Ten children’s and consumer advocacy groups filed a complaint with the FTC Tuesday, asking the agency to investigate Google’s YouTube for Kids app for its “unfair and deceptive practices,” said a news release from one of the groups, Consumer Watchdog. A 60-page letter to FTC Secretary Donald Clark details features of the app that the groups say “take advantage of children’s developmental vulnerabilities and violate long-standing media and advertising safeguards that protect children viewing television,” the news release said. Other groups that signed the letter are the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Children Now, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Corporate Accountability International and Public Citizen.

Congress’ ongoing examination of whether to make the U.S. Copyright Office an agency independent of the Library of Congress continues to raise questions over how the Copyright Office would function, given the potential for the agency to then become a rulemaking body, Wilkinson Barker lawyer David Oxenford said in a blog post Monday. The Copyright Office’s recommendations are currently only recommendations to Congress on changes to copyright law rather than true rulemakings because the Library of Congress “technically reports to Congress, not the President, and thus the arguments are that the Library is not a true executive agency (though the President does appoint the Librarian of Congress),” Oxenford said in the blog post. If the Copyright Office became an independent agency, “Congress would not need to get involved in details of Copyright law changes, but instead could enact a broader statute and let the Copyright Office fill in the details, just as the FCC decides how to enforce the Communications Act,” Oxenford said. Congress is seeking ways to increase its oversight of the FCC, which Oxenford said raises the question, “Is Congress ... ready to give up that same kind of oversight over Copyright policy?”

Congress’ ongoing examination of whether to make the U.S. Copyright Office an agency independent of the Library of Congress continues to raise questions over how the Copyright Office would function, given the potential for the agency to then become a rulemaking body, Wilkinson Barker lawyer David Oxenford said in a blog post Monday. The Copyright Office’s recommendations are currently only recommendations to Congress on changes to copyright law rather than true rulemakings because the Library of Congress “technically reports to Congress, not the President, and thus the arguments are that the Library is not a true executive agency (though the President does appoint the Librarian of Congress),” Oxenford said in the blog post. If the Copyright Office became an independent agency, “Congress would not need to get involved in details of Copyright law changes, but instead could enact a broader statute and let the Copyright Office fill in the details, just as the FCC decides how to enforce the Communications Act,” Oxenford said. Congress is seeking ways to increase its oversight of the FCC, which Oxenford said raises the question, “Is Congress ... ready to give up that same kind of oversight over Copyright policy?”

The FCC’s net neutrality order released last month asserts FCC authority over IP addresses and could give the FCC authority over ICANN and the domain name system, Fred Campbell, executive director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, said Friday in a blog post. Campbell, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau, raised an issue that first surfaced when the order was released March 12 (see 1503120053).

The FCC’s net neutrality order released last month asserts FCC authority over IP addresses and could give the FCC authority over ICANN and the domain name system, Fred Campbell, executive director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, said Friday in a blog post. Campbell, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau, raised an issue that first surfaced when the order was released March 12 (see 1503120053).

The proposed sale of customer data for 117 million RadioShack customers as part of RadioShack’s bankruptcy sale had many privacy advocates and state attorneys general calling foul, citing the wording of RadioShack’s privacy policy that said: “We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone at any time.” RadioShack responded to those concerns by tabling plans to offer for sale the "personal identifiable information" (PII) of its customers, the Texas Office of the Attorney General said in a statement Tuesday. There's a chance RadioShack will “live up to the assurances it provided 117 million customers,” by ruling out “any such sale in the future,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, but the issue of how private a customer's information is hasn't gone away.

The proposed sale of customer data for 117 million RadioShack customers as part of RadioShack’s bankruptcy sale had many privacy advocates and state attorneys general calling foul, citing the wording of RadioShack’s privacy policy that said: “We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone at any time.” RadioShack responded to those concerns by tabling plans to offer for sale the "personal identifiable information" (PII) of its customers, the Texas Office of the Attorney General said in a statement Tuesday. There's a chance RadioShack will “live up to the assurances it provided 117 million customers,” by ruling out “any such sale in the future,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, but the issue of how private a customer's information is hasn't gone away.

The proposed sale of customer data for 117 million RadioShack customers as part of RadioShack’s bankruptcy sale had many privacy advocates and state attorneys general calling foul, citing the wording of RadioShack’s privacy policy that said: “We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone at any time.” RadioShack responded to those concerns by tabling plans to offer for sale the "personal identifiable information" (PII) of its customers, the Texas Office of the Attorney General said in a statement Tuesday. There's a chance RadioShack will “live up to the assurances it provided 117 million customers,” by ruling out “any such sale in the future,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, but the issue of how private a customer's information is hasn't gone away.

The FCC net neutrality order, including the new Internet conduct standard and case-by-case approach for dealing with interconnection agreements, creates uncertainty that could take years to straighten out, several telecom attorneys said at an FCBA event Monday. Pantelis Michalopoulos of Steptoe & Johnson predicted courts will uphold the order’s reclassification of broadband service as a common-carrier offering (see 1502260043). Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin and Michael Scurato, National Hispanic Media Coalition policy director, said the order accomplishes the goal of preserving the ability of end users and edge companies to continue sending and receiving content without interference from ISPs.

The FCC net neutrality order, including the new Internet conduct standard and case-by-case approach for dealing with interconnection agreements, creates uncertainty that could take years to straighten out, several telecom attorneys said at an FCBA event Monday. Pantelis Michalopoulos of Steptoe & Johnson predicted courts will uphold the order’s reclassification of broadband service as a common-carrier offering (see 1502260043). Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin and Michael Scurato, National Hispanic Media Coalition policy director, said the order accomplishes the goal of preserving the ability of end users and edge companies to continue sending and receiving content without interference from ISPs.