Tech Law Journal Daily E-Mail Alert
June 6, 2002, 9:00 AM ET, Alert No. 445.
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House Approves NSF Authorization Bill
6/5. The House approved HR 4664, the Investing in America's Future Act, a bill to authorize appropriations for the National Science Foundation, by a vote of 397-25. See, Roll Call No. 212.
HR 4664 would authorize the appropriation of $5.5 Billion for FY 2003 for the NSF. Included in the funding authorization is $704 Million for networking and information technology research, $238 Million for the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Priority Area, and $60 Million for the Mathematical Sciences Priority Area.
The bill authorizes an increase in funding for the NSF of 15% in FY 2003, and similar increases in future years. If the funding authorized by this bill were actually appropriated, it would double the NSF's budget within five years.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI) and others. It was reported by the House Science Committee on May 22.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Chairman of the Committee, stated during the floor debate that "When we look at the new fields of science and engineering that will boost our economy in this new century, fields like nanotechnology, where do we turn to ensure that our nation's researchers stay at the cutting edge? NSF. When we look at the field of information technology, which facilitates every activity in today's economy, where do we turn to ensure that the U.S. remains at the cutting edge? NSF. When we consider our ever more urgent need for a highly skilled, technologically literate workforce, where do we turn to ensure that our education system from kindergarten through post-graduate work is preparing the people we need? NSF. We turn to NSF to solve some of our most pressing problems; we can't turn from NSF when we decide where to invest federal funds. It's time to give NSF the money it needs."
Rep. Boehlert also pointed out that the bill is backed by tech groups, such as the Semiconductor Industry Association and Technet.
The bill only authorizes the appropriation of funds. Whether the House Appropriations Committee will actually appropriate this level of funding is another question.
See, HR 4664 [PDF], as reported by the Subcommittee on Research on May 9. The full Committee approved one amendment [PDF] on May 22 offered by Rep. Boehlert. It authorizes the appropriation of $50 Million for the Advanced Technological Education Program established under the Scientific and Advanced Technology Act of 1992, and $30 Million for the Minority Serving Institutions Undergraduate Program.
House Crime Subcommittee Approves Information Sharing Bill
6/4. The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime held a hearing and a mark up session for HR 4598, the Homeland Security Information Sharing Act, sponsored by Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). The Subcommittee approved the bill with minor technical amendments. The full Committee is currently scheduled to mark up the bill on Friday, June 7. The purpose of this bill is to provide for increased sharing of federal government information relating to homeland security with state and local governments. 
House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on UWB
6/5. The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing titled "The FCC's UWB Proceeding: An Examination of the Government's Spectrum Management Process."
See, prepared statement of Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), Chairman of the full Committee. See also, prepared testimony of witnesses: Julius Knapp (Deputy Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology), Michael Gallagher (Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, NTIA), Stephen Price (Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spectrum, Space, Sensors and C3 Policy, Department of Defense), Jeff Shane (Department of Transportation), Richard Nowakowski (Chicago Office of Emergency Communications R&D), Ralph Petroff (Time Domain Corporation), Dennis Johnson (Geophysical Survey Systems).
Senate Judiciary Committee To Hold Hearing on FBI
6/6. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing on counter terrorism issues on Thursday morning, June 6. The scheduled witnesses include Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller, Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Glenn Fine, and FBI Special Agent Colleen Rowley. See, notice.
The hearing will focus on FBI investigation of terrorism prior to September 11, 2001, including the criticisms contained in Rowley's May 21 letter to Mueller. However, the hearing may also cover the DOJ's recently released guidelines for conducting investigations into terrorist, and other, matters. These guidelines cover many topics, including information systems, data mining, and Internet searching.
On May 30, the DOJ released a memorandum [PDF] titled "Attorney General's Guidelines: Detecting and Preventing Terrorist Attacks", and a memorandum [PDF] titled "Shifting from Prosecution to Prevention: Redesigning the Justice Department to Prevent Future Acts of Terrorism". See also, Attorney General John Ashcroft's statement.
On June 4, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and other groups, wrote a letter [PDF] to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the Chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They wrote that "Your hearing this week provides a critical opportunity to assess the impact of the Attorney General's new guidelines."
They elaborated that "We are particularly concerned about elements of the guidelines that appear to give the FBI the authority to search through electronic databases without satisfying any legal standard or requiring any judicial review."
