The ASCAP and BMI consent decrees will feature prominently at DOJ’s workshop Tuesday on music licensing, as expected (see 2007100019), with officials from the National Music Publishers’ Association and NAB to appear. DOJ Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim will give opening remarks. Musicians LeAnn Rimes, Pharrell Williams and Jon Bon Jovi will deliver keynotes. NMPA CEO David Israelite will speak on a panel about the consent decrees, with NAB CEO Gordon Smith, BMI CEO Michael O’Neill and ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews. Agenda items include public performance licensing alternatives, performance rights organizations and licensing music to users. The Songwriters of North America, Universal Music Publishing Group, Music Artists Coalition, iHeartMedia and others are sending representatives to speak.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has begun a broad review of new export controls on surveillance technologies going to China, which may also include additions to the agency’s entity list, said acting Commerce Department Undersecretary for Industry and Security Cordell Hull. Hull called the review “comprehensive” and “in-depth,” saying it could lead to controls over advanced surveillance tools, artificial intelligence software and biometric technologies. The effort included a business advisory for companies with supply chains in China’s Xinjiang region and a request for industry feedback on the impact of controls on facial recognition software and other surveillance technology (see 2007170024). “We have put the business community on notice,” Hull told Wednesday's U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom hearing. Hull said BIS is pleased with the impact of its export control regime, saying the restrictions hurt China’s ability to source sensitive U.S technologies. “We believe it's working. We believe our entity listings have impacted millions of dollars of items going to these entities,” Hull said. China's embassy in Washington didn't comment Thursday.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country wasn't “strong-armed” by the U.S. into recent actions against Beijing, saying the U.K. shares many of the same policy goals as the U.S. Instead, Raab said recent U.S. restrictions against Huawei and Chinese officials factored into U.K. policymaking. His country recently announced it's banning Huawei from its 5G network (see 2007140023). “The reality is as a result of U.S. sanctions, we’ve, of course, got to look with a clear-sighted perspective at what that means,” Raab told a news conference Tuesday in London with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The U.K.’s measures are “reflective" of what Prime Minister Boris Johnson believed was in "the best interests of the” British people, said Pompeo. He said he thinks Britain "made a good decision," not because the U.S. said it was a good decision but because U.K. leadership concluded it was "the right thing to do.”
Internet traffic at content delivery provider Limelight Networks reached “record levels” in Q2 as global economies locked down for the pandemic, said CEO Bob Lento on a Monday investor call. Cisco expects 26% traffic growth this year, including 35% growth in internet video traffic, he said: “We’re exceeding that.” Amid COVID-19's “increased global reliance” on the internet and content delivery, Limelight had “good traction” with VOD customers and “some live events are starting to return,” said Lento. Limelight’s “participation” in the April Peacock launch to Comcast subscribers and the May debut of HBO Max helped drive higher traffic in Q2, he said. Expanding network capacity is Limelight’s top “strategic imperative,” said Lento. Its goal entering 2020 was to achieve 100 terabits per second of capacity, he said. “We expect to meet or exceed that goal even while having experienced some supply chain issues and travel and operational restrictions resulting from COVID-19.” Limelight upgraded 2020 revenue guidance to $230 million-$240 million from $225 million-$235 million in the April forecast “despite the continued uncertainty of where this pandemic takes us,” said Chief Financial Officer Daniel Boncel. There are “more unknowns than knowns” about the pandemic and its economic impact, said Lento. “We don’t know what the future holds in terms of the spread and severity of the COVID-19 virus and its effect on the lifestyles of people around the world.” No single livestreaming event like the NFL is “that material from a revenue perspective,” said Lento. “But when you string them all together all over the world every day, it is a material part of our business and right now that was zero in Q2 or pretty close to it.” The stock closed 8.6% lower Tuesday at $6.99.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative received some 380 comments on the possibility of punishing Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.K. if they start collecting digital service taxes as proposed. USTR is also considering punishing the EU, which is considering a unionwide DST. Trade groups that are concerned about the proposed DSTs -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- asked the U.S. to continue working toward a global solution through the Organization of Community and Economic Development. Tech groups are less worried about such penalties over other countries' DSTs. "Contrary to some press accounts, the Chamber understands real progress has been achieved in some aspects of the negotiations under way," it wrote. Associations whose tech members would be most affected by DST didn't discourage the use of tariffs. The Information Technology Industry Council said Belgium and Kenya should also be in the crosshairs, because they are also considering such taxes. The Computer & Communications Industry Association praised the use of tariff threats on France's DST, suggesting it could be effective again. "CCIA takes seriously the impact that tariffs can have and, as a general policy view, believes that they only be used in limited circumstances, in a targeted manner, and where there is a clear strategy in place designed to change the behavior of a trading partner. In the French case, it was encouraging that this strong action led to the temporary pause of collection on behalf of the French government in January 2020." The docket is USTR-2020-0022 and here. USTR announced this month it's delaying duties on French goods for now (see 2007100057).
