TOP STORIES ON HILLICON VALLEY:
America Competes Act fails again - The Hill
Lawmakers signal action against Google Street View flap to come  - The Hill
Rockefeller bill would ban third-party online sales scams - The Hill
Lawmakers list havens for intellectual property theft - The Hill

AROUND THE TECH BLOGOSPHERE:
Congress, RIAA call out six worst websites in the world - Nate Anderson, ars technica
Influential FCC adviser Colin Crowell prepares to join industry he oversaw - Cecilia Kang, Post Tech
Leahy uploads source materials behind Kagan's nomination - Nancy Scola, techPresident
Data.gov to relaunch Friday - Nick Hoover, Information Week
Panel examines proposals to tax online gambling - Juliana Gruenwald, Tech Daily Dose

Google's admission of its accident has prompted two lawmakers to question whether any wrongdoing occurred.

Read more...

A new bipartisan bill from Sen. Jay Rockefeller would ban online sales companies from enrolling consumers in services without their consent.

The West Virginia Democrat on Wednesday introduced the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act following a year-long investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee. According to a committee aide, the aim of the bill is to protect consumers from deceptive Internet sales practices that charge for membership clubs and services they do not want and were unaware they purchased. 

The committee's investigation found that three companies in particular made use of these tactics: Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty. Together the firms were able to scam Americans out of more than one billion dollars.

“Tricking consumers into buying goods and services they do not want is completely unacceptable. It’s not ethical, it’s not right, and it is not the way business should be done in America," Rockefeller said. "The bill I’m introducing today will ban these deceptive online sales practices once and for all.”

The aide said the companies fooled millions of Americans by partnering with legitimate websites that were willing to share their customers’ billing information, including credit and debit card numbers, for financial gain. When consumers called asking for refunds, the firms employed a number of tactics to stall or minimize the amount refunded unless the customer used one of the "magic words," including "attorney general" or "Better Business Bureau".

Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and George LeMieux (R-Fla.) co-sponsored the bill, which would require companies to clearly disclose the terms of their offers to consumers and to obtain a customer's billing information directly from the customer. The bill would also ban online retailers from transferring a customer's billing information, including their credit and debit card numbers, to a third-party retailer.

House Democrats on Wednesday tried again — and failed again — to advance a $48-billion bill reauthorizing a slew of science and technology research programs.

Read more...

Longstanding information-security weaknesses at the Department of Veterans Affairs increased the risk of identity fraud following the theft of a laptop containing veterans' personal data last month, according to expert testimony Wednesday.

At a hearing in front of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to examine the April theft of an unencrypted contractor laptop containing sensitive data about more than 600 veterans, experts told lawmakers that despite some progress, VA is still unable to secure its networks.

Greg Wilshusen, director of information security issues at the Government Accountability Office, said the department has had problems for more than a decade with correctly configuring, updating and controlling access to computers on its networks. Belinda Finn, VA assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations, said testing showed a significant number of external connections to VA's network that were unmonitored.

"These weaknesses have left VA vulnerable to disruptions in critical operations, theft, fraud and inappropriate disclosure of sensitive information," said Wilshusen in his prepared testimony. "VA's efforts to address these deficiencies have had limited progress to date."

Finn noted password protections on VA databases and servers were often weak and said the department lacks monitoring that would allow it to detect when its networks are penetrated. She also listed several other vulnerabilities in VA systems that, if exploited, could allow malicious users to steal or alter the medical records of Veterans Health Administration patients. Read more...

Congressional leaders and industry groups on Wednesday named China, Russia, Mexico, Canada and Spain as "top priority countries" in desperate need of tougher intellectual property enforcement.

Those states house five top file-sharing websites — including IsoHunt in Canada and RapidShare in Germany — that assist users in transferring music, movies and software illegally, to the detriment of U.S. business and innovation, noted the Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus, led by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

“The release of this report casts a damning spotlight once again on several nations with lax copyright protections and websites that brazenly traffic in copyright theft,” said Mitch Bainwol, the chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Also joining Baniwol on Wednesday were leaders from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

The caucus's inaugural list of piracy havens arrives about five years and a week after the Supreme Court unanimously shut down Grokster, one of the first and largest peer-to-peer file sharing services.

The specter of that case returned last week, too, when a federal judge found that another, similar site, LimeWire, could be held liable for copyright infringement occurring over its network.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt signaled unequivocally on Wednesday that the search giant would fight federal regulators "very hard" if they moved to block his company's proposed purchase of AdMob, a mobile advertising firm.

Investigators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are still eyeing that deal, a decision on which should be ready in a few weeks, Schmidt told Reuters Insider. But he also fired a warning shot at its commissioners to stand down on Google's $750 million buy, stressing it's a "very strategic acquisition for Google."

"We're likely to fight very hard," Schmidt said of any FTC attempt to sue Google and prevent the deal.

Read more...

What we're following on the morning of Wednesday, May 19 ...

House Dems to try again on tech bill (Hillicon Valley) — "House Democrats on Wednesday will take a second stab at a science and technology research funding bill that was scuttled last week because of a debate over Internet porn. ... Aides said the House would vote on a version that costs about half of what the legislation that Democratic leaders abandoned last week cost. ... The bill will also include language expressed forbidding the use of federal funds to pay employees who have been disciplined for viewing pornography. That provision was included in a motion by Republicans that successfully forced Democrats to vote for steep cuts to the bill. Once that measure – called a motion to recommit – passed, Democratic leaders pulled the underlying legislation from the floor and lambasted Republicans for playing 'political games.'"

Microsoft signals support for patent reform bill, introduced Tuesday, which would block lawmakers from tapping the Patent and Trademark Office's fees for other programs. Notes Horatio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel: "Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith introduced the ‘Patent and Trademark Office Funding Stabilization Act.’ This legislation recognizes that a well functioning and adequately and reliably funded patent system is essential to the ability of American inventors and companies of all sizes to continue to innovate, grow and create jobs. We applaud this recognition and the call for prompt action on comprehensive patent reform legislation."

Read more...

The bill was scuttled last week over a debate about Internet porn.

Read more...