The Supreme Court should deny cert to a P2P infringement case on the appropriate standard for evaluating statutory-damages awards, the Justice Department told the high court in a brief opposing an appeal by defendant Jammie Thomas-Rasset. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $222,000 damages award in favor of the major labels against Thomas-Rasset -- the amount from the first of three trials in the long-running case -- saying it didn’t violate constitutional due process because statutory damages, unlike punitive damages, provide “fair notice” to potential defendants (WID Sept 12 p6).

Briefs in an appeal of the FCC’s order allowing its viewability rules to expire were filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week. The FCC, NTCA and Time Warner Cable defended the agency’s decision to let the rule expire. The National Hispanic Media Coalition and a group of broadcasters sued over the order and that includes the NAB, Agape Church, London Broadcasting and Una Vez Mas filed final briefs opposing the FCC’s order. The broadcasters said the FCC’s order was in conflict with Congress’s intent that pay-TV operators distribute TV stations to all subscribers. The National Hispanic Media Coalition urged the court to reverse the FCC’s order on statutory grounds raised by the broadcasters. But it said the order also failed on procedural grounds because FCC didn’t provide a proper notice and comment period on the plan to let the rule expire and that its decision to do so was arbitrary and capricious. The FCC defended the order (http://bit.ly/12G5JcM). It said the commission reasonably concluded “there was no longer a threat to the viability of must-carry stations that justified the burden on cable-operator speech imposed by analog carriage.”. The agency interpreted the relevant section of the Communications Act reasonably, and its interpretation is consistent with “text, structure and purposes of that provision,” it said. “Statutory interpretations are not set in stone, otherwise agencies would be powerless to respond to rapid changes in technology.” The FCC said it provided reasonable notice of its plans. NCTA and Time Warner Cable said the agency was right to let the viewability rule expire. “There can be no serious dispute that on the record before the FCC, the Government may not compel cable operators to devote their limited capacity to carrying broadcast stations in two different formats,” they said in a joint brief.

Witnesses representing broadcasters, satellite TV and content owners took varying stances during a hearing Wednesday of the House Communications Subcommittee on how Congress should address broadcast signal delivery rules in the proposed Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). The existing provisions are set to expire Dec. 31, 2014, and the hearing was to help lawmakers determine whether to reauthorize the provisions or allow them to sunset (CD Feb 13 p3).

Sky Angel has tapped former FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai to help it keep its case in federal court, where it alleged C-SPAN broke antitrust rules. The online video distributor, which has a still-pending program access complaint against Discovery that prompted the Media Bureau last year to ask how it should define the terms “multichannel video programming distributor” (MVPD), sued C-SPAN in U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., alleging Sherman Act violations over C-SPAN’s refusal to distribute its networks with Sky Angel. C-SPAN subsequently asked the court to dismiss the claim (WID Jan 15 p2), saying the matter ought to be heard first by the FCC.

Sky Angel has tapped former FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai to help it keep its case in federal court, where it alleged C-SPAN broke antitrust rules. Sky Angel, which has a still-pending program access complaint against Discovery that prompted the FCC’s Media Bureau last year to ask how it should define the terms “multichannel video programming distributor” (MVPD), sued C-SPAN in U.S. District Court, Washington, D.C., alleging Sherman Act violations over C-SPAN’s refusal to distribute its networks with Sky Angel. C-SPAN subsequently asked the court to dismiss the claim (CD Jan 15 p7), saying the matter ought to be heard first by the FCC.

The cable industry needs to do a better job claiming responsibility for the birth of broadband services in the U.S., said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt at the University of Colorado in Boulder. And cable operators need to get through to emergency management personnel that they provide critical communications infrastructure during disasters, he said at the Silicon Flatirons event Monday. Britt joins other executives over the years including then-NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, now at Comcast, in saying the industry must do more to fight misconceptions it’s anti-consumer.

The cable industry needs to do a better job claiming responsibility for the birth of broadband services in the U.S., said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt at the University of Colorado in Boulder. And cable operators need to get through to emergency management personnel that they provide critical communications infrastructure during disasters, he said at a Silicon Flatirons event Monday. Britt joins other executives over the years including then-NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, now at Comcast, in saying the industry must do more to fight misconceptions it’s anti-consumer (CD Sept 8/08 p8).

The cable industry needs to do a better job claiming responsibility for the birth of broadband services in the U.S., said Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt at the University of Colorado in Boulder. And cable operators need to get through to emergency management personnel that they provide critical communications infrastructure during disasters, he said at the Silicon Flatirons event Monday. Britt joins other executives over the years including then-NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, now at Comcast, in saying the industry must do more to fight misconceptions it’s anti- consumer (WID Sept 8/08 p2).

The FCC Wireline Bureau gave itself a 90-day extension to act on a USTelecom petition seeking forbearance of several legacy rules, in an order adopted Thursday (http://bit.ly/WzsQqt). Without the extension, the requests would have been “deemed granted,” the order said. “The USTelecom Petition raises significant questions” that require “additional time” to “fully examine” whether forbearance is warranted, the order said. FCC officials said Tuesday an order on circulation would grant several unopposed items in USTelecom’s request, but that the more complex issues will require additional time to consider (CD Feb 6 p6).

Mass digitization projects should not be exempted from the need to search diligently for the owners of so-called orphan works, groups representing copyright holders said in response to a notice of inquiry from the U.S. Copyright Office (http://xrl.us/bofo9o). Microsoft, on the other hand, said mass digitization projects should not be required to search for copyright holders of all the works they seek to digitize, while Google suggested that the Copyright Office specifically define the requirements of a diligent search and limit liability for those users that have met those requirements. Comments responded to the office’s questions about orphan works and mass digitization.