Industry observers questioned the ease of implementation of spectrum proposals discussed at a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the topic (see 1507290057) but underscored their necessity. “Congress needs to ensure that the incentives are truly market oriented so that a proper incentive is established,” said Greg Vogt, a Free State Foundation visiting fellow, in a blog post. “The time for becoming more serious about finding new mobile broadband spectrum is now. The low hanging fruit of spectrum available for reallocation has already been picked, and now we are down to the harder choices.” He dismissed any concerns about whether government holders of spectrum should receive part of the profit for its sale since they never paid for it, and insists they should. “I agree that Congress should define permissible budget expenditures,” Vogt added. “Using a bold new approach may help overcome the existing inertia regarding the repurposing of government-assigned spectrum and help achieve the Obama Administration's spectrum vision more rapidly and effectively than current efforts. A possible ‘failure’ would be no worse than the inevitable train wreck that is rapidly approaching using the current approach.” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation telecom policy analyst Doug Brake also summed up key parts of the testimony in a blog post this week: “For practical purposes the needed congressional actions for both federal incentive auctions and narrower, right-to-negotiate auctions would begin in the same place. Either of these mechanisms would require reform to the Miscellaneous Receipts Act and the Antideficiency Act -- a pair of laws that prevent payments directly to government agencies.The GSA-style spectrum fees, while still requiring congressional action, may be more straightforward to implement.” The Commerce Committee is expected to take a bigger dive into spectrum legislation this fall.

Industry observers questioned the ease of implementation of spectrum proposals discussed at a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the topic (see 1507290057) but underscored their necessity. “Congress needs to ensure that the incentives are truly market oriented so that a proper incentive is established,” said Greg Vogt, a Free State Foundation visiting fellow, in a blog post. “The time for becoming more serious about finding new mobile broadband spectrum is now. The low hanging fruit of spectrum available for reallocation has already been picked, and now we are down to the harder choices.” He dismissed any concerns about whether government holders of spectrum should receive part of the profit for its sale since they never paid for it, and insists they should. “I agree that Congress should define permissible budget expenditures,” Vogt added. “Using a bold new approach may help overcome the existing inertia regarding the repurposing of government-assigned spectrum and help achieve the Obama Administration's spectrum vision more rapidly and effectively than current efforts. A possible ‘failure’ would be no worse than the inevitable train wreck that is rapidly approaching using the current approach.” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation telecom policy analyst Doug Brake also summed up key parts of the testimony in a blog post this week: “For practical purposes the needed congressional actions for both federal incentive auctions and narrower, right-to-negotiate auctions would begin in the same place. Either of these mechanisms would require reform to the Miscellaneous Receipts Act and the Antideficiency Act -- a pair of laws that prevent payments directly to government agencies.The GSA-style spectrum fees, while still requiring congressional action, may be more straightforward to implement.” The Commerce Committee is expected to take a bigger dive into spectrum legislation this fall.

Congress should quickly take up, debate on and pass Rep. Jackie Speier’s, D-Calif., soon-to-be introduced revenge porn legislation, the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Vice President Daniel Castro and research assistant Alan McQuinn in a report Wednesday. While a number of states and private businesses have taken up the cause to reduce the online harassment known as revenge porn, Congress needs to take action because victims have inadequate means available to fight back, the report said. ITIF recommends Congress pass legislation criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit images, create a special FBI unit to provide immediate assistance to victims of nonconsensual pornography, and direct the Justice Department to work with the private sector on developing best practices for online services to remove nonconsensual pornography quickly, the report said. To ensure the legislation doesn’t criminalize less malicious behavior or infringe on free speech it should include an intent clause and a knowledge standard, the report said. ITIF also recommended federal legislation not change Section 230 of Title 47 of the U.S. Code, which protects online providers from liability for the content posted by others, so law enforcement can focus on the perpetrators of the crime, and for “sexually explicit material” to be defined in a manner that can evolve over time. Nonconsensual pornography is an “egregious invasion of privacy” predominantly affecting women that “severely damages reputations, endangers safety, and inflicts unjust financial, emotional, and social costs,” Castro said in a news release. “While 24 states and some private companies have taken a stand to slow this insidious crime, we need a consistent, nation-wide policy that adequately brings remedy to the victims and dissuades future violations,” he said.

