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May 10, 2010, 3:07 pm
By
Michael O'Brien
Republicans kicked off the battle over Elena Kagan's nomination to
the Supreme Court by chronicling all their videos on a new YouTube
channel.
The Senate GOP launched a "Supreme Court Channel" that includes
interviews with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff Sessions
(R-Ala.), other Senate Republicans, and archived videos of last year's
confirmation hearings for now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Google's corporate communications team flagged the creation of the
channel this morning, when President Barack Obama tapped Kagan to join
the high court.
Senate Republicans have said they will thoroughly pore over the
solicitor general's record throughout the confirmation process, and
they have not ruled out a filibuster.
Check out the new channel here.
Cross-posted to the Briefing Room.
Archived under:
Technology
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May 10, 2010, 2:39 pm
By
Tony Romm
Computer software piracy may have declined in China over the past year, but the black market business still raked in a whopping $19 billion in 2009. That means 12 percent of the entire country's software market last year was comprised of stolen computer programs, according to a study released Monday by China's State Intellectual Property Office. The study later noted that officials in Beijing had recently measures to protect intellectual property rights. The news arrives almost two weeks after U.S. officials for the sixth time placed China on its "priority watch list" for intellectual property theft. Upon announcing that less-than-stellar designation, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk promised federal diplomats would engage China on copyright infringement later this year. "Intellectual property theft in overseas markets is an export killer for American businesses and a job killer for American workers here at home," he said in a statement.
Archived under:
Technology
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May 10, 2010, 12:26 pm
By
Tony Romm
A group opposed to Google's plan to put book excerpts online is warning the action could lead to an international tribunal.
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology, Technology
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May 10, 2010, 10:54 am
By
Tony Romm
Solicitor General Elena Kagan in 2009 all but endorsed the idea of televising the Supreme Court's oral arguments, putting her at odds with some of the bench's sitting justices. While Justice Steven Breyer and others have long shot down that possibility, Kagan said at the Ninth Circuit Judiciary Conference last July that cameras in the courtroom would give the public access to proceedings that are "amazing and extraordinary."
"I have a feeling that they're going to make this decision themselves, and they're the best to make this decision themselves," Kagan said during the question-and-answer session, 10 months before President Barack Obama would nominate her to fill the vacancy left by Justice Anthony Stevens' retirement. "This court, I think, is so smart, and so prepared, and so engaged, and everybody who gets up there at the podium -- they face the toughest questions, the most challenging questions are thrown at them," she continued. "And there is a debate of really extraordinary intellectual depth and richness." "I think if you put the cameras in the courtroom, people would see... an institution of their government working at a really high level." If confirmed, Kagan might not be the only sitting justice to signal support for cameras in the courtroom. Reportedly, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has similar thoughts on the matter, though she she offered something of a non-answer on the matter to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. Opposition to televising the Supreme Court's proceedings, however, is far more vocal. Justice David Souter once famously said cameramen would have to "roll over my dead body" to get equipment into the chamber. Justice Breyer only earlier this year told congressional lawmakers just as tersely, "It wouldn't be in our court." View Kagan's full remarks after the jump. Segment begins at about 18:01.
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology, Technology
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May 10, 2010, 8:00 am
By
Tony Romm
What we're following the morning of Monday, May 10...
Obama: Technology becomes 'diversion,' rather than 'tool of empowerment' (Hillicon Valley) -- "President Barack Obama cited the influx of new technology as "putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy" in a commencement address to graduates at Virginia's Hampton University on Sunday. ... "You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter," Obama said. "With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment."
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2010, 11:56 am
By
Administrator
President Barack Obama said the new media environment is "putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology
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May 9, 2010, 10:38 am
By
Bridget Johnson
On Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said that the administration was leaving open the possibility of sabotage.
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology
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May 8, 2010, 9:00 am
By
Tony Romm
A new FCC ruling paves the way for movie studios to offer consumers scores of films before they reach shelves.
Read more...
Archived under:
Technology
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May 7, 2010, 5:00 pm
By
Tony Romm
Archived under:
Technology
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May 7, 2010, 4:20 pm
By
Michael O'Brien
A coalition of groups wrote President Barack Obama this week to ask him
to appoint a new Supreme Court justice who supports public indecency
laws.
A group of socially conservative and family groups asked
the president to appoint a jurist who follows in the footsteps of
retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in at least one respect: his
willingness to uphold restrictions on broadcasting materials considered
"indecent."
"With the announced retirement of Justice Stevens
from the United States Supreme Court, we are writing to urge you to
nominate an individual who will support the right of the government to
maintain a decent society and to protect children from indecent and
other media content that is harmful to them," the heads of 16 groups
wrote the president.
Stevens, who is retiring at the end of this
term, wrote the landmark opinion in Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) v. Pacifica Foundation, a case otherwise known as the "Seven
Filthy Words" case after the comedian George Carlin's sketch about
profanities one can't utter in a public broadcast.
The case
upheld the FCC's ability to sanction stations which broadcast materials
that are considered "indecent," and the groups, led by the organization
"Morality in Media," noted that Stevens stood by that decision as
recently as 2009.
The groups, noting that Obama has said he hopes
to find a new justice much in the mold of Stevens, asked the president
to "nominate a prospective justice who, without inappropriately being
required to state how he or she would rule in any case, will not turn a
deaf ear" to "protecting the social interest in order and morality."
Find
the entire letter, along with the list of signatories, here. (Cross posted from the Briefing Room)
Archived under:
Technology
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Phillip J. Bond’s ‘Tech Execs’ appears here on The Hill's Hillicon Valley Blog occasionally.
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