Cal. Supreme Court -- reviewing reversal of an injunction against posting DeCSS DVD-decryption software -- wrestled Thurs. with challenges of applying trade-secrets law to Internet publication. At oral argument, justices hammered defendant Andrew Bunner’s attorney David Greene on his contention preliminary injunction was an improper prior restraint on expression. But they grilled appellant DVD Copy Control Assn. (DVD CCA) lawyer Robert Sugarman about logic of court order to protect an erstwhile secret already spread widely over Internet.

The Ill. Citizens Utility Board (CUB) asked a federal court to halt implementation of a state law enacted earlier this month that would allow sharply higher rates for SBC’s UNE if it took effect as scheduled June 9. The CUB complaint in U.S. Dist. Court, Chicago, contended the new law (SB-885) “illegally circumvents the regulatory process and violates” the federal Telecom Act. The CUB said the bill, by mandating changes in certain inputs in the costing formulas for UNEs, would allow SBC to push its loop rate to $23 per line from today’s $12. The CUB said the Ill. Commerce Commission was in the midst of reconsidering SBC’s UNE rates when the law passed. The CUB petition joins a federal lawsuit filed May 16 by SBC’s local competitors that was due for a preliminary hearing today (May 29).

NTT DoCoMo plans to conduct a trial of a 4th-generation wireless system at its R&D center in Yokosuka in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture. DoCoMo, which has been researching 4G technology since 1998, said it had demonstrated maximum data rates of 100 Mbps for a downlink and 20 Mbps for an uplink as part of indoor experiments started last Oct. The field trial will evaluate variable spreading factor orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing technology -- VSF-OFCDM -- and variable spreading factor-CDMA (VSF-CDMA). The company said VSF-OFCDM allowed downlink connections at very high speeds both indoors and outdoors. It said VSF-CDMA allowed high- speed, high-efficiency packet transmissions for the downlink. DoCoMo described the trial as the “next step toward the development of practical 4G technologies.” It said it also was part of work on the establishment of a global 4G standard, now under discussion at the ITU. The Kanto Telecom Bureau granted DoCoMo a preliminary license Wed. to conduct the test, which is designed to evaluate: (1) Effective packet transmission methods. (2) Adaptive modulation and channel coding scheme. (3) Adaptive retransmission control. (4) Adaptive beam forming based on predicted direction of arrival.

Media companies need to include the possibility of deliberate sabotage in their planning for media reliability, a task force recommended Wed. to the FCC’s Media Security & Reliability Council (MSRC). Homeland Security Dept. Secy. Tom Ridge called public information communication “one of the most critical pieces of national response to crisis” and an element of homeland security that could help the nation in its development toward “a new and better level of readiness.”

A state court in La. issued an injunction to block a PSC decision to remove newspaper publishers from the list of business entities exempt from the state’s 2001 no-call telemarketing law. The La. Press Assn. and the Denham Springs Publishing Co. filed suit in La. Dist. Court, Baton Rouge, seeking reversal of the PSC’s April decision. Plaintiffs contend the PSC violated their right to due process because it failed to provide notice and opportunity to be heard on the change in the no-call exemption affecting newspaper publishers. Dist. Court Judge Curtis Calloway agreed to the request for an injunction and set a May 30 date for a preliminary hearing. The PSC , which administers the no-call list, originally had included newspapers on the exemption list because of their relationship to political activity but later reconsidered that decision and reversed it.