Congress should quickly take up, debate on and pass Rep. Jackie Speier’s, D-Calif., soon-to-be introduced revenge porn legislation, the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Vice President Daniel Castro and research assistant Alan McQuinn in a report Wednesday. While a number of states and private businesses have taken up the cause to reduce the online harassment known as revenge porn, Congress needs to take action because victims have inadequate means available to fight back, the report said. ITIF recommends Congress pass legislation criminalizing the nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit images, create a special FBI unit to provide immediate assistance to victims of nonconsensual pornography, and direct the Justice Department to work with the private sector on developing best practices for online services to remove nonconsensual pornography quickly, the report said. To ensure the legislation doesn’t criminalize less malicious behavior or infringe on free speech it should include an intent clause and a knowledge standard, the report said. ITIF also recommended federal legislation not change Section 230 of Title 47 of the U.S. Code, which protects online providers from liability for the content posted by others, so law enforcement can focus on the perpetrators of the crime, and for “sexually explicit material” to be defined in a manner that can evolve over time. Nonconsensual pornography is an “egregious invasion of privacy” predominantly affecting women that “severely damages reputations, endangers safety, and inflicts unjust financial, emotional, and social costs,” Castro said in a news release. “While 24 states and some private companies have taken a stand to slow this insidious crime, we need a consistent, nation-wide policy that adequately brings remedy to the victims and dissuades future violations,” he said.

The FCC should ignore further arguments in favor of an expanded amount of reserve spectrum for the TV incentive auction and let the auction proceed, Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said in a Monday blog post. “We already had this debate with the initial mobile spectrum holdings report and order a year ago,” Brake wrote. “There was an extensive back and forth on this very issue, the FCC already decided on a compromise. The FCC recognized the importance of 600 MHz spectrum to the competitive landscape, but also recognized that the primary advantage of auctioning spectrum is to discover the firm who values a particular license most.” The issue is before the FCC as it takes up refinements to the auction rules at its Thursday meeting (see 1507060068). Despite the claims of their competitors, Verizon and AT&T are the most spectrum-restrained carriers, Brake wrote. “These companies are not hoarding spectrum to foreclose competitors, but aggressively deploying,” he said. “Furthermore, this is an industry in the midst of a price war with margins falling. In fact, T-Mobile appears to be doing quite well by focusing on capacity in urban areas. Issues around rural coverage in this debate are largely red herrings -- the need for more spectrum, and, frankly, the money, is still in cities.”

“Congress should pass federal legislation criminalizing revenge porn to bring relief to victims,” wrote Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro and research assistant Alan McQuinn in an opinion piece published by The Hill Tuesday. Former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan’s “unflinching quest for justice” after the distribution of a “lurid sex tape, in which he's the subject, without his permission," is "a prime example of the challenges revenge porn victims encounter" due to an inadequate legal system, they said. In 2012 the website Gawker published an edited copy of Hogan’s sex tape and declined to remove the video, claiming it was newsworthy, Castro and McQuinn said. Two issues in Hogan’s case are whether someone made the video without Hogan’s consent, since Hogan says he didn't know he was being taped, and whether Hogan consented to having sexually explicit images of his body distributed, Castro and McQuinn said. “Hogan may be a minor TV celebrity, but that does not justify such a gross violation of his privacy,” they said. “Revenge porn has a plethora of damaging effects, such as shattered reputations, loss of employment, emotional damage and all-too-real threats of violence from strangers,” Castro and McQuinn said. Currently 23 states have some sort of law outlawing nonconsensual pornography, but those in states without a law have little to no recourse, they said. The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have historically opposed state revenge porn legislation, “fearing that it could lead to infringement on free speech,” they said. Google recently announced it would remove from its search results nude or explicit images shared without the subjects' consent (see 1506190048), but “private-sector action is not enough,” they said. “If a federal law existed, the government would pursue criminal prosecutions, ensuring that even victims unable to afford an expensive lawsuit could receive protection,” they said. “Congress should move expediently to take up legislation banning revenge porn -- such as Rep. Jackie Speier's, D-Calif., much-anticipated Intimate Privacy Protection Act -- because everyone deserves to choose when and how their nude images can be seen.” Speier’s office told us in February that she planned to introduce her legislation banning revenge porn in the coming months (see 1502040042). The ACLU had no further comment. EFF didn't comment.

