On October 3, 2011, the President submitted to Congress the implementing legislation for the pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama1 and called on Congress to pass them, along with H.R. 2832, which contains GSP and TAA renewal and MPF changes. The Administration's goal is to have the legislation passed by October 13, 2011, the date of Korean President Lee's visit to the U.S.
Global rules for electronic transfer of checks and online dispute resolution raise many challenges, said papers by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. One UNCITRAL working group (WG 3) will meet Nov. 14-18 in Vienna to discuss online dispute resolution, while a separate panel (WG 4) is gearing up to tackle the issue of how to enable e-versions of promissory notes, checks and similar instruments, the organization said. Among the questions about Internet dispute resolution is whether it should include business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions, UNCITRAL said in a provisional agenda. Key legal questions around electronic transferable records include how to ensure the uniqueness of an instrument and authenticate its holder, the UN General Assembly Secretariat said in a Sept. 8 note.
Free Press sought judicial review of the FCC’s December 2010 net neutrality order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. Free Press is based in Boston. Meanwhile, the Mountain Area Information Network, based in Asheville, N.C., also challenged the order in 4th Circuit in Richmond, and the Media Mobilizing Project filed a challenge in the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. Both are represented by the Media Access Project.
Free Press sought judicial review of the FCC’s December 2010 net neutrality order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. Free Press is based in Boston. Meanwhile, the Mountain Area Information Network, based in Asheville, N.C., also challenged the order in 4th Circuit in Richmond, and the Media Mobilizing Project filed a challenge in the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. Both are represented by the Media Access Project.
The FCC delayed the October meeting until Oct. 27 largely at the urging of staff working on universal service/intercarrier compensation, so they'd have more time to work out the details on a final order, agency officials said. Officials said they would prefer not to let a vote slip until Nov. 30, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, state members of the Federal/State USF Joint Board are not expected to make any additional recommendations before the October meeting date and have many continuing concerns about proposals now before the agency, especially the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan.
House Science Committee Chairman Ralph Hall, R-Texas, and five other Republican members of the committee asked Tuesday for communications between LightSquared and the Office of Technology and Policy and the Office of Management and Budget. The letters to the offices, which make several comparisons between LightSquared and the bankrupt solar-panel maker Solyndra, say “we have no choice but to exercise our oversight authority in the this matter.” The letter also said several agencies didn’t comply with requests for copies of comments provided to NTIA on the LightSquared issue prior to a Sept. 8 House Science Committee Hearing on LightSquared. The non-compliance of those agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Commerce Department, “was the first of many red flags raised about the situation regarding LightSquared,” they said. Hall’s letters also included emails between the White House and LightSquared in which the company sought to set up meetings with White House officials. The White House said it hasn’t acted improperly in the LightSquared process. The FCC “is an independent agency with its own standards and procedures for considering these types of decisions and we respect that process,” a White House spokesman said by email. “In fact,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “expressly said the White House never lobbied FCC on LightSquared,” the spokesman said. “And, further, before the FCC granted a conditional waiver to LightSquared, the NTIA sent a letter to the FCC stating the Administration’s official position that LightSquared should not be allowed to move forward unless interference issues were resolved. Indeed, every Administration witness testifying at every hearing on LightSquared has been explicit in identifying the problems for GPS, and the need to resolve interference problems before LightSquared is allowed to move forward. Despite the fact that LightSquared personnel contacted Administration officials to tout their company, Administration officials have continued to voice serious concerns about the interference."
Judge Ellen Huvelle left little doubt Wednesday she plans to move quickly to consider and rule on the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. Huvelle said she wanted to start a trial in mid-February, asking AT&T and DOJ lawyers to confer on a start date. A preliminary hearing on the legal challenge to the transaction took a little more than an hour and was well attended. Among those in the crowd was FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan and Renata Hesse, aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski on transactions.
Don’t answer a constitutional question when common-law questions are on the table, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, reinstating a $675,000 damages award against P2P defendant Joel Tenenbaum and sending the case back to the U.S. District Court in Boston for further proceedings. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner had reduced the award to $67,500 -- triple the $750 minimum in the Copyright Act, multiplied by 30 infringed songs -- on due-process grounds last year, saying Congress never intended the broad statutory penalties in the law to apply to noncommercial infringers (WID July 13/10 p3). In an opinion by the three-judge panel written by Chief Judge Sandra Lynch, the appeals court rejected all of Tenenbaum’s arguments and agreed with the U.S., which had intervened to defend the constitutionality of statutory penalties, and said the common-law “remittitur” question had to be answered.
FCC video accessibility committee subgroups continue work with staff of the commission on three forthcoming reports required under last year’s communications disabilities legislation, participants said. They said efforts similar to those between career commission staffers and members of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee on the panel’s first report on Internet programming, released in July (CD July 15 p1) are underway on the forthcoming reports. The VPAAC reports will cover video description for multichannel video programming distributors and TV stations, user interfaces on consumer electronics and conveying emergency information.
FCC video accessibility committee subgroups continue work with staff of the commission on three forthcoming reports required under last year’s communications disabilities legislation, participants said. They said efforts similar to those between career commission staffers and members of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee on the panel’s first report on Internet programming, released in July (WID July 15 p2) are underway on the forthcoming reports. The VPAAC reports will cover video descriptions for multichannel video programming distributors, user interfaces on consumer electronics and conveying emergency information.