NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson announced Wed. the launch of the agency's public consultation process related to its forthcoming report to President Joe Biden on the risks, benefits and regulatory approaches to AI foundation models, as directed in a Biden AI executive order (see 2310300056). Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology, Davidson said the report will focus on pragmatic AI policies rooted in technical, economic and legal realities of the technology. The Biden order gave the Commerce Department 270 days to get public input and deliver the AI recommendations. Davidson said.
After a span of frequent unanimity among the FCC commissioners, this week brought a spate of dissents from GOP commissioners, with no votes at Wednesday's open meeting coming after dissents the previous day on an order upholding a Wireless Bureau decision excluding SpaceX from participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (see 2312130004). At the December meeting, Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington raised the specter of the federal government increasing rate regulation in dissents against the MVPD early termination fees (ETF) NPRM. They complained that the data breach notification rules were an attempt to sidestep the Congressional Review Act.
Lake County, Montana, denies it violated the Telecommunications Act when it rejected Vertical Bridge’s applications to build a cell tower to remedy a gap in wireless coverage near the Finley Point area of Polson (see 2308170002), said the county’s answer Monday (docket 9:23-cv-00091) in U.S. District Court for Montana in Missoula. Vertical Bridge failed to show that the proposed tower was the least intrusive means of remedying the gap in coverage, or that it would remedy that gap, it said. Discovery in the case hasn’t begun, and the county is uncertain “what affirmative defenses may apply if this case goes to trial,” it said. Discovery, trial preparation and the facts of the case “may make some of the affirmative defenses applicable,” which is why they are being raised now “to avoid being waived,” it said.
Walmart, Cash App and “John Does” 1-10 “ignore the obvious holes in their inadequate and poorly enforced anti-fraud measures and readily facilitate fraudulent transfers that drain financial resources of the elderly and most vulnerable in our society,” alleged a class action Friday (docket 2:23-cv-10335) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit repeatedly pressed International Dark-Sky Association (ISDA) about its standing during oral argument Monday in the group's legal challenge to the FCC's approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2301030014).
The Commerce Department illegally used just one respondent in the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel flanges from India covering entries in 2018-19, the Court of International Trade ruled Dec. 8. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in YC Rubber Co. v. U.S. "is directly on point" in this case, because Commerce only reviewed exporter Chandan Steel Limited in a situation where multiple other companies exported the subject merchandise.
New guidance from the Biden administration this week warned shippers, forwarders, brokers, ship owners and others involved in maritime and other transportation industries to better know their cargo, saying they each have a “responsibility” to craft their own “rigorous” compliance programs. The 10-page sanctions advisory specifically calls out freight forwarders, saying they play a “key role” in compliant supply chains.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit repeatedly pressed International Dark-Sky Association (ISDA) about its standing during oral argument Monday in the group's legal challenge to the FCC's approval of SpaceX's second-generation satellite constellation (see 2301030014).
The FCC will likely rework part of its robotexting order, set for a commissioners vote Wednesday, industry lawyers said. Objections were raised on several fronts. One area that could see change is a provision clamping down on the lead generator loophole. The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy elevated the issue when it asked the FCC to seek further comment (see 2312040028), lawyers said.
Law Enforcement for a Safer America raises money to support legislation to protect law enforcement professionals across the U.S. by calling thousands of phones using an artificial or prerecorded voice message, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, alleged plaintiff Robert Ngo’s class action Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-06316) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland. The political action committee does so without first having requested or obtained consent to make those calls, in violation of the TCPA, said Ngo’s complaint. The Hayward, California, resident estimates he received nearly two dozen solicitation calls from the PAC in the month of October, including eight calls on a single day, Oct. 4, said the complaint. The calls violated Ngo’s statutory rights and caused “actual and statutory damages,” including annoyance, intrusion on privacy and seclusion and wasted cellphone battery life, it said.