Digital Discourse / Policy

Public Sector Innovation Roundup: Sequestration & IT Acquisition Reform

March 1, 2013 By

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Pushes IT Acquisition Reform: The big news this week was the hearing held in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Chairman Issa’s IT acquisition reform legislation, known as FITARA. The bill, which was released in draft form to the public last fall, seeks to empower CIOs, improve the overall speed and agility of the acquisition process, and reduce wasteful IT spending, is expected to be formally introduced before Congress goes home for its Spring Recess in about three weeks. Chairman Issa acknowledged that his committee has received comments from more than 20 organizations on the specifics of the bill and that his staff is working to amend the bill to address many of the concerns industry has raised. The hearing itself focused a good deal of attention on the need for a better trained and equipped acquisition workforce, another area addressed in the bill, as well as the need to shift attention away from IT as a capital expense and toward IT as an operating expense. We will continue to track the development of this bill closely and look forward to the next iteration. The hearing received a good deal of press attention, including this summary from FCW.

Sequestration’s Impact on Federal IT: With sequestration now just hours away, Jason Miller from Federal News Radio interviewed Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel on the potential impact of sequestration on federal IT. The long and short of it is that we know federal IT will be impacted, but unlike the programs themselves where they are expected to take an across the board cut, IT by its nature is woven into the fabric of these programs, not a program itself, so its impact is uncertain. This according to the interview is creating a confidence problem for IT. New investments will also be put on hold. Read the article and listen to the interview from Federal News Radio here.

Sequestration’s Impact Going Forward: In addition to the automatic cuts associated with the sequester that occur March 1st at 11:59pm, there is another looming funding crisis in the federal government – the expiring Continuing Resolution for FY 2013. The CR officially expires on March 27th so Congressional leaders will have to find a way to address this situation as well. Word from Capitol Hill this week is that the House Appropriations Committee is preparing a rest of the year Continuing Resolution at post-sequester levels, meaning much of the spending included in this bill would be rolled back to pre-2008 levels, the last year of the George W. Bush Administration. GovExec has more.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter  for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: Policy, PSIG Tagged With: ,

SIIA Urges U.S. Trade Representative to Promote Digital Trade, Legislation Introduced to Prevent Abusive Patent Suits, and House Panel Considers Federal IT Reform

February 27, 2013 By

SIIA Urges U.S. Trade Representative to Promote Digital Trade & Protect IP

SIIA filed comments today with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) urging the agency to use the negotiations for a new International Services Agreement (ISA) to lower barriers to trade in digital services and to maintain a high degree of intellectual property protection and enforcement. In our comments, SIIA pointed out that sustainable growth in the 21st century economy relies upon the unrestricted flow of information and data, as our domestic IT businesses reach across the globe. Therefore, removing barriers to the establishment and delivery of digital IT services will enhance economic performance.

Specifically, SIIA’s comments urged USTR to maintain the following two objectives in the services agreement: (1) governments should not prevent businesses that supply services in other countries, or customers of those suppliers, from electronically transferring information domestically or across borders, accessing publicly available information, or accessing their own information stored in other countries, and (2) Strong IP protections for software and digital content have been an essential element in fostering explosive technology growth and a wider variety of educational materials and information products that increase productivity, effectiveness and knowledge. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog.

Legislation Introduced to Prevent Abusive Patent Suits

Today, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. House to take on the persistent issue of patent trolls, one of the major challenges to the U.S. patent system that was not addressed in the recently enacted America Invents Act. The Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act (SHIELD Act), sponsored by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) seeks to limit cases brought by trolls by shifting the legal fees to the losing party when patent trolls lose their patent infringement cases. SIIA welcomed the legislation with a strong statement of support. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

House Panel Considers Federal IT Reform

As promised by chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is moving forward on this issue, holding a hearing today. The legislation, the Federal IT Acquisition Reform act (known as FITARA), still in draft format, seeks to reform the Federal IT acquisition process and would be the first major Federal IT update since the E-Government Act was enacted more than ten years ago. SIIA supports reforms that would enable the government to more efficiently acquire innovative IT products and services, and we are working closely with Chairman Issa as he seeks to introduce this legislation in the next couple of weeks. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.

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Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup

This Week in IP Enforcement

February 27, 2013 By

Copyright Alert System Goes Into Effect (The Washington Post)
The Center for Copyright Information launched the Copyright Alert System this week, with the cooperation of five major Internet service providers, in an attempt to curb copyright infringement online by going after consumers instead of pirates.

Software Firms Go to Washington to Defend Patents (CIO)
Representatives from various software companies said in a Capitol Hill briefing that lawmakers and judges shouldn’t solve current controversies by eliminating software patents altogether, but instead look at ways to improve patent quality, make it tougher for patent licensing firms to file infringement lawsuits and require companies to be transparent about the patents they hold.

