- P2P file sharing and malicious software takes its toll
- Many are losing faith in government to defend against a cyberattack
- School uses webcam to spy on student – school gets sued
- FTC under fire over three-strikes internet law
- Senate jobs bill passes without R&D tax credit

LOTS of events in Washington and many chances for a free lunch. There are several I will be at which will be noted. If you’re planning on being at one or more give a shout and lets grab a cup of coffee or five.

More after the jump….

Tech Policy Podcast – February 23, 2010

Opening

• Music by Sterixx via Looperman, on the web at http://www.looperman.com/profile.php?mid=243518

Welcome

• The snow has been replaced by rain. Let’s hope it doesn’t freeze.
• The RSS feed issue is solved – iTunes and the podcast are now working harmoniously
• Still having trouble with Skype. Thought we had it all worked out but there’s lots of settings that must be done to get Skype ported into GarageBand. Not fun. Someone should make an app for that.
• Show notes will be posted on the website: http://www.techpolicypodcast.com
• Comments, questions, concerns, critiques, and everything else jon@techpolicypodcast.com – I appreciate the emails thus far, even the negative ones.

News

1. Breaking just last night, a Chinese programmer with ties to the government has been accused as the author of the program used to carry out the attacks on Google and other American companies. (Ars Technica)http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/chinese-programmer-fingered-in-google-hack.ars
2. Senate Cybersecurity Hearing: Response to the Cyber Shock Wave or Business as Usual? (Wired and Washington Internet Daily)
   1. Hearing was to be on cyber crime and identity theft, but may be in response to cyber drill
   2. CNN played the video from the event over the weekend
   3. Robert Knake, International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Respods
3. FCC Broadband Goals Detailed(TDD)http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/fcc-broadband-goals-detailed.php
4. Malicious Code Shuts down Norfolk Virginia’s City Computers http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/02/time-bomb-may-have-destroyed-800-norfolk-city-pcs/
5. Feds Can Search, Seize P2P Files Without Warrant (Wired)http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/feds-can-search-seize-p2p-files-without-warrant/
6. FTC Warns Firms Of Data Exposure On P2P Sites (Tech Daily Dose)FTC press release: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/02/p2palert.shtm
   Sample letter sent out by the FTC: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2010/02/100222sampleletter-a.pdf
7. U.S. Trade Rep Comes Under Heavy Fire Over Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty Proposalhttp://boingboing.net/2010/02/21/acta-internet-enforc.html
8. Comcast Urged To Quit Case Against FCChttp://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/comcast-urged-to-quit-case.php
9. FCC OKs Public Use Of School ComputersFCC’s formal order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-10-33A1.pdfPress release: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296371A1.pdf
10. School allegedly uses students’ laptop webcams for espionage, lawsuit ensues – And now the FBI might get involved! (WaPo, Tech Daily Dose)Lawsuit: http://craphound.com/robbins17.pdf
11. Google Going to Sell You Energywww.google.org/powermeter
12. Judge to Consider Tossing Evidence Obtained from Cell
    Phonehttp://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_14412598
13. Lawmaker Seeks High-Tech Help Along Border (Tech Daily Dose)http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/lawmaker-seeks-hightech-help-a.php
14. Firms Push Senate On R&D (Tech Daily Dose)Link to legislation, note: This is an amendment in the nature of a substitute and was submitted on the floor, hence why it appears in the congressional record and not the usual form of Thomas at the moment.http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2010_record&page=S575&position=all
15. Three-quarters of large organizations were the targets of cyber attacks the past yearReport: http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/about/presskits/SES_report_Feb2010.pdf

Events

There’s a ton of events in the Washington DC area over the next few weeks and plenty of opportunities for a free lunch and to learn something new. Won’t go over the whole list as there area bout 2 dozen, but a few jump out that might be of interest:

