On March 9, 2011, a subcommittee1 of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing entitled, “China's Indigenous Innovation Trade and Investment Policies: How Great a Threat?”
The Supreme Court should consider Council Tree’s challenge to the AWS-1 and 700 MHz auction results, in part to clear up longstanding questions about how courts should interpret Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act, the designated entity (DE) said in a reply brief to the high court. The 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia found problems with the FCC’s revised DE rules challenged by Council Tree, but left intact the auction results (CD Aug 25 p1).
Approval of a final data roaming order -- as recommended in the National Broadband Plan -- could face an uphill fight even though there have long appeared to be three votes in favor with strong support from FCC Democrats, said agency and industry officials. Chairman Julius Genachowski must decide by March 17 whether to seek a vote at the April 7 meeting.
A notice of inquiry from the Copyright Office asking about the future of statutory licenses under Sections 111, 119 and 122 of the Copyright Act is expected to elicit comments from an array of companies and trade associations, including online video companies, executives and lawyers said Thursday. The notice was published Thursday in the Federal Register, beginning a 45-day comment period. The notice, prompted by last year’s STELA Act, asked whether a market-based program could replace the statutory license for pay-TV carriage of broadcast programming, and how the licenses might be phased out. Among their purposes, the licenses allow distributors to carry TV stations without seeking permission from every rightsholder involved in a piece of broadcast content, such as the owner of a music recording used during a TV program.
A divided Congress can help broadcasters avoid harmful legislation or regulation by slowing down consideration of issues detrimental to the industry, NAB President Gordon Smith said Thursday. “When it comes to broadcast issues, it is helpful to us, to have an extra check and balance between the chambers” so issues are “fully considered,” he said. That’s because decisions can have “lasting and damaging consequences,” Smith said in response to our question on C-SPAN.
The International Trade Commission announces that a section 337 patent-based complaint has been filed regarding certain vaginal ring birth control devices.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s fiscal year 2012 budget request is for $122 million, a 3.2% increase over the FY 2010 enacted funding level. CPSC states that this request level will allow it to continue work implementing and enforcing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), administer the public database of consumer product safety incidents, and fund other CPSC priorities.
The U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on South Korea’s January 31, 2011 request for World Trade Organization consultations with the U.S. concerning antidumping measures regarding corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Korea, in particular its use of “zeroing.”1,2
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said broadcasters and pay-TV providers alike must negotiate retransmission consent deals in good faith and not deviate from that because of a forthcoming FCC rulemaking notice (CD March 1 p6) on retrans. Of the notice, set for a vote at Thursday’s agency meeting, he told an audience of broadcast executives visiting Washington to lobby on Capitol Hill for them and pay-TV rivals to “please don’t use this as an excuse” to not negotiate fairly. But most broadcasters and cable companies won’t wait for the FCC to change the dynamic, McDowell said Tuesday at an NAB conference. He also used FCC figures his office received to show that the agency is whittling down the number of indecency complaints against broadcasters, something he’s said should be reduced, although many license renewals are pending.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has issued a final rule, effective May 2, 2011, to enhance the hazardous materials safety compliance and enforcement activities conducted by PHMSA, FAA, FMCSA, and FRA inspection personnel.1 The new rule allows these DOT agents to investigate shipments of hazardous materials during transport and take tougher enforcement action against companies shipping in an unsafe manner.