How the Democrats' win affects tech
Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39284659,00.htm
A Capitol Hill under Democrat control means priorities are
bound to change in terms of technology-related legislation
It was the narrowest of Republican margins in the US Senate
that doomed a crucial vote on net neutrality earlier this year.
By an 11-11 tie, a GOP-dominated committee failed in June to
approve rules requiring that all internet traffic be treated the same no matter
what its "source" or "destination" might be. A similar
measure also failed in the House of Representatives.
But now that this week's elections have switched control of
the House back to the Democrats ? and they appear to have seized the Senate as
well ? the outlook for technology-related legislation has changed dramatically
overnight.
On a wealth of topics ? net neutrality, digital copyright,
merger approval, data retention, Internet censorship ? a Capitol Hill
controlled by Democrats should yield a shift in priorities on
technology-related legislation.
Network neutrality is one of the clearest examples of a
partisan rift. In the Senate, all the Republican committee members but one
voted against extensive broadband regulations. These regulations are backed by
Internet companies such as Google and eBay, but are opposed by telecommunications
and hardware providers.
"Clearly, we're going to have to address the question
of network neutrality," Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat,
told reporters on Wednesday. Dingell, who has served in the House for more than
50 of his 80 years, is set to be the next chairman of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, which writes telecommunications laws.
Dingell didn't elaborate. But he's previously gone on the
record as a staunch supporter of extensive regulations that would prohibit
network operators from charging content providers extra for premium placement
or faster delivery, dubbing it "private taxation of the Internet".
(Network operators say they may need to do this to recoup their vast
investments in new broadband infrastructure.)
Net neutrality
Adam Green, a spokesman for the liberal advocacy group
Moveon.org, predicted that the election results would be a boon to the
enactment of extensive net neutrality regulations. "Internet freedom
should not be a partisan issue. But Republicans have consistently been standing
in the way, and there is zero doubt that the increased Democratic control of
Congress will be fantastic news," said Green, whose group lobbies on the
topic.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat set to
be the next House Majority Leader, has also been a strong supporter of more net
neutrality regulations. Pelosi said in June that "without net neutrality,
the current experience that internet users enjoy today is in jeopardy."
The issue of electronic surveillance represents another
partisan divide. House Democrats cast 62 votes against the 2001 Patriot Act,
but only three Republicans opposed it. Similarly, not one Democrat opposed a
more recent amendment requiring the executive branch to disclose its data-mining
technologies, while 165 Republicans did.
Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's
Long-time
The ACLU is pinning some of its hopes on Representative John
Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who is set to be the next chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee. Conyers has suggested imposing greater controls on
government surveillance and is in a key position to lead a high-profile
investigation.
"Several of the new committee chairs have already
expressed their intention to conduct a thorough inquiry into the unlawful
actions of this administration," Fredrickson said.
Digital copyright
Digital copyright is another topic that is likely to be
heavily influenced by the congressional shakeup ? though more because of new
committee chairmen than the shift in party alignments.
But in practice, Republican politicians have been nearly as
enthusiastic about helping
?digital radio two months later, and another from North
Carolina, Representative Howard Coble, who co-sponsored a plan in mid-2002 to
let copyright holders disable PCs used for illicit file trading. And Senator
Orrin Hatch, a Republican, once called for remotely destroying pirates'
computers.
The Motion Picture Association of America said on Wednesday
that it encountered bipartisan opposition in the House ? from Republican Joe
Barton and Democrat Rick Boucher ? when trying to enact a broadcast flag bill before.
Such a law is designed to curb digital TV piracy by making certain receivers
illegal to sell.
Because of Barton and Boucher's opposition, "we have
bipartisan challenges on that, and we hope to have a bipartisan solution,"
said John Feehery, MPAA's executive vice president for external affairs.
"We'll have to see how it all shakes out with the [new] chairmen."
Key chairmen
One question worrying
"We're going through a process right now of just
deciding what those priorities are going to be for the next year," Feehery
said. "We've been working hard on the analogue hole and broadcast flag ?
the bottom line is [that] we want to limit the impact of piracy on our
industry."
If Boucher gets the nod as chairman, a broadcast flag
becomes far less likely and changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's
"anti-circumvention" sections become politically feasible. "He
would be a big boost to our efforts to allow innovation to develop," said
Art Brodsky of Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that has opposed content
providers on many digital copyright bills.
If Representative Howard Berman, however, gets the job, the
recording industry and motion picture industry will have a staunch ally as
subcommittee chairman. Berman, a Hollywood Democrat, has sponsored legislation
in the past that would let copyright holders legally hack into peer-to-peer
networks. (Berman currently is the subcommittee's top Democrat, but there's
speculation that he'd take a different chairmanship.)
Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics
Association, said that his group's strategy to oppose to the broadcast flag
won't change much. "Our strategy is [to] work with both parties,"
Shapiro said. "Technology is the field that's growing the national
economy. It's not a partisan issue."
Shapiro is worried about what might happen in a so-called
lame-duck Congress, which will reconvene briefly this fall under Republican
control. Tennesseean Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is retiring, could
"try to hurt us badly", Shapiro said. "He indicated he's going
to try, with the broadcast flag and audio flag, possibly attached to a spending
bill. We're very concerned about that and we're going to be very
vigilant."
AT&T and BellSouth
Representative Dingell on Wednesday reiterated concerns
about rushing into approval of a proposed $80bn merger of AT&T and
BellSouth. The merger won unconditional approval from the US Department of
Justice but has stalled in another layer of review by the Federal
Communications Commission.
"I think it would be in [the FCC's] interest, I think
it would be in the interest of the committee, and I think it would be in the
broad public interest [if the FCC delayed its decision until the new Congress
is seated] ", Dingell said. That would let the Democrats hold hearings
into its advisability.
House leadership
High-tech companies have reason to be optimistic about the
Democrats passing laws in an industry-friendly direction under Representative
Pelosi's leadership, said Josh Ackil. Ackil is the vice president of government
affairs for the Washington-based Information Technology Industry Council, whose
members include Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Cisco and Intel.
That's in part because the
Data retention
The Bush administration, led by Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, has been pushing Congress relentlessly for new laws requiring
internet companies to keep records on what their customers do. Because
Democrats generally have been more critical of this move, the proposal could
run into more opposition next year.
The Markey factor
Representative Ed Markey, the
In the past, Markey has complained about privacy concerns in
Intel chips and tried to force websites to delete information about visitors.
He attacked AOL after it disclosed user search histories and said that HP's
boardroom scandal means more privacy laws are necessary.
Story URL:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39284659,00.htm
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