FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler conceded Monday that an incentive auction has never been tried before and poses a “daunting challenge” for the FCC to get the details right. Wheeler, who spoke at the Brookings Institution, also said the FCC is committed to working with broadcasters to make the auction a success.
One top Democratic office is signaling optimism for compromise going into the House Communications Subcommittee’s markup of draft Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act legislation, scheduled for early this week. The subcommittee will meet for opening statements Monday at 5:30 p.m. in 2123 Rayburn and then meet there Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. to vote on the bill (http://1.usa.gov/1jhR7Kg). “The draft legislation, which addresses a number of discrete issues raised over the course of the subcommittee’s year-long review, strikes the appropriate balance to improve the law without offering any fundamental changes to the marketplace, which are best left to our work toward a Communications Act update,” said draft author and subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., in a statement. Subcommittee Democrats expressed reservations about the bill at a recent STELA hearing, focusing on provisions on CableCARDs and language prohibiting FCC action on sharing agreements until the agency completes its media ownership quadrennial review (CD March 13 p1). “We are negotiating in good faith with our Republican colleagues,” a spokeswoman for Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told us Friday. “We are hoping to come to an agreement, and look forward to working toward a bipartisan solution.” The markup’s background memo describes the draft’s STELA add-ons as “targeted, pro-consumer changes to government involvement in retransmission consent discussions and includes language to relieve cable operators of the obligation to include CableCARDs in operator-deployed set-top boxes” (http://1.usa.gov/1nKCVzM). STELA must be reauthorized by the end of the year or it will expire, and Judiciary and Commerce committees in both chambers have jurisdiction. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a STELA hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen.
The U.S. foreign Internet surveillance program was mischaracterized as a “bulk” program, and efforts to add warrant requirements could create burdensome delays and intelligence gaps, intelligence officials told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). But civil rights advocates and international representatives said the Internet surveillance efforts -- authorized under Section 702 of the Patriot Act -- violated the First and Fourth amendments while displaying a lack of respect for international privacy standards.
The U.S. foreign Internet surveillance program was mischaracterized as a “bulk” program, and efforts to add warrant requirements could create burdensome delays and intelligence gaps, intelligence officials told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). But civil rights advocates and international representatives said the Internet surveillance efforts -- authorized under Section 702 of the Patriot Act -- violated the First and Fourth amendments while displaying a lack of respect for international privacy standards.
Consumers are rapidly entering a landscape where mountains of data allow companies to individually tailor marketing efforts, panelists told an FTC workshop on “alternative scoring” Wednesday. Industry backers see this as a positive step. A more personalized experience creates efficiencies for consumers and pumps money into the economy, said Rachel Thomas, vice president-government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). “It’s important to remember what this is being used for,” she said. “Relevant marketing -- and that’s it.”
Industry remained divided along traditional lines on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, in responses to the Senate Commerce Committee leadership. Commenters split on such issues as how clean and narrow they want any STELA successor to be, whether it should tackle retransmission consent problems and whether it should repeal the set-top box integration ban against combined navigation and security functions. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., joined last month to send the letter to STELA stakeholders. They included questions specific to STELA as well as the broader video market.
Consumers are rapidly entering a landscape where mountains of data allow companies to individually tailor marketing efforts, panelists told an FTC workshop on “alternative scoring” Wednesday. Industry backers see this as a positive step. A more personalized experience creates efficiencies for consumers and pumps money into the economy, said Rachel Thomas, vice president-government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). “It’s important to remember what this is being used for,” she said. “Relevant marketing -- and that’s it.”
Industry remained divided along traditional lines on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, in responses to the Senate Commerce Committee leadership. Commenters split on such issues as how clean and narrow they want any STELA successor to be, whether it should tackle retransmission consent problems and whether it should repeal the set-top box integration ban against combined navigation and security functions. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., joined last month to send the letter to STELA stakeholders. They included questions specific to STELA as well as the broader video market.
A federal court in New York will allow a wrongful termination lawsuit against an importer to proceed, after finding the former employee may have been protected by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The Western New York U.S. District Court on Feb. 27 refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Colin Chase that alleges he was fired for raising concerns with his employer, Brothers International, that the company was engaging in questionable food safety practices. Under FSMA, it’s illegal for a company to fire an employee for raising food safety concerns.
Big data could drastically alter genetic research and education, but big data tactics in those areas have also raised the largest social and ethical concerns, said panelists Monday night at a White House big data review workshop. Any regulatory frameworks should establish principles accounting for such concerns, without creating sector-specific rules, said Alondra Nelson, a Columbia University sociology professor who studies biomedicine and health.