• Feb. 24 Digital Government Institute Government Solutions Forum, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington — info@digitalgovernment.com
• Feb. 24 Department of Homeland Security webinar on cybersecurity, 2 p.m. — www.msisac.org/webcast
• Feb. 24 Center for Democracy and Technology media breakfast on global challenges to Internet freedom, 10 a.m., CDT offices, 1634 I St. NW, Washington — media@cdt.org
• Feb. 25 21st Century Media Policy, 2 p.m., New America Foundation, 1899 L St. NW, Washington — www.newamerica.net
• Feb. 25 Family Online Safety Institute screening of PBS documentary Digital Nation and panel, 10 a.m., NCTA theater, 25 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington — events@fosi.org
• Feb. 25 House Armed Services Terrorism Subcommittee hearing on IT and cybersecurity, 2 p.m., Rayburn Building, Room 2118 — 202-225-4151 (attending)
• Feb. 26 Slate panel on what social networks mean for warfare, 9:30 a.m., New America Foundation, 1899 L St. NW, Washington — gunter@newamerica.net (attending)
• March 3 Software and Information Industry Association’s Digital Media & Software Investment conference, 46th St. and Avenue of the Americas, New York — www.siia.net/investmentconference/2009
• March 3 Google panel on journalism in the digital age, 6:30 p.m., Google Washington office, 1101 New York Ave. NW, Washington — google-journalism-digitalera-event@google.com
• March 4 FCC future of media workshop on commercial media, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., FCC Commission Meeting Room TW-C305, 445 12th St. SW, Washington — Krista Witanowski at (202) 418-2449.
• March 4 District of Columbia Bar program on cloud computing, noon, Conference Center, 1101 K St. NW, Washington — 202-626-3463
• March 5 Panel on FCC for the Internet Age organized by Silicon Flatirons, Public Knowledge and ITIF, 8:30 a.m., Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington — sf@colorado.edu
• March 10 Digital Government Institute webinar on government cybersecurity, 2 p.m. — www.digitalgovernment.com
• March 11-12 Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice seminar, Howard University School of Law, 2900 Van Ness St. NW, Washington — www.iipsj.org/CLE/2010/materials/IIPSJCLEBrochure2010.pdf
• March 16 FCC monthly meeting, 10:30 a.m., 445 12th St. SW, Washington.
• March 16 1105 Government Group seminar on collaborating on cyber threats, 7:45 a.m., Willard Hotel, Washington — 1105GovInfo@1105info.com
• March 16 VeriSign Policy Impact Forum, Ronald Reagan Building, Washington — dina@wiseandcomp.com
• March 16 Federal Computer Week half-day program on cyberthreats, 7:45 a.m., Willard Hotel, Washington — www.11-5info.com
• March 16-18 ATIS Protection Engineers Group conference on protecting infrastructure, Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Hotel, Florida — jpemard@atis.org
• March 17-18 Microsoft advertising law and public policy conference, Park Hyatt, 24th & M Sts. NW, Washington — 212-697-5950 (attending)

Show notes after the jump.

Tech Policy Podcast – February 16, 2010

Show Notes

-         I apologize for the delay in this weeks show, sometimes the day job gets in the way.

-         Still some sound quality issues to be worked out

-         iTunes had a snafu with the RSS feed and some aspects of the description and episode titles weren’t transferring properly

-         Unfortunately no one likes Microsoft Word very much for show notes…

-         The website will be for now and the foreseeable future at WordPress.

-         The snow is melting, the snow is melting!!!

-         Music by Sterixx via Looperman, on the web at http://www.looperman.com/profile.php?mid=243518

News

1. Bipartisan Policy Center hosts a cyber attack simulation called “Cyber Shock Wave”. Watch the simulation unfold on CNN this weekend at 8pm.

http://bipartisanpolicy.org/events/cyber2010

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2010/02/its_your_cyberspace_too_so_take_care_of_it.php

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33048.html

2. Virginia Legislators Outlaw Involuntary Implantation of Microchips

HB 53 – “Human tracking devices; unlawful use thereof by insurer or employer” 

3. The SANS Institute Says Software Developers Should be Held Accountable for Errors that Enable Cyberattacks

Link to the report:

http://cwe.mitre.org/top25/archive/2010/2010_cwe_sans_top25.pdf

4. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts introduces bill to update Universal Services Fund E-Rate program for broadband adoption.

Bill information found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4619

5. Bill introduced to create the Internet Freedom Foundation

Bill information found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4595

6. New study from Public Knowledge argues for renewed FCC regulation

http://www.publicknowledge.org/pdf/eti_wholesale_study_20100211.pdf

7. Release of the FCC’s first High-Speed Services for Internet Access” report

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-296239A1.pdf

8. Government employees beware: Malware writers are targeting your computer.

The best way to protect against these kind of attacks is to first install and maintain an antivirus program.

