Paid political advertising on the Web is the sole Internet activity to come under a proposed Federal Election Commission (FEC) revision to campaign finance rules, commissioners made clear at a meeting Thurs. The government shouldn’t regulate online grassroots political activity, several said. But Comr. Bradley Smith said he wasn’t sure the approach selected satisfies the court order that forced the agency to review laws governing soft money in the first place.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tues. that wireless carriers can’t get damages and attorneys fees under the civil rights laws from local govts. when wireless tower zoning decisions violate the Telecom Act. It reversed a lower court decision, concluding civil rights remedies aren’t available for violations of Sec. 332 of the Act.
Recent state legislative actions on telecom deregulation bills have led to passage and defeat: Qwest won its 2nd major legislative deregulation victory of 2005 in Ia., while SBC in Ind. saw defeat of a deregulation bill it favored.
As his successor was named Wed., ex-FCC Chmn. Michael Powell said he regretted how the broadcast ownership proceeding was perceived and was most proud of the agency’s role in the growth of technology under his stewardship. Throughout it all, nearly every Sat., he was at his local Best Buy, checking up on the real world of technology, to make sure what the govt. bureaucrats and lobbyists talked about really existed. “They all know me at Best Buy,” he said, “I talk to the customers. The staff says I should wear a blue shirt and join the sales team.”
As his successor was named Wed., ex-FCC Chmn. Michael Powell said he regretted how the broadcast ownership proceeding was perceived and was most proud of the agency’s role in the growth of technology under his stewardship. Throughout it all, nearly every Sat., he was at his local Best Buy, checking up on the real world of technology, to make sure what the govt. bureaucrats and lobbyists talked about really existed. “They all know me at Best Buy,” he said, “I talk to the customers. The staff says I should wear a blue shirt and join the sales team.”
On March 3, 2005, Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Chairman Steven Blust testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
NEW ORLEANS -- Local number portability was singled out as an example of “good regulation” emerging from the Powell FCC at several regulatory panels during the CTIA convention here. “I think local number portability will forever change” the wireless world, FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta said: “It’s amazing to me that churn went down” after LNP debuted, “because people invested in customer service. I think that was fantastic.” Triton CEO Michael Kilogris called LNP “an example of good regulation because competing forces in the industry weren’t going to voluntarily do that.”
A U.K. Member of Parliament (MP) Thurs. proposed legislation aimed at strengthening that country’s antihacking law. The proposal by Derek Wyatt, a Labor MP who chairs the All Party Internet Group (APIG), would amend the Computer Misuse Act 1990 (CMA) by defining denial-of-service attacks as offenses and by raising jail time for hacking convictions from 6 months to 2 years, making them extraditable crimes. The bill incorporates recommendations from an APIG inquiry into CMA revisions. APIG said that although the CMA does outlaw many denial- of-service attacks, the more specific definition would encourage police, prosecutors and courts to take such attacks seriously, and might deter some hackers. With the Home Office agreeing in principle, APIG had hoped its cause would be the Queen’s speech last Nov., an APIG spokesman said. When that didn’t happen, APIG sought a Private Members’ Bill, using a mechanism that lets backbenchers file bills of their own with govt. support. However, eligibility to do so is by ballot, and only 20 MPs can qualify. Wyatt failed to get a winning MP to sponsor his legislation, so he applied for a 10-min. rule motion giving him that long on April 5 to argue for the CMA amendments. If there’s no opposition, the bill will move to a 2nd reading, the spokesman said. For the moment, the bill isn’t likely to go anywhere, but Wyatt said he wanted to place on record “what we think the Bill should look like in the hope that the Government will come back to it after the General Election.”
Satellite Industry Assn. (SIA) and Motorola said it’s important for the FCC to wait until the NTIA’s Institute for Telecom Services (ITS) completes its testing program to evaluate the risk of interference from UWB before granting any waivers of UWB rules. Their comments came as the FCC prepares to act on the waiver petition by the Multiband OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group (MBOA-SIG) at its meeting Thurs.
There isn’t any reason for the FCC to recommend additional govt. intrusion into private contractual negotiations, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC TV affiliate associations said in comments filed on the Satellite Home Viewer Extension & Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) rulemaking. “Neither the Commission nor the court has ever determined that a broadcast station has abused the retransmission consent process or that the rules are, in a any sense, anti-competitive,” the networks said. Earlier, cable companies issued comments that raised concerns that cable rate increases were being driven by retransmission consent rules that allow broadcasters to obtain higher license fees while putting cable at a competitive disadvantage (CD March 3 p6). But now that SHVERA has extended the “good faith” negotiation requirement to 3rd parties seeking to retransmit broadcast signals, the competitive playing field has been leveled even further, the networks said.