After the hearing, Jerry Berman, Executive Director of the CDT, will hold a press teleconference to discuss the hearing, and the new guidelines for FBI investigations. See, calendar.
People and Appointments
6/3. Karan Bhatia was named Deputy Under Secretary for Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security, which was formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration. The DOC stated in a release that Bhatia "will advise and assist the Under Secretary in overseeing all aspects of Bureau management and policymaking, including the administration and enforcement of dual-use export controls, promoting the assurance of public and private sector critical infrastructures, ensuring compliance with U.S. antiboycott laws, and ensuring the viability of the U.S. defense industrial base." He has been Chief Counsel for Export Administration since July 2001. Before that, he was a partner in the law firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering.
6/5. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) elected its new Board of Directors and Executive Committee for 2002-2003. Tim Donahue of Nextel will be Chairman, Scott Ford of ALLTEL will be Vice Chairman, Terry Addington of First Cellular of Southern Illinois will be Treasurer, and Mikal Thomsen of Western Wireless will be Secretary. Two new Board members were also named: Robert Dawson of Southern LINC and Mick Mullagh of Telephia.
Cal App Affirms Conviction for Knowingly Accessing and Taking Data from a Computer
6/5. The California Court of Appeal (6) issued its opinion [PDF] in People v. David Hawkins, affirming a conviction for the felony of knowingly accessing and taking data from a computer system.
The defendant, David Hawkins, was charged with taking the source code of his former employer Network Translation Incorporated (NTI). Cisco Systems acquired NTI in 1995, and Hawkins then worked for Cisco until August of 1996. Hawkins later worked on the development of an application that was similar to a Cisco product. San Jose police officers executed a search warrant for Hawkin's apartment. They found NTI source code on one of his computers. Police investigators further determined that these source code files had been accessed after he stopped working for Cisco.
Hawkins was charged with misappropriating a trade secret (California Penal Code § 499) and knowingly accessing and taking data from a computer system (§ 502(c)(2)). The trial jury returned a verdict of not guilty on the trade secret charge. However, he was convicted on the § 502 charge.
Section 502(c)(2) of the California Penal Code provides "... any person who commits any of the following acts is guilty of a public offense ... (2) Knowingly accesses and without permission takes, copies, or makes use of any data from a computer, computer system, or computer network, or takes or copies any supporting documentation, whether existing or residing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network."
On appeal, Hawkins argued that his crime should not be a felony because § 502(c)(2) lacks a mens rea requirement, that the statute is unconstitutionally vague, and that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of prior misconduct and in admitting printouts of computer access times.
The Appeals Court affirmed. It wrote that the requirement that defendant act "knowingly" satisfies the mens rea requirement. On the vagueness argument, the Appeals Court concluded that the statute is "sufficiently clear to avoid constitutional problems". The Appeals Court also found no error in the admission of evidence of prior misconduct (that Hawkins had also possessed proprietary source code of Sun Microsystems on his computer), or in the admission of the printouts of access times.
Fed Circuit Rules on Patent Unenforceability Due to Failure to Name an Inventor
6/4. The U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir) issued its opinion in Frank's Casing Crew and Rental Tools v. PMR Technologies, a patent case involving failure by named inventors to list a true inventor, and unenforceability due to inequitable conduct by named inventors in failing to name an inventor.
This action involves U.S. Patent No. RE 34,063, which is directed to a method and apparatus for monitoring torque while connecting threaded tubular goods; it has utility in oil and gas drilling. PMR obtained a license to it shortly after its issuance in 1992. PMR then attempted to sell licenses to the patent to oil and gas companies. PMR also sent cease and desist letters. One letter was sent to Frank's Casing Crew and Rental Tools.
Frank's Casing then filed a complaint in U.S. District Court (WDLa) against PMR seeking a declaratory judgment that the '063 patent is invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed. Others actions were instituted, and consolidated into this one action.
The District Court held that an inventor had been omitted. It further found that the parties who prosecuted the patent had engaged in inequitable conduct by failing to name this person as an inventor. It further found that they deliberately omitted him from the patent and acted to hide his involvement in the invention throughout the patent prosecution process. As a result, the District Court held the patent unenforceable.
