Three months before a presidential election that could signal the end of his time in the driver’s seat, has Chairman Tom Wheeler’s FCC done what he said it would when he took office? Based on interviews with FCC officials, pay-TV executives and communications attorneys of many stripes, the answer is, “Mostly.”
A legal dispute between Backpage.com and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations could have broad implications for Congress' future subpoena power and the First Amendment rights of online publishers and others, several observers said. The subcommittee has until 4 p.m. Friday to respond to last week's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to temporarily block a congressional subpoena that would have forced the online classified advertiser to hand over documents for the inquiry into whether the service facilitates online sex trafficking. Backpage lawyers argued last week in a filing that the subcommittee is using its "subpoena power as a bludgeon to burden or restrict editorial policies of which it disapproves," essentially endangering First Amendment rights for all online publishers.
A legal dispute between Backpage.com and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations could have broad implications for Congress' future subpoena power and the First Amendment rights of online publishers and others, several observers said. The subcommittee has until 4 p.m. Friday to respond to last week's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to temporarily block a congressional subpoena that would have forced the online classified advertiser to hand over documents for the inquiry into whether the service facilitates online sex trafficking. Backpage lawyers argued last week in a filing that the subcommittee is using its "subpoena power as a bludgeon to burden or restrict editorial policies of which it disapproves," essentially endangering First Amendment rights for all online publishers.
NTIA “intends to allow” its current contract with ICANN to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to expire just before midnight Sept. 30 and therefore allow the IANA transition to occur Oct. 1 as planned, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Tuesday. NTIA believes a Friday report from ICANN on its progress with pre-transition implementation work shows the transition can occur “barring any significant impediment,” Strickling said in a letter to ICANN CEO Göran Marby. ICANN told NTIA it believes it will be able to complete all necessary governance changes before the IANA transition, including all but three of the recommendations NTIA made in its June assessment of transition-related plans. The three remaining recommendations require ICANN’s Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) subsidiary, which will be in charge of administering the IANA functions post-transition, to be engaged in post-transition operations (see 1608150056).
NTIA “intends to allow” its current contract with ICANN to administer the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to expire just before midnight Sept. 30 and therefore allow the IANA transition to occur Oct. 1 as planned, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Tuesday. NTIA believes a Friday report from ICANN on its progress with pre-transition implementation work shows the transition can occur “barring any significant impediment,” Strickling said in a letter to ICANN CEO Göran Marby. ICANN told NTIA it believes it will be able to complete all necessary governance changes before the IANA transition, including all but three of the recommendations NTIA made in its June assessment of transition-related plans. The three remaining recommendations require ICANN’s Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) subsidiary, which will be in charge of administering the IANA functions post-transition, to be engaged in post-transition operations (see 1608150056).
The Rural Wireless Association and NTCA asked the FCC to slow or even pause the TV incentive auction while meetings by its members are in progress next month. RWA meets at CTIA's conference Sept. 7-9 and NTCA and RWA have annual meetings Sept. 26-28, the filing said. If the FCC doesn’t pause the auction during those dates it should hold only one round per day, the groups said. “The Associations’ members have limited personnel resources to dedicate to auction participation,” the groups said in a filing in docket 14-252. “Small staffs already manage a substantial workload, and auction participation over a lengthy and unpredictable time period will stretch limited personnel resources even further. In many cases, the leaders that attend industry events to conduct their companies’ business are the same individuals named as their companies’ authorized bidders in Auction 1002.” Auction 1002 is the FCC’s formal name for the forward part of the incentive auction.
CTA hailed the EPA for “rescinding” the Energy Star TV testing changes it imposed in May, Doug Johnson, vice president-technology policy, said in a Thursday statement. EPA rescinded the changes as part of the launch of the latest revision in the Energy Star TV specification, the agency confirmed.
Top Florida and New York state court reviews of the appeals of Flo & Eddie's lawsuits against SiriusXM on hold in the U.S. courts of appeals for the 2nd and 11th circuits are inherently unlikely to be cookie-cutter reviews because common law statutes in the states that may allow for a pre-1972 sound recording performance royalties differ, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. Flo & Eddie, owners of The Turtles' “Happy Together” and the rest of the band's music, seek compensation for performances of the Turtles' pre-72 recordings. Several lawyers and lobbyists said they will be watching the state courts' proceedings to determine whether the 2nd Circuit's June ruling in the Vimeo case (see 1606160071) affects the results of the Flo & Eddie reviews.
Top Florida and New York state court reviews of the appeals of Flo & Eddie's lawsuits against SiriusXM on hold in the U.S. courts of appeals for the 2nd and 11th circuits are inherently unlikely to be cookie-cutter reviews because common law statutes in the states that may allow for a pre-1972 sound recording performance royalties differ, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us. Flo & Eddie, owners of The Turtles' “Happy Together” and the rest of the band's music, seek compensation for performances of the Turtles' pre-72 recordings. Several lawyers and lobbyists said they will be watching the state courts' proceedings to determine whether the 2nd Circuit's June ruling in the Vimeo case (see 1606160071) affects the results of the Flo & Eddie reviews.
The Wright petitioners backed an FCC draft order to raise inmate calling service rate caps. The group, which advocates for inmates and their families, said the order is needed to reinstate caps on all domestic ICS calls after a court stayed rate caps from a 2015 order, which left only interim 2013 interstate rate caps in place. The FCC-proposed rate cap increases, which it plans to vote on Thursday (see 1607140087), would give ICS providers a windfall beyond their costs, but also would "eliminate any basis for ICS providers and correctional facilities to argue that any aspect of their cost to provide ICS to inmates and their loved ones will not be reimbursed," said a filing posted Monday in docket 12-375 by the group summarizing a meeting with agency officials, including an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. The petitioners provided evidence they said showed ICS providers and correctional authorities had recently amended their contracts to preserve revenue -- which would otherwise be lost under the FCC's 2015 ancillary fee restrictions -- by raising uncapped intrastate rates and adopting new fees. "The information provided in Exhibit B highlight the extent to which the ICS providers and correctional authorities will go to ensure that their profit margins are untouched by Commission ICS reform," the Wright group said. "If Telmate, Securus and GTL [Global Tel*Link] are willing to propose amendments to their existing contracts to keep each party 'whole,' the Commission is correct in its decision not to ban site commissions. Instead, it is clear that, should the Commission ban site commissions as these parties suggest, ICS providers and their correctional partners simply will devise new attempts to divvy up the unjust, unreasonable and unfairly earned ICS revenue." Telmate, Securus and GTL didn't comment to us Monday. Telmate asked the commission "to pause before it imposes yet another set of new rates" on ICS providers. "If the Commission is concerned about the legal validity of its most recent Order, it should revisit that decision in an orderly fashion, on a full record and with a meaningful opportunity to comment," said a Telmate filing Friday summarizing meetings with FCC officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a short order (in Pacer) suspending the briefing schedule in the current ICS litigation "pending disposition" of an FCC motion to hold the case in abeyance (see 1607200053).