Source: http://www.techlawjournal.com/alert/2010/12/12.asp
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 10:16:09+00:00

Document:
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,176, December 12, 2010.
December 12, 2010, 10:00 AM, Alert No. 2,176.
12/9. President Obama signed HR 1722 [LOC | WW], the "Telework Enhancement Act of 2010". See, White House news office release.
Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (HOGRC), stated in a release that "This bipartisan legislation benefits both taxpayers and the federal government by promoting cost savings, reducing energy consumption and traffic congestion, and preventing a loss in productivity when homeland security emergencies occur. It also promotes a healthy work-life balance for federal employees and will help the government recruit the best and brightest into the civil service."
This is a very limited bill. This bill requires federal agencies to establish a plan that authorizes employees to telework. It does nothing to promote, or reduce barriers to, teleworking in the private sector.
The House passed an earlier version of this bill on July 14, 2010, by a vote of 290-131. See, Roll Call No. 441. See, story titled "House Passes Government Telework Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,104, July 14, 2010.
The Senate amended and passed the bill on September 29, 2010. See, story titled "Senate Passes Government Telework Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,137, October 1, 2010.
On November 18, the House passed HRes 1721, a motion to concur in the Senate Amendment to HR 1722 The House approved the motion on a vote of 254-152. It was a nearly straight party line vote. Democrats voted 240-3. Republicans voted 14-149. See, Roll Call No. 578. See, story titled "House Approves Government Telework Bill" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,159, November 18, 2010.
The 111th Congress is about to conclude without enacting legislation that would address significant private sector telework related issues. See also, story titled "Congress Inactive on Private Sector Telework Bills" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,104, July 14, 2010.
12/9. President Obama signed HR 5566 [LOC | WW], the "Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010". See, White House news office release.
This is a bill to protect animals from cruelty. It does this by criminalizing the sale of certain videos. The Congress enacted a similar statute in 1999. See, 18 U.S.C. § 48. However, the Supreme held that it was unconstitutional for being overbroad. See, April 20, 2010, opinion [52 pages in PDF] in U.S. v. Stevens.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), issued a release that states that "Crush videos graphically depict the abuse and killing of animals. In 1999, President Clinton signed into law a Gallegly bill to outlaw the videos and for 10 years the industry disappeared. However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law earlier this year and videos reappeared on the market."
He added that HR 5566 "will prevent video depictions of drowning, impaling, burning and crushing of animals. After careful restructuring, both House members and senators believe Gallegly's new bill addresses the U.S. Supreme Court’s constitutional concerns."
12/9. President Obama signed S 3689 [LOC | WW], the "Copyright Cleanup, Clarification, and Corrections Act of 2010". See, White House news office release. The bill makes numerous changes to the Copyright Act. However, none are controversial.
This may be the most significant intellectual property bill enacted in the 111th Congress. The 111th Congress again considered, but did not enact, comprehensive patent reform legislation. See, HR 1260 [LOC | WW], the "Patent Reform Act of 2009", and S 515 [LOC | WW].
It considered, but did not enact, the "Performance Rights Act", which would end terrestrial broadcasters' exemption from paying copyright royalties when they play copyrighted songs. See, HR 848 [LOC | WW].
It considered, but did not enact, a bill to expand the Department of Justice's (DOJ) ability to seize domain names, and take related actions, to protect intellectual property rights. See, 3804 [LOC | WW | PDF], the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act", or "COICA".
Nor did the 111th Congress approve concluded free trade agreements that include sections on intellectual property protection.
12/10. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) filed an amicus curiae brief [40 pages in PDF] with the U.S. Court of Appeals (2ndCir) in Viacom v. YouTube, a copyright infringement case involving the scope of the safe harbor protection of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), codified at 17 U.S.C.§ 512(c).
On June 23, 2010, the District Court issued its opinion and order [30 pages in PDF] granting summary judgment to the defendants. It held that the activities of YouTube at issue in this action fall within the Section 512 safe harbor. Viacom has appealed to the Court of Appeals.
The MPAA and IFTA argue that the District Court opinion "radically upends the fundamental balance that Congress codified in the DMCA's ``safe harbors.´´ The DMCA provides safe harbor limitations on copyright infringement liability only for those service providers who are innocent concerning infringing activity that as a technical matter occurs on or through their sites. The statute retains liability for culpable service providers, including those who know or are aware of infringing activity on their site but fail to act expeditiously to stop it. The district court’s decision shifts the balance decisively to provide protection for service providers who are culpable."
"The decision instead incentivizes service providers to willfully blind themselves to apparent ``red flags´´ of mass infringing activity." The brief continues that "It is an inversion of the DMCA -- and also fundamentally unfair -- to interpret the statute to allow service providers to induce infringement, to reap the benefits of that infringement, and then to have no responsibility for dealing with the infringement they have induced unless and until copyright owners send them individual takedown notices."
The brief argues that the District Court erred in three ways.
First, it erred "in holding that a service provider who may be liable for inducing infringement under" MGM v. Grokster "may as a matter of law qualify for § 512(c)'s safe harbor protection."
Second, the brief argues that the District Court erred in "effectively writing out of the DMCA the ``actual knowledge´´ and ``awareness´´ tests for knowledge that are embedded in § 512(c)(1)(A)."
The statute provides, in part, that "A service provider shall not be liable ... for infringement of copyright by reason of the storage at the direction of a user of material that resides on a system or network controlled or operated by or for the service provider, if the service provider ... does not have actual knowledge that the material or an activity using the material on the system or network is infringing ..."