The Appeals Court affirmed the District Court's findings that a true inventor of at least one of the '063 patent claims was not named on the patent, and that the '063 patent was unenforceable because of inequitable conduct during its prosecution. However, the Appeals Court remanded to the District Court for the limited purpose of determining the correct inventorship of the patent.
Sen. Lieberman Introduces Broadband Bill
6/5. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) introduced a bill titled the National Broadband Strategy Act of 2002, a bill that would require the President to adopt a broadband strategy.
Sen. Lieberman stated in the Senate that "I rise today to introduce what I believe will be a roadmap to revitalization. It's premised on the extraordinary promise of high speed Internet to help us return to high  intensity growth; by revolutionizing the way we communicate and live our lives. Its goal is to highlight the challenges we face in tapping the transformative potential of broadband technology, to spur agreement on a national strategy for accelerating its development and deployment, and ultimately to help bring on what we all hope will be the broadband boom." See, transcript.
However, this bill has only one substantive provision -- a requirement that the President develop a broadband policy. The bill provides that "Not later than six months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to Congress a report setting forth a strategy for the nationwide deployment of high speed broadband Internet telecommunications services."
Sen. Lieberman also said that he will introduce more broadband related legislation later. He stated that "The follow-up legislation I'll propose in the coming months will call on the FCC to develop a regulatory framework to meet the challenges of the next generation Net ... propose tax credits for the deployment of advanced broadband ... encourage research and development on advanced broadband infrastructure that will enable this technology to reach into all the corners and crevices of the country ... and present a program to incentivize research and development on major applications in areas where government plays a central role, including education, healthcare, and e-government." (Dots in original.)
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Thursday, June 6
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business.
The Supreme Court is in recess until June 10.
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Day two of a three day public workshop hosted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on proposed amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), including the potential development and implementation of a national do not call list. See, FTC release and agenda. Location: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 2600 Woodley Road, NW.
9:30 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an oversight hearing on counter terrorism issues. The scheduled witnesses include FBI Director Robert Mueller, DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine, and FBI Special Agent Colleen Rowley. See, notice. Press contact: Mimi Devlin at 202 224-9437. Location: Room 216, Hart Building.
POSTPONED. 10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee will meet to mark up several bills, including HR 3215, the Combatting Illegal Gambling Reform and Modernization Act (Goodlatte Internet gambling bill), and HR 4623, the Child Obscenity and Pormography Prevention Act of 2002. Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202 225-2492.
POSTPONED. The Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications will hold a hearing titled Universal Service Fund.
10:30 AM. The House International Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights will hold a hearing on titled "An Assessment of Cuba Broadcasting -- The Voice of Freedom". Location: Room 2172, Rayburn Building.
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Institute for International Research and ComCare will host a conference titled e-SAFETY: Delivering Communications & Information Technology Solutions for 21st Century Public Safety. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) will give a keynote address at 8:30 AM. The price to attend is $695. See, IIR notice. Location: Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
1:00 PM. Jerry Berman (Center for Democracy and Technology) will hold a press teleconference to discuss the Senate Judiciary Committee's oversight hearing, and the new guidelines for FBI investigations. Telephone: 334 260-2557; Security Code: 98704.
1:45 PM. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans will give the keynote address to U.S. -- China Business Council's 2002 Annual Meeting. See, notice. Location: The Ritz Carlton, Ballroom -- Salon 1, 1150 22nd Street, NW.
Deadline to submit comments to the SEC regarding its proposed rule amending the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to exempt certain investment advisers that provide advisory services through the Internet from the prohibition on SEC registration set out in § 203A of the Act. The amendments would permit these advisers to register with the SEC instead of with state securities authorities. See, notice in the Federal Register.
Friday, June 7
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Day three of a three day public workshop hosted by the FTC on proposed amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule, including the potential development and implementation of a national do not call list. See, FTC release and agenda.
? 10:00 AM. The House Judiciary Committee will meet to mark up several bills, including HR 3215, the Combatting Illegal Gambling Reform and Modernization Act (Goodlatte Internet gambling bill), HR 4623, the Child Obscenity and Pormography Prevention Act of 2002, and HR 4598, the Homeland Security Information Sharing Act. Audio Webcast. Press contact: Jeff Lungren or Terry Shawn at 202 225-2492. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM. The House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy will hold a hearing titled "Coordinated Information Sharing & Homeland Security Technology" Location: Room 2154, Rayburn Building.
