Good morning tech

Good morning!

Tuesday opens with a major policy shift from Google, which is changing course to avoid going dark in China.

Chinese officials have threatened to revoke the company's license to operate there, the company said last night. The threat has prompted Google to stop redirecting Chinese users to its unfiltered Hong Kong search site. It has been rerouting users to the Hong Kong site since March in an effort to skirt Chinese censorship laws.

But Google will halt that strategy due to push-back from Beijing, David Drummond, the company's chief legal officer, announced last night on the company's blog.

"It’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable," he said.

It remains unclear whether the policy shift will be enough to appease the Chinese government when the company's content license goes up for reconsideration tomorrow, Drummond indicated.

Under the new policy Chinese users will be sent to a new landing page where they can use Google products other than search, such as music and text translate. The site will have a link to the Hong Kong search engine.

"This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self censor and, we believe, with local law," Drummond said.

Implications in Washington:

Google won a chorus of praise from Capitol Hill after its January decision to stop censoring search results.

A March hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China featured rounds of compliments from lawmakers. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said Google's choice was "remarkable" and "historic."

Meanwhile, Smith blasted Microsoft for filtering its search results in China.

Microsoft "needs to get with the program" and "join the side of human rights ... rather than enabling tyranny," Smith said at the hearing. Microsoft has said it is committed to complying with the law in the countries where it operates.

But now that Google has decided to keep its doors open in China despite scaling back its services — in an effort to comply with Chinese censorship laws — does the world's largest search company lose some of its sheen on the Hill? 

WHO, WHERE

Sen. JEFF BINGAMAN (D-N.M.) is joining Google's DAN REICHER for a press call on clean technology initiatives.

Verizon's MICHAEL McKEEHAN, the Progress and Freedom Foundation's ADAM THIERER and the National Telecommunications and Information administration ANNA GOMEZ will speak on online safety in a PFF forum today at the National Press Club. (9 a.m.)

NBC-U's RICK COTTON and the Small Business Technology Council's JERE GLOVER will speak on the administration's intellectual property strategy at a Chamber of Commerce event today. 

The Office of Science and Technology Policy's SHERE ABBOTT and the Government Accountability Office's DAVID POWNER testify before the House Science Committee on polar weather satellites. (10 a.m.)

CTIA's JOHN WALLS will be on the Kojo Nnamdi show today to talk about fears over cell phone radiation. (WAMU 88.5, 12:06 p.m.)

BOB PISANO met with EDWARD LAZARUS last week in one of the FCC's stakeholder meetings, registering the MPAA's views on net neutrality, according to a filing with the FCC. The meeting process has been decried by consumer activists as failing to meet transparency promises. 

LAWRENCE STRICKLING attended LAWRENCE SUMMERS'S address on the White House's new spectrum policy yesterday at the New America Foundation.

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CAN'T-MISS NEWS

White House unveils plan to free up spectrum for wireless broadband: President Barack Obama has signed a presidential memorandum committing the government to freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over the next decade for wireless broadband use, the White House announced on Monday. The effort mirrors the same goal set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the National Broadband Plan, but adds new details on where and how the spectrum will be found. It also tries to fast-track the FCC's proposals, asking for spectrum sources to be identified by October. 

White House orders review of federal technology spending: The White House announced a comprehensive plan Monday to cut government waste by making public-sector technology more efficient. Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag announced the plan in a Monday blog post, saying the federal government does not effectively use information technology and is wasting billions of dollars a year as a result. "While a productivity boom has transformed private sector performance over the past two decades, the federal government has almost entirely missed this transformation and now lags far behind on efficiency and service quality," Orszag wrote. "We are wasting billions of dollars a year, and more importantly are missing out on the huge productively improvements other sectors have benefited from."

Supreme Court issues narrow patent decision: The ruling in Bilski v. Kappos ruled that a business management strategy for dealing with energy bills cannot be patented. "Nevertheless," Tech Daily Dose reports, the decision "emphasized that 'there are reasons to doubt whether [a certain legal test] should be the sole criterion for determining the patentability of inventions in the Information Age.' " A software industry representative tells TDD the decision "keeps the door closed to patenting mere abstract ideas, which many 'business method' patent applications have been. … But just as importantly, it affirms the continued viability of patenting useful software applications."

NUMBER PUNCH

268,000 — The number of people employed by the wireless industry, according to White House National Economic Council director Lawrence Summers, who spoke on the administration's new wireless broadband policy yesterday.

2,400,000 — The number of jobs that are directly dependent on wireless broadband, according to Summers.

Every job — The range of positions that benefit from wireless broadband, again according to Summers.

SAID

"Naturally we will take on board again the discussion about technology. Something has to be changed."

— FIFA President Sepp Blatter, after apologizing to England and Mexico for refereeing errors that helped end their World Cup bids. After video playbacks of the games revealed the errors, Blatter said it reopens the debate on using video technology during matches. (WSJ)

SCHEDULED

...9 a.m. PFF and the Family Online Safety Institute hold a briefing on "sending an online safety message to Congress." National Press Club, 14th and F Streets N.W., 13th floor.

…9:30 a.m. Chamber of Commerce IP forum. U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 1615 H Street, N.W.

…10 a.m. Joint Economic Committee hearing on "Fueling local economies: research, innovation, jobs." 106 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

…3:30 p.m. Mark up: Commerce Justice Science Appropriations Bill. H-140, U.S. Capitol.

FOR THE WATERCOOLER

PROOF: More than 80 percent of members of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers say they've run across evidence used in divorce cases that was gathered from Facebook and other social networking sites. (via Slashdot)