The House telecom package still doesn’t “have wings” after a year of work, so lawmakers should pass video choice and other provisions that have support, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke told reporters Fri. Rather than let another year pass without a law, Tauke said, “we'd like to see the House consider some alternative approaches.” Video franchising could move quickly, while universal service, intercarrier compensation and similarly complex matters could drag on, Tauke said: “If you can’t get the whole loaf, let’s get a portion of it.”

ChoicePoint will pay $10 million in a civil penalty and $5 million for a consumer redress fund to settle FTC charges the firm violated federal laws through careless screening and information security procedures. The firm admitted last year that financial records on 145,000 consumers -- now up to 163,000, the FTC estimates -- were compromised by “fraudsters” posing as firms with “permissible purposes” for getting the records (WID March 7 p8). The settlement, the largest in agency history, should warn data brokers and others to “guard the front door… as well as guard the back door” to protect sensitive personal information, or face harsh financial and regulatory consequences, Chmn. Deborah Majoras told a press conference Thurs.

FTC Chmn. Deborah Majoras said it was illegal to obtain cellphone records from telecom firms under false pretenses, known as pretexting, in a press conference Thurs. Meanwhile, the FCC is poised to vote on a cellphone record rulemaking at its Feb. meeting and more legislation is emerging on Capitol Hill.

The FCC issued a decision on some of the technical issues raised in June in a rulemaking tied to the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction. the auction, expected to take place this summer, could raises in billions of dollars for the Treasury. The FCC sought guidance on issues such as reserve bid prices that guarantee govt. agencies will be fully compensated as they exit the spectrum put up for sale, and on options for preserving tribal land bidding credits. The Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act creating the trust fund for compensating agencies required the FCC to make changes proposed in the rulemaking. A few industry players, notably Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, had provided some advice for how the FCC should proceed in an otherwise quiet docket. Sources said there saw no major surprises in the order.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Research In Motion’s (RIM) appeal Mon., essentially upholding 2 lower-court rulings that could result in a shutdown of RIM’s popular BlackBerry service. The court didn’t agree with RIM’s argument that the lower courts improperly extended U.S. patent law protection to a company that serves its approximately 3 million subscribers from Canada.

Privacy concerns aside, analysts seemed unruffled by a Justice Dept. suit against Google. They express doubt about any long-term effects on the firm. The suit seeks search-query records to defend a porn-access law; earlier, Google spurned a DoJ request for the data (WID Jan 20 p4). ABI Research said the govt. “unfairly” subpoenaed Google for records, but ABI Broadband & Multimedia Dir. Vamsi Sistla told us he doesn’t think “it will impact Google’s share value or market cap.” An 8.5% Fri. selloff of Google shares was a “temporary blip” the result of lukewarm tech sector performance, Yahoo’s “not- so-attractive earnings” (WID Jan 18 p9) and a recent spike in Google insider selling, Sistla said. DoJ’s suit shouldn’t have “any meaningful impact on financial results” on Google, Stanford Group said Mon. Stanford raised its 4th-quarter 2005 and full-year 2006 estimates for Google, predicting that next week the firm will report increased OIBDA over 100% and EPS over 200% for all of 2005, and foreseeing a 50% rise in OIBDA and over 40% EPS growth in 2006. ComScore Media search data for Dec. 2005 showed Google “significantly” increasing monetization from Nov., ComScore said, explaining an upgrade of Google to buy. Stanford analysts couldn’t be reached to elaborate on doubts DoJ’s suit will affect Google financials. Scoring DoJ for trying to make Google “support their own agendas” in justifying the Children’s Online Protection Act (COPA), Sistla said the case has “nothing to do with the privacy of the users,” since DoJ told Google it could remove identifiable personal data from material sought. He said the govt. case is “definitely not the last” against search engines trying to force them to help in non-criminal matters, adding that complying search firms “will probably learn a lesson or two from Google’s stance.” Sistla predicted Congress will query search- engine firms on cooperating with govt. regarding their search records and index information. That is “probably going to open up an opportunity for a better solution down the line” than suits, he said. Google “probably did earn some brownie points in the eyes of their users” for not yielding to DoJ, but if Google had cooperated, “average users really don’t have anywhere to go. Everybody just sold out,” he said.

Cable family tiers may not meet consumer needs, FCC Chmn. Martin and Comr. Copps said a day after senators carped about the packages’ paucity of sports and other popular content (CD Jan 20 p1). Martin, though less critical than Copps, said he shares some worries voiced Thurs. by Sen. Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) and Va. Republican Sen. Allen and other legislators.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should act “aggressively” to stop Germany from easing regulation of Deutsche Telekom (DT), Comptel said last Fri. In comments to the European Commission earlier this month, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs (BMWi) said effective competition shouldn’t be equated with absence of market power. The govt. hinted it might give DT a regulatory break, something the telco has sought for its new fiber VDSL network (CD Jan 11 p10). Comptel said the paper validated concerns it raised in Dec. that “Germany is moving away from regulating the ex-monopolist.” Such an action, even for a limited time, “would devastate competition in the broadband and other emerging sectors.” If competition rules are lifted as the BMWi appears to suggest, Comptel said, it will devalue competitors’ investments and hamper new foreign investment.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should act “aggressively” to stop Germany from easing regulation of Deutsche Telekom (DT), Comptel said last Fri. In comments to the European Commission earlier this month, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs (BMWi) said effective competition shouldn’t be equated with absence of market power. The govt. hinted it might give DT a regulatory break, something the telco has sought for its new fiber VDSL network (CD Jan 11 p10). Comptel said the paper validated concerns it raised in Dec. that “Germany is moving away from regulating the ex-monopolist.” Such an action, even for a limited time, “would devastate competition in the broadband and other emerging sectors.” If competition rules are lifted as the BMWi appears to suggest, Comptel said, it will devalue competitors’ investments and hamper new foreign investment.

Lower courts have yet to interpret the landmark Supreme Court MGM v. Grokster ruling, which found peer-to-peer(P2P) networks can be liable for users’ sharing copyrighted files, but attorneys are amassing arsenals to deploy on high-tech clients’ behalf in a post- Grokster world. The now-defunct P2P network settled its fight with the entertainment industry late last year (WID Nov 8/05 p1, June 28/05 p1), but as new modes emerge, legal experts await cases testing Grokster’s updated liability standards. Intellectual property (IP) attorney John Hornick Wed. gave D.C. Bar Assn. members some rules of the road.