ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé framed his involvement with the Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (WIC) as “a natural continuation of ICANN's work” to promote multistakeholder Internet governance. The explanation came in a letter Friday responding to questions from GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other senators. Cruz and Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, raised concerns in early February about Chehadé's decision to become co-chairman of a high-level advisory committee to WIC after his planned mid-March departure from ICANN (see 1602040061).
The ICANN board and a contingent of Governmental Accountability Committee (GAC) members are separately objecting to GAC-related elements in a forthcoming final version of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) proposed set of changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms. The working group had been expected to submit a final proposal to ICANN chartering organizations Thursday (see 1602160069). The ICANN board “has a serious and continued concern” about a proposal to exclude GAC from final consensus discussions when ICANN community members formally object to ICANN board implementation of GAC advice, board Chairman Steve Crocker said Friday in an email to CCWG-Accountability members.
The White House's Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) includes “a few big-ticket items” like the formation of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity (CENC), but “in many ways it's corralling a lot” of the work President Barack Obama's administration has done on cybersecurity since 2009, said Department of Commerce Senior Adviser-Cybersecurity and Technology Clete Johnson Thursday during a USTelecom event. Federal officials highlighted many of the cybersecurity programs pulled into CNAP. The programs include the National Institute of Standards and Technology's ongoing assessment of the Cybersecurity Framework and the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council's (CSRIC) continued work on cybersecurity issues. CNAP, which the White House announced last week, also includes the creation of the Federal Privacy Council and a federal chief information security officer position. The White House released CNAP in conjunction with the release of its FY 2017 federal budget proposal, which includes a 35 percent hike in cybersecurity spending (see 1602090068).
The Copyright Alliance and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) separately cautioned the Copyright Office against drawing early conclusions about the copyright implications of consumers’ rising use of software-embedded products, telling the CO that there’s not a sufficient record at this time to warrant changing U.S. copyright law to accommodate such products. Other stakeholders conceded that there’s not extensive evidence yet on how the use of software-embedded products and U.S. copyright law may clash, but urged the CO to explore possible change anyway in a bid to pre-empt potential future problems.
Apple is formally opposing an order from U.S. District Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym in Riverside, California, requiring the company to help the FBI unlock an iPhone 5c used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two attackers involved in the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, both died in a shootout with police after killing 14 people and seriously injuring another 22 during the attack.
The Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) is to publish a final supplemental version of its proposed set of changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms Thursday, after reaching agreement on most major remaining areas of contention, ICANN stakeholders said in interviews. Key to finalization of the CCWG-Accountability proposal was members’ agreement on revisions to its recommendation on how the ICANN board should handle Governmental Advisory Committee advice after the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, stakeholders said. Agreement on the GAC recommendation likely removes the last major roadblock to ICANN’s chartering organizations and the ICANN board approving the CCWG-Accountability proposal, stakeholders told us.
The Copyright Royalty Board’s full determination on the 2016-20 royalty rate-setting proceeding for noninteractive webcasters, released Friday, is largely in line with expectations of how the CRB would explain its ruling, copyright lawyers told us. Noninteractive webcasters were required to begin paying a 0.17 cent royalty per performance on nonsubscription services and a 0.22 cent royalty per performance on subscription services beginning Jan. 1, the CRB said in December when it published the rates (see 1512160076 and 1512170063).
Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel defended the White House's Cybersecurity National Action Plan Thursday against criticism that CNAP was introduced too late in President Barack Obama's administration. He said CNAP “is really a capstone” of the work the administration has been doing on cybersecurity since Obama took office in 2009. Industry stakeholders praised introduction Tuesday of CNAP, saying it builds off Obama's 2013 and 2015 cybersecurity executive orders, the White House's cybersecurity legislative work and other efforts. Stakeholders also questioned whether the White House would see much of a result from the plan before Obama leaves office in January and whether Congress would be willing to sign off on the White House's proposal to bump up cybersecurity funding to $19 billion in FY 2017 (see 1602090068). “We're doubling” down via CNAP on many of the White House's past cybersecurity initiatives, including new work related to critical infrastructure cybersecurity, Daniel said during a New America event. The White House believes it will be able to receive “broad” support on Capitol Hill for its cyber budget proposal despite what are likely to be “robust and frank discussions with Congress” about the Obama administration's overall $4.1 trillion FY 2017 budget proposal, Daniel said. The newly created Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity (CENC), which will need to provide recommendations to the White House by the end of 2016 on ways to improve cybersecurity in the private sector and public sector, will be able to provide a “good distillation of the path forward” on cybersecurity, Daniel said. CENC is unlikely to generate “brand new ideas” on cybersecurity but will instead probably provide the White House with recommendations based on best practices from academia, businesses and tech experts, he said.
The Senate voted 75-20 Tuesday to approve the conference version of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (HR-644), with language from the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA) attached, as expected (see 1602100061). President Barack Obama intends to sign HR-644, the White House said in a statement. The House passed the conference version of HR-644 in December (see 1512110058). Industry stakeholders praised Senate passage of HR-644 with the PITFA language intact. Some also noted what they view as a renewed fight against consideration of the Marketplace Fairness Act (S-698), which would let states tax remote sellers that have annual revenue exceeding $1 million.
Senate and industry supporters of keeping the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA) language in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act customs reauthorization bill (HR-644) said Wednesday they're optimistic a deal struck Tuesday will forestall attempts to strike PITFA from HR-644 ahead of a planned final vote on that bill. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., agreed Tuesday to drop his plans to challenge the inclusion of PITFA language in HR-644 in exchange for a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to allow Senate consideration of the controversial Marketplace Fairness Act (S-698) this year. McConnell filed cloture on HR-644 Tuesday, setting the bill on track for a final vote on the Senate floor Thursday.