11/29. House Commerce Committee (HCC) Republicans released a discussion draft [113 pages in PDF] of a yet to be introduced bill titled the "Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011".

The HCC's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (SCT) will meet to mark up this bill on Thursday, December 1, 2011, at 10:00 AM. See, notice and majority staff memorandum.

This Republican bill would give the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authority to conduct incentive auctions. It would also reallocate the 700 MHz D Block for a public safety network, provide $6.5 Billion to build that network, and provide for the governance of that network.

Also on November 29, HCC Democrats released a discussion draft [151 pages in PDF] of a yet to be introduced bill titled the "Wireless Innovation and Public Safety Act of 2011". This bill would also provide the FCC with incentive auction authority, and reallocate the D Block for a public safety network.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), Chairman of the HCC/SCT, stated in a release that "Following nearly a year of hearings, meetings, and negotiations, I am disappointed that we could not develop a bipartisan bill. But for the sake of the economy and public safety, we need to take the best ideas, which are represented in the JOBS Act, and move forward with a subcommittee vote on Thursday. No party, special interest, or lobby gets everything they want in this legislation. But for the American people, it delivers on three important goals for the country: job creation, a nationwide public safety network, and deficit reduction."

He said that the Republican bill "would give the public safety sector the contiguous 20-MHz block of spectrum they have asked for, along with up to $6.5 billion to build an interoperable public safety network that Americans deserve".

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the HCC, stated in a release that "we are still hoping for bipartisan action on this critical issue".

The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) amended and approved S 911, the "Strengthening Public-safety and Enhancing Communications Through Reform, Utilization, and Modernization Act" or "SPECTRUM Act", in a rapid mark up session on June 8, 2011. However, the SCC has yet report that bill, and the full Senate has not yet passed that bill.

Vincent Morris, Sen. Rockefeller's SCC Communications Director, stated in a release on November 29 that "our plan for some time has been to wrap the broad provisions of S911 into a larger deficit or omnibus or gang of 6 package. We are still pursuing that option and the Leader's comments this afternoon on the fact that he does not expect a separate floor vote on the issue do not change a thing. We are focused on the big picture. In fact, given the movement on spectrum in the House this week, things are looking very good and we still hope to see a good outcome on public safety legislation come about this year."

11/29. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an administrative complaint against Facebook, and an Agreement Containing Consent Order [10 pages in PDF] that settles the action. Both pertain to Facebook's sharing of users' information.

The FTC also issued a release that summarizes the complaint and agreement. It states, for example, that "Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private -- such as their Friends List -- was made public. They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance."

It also states that "Facebook represented that third-party apps that users' installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users' personal data -- data the apps didn't need."

The order provides that Facebook "shall not misrepresent in any manner, expressly or by implication, the extent to which it maintains the privacy or security of covered information".

It also requires that Facebook disclose to its users certain information regarding its sharing with third parties of nonpublic user information, specifies the manner in which such information must be disclosed, and requires that Facebook obtain affirmative express consent from users before such sharing.

It further requires that within sixty days Facebook "implement procedures reasonably designed to ensure that covered information cannot be accessed by any third party from servers under" Facebook's control.

It also requires that Facebook shall establish, and reduce to writing, a privacy controls and procedures program, and retain a "qualified, objective, independent third-party professional", approved by the FTC, to monitor this program, and write biennial assessments and reports.

It also imposes numerous other record keeping and reporting requirements upon Facebook.

This order has a duration of twenty years.

The ability of the FTC to investigate Facebook's privacy practices, and impose requirements upon Facebook, under its existing statutory authority with respect to "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce", which is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 45, may also bolster the arguments of legislators and policy advocates who argue that a new statutorily based regulatory regime that addresses the business practices of social media is not now necessary.

Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (SCC), commended the FTC, but also reiterated his support for new legislation.

Sen. Rockefeller (at left) stated in a release that "With today's settlement, Facebook agrees to end deceptive practices and undergo rigorous oversight. But this action against Facebook is just the first step toward protecting consumer privacy. Ultimately, I believe legislation is needed that empowers consumers to protect their personal information from companies surreptitiously collecting and using that personal information for profit."

He added that "It's unacceptable for any company, including Facebook, to change customer privacy settings without their knowledge or consent, especially a company with 800 million users. I commend the way the FTC has used its enforcement authority to improve protections for consumers in an ever-evolving online and mobile world."

Sen. Kay Hutchison (R-TX) stated in a release that "I'm glad to see that Facebook and the FTC have come to an agreement that will look out for the best interests of Facebook users. Privacy on the internet, particularly with regard to a service that has become as pervasive as Facebook, is extremely important and should be a top priority for the industry."

