Saying copyright was under attack, Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters last week urged copyright community to make its voice heard in case set for review by Supreme Court. Peters’s comments came at American Intellectual Property Law Assn. spring meeting in N.Y.C. Implementing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which was enacted to bring the U.S. into line with World Intellectual Property Organization treaties, gets more controversial, Peters said, spurred in part by furor over law’s anticircumvention provisions. Copyright Office thought situation was bad several years ago, she said, but it “got worse” as Internet shifted public perceptions toward viewing content owners as greedy corporations and copyright itself as suspect, she said.

“Congressional action tends to be a blunt instrument” that involves “fights from 5 years ago,” state regulator said Thurs. to explain why regulators were better equipped than legislators to spur broadband. At panel hosted by advisory committee to Congressional Internet Caucus, W.Va. Public Service Commission Dir.-Consumer Advocate Div. Billy Jack Gregg was backed in that assessment by CEA Pres. Gary Shapiro and National Grange Legislative Dir. Leroy Watson, but opposed by CapNet Exec. Dir. Tim Hugo. Hugo also found himself in minority on regulation of new broadband deployment by incumbents, with other 3 reaching rough consensus that old Bell equipment should be subject to existing regulations but new build-outs would operate under new rules. Panel was bit refreshing in that not single member represented ILEC or CLEC, although many arguments echoed theirs, particularly when pro-Bell Tauzin-Dingell bill (HR-1542) was discussed.

Executives of ALTS member companies are lobbying in Washington this week to urge FCC, Congress and White House not to “tinker” with Telecom Act to help Bell companies’ agendas, they said at news conference Wed. KMC Telecom COO Roscoe Young said CLECs had changed their business plans to adjust to new business realities and now were worried that regulatory climate would stymie their efforts. “A number of proceedings [at FCC] raise a lot of questions about our future,” ALTS Pres. John Windhausen said. Executives said they got good response from FCC commissioners and staff who encouraged them to continue educating them about how agency’s actions could effect CLEC businesses. “They made it clear that they don’t want unintended consequences” from their actions, one said. ALTS also issued annual report on state of local competition that showed CLEC market share increased in 2001 to 10% from 8.5%, despite difficulties in capital markets -- www.alts.org.

FCC Chmn. Powell told House Appropriations Subcommittee Wed. that he was somewhat uncomfortable about delaying 700 MHz auction again and violating congressional mandate. It’s one thing to say Commission has delayed auction already but that’s not going to carry much weight before a court if FCC is sued for violating congressional order, he told Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary. Answering questions at hearing on FCC FY 2003 budget, Powell also revealed that vote had been taken by commissioners on Northpoint petition but he declined to say more, saying that press release would be issued “in next few days” that would give outline of decision. Northpoint was on agenda for Commission’s open meeting today (April 17). “I can confirm that the item has been adopted but it’s in the final stages when things can change, so I don’t feel comfortable” talking about it, he told Rep. Vitter (R-La.). Vitter had said he heard FCC would call for auction of spectrum sought by Northpoint and thought that “penalizes innovations and hurts consumers.”

Global Crossing and Sprint filed separate protests at General Accounting Office (GAO) over recent decision by Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to award $450 million IP network contract to WorldCom. Contract for Defense Research & Engineering Network (DREN), which is designed to connect Defense Dept. supercomputer users via virtual private network, has been touchstone of controversy since DISA made original award to Global Crossing last summer. DISA rescinded that award after rival bidders AT&T, Qwest, Sprint and WorldCom protested and DISA conducted 2nd round of bidding with what some sources have said were revised criteria in certain areas. Global Crossing said it filed GAO protest after DISA notified company, which filed for Ch. 11 protection in Jan., that it was “ineligible for award” as result of its “current financial situation.” On Fri., Sprint filed separate protest based on what spokesman said were “inconsistencies in the evaluation criteria and errors in the RFP assessment” that DISA used.

