“In what appears to be a reaction to last-minute pressure from opponents of a file-swapping bill, a U.S. Senate committee postponed a vote scheduled for Thursday [on the Induce Act…]”

SOURCE: CNET News.com

NOTE: Additional information at Internetnews.com

“The U.S. House of Representatives today [Sept. 29] passed H.R. 4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, by voice vote after having placed it on the suspension calendar. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) regrets that the House acted in such haste to pass what is a controversial piece of legislation without the due consideration of the bill’s impact on technology innovation.

H.R. 4077 fundamentally expands the definition of criminal copyright infringement, turns private sector copyright disputes into criminal litigation involving the Department of Justice, and mobilizes ISPs to police their networks on behalf of content companies […]”

SOURCE: CCIA

“Rep. Adam Putnam [R-FL], the force behind much of Congress’ oversight of federal IT during the last two years, is moving from the House Government Reform Committee to the Rules Committee effective today.

Putnam will take the place of Rep. Porter J. Goss, another Florida Republican, who left the committee and his Hill office last week to become the director of the CIA.

Since January of last year, Putnam had been the chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census […]”

SOURCE : GCN

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Monday that will bar the use of electronic voting machines that don’t produce paper trails to verify votes.

The requirement, which takes effect in 2006, is a response to concerns that the machines could be tampered with or produce incorrect results […]”

SOURCE: AP (via SiliconValley.com)

Cites Risks of Computer-based Systems

Seeking to improve the security, accessibility, and public confidence in the voting process, ACM’s elected leadership has approved a public statement on the deployment and use of computer-based electronic voting (e-voting) systems for public elections. ACM’s position is that while computer-based e-voting systems have the potential to improve the electoral process, such systems must embody careful engineering, strong safeguards, and rigorous testing in both their design and operation. [See the official release here.]
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“CD burners, jukebox programs and Wi-Fi routers are just a few of the technologies that could be threatened under a new version of the Induce Act, critics say.

Like the first version of the controversial bill – which is championed by the music and movie industries – the latest language says that a company that intentionally induces a person to infringe copyright is liable.

The latest version was circulated by Senate Judiciary Committee staff Friday. It is scheduled for markup at a meeting of the Judiciary Committee on Thursday […]”

SOURCE: Wired News

“The nation’s oldest conservative group has become the latest and most vocal critic of an anti-file-swapping bill that foes say could target products like Apple Computer’s iPod.

The American Conservative Union (ACU), which holds influential Republican activists and former senators on its board of directors, is running newspaper and magazine advertisements that take a humorous jab at the so-called Induce Act–and slams some conservative politicians for supporting it.

“This is the Hollywood liberals trying to crush innovation,” said ACU deputy director Stacie Rumenap […]”

SOURCE: CNET News.com

“[…] A partial answer to the other question is that some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida.

The most significant of these requirements are:

[…]

• Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy. Modern technology is already in use that makes electronic voting possible, with accurate and almost immediate tabulation and with paper ballot printouts so all voters can have confidence in the integrity of the process. There is no reason these proven techniques, used overseas and in some U.S. states, could not be used in Florida […]”

SOURCE: Washington Post [free reg. req.]

“The Election Assistance Commission Technical Guidelines Development Committee asked EPIC to offer testimony (pdf) on the impact that new voting technology and polling place practices has on the privacy rights of voters. The hearing was an opportunity for the committee charged with making recommendations on voluntary standards for election systems and voting technology […]”

SOURCE: EPIC

“Roughly a third of the votes cast in the November presidential election will be made on controversial paperless electronic voting machines, but as any political analyst can tell you, the only votes that will matter a great deal will be cast in a handful of swing states.

And just as the Kerry and Bush campaigns are spending most of their efforts in those states where neither holds a heavy margin in the polls, voting advocacy groups concerned with the integrity of voting technology are devoting their resources toward the states which matter most […]”

SOURCE: Wired News

“Earlier this week, CCIA sent a letter to Undersecretary Philip Bond asking the Department of Commerce to discuss the Induce Act legislation with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Under the bill, any device that may be capableof infringement can be considered unlawful and its manufacturers held liable. The legislation is an inappropriate measure designed to expand the already protected interests of copyright holders at the expense of the technology industry.

Ed Black, President and CEO stated, “This bill will regulate nearly all of electronic devices in existence today, place the entire technology industry under the guise of the content industry, and eliminate any semblance of innovation […]”

SOURCE: CCIA

NOTE: See USACM’s recent letters (1 and 2) concerning the Induce Act (S. 2560).

“The federal government said yesterday that it will order airlines to turn over millions of passenger records by November so it can begin testing a vast computer program that will hunt for suspected terrorists seeking to board commercial aircraft.

The proposed program, known as Secure Flight, is the government’s latest attempt to create an effective computer-assisted passenger screening system. Airlines and privacy advocates fought off previous attempts to develop a system known as CAPPS II, arguing it would violate passengers’ privacy. Yesterday, privacy advocates said the government’s plans for Secure Flight had not alleviated their concerns […]”

SOURCE: Washington Post

“James Foley is worried.