Nextel told the FCC the assumptions of a Motorola filing that outlined technical advances for avoiding 800 MHz public safety interference didn’t “withstand scrutiny.” Motorola recently updated the Commission on potential technical solutions for interference from low-site commercial base stations to public safety receivers at 800 MHz (CD May 8 p4). Nextel, private wireless groups and public safety organizations are backing an 800 MHz reconfiguration proposal that would realign incumbents at 700, 800, 900 MHz and 1.2 GHz, with Nextel pledging $850 million toward relocation. In its latest filing, Motorola said increased signal strength for public safety systems, best practices and better receiver technology could resolve some interference problems caused by commercial wireless operators. Nextel told the FCC Fri. the technical and other fixes suggested by Motorola could help “address the small amount of potential interference that will remain after realignment of the 800 MHz band” as proposed in the plan crafted by Nextel and others. “Without realignment, however, such measures are not a viable option for remedying the serious levels of CMRS-public safety interference at 800 MHz.” Nextel criticized a Motorola assumption that less than 3% of public safety systems was experiencing interference, opening the door for more interference management on a case- by-case basis. “Motorola significantly understates the extent of public safety interference experienced and reported during the past few years,” Nextel said. It also criticized what it said was an assumption by Motorola that the realignment plan by Nextel and others marked an agreement by public safety to boost on-street public safety signal strength. Increasing public safety signal strength would allow certain enhancements in receiver performance, it said. The plan doesn’t include such an agreement, Nextel told the FCC, and presuming an increase in public safety signal strength would impose “enormous costs” on public safety. “Even assuming increased public safety signal strength, the proposed receiver advances are themselves preliminary, and at best potentially solve only half the problem,” Nextel said. Motorola’s proposed receiver advances are meant to reduce intermodulation interference in public safety receivers, but wouldn’t reduce interference by commercial mobile radio service out-of-band emissions, Nextel said. Such out-of-band emissions are cited in 50% of 800 MHz interference incidents, it said. They thus can be addressed only by realignment, the carrier said. Nextel also took issue with what it called Motorola’s heavy reliance on best practices. “This reactive ‘fixed point’ approach attempts to resolve interference at specific sites rather than eliminating its causes, thereby putting at risk the lives and safety of our nation’s first responders,” Nextel said. Despite an agreed-upon best practices guide addressing public safety interference given to the FCC in 2001, interference has continued to increase, it said. Thirteen public safety agencies had interference in 2000, 46 in 2001, 74 in 2002 and 51 through April 30 of this year, Nextel said.

Predicted influx this 4th quarter of fairly low-cost DVD/PVR combos appears to have hit roadblock over inclusion of electronic programming guides (EPGs). Which type of EPG and at what cost are among issues hardware manufacturers are grappling with, according to software company PlanetWeb, which supplies enabling technology for DVD/PVR combos. “Our software is ready to go,” said Jeff Blanc, PlanetWeb vp-strategic planning: “The sticking point is the OEMs. They're still struggling with the patent issues.”

A workshop of Caribbean telecom regulators next week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, that will focus on policy issues at the upcoming World Radio Conference, could win even more support for common proposals of the Inter-American Telecom Commission (CITEL), CITEL Exec. Dir. Clovis Baptista said Mon. Inter- American Proposals (IAPs) for the conference June 9-July 4 will be vetted among policymakers from 15 Caribbean administrations, Baptista told us. “IAP common proposals could receive strong support from other countries,” he said. IAPs are finalized if they are supported by at least 6 administrations and when there is opposition, if it’s less than or equal to 50% of the number of countries that support a proposal. The scope of the agenda for this year’s WRC is a concern, particularly for developing nations with limited resources, Baptista said. This year’s agenda has 44 items, compared with 11 in 1997. “It’s a concern of everybody’s because the huge amount of items to be addressed is unbelievable,” he said. He said CITEL as well as other regional organizations, in response to this agenda’s size, “did a much better job of anticipating coordination with other participants.” IAP common proposals were finalized in Feb. at a meeting in Orlando. Baptista said that the large number of agenda items posed particular challenges for developing countries that had difficulty putting resources into the WRC preparatory process in each region. Caribbean nations often have very few people working exclusively on telecom and spectrum policy issues, which makes WRC preparations a challenge, he said. Next week’s workshop, to be held in conjunction with the ITU-Development sector, is important in part because it could receive more support for CITEL IAPs that already have backing from a significant number of that group’s 34 administrations, Baptista said. CITEL said IAP drafts that didn’t receive clear-cut support at the Feb. meeting included a proposal on agenda item 1.24. That proposal would have the conference review usage of 13.75-14 GHz in line with developments at WRC 2000, when nongeostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed satellite service earth station transmitters in the band created a potential sharing issue with the space research service. Some satellite companies are interested in easing antenna size for broader deployment of broadband applications without causing interference to military radar. CITEL said one reason a common IAP didn’t emerge on that item was because there were 2 opposing proposals. CITEL members agreed to continue to circulate preliminary proposals on that and a 2nd agenda item, 1.38, for which similar competing proposals were making the rounds. Agenda item 1.38 would consider providing up to 6 MHz to the earth exploration satellite service in the 420- 470 MHz band.