Before artificial intelligence technology advances too far, policymakers, researchers and regulators must talk about what is and isn’t acceptable, speakers said Tuesday at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event. Artificial intelligence can bring many benefits to humans, but if constructed poorly, AI comes with a lot of risks, said Machine Intelligence Research Institute Executive Director Nate Soares. Others said artificial intelligence is part of the evolution of humanity, and restrictions shouldn’t be put on a technology when researchers are still discovering its capabilities.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and NAB support some of the Consumer Drone Safety Act introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The legislation “strikes the right balance by imposing meaningful guidelines on recreational use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” an NAB spokesman said in a written statement Thursday. “UAVs hold great potential in improving newsgathering capabilities at local stations.” Though ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro generally commended the legislation, he said Friday that its anti-tampering proposed requirements go too far. “UAS as we know them today were created due to a culture of innovation, in which amateur inventors and model aircraft hobbyists built and improved upon the technology organically,” Castro said of unmanned aircraft systems. “This bill would prohibit consumers from ‘jailbreaking’ their drones and put the brakes on permission-less innovation.” Castro proposed steep penalties be imposed on those who violate Federal Aviation Administration safety rules. “The Consumer Drone Safety Act is a small, but important, step forward,” he said. “Congress and the FAA should continue to look for opportunities to enable commercial UAS usage that is risk-based and technology-neutral,” he said. “By modernizing its FAA safety rules, the United States can promote innovation and remain competitive in the rapidly growing global market for drone technology.” Some have said the chances of Congress passing any comprehensive drone privacy legislation are low (see 1506180020).

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and NAB support some of the Consumer Drone Safety Act introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The legislation “strikes the right balance by imposing meaningful guidelines on recreational use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” an NAB spokesman said in a written statement Thursday. “UAVs hold great potential in improving newsgathering capabilities at local stations.” Though ITIF Vice President Daniel Castro generally commended the legislation, he said Friday that its anti-tampering proposed requirements go too far. “UAS as we know them today were created due to a culture of innovation, in which amateur inventors and model aircraft hobbyists built and improved upon the technology organically,” Castro said of unmanned aircraft systems. “This bill would prohibit consumers from ‘jailbreaking’ their drones and put the brakes on permission-less innovation.” Castro proposed steep penalties be imposed on those who violate Federal Aviation Administration safety rules. “The Consumer Drone Safety Act is a small, but important, step forward,” he said. “Congress and the FAA should continue to look for opportunities to enable commercial UAS usage that is risk-based and technology-neutral,” he said. “By modernizing its FAA safety rules, the United States can promote innovation and remain competitive in the rapidly growing global market for drone technology.” Some have said the chances of Congress passing any comprehensive drone privacy legislation are low (see 1506180020).

The EU wants to include the private sector in work on its digital single market (DSM) strategy, but “we're not going to be lectured by the private sector on what constitutes a free flow of data within the European Union,” said Andrea Glorioso, Delegation of the EU to the U.S. counselor-digital economy/cyber. “We're not going to be fooled by claims unless those claims are substantiated by hard data.” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other backers of the EU's 16-point DSM strategy, unveiled in May (see 1505060038 and 1505070053), believe the strategy will promote e-commerce across the EU's 28 member nations by overhauling the EU's telecom rules and harmonizing members states' regulations in areas like copyright law.