Coordinated website blackouts had a resounding impact Wednesday on both public and congressional support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). At our deadline at least five of the bill’s original 30 cosponsors said they had either withdrawn or reconsidered their support for the bill. The bipartisan defections came after thousands of websites including Wikipedia, Reddit and Craigslist blacked out their home pages and urged users to contact their representatives in protest of the legislation (WID Jan 18 p1).
The government and technology industry must ensure the openness of the Internet as a tool to help foster and enable free speech and other human rights, said Michael Posner, democracy, human rights and labor assistant secretary of state. “We must protect the free flow of information and the integrity of the network,” which includes the interoperability of the network, he said Tuesday in Washington at the State of the Net conference. Some governments are trying to impose national and international restrictions that would cripple the exercise of human rights online, he said. Repressive regimes tried to crack down on the use of the Internet by jailing bloggers, hijacking Facebook pages and “in the case of Iran, requiring cybercafes to install surveillance cameras,” he said.
It will be “more of the same” for the FCC in 2012, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told the Practising Law Institute conference Friday. The FCC still has significant work left expanding broadband adoption and addressing the country’s spectrum deficiencies, he said. Privacy experts on a separate panel said they expect the FTC and FCC to increase their focus on online privacy and cybersecurity issues in the coming year.
It will be “more of the same” for the FCC in 2012, Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus told the Practising Law Institute conference Friday. The FCC still has significant work left expanding broadband adoption and addressing the country’s spectrum deficiencies, he said. Privacy experts on a separate panel said they expect the FTC and FCC to increase their focus on online privacy and cybersecurity issues in the coming year.
Media and creative industry groups opposed a new bipartisan bill Thursday aimed at curbing online IP theft and copyright infringement. The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., offers a legislative alternative to the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act, giving the International Trade Commission (ITC) more power to target and sever funding to foreign websites that infringe copyrighted goods. But the MPAA said the legislation “fails to provide an effective way to target foreign rogue websites” and “goes easy on online piracy and counterfeiting.”
Media and creative industry groups opposed a new bipartisan bill Thursday aimed at curbing online IP theft and copyright infringement. The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act offers a legislative alternative to the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act, giving the International Trade Commission (ITC) more power to target and sever funding to foreign websites that infringe copyrighted goods. But the MPAA said the legislation “fails to provide an effective way to target foreign rogue websites” and “goes easy on online piracy and counterfeiting.”
The draft of a new House cybersecurity bill seeks to blend elements of the White House cybersecurity proposal with some recommendations from the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, in an effort to pass bipartisan cybersecurity legislation this session. The proposal, which will be formally introduced next week, would establish DHS as the lead agency to coordinate the response to national cyberthreats, create a new non-governmental organization to increase information sharing between the public and private sectors and emphasize voluntary incentives for private companies to secure U.S. networks.
The draft of a new House cybersecurity bill seeks to blend elements of the White House cybersecurity proposal with some recommendations from the House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force, in an effort to pass bipartisan cybersecurity legislation this session. The proposal, which will be formally introduced next week, would establish DHS as the lead agency to coordinate the response to national cyberthreats, create a new non-governmental organization to increase information sharing between the public and private sectors and emphasize voluntary incentives for private companies to secure U.S. networks.
During her recent trip to Burma (Myanmar), Secretary of State Clinton told reporters that while Burma has made progress, the U.S. is not yet at the point that it can consider lifting its sanctions. According to Secretary Clinton, any steps the Burmese government takes will be carefully considered and matched, because the U.S. wants to see political and economic reform take hold. Secretary Clinton noted that the U.S. will consider the easing and elimination of sanctions going forward and is going to pursue many different avenues to demonstrate continuing support for Burma’s reform.
ST. LOUIS -- Instead of taking the FCC to court, state regulators and consumer advocates should focus on working together with the FCC on implementing the Universal Service Fund revamp, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said at NARUC’s annual meeting Tuesday. The FCC, which took many of the Federal/State USF Joint Board’s recommendations as it works to finalize the order, seeks to strengthen the federal/state partnership going forward, he said. Meanwhile, the outgoing commissioner said he plans to continue to advocate for media reform even after leaving the FCC.