Roy Mark

Adware distributor DirectRevenue today settled Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges of unfair and deceptive trade practices of installing unwanted and unsolicited spyware unto consumers’ computers. DirectRevenue, which is also entangled in a spyware lawsuit filed by New York State, agreed to not download its adware without consumers’ consent and to provide effective means for removing […]

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers expressed concern Thursday about the laws of unintended consequences as they opened the first of a series of hearings on proposed patent reform. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, and Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) are seeking wholesale reforms of the […]

Led by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, eight Republican U.S. House members have filed legislation that would give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broad powers to require Internet service providers (ISPs) to retain customer data. Privacy groups were quick to respond to the legislation, arguing that the language isn’t clear enough. Under the Internet Stopping Adults […]

Responding to requests from emergency responder groups, the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday approved two bills to expedite funding for 911 systems and to pre-position communications equipment for disasters. The 911 Modernization Act (S. 93) would make $43.5 million immediately available for the upgrading of 911 systems throughout the country. The Interoperable Emergency Communications Act (S. […]

WASHINGTON — There isn’t much hope that the two sides of the network neutrality debate will find any common ground at a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) workshop on the issue. The session served as little more than a demonstration that both sides are operating from entrenched positions, and unwilling to concede a single point. Or, […]

A former Texas telecom executive faces up to a maximum of 140 years in prison and a $250,000 fine following his conviction Friday for defrauding the federal E-Rate program that supports Internet connections and equipment for schools and libraries. Rafael G. Adame, who founded and ran ATE Telecom Solutions, was convicted of submitting fraudulent applications […]

Congress is — again — promising a national data breach notification law. Of course, we’ve heard that talk before, and two years and 100 million records exposed to possible identity theft later, it has all proved to be so much hot air. Republicans and Democrats will tell you a federal breach notification law is not […]

Members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced a package of bills Thursday evening aimed at identity theft, pretexting, data security and breach notifications. Included in the four pieces of legislation is Rep. Mary Bono’s (D-Calif.) Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY Act), which has twice passed the House and twice […]

Nextel founder Morgan O’Brien ran into more opposition today for his proposal to change plans already in place to provide public safety agencies with 24MHz of spectrum and $1 billion to build an interoperable system. Thursday morning, he urged a skeptical Senate Commerce Committee to ditch that approach. O’Brien and his new company Cyren Call […]

The High Tech DTV Coalition today criticized an alternative plan by Nextel founder Morgan O’Brien to use spectrum allocated for public safety communications by Congress. O’Brien is proposing half of the spectrum be deeded to a Public Safety Broadband Trust managed by his company, Cyren Call, which would lease the spectrum to commercial operators in […]

Promising long overdue reform, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy introduced legislation today to strengthen personal data protections and to require data-breach notifications to consumers. The Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007 would make it a crime to intentionally or willfully conceal a security […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today set the maximum royalty that rate chipmaker Rambus can collect for its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) products. The decision comes five months after the FTC ruled Rambus unlawfully cornered the market for DRAM chips by distorting the standards-setting process. The Los Altos-Calif.-based Rambus said it would seek an […]