Tech Law Journal Daily E-Mail Alert
October 22, 2010, Alert No. 2,145.
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FCC Creates Technological Advisory Council

10/21. The FCC announced that it has formed a body titled "Technological Advisory Council" to help the FCC to "identify important areas of innovation and develop informed technology policies".

Tom Wheeler (Core Capital Partners) was named Chairman of the Council. The FCC also announced that Doug Sicker (FCC Chief Technologist) "will work with" Wheeler. Walter Johnston (Chief of the FCC's Electromagnetic Compatibility Division) will be the Designated Federal Officer. Julius Knapp (Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology) will be the Alternate Designated Federal Officer).

The FCC also named the other members of the Council. See, FCC release.

The FCC stated that this Council will advise the FCC on "how broadband communications can be part of the solution for the delivery and cost containment of health care, for energy and environmental conservation, for education innovation and in the creation of jobs. Other topics may include the evolution of broadband networks and devices and their implications, spectrum management, research and development in broadband and other communications areas, and how to promote innovation and investment."

Wheeler is Managing Director of Core Capital Partners, a Washington DC based venture capital firm that focuses on information technology, communications, digital media, and technology enabled services. He is a former CEO of the CTIA, and a former President of the NCTA.

He moderated a panel discussion titled "Policy Solutions to Spectrum Demand" at the FCC's event titled "Spectrum Summit" on October 21, 2010.

The first meeting of the Council will be at the FCC on November 4, 2010, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.

ACLU Concerned About DOD DHS Cooperation on Cyber Security

10/21. The ACLU's Laura Murphy commented in a release on cooperation between the The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) on cyber security.

See, DHS/DOD document [5 pages in PDF] titled "Memorandum of Agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense Regarding Cybersecurity", and story titled "DHS and DOD Sign Cyber Security Agreement" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,143, October 20, 2010.

Murphy wrote that "We are very concerned that the line between the military and domestic law enforcement continues to blur. The military is trained to fight foreign enemies, not to enforce domestic laws. These new procedures could have serious consequences for Americans' civil liberties without proper safeguards in place. There must be vigorous and strict oversight of this partnership to prevent innocent Internet users from being caught up in unwarranted surveillance."

She added that "Proposals with civil liberties implications as serious as these should be subject to robust public debate before any policy is implemented so that we can ensure that Americans’ privacy and civil liberties remain a priority."

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) stated in a release that "Allowing the NSA to work with DHS cybersecurity teams could prove beneficial when it comes to harnessing NSA's expertise and ensuring DHS is up to speed. But the partnership does not come without risks to civil liberties."

EPIC Gives Obama Administration Low Grades

10/19. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released a report titled "Obama Administration Privacy Report Card". It gave grades of C for Consumer Privacy, B for Medical Privacy, D for Civil Liberties, and B for Cyber Security.

The report states, regarding consumer privacy, that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), "has been unable or unwilling to pursue any significant privacy investigations. The agency has become a black hole for privacy complaints that earlier Commissions routinely pursued. The White House offers little support for privacy efforts in Congress. Meanwhile, public concerns about identity theft, security breaches, and online profiling are on the rise."

The report states, regarding civil liberties, that "The Obama administration has aggressively asserted the ``state secrets´´ doctrine, expanded Fusion Centers and watch lists, and subjected all American air travelers to unconstitutional body searches in airports. Incredibly, the White House allowed the President's Civil Liberties and Privacy Oversight Board to languish. Even the Bush administration made this a priority."

Canada Finds Google Violated Its Privacy Law

10/19. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPCC) announced  that Google violated Canadian privacy law by using its Street View project vehicles to collect WiFi network data.

The OPCC stated in a release that "Google Inc. contravened Canadian privacy law when it inappropriately collected personal information from unsecured wireless networks in neighbourhoods across the country". It added that "the incident was the result of an engineer’s careless error as well as a lack of controls to ensure that necessary procedures to protect privacy were followed".

