SoundExchange will audit Cumulus, Emmis, Pandora and Urban One to verify royalty payments for online music, said the Copyright Royalty Board. Other Friday Federal Register notices indicated audits for Music Choice and Rockbot. “The decision to audit a company is not necessarily any indication that SoundExchange considers something amiss with that company’s royalty payments -- instead they audit a cross-section of services each year,” blogged Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford. Outside accounting firms do the analysis, issuing a report that's reviewed by the audited parties before being given to SoundExchange, which can collect underpaid royalties, the broadcast attorney wrote, adding that results aren’t usually public.
Microsoft's GitHub said it got a U.S. sanctions license to provide services to software developers in Iran. GitHub, which provides hosting for software development, convinced the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls that its use “advances human progress” and international communication, and improves free speech, the company said Tuesday. GitHub called the two-year process with OFAC “lengthy and intensive” and said it's “in the process” of rolling back “all restrictions on developers in Iran, and reinstating full access.” The company said it's working to secure similar licenses for developers in Crimea and Syria. OFAC didn’t comment Thursday.
Deny the patent infringement investigation SkyBell and EyeTalk365 seek on video doorbells and IP cameras from Vivint, SimpliSafe and Arlo Technologies because the seven communications and monitoring systems patents are “invalid,” commented SimpliSafe and Arlo (login required) in International Trade Commission docket 337-3517. Tuesday was the deadline for comments. Two of the three proposed respondents argued for the case to be thrown out or decided expeditiously. No Vivint filing was posted Wednesday. The complainants didn’t respond to questions.
Nearly a third of U.S. consumers 65 and older are considering buying an independent living system, reported Parks Associates Tuesday, as 34% own a smart speaker or smart display and 76% use a smartphone. “High levels of interest in particular features, including safety and security functions, indicate demand for a solution designed specifically for senior comfort and control,” said analyst Kristen Hanich. COVID-19 presented new challenges, and senior telehealth usage nearly quadrupled year over year in May to 29%, led by phone calls and video chats; 11% used self-diagnosis apps. The bump in telehealth service usage was driven by changes in Medicare reimbursement and rollout of remote visit functionality among physicians, Hanich said. “Health insurers and telehealth services also quickly moved to support this cohort.” Telehealth companies advanced to support Medicare Part B, with Doctor on Demand rolling out a service soon after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expanded Medicare telehealth reimbursement, Hanich said.
CTA quietly listed Microsoft President Brad Smith as a CES 2021 keynoter on the virtual event’s schedule, but his appearance is “not part of our larger contractual agreement” with Microsoft, emailed an association spokesperson Monday. CTA previously resisted saying whether Microsoft’s “cloud platform provider” contract terms to run CES 2021 as a virtual event included an agreement for Microsoft to keynote the show (see 2010190043). Smith’s prerecorded keynote on “The Promise and Peril of the Digital Age” is scheduled to begin streaming Jan. 13 at 9 a.m. EST. Smith will examine “the dual use of technology” as an “extraordinary tool that powers economies” but also a “formidable weapon that can undermine democracy and fundamental human rights,” says a conference description.
GAO found that 11 surveyed DOD IT programs have reduced their cost estimates, while four others increased their life-cycle cost estimates, it said Wednesday. Ten of the programs reported schedule delays of up to five years, GAO said. Ten of the 15 programs reported using commercial off-the-shelf software, which reduces development time and costs, the report said. Fourteen programs use an “iterative software development approach” that “may help reduce cost growth and deliver better results to the customer. However, programs also reported using an older approach to software development, known as waterfall, which could introduce risk for program cost growth because of its linear and sequential phases of development that may be implemented over a longer period of time.” All 15 surveyed programs are “developing cybersecurity strategies, which are intended to help ensure that programs are planning for and documenting cybersecurity risk management efforts,” GAO said. But “only eight” reported “conducting cybersecurity vulnerability assessments.” DOD reported it “continues to evolve its acquisition processes to reduce software development time, allow for faster delivery of capabilities, and lower life-cycle costs,” GAO said. The department said "the report highlighted opportunities for continued improvement in its efforts to acquire IT capabilities,” and it believes “implementation and wider adoption of the software acquisition pathway will assist in reducing risks and challenges, as will continued implementation of the DOD Cyber Strategy, which includes a line of effort aimed at improving the DOD cyber workforce by investing in future talent, identifying and recruiting sought-after talent, and retaining the current cyber workforce.”
