Tech industry opposes immigration bill
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Also: Ancestry.com puts 90M war records online. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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House leaders send a letter to fellow lawmakers saying they strenuously oppose handing amnesty to telecom companies that helped the government's secret, warrantless wiretapping program.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Three prominent open source software developers, including Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, have issued a statement urging the European Union Council to reject proposed legislation that would codify the practice of granting software patents in the E.U.
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A U.K. foundation gathers testimony from British businesses and coders opposed to software patents.
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(InfoWorld) - Three major technology trade groups urged the U.S. Senate on Friday to resurrect a wide-ranging immigration reform bill that would expand a controversial skilled-worker visa program. The Senate late Thursday failed to gain enough votes to close debate on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act and bring the bill to a floor vote. The bill, which critics said provided amnesty to illegal aliens living in the U.S., also would have expanded exemptions to the cap on high-skilled H-1B visa programs, a move supported by many tech vendors. [ Analysis:Â Immigration reform's high-tech impactÂ ] The bill would increase the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000 and exempt foreign students who have earned a master's degree or higher from a U.S. university from the annual cap. Right now, 20,000 students are exempted from the cap. U.S. tech vendors don't want to lose those workers, especially because many of them have their education supported by U.S. tax dollars at public universities, said David LeDuc, director of public policy for the SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association). "We don't want to export our seed corn," he said. "We don't want [those students] leaving and working for our competitors." The bill also sets preferences based on merit, instead of family connections, for clearing multiyear backlogs for employment green cards, another provision supported by many tech groups. Tech vendors want to keep high-skilled workers in the U.S. under the long-term green card program but often face delays, LeDuc said. The SIIA, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and the ITIÂ (Information Technology Industry Council) all urged the Senate to try again to pass the legislation. Negotiations on the bill will continue, and ITI is optimistic the bill will still move forward, said James Ratchford, communications director there. The fate of the bill should become clearer by early next week, he said. LeDuc agreed, saying SIIA is confident the bill can still pass. Many large tech vendors have in recent years urged Congress to expand the H-1B program. In March, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called for more H-1B visas during a visit to Washington, D.C. Gates said then he had "deep anxiety" about the ability of the U.S. to compete globally. SIIA's position is similar to Microsoft's. "Companies need to be able to hire the best and brightest workers regardless of where they're born," LeDuc said. The H-1B program isn't generating controversy during the congressional debate on the bill. Instead, provisions to allow illegal aliens to become permanent citizens have raised major concerns among many Republicans. But U.S.-based tech worker groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA have opposed a higher H-1B cap, arguing that companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less money than unemployed U.S. workers would receive.
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Calls to ban hi-tech locks that limit what people can do with digital media have been rejected.
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A broad bipartisan immigration deal was threatened Tuesday as the Senate prepared to vote on a Republican proposal to make it harder for millions of illegal immigrants to qualify for green cards.
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Some tech groups are beginning to worry that major IT industry priorities, including patent reform, may lose out to other priorities in the U.S. Congress this year.In the last couple of weeks, large tech companies have renewed their push for patent reform legislation in the U.S. Congress, despite opposition from U.S. President George Bush&#39;s administration and some labor unions.The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is concerned that a congressional debate over an economic stimulus package, plus typical election-year gridlock, could hurt the prospects for patent reform and other tech priorities, said Michael Wendy, a spokesman for the trade group.The House of Representatives&#39; economic stimulus package includes tax write-offs for small business purchase of equipment, which could include computers, Wendy said. That&#39;s a good move, but patent reform, a research and development tax credit, H-1B visa reform, and other issues remain undone, he said.&quot;We hope that Congress -- assuming they pass an [economic stimulus] package -- doesn&#39;t just say, &#39;Well, we gave you some favorable tax provisions that will help boost industry activity and have a long-tail effect on the economy, so that should be enough for you guys this session,&#39;&quot; Wendy said last week. &quot;One thing we&#39;re concerned about is that the economic stimulus bill may be seen by Congress as a &#39;get out of jail free&#39; card when it comes to other of our tech policy agenda.&quot;The House in September passed a patent reform bill -- supported by many large tech vendors, but&#160;opposed by several small tech companies&#160;-- but similar legislation has been stalled in the Senate. Large tech vendors, including Microsoft, IBM, and Symantec, have&#160;called for patent reform, saying it&#39;s too easy for companies with no intention of creating products to buy up patents and file multimillion-dollar infringement lawsuits against other companies.On Jan. 22, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said patent reform was a priority, but it was in a line behind several other bills, including an economic stimulus package and a government surveillance authorization bill. The Senate would turn to patent reform, &quot;time permitting,&quot; he said then.&quot;On patent reform, we must carefully strike the right balance with a bill that promotes rather than blocks innovation from enterprising entrepreneurs,&quot; Reid added.The Senate Judiciary Committee approved its version of the Patent Reform Act on Jan. 24, and the bill is awaiting action in the full Senate.But earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Commerce sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising concerns about the bill. The letter, outlining the Bush administration&#39;s views, focused on a section of the bill that would apportion infringement damages in a new way. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent; the bill would allow courts to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece.The wide-ranging bill would also allow a new way to challenge patents after they are issued.That provision would &quot;create more problems than it solves,&quot; said the Commerce Department letter, signed by Nathaniel Wienecke, the agency&#39;s assistant secretary for legislative and intergovernmental affairs. &quot;The administration believes that such a dramatic change from current jurisprudence may have the unintended consequence of reducing the rewards of innovation and encouraging patent infringement,&quot; Wienecke wrote.Both sides can still work out their differences, Wienecke added.In addition, 14 labor unions, including the United Steelworkers, the Patent Office Professional Association and the Communications Workers of America, sent a letter to Senators Wednesday, saying they were concerned about the patent bill. &quot;Key parts of the proposed legislation may have the effect of increasing the likelihood of American inventions being stolen by our international competitors and, consequently, inhibiting sorely needed new investment in domestic manufacturing,&quot; the letter said.Still, some representatives of the tech industry say they&#39;re hopeful that patent reform can move forward.Senators, representatives of the Bush administration and other interested parties have been meeting regularly &quot;to find balanced solutions on all the issues,&quot; said Mark Isakowitz, spokesman for the Coalition for Patent Fairness, a group representing several large tech companies. &quot;We respectfully disagree [with the Bush administration] on damages, but we are confident ... we can work through concerns and achieve broad consensus on the bill, which would be a victory for the administration, the Congress and our economy,&quot; he added.
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Debate centered on how and when to limit federal wiretaps, and the role of tech companies. Meanwhile, the Real ID Act ran into some real opposition.
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A U.S. congressman tells the Tech Industry Summit that Congress could pass an immigration reform bill by July.
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Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) joined a chorus of immigrant advocacy groups in condemning the Bush administration's plan to charge legal immigrants significantly more money to obtain green cards, adjust their residency status and bring relatives to the United States.
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As proposed legislation adding safeguards to electronic voting languishes, criticism of the bill is mounting among legislators and experts.
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Congress weighs a bill to restrict cooperation between U.S. companies and digital dictatorships.
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The U.S. software industry is larger than the food processing industry in terms of revenue, according to an IT trade group that wants Congress to&#160;raise the annual cap on H-1B visas,&#160;give permanent residency to foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges, and back trade policies that give companies unfettered access to global markets.The Software &amp; Information Industry Association (SIIA) Thursday released a report that assembles a variety of economic data in an effort to give policy-makers a better understanding of the software industry&#39;s importance to the U.S. economy. For instance, the SIIA said that software vendors and digital content providers employed a combined total of 2.7 million people in 2006, a net gain of more than 400,000 jobs over the 1997 level. That&#39;s a 17 percent increase in head count, the group said.SIIA president Ken Wasch acknowledged that the timing of the report&#39;s release was a little awkward, coming during a time when the stock market is falling, interest rates are being cut, and Congress is working to craft an economic stimulus bill.&quot;Our industry is not going to be able to repeal the economic business cycle,&quot; Wasch said. If the U.S. economy goes into a recession, he added, &quot;our industry will be impacted as well.&quot;But Wasch claimed that the software industry has outpaced other economic sectors and the economy as a whole on growth over the past few years. &quot;In an economic downturn, surely it&#39;s not going to be good news for our industry,&quot; he said. &quot;But our industry ought to be performing better than industries that are fading in economic importance.&quot;Nonetheless, Wasch contended that maintaining the industry&#39;s current level of growth in the U.S. will require immigration reform. Without the ability to add talented workers as needed, &quot;we&#39;re creating an incentive for the industry to create knowledge centers outside the United States,&quot; he said.The average annual wage paid in the software industry during 2006 was $75,400, according to the SIIA, which said that figure is about 78 percent higher than the median wage for all workers in the private sector.The numbers cited by the SIIA are largely based on statistics from government reports and, consequently, tend to be one or two years old. But the intent of such reports from trade groups often is to add weight to their congressional policy initiatives.For instance, the SIIA is calling for improvements to science, math and technology training overall in U.S. schools. That is a common argument made by tech industry groups, which also cite a shortage of skilled talent in the U.S. and the need to bring in qualified workers from overseas. Wasch said he thinks permanent-residency green cards should be &quot;stapled&quot; to the diplomas of U.S. college graduates from foreign countries.But on the issue of math and science training, the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research and analysis group in Washington, concluded in a report released in November that &quot;the U.S. is not at any particular disadvantage compared with most nations, and the supply of qualified [science and engineering] graduates is large and ranks among the best internationally.&quot;Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, called the SIIA&#39;s report &quot;a defensive document&quot; in an e-mail response to questions about it.Hira said he thinks that a better comparison than measuring the U.S. software industry against other sectors is to look at the growth rates of the large offshore outsourcing companies vs. the growth of software jobs in the U.S. &quot;I think everyone will be taken aback,&quot; he wrote. &quot;The growth of IT labor demand in the U.S. is a pittance compared to the explosive growth in India.&quot;Another policy issue of importance to the SIIA is trade barriers. Wasch said that the European Union and countries in other regions are placing what amounts to a &quot;patchwork quilt&quot; of restrictions that impede the flow of data -- for instance, limiting the ability of companies to store information about overseas customers on systems in the U.S. The trade group would like to see some standardization of such restrictions, he added.Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.&#160;
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High-tech companies and employers of lesser skilled workers say their discontent with the bill shaping up in the Senate has deepened.