As chairman of the Computing Research Association–a group made up of academic departments, research centers and professional societies–his job at CRA is to improve computing research and education. But Foley sees troubling trends in the nation’s system for nurturing and training new information technology scientists […]”

SOURCE: CNET News.com

“Just over six weeks before the nation holds the first general election in which touch-screen voting will play a major role, specialists agree that whatever the remaining questions about the technology’s readiness, it is now too late to make any significant changes.

Whether or not the machines are ready for the election - or the electorate ready for the machines - there is no turning back. In what may turn out to be one of the most scrutinized general elections in the country’s history, nearly one-third of the more than 150 million registered voters in the United States will be asked to cast their ballots on machines whose accuracy and security against fraud have yet to be tested on such a grand scale […]”

SOURCE: NY Times [free reg. required]

USACM has joined a broad coalition of stakeholders (including IEEE-USA, the American Association of Universities, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and numerous IT companies) in sending a letter to the U.S. Senate concerning the Induce Act (S. 2560).

USACM continues to be troubled that the proposal’s flawed approach of restricting technology rather than focusing on individual acts of infringement could have serious unintended consequences which could undermine continued innovations in software and digital computing and introduce new liabilities for technology developers.

California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and the World Privacy Forum sent a letter to California’s governor urging him to veto a piece of pending spyware legislation (S.B. 1436).

SOURCE: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

“An international conference opened Wednesday amid warnings that companies, governments and individuals are increasingly vulnerable to Internet attacks by terrorists, hackers and others that rob them of privacy, money, and secrets.

The aim of the three-day Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg, France, is to get governments worldwide to accelerate ratification of the council’s 2001 Cybercrime Convention, the first international treaty to combat Internet crimes […]

SOURCE: USA Today

“OECD countries have set up a task force to marshal the efforts of government, business and civil society in the most comprehensive, strategic and inclusive response to date to the problems posed by unsolicited e-mail messages, or spam.

Spam undermines user trust online, reduces productivity, spreads computer viruses and increases costs for all parties, and close international co-operation is essential in order to combat it. At present, a number of countries have several agencies with competencies in tackling spam […]”

SOURCE: OECD

“Northwest Airlines did not violate its own privacy policy and did not mislead customers when it shared passenger records with the government as part of a secret airline security project after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the Department of Transportation has ruled.

The department dismissed a complaint filed this year by a Washington privacy rights organization, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union alleging that the carrier committed unfair and deceptive trade practices in sharing the information with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration without informing its customers. The agency has the authority to review business practices of companies in the transportation industry, for example, such as whether an airline actually provided fares to customers as advertised. It was the first time the transportation agency had reviewed a case involving an airline’s privacy policies, the Sept. 10 decision said […]”

SOURCE: Washington Post [free registration required]

“Privacy International [PI] and European Digital Rights [EDRI] have published their joint answer to the consultation on mandatory data retention. The Directorate Generals on Information Society and on Justice and Home Affairs from the European Commission asked for public comments on a proposed retention regime across Europe between 12 and 36 months for all traffic data generated by using fixed and mobile telephony and Internet […]

SOURCE: EDRi

“Alarmed by software glitches, security threats and computer crashes with ATM-like voting machines, officials from Washington, D.C., to California are considering an alternative from an unlikely place: Nevada.

Silver State voters cast electronic ballots Tuesday on a $9.3 million voting system with more than 2,600 computers and printers in every county. The primary was free of serious problems that have embarrassed registrars in Florida, California, Maryland and other states with touchscreen machines.

[…] Credit the training in Nevada, and credit the printers – which give computer scientists and voter-rights advocates assurances that elections can be fully audited. As many as 50 million Americans elsewhere will use paperless touchscreens this November, and critics say hacking, malfunctioning and other problems in only a few counties could have huge implications in a tight presidential contest […]”

SOURCE: AP via NYT [free registration required]

“Australia appears ready to adopt U.S-style copyright laws, courtesy of a Free Trade Agreement deal negotiated between the two countries.

But the agreement has some Australian civil liberties advocates and lawyers crying foul. They say it’s nothing more than a money-grab by the powerful U.S. copyright owners lobby, and claim the Australian government has sold consumers’ rights to media conglomerates in the United States for dubious trade concessions in other industries […]”

SOURCE: Wired News

“Government and industry officials butted heads Wednesday over whether a 10-year-old law governing electronic surveillance is working – and whether industries are meeting their obligations to help authorities catch criminals and terrorists in the internet age.

Lawmakers are considering whether to update the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, or CALEA, to address the recent explosion of technologies such as packet-switched data […]”

SOURCE: Wired News

CONTENTS

[1] USACM Releases FY2004 Report of Activities and Achievements
[2] Digital Copyright Policy Actions of Interest to Computing Community
[3] VoIP Subject to Wiretap Mandates
[4] Privacy: Congress Holds Hearing, ACLU Releases Surveillance Report, and More
[5] Recommendations for E-voting Call for Better Security, Testing, and Auditing
[6] United Nations Moving Forward with Working Group on Internet Governance

[An archive of all previous editions of Washington Update is available here.]
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