterans to get tailored information about relevant programs and benefits.
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Budget
White House Drafts R&D Plans For Nanotechnology
by Winter Casey
The federal government plans to spend its expected fiscal 2008 research and development funding under the National Nanotechnology Initiative on environmental, health and safety research, education, and the ethical, legal and other societal aspects of nanotechnology, according to a supplement to the president's budget request.
Government funding also is expected to be directed toward R&D for fundamental nanoscale processes, nanomaterials, nanoscale systems and devices, standards for nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing, and research facilities, according to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Its report, which was released July 31, presents a summary of government nanotechnology investments under the federal R&D program.
Nanotechnology is a science that refers to materials with at least one dimension measured at 100 nanometers or less that have been manipulated at the atomic and molecular levels.
The initiative was established in 2001 to coordinate multi-agency efforts in nanoscale science, engineering and technology. Twenty-six federal agencies participate in the initiative, which the report said has the potential to make "important contributions to national priorities such as economic competitiveness, homeland and national security, and public health."
The fiscal 2008 budget request for nanotech R&D is more than $1.44 billion, according to the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. That figure is more than triple the estimated $464 million spent in 2001 and marks an increase of 13 percent over the fiscal 2007 request.
Overall, the OSTP report said government spending for the initiative remained relatively even at $1.35 billion between fiscal 2006 and fiscal 2007, although funding shifts occurred. In those years, funding directed to R&D on the societal aspects of nanotechnology jumped 17 percent.
From fiscal 2005 through fiscal 2007, participating agencies invested more than $120 million to research the potential risks associated with nanotechnology, the report found. The fiscal 2008 request for environment, health and safety R&D represents an increase of 55 percent over the actual fiscal 2006 investments.
Also on the federal nanotechnology front, the National Science and Technology Council last week announced that it is accepting public comment on how to best prioritize environmental, healthy and safety research needs. The document highlights research priorities such as the need to develop methods to detect nanomaterials in the environment and the workplace.
Other priorities presented in the report include the need to research how chemical and physical modifications affect the properties of nanomaterials, and to develop methods for standardizing the assessment of particle size, size distribution, shape, structure and surface area.
After the deadline for public comments closes Sept. 17, the interagency working group on the issue will attempt to identify priority research areas that are not currently being addressed by funded research through the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
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E-Government
Video Series Touts Web 2.0 Tools For Emergencies
by Aliya Sternstein
A new series on the YouTube video-sharing site is harnessing the power of Web 2.0 social-networking applications to urge citizens to harness that same power during emergencies.
W. David Stephenson, a homeland security consultant specializing in Internet strategy who created the series "21st-century disaster tips you won't hear from officials," said he hopes the shows lead to a "virtuous cycle" where his network of experts and government officials distribute the videos to regular citizens, who in turn share the snippets with their local officials.
Over the past year, he has collected advice on using common mobile devices -- like telephones with cameras and computer laptops with wireless Internet access -- to make the public full, constructive partners in homeland security and disaster response. On Friday, Stephenson, the principal at Stephenson Strategies, posted the first two tips and started e-mailing his acquaintances links to the videos.
The first episode addresses the issue of losing Internet connectivity during a disaster. Stephenson noted that the Illinois nonprofit known as CUWiN, short for the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network, has developed free software that lets people create neighborhood networks without any kind of Internet access.
"All you have to do is download the software, burn it to a CD, get your friends to do the same thing -- and in a disaster, if you all boot up from that disk, you'll have an instant network that allows you to share information," he said.
Tom Simpson, a former Multnomah County, Ore., emergency manager, heard of the videos through a mutual friend of Stephenson's. When he was with the government, Simpson -- now with the business and technology firm Strategic Solutions NW -- was a proponent of sharing and updating emergency plans electronically.
"I love the fact that, one, he's using YouTube," Simpson said. "I've got two teenagers at home. They don't use the television. David is right on the money on using the technology that is available to people today."
As for officials opposed to Stephenson's approach, Simpson said, "There may be good business reasons not to use some of these technologies ... but it could be because they perceive it as a threat or are uncomfortable with it."
Bruce McConnell, a co-creator of Government Futures, a Web 2.0 site where government and industry executives pool outlooks on pressing questions, said Stephenson actually knows the officials who he mocks in the title of his series.
Stephenson said he decided that making the videos "edgy and provocative so that the public would check it out ... trumped being polite and deferential." He added: "[A]s we know, public officials ain't the most trusted folks right now."
Margaret Anderson, Government Futures' other founder, recommended that Stephenson publicize the videos more prominently on his existing blog. "Linking it all together is part of the networking of social networking," she said.
But both McConnell and Anderson agreed: "He's doing many of the right things."
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Today's Feature:
International Roundup
News last week that the United States is seeking World Trade Organization intervention in China over copyright and trademark enforcement shows that the issue goes to the heart of U.S.-China relations, according to a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Every Wednesday, read the International Roundup by Winter Casey.
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E-briefs
Security: Three leaders of Western Hemispheric nations said Tuesday that border security should not jeopardize friendly relations and commerce among the United States, Canada and Mexico. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that he, President Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon met in Canada to discuss mutual issues such as national standards for energy efficiency, trade and competitiveness. Calderon said, "We all want secure and also efficient borders -- borders that will allow the border crossing of those who build, who contribute, and of course [that will] prevent border crossings to those that damage our societies: organized crime, drug-trafficking, all the trade in illegal goods." Harper added that the leaders "agreed to discuss the protection of the consumer and looking at the non-secure products entering the nations."
Television: Hispanic and black groups sent a critical letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Wednesday in response to his recent comments concerning minority and civil rights groups' position on per-channel cable television pricing. In the letter, the Black Leadership Forum, Hispanic Federation, National Black Chamber of Commerce and others said they were "deeply troubled" by comments that Martin made at an Aspen Institute forum last week, in which he reportedly said major civil rights organizations oppose mandatory per-channel pricing because of financial relationships that some have with TV programmers and distributors. The groups said they found the remarks "patronizing and insulting," and requested a public apology. There is near unanimity in the civil rights and minority community that Martin's plan "would be deeply harmful to the cause of greater diversity in cable television programming," the letter stated.
Business: The mutual funds Allegiant Advantage Fund and American Funds' Europacific Growth Fund are among the several funds that have begun providing information in interactive data, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said Tuesday. The commission voted June 20 to adopt amendments that enable mutual funds to submit interactive data about their investment objectives and strategies. The SEC called the use of the technology a significant step in the commission's ongoing efforts to make financial data more useful for investors. "When most mutual funds provide their risk/return summary information using dynamic data that's searchable and comparable on the Web, investors will be able to comparison shop among thousands of funds at the click of a mouse. This is a potentially rich new source of investing information for retail investors who need it most," Cox said in a statement.
Labor: The prospect exists for a first-ever reverse "brain drain" from the United States, given the huge immigration paper backlog and immigrants' proven contributions to U.S. competitiveness, according to research released Wednesday. A team of academics from Duke, Harvard and New York universities estimated that there are more than 1 million people waiting for permanent U.S. resident status. The wait for visas in countries like China and India is up to four years, yet Indian and Chinese inventors contributed more than 30 percent of international patent applications from the United States last year. Previous research indicated that about one in five legal immigrants are uncertain about staying. "The yearly inflow of talent from the world to the U.S. is worth billions of dollars," study co-author Vivek Wadhwa said. "So one may ask, who's helping who, here?"
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