Digital Discourse / Archives for privacy

Patent, privacy and cybersecurity loom during slow week in Washington

April 26, 2011 By

It’s a relatively slow week for technology policy in Washington, with Congress out the second week of its Easter recess. But much activity is looming in the weeks ahead. Already on the calendar is a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on ICANN proposed generic top level domain (gTLD) rollout, and the first hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology Subcommittee on mobile technology and privacy on May 10th. Also next week, SIIA President Ken Wasch will be testifying before the U.S. China Economic Security Review Commission Hearing on IP Rights and Indigenous Innovation.

Looking further down the road in May, patent reform, privacy and cybersecurity legislation is expected to be front-and-center, among a wide range of other key tech issues. Indications are still that the Administration will release it’s long-awaited recommendations on cybersecurity in early May, including possibly draft legislative recommendations that have been circulated. Stay tuned!

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

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Digital Policy Roundup, Government, Policy Tagged With: , , ,

SIIA hosts ed-tech summit; Committee passes patent bill

April 19, 2011 By

The U.S. Congress is on recess this week, following a budget dominated week that featured a shutdown-avoiding final FY2011 appropriations act, and a House-passed FY2012 budget proposal that cut trillions of entitlement spending over the next decade. The budget is likely to dominate the federal legislative calendar throughout the year.

Ed-Tech Government Forum held in Washington, DC
The averted government shutdown ensured that SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Government Forum took place as planned. SIIA brought more than 100 education division members to Washington, DC for discussions with key education leaders about the impact of public policies on the school software market. Attendees networked with more than 150 local and national education leaders, and took advocacy visits to dozens of Congressional offices.

Among the highlights were remarks by Senator Patty Murray, FCC Commissioner Clyburn and U.S. Education Secretary Duncan’s Chief of Staff Joanne Weiss. Session presentations and session summaries will be archived. While education (and education technology) was being cut, SIIA and Senator Patty Murray helped release a report profiling how federal school technology grants helped transform and improve education.

ICANN releases new Guidebook
In other news, ICANN released a new version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook yesterday, continuing the debate over the rollout of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). The Guidebook can be found here. The public comment period runs from April 15 to May 15, and SIIA is working on comments through its constituency group, the Coalition for Online Accountability.

Administration releases NSTIC
On Friday, April 15, the Administration released its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). This “private sector-led effort to create a new infrastructure for the Internet, built on interoperable, privacy-enhancing, and secure identity credentials,” was released in conjunction with an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The lead Administration agency is the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which announced at the same time that it will be moving forward with a series of workshops on Trusted ID in the coming months.

Web Tracking and User Privacy Workshop to be held
On April 28 and 29, W3C will hold a workshop on Web Tracking and User Privacy at Princeton, New Jersey. Experts from academia, industry, civil society and government will discuss the role of anti-tracking technology to preserve use privacy on the Internet. The agenda can be found here. SIIA’s Director of Public Policy, David Leduc, will join a panel of experts on the first day of the workshop discussing the mechanisms that could be used to implement such a proposal. His submitted paper can be found here. 

House Judiciary Commitee passes patent bill
On patent reform, last week the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 1249, the America Invents Act.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Copyright, Digital Policy Roundup, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Government, Patent, Policy, Software Tagged With: , , ,

Announcing CEO Interview Publication: SIIA’s Vision From The Top

April 18, 2011 By

SIIA is launching a new publication at this year’s All About the Cloud conference, “SIIA’s Vision From The Top”!

The publication brings together thought leadership from over 45 of SIIA Member companies. Their CEO’s were asked to address the past, present and future changes in the software industry.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Government, Mobility, Security, Social Media, Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Patent reform moves ahead; Kerry tweaks privacy legislation

March 29, 2011 By

Following Senate passage of patent reform legislation, the House is now moving forward quickly. Draft legislation circulated last week is expected to be introduced today, in advance of the Judiciary Subcmte. hearing scheduled for Wednesday. And Committee leadership has indicated a desire for the Committee to approve legislation before the Easter recess. While SIIA will continue to work with House leaders to fine-tune some of the language, SIIA is supportive of many key provisions in the draft bill, including those that would end patent fee diversion, convert the U.S. system to “first-inventor-to-file” with prior user rights and provide for third party prior art submission.

