In a recent speech before the Propeller Club of Washington, D.C., Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Steven Blust commented on a number of maritime issues, including the recent Supreme Court decision, Norfolk Southern v. Kirby, which reaffirmed the statutory distinction between forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOCCs).
In its first week available, Paramount’s remake of The Stepford Wives was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 14 showed. The title earned $8.46 million in the week on DVD alone and $10.49 million in combined DVD and VHS rental revenue, Rentrak said. Shrek 2 from DreamWorks -- last week’s #1 DVD -- dropped to #2, earning an additional $7.62 million on DVD, for a total of $14.07 million to date.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results for the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews, which are not in effect:
Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was again the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Nov. 14 showed. Rentrak said the PS2 exclusive earned an additional $1.14 million in its 3rd week, for a total of $3.39 million to date. Microsoft’s Xbox game sequel Halo 2 was #2 in its first week ($924,612). Although the heavily-promoted and strong- selling Halo 2 didn’t unseat the latest Grand Theft Auto title, its showing was strong in a chart typically dominated by PS2 titles because of the larger installed base of that platform. It was the only game in the top 10 not for PS2. Electronic Arts was the only publisher with more than one SKU in the top 10, with 3: Madden NFL 2005 at #5 (down one in its 14th week, $212,440 in the week and $4.24 million to date), NCAA Football 2005 at #7 (up 2, 18th week, $163,045 and $3.37 million) and The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age at #8 (up 8, 2nd week, $151,083 and $259,629). Rounding out the top 10 were THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw at #3 (up 3, 2nd week, $294,810 and $469,551), Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 at #4 (down 2, 6th week, $228,736 and $1.75 million), Midway’s Mortal Kombat: Deception at #6 (down 3, 6th week, $193,554 and $1.44 million), LucasArts Entertainment’s Star Wars: Battlefront at #9 (down 4, 8th week, $150,909 and $1.87 million) and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Killzone at #10 (up an unusual 118 in its 2nd week, $128,308 and $149,063).
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has made a final affirmative determination that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers/exporters of carbazole violet pigment 23 (CVP-23) from India.
The ITA states that the China-wide rate applies to all entries of the subject merchandise except for entries from the four exporters individually listed above.
European data protection commissioners (DPCs) last week strongly criticized a European Commission (EC) proposal to force communications service providers to retain Internet and telephone traffic data for 12-36 months, calling the plan legally unacceptable. In a Nov. 9 preliminary opinion on the data retention proposal -- originally floated by France, the U.K., Sweden and Ireland -- the EC’s Art. 29 data protection working party said it has “considerable doubts” that the draft directive meets several criteria fundamental to human rights laws. First, DPCs said, the aim of the draft is unclear, making it impossible to know whether it’s a legitimate aim of traffic interception. Moreover, they said, such interference must respond to a “pressing social need.” “The routine, comprehensive storage of all traffic data, user and participant data proposed in the draft decision would make surveillance that is authorised in exceptional circumstances the rule,” which is clearly disproportionate to the need of the law enforcement community, the working party said. Analysis carried out by telcos shows the largest amount of data sought by law enforcement agencies isn’t more than 6 months old, DPCs said. Moreover, they said, representatives from law enforcement agencies “have failed to provide any evidence as to the need for such far reaching measures.” The Council of Europe cybercrime treaty permits individual secure storage of data on a “fast-freeze -- quick thaw” model that’s entirely adequate for preventing or prosecuting crimes, DPCs said. “It is characteristic of current legal discussions that the present proposal is being seriously discussed before the Convention on Cybercrime has entered into force in most signatory states and its practical consequences can be assessed.”
The FCC International Bureau “generally support[s]” the preliminary views of its WRC-07 Advisory Committee (CD Nov 12 p2), it said in a notice. The bureau is seeking comments on the proposals (IB 04-286) by Nov. 24, it said. Comments should also address views of the Executive Branch, as presented by NTIA, the bureau said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued messages on a number of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty actions, many of which (marked by an * in the action column) were previously published in the Federal Register by the International Trade Administration (ITA) and summarized in International Trade Today.