Clips June 11, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips June 11, 2003

ARTICLES

FTC seeks broad powers to fight spam 
ReplayTV Hits 'Stop' on Advertising Bypass
China tightening control over Internet cafes
Maine School Gives Students Own Laptop 
Army prepping IA policy
E-authentication gains ground in agencies 
DHS will consolidate case management efforts 
Energy uses tech tools to protect radioactive shipments 
High-Speed Internet Growth Slows, FCC Finds 


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CNET News.com
FTC seeks broad powers to fight spam 
By Declan McCullagh 
June 10, 2003, 11:05 PM PT

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday asked Congress for sweeping new powers that would let it cooperate closely with governments abroad and prosecute domestic and overseas spammers more readily. 
A 13-page proposal drafted by the FTC would turn the agency's investigators into virtual spam cops, granting them the power to serve secret requests for subscriber information on Internet service providers, peruse FBI criminal databases and swap sensitive information with foreign law enforcement agencies. 

The proposed legislation, titled the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Act (ICPEA) and seen by CNET News.com, spotlights the tension between the long-standing privacy rights of Internet users and the recent push in Washington to enact strong laws targeting the most extreme spammers. Civil libertarians already are alarmed at the ICPEA draft, saying it does not contain sufficient checks and balances, and would unreasonably curb the Freedom of Information Act.


"A recent study by the commission found that 66 percent of spam contained obvious indicia of falsity," the FTC's five commissioners said in a joint statement to Congress released Wednesday. "Moreover, a significant portion of spam is likely to be routed through foreign servers. For these reasons, it would be useful to have additional legislative authority." 

FTC Chairman Tim Muris and at least three of his colleagues were scheduled to make two appearances on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby for their proposal, in the morning before a House subcommittee, and in the afternoon before a Senate subcommittee. The hearings are part of the regular FTC reauthorization process, and Muris has suggested that ICPEA be inserted into the reauthorization bill. 

The trade commission's joint statement says that the legislation, which takes aim at fraud in general and not just spam, "would be particularly helpful to enable the FTC to investigate deceptive spammers more effectively and work better with international law enforcement partners...The FTC believes that the proposed legislation would provide more effective investigative and enforcement tools and would enhance the FTC's continuing law enforcement efforts." 

Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, criticizes ICPEA in his prepared testimony scheduled to be delivered at the same time before the two congressional committees. He agrees that the FTC should work more closely with its international counterparts, but says the current wording of the bill is far too broad. 

"The legislation opens the door to abuse in that it creates new enforcement authority without corresponding safeguards," Rotenberg says in his prepared remarks. "The bill should be drafted in such a way so as to safeguard American values, including procedural fairness, privacy protection and open government." 

If introduced as a formal proposal in Congress and signed into law, the May 21 draft of ICPEA would: 

?  Let the FTC send a confidential demand to an ISP as part of an investigation and requiring the recipient to "keep such process confidential." Without it, the FTC argues, "when fraud targets are given notice of FTC investigations they often destroy documents." The target of the investigation may not be notified for up to half a year, according to this proposal. 

? Permit foreign police to obtain subscriber records and customer information from ISPs as part of an FTC investigation that is already under way. 

? Grant the FTC the power to cooperate closely with foreign police who are investigating "fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or unfair commercial conduct." 

? Immunize part of the FTC from the Freedom of Information Act by saying the FTC may choose not to disclose certain "material obtained from a foreign law enforcement agency." 

?  Open the FBI's massive National Crime Information Center computer to FTC investigators. That computer came under fire in March after the Justice Department said it would no longer strive to maintain the database's accuracy and integrity. 

The ICPEA comes as Congress is spending more time than ever before talking about spam. In April, Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., introduced an antispam bill, and key House Republicans are backing a bill that promises to slap the worst bulk e-mailers with prison terms and millions of dollars in fines. 

