HMTX Industries and Jasco Products, first plaintiffs to file in the massive Section 301 litigation seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings and get the duties refunded, strongly oppose DOJ’s prolonged briefing format and schedule proposed Monday in a motion for case management procedures (see 2010200020), said Akin Gump in a response (in Pacer) Thursday at the U.S. Court of International Trade. The government proposed the parties not begin to argue the “merits of this dispute” before 2022 or beyond, it said. “Given the ongoing harms to thousands of plaintiffs, among others, that protracted schedule is unacceptable.” The CIT instead should follow the harbor maintenance tax (HMT) litigation as a model by staying all but the HMTX-Jasco complaint and ordering the parties to file “concurrent cross-motions for summary judgment addressing particular issues, including both jurisdictional and merits questions,” said Akin Gump. Adopting the HMT litigation’s cross-motions procedure “will best achieve the aims of resolving the key legal issues in an efficient manner,” it said. “Unnecessarily delaying resolution of this case for additional months or years -- with all the attendant litigation expenses and accruing duties that would entail -- is unwarranted.” Since more than 3,500 importers filed suit, many of whose entries have already liquidated or will liquidate soon, it’s important “to confirm at the outset that the government will stipulate, as it has in other cases, that a refund remedy is available should plaintiffs prevail,” said Akin Gump. “Such relief remains critical to ensuring that these cases are handled efficiently, effectively, and with the least administrative burden possible.” DOJ hasn’t taken a position on refunds and indicated to plaintiffs it won’t do so until a test case is picked. DOJ didn’t respond to questions. DOJ’s motion for case management procedures is likely to face broader opposition, blogged law firm Thompson Hine Wednesday. "This motion is expected to trigger a raft of challenges by plaintiffs’ counsel in all of the Section 301-related cases on such DOJ positions as the composition of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee and the designation of appropriate test cases," it said.
President Donald Trump signed an extension of the 2006 Undertaking Spam, Spyware And Fraud Enforcement With Enforcers beyond Borders (U.S. Safe Web) Act through Sept. 30, 2027 (HR-4779) Tuesday. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., praised Trump. “As scammers and bad actors take advantage of American consumers during COVID-19, and the international data privacy landscape continues to change, we must do whatever we can to keep Americans’ data safe,” the lawmakers said. The law “will help do just that, and allow us to advance in today’s interconnected world securely and safely, by ensuring the FTC “can continue their work" combating "unfair and deceptive acts, as well as cyberattacks.”
Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell reinforced the staying power of videoconferencing hardware, mice and keyboards on a Tuesday call, after two strong quarters driven by work from home. “The biggest permanent changes were going to happen anyway,” he said, citing home-based work and education, “video everywhere,” esports and “democratization of content creation.” He predicted continued growth for webcams, video collaboration tools and PC peripherals for home-based workers and the enterprise, predicting a “big middle” of companies that choose a hybrid approach for workers after the pandemic. He expects a period where families set up separate stations for work and schooling, followed by an upgrade cycle. He predicted video calls will replace audio calls and esports viewership will overtake traditional sports. Q2 was Logitech's first quarter with $1 billion in sales, at $1.26 billion for the period ended Sept. 30, a 73% jump from the year-ago quarter. The company raised its FY 2021 outlook. Shares hit a 52-week high Tuesday and closed up 16% at $92.64. Webcams, the top sales growth category, surged 256% to $102 million, followed by video collaboration, then tablet keyboards. Gaming rose 84% to $298 million. In the League of Legends final four tournament last weekend, 110 million people were expected to have watched live, said Darrell.
