Informal European Commission background papers on ICANN issues published Wednesday by Internet governance and policy website .Nxt appear to be a power grab for Europe and other governments in the running of the domain name system (DNS), some said. The six documents cover applicable law, the new generic top level domain process, finances, corporate governance, country-code top level domains and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Among other things, they call for an independent control mechanism on ICANN’s finances, clear rules on conflicts of interest for ICANN board and staff members, and a stronger role for governments in decision-making. ICANN has no comment on the documents at the present time, said Global Media Affairs Director Brad White.
The Justice Department, in a surprisingly quick decision, said Wednesday it’s suing to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Michael Copps were quick to react, issuing statements saying they too had concerns about the deal, raising the question of whether the transaction was in trouble at the commission as well. A top AT&T executive expressed surprise and said the company will fight the DOJ’s decision.
The Justice Department, in a surprisingly quick decision, said Wednesday it’s suing to block AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Michael Copps were quick to react, issuing statements saying they too had concerns about the deal, raising the question of whether the transaction was in trouble at the commission as well. A top AT&T executive expressed surprise and said the company will fight the DOJ’s decision.
The International Trade Commission announced that a Section 337 patent-based complaint has been filed regarding certain digital photo frames and image display devices and components thereof.
The push to smaller and lighter speakers is on a collision course with the meteoric price rise of neodymium magnets that make such compact speakers possible, speaker suppliers, OEMs and others close to the situation told Consumer Electronics Daily. They peg the surging price of neodymium -- a rare earth element used to make the extremely powerful magnets found in speaker drivers, microphones, cellphones, hybrid vehicle motors and many other products -- to Chinese government supply and demand tactics that are creating crisis conditions for speaker makers who depend heavily on the element that’s almost exclusively mined in China.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued an information piece on Import Alerts, including the factors that lead to them; the process for introducing evidence to counter an alert; their effect on future imports; etc. FDA also discusses the hope that the importer responsibility provisions in the Food Safety Modernization Act will reduce the number of Import Alerts.
Small and mid-sized wireless carriers, cable operators and competitive local exchange carriers all criticized parts of the America’s Broadband Connectivity (ABC) plan for making major changes to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation regimes. The plan, a compromise among major telecom carriers and rural local exchange carriers, is unlikely to be approved without some changes, said industry and FCC officials. The trick for the FCC will be keeping ILECs on board while accommodating other interests (CD Aug 25 p1). The FCC also asked for comment on a “complementary” filing by rural carriers as well as proposals by the Federal-State Joint Board on USF, also discussed in many of the comments.
The International Trade Commission announces that a Section 337 patent-based complaint has been filed regarding certain LED photographic lighting devices and components thereof.
The Department of Energy has issued a notice of data availability and request for comments regarding additional data and new information to inform proposed energy conservation standards for fluorescent lamp ballasts. Comments are due by September 14, 2011.
On August 18, 2011, CBP and other officials presented their draft proposals for modeling new simplified entry, summary, and financial processes for imports at a COAC1 meeting, achieving their first project milestone on time. Finalized models are due by September 16, with a final report and proposal slated for delivery on September 30.