One Capitol Hill source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Rep. Bill Tauzin, R-La.--the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee--was surprised to see such a detailed plan from the FTC and may speak out against it Wednesday. Tauzin is backing one of the other antispam bills.
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Los Angeles Times
ReplayTV Hits 'Stop' on Advertising Bypass
By Jon Healey
June 11, 2003

The maker of ReplayTV is adding a new feature to its video recorders: commercials.

Bowing to pressure from Hollywood studios and television networks, Digital Networks North America is eliminating the recorders' abilities to skip commercials automatically and send shows through the Internet, two of ReplayTV's most celebrated and controversial features.

Executives at DNNA, the D&M Holdings Inc. subsidiary that bought the Replay line from Sonicblue Inc., said they made the concessions to cooperate with the entertainment companies and be "a positive force in the industry."

The major studios and TV networks sued Sonicblue in federal court in Los Angeles two years ago, arguing that the ReplayTV 4000 models abetted piracy and undermined programmers' ability to make money. Studio executives said the changes, which will be introduced in new ReplayTV models later this year, were a step in the right direction. 

But consumer electronics and technology advocates said they were troubled by Hollywood's ability to push DNNA to remove consumer-friendly features that had never been declared illegal.

"This is the great fear," said attorney Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that sued the studios and networks on behalf of five ReplayTV owners. "Do you really want copyright owners to be calling the shots on what kind of features technology companies can offer consumers?"

The dispute is significant for Hollywood, device manufacturers and consumers because ReplayTV's personal video recorders, or PVRs, represent a new breed of machines that could transform the way entertainment is delivered to and experienced in the home. Though PVRs so far have reached fewer than 3% of U.S. homes, they promise to let consumers receive and store huge libraries of music and videos, potentially reducing demand for movie rentals, pay-per-view programs and DVDs.

Despite the concessions, DNNA may not have done enough to satisfy all of the studios and networks, which sued Sonicblue for copyright infringement and unfair business practices in the fall of 2001. That suit was put on indefinite hold when Sonicblue filed for bankruptcy protection this year.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based DNNA tried in vain to negotiate a legal cease-fire with Hollywood, but some of the entertainment companies wanted DNNA to eliminate more features. Sources familiar with the discussions said the main targets were the recorders' ability to fast-forward through shows in 30-second increments  the length of the typical TV commercial  and to store programs for an unlimited amount of time.

The discussions broke down after the studios offered DNNA only a promise not to sue for 30 days. On Monday, DNNA sent the studios a letter outlining the concessions it was willing to make now, leaving open the possibility for more talks in the future  or a new lawsuit against DNNA. 

Jim Hollingsworth, president of ReplayTV Products, declined to comment on the discussions. He said company executives decided "basically on our own" to drop the two features, "based on how we thought the product was perceived in the market and what we thought were the right business decisions."

Among PVR developers, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sonicblue was the most aggressive when it came to offering new features that tested the limits of copyright law. Rival TiVo Inc. of San Jose has taken a more conservative approach, offering fewer commercial-skipping capabilities and restricting the transmission of shows to TiVo boxes in the same home.

Entertainment-industry executives insist they're not trying to stop innovative products. They say they're only trying to protect their programs and preserve their ability to explore new business models made possible by digital technology.

"This lawsuit was never about shutting down PVRs," said attorney Robert M. Schwartz, who represents AOL Time Warner Inc. and other entertainment companies on this issue. "It was about establishing some ground rules that were fair to consumers, fair to electronics manufacturers and fair to the creators of content."

Legal experts say the Internet-transmitting feature would have been the most difficult for DNNA to defend because it seemed to violate the entertainment companies' distribution rights. 

The entertainment companies maintain that ReplayTV's commercial-skipping and archiving features could harm them financially, too. But they don't have strong copyright infringement claims because PVRs only make it easier for consumers to do things they can already do, said attorney Doug Wood, a copyright expert and general counsel to the Assn. of National Advertisers.

