WideOpenWest and movie production companies suing it for secondary copyright infringement liability are at odds over attempts to get the names and addresses of thousands of WOW broadband subscribers. The plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court in Denver in a reply (docket 21-cv-1901) last week that WOW counsel never raised in discussions the time burden issue it's now bringing up. They said the court already ruled the plaintiffs can't use the identifications to bring other lawsuits, though WOW still claims that's the motivation. WOW said in its opposition last month it "would be extremely costly and labor-intensive" to ID the subscribers at issue and send them notice of a court order. WOW said if it needs to address its safe harbor defense, it would produce documents and information showing the stages of its Digital Millennium Copyright Act process, up to terminating subscribers' accounts, and no part of the inquiry requires discovery about the identities of individual accused infringers.

All the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee, led by ranking member Mike Crapo of Idaho, are questioning the administration's decision to trade off extraterritorial taxation of U.S.-headquartered companies (Pillar One) in exchange for a global minimum corporate income tax (Pillar Two) and the removal of digital services taxes.

Big Tech’s entry into payment services could strengthen platform monopoly power, FTC Chair Lina Khan and consumer advocates told the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in comments last week.

Seek more information and ask more questions of the 14 companies or organizations seeking FCC certification to become automated frequency coordination (AFC) system operators in the 6 GHz band (see 2112010002), asked the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition and other incumbents in comments posted Wednesday in docket 21-352. “Protecting incumbent 6 GHz users remains critically important, and the Commission must demand that AFC operators meet rigorous standards to ensure licensees’ protection,” the coalition said: “At least one FWCC member has already experienced harmful interference to a licensed 6 GHz link from an unlicensed device.” The Utilities Technology Council and Edison Electric Institute raised similar concerns. None of the applicants “sufficiently demonstrate that they will fully comply with the Commission’s rules and all lack necessary technical detail for the Commission or affected incumbent operators to be certain that they will properly function and protect primary licensees from harmful interference,” the groups said. Applicants offer “differing explanations for how they will respond to reports of harmful interference,” with some suggesting “they will only be responsive to reports from the Commission,” APCO warned: “Public safety agencies should not be expected to report interference to individual AFC operators. Even if the particular device causing interference can be identified, incumbents are not likely to know which AFC operator is controlling the device.” AT&T said “the vast majority of the AFC System applications only superficially describe their compliance with the requirements of the 6 GHz Report and Order, and therefore fail to provide assurances that primary … incumbents will be protected.” Stakeholders haven't "identified consensus parameters for the propagation models that will assess unlicensed 6 GHz transmissions, in particular the confidence level, and only one of 13 AFC system applicants revealed the confidence level its system applies,” Verizon said. Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Meta and Qualcomm encouraged the FCC to act. “Articulate a decisional framework for processing the applications … with a goal of completing the review and authorization of commercial operations of AFCs and Standard Power devices in 2022,” the tech players said: “The relative simplicity of the AFC sharing mechanism compared to those in other bands should make FCC review and approval straightforward.” That 14 entities submitted proposals to operate AFC systems “evidences the utility of AFC-controlled standard power devices in the 6 GHz band,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said.

In the Dec.15 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 55, No. 49), CBP published a proposal to revoke rulings on hydraulic dock levelers.

In the Dec.15 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 55, No. 49), CBP published a proposal to revoke rulings on hydraulic dock levelers.

Whenever the FCC gets a Democratic majority, broadcasters expect an uncertain environment for potential mergers and acquisitions, possible action on the UHF discount, and potentially two broadcast ownership quadrennial reviews, they said in interviews. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel declined to comment last week on whether the FCC would go after the UHF discount. She said the agency is reviewing some potential broadcast items for 2022 (see 2112140062).

Google and Apple are using their app store monopolies to favor themselves, resulting in lower quality for consumers, Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Democrats and Republicans agreed during a hearing Wednesday.

Google and Apple are using their app store monopolies to favor themselves, resulting in lower quality for consumers, Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Democrats and Republicans agreed during a hearing Wednesday.

Legislators plan to attach cyber incident reporting language to a legislative vehicle in the near future, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., told us last week after bipartisan language was dropped from the National Defense Authorization Act (see 2112070067). The office for Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., denied Democrats’ claims that Republican “dysfunction” led to a bipartisan agreement falling apart last-minute.