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) stated in a release that "I welcome the settlement reached today by Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission. By making important and positive improvements to its approach to protecting user privacy, Facebook has made a commitment that will put consumers first."

She added that "The importance of personal privacy is woven into the fabric of our country, and use of personal data by any company must be transparent and secure. I’ve always believed that companies, whether large or small, should provide tools that give consumers confidence that their information will not be shared more broadly than they intended. Today’s agreement upholds this belief."

Ed Black, head of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), stated in a release that "To have an open online culture people need to know how information will be used so they can decide what information to share and with whom. We appreciate the FTC’s willingness to examine online privacy practices and to work with companies toward solutions that protect privacy while maintaining the ability to innovate in the social media arena."

He also stated that "Today's settlement shows that private companies and regulators can work together to protect both consumers and innovation." He also commented that a twenty year oversight term "may be unnecessarily long when dealing with dynamic companies".

Berin Szoka, head of the Tech Freedom, stated in a release that "while Congress struggles to craft 'comprehensive baseline privacy' legislation in the European model, the FTC is using its existing 1938 authority over unfair or deceptive trade practices to build a common law of privacy. This is a process of discovery: what's the right balance between protecting privacy and the consumer benefits of encouraging the development of new services? That process won't be perfect or easy, but it's much more likely to keep up with technological change than legislation or prophylactic regulation would be, and less likely to fall prey to regulatory capture by incumbents as a barrier to competition."

Szoka (at right) added that "Case-by-case adjudication is a venerable American tradition -- one that's more, not less, vital in the rapidly changing field of consumer privacy. Rather than rushing to write new laws, Congress should focus on ensuring the FTC has the resources it needs to use its existing authority effectively. That means, most of all, having a larger core of technologists on staff to guide what is supposed to be our expert agency on privacy."

Daniel Castro of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) stated in a release that this settlement "FTC highlights the fact the U.S. has a healthy self-regulatory privacy system in place that protects consumers while still allowing for innovation."

He argued that "Rather than impose heavy-handed regulations or engage in expensive and unproductive litigation, policymakers should continue to work in partnership with the private sector to balance privacy with innovation."

11/29. Rick Kaplan, Chief of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) issued an Order [4 pages in PDF] that grants AT&T's and Deutsch Telekom's request to withdraw all applications associated with the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. The order states that the FCC will also release a pre-decisional staff report.

This just released order states that the public docket in this proceeding remains open. (This is FCC WT Docket No. 11-65.)

The FCC is by statute a commission, comprised five commissioners, which meets and acts as a commission. Yet, the Commission neither met nor took any action. This is not the procedure ordained by the statute. But, this is not unusual for the FCC. For example, the landmark broadband plan was also only a staff report that was not adopted by the Commission.

This order also states that "We are releasing the final Staff Analysis and Findings". However, the FCC has not yet published this document in its web site.

The FCC's Kaplan, Renata Hesse and Austin Schlick spoke to reporters late Tuesday afternoon. They summarized the contents of this document. However, a precondition for participating in the conference call was not reporting their statements. Hence, their statements are not quoted here. On the other hand, Commission Mignon Clyburn released a statement that summarizes the report. It is quoted below.

The Commission has not either approved or denied the merger related applications. Hence, this document is a preliminary and pre-decisional recommendation of staff. In almost all cases, the FCC and other agencies and executive departments do not release such documents, refuse requests for copies, and vigorously oppose Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for such documents, regardless the parties' and public's interest in obtaining them. However, release of this document cannot be argued to be in violation of the FCC merger review rules, because the FCC has no merger review rules.

Also, despite the procedural irregularity, the FCC's release of this pre-decisional staff report is highly useful for understanding Chairman Julius Genachowski's and FCC staff's understanding of the proposed transaction, and mergers in general.

The three Democrats on the Commission released statements. FCC Chairman Genachowski wrote in his release that "Competition is the engine of our free market economy and a cornerstone of the FCC's mandate. Our review of this merger has had a clear focus: fostering a competitive market that drives innovation, promotes investment, encourages job creation, and protects consumers. These goals will remain the focus if any future merger application is filed."

Michael Copps wrote in his release that "While I welcome withdrawal of this application, I would like to think we will no longer be expending significant FCC resources to examine this paradigm-shifting and complex transaction. I would hope the withdrawal is not a strategic gambit along the road to resubmission of this or a similar application in the months ahead. That would not strike me as a good route to travel."

