Lawmakers question patent complaint process at ITC
The U.S. Congress should limit the ability of patent holders that don't make products to file infringement complaints at the U.S. International Trade Commission because of a huge increase in cases there, representatives of some companies told lawmakers Tuesday.
Patent assertion entities (PAEs), companies that own patents but don't make products, are using the patent complaint process at the ITC to "coerce settlements" from other companies, said Russell Binns Jr., associate general counsel at networking vendor Avaya. In many cases, PAEs -- often called patent trolls -- don't want the ITC to use its power to bar the importation of infringing products, but instead, they want to use the ITC to drive settlements in corresponding court cases, he said.
Patent complaints are costing U.S. companies billions of dollars, Binns told the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's intellectual property subcommittee. Read more...
Congress should scrap SOPA, PIPA and start over
The U.S. Congress should scrap two controversial copyright enforcement bills and start over with attempts to target foreign websites accused of infringement and counterfeiting, more than 70 groups have said.
With widespread concerns about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), Congress needs to "take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective," the groups said in a letter to lawmakers, sent Monday.
Among the groups signing the letter were Amnesty International, the American Library Association, Consumers Union, Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future and Human Rights Watch. Many of the groups signing the letter have opposed SOPA and PIPA. The letter comes as the lead sponsor of PIPA has indicated he wants to move forward with copyright enforcement legislation. Read more...
After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill
WASHINGTON -- Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.
The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.
Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.
The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as "Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites. Read more...
Lawmakers seek hearing on Carrier IQ privacy issues
The Carrier IQ privacy controversy shows little signs of letting up, as three lawmakers today called for a Congressional hearing on the implications raised by the use of the company's software by wireless carriers.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), G.K Butterfield (D-NC) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) sent an open letter (download PDF) to Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asking for an investigation of the data collection and transmission capabilities of Carrier IQ's software and similar products.
The letter, sent to Upton and two other subcommittee chairs, also asked Congress to find out whether Android phones were sold with security problems that would have exacerbated the problems caused by Carrier IQ's software.
"Data collection and transmission by Carrier IQ and similar software is widespread, and consumers appear to have little knowledge and even less control over the practice," the three lawmakers wrote. "There continue to be many unanswered questions about the handling of this data and the extent to which its collection, analysis, and transmission pose legitimate privacy concerns for the American public."
The Carrier IQ controversy erupted in late November, after independent security researcher Trevor Eckhart published a report showing how Carrier IQ's software could be used by wireless carriers to capture detailed information from Android-powered mobile devices, iPhones and other smartphones. Read more...
House readies green card bill for tech
There is a big push to get Congress to allow advanced degree graduates in science, technology, engineering and math to automatically get green cards.
The clearest evidence is from U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, (R-Ark.), who says he is working on his own green card bill with the help of Rep. Lamar Smith, who heads the House Judiciary Committee. Smith is the gatekeeper of immigration issuesin the House.
Smith is sending out immigration reform bills piecemeal. He previously worked with Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) to get legislation approved that would eliminate the per-country caps on the green card.
The Chaffetz bill, once it cleared the Judiciary Committee, won overwhelming House approval, but stalled in the Senate when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley put a hold on it. Read more...
Lawmakers express support for Internet sales tax
Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voiced support Wednesday for legislation that would allow states to collect sales tax on Internet purchases.
Several lawmakers, joined at a hearing by representatives of Amazon.com and a Michigan musical instrument seller, called for Congress to pass one of three bills that would allow states to collect sales taxes from Internet-based sellers with no operations within their borders. Since a 1992 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, states are now allowed to collect sales taxes from sellers with no physical presence within their borders. Read more...
Will Congress crush tech spending?
The failure of the Congressional Super Committee to reach a deficit reduction agreement triggers automatic federal spending cuts beginning the next fiscal year, which will likely make a lot of government IT contractors nervous.
Beginning in fiscal 2013, the government will have to cut $1.2 trillion over 10 years under a process called "sequestration."
The first indications of how those cuts may impact federal tech spending may appear in the first federal budget proposals expected in February. The impact of the cuts on tech companies may be mixed, say analysts.
Ray Bjorklund, chief knowledge office at Deltek (formerly Federal Sources), believes that federal IT spending will still rise one or two percent in the next budget. Read more...
High-skill visa reform needs action by Congress, Obama says
President Obama's administration has been tweaking U.S. immigration policy and making little changes where it can to try to encourage the type of immigrant it wants.
But Obama on Tuesday said that real changes to high-skill immigration policy will require action from Congress.
"On the high-skill immigration area, that's not something that we can necessarily do on our own," Obama said at a meeting of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
"We can expedite some of the visas that are already in place and try to streamline that process to make it move faster," the president said, but "we may need some legislative help on that area." Read more...
House Republicans consider high-skills immigration bill
The negotiations to strike a deal on the debt ceiling may be getting all the attention in Congress, but there are also new efforts by lawmakers to address high-skill immigration issues.
First, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have circulated a discussion draft of a bill that would eliminate the per-country caps on green cards, according to a copy of the document seen by Computerworld. This proposal may well amount to the GOP alternative to a Democratic plan offered in June by Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), whose district includes Silicon Valley.
The federal government sets a cap of 140,000 employment-based green cards a year, but it now limits the number of green cards per country to no more than 7% of the available visas to people from any one country. This limit has meant that for people from countries where green card demand is high, namely India and China, the wait for a green card can exceed six years. Read more...
Another key Republican calls for H-1B cap hike
There has been no rush by employers for H-1B visas since the recession began, but there is an increasing rhetorical push in the U.S. House to raise the visa cap.
At a special hearing by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in San Jose, Calif. Monday on high-tech growth policies, its chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), called for a liberalization of the H-1B cap.
Issa said that "there seems little doubt that federal policies and regulations have played a large role in hampering growth." Among other things, he cited the H-1B visa cap in his prepared remarks. Read more...