Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., pressed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on whether the agency played a role in the recent creation of the NG911 NOW Coalition and on how his office handles the potential discussion of nonpublic information with members of the news media and other officials. He sent the letter Friday and requested answers to several questions by April 4. The FCC received the letter and is reviewing it, said an agency spokesman, declining further comment.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., pressed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on whether the agency played a role in the recent creation of the NG911 NOW Coalition and on how his office handles the potential discussion of nonpublic information with members of the news media and other officials. He sent the letter Friday and requested answers to several questions by April 4. The FCC received the letter and is reviewing it, said an agency spokesman, declining further comment.
Lawyers for the House and Senate Judiciary committees urged copyright stakeholders Friday to be as active in advocating to congressional appropriators on Copyright Office funding as they are in advocating to Judiciary staffers for CO modernization. “I would encourage you to spend as much if not more time talking to” appropriators about CO issues and the degree to which funding can affect the office's ability to function, said Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic Counsel Garrett Levin. CO modernization has emerged as a top policy issue that copyright stakeholders have focused on amid the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing Copyright Act review (see 1511180063).
A draft NPRM slated for the FCC's March 31 meeting would seek comment on expanding the amount of described video available to consumers who are visually impaired, industry officials told us. The proposal is based on portions of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) that give the FCC authority to make such an expansion after June 2016, an industry official said.
NTIA and FCC still plan to release a plan identifying 500 megahertz for wireless broadband by year end, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Friday during a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. But Strickling said the target is no slam dunk.
NTIA and FCC still plan to release a plan identifying 500 megahertz for wireless broadband by year end, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Friday during a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. But Strickling said the target is no slam dunk.
Lawyers for the House and Senate Judiciary committees urged copyright stakeholders Friday to be as active in advocating to congressional appropriators on Copyright Office funding as they are in advocating to Judiciary staffers for CO modernization. “I would encourage you to spend as much if not more time talking to” appropriators about CO issues and the degree to which funding can affect the office's ability to function, said Senate Judiciary Committee Democratic Counsel Garrett Levin. CO modernization has emerged as a top policy issue that copyright stakeholders have focused on amid the House Judiciary Committee's ongoing Copyright Act review (see 1511180063).
Broadcasters continue to push back at various cable industry proposals for changing the rules governing retransmission consent negotiations. NAB said in an FCC filing Thursday in docket 15-216 that multichannel video programming distributors want the agency to "ignore the plain meaning of [Section 325 of the Communications Act] and adopt proposals requiring the retransmission of broadcasters' signals without consent." Much of the NAB opprobrium focused on American TV Alliance arguments raised earlier this week about justifications the FCC has for good-faith negotiation rules revisions (see 1603160036). The parts of the act cited by MVPDs don't override Section 325 -- which spells out retrans rules for MVPDs' carriage of over-the-air TV -- and broadcasters' control of their signals, NAB said. While the FCC has the right to enforce remedies in cases of bad-faith negotiation, NAB said, it can't "trample on a stations' unqualified right to control its signal by ordering forced carriage as the remedy for a broadcasters' violation of the good faith rules." MVPD proposals also fall short of the Supreme Court's 1984 Chevron v. NRDC decision because Congress' intention to give broadcasters full control of their signals was unequivocal, it said. In a statement, ATVA said, "NAB's new legal analysis is as faulty as its earlier claim that broadcaster price increases don't harm consumers. The statute says that broadcasters must grant 'consent' for carriage. But it also says that broadcasters must negotiate in good faith. NAB seems to argue that only the first provision really means anything. That's not what the law says, and that's not what Congress intended. ATVA's filing demonstrated that the FCC has unquestionable legal authority to adopt each of ATVA's proposals. We urge the Commission to act decisively to protect consumers from harmful and abusive behavior." In a separate ex parte filing Wednesday in the same docket, meanwhile, AT&T said it met with FCC staff including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake to argue that prohibition of online blocking isn't a First Amendment issue since it doesn't regulate broadcasters' speech at all, but even if it did such a rule would be content neutral. AT&T also said the FCC has legal authority to stop joint negotiation of retrans agreements under the same rules that let it regulate transferring control of broadcast licenses, and that broadcasters' demanding retrans fees for subscribers who receive a broadcaster's signal over the air is contrary to the broadcaster's duty to transmit programming for free over the air.
House Communications Subcommittee members are increasingly at ease with the trajectory of the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, since ICANN's approval last week of two transition-related plans, they said Thursday. They indicated they'll continue to exercise their oversight of the IANA transition process until its completion. ICANN sent NTIA its finalized IANA transition plan and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms after the board passed both plans during its meeting in Marrakech, Morocco (see 1603100070). ICANN stakeholders strongly endorsed the IANA transition plan and the recommendations from the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability), saying during the hearing that the plans collectively meet NTIA criteria for the IANA transition.
House Communications Subcommittee members are increasingly at ease with the trajectory of the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, since ICANN's approval last week of two transition-related plans, they said Thursday. They indicated they'll continue to exercise their oversight of the IANA transition process until its completion. ICANN sent NTIA its finalized IANA transition plan and a related set of recommended changes to ICANN's accountability mechanisms after the board passed both plans during its meeting in Marrakech, Morocco (see 1603100070). ICANN stakeholders strongly endorsed the IANA transition plan and the recommendations from the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability), saying during the hearing that the plans collectively meet NTIA criteria for the IANA transition.