The FTC is likely to conclude its ongoing study of patent assertion entities’ (PAEs) business practices by the end of 2015, but Congress shouldn’t wait for the FTC’s report to pass legislation aimed at curbing patent litigation abuses, said FTC Commissioner Julie Brill on Wednesday. Brill said during a joint American Antitrust Institute-Computer and Communications Industry Association event that she's “hopeful that Congress will act in the near future” to curb patent abuses. Brill noted the House’s passage of the Innovation Act (HR-3309) and commitments by incoming House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to return to the patent abuse issue in the 114th Congress. Efforts to curb patent litigation abuse stalled in May when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., removed his Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) from the committee’s agenda (see 1405230056). The FTC also won’t wait to curb patent litigation abuses, Brill said, referencing the FTC’s recent settlement with MPHJ Technology Investments, which prohibits the PAE from sending out deceptive patent demand letters from small businesses and other entities (see 1411060044). The FTC would be open to issuing an interim report on its FTC study, but will only do so if there is “definitive” information available for release, Brill said.

YouTube launched Content ID to help copyright owners identify their works on the Google-owned video site. The new system lets copyright holders “decide what happens when content in a video on YouTube matches a work they own,” said YouTube. “If accepted to use the Content ID tools, applicants will be required to complete an agreement explicitly stating that only content with exclusive rights can be used as references.” Users wishing to upload songs to videos can search the YouTube Audio Library to ensure that selected songs aren’t copyrighted or have other restrictions, said a company blog post. Accessing the library requires a Gmail login.

New America's Open Technology Institute joined other entities to launch Datacivilrights.org. The site will be a resource that addresses how the "big data" phenomenon affects civil rights issues, New America said Tuesday in a news release. The site features talks by technologists and civil rights leaders, and background materials "that detail algorithmically driven, automated computer decision systems and their ability to help and hinder equal opportunity, fairness, and social justice," it said. New America partnered with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Data & Society Research Institute, it said.

A slew of tech and media luminaries participated in a $25 million Series C funding round for Change.org, the website said in a news release Tuesday. Investors in the financing round included Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Virgin Group founder Richard Branson; and the Omidyar Network, an investment firm backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Change.org expects to use the funding to develop its mobile applications. The website has more than 80 million users in 196 countries.

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling countered Wall Street Journal columnist Gordon Crovitz’s Dec. 1 article that called for the U.S. to retain control of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority contract. “Crovitz’s criticism is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the U.S. role in the DNS [domain name system]. No one entity controls the Internet,” Strickling said Sunday in the WSJ. Strickling said he took issue with Crovitz’s “continued mischaracterization that there is a September deadline for this transition.” "NTIA’s current contract with Icann, which operates technical functions related to the DNS, expires on Sept. 30, 2015, but we have repeatedly stated that if the transition plan is not ready by then, we can extend the contract,” he said. “The Obama administration is so uncomfortable with American exceptionalism that it violated the cardinal rule of good government: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Crovitz said last week.

The Broadband Forum, which represents broadband service providers and technology suppliers, has thrown its support behind the new ITU-T ultra broadband access standard, G.fast, as a new way to deliver "bandwidth intensive" consumer applications such as Ultra HD, the group said Monday. G.fast "makes it possible for telcos to deploy 4K UHD services faster and more affordably than they could with Fiber to the Home," the forum said. Its announcement quoted CEA President Gary Shapiro as saying that with Ultra HD the "hot new product" this holiday selling season and beyond, "consumers need confidence" that bandwidth-constrained 4K online content distribution services "are feasible," Shapiro said. "G.fast offers a promising way to overcome this challenge."

Qualcomm agreed to spend $7 million for 7 percent ownership of Qterics, the new Silicon Image subsidiary that will supply services and components and devices for Internet of Things-capable TVs, smartphones, tablets, routers, home automation devices and smart appliances, the companies said in a joint announcement Thursday. Qterics will be composed of Silicon Image’s UpdateLogic services business and other of its software and IP holdings, they said. "The vast expansion of Internet-enabled devices enables new applications and services, but only if the devices can be properly managed." UpdateLogic, now under the Qterics umbrella, has been a leading supplier of device management and remote access services already deployed in "tens of millions" of CE products, they said.

The Department of Justice is adding a cybersecurity unit to its Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell Thursday. The dedicated cyber unit will give legal guidance on investigations into electronic surveillance and aid Congress in writing cybersecurity legislation, Caldwell said during a speech at Georgetown University. The new unit is meant to ease citizens’ concerns about privacy following former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures beginning last year about NSA surveillance programs. Mistrust in government “can hamper investigations and cybersecurity efforts,” Caldwell said in a prepared version of her speech. The new cyber unit will “ensure that the powerful law enforcement tools are effectively used” and protect “the privacy of everyday Americans,” Caldwell said.

New FTC Chief Technology Officer Ashkan Soltani will focus on improving the agency’s tech recruitment, big data initiatives and data security, he said in a blog post Tuesday. “Data security is one of the most important aspects of a functioning marketplace and a critical aspect in consumer protection,” he said. “I hope to expand the agency’s ability to measure big data’s disparate effects in order to ensure that the algorithms that consumers interact with on a daily basis afford them the same rights online as they’re entitled to offline.” Consumer advocates and technologists expect Soltani to put the agency at the forefront of emerging tech issues (see 1410290060).

Legal and regulatory scrutiny of corporate leaders’ management of cybersecurity may increase in 2015 if more “major” data breach incidents occur, Experian said Monday in a report. Data breaches in the coming year are likely to increasingly result in the theft of usernames, passwords and other information stored in the cloud, because cloud services’ increasing popularity make them an “attractive target” for hackers, Experian said. Data breaches at physical retail locations may also increase in the coming year as hackers attempt to make final profits from point-of-sale attacks before the more secure chip-and-PIN technology is adopted in the U.S. in October, the firm said. Data breaches at healthcare facilities are also likely to increase due to the increasing use of electronic medical records and wearable technology, Experian said. Third-party breaches also will increase due to the increased use of the Internet of Things, the firm said. Despite the increased threat from outside actors, employees’ mistakes will remain the main threat to corporations’ cybersecurity, Experian said. Only 54 percent of companies say they provide security awareness training to employees, far lower than what’s needed to make a “significant dent” in breaches during the coming year, the firm said.