Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) is considering holding a hearing on media ownership issues, Committee Counsel Bill Bailey told reporters at NAB. He said no date had been set and the committee might not be able to get to the hearing promptly. But Bailey said McCain would like to examine the issue before the FCC’s report on media ownership, which is scheduled to be released June 2. A spokeswoman for Senate Communications Subcommittee Burns (R- Mont.) said he wanted to closely examine the proposal to sell Global Crossing to foreign buyers. She said Burns was concerned about many outstanding national security issues associated with the purchase. She said no hearing had been scheduled and one wasn’t likely, but it couldn’t be ruled out.
Notable CROSS rulings
LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chmn. Powell’s aide, Susan Eid, said Mon. that network affiliates had “done a good job” of presenting evidence to the agency that would support retaining the 35% network cap, but also said that had to be weighed against other strong evidence that showed network- owned and -operated stations (O&Os) produced more local news. Eid’s comments came on a panel at the NAB convention here with all 5 of the FCC advises.
LAS VEGAS -- Speaking from audience in NAB DTV session here Sun., CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro accused industry of not aggressively pushing the conversion to digital, charging “broadcasters themselves” hadn’t promoted TV to consumers. Two broadcasters on panel rejected the claim. Samuel Matheny of WRAL-TV Raleigh -- on of the first stations to go digital -- said his company might be an exception, but it was promoting the transition heavily. Michael DeClue of Clear Channel said his company was committed to digital transmissions “100% of the time” and it would be “utterly foolish [for broadcasters] to not promote what is going to be our future lifeblood.” Responded Shapiro: “Would you tell that to the NAB?”
In the next 6 months, RIAA intends to issue a “very substantial number” of subpoenas seeking private ISP subscriber information under Sec. 512(h) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), one of its attorneys said Tues. The subpoena issued to Verizon Internet Services last summer -- which the ISP refused to comply with and has challenged in U.S. Dist. Court, D.C. -- was the first step of what was to be a serious nationwide copyright enforcement effort, Donald Verrilli told U.S. Dist. Judge John Bates in oral argument Tues.
DURHAM, N.C. -- A bevy of local public officials, TV station owners, radio broadcasters, journalists and public interest groups implored the FCC Mon. not to relax media ownership limits. Speaking at a standing-room-only forum organized here by Duke U. Law School and FCC Comr. Copps, the panelists almost unanimously called on the Commission to retain the 35% national audience cap on the TV stations one company could own, the ban on newspaper-TV station cross- ownership in the same market, the ban on radio-TV station cross-ownership and other ownership limits. Many speakers argued that without such limits, greater media consolidation would occur, the diversity of voices would suffer, communities would lose TV news, and events coverage and public service and the uniquely American concept of “localism” would be compromised, if not totally abandoned.
Relaxation of the FCC’s restrictions on broadcast ownership “may be imperative if we want to preserve free, over-the-air television,” FCC Chmn. Powell told the Media Institute Thurs. in Washington. The Commission, he said, needs to replace existing ownership restrictions with “a coherent set of rules… to reflect the massive changes [in] the media landscape.” He cited “a virtual explosion of diverse and varied content” of electronic media since the rules were adopted.
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) is querying federal agencies as to what spectrum they use in an effort to assess which frequency bands will be moving to the new department, a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spokesman said. FEMA is one of 22 agencies that make up DHS and is conducting the inventory on behalf of the department. While some agencies have been concerned that they may have to give up spectrum under the auspices of DHS, the spokesman described the exercise as the creation of a “knowledge base” of who has which frequencies.
House Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Conyers (Mich.) asked the Dept. of Defense (DoD) to investigate whether Defense Science Board Chmn. Richard Perle had violated ethics rules through his business dealings with Global Crossing and other technology firms. Conyers said in letter dated March 24 to DoD Inspector Gen. Joseph Schmitz that several potential conflicts existed that warranted immediate review. He said Perle had a contract to advise Global Crossing on how to win U.S. govt. approval of the bankrupt carrier’s proposed $250 million sale of network assets to 2 Asian companies, saying: “Perle is being paid $125,000 for his advice and stands to reap a highly unusual $600,000 bonus if the sale is approved by the U.S. Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S., a government group that includes representatives from the [DoD].” Conyers said other potential conflicts of interest existed with Perle’s positions: (1) On the board of software developer Autonomy, whose customers include DoD and the Dept. of Homeland Security. (2) As managing partner of the venture capital firm Trireme Partners, which provides national security goods and services to the govt. Conyers also criticized Perle for speaking in a Goldman Sachs conference call about business opportunities related to the Iraq conflict: “I would submit that it is a conflict of interest for a high-ranking government official to be proffering advice on how to profit from the war.”
Signing of a federal no-call telemarketing law by President Bush hasn’t stopped state legislatures’ efforts to pass their own no-call laws, but has prompted some states to amend their bills and laws to recognize the advent of the federal list. No-call bills are pending in at least 10 states. Currently, 27 states have no-call laws and 19.2 million users have put their numbers on state lists.
Canada’s Supreme Court granted leave for the Society of Composers, Authors & Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) March 27 to cross-appeal in the Tariff 22 copyright case involving proposed royalties for online music. A decision is expected this summer. SOCAN is appealing a 1999 Federal Court of Appeal decision that upheld a Copyright Board ruling that ISPs in most circumstances could be exempt from paying royalties to cover music on the Internet because they provided only the “means of telecommunications necessary” for their subscribers. But the court also had held that since caching material to speed delivery wasn’t “necessary,” ISPs could be required to pay a royalty based on their caching activities. SOCAN had argued that all parties involved in an Internet transmission -- from the one that posted material, to the ISP, to the recipient -- were liable for the communication and bore responsibility to pay an appropriate licence or royalty fee. Canadian ISPs, together with the Canadian Cable TV Assn. (CCTA), satellite provider Bell/Expressvu and telcos opposed SOCAN’s proposed Tariff 22, saying that as intermediaries they shouldn’t be liable for content transmitted over their equipment.