Picking a vendor to run the digital platform of the virtual CES 2021, culminating in the October choice of Microsoft (see 2010190043), started with about 60 contenders, CTA President Gary Shapiro told us last week. Among the factors, “we went with Microsoft because they had done their own event,” he said of the Microsoft Ignite all-digital conference that debuted Sept. 22. “We actually signed up and watched it” as part of the evaluation, he said. “Microsoft had so many things we wanted, including a production studio, and they obviously know how to do cybersecurity,” said Shapiro. “There was a lot of chemistry.” The deal includes "things they hadn’t done before” such as show registrations and other CES-centric activities, Shapiro said. “There are other companies that were brought in as subcontractors. It’s a pretty complicated relationship.” Shapiro traveled earlier in December to Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters to do “production work,” he said. “Essentially, we’ve gone from producing a physical event to producing a number of TV shows. It’s totally different for us.” CTA is “able to do things” in the digital domain it never would have considered before, including changing the CES show dates six months out, he said, laughing. CTA originally planned to do the virtual show on the same Jan. 6-10 dates as the canceled physical Las Vegas show before moving to Jan. 11-14.
Next year will likely bring more North American "power users" of broadband who consume 1 TB or more of data per month, with the group reaching 10%-11% of subscribers, a 14% increase over 2020, OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau blogged Wednesday. He said such power users could become as high as 13%-14% while pandemic lockdowns remain: A conservative estimate of average monthly broadband use in North America in 2021 would be 430-445 GB per subscriber, a 10% increase, but monthly averages already are going past 480 GB and could hit 500 GB. The executive said those numbers likely will recede after pandemic conditions ease.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., bowed their Every Child Connected Act Wednesday. The bill would redirect for E-rate use the money the FTC collects for FTC Act Section 5 and privacy violations. It would require the FCC to redefine “classroom” for E-rate funding purposes to include at-home distance learning. “With schools nationwide shifting to digital learning” amid COVID-19, “students and teachers rely heavily on the internet,” Capito said. “Millions of students do not have the same access to these online tools that some of their classmates do.” There's a bid to include additional E-rate funding in FY 2021 appropriations and in a pandemic aid package (see 2012150069).
Major "gatekeepers" such as social media services would face tighter supervision under proposed legislation unveiled by the European Commission Tuesday. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Market Act (DMA) aim to give users better, more reliable services, allow smaller companies to scale up across the EU and prevent unfair conditions imposed by online platforms that are or are expected to become gatekeepers to the single market, the EC said. They are "milestones in the journey to making Europe fit for the digital age," said EC Vice President Margrethe Vestager. The goal is to ensure internet users have access to a wide range of digital services, all companies can compete online as they do offline, and users can trust what they see online, she said. The DSA contains measures to counter illegal content and has transparency rules for platforms and requirements for very large platforms to prevent abuse of their systems. The DSA builds on existing intermediary liability rules in the EU e-commerce directive. Very large platforms that fail to comply would face fines of up to 6% of global revenue. The DMA applies specifically to gatekeepers, to be defined by their role in the market according to factors such as size, whether they operate as gatekeepers between businesses and users, and whether they have an entrenched position. Gatekeeper obligations, the EC said, would include giving companies that advertise on its platform access to the performance measuring tools it uses. Gatekeepers would need to allow business users to promote their own offers and give such users access to the data generated by those activities. Large platforms would be barred from blocking users from uninstalling and preinstalling software or apps, using data obtained from their business users to compete with those companies, and restricting users from accessing services they found elsewhere. Companies would self-verify as gatekeepers if they meet DMA quantitative thresholds. The EC would then designate them as gatekeepers, and within six months, they would need to comply with DMA rules. Platforms that ignore the rules are subject to fines of up to 10% of revenue, and, if there are systemic infringements, the EC can impose additional remedies such as forcing a unit's sale. The proposed legislation needs approval by the European Parliament and the Council.