12/11. The Office of the US Trade Representative (OUSTR) released a report [109 pages in PDF] titled "2006 Report to Congress on China's WTO Compliance". The report is particularly critical of the People's Republic of China's failure to protect intellectual property rights (IPR).

The report concludes that the US "will have to pursue other options if the bilateral approach is not fruitful". That is, the US "remains prepared to take action, including WTO dispute settlement, where appropriate, to ensure that China develops and implements an effective system of IPR enforcement, as required by the TRIPS Agreement."

Susan Schwab, the USTR, stated in a release that "The United States and China have both benefited greatly from our growing trade relationship, and China’s participation in the rules-based international trading system has aided China greatly as it transforms itself into a modern commercial power. China has taken many important steps to implement its WTO obligations, but on the fifth anniversary of its WTO membership, China’s overall record is decidedly mixed".

She continued that "Chinese reforms have lowered systemic trade barriers to many goods and services from the United States and other WTO members and have begun to strengthen the rule of law in economic matters.  At the same time, certain industries face frustrating barriers to doing business in China, and there are worrisome signs that China’s market liberalization efforts have slowed in the last year.  With five years of WTO membership experience under its belt, we believe it is fair to expect China to be implementing the letter and spirit of its WTO obligations in full.  This would benefit both of our countries and strengthen the global trading system."

The report, which is required by Congressional statute, begins that "When China acceded to the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001, it committed to implement over time a set of sweeping reforms that required it to lower trade barriers in virtually every sector of the economy, provide national treatment and improved market access to goods and services imported from the United States and other WTO members, and protect intellectual property rights. Five years later, the deadlines for almost all of China’s commitments have passed, and China’s transition period as a new WTO Member is now essentially over."

The reports finds progress in implementing WTO obligations in some areas, but concludes that "China’s shortcomings in enforcing laws in areas where detailed WTO disciplines apply, such as intellectual property rights (IPR), have also created serious problems for the United States and its other trading partners."

Intellectual Property Rights. The report contains an extensive section on China's failure to fulfill its WTO obligations to protect IPR. (See, pages 6-7 and 70-78.)

The report states that China's "framework of laws, regulations and implementing rules remains largely satisfactory". Although, it states that they are lacking on certain criminal penalties, on "Internet copyright protection", and in protecting "electronic information networks". It also states that Chinese law is defective in protecting against theft of company names, designs and trademarks, and trade secrets.

However, the main criticism of the report is that "China has continued to demonstrate little success in actually enforcing its laws and regulations in the face of the challenges created by widespread counterfeiting, piracy and other forms of infringement."

The report states that "U.S. industry in 2006 continued to estimate that levels of piracy in China across all lines of copyright business range between 85 and 93 percent, indicating little or no improvement over 2005. Trade in pirated optical discs continues to thrive, supplied by both licensed and unlicensed factories and by smugglers. Small retail shops continue to be the major commercial outlets for pirated movies and music (and a variety of counterfeit goods), and roaming vendors offering cheap pirated discs continue to be visible in major cities across China. Piracy of books and journals and end-user piracy of business software also remain key concerns. In addition, Internet piracy is increasing, as is piracy over enclosed networks such as universities." (Parentheses in original.)

Meanwhile, the report states, as pirates sell infringing products, "China maintains market access barriers, such as import restrictions and restrictions on wholesale and retail distribution, which discourage and delay the introduction of a number of legitimate foreign products into China’s market." It states that these barriers add to the incentive to infringe IPR.

The report adds that "China's widespread counterfeiting not only harms the business interests of foreign right holders, but also includes many products that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of consumers in the United States, China and elsewhere, such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, batteries, auto parts, industrial equipment and toys, among many other products."

The report states that the "One bright spot appears to be China's implementation of the new rules requiring computers to be pre-installed with licensed operating system software, as U.S. industry has been pleased with the initial results of that effort."

Telecommunications. The report concludes that "no meaningful progress took place in 2006 in the telecommunications services sector".

