Sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (S-31), aimed at indefinitely extending the moratorium on Internet access taxes and multiple and what they call discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The bill would extend the provisions of the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which are scheduled to expire Nov. 1, 2014. “The Internet Tax Freedom Act will ensure a long-standing federal policy that prevents the government from raising taxes, and preserves the Internet as a tool for education and innovation,” said Heller in a news release Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bodwr2). Ayotte said the bill “will provide certainty to the marketplace, helping the Internet continue to be a driving force for jobs and growth.”

As Congress contemplates reforming decades-old laws that dictate who can access users’ online communications, one issue may be overlooked: what happens to user information -- emails, photos, Facebook messages -- after that user dies. Under the legal structure established by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Stored Communications Act (SCA), Internet companies adopt varying policies that don’t guarantee access to a deceased person’s data, even with a court order, according to our review of companies’ policies and interviews with legal experts.

A bipartisan group of four Senators introduced the Immigration Innovation Act Tuesday, which would raise the cap on H1-B visas from 65,000 to 150,000 immigrants per year. The legislation was lauded by members of technology industry, who said it would permit more skilled immigrants to stay and work in the U.S. CTIA said in a news release Tuesday that if enacted, the bill “will alleviate this problem and help the United States to remain the world’s leading wireless market.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes the bill “makes critical reforms to our legal immigration system that would, among other things, establish a market-based system to increase and decrease the allocation of H-1B visa numbers,” said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president-government affairs. The bill is a “solid step in ensuring that the U.S. remains the global center of innovation,” said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. It does so by addressing both the “short-term problems of visas and green cards, and investing in the longer-term issue of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] education and training,” he said. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the bill offers a “common sense solution to the high skill immigration issue by allowing companies access to the skills they need, while also assisting American workers in developing the talents necessary to better meet those needs,” said the group’s President, Robert Atkinson, in a news release. Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert said in a separate news release the group “supports efforts to increase the allotment of H-1B visas and to improve STEM education efforts in the United States.” The sponsors are Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

A bipartisan group of four senators introduced the Immigration Innovation Act Tuesday, which would raise the cap on H1-B visas from 65,000 to 150,000 immigrants per year. The legislation was lauded by members of technology industry, who said it would permit more skilled immigrants to stay and work in the U.S. CTIA said in a news release Tuesday that if enacted, the bill “will alleviate this problem and help the United States to remain the world’s leading wireless market.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes the bill “makes critical reforms to our legal immigration system that would, among other things, establish a market-based system to increase and decrease the allocation of H-1B visa numbers,” said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president-government affairs. The bill is a “solid step in ensuring that the U.S. remains the global center of innovation,” said Ed Black, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. It does so by addressing both the “short-term problems of visas and green cards, and investing in the longer-term issue of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] education and training,” he said. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the bill offers a “common sense solution to the high skill immigration issue by allowing companies access to the skills they need, while also assisting American workers in developing the talents necessary to better meet those needs,” said the group’s President, Robert Atkinson, in a news release. Telecommunications Industry Association President Grant Seiffert said in a separate news release the group “support efforts to increase the allotment of H-1B visas and to improve STEM education efforts in the United States.” The sponsors are Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Groups representing media and entertainment companies are considering developing a series of public service announcements (PSAs) aimed at addressing issues related to gun violence, industry officials told us this week. The preliminary discussions follow recent scrutiny from the legislative and executive branches into the effects that media violence could have on children, after December’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. Videogame industry executives didn’t take part in the discussions, media industry officials said.

Groups representing media and entertainment companies are considering developing a series of public service announcements (PSAs) aimed at addressing issues related to gun violence, industry officials told us this week. The preliminary discussions follow recent scrutiny from the legislative and executive branches into the effects that media violence could have on children, after December’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. Videogame industry executives didn’t take part in the discussions, media industry officials said.

CEA laid out a set of principles it said would help the FCC hold a successful incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Google and Microsoft stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy chunk of the spectrum for unlicensed use. AT&T and Verizon countered small carrier arguments over who should be allowed to participate in the auction.

The Consumer Electronics Association laid out a set of principles it said would help the FCC hold a successful incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Google and Microsoft stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy chunk of the spectrum for unlicensed use. AT&T and Verizon countered small carrier arguments over who should be allowed to participate in the auction.

The FCC’s Technology Transitions Task Force should promptly update the commission’s last-mile access and interconnection policies for a packet-mode environment, Cbeyond, EarthLink, Integra Telecom, Level 3 and tw telecom told FCC officials Friday, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bob2h3). In the process they should follow four major guidelines, the CLECs said: First, avoid redundant proceedings. Second, consider only those issues that “would not arise ‘but for’ a technology transition,” such as, for example, wholesale access to ILEC last-mile facilities, they said. Third, the FCC should prioritize issues based on their potential effect on consumer welfare. Finally, the commission should utilize “appropriate procedural mechanisms,” such as a rulemaking, to effectuate new rules. The CLECs also encouraged the FCC to reject AT&T’s petition to launch a proceeding on the IP transition, and its proposed wire center experiment where many of the interconnection rules would be lifted. Most of the issues raised in AT&T’s petition, such as service discontinuance, network change notification and federal eligible telecom carrier rules, are already the subject of pending FCC proceedings, the CLECs said. AT&T’s wire center tests are unnecessary, would divert FCC resources from updating existing competition policies, and wouldn’t help to identify the markets where ILECs have market power, the CLECs said. They also opposed NTCA’s petition for a new omnibus rulemaking proceeding to address the IP transition, arguing the rural association’s proposed “smart regulation” approach is too broad and will unnecessarily divert FCC resources. The CLECs did support NTCA’s request for clarification that ILECs must provide Session Initiation Protocol interconnection under Section 251 of the Telecom Act.

The FCC’s proposed “preferred” band plan for an incentive auction of broadcast-TV spectrum is raising big concerns among both carriers and broadcasters, lawyers representing both said. The issue is expected to arise in comments filed by NAB, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Qualcomm and others, which are due at the FCC Friday. Concerns over the band plan and the lack of international coordination could lead to delays in the start of the incentive auction, which Chairman Julius Genachowski has predicted would get underway next year, industry and agency sources said.