It also found that "The personal information collected included complete e-mails, e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords, names and residential telephone numbers and addresses. Some of the captured information was very sensitive, such as a list that provided the names of people suffering from certain medical conditions, along with their telephone numbers and addresses."

Neither the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nor Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have taken any action against Google for these actions.

However, the House Commerce Committee (HCC) has investigated. See, story titled "Rep. Markey and Rep. Barton Write FTC Regarding Google Data Collection Activities" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,085, May 20, 2010; story titled "House Commerce Committee Leaders Write Google Regarding Wi-Fi Data" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,090, June 2, 2010; and story titled "Google Responds to Congressional Inquiry Regarding Its Collection of Data from WiFi Networks" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,094, June 15, 2010.

John Simpson of the Consumer Watchdog stated in a release that "Officials around the world are cracking down on the Internet giant's Wi-Spy incident and we need Congress to make Google executives answer publicly, under oath, for the scandal here at home".

FP and PK Urge FCC to Consider Retransmission Consent Implications of Comcast NBCU Transaction

10/21. The Free Press (FP) sent a letter [2 pages in PDF] to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on October 20, 2010, regarding retransmission consent negotiations between Cablevision and News Corp., and the FCC's long running antitrust merger review proceeding for Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal.

The FP wrote that "In acquiring NBCU's 26 broadcast stations, Comcast will gain a double incentive to drive-up its rivals' costs for NBC broadcast signals: first, not only does the conglomerate benefit from securing increased fees, but higher rates will force Comcast's cable competitors to absorb these costs, or to pass them onto consumers. This will result in higher bills for consumers who subscribe to rival services, and will give Comcast an anticompetitive advantage over small cable operators, satellite television providers such as Dish Network and DirecTV, or telco TV services such as Verizon FiOS or AT&T UVerse."

The FP concluded that "the proposed merger is likely to further inflame an already broken retransmission consent system".

The Public Knowledge (PK) sent a similar letter [4 pages in PDF] to the FCC on October 21. It wrote that if the FCC "allows the merger between Comcast and NBC to proceed, it can expect to have more, and more damaging, retransmission consent and online video blocking disputes thrown on its lap."

"The current retransmission consent regime gives undue power to broadcasters." The PK elaborated that "One way broadcasters are abusing the government-created retransmission regime is by extending the fight to the Internet, as Fox demonstrated when it began blocking Cablevision broadband customers. It is not clear whether Fox was attempting to block customers of the Cablevision ISP per se or whether it was assuming that all Cablevision broadband customers were also Cablevision cable customers. Thus, there is no way to know whether it is Fox's position that only customers of MVPDs that provide Fox programming may access Fox content online, or whether its policy is that only customers of ISPs who are affiliated with MVPDs who provide Fox programming may access Fox content online. In any event, Fox’s ISP-based blocking scheme is crude and causes many unintended consequences."

See also, stories titled "Sen. Kerry Releases Draft Retransmission Consent Bill" and "Copps Comments on Retransmission Consent" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,144, October 21, 2010.

IPR News

10/21. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) issued a release regarding the graduated response and site blocking methods for dealing with online copyright infringement. Graduated response involves requiring ISPs to impose an escalating series of sanctions against repeat infringers. The MPAA and other groups that represent motion picture companies urge governments to enact graduated response legislation.

10/20. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) submitted comments [PDF] to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (OUSTR) regarding its annual review of the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries for African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) benefits in light of the AGOA's intellectual property rights eligibility criteria. The IIPA stated that "widespread copyright piracy remains a very serious problem among all African countries. As a result, it may be the case that many copyright-based sectors and companies are still reluctant to invest in these smaller markets where piracy is, in effect, uncontrollable".

10/6. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released a paper [19 pages in PDF] titled "Campaign Takedown Troubles: How Meritless Copyright Claims Threaten Online Political Speech". It argues that "overly aggressive copyright claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have inappropriately stifled political speech on the Internet during recent campaign cycles". It states that "the motivations behind news networks' takedown demands appear to have little to do with the copyrights the DMCA was created to help enforce. The networks, often by their own admission, seem to be taking advantage of the DMCA's notice-and-takedown system as a blunt tool to restrict use of their works in political contexts. The interests they are seeking to protect appear to concern their integrity, reputation, or false association, rather than exploitation, market substitution or incentive destruction. These are trademark-type interests that may not even be legally cognizable." (Footnotes omitted.)