Third, the brief argues that the District Court erred "by writing into the language of another requirement for safe harbor protection a knowledge test that does not exist".
"District Court Grants Summary Judgment to YouTube in Copyright Infringement Case" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,100, June 23, 2010.
"Viacom Files Complaint Against Google and YouTube Alleging Violations of Copyright Law" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,551, March 13, 2007.
12/10. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of the State of Connecticut announced in a release that it "demanded that Google provide access to data its Street View cars improperly collected from unsecured Connecticut personal and business wireless computer networks".
The Connecticut Attorney General is Richard Blumenthal. Blumenthal was elected in November to the open Senate seat currently held by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). He takes office in January of 2011.
"Google initially claimed that the data was fragmented, but has since acknowledged that entire emails and other information may have been improperly captured". The OAG added that "Google has allowed Canadian and other regulatory authorities to review similar data, but refused to provide Blumenthal's office the same access."
Blumenthal stated in this release that "We are compelling the company to grant my office access to data to determine whether emails, passwords, web-browsing and other information was improperly intercepted, for the same reasons that other law enforcement agencies abroad have done so. Reviewing this information is vital because Google’s story changed, first claiming only fragments were collected, then acknowledging entire emails."
"FCC Is Investigating Google" and "Consumer Watchdog Urges House Commerce Committee to Hold Hearing on Google Wi-Fi Surveillance" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,154, November 12, 2010.
"UK Finds Google's Wi-Fi Surveillance Violated UK Data Protection Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,152, November 10, 2010.
"FTC Ends Investigation of Google WiFi Intercepts" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,147, October 28, 2010.
"Google Intercepted E-Mail Content and Passwords" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,146, October 25, 2010.
"Canada Finds Google Violated Its Privacy Law" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,145, October 22, 2010.
12/9. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) released a paper [19 pages in PDF] titled "Browser Privacy Features: A Work in Progress". It reviews and compares Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Opera's Web browser.
It states that no one browser is best for privacy, privacy features are being improved overall, but browsers are also creating new ways for users to be tracked.
The paper also discusses do not track regimes, and comprehensive privacy legislation. See also, stories titled "Divided FTC Proposes Do Not Track Regime" and "House Commerce Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Do Not Track Proposal" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,169, December 5, 2010.
The report states that "Providing browser privacy controls that are robust, easy to find, and simple to use is crucial to empowering consumers to maintain their privacy online."
This paper states that "One potential solution to the complexity of user choices would be the implementation through the browser of a ``Do Not Track´´ mechanism that would allow consumers to set persistent and global tracking preferences. If done correctly, the incorporation of a ``Do Not Track´´ feature in the browsers could represent an improvement for consumers who wish to exercise more control over their information sharing online."
"The online advertising industry has been discussing ways to create such controls through self-regulation, and Congress is considering whether ``Do Not Track´´ should be included as a part of a general baseline privacy law. Both Microsoft and Mozilla have announced promising efforts in recent days to eventually offer these sorts of global opt-out options to consumers. However implemented, ``Do Not Track´´ is not a replacement for baseline privacy legislation, which is needed to address the full range of privacy issues, not just Web-based behavioral advertising."
12/9. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (SHSGAC), commented on WikiLeaks in a release. He said that "Companies that are cutting off their services to Wikileaks in the wake of its release of 250,000 stolen and classified State Department cables are doing the right thing as good corporate citizens and deserve the support of the American people. The Wikileaks data dump has jeopardized U.S. national interests and the lives of intelligence sources around the world. This is no time for business as usual. While corporate entities make decisions based on their obligations to their shareholders, sometimes full consideration of those obligations requires them to act as responsible citizens. We offer our admiration and support to those companies exhibiting courage and patriotism as they face down intimidation from hackers sympathetic to Wikileaks' philosophy of irresponsible information dumps for the sake of damaging global relationships." He did not mention companies by name. He could have named MasterCard, Visa, Amazon, and PayPal. See also, stories titled "WikiLeaks and Cyber Security", "Senators Introduce Bill to Amend Espionage Act to Reach WikiLeaks and Others", "Commentary: Expansion of Espionage Law", and "WikiLeaks and Copyright Infringement" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,174, December 10, 2010.
12/8. Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security) and Eric Holder (Attorney General) met with Viviane Reding (EU Vice President for Justice, Fundamental Rights, and Citizenship) and Cecilia Malmström (EU Commissioner for Home Affairs). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated in a release that the issues discussed included cyber security. The DHS stated that Napolitano "highlighted the United States and the European Union ongoing, coordinated efforts to protect vital cyber networks from attacks through the U.S.-EU Cyber Working Group -- formalized by President Obama in the Nov. 20 U.S.-EU Summit Declaration -- which facilitates the continued sharing of cybersecurity best practices and security standards and enhances collaboration on public-private partnerships; cyber incident management; public awareness; and combating cyber crime." Other topics of discussion included aviation security and the U.S.-EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement.
12/8. Gordon Smith, head of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), commended the selection of Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) to be Chairman of the House Commerce Committee (HCC) in the 112th Congress. He stated in a release that "Fred Upton has served Congress with class and integrity, and has shown a willingness to find meaningful solutions to real problems that confront the American people. We welcome his chairmanship and the opportunity to make the case in his committee for preserving and enhancing free and local broadcasting." Smith is a former member of the Senate Commerce Committee (SCC).
There were some e-mail delivery problems with TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,175, Saturday, December 11, 2010. Hence, that issue is now in the TLJ web site.
9:30 AM. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Democratic Leader, will give a speech. Location: National Press Club.

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