Clyburn wrote in her release that she supports the release of the staff report. She also explained her concerns about the merger, stopping just short of expressing opposition. "My concern that the proposed merger could substantially lessen competition in the mobile wireless service market begins with what I see in the current state of the market. Increased consolidation, over the past several years, has resulted in fewer regional and rural service providers that are able to discipline the largest carriers. Voice and data roaming and other network sharing agreements would stimulate the deployment of networks to more Americans, but the denial of these agreements and those opportunities would prevent the smaller carriers from providing competitive service offerings to their subscribers, resulting in pockets of this Nation not being robustly served."

Clyburn (at right) also summarized key elements of the staff report. She wrote that it "concludes that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition whether reviewed at the local market or national market level, and there are substantial questions whether the claimed public interest benefits would occur".

She stated, "we ask whether by removing T-Mobile, AT&T and competitors would be more likely to raise prices. After a detailed analysis of these issues, the staff concluded that the removal of T-Mobile as a competitor would create these incentives for AT&T and other competitors because these two companies compete with each other for customers and respond to each other’s competitive strategies."

She continued that "The staff also considered the Applicants’ argument that the merger would not result in these competitive harms because smaller regional mobile wireless carriers are available to effectively compete. The staff was not persuaded by this argument because these smaller mobile wireless carriers do not have the resources to replace T-Mobile’s competitive strength in the market. These smaller carriers have considerably less spectrum, smaller service footprints, lower Average Revenue Per Unit and, as I implied earlier, have difficulties obtaining roaming agreements. Furthermore, it appears the proposed merger would make it even more difficult for these smaller carriers to compete because the merged entity would make it more difficult for them to acquire the more advanced and popular handsets and acquire the backhaul services. For these and additional reasons, the staff report finds that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition in the market for mobile telephony/broadband services."

She elaborated that "These smaller carriers have considerably less spectrum, smaller service footprints, lower Average Revenue Per Unit and, as I implied earlier, have difficulties obtaining roaming agreements. Furthermore, it appears the proposed merger would make it even more difficult for these smaller carriers to compete because the merged entity would make it more difficult for them to acquire the more advanced and popular handsets and acquire the backhaul services. For these and additional reasons, the staff report finds that the proposed merger would substantially lessen competition in the market for mobile telephony/broadband services."

She also summarized the staff report's findings regarding innovation, customer service, and jobs. "With regard to the impact of the proposed merger on innovation in the industry, the staff Analysis and Findings also finds harm because by removing T-Mobile, the proposed merger would remove a disruptive force in the mobile wireless services market. TMobile exerts that disruptive force by engaging in both price and technical innovation."

Next, "the staff found that the proposed merger could adversely impact customer service." Finally, "staff also stated that they were not persuaded by the Applicants’ contention that the proposed merger would result in the creation of more jobs".

Gigi Sohn (at right), head of the Public Knowledge, a group that opposes this merger, stated in a release that "Despite AT&T's efforts to suppress the results of the FCC inquiry, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is to be commended for making this critical information public. We expect that the data the Commission staff uncovered will dissuade AT&T from not only taking any more action on this deal, but from trying to make any further purchases of competitors."

Craig Aaron, head of the Free Press, another opponent of the merger, stated in a release that "Chairman Genachowski should be praised for refusing to let AT&T bury its findings in an 11th-hour maneuver. Its formal withdrawal of the FCC application was nothing more than a tactical gambit intended to block the truth about this harmful deal from public view. The idea that AT&T deserved a chance to preview or rebut the staff report is laughable, considering the deal's proponents had eight full months to make their case at the FCC and failed to do so. And complaining that the merging parties deserved a hearing on the staff's findings sounds awfully strange coming from companies that pulled their application just to evade that very same hearing."

AT&T's Jim Ciconi stated in a release that "The FCC has recognized that it is required by its own rules to dismiss our merger application. This makes all the more troubling their decision to nonetheless release a preliminary staff report on the merger. This report is not an order of the FCC and has never been voted on. It is simply a staff draft that raises questions of fact that were to be addressed in an administrative hearing, a hearing which will not now take place. It has no force or effect under law, which raises questions as to why the FCC would choose to release it. The draft report has also not been made available to AT&T prior to today, so we have had no opportunity to address or rebut its claims, which makes its release all the more improper."