Second, learn to recognize when something is an executable file and when it’s not. The “I Love You” virus back in 2000, which crippled millions of computers and forced the Pentagon, CIA, and the British Parliament to shut down their mail systems to get rid of it, was started because someone didn’t check the file extension before clicking on the attachment.

Third, learn to look before you click. When you hover your mouse cursor over a link in Outlook or a web browser, the address for that link shows at the bottom of your screen. Is this where you really want to go? PayPal users are tricked every day because someone clicks on a link purporting to be from PayPal which sends them to a non-PayPal website where they’re invited to enter their username and password. Pay attention and question everything you get.

Events

With the government shut down many of the hot-topic hearings that were scheduled have been postponed. Some things we’re keeping an eye on here:

• The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on fighting cybercrime and identity theft
• House Terrorism Subcommittee put off a hearing on Defense Department information technology and cybersecurity activities
• House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about the ‘Google predicament’ in China
• The Congressional-Executive Commission on China postponed a meeting about Google and that country

But don’t worry there’s a few opportunities this week to get out.

Wednesday, Feb. 17, 11 a.m.

National Broadband Plan – New America Foundation

New America Foundation and other groups will hold a news conference to outline their recommendations for the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan.

Contact: Kate Brown at 202-213-7051 brown@newamerica.net

Place  2123 Rayburn Bldg.

Participants:

• Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America
• Parul Desai, Media Access Project
• Harold Feld, Public Knowledge
• Joel Kelsey, Consumers Union
• Benjamin Lennett, Open Technology Initiative, New America Foundation
• Ben Scott, Free Press

Wednesday, Feb. 17, 3 p.m.

Internet Stability and Security – Center for Strategic and International Studies

Panel Discussion

Contact: 202-887-0200 techpolicy@csis.org

Note: RSVP via e-mail.

For further information: http://csis.org/event/internet-stability-and-security

Where: B1 Conference Center, CSIS, 1800 K St. N.W.

Participants:

• Kenneth Silva, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Verisign
• Gregory Rattray, chief Internet security adviser, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
• Feb. 22-24 Cloud Computing for DoD & Government conference, Hilton Old Town, Alexandria, Va. — www.cloudcomputingevent.com

• Feb. 23 Information Technology & Innovation Foundation panel on using IT to fight terrorism, noon, ITIF, 1101 K St. NW, Washington — mail@itif.com

• Feb. 24 Department of Homeland Security webinar on cybersecurity, 2 p.m. — www.msisac.org/webcast

• March 5 Panel on FCC for the Internet Age hosted by Silicon Flatirons, Public Knowledge and ITIF, 8:30 a.m., Washington Court Hotel, Washington — sf@colorado.edu
• March 16 1105 Government Group seminar on collaborating on cyberthreats, 7:45 a.m., Willard Hotel, Washington — 1105GovInfo@1105info.com

Until something else rolls around this will be it.

Show notes following the jump! Apologies for any mistakes, still getting use to this process.

Tech Policy Podcast

February 9, 2010

Opening

• Music by Sterixx via Looperman, on the web at http://www.looperman.com/profile.php?mid=243518

• Show updates: Episode 1 is up, syndication in the bag, iTunes submitted, and the website is coming together.

• Snowmageddon – Digging out but about to get buried again!

News

1) Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill backs usage-based internet pricing, possibly alluding to a rejection of net neutrality.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill has seemed to come out against net neutrality. Speaking before the progressive think tank Third Way, McCaskill stated her support for internet service providers to charge based on usage.

The Senator was quoted as saying ‘Does the guy with seven servers in his basement — should he pay more than my mother, who can’t even imagine wanting to play Bridge online?’  ‘Should those prices be the same? I think all of us realize they can’t be.’

On the recent FCC-Comcast lawsuit, McCaskill said ‘We’ve got money available, we’ve got regulatory uncertainty, and we’ve got [a] Congress that hasn’t demonstrated they really know what to do yet.’

At this same event the Senator also criticized the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act which created a broadband stimulus plan, saying it was quote  “dumb, really, really dumb” to have divided the responsibilities between the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce.

Calls to the Senators office to clarify her position on net neutrality were not returned. It is worth noting, though, that 3 of her largest contributors have a horse in the net neutrality race. Both Time Warner and Charter Communications have contributed heavily to her reelection campaign, as has the law and lobbying firm Bryan Cave which represents Comcast.

2) More discussion has emerged on the Comcast lawsuit against the FCC.

