Oregon justices wrestled with how to make a cellphone privacy rule outlining when it’s permissible for police to require someone to unlock an encrypted device. At livestreamed Supreme Court oral argument Tuesday in State v. Pittman, Chief Justice Martha Walters questioned state arguments that entering a password reveals nothing more than knowledge of the code and that the user plays no big role in decryption. The U.S. Supreme Court might take up the issue that has split state courts, said Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and National Police Association (NPA) officials in Wednesday interviews.
Trademark modernization takes legislative priority over efforts to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told us Wednesday before a hearing on the DMCA. The Trademark Modernization Act recently passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. Getting that bill enacted into law this Congress is one of Tillis' “top priorities,” his office said. “We’ll be working with them to make sure that whatever we lay down has got consensus,” the lead Senate sponsor said.
Apple energized its growing services business at its Tuesday event, announcing a subscription-based fitness app, Fitness+ ($9.99 a month; $79 yearly), and an expected bundled services offering (see 2008130029) under the moniker Apple One. “It’s all about recurring subscription revenue,” tweeted Futurum analyst Daniel Newman. Gartner's Mikako Kitagawa called the prices “competitive,” questioning if they will be enough to pull in users “other than existing Apple service customers.” Heavy Spotify or Netflix users need to have “a good reason to add Apple Music or TV," she emailed.
Google has unprecedented control over the digital advertising market, which threatens news publishers and gives the platform unrivaled leverage, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans and Democrats said at an Antitrust Subcommittee hearing Tuesday.
Congress should be cautious about creating new antitrust regulations, FTC Chairman Joe Simons and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim said Monday. “Some are proposing regulatory solutions designed to curb or change the way” tech companies compete, Simons told a virtual International Competition Network conference. “I would advise strong caution before adopting any type of a regulatory regime rather than relying on a competition regime.”
The computer is “personal again,” blogged NPD Vice President-Technology Stephen Baker, borrowing on an old HP tagline to describe the current boom in laptop sales as work-from-home and remote-learning connectivity tools. Though the “remarkable move” to the smartphone “eclipsed” the personal connection to the computer, “I believe we have all rediscovered this concept in the last six months and renewed our personal relationship with our PC,” he said Thursday.
As fallout from the annulment of Privacy Shield continues, industry and regulators in the U.S. and EU are struggling to decide how to maintain trans-Atlantic personal data flows, they said. The European Commission plans to launch an “adoption process” for new data transfer mechanisms in “the coming weeks” and hopes to finalize it by the end of the year, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said Thursday, noting there won't be any "quick fix."
IoT's potential won’t be realized without universal interoperability, seamless operation, an easy development process and strong security, said Silicon Labs General Manager Matt Johnson, keynoting the second day of the company’s first “Works With” developer conference, held Wednesday and Thursday. “If we don’t get the trust and security right, this is not going to happen.”
If Joe Biden wins the November election, expect Democrats to pursue antitrust law changes that would raise the bar for acquisitions, experts said in recent interviews. President Donald Trump has shown more interest in politically driven attacks than serious policy work, they said.
Legislation discouraging social media fact-checking and First Amendment rights is the wrong approach, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Wednesday. They discussed Republican proposals on Communications Decency Act Section 230.