"Are we going to start telling consumers that they have to turn in any videocassette that's over a year old?" Wood said. "Just because you have an economic harm doesn't mean you have a legal remedy."

Nevertheless, the lawsuit targeting ReplayTV recorders has persuaded at least one leading consumer electronics company not to include a commercial-skipping feature in its new PVRs. An executive at that company, who asked not to be identified, said the products "absolutely" would have had that feature if not for the lawsuit because "consumers definitely want it."
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Reuters
China tightening control over Internet cafes

BEIJING (Reuters)  China said on Tuesday it had given licenses to 10 local firms to open Internet cafe chains, a move analysts said was designed to squeeze out smaller players and tighten control of sensitive political information.
Most of the franchise licenses were given to state-owned companies such as China United Telecommunications, parent of China Unicom, Great Wall Broadband Network Service or those affiliated with the Ministry of Culture.

"We aim to boost the Internet cafe business by encouraging chain operations," Liu Qiang, an official at the ministry's Internet culture division, told Reuters. "It helps to standardise the business."

"But this is not to limit or forbid the existence of individual or private Internet cafes. We encourage mergers and acquisitions by chain operators," he said, adding more than 95% of China's 110,000 Internet cafes were privately owned.

The newly licensed operators must open at least 20 outlets in two cities or provinces. Provincial governments can also approve three franchises as long as outlets stay within the region.

Liu said the ministry did not plan on issuing further licences at the moment, but that foreign firms were welcome to apply.

State media say the fragmented industry  dominated by small, grungy Web cafes filled with students playing online games or surfing the Internet  is currently worth about 100 billion yuan ($12 billion).

Analysts and operators said the licenses, in a country where information flow is a matter of national security, were intended to clamp down on information deemed harmful to the government.

Control measure

Internet watchers say China already filters text for controversial terms related to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement or the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre as it passes routers at international gateways. It routinely blocks foreign news sites.

Last year, China briefly blocked access to the world's most-popular search engine, Google, and continues to block searches of politically taboo subjects.

But, tracking postings at the national Internet cafe level would be another way to stamp out information deemed subversive, they said.

"By setting up chains of Internet cafes, it will be easier to verify what is being looked at or posted over the Internet," said Nathan Midler, a senior analyst at IDC Asia Pacific.

He said licensed firms must enforce rules about registering user names and citizenship numbers, which can later be used to determine who posted a sensitive message on the Internet.

Internet cafes must also vow to follow regulations banning downloads of pornography and politically unsavory topics, operators said.

The approved firms include three affiliated with the Ministry of Culture: China Audio-Visual Publishing House, which plans to set up 50,000 cafes in 40 cities in three years, the China Cultural Relics Information Centre and the China National Library.

A fourth operator, China Youth Net, is affiliated with the politically powerful Central Committee of China Youth League.

The other six include telecoms operators or Internet service providers such as www.readchina.com, which plans to build 2,500 Internet cafes within a year and a half.

It belongs to Read Investment Holdings, a high-tech conglomerate founded in 1988 which has annual revenues of 10 billion yuan.
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Associated Press
Maine School Gives Students Own Laptop 
Wed Jun 11, 8:25 AM ET
By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press Writer 

FREEPORT, Maine - The end of the school year is near and children are playing baseball outside. But the students in Shawn Favreau's classroom are focused on their laptop computers.


For their final social studies project, they're using the computers to create multimedia presentations on ancient Greece. Some of the Freeport Middle School students find it hard to imagine going back to using just pencils and paper. 


"We still do the same things. We just do it differently. The teachers are winging it. They're looking for ways to make it more interesting," said student Kaitlyn Beaule. "I think it's a lot more fun." 


Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program, which covers all 241 public middle schools, has received high marks as the first full year ends this month. 


The program began last fall with 17,000 seventh-graders and 3,000 teachers using the laptops. Next fall, it will be expanded to eighth-graders for a total of about 33,000 laptops in use. 