People and Appointments

10/20. President Obama awarded the National Medal of Science to ten individuals: Yakir Aharonov (Chapman University), Stephen Benkovic (Pennsylvania State University), Esther Conwell (University of Rochester), Marye Anne Fox (UC San Diego), Susan Lindquist (MIT), Mortimer Mishkin (NIH), David Mumford (Brown University), Stanley Prusiner (UC San Francisco), Warren Washington (National Center for Atmospheric Research), and Amnon Yariv (California Institute of Technology). See, White House news office release.

10/20. President Obama awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to three individuals, Harry Coover (Eastman Chemical Company), Helen Free (Miles Laboratories), and Steven Sasson (Eastman Kodak Company), and one team of three individuals, Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff, and Stanley Mazor of the Intel Corporation. See, White House news office release. Intel stated in a release that Faggin, Hoff and Mazor "developed the first microprocessor while working at Intel in 1971".

10/20. Chris Hopfensperger was named Technology Policy Counsel at the Business Software Alliance (BSA). He will work on privacy, e-commerce and cloud computing issues. He previously worked at the law firm of K&L Gates. See, BSA release.

10/20. Thomas Bayer was named Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). See, SEC release.

More News

10/21. Verizon Wireless (VW) announced that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, and VW's Tony Melone will appear at an event in Charleston, West Virginia on October 27, 2010, to announce VW's plans to deploy its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network in ten West Virginia cities. See, VW release.

10/21. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a report [6 pages in PDF] titled "Buying Innovation: How Public Procurement Can Spur Innovation". The author is the ITIF's Scott Andes. This paper states that "governments are generally the largest purchaser within a country and should think strategically about procurement, taking innovation into account when buying goods and services."

10/21. The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a paper [22 pages in PDF] titled "H-1B Visas: A Case for Open Immigration of Highly Skilled Foreign Workers". The author is the CEI's Alex Nowrasteh.

10/19. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court (DRI) against Online-Registries, Inc. and David G. Stern alleging Section 10b securities fraud, and other violations of federal securities law. The SEC stated in a release that the company does business as Online Medical Registries or OMR. This release also states that "Stern told investors that OMR had developed a technology that would help patients share their medical information with healthcare professionals in emergencies and at other crucial times. The complaint alleges that Stern falsely told investors that OMR had thousands of subscribers (when it only had approximately a dozen), that it had successfully tested its technology with a large hospital, that it would be partnering with a major technology company". This District Court issue a temporary restraining order. This case is SEC v. Online-Registries, Inc., et al., U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, D.C. No. No. 10-CV-00433-S.

10/19. The ACLU filed a paper [27 pages in PDF] titled "Network Neutrality 101: Why The Government Must Act To Preserve The Free And Open Internet" with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The author is the ACLE's Jay Stanley. This paper argues that "network neutrality" is "one of the foremost free speech issues of our time". It urges the FCC to apply common carrier regulation to broadband internet access service providers. It argues that the FCC should reclassify "broadband connectivity" as a "telecommunications service".

10/14. The American Association of Publishers (AAP) reported August book sales data. It stated in a release that total book sales are up moderately. However, e-book sales are growing very rapidly. It announced that "E book sales for January-August 2010 represented $263 million, compared to $89.8 million from January-August 2009, representing an overall increase for the category of 193% over the same period last year. For the month of August, e-book sales continue to grow, with a 172.4 percent increase over August 2009 ($39.0 million)."

10/13. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) published a notice in the Federal Register that announces, describes, recites, and sets the deadline comment for, its interim final rule regarding standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for electronic health record technology. See, Federal Register, October 13, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 197, at Pages 62686-62690. The deadline to submit comments is 5:00 PM on November 12, 2010.

