Roy Mark

WASHINGTON — Charges of proliferating child pornography on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are part of a persistent smear campaign by commercial music interests and are not supported by the facts, a P2P trade group official told a Congressional panel Thursday. Martin Lafferty, the chief executive of the Distributed Computing Industry Association, said although pornography Web sites […]

The U.S. Senate rejected two Democratic efforts Wednesday to amend a corporate tax bill containing key provisions favored by tech companies with international operations. The amendments sought to eliminate or severely limit a one-year proposal to reduce foreign dividend taxes from 35 percent to 5.25 percent. If ultimately passed by Congress, proponents say the tax […]

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates agreed to an $800,000 federal civil fine Monday for violating reporting requirements about his 2002 investment in the biotech company currently marketing the erectile dysfunction drug known as Cialis. On May 9, 2002, Gates acquired 328,000 shares of ICOS. As a result of that acquisition, Gates held […]

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee criticized the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Thursday for not doing enough to halt the spread of spyware and vowed to pass tough legislation to thwart its use. Joe Barton (R-Texas) also urged Congress to pass legislation this year in order to “cure this cancer […]

The United States Senate broke an eight-month stalemate on Internet access tax policy early Thursday evening, casting a 93-3 vote to ban state and local tariffs on Internet connections for another four years. While the compromise measure broadens the language of the recently lapsed access tax moratorium to include high-speed connections, it also grandfathers a […]

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities arrested and charged two Detroit-area men Wednesday with criminal violations of the Can Spam Act, the landmark anti-spam legislation signed into law last December by President Bush. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged Phoenix Avatar and its principals with sending illegal spam to sell bogus diet patches. The e-mail did not […]

WASHINGTON — Wireless broadband is currently allocated to the wrong spectrum and the result is hampering the growth of the technology, according to former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Reed Hundt. Hundt, who presided over a major overhaul of U.S. telecommunications policy in 1996, said wireless broadband should be put in the same spectrum swath […]

WASHINGTON — Free, publicly available outdoor Wi-Fi access debuted here Wednesday morning with the launch of a wireless hotspot in front of the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the Capitol Visitors’ Center. Sponsored by the non-profit Open Park Project, the Capitol Hill hotspot is the initial step in the organization’s plan to provide […]

UPDATED: Internet tax legislation in the U.S. Senate veered into bitter partisan politics Tuesday afternoon, bringing a sharp rebuke from Arizona Republican John McCain as a deadline for compromise looms. Attempting to broker a deal on the suddenly sputtering Internet access tax ban legislation, McCain was angered when Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) introduced a […]

Debate on the Internet access tax moratorium continued Tuesday afternoon in the United States Senate with compromise seemingly as elusive as it has been for the last five months since the original federal tax ban on Internet connections lapsed on Nov. 1. Senators George Allen (R-Va.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced legislation almost a year […]

The United States Senate voted Monday night to revive debate on legislation to permanently exempt Internet connections from federal, state and local taxes. The moratorium on access taxes aimed at dial-up connections, first passed by Congress in 1998 and extended in 2000, expired last November. The renewed Senate interest in the long-stalled measure came on […]

Law enforcement officials took a swing at international online piracy Thursday in what the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is characterizing as the largest multi-national effort ever directed at intellectual property theft. No arrests were made but 120 search warrants were executed in 27 states and 10 foreign countries. The raids hit groups that specialize […]