In Favreau's class, the students use the computers for research, reports and e-mail. Gone are the days of turning in handwritten reports; assignments are more likely to call for students to make movies or Power Point presentations. 


Next door, in Alex Briasco-Brin's math class, students used laptops for a project building model rockets. A teacher in Pembroke used the laptops to communicate in real-time with a deep-sea submersible off the coast of Africa. 

One of the first things Favreau learned last fall was to sit in the back of the class instead of in front. That allows him to keep an eye on the screens to make sure kids aren't surfing or playing games. 

On a recent day, his 16 students were grouped in twos as they worked on their presentations on Greece. Three were without computers: Two computers were broken and shipped off to Apple for repairs, and a third student lost his computer privileges after gaining access to the administrative password. 

There have been other cases where school officials had to crack down. Soon after the program started, Freeport Middle School technology coordinator John Lunt sent an important message when he caught a student playing a computer game in class. He used his link to the student's laptop to shut down the game and trash it as the student wondered what was happening.

The laptops aren't used all the time. On a command of "lids down," the students close the computers and pick up textbooks or listen to lectures. 

Freeport Middle School Principal Chris Toy said this is the first truly successful innovation he has seen in 23 years as an educator. He said using computers comes naturally to most students. 

"Kids are digital natives, having grown up with computers," Toy said. "They're not afraid of it." 

A midterm report showed students were more engaged and that absenteeism dropped with the introduction of laptops. Teachers, some of whom were leery of giving computers to students, have largely picked up on students' excitement about the program. 

In one sign of high hopes for the program, state lawmakers facing a projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall at the start of the legislative session made no attempt to dismantle it. 

But legislators will have to provide more money in the next session if there's to be a seamless transition when the current crop of middle school students enter high school, officials say. 

Gov. John Baldacci said he's determined to see through the project that was the brainchild of his predecessor. 

The state does not yet have the money, but Baldacci said he'll "turn over every stone" to find a way to expand the program. A four-year contract with Apple for the first phase in middle schools cost the state $37.2 million. 

Already, some school districts are looking at private funding for pilot programs in high schools. 

"I'm optimistic. You can't hold this back. Parents have told me, 'You better not touch that laptop fund,'" he said. "It's almost like the students and families are going to be demanding that it be continued and expanded."
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Federal Computer Week
Army prepping IA policy
BY Dan Caterinicchia 
June 9, 2003  

The Army is preparing an information assurance (IA) policy that will guide the way the service implements a Defense Department IA directive. 

An enterprise information assurance policy is one of three key pillars needed to support the Army Knowledge Management (AKM) imperatives of defending networks, supporting the Objective Force and lowering the total cost of information technology ownership, said Robert Ringdahl, chief integration officer at Network Enterprise Technology Command's Enterprise Systems Technology Activity.

The Army policy is in draft form and should be ready for release by September, Ringdahl said during a June 5 speech at the Army Small Computer Program's IT conference. 

"It will be the Army's implementation policy of [DOD's 8500.1] directive," he told Federal Computer Week.

Directive 8500.1 was issued in late October 2002 and calls for Defense agencies to protect data as it is shared across the Global Information Grid. Furthermore, DOD Instruction 8500.2, dated Feb. 6, sets forth the way that rules and policies in the directive are implemented. The instruction is designed to ensure that information awareness training and education are provided to all military and civilian personnel, specific to their responsibilities for developing, using and maintaining DOD information systems.

Col. Ted Dmuchowski, director of information assurance at the Network Enterprise Technology Command, said the new Army policy is really an updated information assurance regulation that will align and consolidate the service's information assurance goals and objectives to support DOD Directive 8500.1 and Instruction 8500.2.

"The policy will reduce the manageability requirements of information systems, minimize the effects of unauthorized access or loss, and increase the effectiveness of IA integration as part of the life cycle of all information systems, Dmuchowski said.

He noted that the "cornerstone philosophy of Army information assurance" is to:

* Design, implement and secure accesses, data, systems and repositories.