Industry and the National Emergency Number Association agreed the FCC needs to do more work before reporting to Congress on feasibility and cost of making Wi-Fi access points and other communications technologies available for access to 911 during times of emergency. Replies on a Public Safety Bureau notice were due Friday in docket 20-285. The FCC must file a report as a requirement of Ray Baum’s Act. “In light of the significant technical and security issues raised in this proceeding about relying on Wi-Fi access points as a backup for wireless 9-1-1, the FCC should seek the guidance of relevant technical expert bodies on these issues prior to submitting its study to Congress,” CTIA said. Access points supported by fixed wireline are “just as challenged as mobile wireless services to remain operational during severe emergencies,” it said: “Other Commission proceedings demonstrate the increasing resilience of mobile wireless networks even where fixed wireline backhaul and commercial power is unavailable for extended periods of time.” Connecting through access points “appears to be technically feasible, but work must be done to ensure quality assurance to 9-1-1 and to its callers,” NENA commented. Such connections “must meet, at the very least, the public’s expectations for reliability and service; meeting these expectations may be challenging absent regulatory authority,” the group said. ACA Connects said it’s not “technically feasible” today to use Wi-Fi “to provide a backup path to 911 when mobile networks are down.”
An FCC proposal to relax or change Communications Decency Act Section 230 protections for tech companies (see 2010150057) could make it harder for companies to block hate speech, which could have disastrous effects on the economy, Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser David Honig said Friday. “If people live in fear, they don’t buy stuff.” It's doubtful the FCC has enough time to complete such a rulemaking by Inauguration Day, he told a National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters conference.
CTIA urged the FCC to “pause any increase” in federal Lifeline minimum service standards (MSS) until after it releases its Lifeline market report, expected next year. “In the uncertain times created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission can provide certainty to millions of low-income Americans who are relying upon Lifeline supported mobile wireless services to stay connected,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 17-287. There's “overwhelming” consensus in support of a pause, the group said.
The Copyright Office will recommend readopting “all existing exemptions” under Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201, the agency announced Thursday with an NPRM in the eighth triennial proceeding (see 2006220041). The CO based the decision on a “lack of meaningful opposition” amid renewal petitions. The notice includes 17 proposed classes of exemptions, for which there will be three rounds of comment. Supportive and neutral comments are due Dec. 14, oppositions Feb. 9, and replies from the first group March 10.
The FCC and U.S. Agency for International Development signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday agreeing to work together to promote “secure and open 5G networks in the developing world.” As the U.S. and the world “move ahead with next-generation, 5G wireless services, we must ensure these networks are both open and secure,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. They will “promote open, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet and digital infrastructure and advance interagency coordination on network security in developing countries.”
Global shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, increased 14.6% in Q3 to 81.3 million units, reported IDC Monday. “As the global pandemic rages on and many countries around the world enter the second wave of COVID-19 infections, continuity of business and online schooling remain at the forefront.” Consumer and “institutional” demand approached records, said IDC. “Had the market not been hampered by component shortages, notebook shipments would have soared even higher during the third quarter as market appetite was yet unsatiated." CPU and LCD panel shortages meant a “missed opportunity” for many notebook vendors, it said. “The PC industry rode into the third quarter with a sizable backlog of unfulfilled orders," and it appears Q3 ended the same way, said IDC. “We do not anticipate a sudden surge in capacity. Consequently, this backlog will likely carry into 2021."
Twitter won’t allow anyone to use the platform “to manipulate or interfere in elections,” blogged the company Friday. People on Twitter, including candidates for office, will be barred from claiming an election win “before it is authoritatively called,” it said. “We require either an announcement from state election officials, or a public projection from at least two authoritative, national news outlets that make independent election calls.” Starting this week, when someone tries to retweet a post labeled as containing “misleading information,” they will see a prompt “pointing them to credible information about the topic before they are able to amplify it,” said the company. “Tweets with labels are already de-amplified through our own recommendation systems and these new prompts will give individuals more context.” Facebook announced its own election safeguards earlier in the week, stipulating its policy for contested races. If the candidate declared the winner by major media outlets “is contested by another candidate or party, we will show the name of the declared winning candidate with notifications at the top of Facebook and Instagram, as well as label posts from presidential candidates, with the declared winner’s name and a link to the Voting Information Center,” it said. If a candidate declares “premature victory,” Facebook will add to the notifications that “counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined.”