The Commerce Department's new Bureau of Industry and Security agenda touches on several technology issues, our review shows. It mentions an NPRM in BIS’ effort to control emerging and foundational technologies that will request comment about how export controls might affect “legitimate commercial or scientific applications.” BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule this month. The agenda newly mentions a final rule to adopt new emerging technology controls agreed to at the 2019 Wassenaar plenary. The new controls will cover dual-use goods and technologies. BIS said it aims to issue the rule this month. The agenda includes a new mention of a rule to control “software” for some genetics operations that need export controls.
New video delivery technologies and smart content management solutions are bolstering enterprise video, said ABI Research Tuesday. It forecasts the market will reach $18.7 billion this year due to work-at-home mandates. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling enterprise video applications to be more efficient, while facial and object recognition, scene detection and speech-to-text capabilities are making video indexing and search functions easier, faster and more accurate, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn. Low latency video allows livestreaming of corporate events to internal and external viewers. Enterprise video deployments are increasingly cloud based, she said: The expansion of fiber networks and 5G infrastructure will improve the content delivery process further.
Advertisers that remained on TV during COVID-19 had 23% more website engagement in subsequent weeks, Comcast’s Effectv and TVSquared reported. Brands with direct-to-consumer offerings had the highest rates of TV-attributed response, including e-commerce retail (+100%), online food delivery (+84%) and education (+41%). Automotive and insurance showed signs of recovery, but travel was still experiencing weakened traffic, said Monday's report. In March-April, brands that ran COVID-19-related creatives had an average lift of 37%, vs. 13% for those that didn’t. TV ads drive "consumer action online and also provide insights into how data-driven strategies can maximize engagement,” said James Rooke, Effectv general manager.
DOJ’s Antitrust Division will host a virtual workshop July 28-29 on “competition in the licensing of public performance rights in the music industry.” DOJ said it will be an opportunity for public feedback on the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees (see 2002050052) and implications for antitrust law enforcement. Comments are due July 22. Panelists will discuss whether certain terms “should be modified, and whether the decrees are inhibiting innovative business models that may hurt consumers or artists,” Justice said. Speakers will include executives, performing rights organizations, songwriters, music publishers, music licenses and legal and economic experts.
The EU Court of Justice should uphold standard contractual clauses and maintain the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Information Technology Industry Council Senior Manager-Policy Alexa Lee said Thursday. A decision in the so-called Schrems II case is expected July 16 (see 1912190001). Any other scenario would “erode trust” in the EU’s general data protection regulation, which “codified several different mechanisms for the predictable outbound transfer of data,” Lee wrote. She outlined four other potential scenarios: the court maintains SCCs as valid but strikes down the PS; invalidates certain SCCs transfers to the U.S. and maintains the PS; invalidates some SCCs transfers to the U.S. and strikes the PS; or invalidates global SCCs transfers and strikes the PS.