* Increase trust and trusted relationships.

* Employ technical and operational security mechanisms.

* Deny all unauthorized accesses.

* Permit necessary exceptions to support Army, DOD, and Joint interagency and multinational tactical and sustaining-base operations.

In addition to creating the Army's information assurance policy, Ringdahl said the service must deal with two other key pillars to support its AKM imperatives: the role of reimbursable funding vs. cost funding, and the role of Microsoft Corp. -- which appears to be clearer with the May 30 award of an enterprise software agreement.

The funding question is "evolving and [is] a topic of intense discussion" among the Army's IT leaders, he said, adding that decisions must be made whether reimbursements will be done at the individual user or major command level.
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Government Computer News
06/11/03 
E-authentication gains ground in agencies 
By Jason Miller 

Agencies slowly are warming up to using electronic signatures and other forms of electronic verification as a part of their everyday business. 

The Treasury Department is piloting a smart-card program for electronic and physical access, CIO Drew Ladner said last week at an e-government conference sponsored by Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va., and Potomac Forum Ltd. of Potomac, Md. 

And the Environmental Protection Agency is working on a final rule to let state governments and private companies submit mandatory environmental reports electronically, said Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, who works in the agency?s CIO?s office and is responsible for EPA?s Government Paperwork Elimination Act reporting. 

?We have been working on this for a number of years and hope to have it out by this fall,? Cleland-Hamnett said. ?We are trying to ensure we can trace the signature back to the person in cases of civil or criminal liability.? 

EPA is considering using a public-key infrastructure with a PIN and password to authenticate a user through the federal e-authentication gateway, she said. 

Treasury?s test program is for a selected set of employees, and it also is integrated with the agency?s PKI deployment, Ladner said. 

?We want to ensure convergence with the e-authentication gateway,? Ladner said. ?We are aligning the level of risk with the security needed.? 

The test will continue into the fall, and then Treasury will evaluate the results, Ladner said. 

?We are interested in looking at different authentication services and what value they can provide,? he added.
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Government Computer News
06/10/03 
DHS will consolidate case management efforts 
By Wilson P. Dizard III 
GCN Staff

The Homeland Security Department is preparing a budget request for a consolidated case management system. 

The system likely will serve 4,000 to 5,000 workers in the Customs and Border Protection Bureau as well as users in other DHS agencies, said S.W. ?Woody? Hall, assistant commissioner for information and technology. 

Hall formerly was the Customs Service?s CIO and now is in charge of a larger IT operation for the bureau, which merged staff and programs from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 

Hall spoke this morning at a breakfast meeting sponsored by Input of Reston, Va. 

?As we speak, we are putting together a consolidated? request, Hall said. 

He said that DHS officials now are preparing their business cases, or exhibit 300 submissions, for the Office of Management and the Budget. The new system will consolidate case management initiatives under way at the department, Hall said. 

?Our plan is to review all that,? he said. ?I expect this would be a joint procurement? across several DHS agencies. He noted that none of the separate projects have received funding. 

?I think we are six to 10 months away from putting this on the street,? Hall said, referring to a request for proposals. ?The good news is that this ought to be a pretty [large] procurement when it goes; something as big as case management will mainly be an outsourced effort,? he said. 

Among the bureau?s other initiatives are modernizing its databases and networks under the former Customs? Automated Commercial Environment project. In April 2001, Customs awarded a $1.3 billion, 15-year contract to IBM Corp. to build ACE. It is replacing the 17-year-old Automated Commercial System (Click for Aug. 19, 2002 GCN story) 

Under initiative known as the Single Face at the Border, the bureau plans to coordinate the separate databases and applications of its customs, animal and plant inspection and immigration activities. Border entrants will no longer face a gauntlet of officials from different agencies repeating many of the same questions, Hall said. 

