The Joint Industry Group has sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expressing its concern regarding the possible development of a "Global Trade Exchange" (described as a third-party global data warehouse) that would be owned and/or operated by the private sector.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) minimum security criteria for U.S.- and foreign-based marine port authority and terminal operators (MPTOs).

e-Cargonews Asia reports that the container lines in transpacific trade have raised concerns that Asia's port congestion and U.S. transportation costs and road-rail capacity threaten to disrupt the current peak season. With carriers reporting ship utilization rates of 95% or higher from Asia on all route segments, the Asia-U.S. supply chain infrastructure is almost operating at capacity and shipping executives are getting nervous. (e-Cargonews Asia, dated 08/09/07, available at http://www.cargonewsasia.com/secured/article.aspx?id=3&article=13743)

The Bell companies’ special access prices have to be forced down through regulatory actions such as adjusting the “price cap” formula under which they're regulated or dropping part of the “pricing flexibility” regime, big business customers and competitive telecom providers told the FCC. The comments were filed late Wednesday (CD Aug 9 p1).

Broadcasters asked the FCC to clarify that sales of ads in bulk through third-party websites (CD July 9 p11) shouldn’t be reflected in the rates that radio and TV stations offer to federal candidates. NAB, 47 state broadcast associations, Gannett, Media General and other companies said three decades of FCC precedent mean that ads sold through nonbroadcast networks should not be subject to the lowest unit charges (LUC). At stake is whether broadcasters must directly offer politicians rates that could be even lower for airtime, because the Internet auction sites offer advertisers lower prices than they could get if they bought commercials from individual stations. Also at stake is the development of what many FCC filings referred to as “nascent” industry of Google’s dMarc Broadcasting, Bid4Spots, SoftWave Media Exchange and others that sell unwanted airtime.

BALTIMORE -- The FCC wants the advice of public safety, equipment vendors, the public and all other interested parties on how to make wireless E-911 more accurate, FCC officials said Wednesday during an FCC legal advisors panel at the Association of Public Safety Officials annual meeting which ends today (Thursday). But with the text of the 700 MHz order still not out, they had little new to say on that order despite numerous questions from APCO members. Sources said the commission is working hard to release the text today, before the end of the APCO meeting.

Analysts and third-party videogame publishers predicted that the Xbox 360 across-the-board price cuts, confirmed by Microsoft late Monday and taking effect Wednesday, will raise sales of the platform. Some new customers are expected to be noncore gamers, but it remains to be seen whether the move will prevent Nintendo’s very popular -- and still cheaper Wii, at $249.99 -- from soon overtaking Xbox 360 in North American installed base.

The National Association of Broadcasters is “grasping at straws” in contending that SoundExchange is violating its charter by financing the MusicFirst Coalition, which is lobbying Congress to require terrestrial radio to pay performance royalties, a SoundExchange spokesman told us. The issue was recently raised in a Wired article, which NAB passed around to the media. The article said SoundExchange is barred from spending collected royalties under the Copyright Act except to administer the royalty program, settle royalty disputes and participate in negotiations or arbitration proceedings, as it just concluded for Internet radio royalties at the Copyright Royalty Board. General Counsel Michael Huppe told Wired that only money from SoundExchange members was going toward MusicFirst, which doesn’t affect its charter, and that the SoundExchange board unanimously approved the expenditure. He couldn’t be reached for comment. An NAB spokesman told us the group isn’t endorsing the article’s claims. “If the story is accurate, it raises some interesting questions about the role of SoundExchange,” he said. Nancy Prager, who represent independent labels in royalty matters, told us: “I don’t think anything in the [regulations] or law prevents them from lobbying at all… There’s nothing in the Copyright Act that says ‘you can’t do this.'” She said National Public Radio’s activities with SaveNetRadio, which is backing the Internet Radio Equality Act, were similar. An NPR spokeswoman said the organization had no connection with SaveNetRadio. NPR’s connection to the new Free Radio Alliance -- which opposes terrestrial performance royalty legislation, and got startup funding from NAB -- is in name only, the spokeswoman said. NPR member stations are careful not to lobby using federal money, she said. The Copyright Office couldn’t provide comment by our deadline on SoundExchange’s spending leeway.

NAB is “grasping at straws” in contending that SoundExchange is violating its charter by financing the MusicFirst Coalition, which is lobbying Congress to require terrestrial radio to pay performance royalties, a SoundExchange spokesman told us. The issue was recently raised in a Wired article, which NAB passed around to the media. The article said SoundExchange is barred from spending collected royalties under the Copyright Act except to administer the royalty program, settle royalty disputes and participate in negotiations or arbitration proceedings, as it just concluded for Internet radio royalties at the Copyright Royalty Board. General Counsel Michael Huppe told Wired that only money from SoundExchange members was going toward MusicFirst, which doesn’t affect its charter, and that the SoundExchange board unanimously approved the expenditure. He couldn’t be reached for comment. An NAB spokesman told us the group isn’t endorsing the article’s claims. “If the story is accurate, it raises some interesting questions about the role of SoundExchange,” he said. Nancy Prager, who represent independent labels in royalty matters, told us: “I don’t think anything in the [regulations] or law prevents them from lobbying at all. There’s nothing in the Copyright Act that says ‘you can’t do this.'” She said National Public Radio’s activities with SaveNetRadio, which is backing the Internet Radio Equality Act, were similar. An NPR spokeswoman said the organization had no connection with SaveNetRadio. NPR’s connection to the new Free Radio Alliance -- which opposes terrestrial performance royalty legislation, and got startup funding from NAB -- is in name only, the spokeswoman said. NPR member stations are careful not to lobby using federal money, she said. The Copyright Office couldn’t provide comment by our deadline on SoundExchange’s spending leeway.

The FCC will levy regulatory fees on VoIP providers starting this year, it said in an order issued Monday. The FCC said earlier this year it was inclined to seek fees from VoIP companies. Now that they have to pay into the Universal Service Fund, paying regulatory fees was a natural extension, the commission said. The FCC said Section 9 of the Communications Act gives the commission authority to impose regulatory fees on VoIP providers.