U.K.’s Game Group retail chain -- formerly EB UK -- reported strong preliminary results for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31. Company reported that its pretax income before goodwill amortization increased 26% to record ?33.1 million ($55.47 million at $1 = ?0.645) from ?26.3 million ($44.07 million) year ago as sales increased 23% to ?560 million ($938.42 million) from ?454 million ($760.79 million). Game Group also said earnings per share increased 32% to 4.4 pence from 3.33 pence. Chmn. Peter Lewis said company’s strong results were achieved despite “difficult year for U.K. retailers… Our response to the intense competition during Christmas 2002 was successful in maintaining our clear market leadership [while] delivering record profits.” On additional upbeat note, he said: “The current year has begun well with further gains in market share.” Company said that in 2002 its rebranding from Electronics Boutique to Game was completed at its U.K. stores and “we expect to accelerate our store-opening” plans this year. Game Group admitted that one sour note for company recently was losing appeal in long legal battle with EB. Game Group had sued EB in March 2002 in Chancery Div. of High Court of Justice of England. It had sought ruling that because of alleged change of control at EB affiliate EB Services, it was entitled to terminate services agreement with EB that had been in effect since 1995 and that wasn’t scheduled to expire until at least 2006. But judge ruled against Game Group in Oct. and it lost appeal earlier this year (CED March 3 p9). As result, Game Group said last week “we continue to pay EB 1% of our U.K. turnover.” Looking ahead, Game Group said last week: “The challenge of Christmas 2002 demanded a swift response by [company] management which was both forthcoming and effective.” Since then, it said: “Management has built on these experiences and adapted our business model to suit these new conditions. In 2003 and beyond, much greater emphasis is being given to our competitive advantages which taken together represent a unique selling proposition. These include the loyalty data base (now 3.9 million customers), our preowned program, multi-buy product offers, unrivaled range of products, our all-round superior in- store service and local price competitiveness.” Company said it “believes that by harnessing these competitive advantages together with our philosophy of empowering store management to respond to local trading conditions, Game will benefit from further advances in the games market predicted for this year.”

Amazon.com is managing and operating HMV.com’s e-commerce Web site under HMV brand in Canada as part of deal HMV N. America signed with Seattle e-tailer. Deal, terms not disclosed, makes U.K.-based HMV Group latest bricks-and-mortar retailer turn to Amazon to run its online business following similar deals with retailers including Borders and Toys “R” Us. Amazon’s Canadian Web site -- Amazon.ca -- now features HMV store. HMV no longer runs Web site in U.S., where company has moved to reduce its presence in last year, and it was unclear whether it planned to find partner for U.S. as well. HMV also said it was “confident that the Group will announce profits” for fiscal year ending April 26 “at the top end of market expectations… despite the more difficult trading conditions we have been seeing in the U.K. since the end of January.” Company said its “Group performance continues to benefit from the HMV new store rollout program in the U.K., where 20 stores have been added in the financial year just ended. During the new financial year, HMV U.K. anticipates adding a further 15 stores, and sites have already been secured at Birmingham Bullring, the Whiteleys Shopping Centre, Bayswater in London and Beckton.” Meanwhile, company said, “exposure to the U.S. has been reduced through the closure of 2 further stores since January, leaving a total of 7, down from 12 a year ago.” HMV said it would make preliminary announcement of its fiscal year results July 1.