Also on the agenda are the bureau?s Trusted Traveler programs, which are supposed to let frequent border crossers who meet security requirements pass quickly into and out of the country. These programs already cover airline crews and some business travelers, and rely on palm reader biometric technology. 

?We are looking to make distinctions that are fair and to increase the focus on high-risk travelers,? Hall said. 

And, like all agencies, the bureau expects to expand its e-government initiatives, including the use of portals to interact with other agencies and industry. Officials also want to develop collaborative projects for wireless communications, portals, enterprise architecture plans, smart cards and biometrics, Hall said. 

One of the most important systems integration tasks the bureaus face is its relationship with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, Hall said. The two bureaus use several common systems, and Hall?s team is working with the immigration bureau?s CIO, Scott Hastings, to decide how to share costs and integrate their missions. 

Homeland Security CIO Steve Cooper has directed the pair to develop interoperable systems and programs, Hall said. 

?There really is a high level of interdependence between ICE and my bureau,? he said. 

Part of the answer may lie in the two bureaus using cross-servicing systems. ?We have to realize that the funding goes where the people go,? Hall said. 

Homeland Security IT officials also want to keep abreast of the latest technologies, among them wireless tools. Coordination will be an issue, Hall said, because the Coast Guard, Border Patrol and Secret Service are large DHS agencies running independent wireless systems. 

?The management of wireless is going to be consolidated,? he said. ?The question is, how much are we going to consolidate the operational management, and what are we going to do with the networks, data centers and IT staffs?? 

Department officials expect to make decisions on wireless integration by the end of the summer, he said.
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Government Executive
June 10, 2003 
Energy uses tech tools to protect radioactive shipments 
By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily 

In response to the war on terrorism, the Energy Department's online tools and communications systems for facilitating global and domestic shipments of radioactive materials have expanded over the past couple of years to protect those shipments from potential threats. 


"These tools were originally deployed in order to ensure safe and compliant transportation [of radioactive materials]," Steven Hamp, a program manager with Energy's National Transportation Program (NTP), said during a homeland security conference sponsored by E-Gov. 


"Now, there's much more emphasis on cost efficiency and security issues," he added. "These same tools that were originally deployed for one reason are now being expanded to address the more common [security] focus of today." 


One component of the Automated Transportation Management System, for example, helps Energy officials select the most responsible trucking firms for transporting radioactive materials. "You don't let just anybody transport this," Hamp said, noting that the application originally was designed as an accident-prevention tool. "We didn't want the carriers to have high accident rates." 


But now the program includes background checks on all drivers, company histories and ownership, and other security measures. "There's a variety of criteria now that we've implemented ... and that information is accessible [online] at all of our shipping sites," he said. 


He added that the satellite-based Transportation Tracking and Communications (TRANSCOM) system also is playing an increasing role in homeland security. That system enables officials to track, on a "near real-time basis," trucks, rails and barges that are toting radioactive materials and are equipped with global positioning systems, according to Hamp. 


"There are about 450 trained users for this system across the country, both federal and state," Hamp said. "It's a very effective tool for knowing where a shipment is at any given time, and if there was an emergency, the communications aspect of this system allows a very quick interface with [state and local] first responders." 


Hamp said that system, and several other NTP information and communications networks, increasingly are being used as counterterrorism measures. 


Noting that Energy makes only about 4,600, or less than 1 percent, of the nation's 3 million annual shipments of radioactive material, Hamp said those tools also are available for use by other shippers. 


"All the tools that we use are declassified," Hamp said, adding that many state agencies also use them. "They are open and available for others to review."
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Washington Post
High-Speed Internet Growth Slows, FCC Finds 
Reuters
Tuesday, June 10, 2003; 3:32 PM 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-speed Internet connections grew 23 percent in the second half of 2002, the U.S. government said Tuesday, as households and businesses signed up for broadband service at a slowing clip.

The Federal Communications Commission said 3.7 million new subscribers signed up for broadband between June and December 2002, a rate of growth down from the 27 percent posted in the first half of the year. For the full year, the number of high-speed lines increased by 58 percent.

