FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly lamented that a cost-benefit analysis is lacking from the record on net neutrality and that the commission’s new rules on TV station joint sales agreements have negatively affected consumers. He spoke at a Phoenix Center event Tuesday night.

That broadcasters won their case against streaming TV service Aereo in the Supreme Court Wednesday in a 6-3 decision (http://1.usa.gov/1lbK8Si) makes it very difficult for Aereo to continue operating, several broadcast and copyright attorneys told us. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, ruling that despite Aereo’s unique technology, the company’s end product was little different than that of a cable company, and should be subject to laws intended to impose copyright restrictions on cable companies. Oral argument was in April (CED April 23 p1).

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly lamented that a cost-benefit analysis is lacking from the record on net neutrality and that the commission’s new rules on TV station joint sales agreements have negatively affected consumers. He spoke at a Phoenix Center event Tuesday night.

The Supreme Court said police in general must obtain a warrant before searching the information on a cellphone. The unanimous decision Wednesday was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. The court heard two cases raising similar issues April 29, Riley v. California, which involved the search of a smartphone, and United States v. Brima Wurie, which involved the search of a less sophisticated flip phone (WID April 30 p9).

The Supreme Court said police in general must obtain a warrant before searching the information on a cellphone. The unanimous decision Wednesday was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. The court heard two cases raising similar issues April 29, Riley v. California, which involved the search of a smartphone, and United States v. Brima Wurie, which involved the search of a less sophisticated flip phone (CD April 30 p8).

The FCC net neutrality rulemaking and recent policies are designed to provide certainty on what the commission will allow, while leaving room for case-by-case flexibility, said General Counsel Jonathan Sallet at an FCBA Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program Monday. Such rules are required to allow the commission to regulate “in a time of rapid innovation,” he said. Along with the thinking behind recent FCC rules, the event included a rundown on FCC court cases of the past year, especially the Verizon v. FCC net neutrality case and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order.

The FCC net neutrality rulemaking and recent policies are designed to provide certainty on what the commission will allow, while leaving room for case-by-case flexibility, said General Counsel Jonathan Sallet at an FCBA Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program Monday. Such rules are required to allow the commission to regulate “in a time of rapid innovation,” he said. Along with the thinking behind recent FCC rules, the event included a rundown on FCC court cases of the past year, especially the Verizon v. FCC net neutrality case and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order.

While a district court didn’t determine that Viacom acted anticompetitively in a carriage deal with Cablevision, the rejection of the cable programmer’s motion to dismiss the case is still a mildly unwelcome development for Viacom and content companies, said a Guggenheim Partners analyst. If Cablevision’s evidence can support its claims over Viacom’s evidence, “Cablevision is likely to prevail,” Paul Gallant said in a research note Monday. Cablevision alleged that Viacom engaged in illegal “tying” and forced the cable company to carry 14 networks that its customers don’t watch during a carriage deal (CD Feb 27/13 p11). The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Viacom’s motion last week (CD June 23 p17). Cablevision has proffered subscription, demographic and other statistical information “that suffice at this pleading stage to make plausible its market definition allegations,” said Judge Laura Swain in a memorandum order. Viacom programming licensing arrangements are “flexible, competitive and the result of good-faith negotiations with distributors,” Viacom said in a statement. “Although we are disappointed that the court did not dismiss these claims at the outset, we are confident that Cablevision will fail to prove the facts required to prevail in their case.” A victory for the cable company might be a concern for content companies by raising legal uncertainly over their longtime bundling strategy, Gallant said. If the court concludes that Viacom violated antitrust law, that could feed into the nascent Telecom Act rewrite, or a narrower bill updating the 1992 Cable Act “in an unwelcome way for content companies,” he said.

ICANN’s development of a proposal to transition the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to a global multistakeholder body will dominate discussions at the ICANN 50 conference in London this week, said stakeholders planning to attend. The conference was to have begun Sunday, though preliminary meetings began Thursday (http://bit.ly/1pPDwAe). The transition proposal, which must be approved by NTIA, has been met with resistance from many House Republicans, who fear the move could jeopardize Internet security and openness (WID April 11 p1).

ICANN’s development of a proposal to transition the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to a global multistakeholder body will dominate discussions at the ICANN 50 conference in London this week, said stakeholders planning to attend. The conference was to have begun Sunday, though preliminary meetings began Thursday (http://bit.ly/1pPDwAe). The transition proposal, which must be approved by NTIA, has been met with resistance from many House Republicans, who fear the move could jeopardize Internet security and openness (CD April 11 p2).