Randall May, head of the Free State Foundation (FSF), stated in a release that "It makes sense for the FCC to grant AT&T/T-Mobile's withdrawal request. The FCC can pretty much make the parties start all over again if they ever re-file their merger application, but it can't make the parties pursue an application they don't want to pursue. As for the FCC staff report, it may be appropriate to share with DOJ because it is consistent with normal practice for the two agencies to share information and opinions regarding mergers. But it is another matter to release the report to the public because it is a pre-decisional staff memorandum that normally wouldn't be released publicly, at least not without the Commission formally voting to put its official imprimatur on the contents of the report. I doubt if the commissioners are prepared to do that."

The House will meet at 2:00 PM for legislative business. It will consider several items under suspension of the rules, including HR 3012 [LOC | WW], the "Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act". Votes will be postponed until 6:30 PM. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

The Senate will meet at 10:00 AM. It will resume consideration of S 1867 [LOC | WW], the "Department of Defense Authorization Act".

10:00 AM - 5:15 PM. Day two of a two day meeting of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 217, Wednesday, November 9, 2011, at Page 69769. Location: NSF, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Room 1235, Arlington, VA.

12:00 NOON - 1:00 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a teleconferenced panel discussion titled "Antitrust as a Defense in Intellectual Property Infringement Cases". The speakers will be Oliver Antoine (Crowell & Moring), Pierre Regibeau (Charles River Associates), Jing He (ZY Partners of Beijing), Ingrid Vandenborre (Skadden Arps), and Aurelien Condomines (Aramis). See, notice. Prices vary.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a webcast and teleconferenced panel discussion titled "New Restrictions on U.S. Internet Sales: Data Passes, Negative Options, Automatic Renewals and Recurring Charges". The speakers will be Holly Towle (K & L Gates), Alysa Hutnik (Kelley Drye & Warren), and Damier Xandrine (Wells Fargo Bank). See, notice. Prices vary. CLE credits.

2:30 PM. The Senate Intelligence Committee (SIC) will hold a closed meeting. See, notice. Location: Room 219, Hart Building.

5:00 PM. The House Rules Committee (HRC) will meet to adopt rules for the consideration by the full House of HR 527 [LOC | WW], the "Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011", and HR 3010 [LOC | WW], the "Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011". See, notice. Location: Room H-313, Capitol Building.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour, and at 12:00 NOON for legislative business. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

The Senate will meet at 10:00 AM. It will resume consideration of S 1867 [LOC | WW], the "Department of Defense Authorization Act".

8:00 AM. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), USTelecom, and CTIA will host an event titled "Protecting American Innovation in Cyberspace". The speaker will be Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI). Persons interested in attending should e-mail Pam Ford at pford at ncta dot com. Location: NCTA, 25 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

10:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The House Science Committee's (HSC) Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight will hold a hearing titled "Stimulus Oversight: An Update on Accountability, Transparency, and Performance". It will address, among other topics, spending by the Department of Commerce (DOC) and National Science Foundation (NSF). See, notice. The HSC will webcast this event. Location: Room 2318, Rayburn Building.

2:30 PM. The Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) will hold a hearing on the nominations of Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai to be Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The SCC will webcast this event. See, notice. Location: Room 253, Russell Building.

6:00 - 8:15 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host an event titled "Slicing the Airwaves Pie: Incentive Auctions, Incumbent Relocation and New Principles of Spectrum Management". Prices vary. CLE credits. Registrations and cancellations are due by 5:00 PM on November 28. See, registration form. Location: Bingham McCutchen, 2020 K St., NW.

The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour, and at 12:00 NOON for legislative business. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

8:00 - 10:00 AM. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will host an event titled "Trademark Office Speaks". The speakers will be Deborah Cohn (Commissioner for Trademarks) and Gerard Rogers (Chief Administrative Trademark Judge of the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board). The price to attend ranges from $20 to $35. The D.C. Bar Association, which bars reporters from many of its events, states that this is a DC Bar event. See, notice. Location: Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

8:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies will host an event titled "Phoenix Center 11th Annual U.S. Telecoms Symposium". The speakers will include Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), Marius Schwartz (FCC Chief Economist), Tim Brennan (UMBC), Michael Pelcovits (MiCRA), Michael Rollins (Citi Investment Research & Analysis), Chris Gleason (Alyeska Investment Group), Michael Powell (NCTA), Steve Largent (CTIA), and James Cicconi (AT&T). See, notice. Location: University Club, 1135 16th St., NW.

10:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee's (HCC) Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will meet to mark up a discussion draft [113 pages in PDF] of a yet to be introduced bill titled the "Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum (JOBS) Act of 2011". See, notice and majority staff memorandum. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold an executive business meeting. The agenda again lists consideration of three judicial nominees: Jacqueline Nguyen (to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit), Gregg Costa (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas), and David Guaderrama (USDC, Western District of Texas). The SJC will webcast this event. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

12:00 NOON. The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Economics will host a presentation titled "Tying and Bundling in a Nearly Contestable Market". The speaker will be Michael Salinger (Boston University). See, presentation paper [PDF]. For more information, contact Loren Smith at lsmith2 at ftc dot gov or Tammy John at tjohn at ftc dot gov. Location: FTC, Room 4100, 601 New Jersey Ave., NW.