The report states that "China has not yet established a truly independent regulator in the telecommunications sector. The current regulator, MII, while nominally separate from the current telecommunications operators, maintains extensive influence and control over their operations and continues to use its regulatory authority to disadvantage foreign firms."

The report also finds that China continues to maintain excessive "capitalization requirements" on telecommunications services.

The report also complains that China has refused to publicly release a draft of its "Telecommunications Law", which the government has been working on since 2004.

12/11. The Cato Institute released a paper [12 pages in PDF] titled "Effective Counterterrorism and the Limited Role of Predictive Data Mining". The authors are Jim Harper (Cato) and Jeff Jonas (IBM).

The paper defines data mining as "the process of searching data for previously unknown patterns and using those patterns to predict future outcomes."

It argues that "Though data mining has many valuable uses, it is not well suited to the terrorist discovery problem. It would be unfortunate if data mining for terrorism discovery had currency within national security, law enforcement, and technology circles because pursuing this use of data mining would waste taxpayer dollars, needlessly infringe on privacy and civil liberties, and misdirect the valuable time and energy of the men and women in the national security community."

The paper states that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks might have been prevented if national security and law enforcement agencies had been able "to connect the dots" with the information that it possessed. However, the report concludes that "What was needed to reveal the remaining 9/11 conspirators was better communication, collaboration, a heightened focus on the two known terrorists, and traditional investigative processes", rather than not data mining. The report details how investigatory and surveillance could have rolled up the plot.

The paper states that predictive data mining can be useful in marketing to consumers. Here, retailers use data on consumers to target, and advertise to, persons that its data mining analysis predicts might become good customers of the company. The report continues that most targeted consumers are "false positives". That is, for example, "The ``damage´´ done by an imperfectly aimed direct-mail piece may be a dollar lost to the marketer and a moment's time wasted by the consumer. That is an acceptable loss to most people."

In contrast, Harper and Jonas's paper states that there is no underlying body of data on terrorism upon which to build predictive models. The report states that "With a relatively small number of attempts every year and only one or two major terrorist incidents every few years -- each one distinct in terms of planning and execution -- there are no meaningful patterns that show what behavior indicates planning or preparation for terrorism."

Moreover, the "damage" resulting from "false positives" is far greater when data mining is used to predict terrorists. That is, "Civil liberties violations would be routine and person-years of investigators' precious time would be wasted if investigations, surveillance, or the commitment of people to screening lists were based on algorithms that were wrong the overwhelming majority of the time."

The report concludes that "Protecting America requires no predictive-data-mining technologies. Indeed, if there is a lesson to be learned from 9/11, it is not very groundbreaking. It is this: Enable investigators to efficiently discover, access, and aggregate relevant information related to actionable suspects. Period. Sufficient dedication of national resources to more precisely ``pull the strings´´ offers the best chance of detecting and preempting future acts of terrorism."

The paper adds that "This is all the more important in light of recent controversies about the monitoring of telephone calls and the collection of telephone traffic data by the U.S. National Security Agency, as well as surveillance of international financial transactions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury."

12/11. Charles Fishkin, Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Office of Risk Assessment, will leave the SEC "early in the new year" after a "transition period". He will work for AllianceBernstein.

11/29. Mark Paoletta joined the Washington DC office of the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro. He will work in the firm's Government Law & Strategy group. He was previously Chief Counsel for the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which conducted, among other things, an investigation of pretexting by Hewlett Packard. Dickstein Shapiro issued a release that does not disclose whether or not Paoletta will specialize in representing companies that will be investigated by the HCC in the Democratic controlled 110th Congress.

12/12. The U.S. Court of Appeals (4thCir) issued its opinion [PDF] in Space Technology Development Corp. v. Boeing, a contract dispute regarding the Naval EarthMap Observer Satellite (NEMO). The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court's judgment in favor of Boeing. This case is Space Technology Development Corporation, Earth Search Sciences, Inc., and Accuprobe, Inc. v. Boeing Company, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, App. Ct. No. 05-1671, an appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria, Judge Leonie Brinkema presiding, D.C. No. CA-05-411-1.