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(InfoWorld) - Opponents of legislation that wouldÂ overhaul the U.S. patent system have enlisted new allies who may cause majority Democrats in Congress to rethink their support of the proposals. Since late July, three labor unions -- the AFL-CIO, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), and the United Steelworkers -- have sent letters to lawmakers saying they oppose two current patent reform bills. Patent reform opponents say they hope their alliance with organized labor, which has a long history of supporting Democrats, will stall the legislation. But representatives ofÂ large tech vendors that are pushing for patent reform say they're confident there will be support for the legislation when Congress returns from summer recess in early September. The committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved versions of a sweeping patent reform bill in July, and House leaders have targeted the patent reform bill for passage by the end of the year. "I think the momentum exists for this thing to move forward," said Joshua Ackil, vice president of government relations for tech trade group the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). "As folks [in Congress] dive in a little deeper on this issue, they will come around and understand how important patent reform is to the tech sector." In recent sessions of Congress, then-majority Republicans were tugged in two directions when they focused on patent reform bills similar to ones introduced in the current session of Congress. Several high-profile Republicans pushed for patent reform, and won praise from many large tech vendors, but the Republican friendly pharmaceutical industry was staunchly opposed to the bills. By enlisting labor unions, patent reform opponents are trying to put Democrats "in the same situation the Republicans were in," said Ronald Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance, which represents small inventors. Riley's group, along with the American Ingenuity Alliance and other groups, have focused getting unions to back their cause in recent months. Riley portrays patent reform as enabling large tech vendors to steal the ideas of small inventors. "We're tired of these transnationals ripping off our people's work," he said. "We're just warming up." Tech vendors including Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp., and Cisco Systems Inc. have argued that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) too often approves questionable patents, and that it's too easy for patent holders to sue, collect huge damages and shut down product lines that have a small infringing piece. In many cases, patent lawsuits are brought by companies that make all their money by owning patents, critics have said. Cisco spends US$45 million a year defending itself against patent lawsuits, Matt Tanielian, director of government relations for the company, said during a forum in June. "There's a lot of bad patents out there," he said. "When you get sued, you ought to get a fair shake." The letters to Congress from the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers focused on two controversial sections of the patent reform legislation in both the House and the Senate. The two groups objected to the way the legislation would change how courts apportion damages when a company is found to infringe a patent. Currently, courts generally consider the value of the entire product when a small piece of the product infringes a patent, but supporters of the bills want Congress to base damages only on the value of the infringing piece. The groups also questioned how the legislation would allow a new way of challenging patents after they're issued, called post-grant review. The bills would allow companies sued for patent infringement a new way to file challenges with USPTO. Representatives of the of the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers didn't return messages or declined to comment on their recent interest in patent reform. But the AFL-CIO letter alluded to recent efforts of the U.S. government and the U.S. tech industry to prod China to strengthen its intellectual property protections. These two changes "may have a negative impact on innovation and research," the AFL-CIO letter said. "At a time when the Chinese government is constantly being challenged to live up to its intellectual property obligations, we do not want to take actions that may weaken ours." The United Steelworkers letter said nearly 70 percent of patents filed in the U.S. come from manufacturing firms. "These bills would allow an endless loop of legal challenges after patents are awarded that will make it more difficult for U.S. patent holders to prevail against frivolous challenges," the letter said. ITI's Ackil and representatives of two other tech groups said they doubted the unions' opposition would kill patent reform, although Ackil acknowledged that "anyone should be concerned" with opposition from large labor groups. Ackil and a representative of another tech trade group, who spoke on background, questioned the depth of the opposition from the labor unions. "The AFL-CIO has been nowhere on this issue for three years," Ackil said. Democrats knew of the labor concerns before the House Judiciary Committee approved the patent reform bill, added a spokesman for Representative Howard Berman, a California Democrat and primary sponsor of the House patent bill. "Weâre working now to try to understand and deal with any concerns labor may have," said spokesman Gene Smith. "We think that labor will not be opposing the bill when it comes to the floor soon after the House returns from recess." But the labor opposition could lead to changes in the bills, said Bill Mashek, a spokesman for the Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform, a group that has opposed parts of the current patent bills. "Laborâs voice in the debate is significant and influential," Mashek said. "It shows, in our view, that the bill needs further work to ensure that U.S. manufacturing and innovators have the incentives to invest and develop new products. The concerns of ... organized labor resonate with members across the country and of all political stripes."
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A campaign to raise awareness about software patents has found strong opposition to their introduction in the United Kingdom.