Roy Mark

This time it isn’t a stolen laptop. This time it’s what security people fear the most: a system hack. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), unknown hackers may have illegally accessed a USDA database containing the names, Social Security numbers and photos of current and former agency employees. The USDA said approximately 26,000 […]

WASHINGTON — Harried by time constraints, contentious Democrats and dozens of proposed amendments, the Senate Commerce Committee took a pass Thursday afternoon on network neutrality. After two hours of parliamentary maneuvering on the massive telecom reform Bill, which includes a section on network neutrality, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens delayed the showdown vote until Tuesday […]

WASHINGTON — Note to Internet telephone users: Your monthly bill is about to go up. In a long anticipated move, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled today Voice over IP services must contribute a portion of their revenues to the Universal Service Fund (USF). If VoIP providers follow the lead of local and long distance […]

WASHINGTON – The United States continues to flex its powerful legal muscle when it comes to intellectual property (IP) protection but even the government admits the results have been mixed. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said IP protections are still questionable when it comes to international piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods and services. “There’s still […]

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, the leading Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, today blasted Republican compromise language on network neutrality. The new language, released over the weekend by the Republican majority on the panel, would institute a Consumer Internet Bill of Rights to be enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The new proposal is […]

A San Jose, Calif., federal grand jury indicted two men late Friday for allegedly stealing computer chip design and development trade secrets. Lan Lee (a.k.a. Lan Li) of Palo Alto, Calif., and Yuefei Ge of San Jose, are accused of conspiring to steal the proprietary information from their employer at the time, NetLogics Microsystems, and […]

It’s back: the big, bad scary legislative idea to plug the analog hole. To the technorati, that would be the analog reconversion issue. For technology executives outside of digital rights management (DRM) shops, it would be dreaded government-mandated standards. For the rest of us, it’s just another example of Hollywood’s relentless march to strip away […]

Just how good is the business software black market? Very, very lucrative, judging by the forfeitures agreed to by Danny Ferrer, a 37-year-old software piracy Internet operator from Lakeland, Fla. Ferrer pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy and one count of criminal copyright infringement for selling pirated software. According to U.S. Assistant Attorney […]

Building standardized wiretap backdoors into Internet telephone systems is a bad idea that will lead to increased cyber security concerns. At least that’s the opinion of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). Responding fiercely to a Friday court decision upholding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authority to impose traditional wiretap laws on Voice over […]

WASHINGTON – The network neutrality debate resumed today in the U.S. Senate the way it ended in the House of Representatives Thursday night: apparently dead on arrival. As the Senate Commerce Committee held its third of three hearings on a telecom reform bill, lawmakers seemed content to leave the controversial issue to the Federal Communications […]

Act II of the network neutrality saga opens today on Capitol Hill with possible compromise on the issue in the air. Staff members from the Republican and Democratic side of the Commerce aisle met with reporters yesterday and predicted compromise language was in the making on current bills, but declined to reveal any more details. […]

WASHINGTON — Legislative language to make the controversial concept of network neutrality the law of the land failed in the U.S. House of Representatives late Thursday night. In an amendment to an otherwise widely supported telecom reform act, lawmakers rejected by a H.R. 5252), would permit national video franchising for Internet Protocol television (IPTV) providers […]