Roy Mark

RealNetworks hit a 52-week high Wednesday, climbing 3.4 percent during the day to close at $9.94. Overall, technology stocks were mixed as rising interest rates slowed the market. The Seattle-based RealNetworks’ stock price was bolstered earlier this week when Cable Television Laboratories announced it has approved Real’s Helix digital rights management (DRM) technology, which allows […]

Public confidence in e-commerce will erode if Congress does not step forward and pass a meaningful national data breach disclosure law this year, according to the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA). The industry advocacy group wrote congressional leaders last week urging them to put aside political differences and put legislation on President Bush’s desk by […]

Web sites selling confidential consumer telephone data are refusing to comply with a U.S. House of Representatives’ request for information, prompting the Energy and Commerce Committee to issue subpoenas to a dozen companies. The move is the latest in an ongoing investigation into the Internet sale of phone records and other personal information. In March, […]

WASHINGTON — Proponents of net neutrality face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill: explaining the concept. No matter the merits, net neutrality is a tough sell to lawmakers whose tech knowledge is usually limited to the on/off switch of the BlackBerry. If that. “We’re really not fond of the term ‘net neutrality,’ but we use […]

Legislation designed to put a dent in Internet gambling ran into opposition Wednesday from the banking industry and, surprisingly, the Traditional Values Coalition. The Internet Gambling Prohibition Act proposes to make it illegal for Americans to use the Internet for gambling and would authorize law enforcement officials to stop credit card payments and other forms […]

China and Russia’s “lack of political will” put the two countries at the top of a congressional group’s 2006 International Piracy Watch List. Piracy in the two countries, according to the group, cost the U.S. copyright industry $4 billion last year. The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, which includes 73 members of Congress, said at a […]

WASHINGTON – House Republicans Wednesday strengthened net neutrality provisions in their working telecom reform legislation but turned back tougher measures demanded by Democrats. With a primary focus on national video licenses for telephone companies, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Efficiency Act of 2006 (COPE) was widely criticized for barely touching on net neutrality issues when […]

Reporter’s Notebook: While a House subcommittee attempts to pass a telecom reform bill today that the telephone and cable companies wholeheartedly endorse, U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) are floating their own legislation on the other side of Capitol Hill that the broadband network operators are sure to dislike. Why? The senators […]

WASHINGTON — The testimony was stark and dark yesterday as Congress took one of its periodic looks at child pornography on the Internet. Specifics replaced the usual generalities with the focus on pay-for-view live webcams of underage children — including infants and toddlers — engaging in sexual acts. In some cases, the parents of the […]

Two U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation last week to extend Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions to Voice over IP and broadband services. Currently, local and long distance telephone companies, wireless providers, paging firms and pay phone companies are obligated to contribute to the fund, which subsidizes phone service in under-served or rural areas. The USF, through […]

Identity theft hit an estimated 3.6 million households — approximately three percent — during a six-month period in 2004, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), released Thursday. The estimated loss during the six-month period was about $3.2 billion, including losses that may have been reimbursed by credit-card companies, insurance companies or […]

The Bush administration is refusing to release a report about the impact of outsourcing and offshoring on the U.S. IT and semiconductor industries. Instead, the Commerce Department is releasing a 12-page synopsis of the report mandated by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 as a sop to the weak-kneed on free trade. The […]