Gov. Gary Herbert (R) signed the Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act (SB-26). It raises damages limits against cybersquatters and lets trademark owners also sue affiliates that enable cybersquatting. Phishing and pharming are defined as third-degree felonies in the law, which lets registrars and ISPs remove website content involved in fraudulent activities. Mimicking federal copyright law, the bill allows for damages up to $150,000 per phishing or pharming violation, and up to $1 million total for use of spyware. The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse praised the new law and said Congress should follow Utah’s lead by updating 1999’s Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which the group called “outdated.” E-commerce group NetChoice, which has often found itself at odds with Internet-related Utah laws, praised the law. “In the 1600s Salem found ways to go after witches — without banning all use of brooms,” said Executive Director Steve DelBianco. “Same goes for the Utah legislature, in the way they're going after bad online conduct -- without regulating legitimate use of the Internet."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a revised version of its informed compliance publication entitled, What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: the Agricultural Actual Use Provisions - Tariff Classification Issues of Headings 9817.00.50 and 9817.00.60.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a final rule, effective March 31, 2010, containing CPSC's interpretation of the statutory factors it considers in determining civil penalty amounts for "knowing" violations of the prohibited acts in the CPSA, FFA, and FHSA1, as amended by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA).
The FCC may not be able to turn the National Broadband Plan into action as fast as the report to Congress envisions, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell warned in an interview. Congress may never act on some recommendations, and it could revise others, said Powell, who co-chairs the industry advocacy group Broadband for America. The FCC’s part depends on completing long and “messy” rulemaking proceedings “that may or may not come out the way that is envisioned,” he said. Powell also sought a targeted revamp of the Telecom Act.
Intermediaries such as hosting providers, ad networks and social networking sites are the key to better intellectual property enforcement, several copyright industries told U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel. But the government must be careful to balance protection with fair-use and “gray area” considerations, and not endorse technologies that can be used by repressive regimes, CEA and public interest groups said. Espinel’s White House office was created by the PRO-IP Act, which mandates that the government devise a strategy to protect IP. Public comments to shape that strategy were due Wednesday night.
STANFORD, Calif. -- A Canadian official has been spreading to pivotal U.S. government figures, Internet companies and other thought leaders in recent days the gospel of her strategy, called Privacy by Design, for handling personal information on the Internet and elsewhere. Ann Cavoukian, the information and privacy commissioner for Ontario province, said late Wednesday at a Stanford Law School forum that she had received favorable receptions from FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., for her view that for privacy to survive in a world of social media, cloud computing and constant electronic monitoring, defaults of confidentiality and user control must be baked into technologies and business models in addition to government rules.
Privacy and security efforts in the “cloud” may be hampered by a gap between information technology and the law over what cloud computing is, a Microsoft executive said Thursday at a Council of Europe conference on cybercrime. Many of the issues in cloud computing are the same as for the Internet in general, said Roger Halbheer, the company’s chief security adviser for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Several speakers stressed the need for global agreement on dealing with the problems.
Intermediaries such as hosting providers, ad networks and social networking sites are the key to better intellectual property enforcement, several copyright industries told U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel.
LAS VEGAS -- A week after the FCC released the National Broadband Plan, unjustified “panic” remains among broadcasters about the proposals to ask some to free up TV spectrum for wireless broadband, Blair Levin, executive director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, said at the CTIA conference. For small broadcasters, in particular, the plan offers opportunity, he said.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., believes it’s time for Congress to update telecom laws to account for technological convergence, he told us Wednesday. The House Communications Subcommittee chairman said he intends to work on comprehensive reform in the next Congress starting in January that would address some of the concerns raised by Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke in a New Democrat Network keynote Wednesday. The company is “very much on target” when it says the time has come to overhaul the Telecommunications Act, Boucher said. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in another interview that her bills on broadband information and early termination fees (ETFs) would answer Tauke’s call to better inform and empower consumers.