Paper Clarifies Global Reality on Gov. Access to Data in the Cloud

A recent paper by Hogan Lovells’ Privacy and Information Management practice, debunks the frequently-expressed assumption that the United States is alone in permitting governmental access to data for law enforcement or national security reasons. It examines the laws of ten countries, including the United States, with respect to governmental authorities’ ability to access data stored in or transmitted through the Cloud, and documents the similarities and differences among the various legal regimes. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

SCOTUS Ruling Could Raise Bar for Business Method and Software Patents

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision in WildTangent, Inc. v. Ultramercial, LLC which upheld the patentability of Ultramercial’s business method patent covering media distribution methods that allow users to view online content by viewing online ads instead of paying for the content. The ruling could potentially raise the bar to patentability under the “subject matter” requirement of section 101 for all business method patents and possibly future software patents as well. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

Administration Releases Digital Government Roadmap

Last week, Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel released a Roadmap for Digital Government, entitled “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People.” The strategy document provides agencies with a 12-month roadmap that focuses on several priority areas and seeks to enable more efficient and coordinated digital service delivery by requiring agencies to establish specific, measurable goals for delivering better digital services; encouraging agencies to deliver information in new ways that fully utilize the power and potential of mobile and web-based technologies; ensuring the safe and secure delivery and use of digital services to protect information and privacy; requiring agencies to establish central online resources for outside developers and to adopt new standards for making applicable Government information open and machine-readable by default. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

District Race to the Top Appropriately Prioritizes Personalized Learning

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week announced a new federal Race to the Top District competition, providing nearly $400 million in school district grants to “personalize and individualize” to “take classroom learning beyond a one-size-fits-all model and bring it into the 21st century.” SIIA has long been a leading voice for redesigning education to personalize learning, and applauds the Obama Administration for providing this leadership. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

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.

USITC Announces Seminar on Int’l Dimensions of Cloud Computing
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) this week announced a Seminar scheduled for June 19 to highlight an article recently published by the agency that provides an overview of the global market for cloud services, and an excellent resource for policymakers seeking to answer questions about cloud computing and how to enable greater adoption. The study helps us understand just how damaging trade barriers could be for the growth of our software and computer services firms, providing evidence and concluding that “cloud computing is already a source of significant revenue for U.S. exporters and multinational firms.” Read more about the article on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog, or for more information about the briefing, contact Philip Stone.

Forced Localization:
The New Protectionism Localization requirements, or governments attempt to restrict the sale of goods and services within their territory to those which have been produced locally, have been around for a long time, but what seemed like a series of isolated incidents has recently become too much of a trend. If left unchecked, this trend could seriously undermine the goal of increasing the flow of goods and services across borders, particularly increasingly cloud-based IT products and services. SIIA and other worldwide businesses and trade associations are seeking an effective response to the growing threat of a new protectionism based on localization initiatives. In a recent post on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog, Mark MacCarthy highlights these challenges and argues that only a sustained, high-level commitment from the U. S. government will turn the tide against this new form of economic nationalism. SIIA urges that this issue be moved to the highest levels of U.S. government decision making and raised in all significant international venues including economic gatherings of heads of state such as the recent G-8 meeting, meetings of the ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, committees of the World Trade Organization, OECD working groups and trade discussions such as TPP. Read more.

Outlook for TPP Deal in 2012 Uncertain as Dallas Discussions Conclude
This round of discussions for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement concluded in Dallas on May 16 with indications that a deal might not be possible this year. The sticking points include two of SIIA’s priorities for the negotiation–strong copyright protections and a proposal to ensure the free flow of electronic information across borders. On May 17, the House Foreign Affairs Committee held an oversight hearing on the TPP progress where business representatives confirmed the difficulties in moving ahead with the U.S. proposal on IP protection. Negotiators meet informally in June on the margins of a get-together of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group in Kazan, Russia. The next formal round of negotiations is scheduled for San Diego July 2-10.

G8 Leaders’ Joint Declaration on Global Economy Highlights Importance of IPR
President Obama and the other members of the G-8 leadership released a joint statement this weekend declared the pressing need for diligent protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights while committing to preserve and encourage the free exchange of information. The statement reads, “[g]iven the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) to stimulating job and economic growth, we affirm the significance of high standards for IPR protection and enforcement, including through international legal instruments and mutual assistance agreements, as well as through government procurement processes, private-sector voluntary codes of best practices, and enhanced customs cooperation, while promoting the free flow of information.” The full G-8 Declaration can be found here.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

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.

