Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., vowed he'll bow his Data Breach Insurance Act via the House Financial Services Committee to encourage financial services institutions to fortify themselves against data breaches, saying the bill is in line with the White House’s policy of encouraging critical infrastructure sectors to voluntarily improve their cybersecurity. Perlmutter and the co-founders of the Senate Payments Innovation Caucus emphasized the importance of government collaboration with the private sector on payment security issues during a joint Visa-The Hill event Thursday.
The House Homeland Security Committee voted Wednesday to advance the State and Local Cyber Protection Act (HR-3869) and the Strengthening Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Coordination in Our Ports Act (HR-3878), sending both bills to the full House on unanimous voice votes. The bills' markup came a week after the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) 74-21 (see 1510280057), setting up what is anticipated to be a lengthy conference to reconcile that bill with the House-passed Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560). An industry lobbyist told us language from both HR-3869 and HR-3878 could potentially make it into a conference information sharing bill.
Google ranked highest on New America’s Open Technology Institute’s Ranking Digital Rights index of 16 major global Internet and telecom companies on commitments and transparency on users’ privacy and freedom of expression. But RDR Director Rebecca MacKinnon said that “there are no winners” among the ranked companies. Google scored an overall 65 percent on RDR’s Corporate Accountability Index, released Tuesday, ranking at the top on privacy policies and disclosure of restrictions of users’ freedom of expression. “If this were a test, they’d be getting a D,” MacKinnon said of Google during a joint RDR-Civic Hall event to mark the index’s release.
Google and the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization’s (GNSO) Business Constituency (BC) strongly urged that ICANN move toward establishing a continuous process for introducing new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), in comments Friday. Others didn’t comment on whether to shift away from a rounds-based framework, but noted other areas in which changes to the program are needed. ICANN had sought comment on its preliminary report on future gTLD procedures, which urged the GNSO Council to proceed with policy development for subsequent rounds of new gTLD rollouts (see 1510050067 and 1510140065).
Apple’s petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court last week seeking a review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s ruling that the company violated antitrust laws in its e-book pricing case has a limited likelihood of being granted, legal experts said in Friday interviews. The 2nd Circuit ruled in late June that Apple was guilty of violating antitrust laws by conspiring with five major book publishers to eliminate price competition and raise e-book prices, affirming the U.S. District Court in New York’s 2013 decision in the case (see 1506300067). Apple’s $450 million settlement with consumers and state attorneys general (see report in the June 18, 2014, issue) was contingent on the 2nd Circuit’s ruling.
Public Knowledge Vice President-Legal Affairs Sherwin Siy and other participants in the rulemaking process of the Copyright Office triennial Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 exemptions praised the CO and Library of Congress Wednesday for granting many of their requested Section 1201 exemptions. They also said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday that they're pushing for Congress to fix what they consider DMCA’s expanding scope. The LOC Tuesday granted 10 CO-recommended Section 1201 exemptions covering 22 of the 27 proposed exemptions originally under review, including an expansion of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions and exemptions for “good-faith security research” (see 1510270056).
Telecom industry stakeholders are likely to favor combining elements from both the Senate-passed Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) and the House-passed Protecting Cyber Networks Act (HR-1560) as Congress moves toward a conference on the two bills, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. The Senate passed S-754 Tuesday, as expected (see 1510270064), voting 74-21 for the bill. The House passed HR-1560 in late April and added the full language of the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act (HR-1731) before sending the bill to the Senate (see 1504300065).
The Senate was on the cusp Tuesday of passing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754), with votes on several amendments and a final vote on the bill still pending at our deadline. The Senate voted down a set of privacy-centric amendments earlier Tuesday, including one from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would require the removal of personally identifiable information (PII) from cyberthreat data shared by the private sector. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., opposed the privacy amendments, saying they would "undo the careful compromises we have made on this bill." The Senate voted down the Wyden amendment 41-55. The Senate turned down two similar PII amendments -- one from Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., by 41-54, and one from Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., 47-49. Heller later criticized Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and David Vitter, R-La., via Twitter for missing the vote on Heller's amendment. “Personal ambition should come second to fighting for Americans' liberties on the Senate floor,” Heller tweeted. The Senate voted 37-59 on an amendment from Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that would have removed a provision from S-754 that would exempt information shared under the bill from Freedom of Information Act requirements. Leahy told reporters he was concerned the Freedom of Information Act provision in S-754 “would even cut off state and local FOIA.” The Senate also voted 35-60 on an amendment from Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., that would have restricted the definition of what constitutes cyberthreat information under S-754.
Acting Librarian of Congress David Mao signed off on 10 Copyright Office-recommended exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201 anti-circumvention rules. They included an expansion of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions and exemptions for “good-faith security research,” the Library of Congress and CO said Tuesday. The exemptions are to appear in Wednesday's Federal Register. The CO combined 22 of the 27 proposed exemptions it originally considered in its triennial Section 1201 exemptions rulemaking process. LOC followed the CO's recommendation that it reject five other proposed exemptions, including a proposal to allow consumers to engage in space-shifting and format-shifting of videos and other media for personal use.
House Commerce Committee Vice Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., demurred during an appearance on C-SPAN's The Communicators Saturday about whether she would be interested in making a bid for the committee's chairmanship if Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., moves up in the House leadership. “We have a great chairman in Fred Upton and he is doing a terrific job,” Blackburn said. “People want us to take action” on issues like net neutrality and the upcoming Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, Blackburn said. “They're not worried about personalities in leadership positions.” Blackburn said she's also focusing on music licensing issues and other issues that affect her Tennessee constituents. Blackburn touted her work with House IP Subcommittee ranking member Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on the Fair Play Fair Pay Act (HR-1733), which would require terrestrial radio stations to begin paying performance royalties and would require digital broadcasters to begin paying royalties for pre-1972 sound recordings. Radio stations' increasing use of radio formats and other tech changes in the industry are making it difficult for all musicians to be “paid a fair wage for the product that they have created,” Blackburn said.