As we reported last week the FCC got its hat handed to it by the DC District Court in oral arguments over the FCC’s handling of the Comcast peer-to-peer throttling case. Lawyers monitoring the case have said the FCC’s net neutrality efforts will largely depend on how the court rules against it, whether on procedural or statutory grounds. Many expect the court to rule against the FCC but the question is which way.

If the court rules on a procedural ruling throwing out the 2008 order or sending it back for more work, would likely have less of an impact on FCC authority over how all ISPs treat content.

However a reversal by the Court of the order against Comcast could have wider-reaching effects.

A procedural reversal would mean the FCC likely would continue its net neutrality proceeding, with an eventual order codifying those four 2005 principles and perhaps others, said a commission official.

Rejecting the order on statutory grounds could directly impact the net neutrality proceeding if it saps FCC authority over broadband service, as it would in essence say the FCC lacked the legal authority to issue such an order against an Internet service provider.

The issue of net neutrality and nationwide broadband access appears to be coming to a head with the FCC’s proposed rulemaking notice last November, the Comcast appeal, and the National Broadband Plan due out any day now. We may be in for a huge clash of issues that could derail the President’s agenda.

3) Congresswoman Doris Matsui has introduced legislation that would create a broadband subsidy program for low-income Americans.

The legislation, the Broadband Affordability Act of 2009, would require the FCC to establish a broadband lifeline program enabling qualifying low-income customers residing in urban and rural areas to purchase broadband service at reduced charges by reimbursing providers for each such customer served.

The program would similar in structure to the Universal Services Fund Lifeline program for telephone customers, which provides discounts on telephone installation and monthly telephone service to qualifying consumers.

As well the program must promote competition from broadband service providers by using neutral technology.

4) Digging deeper into the Presidents 2011 budget reveals the inclusion of cloud computing and greater funding for data management.

In case you haven’t made it through the several hundred pages of the President’s budget yet, rest assured there is some good news for the technology sector. According to Google’s public policy blog, Harry Wingo, Policy Counsel notes the budget states:

“[T]he Administration will continue to roll out less intensive and less expensive cloud-computing technologies reduce the number and cost of Federal data centers; and work with agencies to reduce the time and effort required to acquire IT, improve the alignment of technology acquisitions with agency needs, and hold providers of IT goods and services accountable for their performance.”

Later it stated “Adoption of a cloud computing model is a major part of the strategy to achieve efficient and effective IT. After evaluation in 2010, agencies will deploy cloud computing solutions across the Government to improve the delivery of IT services.”

Wingo also notes CIO Vivek Kundra will control a $35 million fund to set up innovative tech pilot projects, though that’s just a fraction of the governments $79.4 billion dollar IT budget.

5) Regulations.gov gets a much needed upgrade!

Right on the heals of USAjobs.gov the site Regulations.gov has received a much needed upgrade. The redesigned site features a dashboard of regulatory documents, A-Z index categorized by topic, instructional videos, improvements to the search functions, and better access to videos and images. If you’re interested in what the executive branch is doing with the laws passed by congress then this would be the place to go.

6) Senators turn up the heat on China’s telecom connections..

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has written to 30 US telecom companies asking them to provide detailed reports on their operations and human rights practices in China. Companies include Apple, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter. According to a press release from the Senators office, Durbin, as Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the Senator plans to hold a follow-up hearing on global internet freedom next month.  The hearing will feature testimony from Google and other companies about their business practices in internet-restricting countries, as well as from high-ranking Obama Administration officials about the Administration’s efforts to promote Internet freedom.

Also the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors human rights violations there, will hold a hearing tomorrow, February 10^th, on Internet policies in China.

All of these actions follow the announcement by Google last month that it would stop censoring search results for users in China, and Google’s claim that persons working on behalf of the Chinese government hacked into Google’s GMAIL system in search of the identities of human rights activist opposed to the Chinese government.

This issue has been heated to near boiling recently. On February 4^th, The Washington Post had a story which claimed Google and the National Security Organization are joining forces in the name of cybersecurity. The agreement, which has not been finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks.  So in this case we have an American company asking the worlds largest electronic surveillance organization for help in figuring out what went wrong and how they can correct those problems.

Government and private telecom companies have been working together for decades, so this should be no surprise, but critics are lining up to take shots at the deal. As the Washington Post reported, Ellen McCarthy, president of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, said

“The critical question is: At what level will the American public be comfortable with Google sharing information with NSA?”

