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ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE 
U.S. Office of Public Policy of the Association for Computing Machinery
 
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October 18, 1999 Volume 3.4
 
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CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION
 
ACM/USACM ACTIVITIES: 
Nomination Deadlines For Several ACM Awards Extended 
ACM, Legal Experts Send Letter on Internet Trademark Legislation 
Computer System Security And Privacy Advisory Board Solicits Member
Nominations
 
POLICY BRIEFS: 
NSF Budget Approved 
House Considers Two Different Database Bills 
Wilson Slams Miller's Anti-Spam Bill 
Salt Lake Olympics Committee, Volkswagen Files Domain Name Suit 
IPv6 May Compromise Privacy 
 
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INTRODUCTION
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The Association for Computing Machinery is an international professional
society whose 80,000 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 reports 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 Machinery,
see: http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html
 
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ACM/USACM ACTIVITIES 
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NOMINATION DEADLINES FOR SEVERAL ACM AWARDS EXTENDED
 
The deadlines for nominations for the Association for Computing
Machinery's Lawler, Grace Murray Hopper, Kanellakis, and Karlstrom
Awards have been extended to November 1, 1999.
 
More information about the awards is available at:
http://www.acm.org/awards/.
 
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ACM, LEGAL EXPERTS SEND LETTER ON INTERNET TRADEMARK LEGISLATION
 
Members of the ACM, the ACM Internet Governance Committee, the USACM,
and legal experts have sent a letter to the Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert urging him to postpone floor action on the "Trademark
Cyberpiracy Prevention Act" (H.R.3028) and to allow more time for
consideration of this controversial measure.
 
H. R. 3028 would create liability for registering or using a trademark
as a domain name, regardless of whether any actual damages have
occurred. As it is written, the bill would have a disproportionately
negative impact on Internet users, Internet entrepreneurs, small
businesses, commercial and noncommercial organizations. H. R. 3028 also
expands the jurisdiction of U. S. courts beyond their usual limit, by
creating "in rem" actions over all foreign and U.S. citizens who happen
to register a domain name with a U.S. registrar or registry.
 
The letter is available at: http://www.acm.org/usacm/trademark.html
 
H. R. 3028 is available at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.03028:
 
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COMPUTER SYSTEM SECURITY AND PRIVACY ADVISORY BOARD SOLICITS MEMBER
NOMINATIONS
 
The Computer System Security and Privacy Advisory Board was chartered by
the Department of Commerce pursuant to the Computer Security Act of
1987. The CSSPAB's goal is the identify managerial, technical,
administrative, and physical computer security issues, to advise the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Commerce
Department on the security and privacy issues pertaining to Federal
systems and to report its findings to Congress and other institutions.
The CSSPAB has an advisory role only; it does not directly make policy.
 
The CSSPAB is accepting nominations for new members, as the term of some
of its members will expire soon. The deadline for nominations is
November 15th, 1999. Nominations should include a summary of the
nominee's qualifications.
 
ACM encourages the nomination of ACM members, particularly USACM
members.
 
Nominations should be submitted to: Edward Roback, CSSPAB Secretary and
Designated Federal Official National Institute of Standards and
Technology 100 Bureau Drive, M.S. 8930, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930
telephone 301-975-3696; telefax: 301-926-2733; or via email at
edward.roback@nist.gov
 
More information about the CSSPAB available at:
http://csrc.nist.gov/csspab/
 
The notice for nominations is available at:
http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=9856815829+2+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
 
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POLICY BRIEFS
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NSF BUDGET APPROVED
 
Congress approved the National Science Foundation budget October 7. The
House and Senate conferees agreed to allot $3.91 billion for the NSF;
this amount represents an increase of $240 million or 7% over the fiscal
year 1999 appropriation. One hundred and five million dollars were
alloted to information technology research. This amount is in addition
to the $36 million alloted for terascale computing system. ACM conducted
an intensive letter writing campaign in September to influence the
appropriations process for the NSF's budget.
 
