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ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE
U.S. Office of Public Policy of the
Association for Computing Machinery

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July 23, 1998
Volume 2.5

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CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION

USACM ACTIVITIES
        Charles N. Brownstein Accepts Position As USACM Chair
        USACM Urges House Appropriations to Fund TIIAP

POLICY BRIEFS

        House Commerce Approves Digital Millenium Copyright Act
        Senate Passes Internet Filtering Bills
        Congress Approves Future Funding for NFS
        EFF Built Machine Cracks DES
        President's Address Raises Y2K Awareness
        President Releases Science and Engineering Indicators Report
        HHS Releases Study on Universal ID Number

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INTRODUCTION
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The Association for Computing Machinery is an international professional
society whose 75,000 members (60,000 in the U.S.) represent a critical mass
of computer scientists in education, industry, and government. The USACM
provides a means for promoting dialogue on technology policy issues with
United States policy makers and the general public. The WASHINGTON UPDATE
will report on activities in Washington which may be of interest to those
in the computing and information policy communities and will highlight
USACM's involvement in many of these issues.

To subscribe to the ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE send an e-mail to
listserv@acm.org with "subscribe WASHINGTON-UPDATE" (no quotes) in the body
of the message. Back issues are available at http://www.acm.org/usacm

For information about joining the Association for Computing, see:
http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html

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USACM ACTIVITIES
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CHARLES N. BROWNSTEIN ACCEPTS POSITION AS USACM CHAIR

As former USACM Chair Barbara Simons steps down to assume her new
position as president of the ACM, USACM welcomes its new chair,
Charles N. Brownstein.

Charles N. Brownstein currently serves as executive director of the
Cross Industry Working Team Corporation for National Research
Initiatives (XIWT). XIWT is a coalition of leading companies in the
information services and communications and computing industry who are
engaged in accelerating the development of the national information
infrastructure. In the past, Mr. Brownstein has served as a Trustee of
the Internet Society and managed the Directorate for Computer and
Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation
from the mid 1980s to early 1990s.

USACM wishes Barbara Simons the best in her new position and looks
forward to productive years with Mr. Brownstein.

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USACM URGES HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS TO FUND TIIAP

On July 14, 1998, USACM wrote a letter to the House Appropriations
Committee and House Leadership urging members to fully fund the
Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program
(TIIAP) of the Department of Commerce. The TIIAP program provides
matching grants to non-profit organizations such as schools and
libraries. According to TIIAP's program overview, "grants are used to
purchase equipment for connection to networks, including computers,
video conferencing systems, network routers, and telephones; to buy
software for organizing and processing all kinds of information,
including graphics and databases; to train staff, users, and others in
the use of equipment and software; to purchase communications
services, such as Internet access; to evaluate the projects; and to
disseminate the project's findings." Describing TIIAP as "a
cost-effective way of advancing technical literacy and innovative
community services through effective private-public partnerships,"
USACM Chair Charles Browstein emphasized TIIAP's high record of
achievement. USACM's letter also distinguished the TIIAP program from
the E-rate program which focuses solely on Internet access and
internal connections.

While the TIIAP budget request for FY1999 was $22 million, the Senate
Appropriations Committee only allocated $11 million for the program.
Additionally, the July 2 Senate Appropriations Commitee report
prohibited all E-rate eligible schools from applying for TIIAP.
On the House side, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce,
Justice, State, and Judiciary allocated $16 million. On July 15, 1998,
the full House Appropriations Committee allocated the amount
recommended by its subcommittee, $16 million. To put those numbers in
perspective, TIIAP received 757 proposals requesting a total of $323
million for FY1998. However, TIIAP has approximately only $17 million in
funding for the year.

This week, the Senate is expected to consider the appropriations bill
which includes TIIAP funding. Senator Kerry (D-NE) is expected to
offer an amendment which would restore full funding to TIIAP as well
as remove the E-rate restriction on TIIAP applicants.

USACM's TIIAP letter can be found at:
   http://www.acm.org/usacm/access/usacm-tiiap-798.html

For more information on TIIAP, see
   http://www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/tiiap/index.html

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POLICY BRIEFS
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HOUSE COMMERCE APPROVES DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT

On Friday, July 17, 1998, the House Commerce Committee approved H.R.
2281, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, by a unanimous 41-0 vote.
Intended to protect copyrighted works from piracy, H.R. 2281 would
outlaw devices used to circumvent technological protection measures,
such as encryption, which could be used to protect copyrighted works.
Additionally, opponents were concerned that the blanket prohibition on
the simple act of circumventing such technologies would stifle fair
use rights for copyrighted works, resulting in a pay-per-use world.

