Tech Meets with Trump. Following on the heels of weeks of meetings for the President-elect, Donald Trump met with 14 executives from the tech community at Trump Tower on Wednesday. Prior to this meeting, relations between the Trump team and Silicon Valley had been frosty, at best. During the course of his campaign, Trump called for many policies that the technology community found threatening, including trade restrictions, stricter immigration policy, and “closing that internet up.” Despite this, many attendees from both camps left the meeting optimistic. Chief Executive Officer of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, a favorite target of Trump during the election said, “I shared the view that the administration should make innovation one of its key pillars, which would create a huge number of jobs across the whole country, in all sectors, not just tech—agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing—everywhere.” Among the items discussed at the meeting was the aforementioned job creation, China, tax reform, education, and infrastructure. Mr. Trump summed up his feelings towards the group saying, “We want you to keep going with the incredible innovation. There’s nobody like you in the world.”

Join Us in Pushing Back Against the EC’s Copyright Proposal. Earlier this year, the European Commission (EC) published a dangerous copyright reform proposal that would require online portals to implement filtering technologies to proactively police their users’ conduct. If adopted, this proposal would have a devastating impact: raising the cost of operating an online platform startup to untenable levels, diminishing investment capital for new companies, and threatening to bankrupt existing portals. In an attempt to fight back against the EC’s proposal, Engine has drafted a startup sign-on letter to USTR, the Department of Commerce, and the State Department, urging leaders at those agencies to engage with the EU to push back against this new copyright regime on behalf of America’s startups. If your startup is interested in joining the letter, please email Emma at emma@engine.is.

On Wednesday, Engine’s Executive Director Evan Engstrom and sixteen other technology industry leaders sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump outlining a number of growth and innovation-driving principles he should consider as he sets his policy agenda. The letter outlines the impact of the technology industry on economic growth and encourages Trump to tap into the sector’s ingenuity to solve some of America’s biggest challenges. Specifically, the letter recommends investing in an improved technology infrastructure, modernizing the ways laws and regulations govern data, pursuing tax reform, and filling government with people who are committed to working faster and smarter. Read the full letter here.

DC Grapples with IoT Cybersecurity. The Internet of Things (IoT) has grown exponentially in recent years: there are now approximately 6.4 billion internet connected devices worldwide, a number that is increasing by 5.5 million every single day. While the growing IoT holds tremendous potential, recent cyberattacks have left policymakers increasingly concerned over vulnerabilities in connected devices. On Tuesday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a set of guidelines on IoT cybersecurity, while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published its own policy principles for securing connected devices. The following day, policymakers on the Hill held a joint hearing to discuss security and cyberattacks on the IoT. There was consensus among panelists around the importance of standards and guidelines like those released by the Administration earlier in the week. However, there was disagreement over whether formal regulations are necessary. While one participant called for government intervention, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), who chaired the hearing, noted that regulations would be a "knee-jerk reaction" to recent attacks. We’re tracking.

Tech Confronts the Reality of a Trump Presidency. It’s no secret that Donald Trump has been at odds with the tech community throughout his campaign. And while much of the industry is still reeling after Tuesday’s results, startup and tech leaders are beginning to come to terms with the reality of a Trump presidency. While a number of the positions espoused by Trump are antithetical to those held by the tech community (think immigration, encryption, net neutrality, etc.), some tech leaders are approaching President-elect Trump with an open mind and expressing a willingness to work with him. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s VC Sherwin Pishevar calling for California to secede. No one can know exactly what Trump’s presidency will mean for startups and tech, but numerous publications are making predictions. A few of them can be found here, here, here, here, and here. 

This week, 84 business executives, both male and female, penned an open letter to our next president detailing the steps that he or she should take to bolster the participation of women in entrepreneurship. They grouped their suggestions into three broad categories: access to financial and human capital, access to local and global markets and networks, and help with the changing-face of technology. The lack of diversity in startups and investments is well documented. But it’s also indisputable that improving the landscape for female entrepreneurs will create positive economic and social impacts. As the group pointed out in their letter, if women and men participated equally in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the United States’ GDP could rise by $30 billion. The business leaders also noted that women invest 90 percent of their income into their communities, meaning that an investment in their careers could easily benefit society as a whole.  

Change in Leadership at the Copyright Office. Last Friday, Maria Pallante was removed from her post as Register of the Copyright Office by the new Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. While Pallante was reassigned as a senior advisor on digital strategy, she formally declined the new position, resigning from the Office on Monday. As the 12th Register, Pallante was both a vocal advocate of separating the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress and an early supporter of SOPA—two policies strongly opposed by the startup and tech communities, as well as public interest groups. The abrupt change-up has sent shockwaves through both the tech and entertainment industries, and many believe it is a foreshadowing of the larger copyright reform debate that is expected to occur early in the next Congress. We’re tracking.

For years, the startup and tech communities have been advocating for a pathway that would encourage the most promising immigrant entrepreneurs to start and scale their companies in the U.S. While no program currently allows for this, a recent proposal from the White House could change that. The International Entrepreneur Rule, proposed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in August, will allow qualifying foreign entrepreneurs to live in the U.S. to build their startup for up to five years. On Monday, Engine and New York-based technology trade group Tech:NYC submitted comments supporting the rule and recommending a number of targeted modifications, which we believe will allow the Rule to have an even greater positive impact. You can learn more and read the full comments here.