In This Issue
This issue contains the following items:
 • FCC Creates Technological Advisory Council
 • ACLU Concerned About DOD DHS Cooperation on Cyber Security
 • EPIC Gives Obama Administration Low Grades
 • Canada Finds Google Violated Its Privacy Law
 • FP and PK Urge FCC to Consider Retransmission Consent Implications of Comcast NBCU Transaction
 • IPR News
 • People and Appointments
 • More News
Washington Tech Calendar
New items are highlighted in red.
Friday, October 22

The House is in recess until November 15.

The Senate is in recess until November 12, except for pro forma sessions.

8:30 - 10:45 AM. Day two of a two day partially closed meeting of the Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC). This meeting will be held on site, and by teleconference. See, notice in the Federal Register, October 12, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 196, at Pages 62508-62509. Location: DOC, Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.

9:00 - 11:00 AM. The New America Foundation (NAF) will host an event titled "The Emerging Threat to Online Trust: The Role of Public Policy and Browser Certificates". The speakers will be Sascha Meinrath (NAF), Edward Felten (Princeton University), Stephen Schultze (Princeton), Andrew McLaughlin (White House Deputy Chief Techonology Officer, Internet Policy), Adam Langley (Google), Scott Rea (DigiCert), Paul Vixie ( Internet Software Consortium), Peter Eckersley (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Ari Schwartz (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and Andy Steingruebl (PayPal). See, notice and registration page. This event is free and open to the public. Location: NAF, 4th floor, 1899 L St., NW.

9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Technology Policy Institute (TPI) will host a conference titled "Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in High-Tech Industries". Four papers will be presented: (1) "Antitrust in High-Tech Industries: The Three Major Recent Monopolization Cases", by Robert Crandall (Brookings Institution) and Charles Jackson (Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering, George Washington University); (2) "Antitrust and Vertical Integration in ``New Economy´´ Industries", by Bruce Owen (Stanford University); (3) "Does Antitrust Enforcement in High Tech Markets Benefit Consumers? Stock Price Evidence from FTC v. Intel", by Joshua Wright (George Mason University Law School); and (4) "Cloud Computing: Architectural and Policy Implications", by Christopher Yoo (University of Pennsylvania Law School). Four persons will discuss these papers: (1) Joseph Farrell (Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics); (2) Carl Shapiro (Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics at the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division); (3) Tim Brennan (University of Maryland, Baltimore County); and (4) Michael Salinger (Boston University School of Management). See, notice. Location: Polaris Suite, Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

9:30 AM - 5:00 PM. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) North American Numbering Council (NANC) will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register, October 4, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 191, Page 61140-61141. Location: FCC, Room TW-C305, 445 12th St., SW.

12:15 - 1:45 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host a brown bag lunch regarding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) data systems. Location: Sidley Austin, 1501 K St., NW.

Day two of a three day event hosted by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) titled "AIPLA 2010 Annual Meeting". See, conference brochure and schedule [PDF]. Location: Marriott Wardman Park.

Friday, October 22 Highlights of AIPLA Annual Meeting

8:45 - 11:45 AM. Concurrent Track 1: "Hot Topics in Intellectual Property Procurement and Enforcement in East Asia".

8:45 - 11:45 AM. Concurrent Track 2: "Cheaper by the Dozen: A Lively Discussion of Multidefendant Patent Litigation Strategies and Realities".

8:45 - 11:45 AM. Concurrent Track 3: "Best Practices to Mitigate Trade Secret Litigation Risks Arising from Employee Mobility and Commercial Dealings".

12:15 - 1:45 PM. Lunch. The speaker will be Judge Arthur Gajarsa, U.S. Court of Appeals (FedCir).

2:00 - 3:30 PM. Concurrent Track 1: "Patent Remedies at the Fringes".

2:00 - 3:30 PM. Concurrent Track 2: "Blog On! Thoughts on Patent Blogging from Inside and Outside the Blogosphere".