Of the eight amendments introduced in the Commerce Committee, six were
adopted and two were withdrawn. The first amendment adopted permitted
the circumvention of technological protection measures in the course
of an act of "good faith encryption research." Good faith in this case
meant that the person lawfully obtained the encrypted work, the act of
circumvention was necessary to conduct the research, and the person
made a good faith effort to obtain authorization before the
circumvention. Another adopted amendment focused on the privacy rights
of the consumer. This privacy amendment permitted the circumvention of
technologcal protection measures for the purposes of preventing the
collection or dissemination of personally identifying information.

An amendment defining a "technological protection measure" was
vigorously debated, but ultimately withdrawn. Supporters of the
amendment argued that it was necessary to preserve the
constitutionality of the bill. Without a clear definition of a
technological protection measure, courts would be quick to invalidate the
law due to the vague term. While opponents of the amendment
conceded that a precise definition was necessary, they argued that the
amendment as drafted provided a poor definition. Ultimately, the
amendment was withdrawn with the provision that members would work
together to perfect the definition in the legislative history.

For the past month, the Commerce Committee had struggled with the
concern of fair use. While libraries feared that the bill would
prohibit fair use rights essential to library lending,
publishers feared that any legal circumvention techniques would lead
to uncontrollable piracy. Early Friday morning, both sides apparantly
struck a compromise deal. The adopted compromise amendment delayed the
prohibition of circumvention for two years, directing the Secretary
of Commerce to "conduct a rulemaking on the record to determine
whether users of copyrighted works have been... adversely affected by
the implementation of technological protection measures..." Every two
years thereafter, the Secretary could waive the prohibition for
particular "classes" of copyrighted works which were adversely
affected by the legislation.

As a result of the Commerce Committee approval of H.R. 2281, there now
currently exist two House versions of the bill- the Commerce version
and the Judiciary version. The two versions  are quite different and
must ultimately be reconciled before the bill can be considered on the
House floor.

Earlier in the process, on June 4, USACM had sent a letter to the
House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer
Protection expressing concern about the effects of the
"anti-circumvention" language on encryption and security research. As
discussed above, the approved version does address encryption research
concerns, but may not adequately addressed USACM's concerns about
general security research.

USACM's June 4 letter can be found at:
   http://www.acm.org/usacm/copyright/usacm-letter-hr2281.htm

More information on WIPO can be found at:
   http://www.dfc.org

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SENATE APPROVES INTERNET FILTERING BILLS

In a flurry of "precipitous" activity, the Senate approved two
controversial Internet filtering bills on July  21, 1998.  Senator
John McCain's "Internet School Filtering Act" (S. 1619) requires
schools and libraries receiving federal funds for Internet access to
install filtering software which would restrict children's
"inappropriate" material. Senator Dan Coats' bill (S. 1482), dubbed as
"CDA II", would prohibit the commercial Web distribution of material
which is deemed "harmful to minors." Senator McCain introduced the two
bill as amendments to an appropriations bill, effectively ending any
further changes to the bills in the Senate. While there was no
objection during the vote to approve the amendments, senators who had
planned to offer alternative amendments to the bill lost their
opportunity due to confusion about how the bill was to proceed.

Earlier, on July 14, the Internet Free Expression Alliance sent a
letter the Senate expressing its concern that the bills would violate
the First Amendment and greatly restrict free expression on the
Internet. Signed by thirteen free speech and civil liberties
organzations, the letter described the bills as "constitutionally
suspect and ultimately ineffective in providing our children with
positive online experiences." Opponents of CDA II feel that
prohibiting material "harmful to minors," the bill would criminalize
constituionally protected speech between adults. Opponents of McCain's
bill believe that the federal government should not interfere with the
responsibilities of teachers and parents. That is, a "clumsy"
technological filtering program not only inadvertently restricts
valuable constitutionally protected speech, but also cannot
effectively serve as a substitution for teacher and parental guidance.

To read the IFEA letter, see
   http://www.ifea.net/joint_ltr_7_14.html

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CONGRESS APPROVES FUTURE FUNDING FOR NFS

On July 17, 1998, Congress sent the National Science Foundation
Authorization Act of 1998 (H.R. 1273) to the president to be signed
into law. The Act allocates approximately $11.2 billion for NSF for
FY1998 to FY2000. As the bill states, the continued allocation of
funds for NSF will allow the foundation to "enable the United States
to maintain a position of world leadership in all aspects of science,
mathematics, engineering, and technology."

The bill allocates over $3.5 billion for FY1998, authorizing
approximately $289 million for Computer and Information Science and
Engineering. Of the $3.7 billion allocated for FY1999, $331 million is
authorized for Computer and Information Science and Engineering,
including $25 million Next Generation Internet program.