The Post’s sources of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans’ online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

Google’s public position on privacy has moved around a bit over the past year. Most people don’t know that Google’s informal motto is “Don’t Be Evil” something they have made a central pillar of their identity, and part of their self-proclaimed core values. However this, as expected, was criticized when Google went into China back in 2006 with self-censorship (on behalf of the Chinese government). This led to Google CEO Eric Schmidt to say that pillar has been replaced by an “evil scale” balancing system, saying to not serve those users, despite the censorship, would be more evil than to serve them with censorship.

However the Google CEO raised many eyebrows in a December 2009 interview with CNBC. Mr. Schmidt was asked if people should treat Google like a trust friend. He responded by saying:

“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.”

Almost immediately after the Washington Post story broke, the Electronic Policy Information Center submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for records involving communication between Google and the National Security Agency. And yesterday they pushed the point further saying that request must be expedited because ‘it pertains to a matter about which there is an urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity.’  The Center also noted that as of 2009 Gmail had more than 140 million monthly users, noting that  ‘all of whom would be affected by any relationship between the NSA and Google.’

This issue just keeps getting bigger…

In another very intense government-technology sector:

7) The Federal government is taking a bite out of child pornography but obstacles still remain…

Two years after major legislation passed by congress to give law enforcement better tools for fighting child pornography, progress is made but problems still exist. Last Thursday the National Telecommunications and Information Administration held a meeting of their Online Safety and Technology Working Group and things got a little heated between law enforcement officials and private telecoms.

Frank Kardasz, who investigates Internet crimes against children for the Phoenix Police Department, suggested some Internet providers have been less than helpful in providing data his officers have sought as part of various investigations. He said “Some ISP staff ‘are the unsung heroes who provide important puzzle pieces that we need to solve crimes. Sadly, in other cases ISPs are slow to respond and are silent, unwitting facilitators to felony offenses, totally nonresponsive.’

Christopher Bubb, assistant general counsel at AOL, cut Kardasz off mid-remarks responding that he found those comments to be very offensive, declaring that he does “not in any way, nor does AOL facilitate any child pornography. Period.’

The SAFE Act, Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act of 2007, was a bill pulled together from multiple proposals from Senators Schumer and McCain, Representative Nick Lampson, as well as then Senator Biden.

At issue for some law enforcement are the smaller internet service providers. These smaller firms can be hesitant to report suspicious material for fear of lawsuits, and because they are small they sometimes lack the resources to assist law enforcement with tracking down illegal content. Also noted by law enforcement the data retention rates for ISPs need improving, as they may get a report of suspicious material but by the time they’ve walked back the cat to the source ISP the data trail evaporates.

This raises several very important questions about data privacy and how law enforcement looks at suspicious material. Internet advocates have expressed concern about the tools given to law enforcement to investigate cybercrime, particular crimes against children, because those tools have a tendency to bleed over to other areas of law enforcement.

It’s one thing if the FBI or local law enforcement trace you themselves, which is not hard in a local or state setting, established the probably cause and evidence existence. But it’s another thing if the ISPs are the ones keeping an eye over your shoulder, collecting records of your internet use for long periods of time, and then allowing law enforcement to view those records.

Internet traffic is not individual bits and pieces. Through your internet pipe goes every keystroke, website, password and all the information displayed in your browser. Can law enforcement be trusted to parse that data appropriately and not use other information they find against you? It may sound a tad Orwellian but the mere accusation of child pornography can send you into a deep dark hole and allow the government complete and total access to your data, guilty or innocent, regardless of the validity of the accusations.

8) Congress takes a look at E-Commerce Taxation

As we all know it’s only a matter of time before the federal government finds its way into the middle of any new opportunities for taxation, but this one is very complicated, discovered at hearing Friday in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

At issue is whether or not out-of-state retailers would have to pay sales tax if any of their affiliated business partners reside or operate in that state, the conditions of which are known as a “nexus”.

Let me give you an example of what they mean: Amazon.com has an Associates program whereby affiliates put Amazon ads on their websites and are then paid by the company for purchases made by visitors they refer to Amazon. So if you click on an affiliates Amazon ad, and purchase something, Amazon would have to pay the sales tax for the state where that affiliate resides or operates, according to whatever local sales tax they have imposed.