2:00 - 3:30 PM. Concurrent Track 3: "Trademark Triple Play - Winning Your Trademark Case on Injunction, Summary Judgment and at Trial".

3:30 - 4:30 PM. Session titled "Special Committee on Standards and Open Source".

3:30 - 5:30 PM. Session titled "Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy/IP Practice in Latin America/Trademark Internet/Trademark Law/Trademark Treaties and International Law".

3:30 - 5:30 PM. Session titled "Corporate Practice/Inventor Issues/Licensing and Management of IP Assets".

Saturday, October 23

Day three of a three day event hosted by the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) titled "AIPLA 2010 Annual Meeting". From 9:00 AM to 12:00 NOON there will be a session titled "Year in Review". See, conference brochure and schedule [PDF]. Location: Marriott Wardman Park.

Monday, October 25

8:45 - 11:30 AM. The New America Foundation (NAF) will host an event titled "The Internet's Midlife Crisis". The speakers will be Sascha Meinrath (NAF), Tim Wu (Columbia University law school), Bruce Gottlieb (Atlantic Media Company), Link Hoewing (Verizon), and Andres Martinez (NAF). See, notice and registration page. This event is free and open to the public. Location: NAF, 4th floor, 1899 L St., NW.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a meeting that pertains to its open rulemaking proceeding titled "In the Matter of Amendment of the Commission's Ex Parte Rules and Other Procedural Rules". The FCC adopted its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [27 pages in PDF] on February 18, 2010, and released the text on February 22, 2010. It is FCC 10-31 in GC Docket No. 10-43. The FCC officials responsible for this rule making proceeding, and who will participate in this meeting, include Austin Schlick (FCC General Counsel) and Joel Kaufman (Chief of the FCC's OGC's Administrative Law Division). The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) asserts that this is an FCBA event titled "Ethics, Social Media, and Administrative Procedure: Ex Parte Rules for a Digital Age". See, FCBA notice and registration form. The deadline to register is 12:00 NOON on October 25, 2010. Prices vary. The FCBA bars reporters from some of its events. Location: Holland & Knight, 2099 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) [79 pages in PDF] regarding expanding the FCC's disability access technology mandates. The FCC adopted and released this item on August 5, 2010. It is FCC 10-145 in WT Docket No. 07-250. See, notice in the Federal Register, September 8, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 173, at Pages 54546-54560, and story titled "FCC Adopts Disability Access Policy Statement, Order, and NPRM" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,120, August 6, 2010. See also, S 3304 [LOC | WW], previously titled the "Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act", and then S 3828 [LOC | WW], the "Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010", signed into law on October 8, 2010. The FCC published a second notice in the Federal Register requesting comments on the effects of this Act, if any, on this proceeding. See, Federal Register, October 18, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 200, at Pages 63764-63766.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry [102 pages in PDF] regarding the use of microwave for wireless backhaul. The FCC adopted and released this item on August 5, 2010. It is FCC 10-146 in WT Docket Nos. 10-153, 09-106, and 07-121. See, story titled "FCC Adopts Wireless Backhaul NPRM and NOI" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,120, August 6, 2010, and notice in the Federal Register, August 24, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 163, at Pages 52185-52209.

Tuesday, October 26

9:00 AM. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee (SITAC) will hold a partially closed meeting. This meeting will be held on site, and by teleconference. See, notice in the Federal Register, October 12, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 196, at Page 62508. Location: DOC, Hoover Building, Room 3884, 14th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW.

10:00 - 11:30 AM. The Heritage Foundation will host a panel discussion titled "What If Anything Will the Congress Do About Cybersecurity?". The speakers will be Brandon Milhorn (Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Republican staff), Michelle Richardson (ACLU), John Kneuer (Fairfax Media Partners), and Paul Rosenzweig (Heritage). This event is free and open to the pubic. See, notice. Location: Heritage, 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE.

11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Advisory Committee for the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference will meet. See, notice in the Federal Register: October 6, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 193, at Pages 61756-61757. Location: FCC, Room TW-C305445 12th St., SW.