The bill is located at:
   http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.1273:

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EFF BUILT MACHINE CRACKS DES

On July 17, 1998, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced
its creation of the first unclassified machine capable of cracking the
Data Encryption Standard (DES). Built for less than $250,000, the "EFF
DES Cracker" won RSA Laboratory "DES Challenge II" by taking less than
three days to crack messages encoded by DES.

Since its orignal adoption for nonclassified federal government use in
1978, DES has become a popular cryptographic standard. While government
officials claim that governments cannot decrypt messages encrypted by
DES, or that only expensive and massive networks of computers would
take monthes to decrypt a DES message, industry and academic security
experts have long held that the 56-bit key used by DES would not hold
up to exhaustive searches performed by typical modern computers.

Taking less that one year to build, the EFF DES Cracker proved how
quickly and inexpensive it was to construct such a machine using
off-the-shelf technology and minimal engineering. EFF has published a
book detailing its findings entitled "Cracking DES: Secrets of
Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics, and Chip Design."

For more information on the DES Cracker, see
   http://www.eff.org/descracker/

To order the EFF Book, see
   http://www.ora.com/catalog/crackdes

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PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS RAISES Y2K AWARENESS

On July 14, 1998, at the National Academy of Sciences, President
Clinton addressed the Year 2000 problem for the first time. Urging
both the government and business sectors to continue their work on the
problem, the President described the  millenium bug as "one of the
most complex management challenges in history." While warning of the
dangers of the problem, the President seemed to downplay the potential
consequences of the millenium bug describing them as "a rash of
annoyances."

Addressing concerns of government Y2K compliance, the President set a
government-wide goal of full compliance by March of 1999. While
conceding that not all the government's critical systems were on
schedule, President Clinton acknolwedged that the public has "a right
to expect uninterrupted service from the government..." Clinton also
encouraged the business sector to exchange and pool information about
the problem. Acknowledging that businesses may be reluctant to share
information fearing legal complications, President Clinton announced
his plan to propose "good Samaritan legislation to guarantee that
businesses which share information about their readiness with the
public or with each other, and do it honestly and carefully, cannot be
held liable for the exchange of that information if it turns out to be
inaccurate." By providing $12 million to support the World Bank Year
2000 fund for developing countries, the President recognized that the
millenium bug was a global problem and that its effect in other
countries would have the potential to affect the United States as
well.

President Clinton's Y2K speech is available at:
   http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/19980714-5571.html

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PRESIDENT RELEASES SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING INDICATORS REPORT

On June 26, 1998, President Clinton submitted the National Science
Board Report entitled "Science and Engineering Indicators -- 1998" to
Congress. The report is the thirteenth in a series started in 1972
which chronicle "key trends in science and engineering research and
education."

The report focuses on "four cross-cutting themes that encapsulate
significant trends in the transition into the 21st century." The first
trend is the increasing globalization of science, technology and the
economy. Due to this globalization, the second trend focuses on the
greater emphasis on science and engineering education and training.
This focus on education leads to the third trend, which describes the
"structural and priority changes in the science and engineering
enterprise." The relationships between government, industry, and
academia are changing as the structure of research itself changes.
Finally, the last trend described the increasing impact of science and
technology on out daily lives.

The report can be found at:
   http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind98/start.htm

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HHS RELEASES STUDY ON UNIVERSAL ID NUMBER

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a white paper on
July 2 on the creation of a new unique health identifier for all
Americans. As part of the enacted Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996, the Secretary of Health and Human Services
is required to adopt standards to support the electronic exchange of
health transactions. Specifically, all health plans, health care
clearinghouses, and those health care providers who choose to exchange
medical information electronically must comply with these standards
within 2 to 3 years of the adoption of the standards. The study
includes as part of its standards a unique identifier "for
individuals, employers, health plans, and health care providers for
use in the health care system."

The paper explores the positive and negative aspects of several
"candidate" identifying systems such as a number based on Social
Security Number, biometric identifiers, and public-private key
cryptography methods. Its evaluations are based upon 30 criteria
developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials which
include accessibility, conciseness, assignability, cost effectiveness,
and content "freeness" of the unique identifer.

While the study describes a unique identifier as an "essential
component of administrative simplification" which would "allow for
the rapid and accurate identification of the proper records and their
integration for the purpose of providing high quality, patient-focused
care," it acknolwedges that the underlying privacy concerns "are
substantive" and "not a trivial concern or a public relations matter."

The HHS white paper can be found at:
   http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/admnsimp/nprm/noiwp1.htm

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Washington Update is a biweekly publication of the U.S. Public
Policy Office of the Association for Computing http://www.acm.org/usacm
666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 302B, Washington, DC 20003.
202/544-4859 (tel), 202/547-5482 (fax).
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