Amazon thought this would create such a headache that last year they cut ties with associate program members in Hawaii, North Carolina, and Rhode Island in order to avoid paying sales tax there.

This issue has also hit Overstock.com as they had advertising feeds from California affiliates which they turned off after the legislature approved a bill taxing that. The feeds were only turned back on after Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill and a personal call from his office.

In an effort to streamline some of this, the Streamlines Sales Tax Project was formed in 2000 to simplify and modernize sales and use tax collection and administration. For this they came up with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. The agreement simplifies the process for out-of-state internet retailers to collect a tax, which is now in law in 23 states including DC and Puerto Rico, though the amount collected varies by state.

If a company, like Amazon, wants to pay the tax, rather than try to workout how much tax they owe for each locality, they can use one of four Certified Service Providers, which the agreement directs states to provide advantages to those retailers who use the CSP’s. Four companies have been designated thus far as CSP’s by the Streamlined Project.

Now why is Congress getting involved… Well since Congress has the exclusive authority to regulate interstate commerce, there is a concern among retailers and the likes that a nationwide patchwork of taxation not only interferes with congress’s authority but creates an unnecessary burden on business. The Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee says this is a “classic situation” of states wanting more revenue and businesses not wanted to be interfered with. The Committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona said he is wary of encroaching on state jurisdiction but said the justifications for applying remote taxation has been inconsistent.

The Direct Marketing Association said in submitted testimony that estimates of uncollected remote-sales taxes are ‘grossly exaggerated,’ largely based on a University of Tennessee study that came up with $45 billion in lost revenue in 2006 and which was subsequently revised to $24 billion. The study rests on ‘faulty assumptions,’ namely over representing the share of consumer e-commerce relative to e-commerce between businesses that is already taxed, and doesn’t include U.S. government data.

The SSUTA has done little to simplify taxes for businesses, which are still subject to 7,000 jurisdictions, state-by-state audits, and have no ‘uniform vendor compensation’ scheme, DMA said.

Other big names such as the Consumer Electronic Association and the Motion Picture Association of America also weighed in on the issue.

9) The House passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (HR-4061) Thursday, 422-5, following a short but heated debate over costs and 25 approved amendments that dragged on all of Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), aims to bolster federal cybersecurity research and development and stimulate the growth of a cybersecurity workforce in the U.S. The legislation was culled together from discussion drafts approved by the House Science and Technology Committee’s Research and Innovation Subcommittee last November, and authorizes $959 million through FY 2014 for new and existing cybersecurity programs at the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program.

According to Mark Bregman, Chief Technology Officer at Symantec Corp in e-mailed comments to reporters,

“This bill will help improve the security of cyberspace by ensuring federal investments in cybersecurity are better focused, more effective,”

“HR 4061 represents a major step forward towards defining a clear research agenda that is necessary to stimulate investment in both the private and academic worlds.”

10) Programs to create ‘open textbooks’ that can be shared and customized freely on the    Internet would get funding, under a bill by Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.

The Open College Textbook Act (HR-4575) would authorize the secretary of education to give grants to institutions of higher education, professors and organizations that produce open textbooks, who would submit plans for ensuring accuracy of content, wide availability, marketing, and tracking ‘formal adoptions’ of the textbooks. About $15 million would be authorized for FY 2010 and ‘such sums as are necessary’ for the following five years. Curricula and textbooks created through federal grants, such as through the National Science Foundation, would be converted to open licenses, ‘notwithstanding any other provision of law.’ The NSF director would work with the education secretary to develop peer review processes for grant recipients. The bill was referred to the House Education and Judiciary committees.

Events in and Around Washington

There are none. We’re all snowed in and it’s going to get worst.

Closing

If you enjoyed the show, drop me a line at jon@techpolicypodcast.com – if you hated it, thought something needed correcting, could be done better, or have any other thoughts, comments, or suggestions, send it along.

Visit the website: http://www.techpolicypodcast.com

Stay warm.

For the hosting I went with Liberated Syndication. I read up on various podcasts that I listen to and found a number of them used LibSyn (as it’s referred) with good results. My only complaint, so far, is that the interface is sparse and a little confusing. Never the less episode 1 has been uploaded, the RSS feed created, and all submitted to iTunes.

Now let’s hope iTunes accepts and places it in the directory!

Questions, comments, suggestions, concerns, gripes, and praises send an email to jon@techpolicypodcast.com

Thanks!