The NSF's budget request is available at:
http://www.nsf.gov/home/budget/start.htm
 
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HOUSE CONSIDERS TWO DIFFERENT DATABASE BILLS
 
Two competing bills designed to protect proprietary databases are
circulating the House of Representatives this month. They are the
Collections of Information Antipiracy Act (H. R.  354) and the Consumer
and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999 (H. R. 1858).  The House
is heavily leaning towards endorsing H. R. 354, which will be considered
October 25th. Representative Bliley (R.-Va.) sponsored the Consumer and
Investor Access to Information Act of 1999. However, the ACM endorses
the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999, because it
protects value-added, downstream uses of information and addresses
piracy concerns, but maintains fair use of information and protects
against monopolisitc pricing. In contrast, the Collections of
Information Antipiracy Act does not provide for fair use.
 
A copy of the Consumer and Investor Access to Information Act of 1999 is
available at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.01858:
 
A copy of the Collections of Information Antipiracy Act is available at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.00354:
 
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WILSON SLAMS MILLER'S ANTI-SPAM BILL
 
The Can Spam Act (H.R. 2162) has passed the Subcommittee on
Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection and resides in the
Subcommittee on Crime. The Can Spam Act was introduced by Representive
Gary Miller and relies on a opt-in approach; the bill authorizes civil
penalties for violating ISPs posted policies about unsolicited email and
criminal penalties for hijacking domain names. Representative Heather
Wilson has criticized the Can Spam Act in favor of her own E-Mail User
Protection Act, co-sponsored with Representative Gene Greene, which
allows email users and their ISPs to register their address with the FCC
and sue individuals sending email for $50 per message or $10,000 per day
of violation 30 days after registering. "I think there's value in
getting unsolicited commercial email and using the Internet for
commerce, just like I like getting a catalog in the mail I didn't ask
for," Wilson said. "It's true that ISPs and their advocacy groups would
rather have an outright prohibition, but I  don't think that would
withstand a constitutional challenge on basis of free speech."
 
The Can Spam Act is available at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.02162:
 
The E-Mail User Protection Act is available at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:h.r.01910:
 
More information is available at CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited
Commercial Email): http://www.cauce.org/
 
CAUCE maintains a brief summary of topical legislation:
http://www.cauce.org/legislation.html
 
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SALT LAKE OLYMPICS COMMITTEE, VOLKSWAGEN FILES DOMAIN NAME SUIT
 
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee sued Branjack Inc, Brandon Walker,
Regina Cephas, Afro-American Inner City Youth, and the owner of four
Internet domain names including SALTLAKECITYGAMES.COM October 15. Salt
Lake City investigators claim that they were not able to contact the
defendents, who are incorporated in Delaware,  Nevada and Georgia. An
SLOC investigator also claimed he was offered three of the litigated
domain names in exhange for $25,000.
 
In another domain name dispute, Volkswagen countersued the owner of
vw.net after he sued to keep it. Virtual Works Inc. is a Virginia
internet service provider and Web site designer that registered the
vw.net domain in 1996. Upon learning of the domain in January,
Volkswagen of America Inc. and  its parent German company, Volkswagen
SA, tried to implement a cease and desist order, claiming that Virtual
Works President James Anderson violated Volkswagen's  trademark.
 
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IPV6 MAY COMPROMISE PRIVACY
 
The Internet Engineering Task Force is considering incorporating
individual network card identification numbers into the new Internet
addressing protocol. The new protocol, IPv6, extends the addresses by
two bytes. The current IP address system holds four bytes, ranging from
zero to 255; IPv6 would use six bytes. Under the current IETF plan,
those last two bytes would incorporate the serial numbers of any network
cards, such as ethernet cards and even modems. Privacy advocates oppose
the plan, as it would be similar to giving Internet users a permanent
cookie and would prevent people from using the Internet anonymously.
 
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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).