By Al Franken
“As you may know, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided not to bring the PROTECT IP Act (the Senate’s version of SOPA) up for a vote next week.
And since I’ve heard from many of you about this issue, I wanted to take a moment to share why I support copyright protection legislation — as well as why I believe holding off on this bill is the right thing to do.”
The Protect IP Act (PIPA) (S.968) was first proposed in the Senate in May by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) with the intention of stopping “rogue websites dedicated to infringing on counterfeit goods.” Initially cosponsored by other 11 Senators, including Minnesota’s Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, 28 peers have since joined.
A House equivalent, “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) (HR. 3261) was introduced in October, since which the House Judiciary Committee have examined surrounding issues of SOPA in mid November and subsequently debated changes last week.
PIPA is targeting domain name system providers, financial companies, and ad networks — not companies that provide Internet connectivity — like SOPA. That basic idea here is to make new sets of intermediaries the checkpoints at which authorities can police for websites dealing in infringing content. While SOPA has been garnering most of the headlines, for all intents and purposes, these are two peas of the same pod.
Financially motivated by interests who see a future based less on innovation and more on political protection, this legislation is paid for by organizations and corporations like MPAA, Dell, Microsoft, Sony, RIAA, IIPA and the US Chamber of Commerce, amongst others.
By Andy Greenberg, Forbes
“As the privacy backlash against phone-tracking firm Carrier IQ has snowballed over the last several days, the firm has largely stopped answering reporters’ barrage of questions. Now it’s Washington‘s turn.
…So on Thursday, Senator Al Franken sent an open letter to Carrier IQ’s president and chief executive Larry Lenhart with a list of pointed questions about what exactly Carrier IQ does.”
Via News Release
“MINNEAPOLIS – The Dolan Company, owner of the Minnesota Lawyer magazine, sent a cease and desist letter to Aaron Hall, a Minnesota lawyer, claiming that Hall’s use of MinnesotaLawyer.com was infringing the magazine’s “Minnesota Lawyer” trademark.
Dolan stated that Hall’s legal blog infringed the publishing giant’s trademark because Hall was publishing legal articles on his blog at MinnesotaLawyer.com under the name “Minnesota Lawyer.” Hall responded, “As a Minnesota lawyer, I have a right to call my blog ‘Minnesota Lawyer.’
Last month I wrote about Senator Franken’s work to protect consumers’ geolocation information. On June 15, just over a month after chairing hearings that questioned Apple and Google on their data collection practices, Senator Franken introduced a co-sponsored bill that seeks to protect smartphone location privacy.
The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011 (S.1223) supplements current federal law and requires companies that obtain a customer’s mobile device location to get that customer’s prior express consent and get that customer’s permission before sharing location data with third parties. Furthermore, the bill requires a company who obtains the location information for more than 5,000 mobile devices to take reasonable steps to protect that information. The bill also contains provisions that require disclosure of information collected on customer request and deletion of the information in some circumstances.
In 2011, both of Minnesota’s Senators have called for change in mobile device practices. Following is a recap of their efforts along with best practices for Minnesota companies operating in the space.
The Timeline:
On February 8, Senator Amy Klobuchar sent a letter to the FTC, urging greater scrutiny of “in-app sales” where she called for transparency in the “billing practice that holds the potential for consumer confusion.” Her letter was on the heels of several critical media reports, including a notable Washington Post article. The issue was that Apple did not require reentry of a user password for fifteen minutes after an application was downloaded; in those fifteen minutes kids were making multiple in-app purchases, reportedly in some instances totaling as much as $1,400.
On March 9, Apple released an update to its mobile operating system that required password reentry after download for in-app purchases (but it maintained the 15 minute window). Thus, users can make purchases prior to a requirement of password reentry. In response, Senator Klobuchar released a statement on March 11, commending “this common sense safeguard” though she caveated her statement by saying “we can still do more to eliminate outrageous charges.”
By Christa Meland, Twin Cities Business
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is looking into opening regional patent offices across the country, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar wants the Twin Cities to be considered as a site for one of them. U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to establish a regional patent office in Minnesota.
There is now just one U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that’s located in Alexandria, Virginia—but the agency is in the process of opening a regional office in Detroit and is considering other locations across the country. Klobuchar argued in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke that the Twin Cities would be a perfect area for such an office.”
By Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
“You don’t see total betrayals like this every day. But if the facts that TechForward are alleging in their lawsuit against Best Buy are true, this is some truly sleazy stuff.
TechForward says that the way they do the buybacks is important – price, exercise rates, etc. BestBuy allegedly held out the promise of a partnership and got TechForward to give them highly proprietary data under a confidentiality agreement.”
Via News Release
“Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) cosponsored net neutrality legislation to maintain a free and open Internet. The bill (S.74), called the Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011, comes in the wake of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent issuance of net neutrality rules, which Sen. Franken believes are not strong enough to protect today’s open Internet. The legislation was authored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
“Net neutrality is one of the most important issues facing our country today,” said Sen. Franken. “The recent FCC ruling on net neutrality does not do nearly enough to protect consumers, and this bill is designed to maintain a free and open Internet. This isn’t just about speech, it’s also about entrepreneurship and innovation, and it’s about our economy.” “
“Federal authorities say a Texas hacker stole more than a quarter-million dollars from a subsidiary of Digital River Inc., the Eden Prairie-based e-commerce company, by redirecting electronic payment transfers to his personal account.
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis, Jeremey Parker, 35, of Houston, was charged with computer fraud and wire fraud.”
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