Roy Mark

Peer-to-peer networks (P2P) move into the Washington policy spotlight today as representatives of the music industry and a new trade group for file-swapping companies sit down at a lunch forum. U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and John Ensign (R-NV) called the meeting in hopes that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and P2P United […]

WASHINGTON — Voice over Internet Protocol telephony should be classified as a telecommunications service if it originates and terminates on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the chief spokesman for state public utility commissioners told a Senate committee Tuesday. “The consensus [of utility commissioners] is that public interest obligations of a service derive from the […]

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers favoring a permanent and expanded Internet access tax ban on e-commerce and online services said Monday that their opponents favor a “whole new raft” of taxes on technology users. The stepped-up rhetoric comes after state executives attending the winter meeting of the National Governors Association joined U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-VA) and […]

The wireless technology industry asked the Bush Administration and congressional global trade leaders Tuesday to take a tougher stance with China over Beijing’s December decision to impose a proprietary encryption scheme for wireless local area networks (WLAN) within Chinese borders. China, the world’s fastest growing wireless market, plans to implement the standard on June 1. […]

Governors gathering in Washington this week hope to convince Congress to keep any Internet access tax moratorium on electronic commerce and online services temporary. They also want federal lawmakers to keep open a loophole that allows some state and local governments to tax access, no matter what a national ban says. The move comes after […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) collected it largest fine to date for a privacy violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Wednesday when UMG Recordings agreed to pay $400,000 to settle civil charges brought by the watchdog agency. In a separate civil settlement, Bonzi Software, distributor of the BonziBuddy software, agreed to pay […]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) targeted 531 more alleged music file swappers in legal actions Tuesday, bringing the total sued for copyright infringement over peer-to-peer (P2) networks since January to more than a thousand. Like the 532 RIAA lawsuits brought in January, the suits employ the “John Doe” process, which is used to […]

The Walt Disney Company has rejected cable and ISP giant Comcast’s hostile takeover bid, which is now valued at around $47 billion. The company’s board of directors called the offer undervalued and also endorsed embattled Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The rejection, which was widely expected, comes after Comcast offered 0.78 Comcast shares for each Disney […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given final approval to Cingular Wireless’ $1.4 billion purchase of spectrum licenses from bankrupt NextWave Telecom, dismissing objections from Nextel that the deal would costtaxpayers more than $700 million. Hawthorne, N.Y.-based NextWave declared bankruptcy in 1998 after it defaulted on $4.7 billion due on spectrum wireless licenses awarded to […]

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has failed to meet most criteria mandated by Congress to implement the controversial Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II), according to new report from the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). The TSA, the report states, has met only one of the criteria — the establishment of an internal oversight […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously Thursday to initiate a rule-making procedure that says Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies should remain largely free of regulatory burdens. But they also noted that Internet telephony companies do have obligations to public safety and law enforcement agencies. The FCC commissioners said the vote was […]

The Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign plans to re-launch an online promotional video clip of President Bush after a dispute with NBC News snarled a similar effort Tuesday. Using footage from President Bush’s Sunday interview with Tim Russert on Meet the Press, the Bush-Cheney campaign sent six million e-mails Tuesday afternoon inviting readers to click on a […]