Aereo’s decision not to oppose broadcasters’ attempt to seek review by the U.S. Supreme Court of their case against the streaming TV service increases the possibility that the court will review the case, said Stifel Nicolaus analysts. Broadcasters filed a cert petition asking the high court to overturn a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that rejected a preliminary injunction against Aereo (CD Oct 15 p15). “We believe the justices are generally reluctant to review appeals of preliminary injunction decisions and so far there is no circuit split, which can invite high court review,” Stifel said in a research note (http://bit.ly/1jY0Hnl). This may change if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals soon upholds a district court decision to grant broadcasters a preliminary injunction against FilmOn X, an Aereo-like service, said the analysts. These actions could spur retransmission consent changes next year, they said. If the broadcasters don’t shoot down Aereo’s service in court, “they could start to push hard for Congress to write new legislation to ensure they receive Internet video provider payments for their programming,” they said. The “largely-unaddressed ‘copying’ element of broadcasters’ lawsuit makes this case too early-stage for Supreme Court review,” said Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant. The courts have barely begun addressing broadcasters’ argument that Aereo’s system makes unlawful copies of broadcasters’ shows, he said in a research note. If the Supreme Court is going to rule on Aereo next year, “it probably needs to announce by January that it will hear the case,” he said. If broadcasters win, the Aereo threat is extinguished, he said. “If broadcasters lose, they can seek legislative change by Congress, where they would likely have the upper hand.” FilmOn X asked the 9th Circuit to overturn a preliminary injunction against it (CD Aug 29 p5). A similar appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also is pending (CD Sept 13 p22). Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Engine Advocacy urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn a decision by the U.S. District Court in Washington. The law doesn’t grant copyright holders complete control over the distribution and quality of their works, they said in a friend-of-the-court brief (http://bit.ly/1dxK5hx). “Fair use allows the public to make copies of varying quality in many circumstances, including home recordings of TV programs.” The existence of a service like FilmOn X “does not appreciably increase the risk of a broadcast program being redistributed illegally on the Internet by third parties,” it said. In a separate brief, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Center for Democracy and Technology and other groups asked the court to approach the case in a way that preserves the holding and principles of the Cablevision case, during which an appeals court found that Cablevision doesn’t infringe copyright by launching a DVR service. The court should avoid any legal theories “that would cast a pall over wide swaths of the modern technological landscape, including the burgeoning cloud computing industry,” they said. CTIA, USTelecom and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition filed along with CCIA and CDT. The groups aren’t taking a stance on either party, they said.

It may be an uphill battle for two partisan video bills House lawmakers introduced Thursday before breaking for recess, lobbyists told us. Two House Commerce Committee Republicans introduced the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act, which would kill compulsory copyright licenses and some FCC broadcast and media ownership rules. Two Democrats introduced the Video CHOICE (Consumers Have Options in Choosing Entertainment) Act (http://1.usa.gov/18qEVWT), which would allow the FCC to step in during retransmission consent blackouts and introduce rules for how companies can behave during such retrans negotiations. In contrast to the praise several cable companies and associations offered, broadcasters slammed both bills, while NCTA pointed to a need to change retrans rules.

January’s order on the IP transition will “invite, on a rolling basis, service-based experiments with short timelines for submission,” Jon Sallet, interim director of the FCC Technology Transitions Policy Task Force, told commissioners at Thursday’s agency meeting. Commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly have emphasized the need for speed, Sallet noted, so the deadline to submit experimental ideas will come up quickly. Later, companies can propose more experiments that the commission would process on a rolling basis, he said. By “service-based,” Sallet means trials where real customers with real services will see those services transition to IP, he said.

The House Commerce Committee cleared two key telecom bills Wednesday, as expected (CD Dec 10 p3). The panel unanimously passed by voice vote the FCC Process Reform Act and the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., introduced the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act, HR-3674 (http://1.usa.gov/1gTEKmX), Monday to much initial acclaim, while the FCC Process Reform Act, HR-3675 (http://1.usa.gov/IBxQXF), introduced earlier this year, was revived as part of a bipartisan compromise between Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. Industry welcomed the process revamp to come.

