Roy Mark

Bradley Smith, who earlier this year raised concerns about federal election laws impacting political blogs, is resigning from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), effective Aug. 21. Following a federal court decision rejecting FEC rules exempting the Internet from campaign finance laws, Smith said he feared new regulations could lead to suppressing online political speech. Bradley […]

Three months after a scathing report about the troubled E-rate program, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is launching a comprehensive review of the school and library Internet subsidy plan. The review is part of a broader inquiry into the overall operations of the Universal Service Fund (USF), the long-standing government initiative to provide affordable phone […]

WASHINGTON — As the Supreme Court nears a decision in the Grokster case, Hollywood continued its tough talk against peer-to-peer (P2P) networks dealing in copyrighted materials. “I’m optimistic that this is going to turn out well for us, but if it doesn’t then we have a whole host of other strategies to protect out interests,” […]

Almost 80 percent of sites purporting to offer Canadian pharmacy prescription drug sales are registered in other countries, according to data released today by Cyveillance. The online risk management firm conducted the study for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Using a master list of 60 million domain names, Cyveillance discovered approximately 11,000 sites that […]

Its crisis over judicial nominees finally over, the U.S. Senate now has time to consider a wide array of tech-related issues. Republicans are proposing subsidies and Democrats are offering tax incentives, and it’s both good news and bad news for technology. The five-month filibuster deadlock over judicial nominees means not much will be accomplished by […]

WASHINGTON — UPDATED: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) told TV makers today they must comply with a July 1 mandate to carry digital tuners in half of their most popular models. In addition to rejecting the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) petition to stall the mandate, the commissioners also accelerated the digital tuner rollout by setting […]

WASHINGTON — Congress’ good intentions may also be good business for the $2.8 billion shady world of the spyware industry. Pending anti-spyware legislation may, in fact, end up legitimizing bad actors. That’s the take of Richard Stiennon, vice president of threat research at anti-spyware firm Webroot. Stiennon, who spoke at the Gartner IT Security Summit […]

WASHINGTON — Congress is not going to ignore the spate of data breaches plaguing private enterprise and will pass new data protection laws, a Gartner analyst predicted. Speaking at a Gartner IT security conference less than 24 hours after CitiFinancial admitted it had lost almost 4 million records with personally identifiable information, John Pescatore told […]

BellSouth plans to test-market wireless broadband service in Athens, Ga., this summer with hopes to expand the trials to selected areas of Florida by year’s end. The announcement follows five years of trials of the technology. Using Navini Networks’ pre-WiMax equipment, BellSouth says customers will receive broadband speeds comparable to the company’s landline DSL consumer […]

WASHINGTON — Three former Bush administration top cyber security officials don’t think the White House or the top levels of the private sector are putting enough priority on securing the nation’s networks. Speaking at a Gartner forum moderated by journalist Bob Woodward, the two former cyber security czars and a former cyber security chief of […]

With the appointment of Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. House of Representatives loses one of its most technology friendly members. While probably best known as the first chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, the 52-year-old Cox played a key role in a number of Internet […]

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) wants to take state and local governments out of the broadband business. It’s for their own good, the former Southwestern Bell executive said. Under the terms of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act (H.R. 2726) introduced by Sessions, state and local governments would be prohibited from offering telecommunications, telecommunications services, […]