New Internet Domains to Start Rolling Out in Mid-2013 (PCMagazine)
ICANN, the Web’s governing body, will open a trademark clearinghouse starting March 26 in an effort to resolve any trademark disputes when new generic top-level domains (gTLD) are rolled out mid-2013.

Indie Bookstores Sue Amazon, Big-6 Publishers for Using DRM on Ebooks (paidContent)
Three independent bookstores have filed a class-action lawsuit against Amazon and the big-six publishers, alleging that the proprietary DRM Amazon uses on ebooks creates a monopoly.

RIAA Not Impressed With Google’s Anti-Piracy Efforts (PCMagazine)
The RIIA says it has found no evidence that Google has followed through with a plan to demote sites with pirated content, despite millions of copyright removal requests over the last six months.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy - Intellectual Property

SIIA Applauds Issa’s Commitment to Reform Federal IT Aquisition

February 27, 2013 By

SIIA has worked closely with Chairman Issa and his staff on the draft legislation to reform federal IT acquisition known as FITARA, and we applaud his efforts to advance the debate. While technology has changed dramatically in the last decade, it’s been more than ten years since the E-Gov Act was signed into law and more than 15 years since enactment of Clinger-Cohen. An update to IT acquisition regulations is clearly overdue.

As today’s hearing clearly showed, there is a great deal at stake in this debate, and a thoughtful and methodical approach is needed. An estimated $20 billion of the federal government’s $80 billion IT budget could be spent on cloud computing and related innovative IT services. With that, it is essential that the government develop new and innovative ways to acquire these services, reducing time to market and maximizing value.

While SIIA is strongly supportive of the objective of legislation to reform federal IT acquisition, we have concerns with several provisions as proposed in the discussion draft. We have shared our concerns with Chairman Issa and his staff and hope that these concerns will be addressed in the revised bill that the Chairman announced today will be “published” prior to the Congressional Spring Recess. We look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Issa and members of the Committee to address these issues and help advance effective, bipartisan legislation to help the Federal government continue to keep pace with IT innovation.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

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Filed Under: Policy, PSIG

SIIA Welcomes the Introduction of the SHIELD Act

February 27, 2013 By

SIIA welcomes the introduction of the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act (SHIELD Act). The legislation, sponsored by Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is a strong response to the pressing problem of patent trolls by shifting the legal fees to the losing party when patent trolls lose their patent infringement cases.

The SHIELD Act sends a strong signal that Congress is serious about dealing with the patent troll problem this session of Congress, and that members of Congress fully understand the damage that patent trolls do to the economy, innovation and job creation.

SIIA is committed to working with Congress and the Administration to find effective solutions to this problem.  Last year, we looked favorably on proposed legislation that would reduce the leverage of patent trolls by shifting the burden of discovery costs beyond the minimum necessary to litigate the case to the party seeking additional discovery.  This idea and the fee shifting proposal contained in the SHIELD Act are thoughtful and effective ways to deal with patent troll litigation.

Ken WaschKen Wasch is President of SIIA. Follow the SIIA Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Policy

SIIA Urges U.S. Trade Representative to Promote Digital Trade & Protect Intellectual Property in the New Services Agreement Negotiations

February 26, 2013 By

SIIA filed comments today with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) urging the agency to use the negotiations for a new International Services Agreement to lower barriers to trade in digital services and to maintain a high degree of intellectual property protection and enforcement.

Sustainable growth in the 21st century economy relies upon the unrestricted flow of information and data. Our domestic online information businesses reach across the globe, so removing barriers to the establishment and delivery of digital information services will enhance economic performance.  Digital information products and services can reach far broader audiences to spur further innovation, prepare workers for 21st century jobs, and bring greater understanding that fosters better decision-making.

In our comments submitted today, SIIA urged USTR to establish two principles in the services agreement:

  • Cross-Border Information Flows: Governments should not prevent businesses that supply services in other countries, or customers of those suppliers, from electronically transferring information domestically or across borders, accessing publicly available information, or accessing their own information stored in other countries.
  • Local Infrastructure: Governments should not require ICT service suppliers to use local infrastructure, or establish a local presence, as a condition of supplying services.

Strong IP protections for software and digital content have been an essential element in fostering explosive technology growth and a wider variety of educational materials and information products that increase productivity, effectiveness and knowledge.  Trade agreements must not take steps backward from high standards for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy

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Filed Under: Policy

Reps. Schiff & Goodlatte: Thanks for the IP Protection Shout Out

February 25, 2013 By

SIIA thanks Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) for urging Congress to help protect IP. Last week, they sent a letter to fellow representatives that highlighted the economic impact of copyright theft, and asked for participation in the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. Schiff said in a statement to POLITICO that the caucus will continue working to cut the cash flow for pirating websites.

SIIA looks forward to working with administration and congressional leaders to fight intellectual property theft and protect American businesses, exports, and jobs.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: , ,
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