Roy Mark

WASHINGTON — What appears to be a carefully choreographed rollout of trial balloons in advance of a much anticipated ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gained momentum over the weekend when FCC Chairman Michael Powell leaked a draft version of a plan that would have major implications for the future of broadband deployment in […]

The U.S. Senate Thursday decided on a voice vote to stop all funding for the controversial Defense Department program known as Total Information Awareness (TIA) until the Pentagon can prove to Congress the program does not violate the privacy rights of Americans. Thursday’s vote also prohibits the Pentagon from transferring the program to any other […]

A new alliance of tech companies, consumer groups and trade associations was launched Thursday to oppose government-mandated technology measures to solve the problem of digital piracy. The Alliance for Digital Progress (ADP) says it will fight Hollywood-bankrolled efforts in Congress to require anti-copying technology be built into computers and other electronic devices. The more than […]

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a trade organization representing U.S. providers of information technology (IT) products and services, met with officials from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) Wednesday in the first of an annual series of dialogues to discuss technical regulatory issues affecting the high tech industry. The […]

Got a gripe about those pesky federal regulations? Want to give a digital mouthful to those pointy-headed bureaucrats in Washington? Now, thanks to your taxpayer dollars and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), you have platform at Regulations.gov. And don’t be shy about your comments. After all, more than 20 million people submitted comments […]

Congress is proposing to dramatically slash 2003 funding for the Electronic Government Act (E-Gov). Amid much fanfare last November, Congress passed the legislation, touting a new era of government services, and President Bush signed the bill in December, requesting E-Gov funding of $45 million this year and ramping up to $150 million in by 2006. […]

Hilary Rosen, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said Wednesday she will resign at the end of the year from the powerful music trade organization that has led the contentious legal battle against file-swapping services. Rosen said she wanted to spend more time with her family. Rosen, […]

The Internet tops the list of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) annual report detailing consumer complaints about identity theft and listing the top 10 fraud complaint categories reported by consumers. According to the FTC, 47 percent of non-identity theft complaints were Internet-related, a 31 percent increase since 2000. As in 2000 and 2001, identity theft […]

In a significant victory for the music industry in its ongoing legal battle with file-swapping services, a U.S. district court Tuesday ruled Verizon must comply with a subpoena by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) requesting the name of a subscriber who allegedly made available more than 600 copyrighted music files over the Internet. […]

For the third consecutive year, the Bush Administration anticipates significant budget increases for cyber security. Mark Forman, the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) associate director for IT and e-government, told attendees at the Oracle AppsWorld Conference in San Diego that the administration would ask Congress for $4.9 billion in homeland security IT funding. Last […]

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) is pushing legislation to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to set higher standards for federal IT security. The Cyber Security Leadership Act (S. 187) would require NIST to set the standards after federal agencies performed an analyses of their networks and systems. Edwards said in a floor […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officially debuted its much-touted Free File Web site Thursday, offering “most Americans” the opportunity to prepare and file their taxes online for free. Last fall, the IRS struck a new deal with an alliance of tax preparers and software publishers that will allow up to 78 million Americans to file […]