USTelecom asked the FCC for a waiver extension for various rules adopted in the Lifeline order (http://bit.ly/1biS02p). The Wireline Bureau granted the ILEC association a waiver until Feb. 1, but that’s not long enough, USTelecom said. “Some state Lifeline administrators or other state agencies have indicated that they will not be prepared to begin providing [eligible telecom carriers] in their states with copies of subscriber certification forms” by that date, it said. USTelecom asked for an additional six-month extension for these states: Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah and Vermont. USTelecom also asked for a five-month waiver of the same rules for carriers in California.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is drafting legislation to fight fraudulent robocalls, she said in a press release Wednesday (http://1.usa.gov/19hFsVY). “While some legitimate questions still exist around the technologies that would help prevent these scams, it’s clear that the industry does not intend to pursue such technologies or other solutions to quickly address the issue of fraudulent robocalls -- a problem that has plagued consumers for years,” she said in a statement. McCaskill has questioned USTelecom and CTIA on technologies that would help solve the problem but expressed disappointment at their responses. She discussed the concerns at a hearing on the issue earlier this year: “In the face of their inadequate approach, I will start drafting legislation to provide regulators with a robust set of tools to fight these fraudsters and start gaining back ground for American consumers against robocallers.” CTIA Vice President-Government Affairs Jot Carpenter shot back in a statement. “We understand Senator McCaskill’s desire to crack down on robocallers, but the assertion that the wireless industry isn’t doing enough to help is simply wrong,” Carpenter said. “The wireless industry has a long history of working with the FCC and FTC to investigate and stop fraudulent robocalls and we stand by our record in this area. As we pointed out both in testimony and our follow-up correspondence, wireless companies and other common carriers are prevented by law from picking and choosing which calls to deliver.” USTelecom is “disappointed” McCaskill has “chosen to ignore the in-depth analysis USTelecom provided her,” Senior Executive Vice President Alan Roth said. “We thoroughly analyzed the issues surrounding proposed technological solutions to the problem of identifying and mitigating illegal robocalls. Our response clearly demonstrated that the services marketed thus far pose various technical, legal, and public policy problems.” Industry is working to solve the problem in various ways, he said.

New FCC data on the state of voice competition reinforces the “urgency” of the IP transition, said USTelecom Vice President-Industry Analysis Patrick Brogan in a blog post Tuesday (http://bit.ly/188nwSv). The data shows the number of traditional voice lines declined by nearly 10 million from 2011 to 2012, continuing a pace of losses averaging 10 percent per year over the past five years, Brogan said. “These statistics underscore the urgency for regulators and providers to address IP transition issues,” he said. Given the dwindling use of traditional voice lines, ILECs should “no longer be subject to dominant carrier regulation,” he said.

The FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler should give the public context for its decisions, base rulings on market data and limit the effects of legacy regulations on industry, said panelists at a Phoenix Center event Tuesday. The commission should act as an expert agency, focused on providing information and technical policy, rather than on fuzzier “aspirational goals,” said former FCC National Broadband Plan Director Blair Levin in a panel on the role of the FCC. “It’s not the job of FCC to state aspirations."

The House Communications Subcommittee plans to start to revamp the Communications Act, Republican lawmakers said Tuesday. House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said they plan to hold several hearings and release several white papers in 2014, with an eye for rewriting the Communications Act in 2015. They spoke during a Google Hangout video session. Initial industry response was positive, saying change is needed.

A two-front war against CableCARDs is escalating on Capitol Hill and is also taking place at the FCC. The cable industry has fought to end the cable integration ban, as players such as TiVo seek to save it amid lobbying and concerns. The integration ban calls for cable operators to use CableCARDs instead of built-in security in set-top boxes. Neither the cable industry nor CableCARD advocates in the consumer electronics industry said they know the feelings of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on TiVo’s effort to have the agency bring back encoding and CableCARD support rules struck down by the EchoStar court decision early this year.