U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site information from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding: (1) FDA policies on the importation of prescription drugs, and (2) FDA's discretionary enforcement policy regarding the personal importation of certain unapproved new drugs.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice stating that it is postponing the preliminary antidumping (AD) duty determinations on certain circular welded carbon quality line pipe from Mexico and South Korea an additional 50 days, until no later than September 29, 2004 (from August 10, 2004).

In its first full week available, Warner’s comedy Starsky & Hutch was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended July 25 showed. Rentrak said the title earned $9.15 million on DVD in the week, for $9.23 million to date. Last week’s #1 DVD -- New Line’s The Butterfly Effect -- slipped to #2, earning an additional $5.38 million on DVD, for $20.16 million to date. Other new DVDs that saw strong rental demand in the week were Disney’s Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen ($3.63 million, $3.69 million to date), Warner’s The Big Bounce ($3.29 million, $3.33 million to date) and Artisan’s Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights ($2.47 million, $2.51 million to date).

In its 4th week available, Activision’s Spider-Man 2 on PS2 was again the #1-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended July 25 showed. The title earned an additional $711,808 in the week, for $3.03 million to date. The Xbox version was again #4, earning $326,728 in the week, for $1.52 million to date, while the GameCube version jumped into the top 10 at #10 (up 2, $142,262 in the week, $591,370 to date). Electronic Arts (EA) also had 3 SKUs in the top 10: NCAA Football 2005 for PS2 at #2 (up one, 2nd week, $507,394 and $973,100), the Xbox version at #6 (up one, $221,655 and $442,834) and Need for Speed Underground for PS2 at #8 again in its 36th week ($155,502 and $9.55 million). Atari and Take-Two Interactive’s Rockstar Games label each had 2 top 10 titles. Atari’s were DRIV3R for PS2 at #3 (down one in its 5th week, $453,932 and $2.58 million) and the Xbox version at #7 (down 2, $220,174 and $1.40 million). Rockstar’s were Red Dead Revolver for PS2 at #5 (up one, 12th week, $278,310 and $3.25 million) and the Xbox version at #9 (up one, $146,676 and $1.87 million).

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews:

The FCC announced late Wed. it plans to vote at its Aug. 4 meeting on outage reporting requirements for wireless and wireline carriers, as well as a rulemaking and declaratory order on changes to CALEA. All of the items pick up the broader homeland security theme of the meeting. The FCC indicated that despite a last-min. flurry of lobbying it will vote on a report and order from the Office of Engineering & Technology on service disruptions, picking up many of the recommendations in an earlier rulemaking. Wireless carriers in particular have expressed concerns that the reporting requirement would actually make their systems less secure. The FCC will also vote on a rulemaking by OET that’s expected to make a preliminary determination that VoIP should be subject to CALEA requirements. The Commission also has before it a declaratory order expected to hold that push-to- talk phone service is subject to CALEA. The FCC will also consider: (1) An Order on Reconsideration addressing, in part, petitions filed by BellSouth and SureWest for clarification and/or partial reconsideration of the Triennial Review Order. (2) A Fifth Report & Order addressing measures to protect against waste, fraud and abuse in the administration of the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism. (3) A notice of inquiry from the Enforcement Bureau on the effectiveness of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The Commission had previously said it would address EAS concerns (CD June 24 p7). (4) A report and order from the Media Bureau on the DTV transition and a Media Bureau order responding to certifications received in response to an initial certification window by which digital output protection technologies and recording methods could be authorized for use. The order would give effect to the Redistribution Control Descriptor set forth in the ATSC standard. (5) An order concerning implementation of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography & Marketing Act of 2003. Also at the meeting, the Homeland Security Policy Council will present a report concerning this year’s FCC regulatory, outreach and partnership initiatives in support of homeland security.

The FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC) agreed Wed. to push forward on trying to devise a model for quantifying the cost of radio spectrum interference, which could help the Commission as it delves deeper into its interference temperature initiative and other items exploring how to make maximum use of scarce spectrum in a wireless world. But the engineers and scientists on TAC vigorously debated the proposal and whether it would help the FCC make real-world spectrum decisions.

Consumer intentions on buying TV sets fell in July from June despite a sharp increase in the overall Consumer Confidence Index, according to preliminary data in the Conference Board’s monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 7.1% said they plan to buy a TV set the next 6 months, vs. 7.9% in June, 7.9% in May and 6.8% in July 2003. The Consumer Confidence Index jumped 3.3 points from June -- its 4th straight monthly increase -- reaching its highest point since June 2002, the Conference Board said: “The spring turnaround has been fueled by gains in employment, and unless the job market sours, consumer confidence should continue to post solid numbers.”

