Wireless and wireline carriers are girding for a fight once again over provisions in the latest version of the Senate FTC reauthorization bill that would open the door to more FTC oversight of the telecom industry. A provision in the bill would eliminate the common carrier exception that bars the FTC from overseeing certain activities by telecom common carriers that are regulated by the FCC. While such language has been introduced in past Congresses, this is the first in which Democrats control both the Senate and the House.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wants intelligence and other federal agencies to “look into the Internet more deeply” and create an “early warning system” on network attacks before they arrive, he said Tuesday. This can be done by extending the government’s Einstein cybersecurity technology, Chertoff said at the RSA Security conference.

STANFORD, Calif. - A Chicago civic-improvement site, meant as a model for bridging e-government and complaint sites, is planned this year by the creator of Web 2.0 collaboration tools for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Libya’s Gaddafi Foundation. Beth Noveck, the director of the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, said she’s raising money to start the site within six months. She spoke Friday at a Stanford University seminar on human-computer interaction.

Following a flood of 200 comments on regulations proposed to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (WID Oct 2 p1), regulators aren’t so sure they can implement the law, they told the House Financial Services Technology Subcommittee Wednesday. Fears about vagueness and financial institutions’ responsibilities dominated the hearing. The event largely featured Ranking Member Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., defending the feasibility of the law -- which he helped write -- against skeptical colleagues and bemused regulators. An irked Bachus grew more so when he learned that the Justice Department, which views all Internet gambling as prohibited under older laws, wasn’t invited to testify.

Much government information should be publicly available on the Internet, but too much sunlight can blind the truth, a House hopeful told the Freedom to Connect conference near Washington Monday. Donna Edwards beat Maryland Rep. Al Wynn in the Democratic primary for a heavily Democratic district east of Washington, leading Wynn to say he'll resign in June. But Edwards, whose campaign was largely Internet-driven, said “voyeurism” shouldn’t drive government transparency. At the same event, presidential candidate Barack Obama’s tech policy adviser discussed Obama’s approach to government transparency.

More than 60 research groups funded by the European Commission have signed the Declaration of Bled asserting an urgent need to redesign the Internet. “We cannot wait,” Joao da Silva, Director of the Directorate Converged Networks and Services, said at a conference on the future of the Internet. “We have to act a lot faster.” Since EU countries allocated 9.1 billion Euro for ICT research under the i2010 initiative and the EC and industry already have spent over 400 million Euro and will spend more than 2 billion Euro over the next two years, “we expect results from you,” he said.

The Community Broadcasters Association did speak out about “the analog problem” more than 18 months ago, but CBA’s 2006 filings never urged NTIA to require dual analog and digital tuners in coupon-eligible converter boxes, our review found. Still, CBA on Friday defended its filings and again denied dragging its feet on the converter box issue.

The Department of Justice won’t block the merger of XM and Sirius because the evidence “did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices,” it said Monday. XM and Sirius are “working with FCC to secure final regulatory approval,” they said in a joint statement.

The Justice Department won’t block the merger of XM and Sirius because the evidence “did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices,” it said Monday. XM and Sirius are “working with the FCC to secure final regulatory approval,” they said in a joint statement.

New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram subpoenaed JuicyCampus.com, a Web site that lets college students gossip anonymously about others at their schools, including Princeton University in the state. The site has drawn criticism by student leaders and some students portrayed unflatteringly, especially as having been drunk or promiscuous. The state is investigating the site for Consumer Fraud Act violations via “unconscionable commercial practices and misrepresentations to users.” The subpoena asks JuicyCampus parent Lime Blue how it picks campuses to cover, how it verifies participants’ school affiliations, and how it enforces parental-consent forms it requires for posters under 18. Contributors must agree to not post content that is “unlawful, threatening, abusive, tortious, defamatory, obscene, libelous, or invasive of another’s privacy,” all standard terms of use. JuicyCampus terms also empower the site to remove content for violating its policies, to report users to the authorities for illegal activity, and to respond to “lawful subpoenas.” But the site “apparently lacks tools to report or dispute [prohibited] material,” the attorney general’s office said. “Report abuse” and similar links are usually prominent on social networking sites. Milgram also subpoenaed online ad network Adbrite, which serves ads on JuicyCampus, asking how JuicyCampus represented itself to Adbrite, as exemplified by the types of ads and keywords requested by the site. Google, which used to provide AdSense ads to JuicyCampus, also got a letter from the state asking about that prior business relationship. JuicyCampus.com seemed to be struggling under a flood of traffic when we checked Thursday afternoon. It told users that the site was being upgraded and some features had been disabled because “we are SOOO popular!” A JuicyCampus spokeswoman said the site wouldn’t comment on the New Jersey action, declining to say whether the company has fielded inquiries from other governmental offices, college administrations or student governments. JuicyCampus sent an automatic e-mail response to our inquiry with a list of FAQs that don’t appear on the site, apparently written to address legal questions recently raised. JuicyCampus said it blocked crawling of its site by search engines so mentions of people wouldn’t surface in search results. It clarified that its terms don’t “obligate us to investigate the factual basis of every post” and, as a result, decide whether any post is defamatory. If a “court of competent jurisdiction” rules that a post is liable for defamation, JuicyCampus will remove the post, the e-mail said. Readers should “shift your point of view” and not assume all posts are true, it said. The e- mail linked to an FAQ on blogging and defamation law provided by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Anonymity online has recently been the target of Kentucky legislation. HB-775, by Rep. Tim Couch, would require “interactive service providers” such as sites, blogs and message boards to have users register their legal names, addresses and valid e-mail addresses as a “precondition” to using the service. Users would be identified at least by their “registered legal name” on any content they post, and providers would have to create a “reasonable procedure” by which others could request the personal information of users who post “false or derogatory information” about them. Providers would be fined $500 for first violations and $1,000 for any others.