U.S. Congress

MPAA chief: SOPA and Protect IP back from the grave?

The Motion Picture Association of America believes there's still hope for the controversy-plagued Stop Online Piracy Act.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that was published online today, MPAA chief Christopher Dodd said he was "confident" that President Obama was using his "good relationships in both communities" -- that is, Silicon Valley and Hollywood -- to advance SOPA.

When asked whether there are negotiations going on now, Dodd replied: "I'm confident that's the case, but I'm not going to go into more detail because obviously if I do, it becomes … Read more

Political theater will follow Google's Schmidt to D.C.

When Google chairman Eric Schmidt heads to Washington this week to testify before Congress, political theater will follow him.

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group critical of Google's gathering of personal information, is planning a barrage of stunts, a video, and testimony to highlight the dangers of the Web giant's growing power. The group is particularly concerned about Google's tracking of users as they move about the Web, and its gathering of data about them.

So Consumer Watchdog has hired mimes to follow workers around Dirksen Senate Office Building, where Schmidt will testify. Those mimes will be wearing … Read more

Google drops $5 million on D.C. lobbying in 2010

Google spent more money in Washington in 2010 as it tried to make its case while fending off federal regulators.

Doing business in the nation's capital requires some expenses, and this year's lobbying efforts set Google back $5.16 million, a 28 percent increase from last year's total of $4.03 million, according to the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database. Google's interests on Capitol Hill won't surprise many: the company lobbied Congress on issues such as the Internet freedom push from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, cloud computing, intellectual property, data privacy, and Google's pending … Read more

Piracy domain seizure bill gains support

A proposed law allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy received a sizable political boost yesterday.

Dozens of the largest content companies, including video game maker Activision, media firms NBC Universal and Viacom, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) endorsed the bill in a letter to the U.S. Senate. So did Major League Baseball and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, said new laws are needed to curb access … Read more

Politicos press Facebook CEO over privacy flap

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is, once again, being forced to fend off pointed privacy questions from Washington politicians.

In a letter sent this week to the 26-year-old executive, two prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives demanded answers about the company's latest privacy breach, which allowed third party applications to gather personally identifiable information.

It's not clear, as CNET noted, that Facebook knew that some of these third-party companies, including extremely popular ones like FarmVille manufacturer Zynga, were allegedly selling data to advertisers and tracking companies in violation of Facebook's terms of use. That was … Read more

Who's surprised that China Mobile knows where you are?

It's hardly surprising that China Mobile can figure out about where its subscribers are when the phone is on (or when the battery's in). This sort of technology is standard in developed mobile networks, and it's fueling a wave of business innovation and "locative technology."

So why was it so shocking to an AFP reporter when China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou told an audience at the World Economic Forum that "we know who you are, but also where you are"? Will at Imagethief has already made the alarmist journalism argument, so I'll … Read more