Broadband access, which allows users to surf the Internet at speeds up to 30 times faster than a standard dial-up connection, is seen as an important next step by technology companies eager to roll out video on demand, Internet-based telephony and other advanced services.

While 19.9 million homes and businesses connected via broadband at the end of last year, the rate of growth has decreased gradually. A report last month by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that many of those interested in broadband have already signed up, while others who may be interested in the service find it is not available in their neighborhoods.

Broadband providers until recently have charged between $40 and $55 per month, while dial-up providers usually charge around $20 per month.

Broadband service is now available in 88 percent of the nation's zip codes, the FCC found, but service can vary widely within zip codes as the equipment necessary to provide service is not always available.

Coaxial cable-television connections remained the most popular, accounting for 57 percent of all reported lines.

Digital subscriber lines offered over telephone wires made up 33 percent, though analysts expect DSL would gain a larger share of the broadband pie if other telephone companies followed the lead of Verizon Communications and dropped prices to around $35 per month.

Satellite, fixed wireless and fiber-optic connections account for the remainder of broadband lines.
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USA Today
Spam fight unites liberal, conservatives
WASHINGTON (APOnline)  Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York liberal who supports gay and abortion rights, is teaming up with an unlikely ally as he takes on annoying spam e-mails  the Christian Coalition. 
For Schumer, the pragmatic alliance makes sense to tap the conservative group's formidable clout on Capitol Hill. For the Christian Coalition, it's a chance to broaden its appeal to the political mainstream. 

The two are planning a joint effort, to be announced Thursday, that will push legislation to reduce the amount of junk e-mail called spam, especially pornographic come-ons that now clog so many e-mail accounts. 

"I sort of had a brainstorm one night and said, 'Why don't I reach out to the Christian Coalition?'" the Democratic senator said. "I called the lady, and she was very enthusiastic." 

That lady is Roberta Combs, president of the 2 million member group that takes conservative stands on issues such as abortion and gay rights. Combs' group also is encouraging supporters to join the fight to end a filibuster by Senate Democrats of judicial nominee Miguel Estrada, a blockade led by Schumer. 

But Combs said Tuesday that Schumer's anti-spam bill falls in line with her group's pro-family image. 

"It's very easy to support this bill," said Combs. "I'm excited about working with him on this because it's something we need." 

Schumer, who said part of his motivation to fight spam comes from knowing his Internet-surfing daughters have been accosted with anonymous spam messages peddling pornography, said it makes perfect sense to work with the Christian Coalition on the problem. 

Schumer's legislation, which he introduced in April, is designed to curtail all types of spam. He worries about counterefforts from direct-marketing interests, who don't want new laws restricting their appeals to mass markets. 

"If I can line up a bunch of Democrats, and then she can line up a bunch of Republicans, we can make this happen finally," said Schumer. "If I can outflank the special interests, that's progress." 

Schumer said he didn't think his newfound ally will cost him politically in liberal New York, as long as the partnership is for what most agree is a good cause. 

"I want to get things done, and this is a good way to do it," said Schumer. "Spam is really ruining one of the great inventions of the 20th century." 

John White, a professor of political science professor at the Catholic University of America, said the Christian Coalition's pairing with Schumer "shows a certain political deftness and savvy." 

"They're actually working with someone they disagree with on 99% of all other issues, and who they would like to defeat when he runs for re-election in 2004," said White, who specializes in voting behavior and religion. "It removes them from the isolation of a particular political wing without compromising their own beliefs." 

White said most people are so annoyed by spam, they just want someone to do something about it. 

"A lot of that spam is pornography. I get it on my Catholic University e-mail all the time," White said. "I'm tired of it, and I think a lot of people are tired of it." 

Combs did not want to say whether her group would support Schumer's re-election but didn't rule out working with him on other political projects. 

"We agree on this," she said. "Who knows what the future holds." 
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