12:00 NOON - 1:30 PM. The American Bar Association (ABA) will host a brown bag lunch titled "Old Media Meet New Media: What Lawyers & Clients Need to Know Before and During a Crisis". The speakers will be Len Biegel, Rich Cooper, Andre Francis and Mark Sedak. See, notice. Location: ABA, 740 15th St., NW.

1:00 PM. The House Small Business Committee's (HSBC) Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology will hold a hearing titled "Cyber Security: Protecting Your Small Business". The witnesses will be Rep. Mac Thornberry, (R-TX), David Beam (North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association), Glenn Strebe (Air Academy Federal Credit Union and National Association of Federal Credit Unions), and Michael Kaiser (National Cyber Security Alliance). See, notice. Location: Room 2360, Rayburn Building.

1:00 PM. The USTelecom will host a webcast seminar titled "Botnets, Malware and Other Cyber Threats: A Technology and Policy Primer". See, notice. Free.

5:30 PM. The University of Maryland (UM) and Google will host an event titled "Current R&D Initiatives in Cybersecurity". The speaker will be Douglas Maughan (Director of the DHS's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency's Cyber Security Division). See, notice and registration page. For more information, contact Eric Chapman at 301-405-7136 or echapman at umiacs dot umd dot edu. Location: UM, Jeong Kim Engineering Building, Room 1110, College Park, MD.

6:00 - 8:30 PM. The Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) will host a reception. Prices vary. Registrations and cancellations are due by 5:00 PM on November 28. See, registration form. Location: Swedish Embassy, 2900 K St., NW.

The House will meet at 9:00 AM for legislative business. The House will consider HR 527 [LOC | WW], the "Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011", and HR 3010 [LOC | WW], the "Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011". See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for the week.

Supreme Court conference day. See, calendar. Closed.

5:00 PM. Deadline to submit comments to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) regarding its draft Special Publication 500-293 [32 pages in PDF] titled "US Government Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap, Release 1.0". See, notice in the Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 211, Tuesday, November 1, 2011, at Pages 67418-67419.

Deadline to submit comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to its notice in the Federal Register (FR) that announces, describes, and recites proposed rules regarding its system of records involving collection and use debit and credit card data for civil, criminal and intelligence purposes. The DHS proposes to exempt portions of this system of records from one or more provisions of the Privacy Act. See, FR, Vol. 76, No. 212, Wednesday, November 2, 2011, at Pages 67621-67622.

10:00 - 11:30 PM. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) will host an panel discussion titled "America's Competitiveness Crisis and the Anemic Job Recovery". The speakers will be Lenny Mendonca (McKinsey Global Institute), George Tassey (NIST), and Robert Atkinson (ITIF). See, notice. Location: ITIF/ITIC, Suite 610A, 1101 K St., NW.

6:00 - 9:15 PM. The DC Bar Association will host an event titled "IP Year In Review Series 2011: Copyright and Trademark Update". The speakers will be Amy Benjamin (Stein McEwen) and Terence Ross (Crowell & Moring). See, notice. The price to attend ranges from $89 to $129. CLE credits. For more information, call 202-626-3488. Location: DC Bar Conference Center, 1101 K St., NW.

7:00 PM. The Intellectual Property Owners Association will host a reception and dinner titled "2011 IPO Education Foundation Awards Dinner". The speakers will include David Kappos, head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Location: 8th and G St., NW.

Deadline to submit initial comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [60 pages in PDF] regarding its review process for foreign ownership of wireless companies. The FCC adopted and released this NPRM on August 9, 2011. It is FCC 11-121 in IB Docket No. 11-133. See, story titled "FCC Issues Foreign Ownership NPRM" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,285, August 10, 2011. See, Federal Register, Vol. 76, No. 204, Friday, October 21, 2011, at Pages 65472-65485.

Deadline for Facebook to respond to the November 10, 2011, letter from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) in which they inquired about Facebook's patent application filed on February 8, 2011 for a method of "tracking information about activities of users of social networking system while on another domain".

10:00 AM. The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) will hold a hearing titled "Access to the Court: Televising the Supreme Court". See, notice. The SJC will webcast this event. Location: Room 226, Dirksen Building.

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