An item on how to fix public safety interference at 800 MHz began to circulate on the 8th floor at the FCC, according to a research note by Legg Mason and other sources late Tues. Various proposals have been lined up before the agency on how to mitigate public safety interference in this spectrum, including a consensus plan backed by Nextel and others that would entail spectrum reconfigurations at 700, 800 and 900 MHz and 1.9 GHz. “Our understanding is that at least 4 of the 5 offices have, as a preliminary matter, accepted the need to make the 1.9 GHz spectrum available to Nextel, but at a price,” Legg Mason said in a research note. “We do not know whether the draft order actually includes a dollar amount for what the Commission seeks from Nextel to compensate for the greater value of the spectrum it will receive.”

Test marketing has concluded for the DualDisc hybrid DVD/CD, but 5 weeks after it began questions remain about patent claims to hybrid technology -- as well as playability issues for the flipper discs. Another lab report we've seen indicates potential problems with the DualDisc’s CD side. And legal documents we've seen indicate that DualDisc backer Warner Music Group (WMG) had a binding agreement dating to 2000 to use the “DVD [plus]” technology patented by DVD Plus International for any hybrid discs the music company marketed in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has preliminarily determined to revoke the antidumping (AD) duty order on extruded rubber thread from Malaysia for all entries with a time of entry on or after October 1, 2003, the first day of the most recent period of administrative review and the only period for which an administrative review has not been completed.

Recently published test results by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicate that so-called “grandfathered” ground penetrating radar (GPRs) devices caused “severe interference” in some cases to Air Traffic Control receivers. In 2002, the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology laid out a waiver procedure for certain ultra-wideband devices, allowing existing GPRs and wall-imaging devices to continue to operate. Eligible users could keep operating those devices under Part 15 rules if they were purchased before July 15, 2002, and there continued to be no evidence of harmful interference. The FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, at the request of the agency’s Office of Spectrum Policy & Management, conducted tests with such grandfathered GPR devices. Last year, the FAA said preliminary results pointed to very severe interference to airborne helicopters at a distance of 100 ft. from a GPR device. At the time, GPR proponents said those initial results appeared out of sync with how these devices actually operate because GPR emissions are required to be much lower than those from ordinary consumer devices such as laptop PCs (CD Feb 13 p1). The FAA tests were designed to assess the impact of GPR devices on aeronautical systems operating below 960 MHz. The tests showed that a GPR “exceeded the new FCC Part 15 requirements by as much as 12 db, caused severe interference in some scenarios to the FAA’s Air Traffic Control receivers making air to ground communications difficult, if not impossible, and interfered with the audio portion of airborne communications and NAVAIDS radios,” the report said. It recommended that FCC Part 15 regulations be changed to require that UWB testing use smaller spectrum analyzer bandwidths, perhaps in the 10 kHz range. It said that under such a scenario individual spectral lines that may cause interference would be visible on the analyzer. “These spectral lines are invaluable in assisting the FAA in making a determination [about] whether interference will occur,” it said. The FAA report also recommended that the FCC require GPRs to be shielded so emissions “other than those required for proper operation of the equipment” are suppressed. The report said this would direct the GPR signal more towards the ground and “thus lessen the effect on FAA systems.” The report noted that these test results can’t be used on their own to establish GPR interference criteria to aeronautical communications and navigation systems that provide critical safety-of-life systems. “These tests do, however, provide a qualitative demonstration of the potential for GPR devices to interfere with aeronautical systems. Although the GPR unit tested does not meet the requirements of FCC Part 15, it is one of the units waived by the FCC to allow for its operation,” the report said. It noted that because GPR interference mechanisms aren’t yet fully understood, the test results couldn’t be extrapolated to estimate the interference potential of a GPR that doesn’t meet Part 15 requirements. The report said FAA plans further testing of GPRs and other UWB equipment to characterize these interference issues.

A permanent stay on an injunction against the sale of DVD copying software by 321 Studios will be argued March 15 after Judge Richard Owen, U.S. Dist. Court, N.Y.C., issued an oral, temporary stay of the preliminary injunction he granted to studios Fox and Paramount March 3. As with the permanent injunction issued by Judge Susan Illston of U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, 321 Studios said it planned to appeal the N.Y.C. ruling. Since the Cal. injunction took effect Feb. 27, 321’s DVD X Copy family of DVD backup programs have been sold without the code that defeats DVD’s Content Scrambling System encryption. Both judges ruled 321 violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition against devices that circumvent copy protection systems.

According to the ITA, the petitioner, International Imaging Materials, Inc. (IIMAK), alleged that respondents in the three concurrent investigations of TTR (France, Japan, and South Korea) would attempt to circumvent the order by slitting jumbo rolls in third countries. Therefore, the ITA states that IIMAK requested that slitting does not change the country of origin of TTR for AD duty purposes.

(a) Chandan and Isibars have an AD rate of zero; no cash deposits will be required although suspension of liquidation will continue

DVD backup-software developer 321 Studios said it would appeal the injunction against the sale of its programs handed down last week by a federal judge in N.Y. The ruling, by U.S. Dist. Judge Richard Owen was the 2nd such injunction against 321’s DVD X Copy family of copying software in less than 2 weeks. Earlier, the U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, had banned the sale of 321’s products. Like the San Francisco court, Judge Owens agreed with the Hollywood studio plaintiffs that 321’s software violated the Digital Millenium Copyright Act’s provisions against circumventing the content owner’s copy protection. “321 Studios disagrees with both the California and the New York judgments, and will appeal, continuing to fight back against this fair use paradox that has effectively stripped away Americans’ rights in the digital future,” said Robert Moore, 321 founder-pres. “321 is in full compliance with Judge Richard Owen’s preliminary injunction. 321 Studios has already complied fully with an injunction against distributing a DVD circumvention device handed down in California on February 20, and is now distributing and selling ‘ripper-free.’ or ‘RF’ versions of DVD X Copy software through the company’s website and nationwide retail channels.” 321 said the Cal. judgment “clearly acknowledges that there are legal backup uses that can be made of DVDs under fair use” -- but Judge Owens didn’t buy part of the company’s argument. 321 contended the programs were not primarily designed to circumvent DVD’s Content Scrambling System (CSS) encryption, but had diverse, noninfringing uses such as repairing damaging discs by making a new, restored copy. But the court said those “arguably limited alternative uses” didn’t outweigh illegal uses of CSS circumvention. Besides enjoining the sale of 321’s products, the N.Y. court also barred the company from transferring its U.S.- based assets overseas. At our deadline, it wasn’t clear whether the purpose of that ruling was to secure funds for potential damages assessed against 321, or to prevent the company from operating outside the jurisdiction of the DMCA and selling its enjoined products from overseas into the U.S. Separately, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office put rights holders on notice that her office would continue creating exceptions, as necessary, to the DMCA’s circumvention ban. “If material is locked up and there is no way to get at it, there will be an exemption for the next 3 years,” as provided in the statute, Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters told a State Bar of Cal. copyright event in San Francisco last week. The responsibility for re-examining exceptions every 3 years originally looked burdensome, but it has turned out to be “a fairly good way to take a look at what is going on in the market,” she said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated an antidumping (AD) duty changed circumstances review of polychloroprene rubber from Japan to determine whether Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) is the successor-in-interest to Showa DDE Manufacturing K.K. (SDEM) and DDE Japan Kabushiki Kaisha (DDE Japan) (collectively SDEM/DDE Japan) for purposes of AD duty liability.

(a) For previously reviewed or investigated companies not listed above, the cash deposit rate will continue to be the company-specific rate published for the most recent period.