Whether the Supreme Court opts next month to take up an appeal of a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a Nickelodeon video privacy case could hinge on whether the 3rd and 1st U.S. Circuit are split on what constitutes personally identifiable information (PII) as laid out by the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). The case, C.A.F v. Viacom, was distributed for a conference to be held Jan. 6, according to the Supreme Court docket.

Whether the Supreme Court opts next month to take up an appeal of a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a Nickelodeon video privacy case could hinge on whether the 3rd and 1st U.S. Circuit are split on what constitutes personally identifiable information (PII) as laid out by the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA). The case, C.A.F v. Viacom, was distributed for a conference to be held Jan. 6, according to the Supreme Court docket.

The FCC under Tom Wheeler may yet clamp down on zero rating programs by AT&T and Verizon, before Wheeler leaves office Jan. 20, industry and FCC officials said. The FCC Wireless Bureau already sent a letter to AT&T drawing a preliminary conclusion that its Data Free TV sponsored data service hurts competition and consumers, and a similar letter to Verizon on its FreeBee Data 360 offering (see 1612020044). The follow up is most likely to be a bureau-level policy statement or additional guidance on what's allowed under the 2015 net neutrality rules, industry and FCC officials said.

The FCC under Tom Wheeler may yet clamp down on zero rating programs by AT&T and Verizon, before Wheeler leaves office Jan. 20, industry and FCC officials said. The FCC Wireless Bureau already sent a letter to AT&T drawing a preliminary conclusion that its Data Free TV sponsored data service hurts competition and consumers, and a similar letter to Verizon on its FreeBee Data 360 offering (see 1612020044). The follow up is most likely to be a bureau-level policy statement or additional guidance on what's allowed under the 2015 net neutrality rules, industry and FCC officials said.

CBP 's interim regulations set too high a standard for domestic producers to show evidence that "reasonably suggests" antidumping or countervailing duty evasion, the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports said in comments to the agency (here). That's clear from CBP's decision not to act on the allegation submitted by Wheatland Tube (see 1610190029), the committee said. While Wheatland provided public import data, "CBP nevertheless required actual proof of evasion, which contradicts the minimal statutory evidentiary requirement for allegations," it said. That group and several others recently submitted comments (here) as part of CBP's request for comments on its interim regulations implementing the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) provisions (see 1608190014).

The FCC Media Bureau's 2012 hearing designation order sending a Game Show Network (GSN) carriage complaint to an administrative law judge (see 1205100047) erred when it said the complaint fell within the statute of limitations, Cablevision said in an application Friday for review of the order. The GSN complaint about Cablevision retiering the channel came nearly a decade after the two signed a carriage agreement that gave Cablevision the right to retier GSN, the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) said. Deciding the complaint was timely since it came within a year of Cablevision's alleged discrimination runs contrary to FCC rules and policy and to judicial authority, Cablevision said. It said the one-year clock for filing carriage complaints is triggered by an MVPD and network signing a contract that a party alleges violates rules, an MVPD offering to carry a network under terms that a party alleges violates rules, or a party notifying an MVPD it intends to file an FCC complaint. Cablevision also said U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards' concurring opinion in the 2013 Cablevision decision on Tennis Channel retiering rejected the reasoning the Media Bureau followed in its GSN decision. But GSN told us "the standard cable industry interpretation of the rule has never been adopted by the FCC, and while [Edwards] criticized the FCC interpretation, he was not able to obtain a second vote for his view." GSN also said Cablevision's application for review "raises the question always raised in one of these [Communications Act Section] 616 cases -- the meaning of the statute of limitations applicable to them. That is the only issue raised in the application for review, and it can only be raised that way because the Media Bureau decided it (against Cablevision) when it designated the case for hearing and instructed the ALJ not to deal with it."

The Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) wants the FCC to act on a plan to expand access to private land mobile radio (PLMR) spectrum, it said reply comments in docket 16-261. The main area of controversy is whether the FCC should amend its rules to allow 806-824/851-869 MHz band incumbents in a market a six-month period to apply for expansion band and guard band frequencies before the frequencies are made available to applicants for new systems (see 1608180045). The FCC sought comment in an August NPRM.

Donald Trump's incoming administration has become a key subject in fundraising and mobilization efforts by multiple telco advocacy groups in recent weeks. The amount of messaging that's overtly political is higher than ever, some experts tell us. "Telecom has always been a political process; when you're talking about subsidies of billions of dollars, let's not kid ourselves here," said Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak. "But it wasn't what you see now at all."

The generalized language in House Judiciary Committee leaders' recent Copyright Office-centric policy proposal means legislation stemming from the proposal could include language from existing bills, depending on feedback lawmakers receive from all factions of the copyright community, officials said in interviews. The paper House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., released earlier this month focused on the CO's operational and IT issues, including giving the office more autonomy from the Library of Congress (see 1612080061). The policy statement endorses the CO’s 2013 plan for establishing an alternative copyright small claims process (see report in the Oct. 1, 2013, issue) and recommends new requirements for updates to the CO’s IT infrastructure.

The generalized language in House Judiciary Committee leaders' recent Copyright Office-centric policy proposal means legislation stemming from the proposal could include language from existing bills, depending on feedback lawmakers receive from all factions of the copyright community, officials said in interviews. The paper House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and committee ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., released earlier this month focused on the CO's operational and IT issues, including giving the office more autonomy from the Library of Congress (see 1612080061). The policy statement endorses the CO’s 2013 plan for establishing an alternative copyright small claims process (see report in the Oct. 1, 2013, issue) and recommends new requirements for updates to the CO’s IT infrastructure.