It’s pointless to address other digital music issues until piracy has been brought under control, RIAA said in April 8 response to request from House Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) for input on application of copyright law to the Internet (CED April 11 p6). “The ultimate solution” to piracy lies in cooperative effort between content owners and technology industries to create digital copy protection, RIAA Pres. Hilary Rosen said. She said protecting CDs against PC copying would be consistent with 1992 Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) because only consumer recorders, not PCs, were granted immunity for copying by that law.

Govt. should stay out of mandating digital rights standards but make clear that incidental temporary copies of digital music aren’t subject to copyright liability., Assn. for Competitive Technology (ACT) said. ACT’s comments came in response to request by House Judiciary Committee Chmn. Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and other lawmakers for suggestions on how to amend Copyright Act for Digital Age. Content owners, device makers and information technology companies agree that successful digital rights management (DRM) standards must have certain features, ACT said: (1) They should be so easy to use they're almost invisible to consumer. (2) Users should be able to recombine and share any of their own digital content. (3) DRM solutions should be interoperable among devices and distribution channels. (4) Technology should be flexible enough to adapt to different business models. (5) DRM technology and devices should be capable of online updates with new protection software. (6) Content providers must have DRM databases and systems to define and manage rights to their content. (7) Corporations and educational institutions should have DRM systems to manage content and group rights. Two machine-to-machine standards have emerged, ACT said, and market will allow others to develop without need for revamping the Copyright Act. However, Congress should clarify that RAM buffer copies don’t implicate copyright owner’s reproduction right. ACT expressed support for Music Online Protection Act’s (MOCA) provisions on incidental and archival copying and ephemeral recordings but it criticized what it said was proposal’s “nondiscriminatory licensing” provision, saying it merely protected “middlemen and their deep-rooted business models.” Govt. shouldn’t mandate DRM technology standards, ACT said, because it would: (1) Put govt. in role of picking winners and losers. (2) Freeze technology by requiring govt. approval of design changes. (3) Make it easy for hackers to circumvent standards published on govt. Web sites. (4) Prevent inventors from winning govt. certification if their DRM technology isn’t reasonably priced. (5) Raise specter of having standards-setting bodies captured by large companies.

LAS VEGAS -- Time has come for FCC to recognize its existing TV and radio regulations may be inhibiting free flow of information and “the delivery of programming to the public,” Kenneth Ferree, chief of newly created Media Bureau at FCC, said at legal forum lunch here Sun. on eve of NAB convention. He said new rules must be crafted to recognize new forms of media competition and to “promote a diverse and robustly competitive media market.” To accomplish that, he said, Commission must first complete “sweeping review” of current rules that “today rest on foundational assumptions about the market that are, at best, questionable and, at worst, patently invalid and adopted when conditions in media market “were quite different than they are today.”

Verizon Wireless is suing govt. to obtain remaining deposit from Jan. 2001 NextWave re-auction and is seeking ruling from U.S. Court of Federal Claims that auction “contract” for disputed licenses is void. Lawsuit came after FCC returned 85% of deposits from re-auction late last month but concluded winning bidders should continue for now to be held to nearly $16 billion in auction obligations (CD March 28 p1) until Supreme Court review plays out. Commission’s order described decision at that time as balancing act to preserve auction results pending Supreme Court review in NextWave case while returning most of deposits to bidders. In lawsuit filed Fri., Verizon Wireless also sought unspecified damages that it charged had been caused by “the FCC’s breach of the auction contract.” Litigation centers on $8.4 billion in auction prices for which Verizon Wireless successfully bid in Jan. 2001 re-auction and for which it technically still is liable. Verizon Wireless’s suit argued that it had suffered “substantial economic injury” as result of FCC’s contract “breach,” including effects on its credit rating and ability to borrow.

LAS VEGAS -- If EchoStar acquisition of Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV affiliate is approved, it will be over opposition of several key members of Congress and would involve conditions, NAB attendees were told here at convention Mon. Strongest opposition to deal came from members of House and Senate Judiciary committees, which deal with antitrust issues, but there were concerns among Commerce Committee members as well. Hill leaders and their staffs in 2 separate functions also debated broadcast ownership caps, mandating political free time and DTV tuner standards, controversy over liquor ads.