12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The Federalist Society will host a debate on judicial nominations. the participants will be Douglas Kmiec (Columbus School of Law) and Elliot Mincberg (People for the American Way). For more information, call Joel Pardoe at 202 822-8138. See, release. Location: Holeman Lounge, National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor.
12:15 PM. The FCBA's Wireless Telecommunications and International Practice Committees will host a luncheon. The topic will be International Wireless Developments. The price to attend is $15. RSVP to wendy @fcba.org. Location: 1750 K Street, NW.
Sunday, June 9
Day one of a three day conference hosted by George Mason University titled "Networked Economy Summit". See, event web site. Location: Hyatt Regency Reston, Reston, VA.
Monday, June 10
The FCBA will host a luncheon. The speaker will be Brian Roberts of Comcast. The price is $45 for FCBA members, $35 for government and student members, and $55 for non-members. There will be a reception at 12:00 NOON. The luncheon will begin at 12:30 PM. RSVP to Wendy Parish at wendy @fcba.org by June 5. Location: Capital Hilton, 16th & K Streets.
Day one of a two day seminar titled "Managing Trade Compliance In Today's Environment". The seminar is offered by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (formerly BXA). The price to attend is $325. See, information page. Location: Marriott at Metro Center, 775 12th St., NW.
Day two of a three day conference hosted by George Mason University titled "Networked Economy Summit". See, event web site.
First of three deadlines to submit proposals to the NIST for FY 2002 Advanced Technology Program funds. See, notice in Federal Register.
Tuesday, June 11
7:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Day one of a two day conference titled "Current and Emerging Solutions to Public Safety Communications Interoperability" hosted by the NTIA and the Public Safety Wireless Network (PSWN) Program. Audio webcast. See, notice in the Federal Register. Location: Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a conference titled "The Future of Telecom Regulation". See, agenda and registration page. Location: AEI, 12th floor, 1150 17th St., NW.
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Day one of a three day meeting of the NIST's Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board. See, notice in Federal Register. Location: National Security Agency's National Cryptologic Museum, Colony 7 Road, Annapolis Junction, MD.
9:30 AM. The Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications will hold a hearing titled Spectrum Management. Press contact: Andy Davis 224-6654. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
2:30 PM. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information will hold a hearing on the S 2541, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.
Day two of a two day seminar titled "Managing Trade Compliance In Today's Environment". The seminar is offered by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (formerly BXA). See, information page.
Day three of a three day conference hosted by George Mason University titled "Networked Economy Summit". See, event web site.
Wednesday, June 12
7:00 AM - 3:30 PM. Day two of a two day conference titled "Current and Emerging Solutions to Public Safety Communications Interoperability" hosted by the NTIA and the Public Safety Wireless Network Program. See, notice in the Federal Register.
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM. Day two of a three day meeting of the NIST's Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board. See, notice in Federal Register.
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology will hold a public meeting. The agenda includes four items: (1) the science and technology of combating terrorism, (2) policies and technologies to improve energy efficiency, (3) the federal investment in science and technology R&D, and (4) demand issues that can speed the deployment of broadband infrastructure. See, notice in Federal Register. Location: Colonial Room, Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW.
2:30 PM. The Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee will hold a hearings to examine the ICANN. Press contact: Andy Davis at 202 224-6654. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
11:00 AM. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion titled "Digital Copy Protection: Mandate It? Ban It? Or Let the Market Decide?". The speakers will be Rick Lane (News Corporation), Jonathan Potter (Digital Media Association), Sarah Deutsch (Verizon), Stewart Verdery (Vivendi Universal), and Jonathan Zuck (Association for Competitive Technology). Lunch will follow. Webcast. See, online registration page. Location: Cato, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.
12:30 PM. The FCBA's Global Telecommunications Development Committee and the International Practice Committee will host a luncheon seminar titled "Three Principles for the Liberalization of Telecommunications in Latin America: Competition, Competition and Competition". The speakers will be Henoch Aguiar, a former Secretary of Telecommunications of Argentina. This program is free and lunch will be provided. RSVP by faxing or e-mailing your name, affiliation, and contact information to Javier Miguel Tizado at 202 639-9355 or jtizado @whitecase.com by Monday, June 10th. Location: White & Case, 601 13th St., NW, Suite 600.