From rules on circumventing encryption to backdoor protections for Internet transmissions, the latest “non-paper” from the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright & Related Rights (CD May 3 p7) takes the wrong “approach” entirely, instead of simply going beyond an appropriate “level” for protections of broadcast signals, several critics told a Copyright Office roundtable Wed. NAB Senior Assoc. Gen. Counsel Ben Ivins again found himself arguing against an entire room on the treaty (CD Jan 4 p5). He reiterated his call for details on the “parade of horribles” offered by critics from consumer groups to tech titans and carriers.

Claims that a cap on wireless universal service recipients wouldn’t be competitively neutral “ring hollow” because wireline LECs have had caps in the past, USTelecom Pres. Walter McCormick told the FCC in a letter. “Universal service caps are not new,” he said in response to concerns voiced about a recommendation by the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (CD May 3 p1). “Almost a decade ago, the Commission established an indexed limit on the high- cost fund for ETCs [eligible telecom carriers] and capped the amount of corporate operations expense that an ETC could recover” through USF payments, he said. As now, the action was taken to “prevent excessive growth in the size of the universal service fund,” McCormick said, and the cap was upheld by the 5th U.S. Appeals Court, New Orleans. “Unlike the high-cost fund for incumbent ETCs, the universal service support available to competitive ETCs has never been capped,” McCormick said.

Members of Congress criticized the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Tues. for not targeting underserved areas for broadband loans, saying the govt. shouldn’t be subsidizing new providers in areas that have broadband services. RUS Administrator Jim Andrew said RUS can’t survey the country to determine which rural areas are underserved. RUS considered a “mapping” project, but “by the time it was done it would be obsolete,” Andrew said at a hearing by a subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee.

A bipartisan bill to use Universal Service Fund (USF) money for broadband while curbing USF growth won high marks from the phone industry at a Thurs. press conference by bill authors Reps. Boucher (D-Va.) and Terry (R-Neb.). The 2 House Commerce Committee members offered similar legislation last Congress, but committee leadership never advanced the bill. Boucher said “conversations have not begun yet” with Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) on the bill.

Republicans are eager to work with Democrats on broadband deployment legislation, Sen. Smith (R-Ore.) said Wed. at a new conference announcing the agenda of the GOP high-tech task force. Smith, task force chmn., said GOP goals mesh with Democrats’ efforts, such as House Speaker Pelosi’s (D-Cal.) innovation agenda released Tues. “Democrats are starting to mimic us,” Smith said, calling many of Pelosi’s ideas derivative of Republicans’.

John Branscome leaves FCC Comr. Copps’s staff to return to Spectrum & Competition Policy Div…. Glenn Reynolds, ex- BellSouth, moves to USTelecom as vp-policy… RIAA Communications Dir. Jenni Engebretsen to leave group in May to become Deputy CEO for Public Affairs for the Democratic National Committee convention in Denver Aug. 25- 28… Raytheon names Travis Slocumb, ex-SAIC, vp-strategy & business development, space & airborne systems.

Carriers are expected to challenge in court the FCC’s decision to require them to get customers’ consent before sharing customer proprietary network information (CPNI) data with joint venture partners or independent contractors for marketing, sources said Tues. Under the rule change, customers must “opt in” to give carriers permission to share the data.

The FCC should ban exclusive deals between multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and program services, RCN said. The company called for expansion of FCC rules that bar exclusivity among networks owned by cable operators. The section of the cable program-access rules that prohibits, for instance, Time Warner from withholding CNN or HBO from other MVPDs is set to expire in Oct. Most companies filing comments this week in the program access docket asked the FCC to extend the rules. NCTA, Comcast and the America Cable Assn. said the ban should expire as planned in Oct. RCN cited a recent deal between Major League Baseball and DirecTV as evidence of the need to ban exclusivity across MVPDs. “Denial of unaffiliated ‘must have’ programming is clearly just as detrimental to competition as affiliated programming,” RCN said.

The FCC could regulate exclusive deals between cable operators and apartment building owners when the pacts are found to be anticompetitive, under preliminary conclusions of a rulemaking approved by the FCC Thurs. After declining to address the issue as recently as 2003, the FCC reversed course out of concern that such deals slow telco TV and broadband deployment, said staffers and commissioners. Commissioners voted to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment on what Media Bureau lawyer Holly Saurer called a tentative finding.

Jonathan Banks, ex-BellSouth, becomes USTelecom gen. counsel… Ex-FCC Chmn. Michael Powell joins board of CMWare… Vonage promotes Martin Hakim Din to senior vp- Vonage Broadband… Hands-On Mobile names David Saitta, ex- Mobile ESPN, vp-sales & mktg… Mari Katsunuma, ex-AOL, becomes Bravo vp-digital… NBC TV Networks Distribution promotes Brian Hunt to senior vp-mktg. & sales strategy… Andrew Rosenberg, ex-Comcast, moves to Time Warner Cable as vp-programming… Rachael McLean, ex-MTV, joins GoTV Networks as vp-music… Alice Muntz leaves GlobeTel Communications board, will remain consultant.