1:00 PM. The USTelecom will host a webcast event titled "Government Cybersecurity Policies and Initiatives: Are we headed towards an Australian ISP model?". See, notice and registration page. The speaker will be Robert Mayer. Free.

2:00 - 3:30 PM. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division will host a presentation titled "Supersize It: The Growth of Retail Chains and the Rise of the Big Box Retail Format". The speaker will be Emek Basker (University of Missouri) one co-author of a paper [PDF] with the same title. For more information, contact Thomas Jeitschko at 202-532-4826 or atr dot eag at usdoj dot gov. Location: Liberty Square Building, 450 5th St., NW.

Wednesday, October 27

12:00 NOON - 1:00 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a teleconferenced panel discussion titled "Protecting Business Secrets and Key Personnel: How How Far Can Companies Go?". This panel will address USA v. Adobe, et al., D.C. No. 1:10-CV-01629. See, story titled "DOJ Stops Tech Companies' Anticompetitive Hiring Practices" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,133, September 27, 2010. The speakers will be Melvin Schwartz (Marsh McLennan), Veronica Lewis (Vinson Elkins), and Eric Welsh (Parker Poe). See, notice. Free.

12:30 - 1:30 PM. The Center for American Progress (CAP) will host an event titled "American Religion and Politics in the Digital Age". The speaker will be Susan Thistlethwaite, author of the book [Amazon] titled "Dreaming of Eden: American Religion and Politics in a Wired World". This event is free and open to the public. See, notice and registration page. Location: CAP, 10th floor, 1333 H St., NW.

Deadline to submit reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding competitive bidding procedures for Auction 91. This auction, which is scheduled to commence on March 29, 2011, pertains to FM Broadcast Construction Permits. See, September 21, 2010, FCC Public Notice (DA 10-1711 in AU Docket No. 10-183) and notice in the Federal Register, October 6, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 193, at Pages 61752-61756.

Deadline for Facebook to respond to the October 18, 2010, letter [PDF] from Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) that propounds interrogatories and requests documents regarding reports that third party applications in Facebook's web site gathered and transmitted personally identifiable information about Facebook users and those users' friends to third parties. See, story titled "Representatives Markey and Barton Write Facebook About User Privacy" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2, 143, October 20, 2010.

Thursday, October 28

2:40 PM. The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Economics will host a presentation titled "Supersize It: The Growth of Retail Chains and the Rise of the Big Box Retail Format". The speaker will be Emek Basker (University of Missouri) one co-author of a paper [PDF] with the same title. For more information, contact Loren Smith at lsmith2 at ftc dot gov or Tammy John at tjohn at ftc dot gov. Location: ground floor Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Ave., NW.

4:00 - 5:30 PM. Vivek Wadhwa will give lecture titled "What is a Tech Entrepreneur, and How Can We Make More of Them?". This event is free and open to the public. To register, e-mail iep dot gmu at gmail dot com. Location: Room 120, George Mason University School of Law, 3301 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA.

7:00 - 9:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Young Lawyers Committee and the FCBA Foundation will host an event titled "21st Annual Charity Auction". For more information, contact Micah Caldwell at FCBAAuction at gmail dot com. Location: Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1315 K St., NW.

Deadline to register for the two day event hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) titled "Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop II". See, event web page and notice in the Federal Register, October 19, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 201, at Page 64258.

Friday, October 29

12:15 - 1:30 PM. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Communications Bar Association's (FCBA) Mass Media and Video Programming and Distribution Committees will host a brown bag lunch titled "Perspectives from the FCC Media Bureau". The FCBA bars reporters from some of its events. Location: National Association of Broadcasters, 1771 N St., NW.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the Department of Commerce's (DOC) International Trade Administration's (ITA) Office of Intellectual Property Rights (OIPR) regarding protecting intellectual property rights abroad. See, notice in the Federal Register, September 30, 2010, Vol. 75, No. 189, at Pages 60408-60409, and story titled "Department of Commerce Commences Review of Foreign Barriers to Protection of IPR" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,137, October 1, 2010.

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