On the Privacy front, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has yet to formally introduce his much-anticipated privacy legislation, but he continues to tweak the draft. The most recent version reportedly adds a “privacy by design” section and modifies the exemption for personally identifiable information that’s publicly available and a more detailed definition of “sensitive personally identifiable information,” a term that now covers data that, if leaked, would cause “a significant risk of economic, physical or emotional” harm.

Cybersecurity continues to draw a lot of attention on in Washington. The Senate Commerce Committee postponed a hearing scheduled for today due to unrelated conflicts. However, legislators in the House and Senate, as well as the White House, continue to discuss key elements and seek common ground. More on this next week.

In other IP news, SIIA held a webcast for members last Friday on ICANN’s plans to accept applications for possibly hundreds of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). New gTLDs may provide additional branding and strategic opportunities for some companies, but also may exponentially increase cybersquatting, present new trademark and copyright infringement problems for IP owners, and dramatically increase enforcement costs. ICANN is in the process of finalizing new IP rights protection mechanisms and gTLD objection procedures, following comments by SIIA and many others. SIIA will continue to follow these developments closely and participate in the ICANN policy development processes.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Digital Policy Roundup, Government, Policy, Software Tagged With: , , , ,

Privacy legislation gets a push, ed-tech funding is threatened

March 22, 2011 By

Last week’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing on privacy provided a boost to Senate efforts for advancing privacy legislation. Most notably, both Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and White House representative Larry Strickling voiced support for legislation, with Strickling announcing that the Administration would be issuing a statement of support for privacy legislation in the near future.

Meanwhile, Sen. Kerry (D-MA) is still working to finalize his draft legislation. Additionally, House Commerce Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee chair Mary Bono Mack indicated last week that she is ready to proceed with the first of several hearings on the issue after the Easter break.

Also, just as the nation’s education system is poised to accelerate technology-based innovation and improvement, a critical U.S. Department of Education program is on the chopping block. House-passed and Senate-proposed bills would zero-out funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program for Fiscal Year 2011.

In response, SIIA and several education groups (ISTE, CoSN and SETDA) joined last week to express a statement of strong concern about budget proposals that would eliminate critical funding for critical education technology programs. EETT is the only federal education program designed to leverage innovation and technology to adequately prepare all of the nation’s children for the competitive 21st century global economy.

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

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Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup, Education, Education Policy, Government, Policy, Software Tagged With: , , ,

Mark MacCarthy sits down with 5 Qs on Tech

March 14, 2011 By

Rob Haralson of 5 Qs on Tech stopped by our DC office to interview Mark MacCarthy, SIIA’s new Public Policy VP. They sat down to chat about SIIA’s views on IP protection, cloud computing, ed-tech, privacy and cybersecurity. Check out the video–and stick around until the end to hear the story about Mark’s unusual first encounters with email!

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Education, Policy, Policy - Cybersecurity, Policy - Intellectual Property, Software Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Patent reform debate continues with considerable provisions

March 8, 2011 By

Debate on patent reform (S. 23, the America Invents Act, formerly called the Patent Reform Act of 2011) continues in the Senate through this week. The Senate voted to limit debate on Monday night, so the bill will come up for a vote as early as Tuesday, but no later than the end of this week.

The bill has been amended considerably over the last week, and currently contains many provisions that would improve the U.S. patent system and patent quality, including ending patent fee diversion.
However, there are still several provisions SIIA is concerned with, so we will continue to be heavily engaged on this issue through further Senate debate, as well as in the House.

As we reported in the past, the House is taking a more deliberative approach with respect to drafting and considering companion legislation in Committee. Stay tuned.

Also coming soon, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), one of the key congressional leaders on privacy, is expected to introduce privacy legislation soon, and follow with a hearing in his Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet next week.

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

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Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup, Policy Tagged With: , ,
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