Privacy Debates Returns to Capitol Hill this Week
After a bit of a hiatus from the privacy debate, the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to revisit the issue this week with a high profile hearing on the need for privacy legislation to provide additional consumer protections, featuring witnesses from the Department of Commerce and Federal Trade Commission to talk about their recent privacy reports. With the clock ticking fast in an election year, and a Republican-led House that doesn’t share the White House and Senate leadership’s desire to pass a “Privacy Bill of Rights,” it doesn’t appear that the hearing will lead to legislation this year. However, the discussion should prove insightful as a comparison of the two similar, but not identical, perspectives on privacy within the Administration.

Senate Cyber Legislation Still Undergoing Changes, Possible Impasse Ahead
Keeping with the goal for the Senate to pass comprehensive cybersecurity legislation this month, Senate Leaders are still exploring tweaks to the Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act (S. 2105) to gain more support. Two of the key issues preventing sufficient Republican support include the proposal’s tougher privacy protections and authorization for DHS to set mandatory security standards for critical infrastructure.

Should the Senate be able to pass this legislation, signs continue to point to a possible impasse: The White House and Senate Democratic leaders have reiterated that the House-passed legislation (CISPA) lacks adequate privacy protections and would fail to protect critical infrastructure, and House Republican leadership has vowed to block consideration of any legislation that creates new cybersecurity mandates. Of course, there is also strong support in the Senate for data breach legislation to be part of the package, and a host of other issues not central to the debate. Stay tuned.

ICANN Announces Windfall of Applications and Fees
ICANN announced last week that 2,091 new gTLD applications had been submitted or were “in process” when ICANN shut down the application system April 12 (the last day for submissions) due to security concerns. It stated it had received approximately $350 million in corresponding application fees. Given that ICANN has stated it will process only 500 applications at a time, it is now a certainty, rather than speculation, that many applications will NOT be evaluated in this first application round (and thus likely would not be evaluated for several years).

SIIA is working with other intellectual property stakeholders in urging ICANN to reconsider its technically complex “digital archery” method for prioritizing applications, and instead to batch them based upon self-election and, if necessary, category (such as community or non-Latin character applications first). ICANN’s TAS application system is still shut down due to the security glitch, and it appears that the new gTLD applications will not be published until well into the summer.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

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.

House Passes Four Key Measures during “Cyber Week”
Last week, the House passed four key measures as part of “cyber week.” Most notably, the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA, H.R. 3523) passed Thursday night by a vote of 248-168. Of the supporting 248, 42 Democrats were in favor and 28 Republicans against. This was a strong vote and a big victory for SIIA and many of our members that were leading supporters down the stretch. In response to the bill’s passage, SIIA released a statement of support.

The CISPA vote was followed by a unanimous voice vote on HR 4257, widely supported legislation to reform the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the House concluded activities on Friday by passing the two cyber R&D measures: H.R. 2096 – Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, and H.R. 3834 – Advancing America’s Networking and IT R&D Act without significant opposition. Cybersecurity now shifts back to the Senate, where Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would like to have the Lieberman-Collins comprehensive Cybersecurity Act (S. 2105) on the floor this month.

FTC is Latest to Explore Mobile Payment Issues
The FTC looked at mobile payments last Thursday, an event that capped several weeks of intense attention to this innovative new technology by policymakers. In March the Senate Banking Committee held hearings. And the Internet Caucus held a Congressional briefing, which SIIA’s Mark MacCarthy chaired. The major issues noted at the FTC’s workshop were privacy, security and consumer redress. While no new regulation or legislation was proposed, it was clear that policy makers expect mobile payment providers to provide adequate protections in these areas. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

House Judiciary Panel Hears Intl. Patent Issues
On April 26, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held a hearing on “International Patent Issues: Promoting a Level Playing Field for American Industry Abroad.” Witnesses from Pfizer, Qualcomm, American Continental Group, and Nebraska College of Law testified on their views of “threats” to procuring and exploiting patent rights internationally.

Among the key topics discussed were the upcoming Special 301 list from USTR, compulsory licenses in many mid- and low-income foreign countries, exclusions from patentability that may violate TRIPs (such as second uses, business methods, certain biological materials and uses, etc.), under-resourced patent offices, weak judicial enforcement, subsidies for local manufacturers (over non-local or “non manufacturing” entities), and the possible, perceived narrowing of patentable subject matter in the United States–which almost certainly would have international implications.

For SIIA policy updates including upcoming events, news and analysis, subscribe to SIIA’s weekly policy email newsletter, Digital Policy Roundup.

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.