LONDON -- With European Commission (EC) proposals for new e-communications rules widely leaked ahead of their expected November 13 publication, neither side showed much enthusiasm for a centralized EU telecommunications authority Tuesday at the Chatham House/International Institute of Communications conference. Speakers indicated feelings are strongly divided over whether regulators should be able to order dominant players to split their infrastructure from their services divisions via functional separation.

Hoping to prevent further unfavorable rulings on attorney’s fees over its handling of lawsuits against P2P defendants, the RIAA strongly took issue with a magistrate judge’s recommendation in favor of a cleared defendant (WID Sept 25 p3). Atlantic v. Andersen in the U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., posed the RIAA’s second loss on attorney’s fees, but the ruling must be approved by a senior judge. The ruling hinged on the RIAA’s having failed to act “reasonably,” by dragging out discovery and failing to pursue an additional suspect in the infringement. The RIAA said Tanya Andersen wasn’t a “prevailing party” qualified to receive attorney’s fees, since there was no ruling on the merits or court-approved consent decree. Magistrate Judge Donald Ashmanskas disputed that, saying Andersen’s legal relationship with the RIAA had “materially” changed when she got all available relief without making concessions. But that’s a “slippery slope” as recognized in Shloss v. Sweeney, a case where a joint stipulation was denied as grounds for prevailing-party status, the RIAA’s filing said. Ashmanskas declined to apply Shloss because he mistakenly believed that the defendant in that case had made concessions, the RIAA said. Ashmanskas’ ruling that the RIAA dropped its case because it lacked prima facie evidence of wrongdoing is “utterly without any basis.” The RIAA dismissed its case because of “evidentiary inconsistency” in its inspection of Andersen’s computer, but it had a boatload of evidence linking Andersen to infringement, including three confirmations by Verizon that she had the flagged IP address, Andersen’s admission that she had Kazaa on her computer, and her daughter’s connection to the screen name. There was no way that another person could have been the infringer, as Ashmanskas assumed, the filing said. In a footnote, the filing said the RIAA, not Andersen, had discovered a person who shared Andersen’s “gotenkito” screen name, and tried for 1-? years to find the person, whose only Internet identification was his first name, age and geographic location. There’s no evidence the other suspect ever had access to Andersen’s IP address, and his use of the screen name was on his MySpace page, not Kazaa, the RIAA said. The group challenged Ashmanskas’ claim that the RIAA forced an “unusually extended and contentious period of discovery.” It was Ashmanskas who delayed the discovery by ordering an examination of Andersen’s hard drive, and then Andersen, by changing her mind and raising “ongoing objections” to examination of her hard drive. If Ashmanskas’ recommendation is upheld, rights holders with “objectively reasonable claims” will keep litigation going even when they discover “evidentiary inconsistency” like the RIAA encountered, the filing said.

The World Customs Organization has posted information to its Web site regarding the upcoming World Customs Forum 2007 held in conjunction with the Trusted Trade Alliance. The event, which will undertake an implementation review of the WCO Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade (SAFE Framework), will take place December 11-12, 2007 at WCO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Majesco Entertainment settled three suits filed against it in a U.S. district court for about $2.5 million total, it said Thursday. The New Jersey cases were a class action suit on behalf of some buyers of Majesco securities, a private securities action filed by Trinad Capital Master Fund and a second action filed by Trinad in Majesco’s behalf. In the settlement, Majesco denied it acted improperly and said it was settling these matters “in order to eliminate the uncertainty, expense and distraction of further protracted litigation.” Under the class-action settlement, which requires notice of the shareholder class and court approval, Majesco’s insurance carrier will make a cash payment and the company will contribute shares of its common stock worth about $2.5 million, it said. The shares will be distributed to the settlement class when the settlement becomes effective, it said. The company had said it recorded a $2.5 million charge for the settlement, representing the expected value of the securities to be given the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs’ attorney fees will be paid from the settlement amount. The settlement of the private securities claim in the action brought by Trinad on its own behalf provides that Majesco’s insurance carrier will make a cash payment to Trinad, subject to final approval of the class-action settlement by the court. The settlement agreement in the action filed by Trinad on behalf of the company won’t result in any payment, Majesco said, adding that the plaintiff’s attorneys “will not receive any fees in connection with the settlement.” As a result of the suit by Trinad, Majesco took actions that it and Trinad believe will benefit Majesco shareholders and deal with some of the issues raised, the publisher said. That settlement is also subject to notice to the company’s shareholders and to court approval.

An exemption giving the FCC, not the Federal Trade Commission, jurisdiction over communications companies as common carriers no longer may make sense given telco deregulation and convergence of communications technologies, panelists said Wednesday at a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. Recent FCC forbearance decisions and service bundling by telcos and cable companies can complicate assignment of jurisdiction, they said.

House members marched a slew of online child protection bills past the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, after hearing a first-hand account by a teenager abducted and abused by a man she met online. The bills would increase fines and prison sentences for violators.

An exemption giving the FCC, not the Federal Trade Commission, jurisdiction over communications companies as common carriers no longer may make sense given telco deregulation and convergence of communications technologies, panelists said Wednesday at a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. Recent FCC forbearance decisions and service bundling by telcos and cable companies can complicate assignment of jurisdiction, they said.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s effort to change leased- access rules is running into early cable industry opposition. Intensifying his rhetoric against cable, Martin for perhaps the first time said publicly Friday that he wants to cut the rates that cable operators charge to lease channel space to independent programmers. Speaking to the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he chastised cable for raising rates and refusing to sell channels piecemeal. Martin urged more video competition (CD Oct 15 p6).

Heads turned in late July, when the FCC in a rulemaking notice asked whether retailers that take part in NTIA’s DTV coupon program should be required to show that they're properly educating the public and training employees on the DTV transition and whether FCC aides should do spot inspections to monitor their efforts.

The two FCC Democrats don’t want the commissioners to vote on a broad media ownership rulemaking until the agency acts comprehensively on issues affecting minorities, they told a Rainbow PUSH Coalition meeting. Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps said the agency should move fast to form an independent panel (CD Sept 24 p1) assigned to find ways to raise the disproportionately low ownership of radio, TV stations and other media assets by minorities. Only after the agency adopts that panel’s recommendations should the FCC vote on an order that Chairman Kevin Martin is poised to circulate soon on broadcast ownership limits, they said.