12/11. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a hearing regarding regulation of media ownership in Nashville, Tennessee. FCC Commissioners Michael Copps wrote in his statement [PDF] that "In an era where minority ownership appears to be at shockingly and embarrassingly low lows, while payola allegations continue to raise their ugly heads, when infomercials and propaganda are passed off as news, and where license renewal has become a mindless pro forma farce, I believe that the bargain that America made with commercial broadcasting has gotten wildly out of whack." Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein wrote in his statement [PDF] that there are "exciting new platforms -- like satellite radio, the Internet, I-tunes and You Tube", but that "broadcasting is still the dominant source of not just local news and information, but also entertainment programming", and this has "huge implications for the free exchange of ideas". Chairman Kevin Martin wrote in his statement [PDF] that "We are still in the beginning phases of this review of our ownership rules." Commissioner Robert McDowell did not attend, but issued his regrets [PDF].

12/8. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave another speech in which he warned about "these cowardly villains who hide in the shadows of the Internet" and "other offenders who use the Internet to facilitate their crimes". He said that "We cannot allow ourselves to be ``outgunned´´ by criminals whose knowledge of the Internet and computers exceeds our own."

12/5. The Office of the US Trade Representative (OUSTR) released a document [47 pages in PDF] titled "Annual Reform Recommendations from the Government of the United States to the Government of Japan under the U.S.-Japan Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative".

The House and Senate will next meet at 12:00 NOON on Tuesday, January 4, 2007. See, HConRes 503.

9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. Day two of a two day meeting of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS). The agenda includes discussion of digitization. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 28, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 228, at Pages 68845-68846. Location: Large Conference Room 642, Madison Building, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave., SE.

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day meeting of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. See, notice in the Federal Register: November 28, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 228, at Page 68800. Location: Employees Lounge, Administration Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.

9:30 AM - 4:45 PM. The Broadcasting Board of Governors will hold a closed meeting. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 12, 2006, Vol.71, No. 238, at Page 74485. Location: Cohen Building, Room 3321, 330 Independence Ave., SW.

10:00 AM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting. See, FCC release [PDF]. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, TW-C305, 445 12th Street, SW.

6:00 - 9:30 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "2006 Intellectual Property Law Series, Part 1: Trademarks, Copyrights and Law of the Internet". The speakers will include Brian Banner (Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck), Beckwith Burr (Wilmer Hale), and Terence Ross (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher). The price to attend ranges from $80 to $115. For more information, call 202-626-3488. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

Deadline to submit nominations to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for membership on the newly created Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee. This Committee was created by Section 603 of the "Warning, Alert and Response Network Act" or "WARN Act", which was attached to HR 4954, the port security bill that President Bush signed on October 13, 2006. See, FCC's Public Notice [PDF] and story titled "House and Senate Approve Port Security Bill With Tech Provisions" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,461, October 4, 2006.

Deadline to submit comments to the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) in advance of its December 19, 2006, meeting. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 4, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 232, at Pages 70413.

8:00 AM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host a breakfast. The speaker will be John Grimes [PDF] Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration / CIO. See, registration form [PDF]. Registrations and cancellations are due by 5:00 PM on December 7. The price to attend ranges from $30 to $55. Location: Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave., NW.

9:00 - 11:00 AM. Day two of a two day meeting of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology. See, notice in the Federal Register: November 28, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 228, at Page 68800. Location: Employees Lounge, Administration Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The EMC Corporation will host a panel discussion on the changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that took effect on December 1, 2006. The speakers will include US Magistrate Judge David Waxse (who has written opinions on electronic discovery), Thomas Allman (Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw), and Chris Panagiotopoulos (Director of Information Technology of LifeBridge Health, Inc.). Press contact: Erin Zeitler, EZeitler at outcastpr dot com or 212-905-6047. Location: Grand Hyatt Washington, 1000 H Street, NW.