As part of the MPAA’s campaign against DVD piracy, a Cal. state court ordered chip maker ESS Technology to halt sales of descrambling chips to manufacturers whose unlicensed products enable unauthorized copies of DVDs. The preliminary injunction, granted late July 23 by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis, came in response to a suit filed by 7 major U.S. movie studios, which claimed ESS violated its license for DVD’s Content Scramble System (CSS). According to the MPAA, its copy protection compliance testing lab recently purchased and examined an undisclosed brand of DVD player/recorder that it said illegally copied DVDs to recordable discs. The investigation discovered that ESS chips were used in the deck, whose manufacturer lacked a CSS license from the DVD Copy Control Assn. By providing CSS descrambling chips for use in an unlicensed and unauthorized device, ESS was in violation of its CSS contract, the MPAA said. It said that in issuing the preliminary injunction, Judge Duffy-Lewis also indicated ESS was in violation of its contract. “By selling chips to unlicensed manufacturers, ESS was effectively enabling wholesale piracy, facilitating unauthorized copies of DVDs that make their way onto the Internet and into the hands of pirates around the world,” said Dan Robbins, MPAA chief technology counsel. The MPAA said its members intend to vigorously pursue the matter to ensure that ESS operates within the parameters of the CSS license agreement. An ESS spokeswoman said the company denied any wrongdoing and would investigate the matter further. Ted Shapiro, chief counsel for the international MPA, told Consumer Electronics Daily earlier this year that it and the MPAA had begun a program to test new equipment for compliance with DVD’s CSS specs -- as well as compliance with DVD’s Copy Generation Management System for analogy copying (CGMS-A). DVD players made within the past 2 years are supposed to pass along the CGMS-A flag if present on a DVD, to signal a DVD recorder to prohibit copying -- older players can’t recognize the flag or pass it on. Although most DVD recorders are capable of recognizing the flag, it’s estimated that about half of all new players don’t pass it on to the recorder -- or don’t do so correctly. Owing to vagueness in the CGMS-A spec, the issue is more pronounced in Europe and countries that use the PAL video standard than in NTSC countries such as the U.S. and Japan. Additionally, it’s not know to what extent the movie studios implement CGMS-A on their DVDs, or if it’s embedded in the correct place for compliant players to read it. As for the compliance testing program, Shapiro told us that “in most cases, simple follow-up letters suffice to resolve any difficulties [with CE manufacturers] and as a result the matter is not [made] public. In other cases, such as this one, it is clear that the studios have demonstrated that they are willing to go further.”

Two U.K. mobile companies overcharged other European mobile network operators (MNOs) for international roaming, the European Commission (EC) said Mon. In separate “statements of objections” sent to Vodafone and O2, the EC said the companies charged wholesale rates for other MNOs’ subscribers to use their mobile phones in the U.K., hurting consumers traveling there. The probe showed that from 1997 until at least the end of Sept. 2003, Vodafone abused its dominant position in the U.K. market for the provision of international roaming services at wholesale level on its own network by charging “unfair and excessive prices” to European MNOs, the EC said. O2 did the same thing between 1998 and last Sept., the Commission said. Providing wholesale airtime access to U.K. subscribers of independent service providers “bears considerable similarities” to providing wholesale international roaming services to foreign MNOs whose subscribers use their mobiles when roaming in the U.K., the EC said: “The Commission therefore questions the enormous price differentials between two fundamentally comparable services.” Vodafone and O2 have been given the opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings in writing and in a hearing, the EC said. Vodafone is reviewing what is, after all, a “preliminary position” and will respond accordingly, a spokesman said. The U.K. telecom regulator, Office of Communications, isn’t involved in the case, a spokesman said. However, he said, there are “wider questions about international roaming” which require cooperation across different countries’ regulators and which continue to be looked at by the European (telecom) Regulators Group. Also Mon., the Commission issued a memo saying it’s investigating the competitive conditions in Germany’s wholesale market for international roaming, and looking into notifications by the GSM Assn. with regard to standard terms for international roaming agreements in relation to voice and GPRS-based data communications. The Commission said it expects the various proceedings to spur greater competition. Eighty-one percent of European citizens now have mobile phones, the EC said.