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration NTIA) Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee will hold its first meeting. The agenda includes "(1) Discussion of Committee organization and future agendas and (2) Briefings on matters related to the President's Spectrum Policy Initiative." See, notice in the Federal Register, November 28, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 228, at Page 68808. Location: Hoover Building, Room 6059, 1401 Constitution Ave., NW.

11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Advisory Committee for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07 Advisory Committee) will meet. See, FCC notice [PDF] and notice in the Federal Register, November 1, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 211, at Page 64278. Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, Room TW-C305, 445 12th St., SW.

12:00 NOON. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion on the book [Amazon] titled "Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them". The speakers will include James Gilmore (former Governor of Virginia) and John Mueller (author). See, notice and registration page. Lunch will be served after the program. Location: Cato, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

2:00 - 3:15 PM. The Broadcasting Board of Governors will hold a closed meeting. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 12, 2006, Vol.71, No. 238, at Page 74485. Location: Cohen Building, Room 3321, 330 Independence Ave., SW.

TIME? The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host a conference titled "2nd Annual NIST/USMS Telemedicine Workshop". See, notice. Location: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Natcher Center, Building 45, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host a continuing legal education (CLE) seminar titled "2006 Intellectual Property Law Year in Review: 2-Part Series: Patent Law Update". The speakers will include Bradley Wright (Banner & Witcoff) and Eric Wright (Morgan & Finnegan). The price to attend ranges from $80 to $115. For more information, call 202-626-3488. See, notice. Location: D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1250 H Street NW, B-1 Level.

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. Day one of a two day conference hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) and the Practicing Law Institute titled "Telecommunications Policy and Regulation". See, agenda [MS Word] and registration form [MS Word]. The price to attend ranges from $1,165.50 to $1,295. The price for FCC employees is $25. Location: Washington Hilton Hotel, 1919 Connecticut Ave., NW.

RESCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 20. 9:30 AM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a meeting. The event will be webcast by the FCC. Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C05 (Commission Meeting Room).

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) request for a waiver of the FCC's Calling Party Number rules. This proceeding is CC Docket No. 91-281. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 29, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 229, at Pages 69094-69096.

9:00 AM - 12:45 PM. Day two of a two day conference hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) and the Practicing Law Institute titled "Telecommunications Policy and Regulation". See, agenda [MS Word] and registration form [MS Word]. The price to attend ranges from $1,165.50 to $1,295. The price for FCC employees is $25. Location: Washington Hilton Hotel, 1919 Connecticut Ave., NW.

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Information Security Oversight Office's (ISOO) Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) will hold a meeting. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 5, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 233, at Pages 70550-70551. Location: NARA, Rooms 500 and 501, 700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assist the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) in drafting a report on the ability of persons with hearing disabilities to access digital wireless telecommunications. See, FCC Public Notice [4 pages in PDF] (DA 06-2285). This proceeding is WT Docket No. 06-203.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Office of the US Trade Representative regarding the operation, implementation and effectiveness of all trade agreements regarding telecommunications products and services to assist it in preparing its annual Section 1377 report. See, notice in the Federal Register, November 15, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 220, at Pages 66563-66564.

Hanukkah.

Effective date of the Report and Order (R&O) portion of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) R&O and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) in its TV white space proceeding. This item is FCC 06-156 in ET Docket Nos. 04-186 and 02-380. The FCC adopted this item at an October 12, 2006, meeting, and released it on October 18, 2006. See, story titled "FCC Adopts Order and FNPRM Regarding TV White Space" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,467, October 12, 2006, and notice in the Federal Register, November 17, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 222, at Pages 66897-66905.

1:00 - 4:00 PM. The President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) will hold a partially closed meeting. At 1:00 PM the NSTAC will meet in public to receive comments from government agencies, to discuss the work of the NSTAC's Emergency Communications and Interoperability Task Force (ECITF), and to discuss the work of the Telecommunications and Electric Power Interdependency Task Force (TEPITF). At 3:00 PM the NSTAC will meet in secret to discuss the Global Infrastructure Resiliency (GIR) Report. See, notice in the Federal Register, December 4, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 232, at Pages 70413. Location: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St., NW.

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