A U.S. magistrate judge in Los Angeles handed a victory to Adobe Systems in its fight to limit an indefinite gag order that prohibited the company from notifying anyone about a search warrant issued for a customer's account, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a Monday blog post about the recently unsealed case. In amending the gag or "notice preclusion order" (NPO), Judge Frederick Mumm of the District Court for the Central District of California ruled March 31 that Adobe can't notify anyone, including the investigation's target, "of the existence of the Warrant, for 180 days from the date" of the court's decision, said the ruling linked to in the post. The government, however, can extend the NPO, the judge said. Adobe -- which filed an ex parte application in December to include an expiration date in the government's gag order -- said it notifies customers whose information is sought unless the company is legally barred from doing so and until the order expires, said the ruling. EFF staff attorney Andrew Crocker wrote in the post that the court "recognized the serious harm to free speech these gags represent." He said the judge's ruling said such gag orders "are both prior restraints and content-based restrictions on speech subject to strict scrutiny," which is a high standard, and "that the indefinite gag order imposed on Adobe fails strict scrutiny because the government could make 'no showing ... that Adobe’s speech will threaten the investigation in perpetuity.'” Crocker said the government's arguments in the Adobe case "were nearly identical" to EFF's lawsuit (see 1612010071, 1610070058 and 1604210046) against national security letters to companies issued with accompanying gag orders. Microsoft also has a fight against gag orders (see 1609060043). Adobe said in a statement most "delayed notice orders," as it called them, "are reasonably time-limited and typically expire after either 90 or 180 days." But, in this case, the company said the order was "an unconstitutional prior and permanent restraint on its speech. We think the Court's ruling strikes exactly the right balance between the government's interest in protecting its investigation and Adobe's right to keep its customers informed." DOJ declined to comment.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai created a new advisory committee to replace the old Diversity Committee. The new committee is labeled the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment, said an FCC news release. The launch of the committee is getting mixed reviews. “This Committee will be charged with providing recommendations to the FCC on empowering all Americans,” Pai said. “For example, the Committee could help the FCC promote diversity in the communications industry by assisting in the establishment of an incubator program and could identify ways to combat digital redlining.” The FCC’s original Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age operated 2003-2013 and was hugely successful, said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Kim Keenan. “By chartering a new advisory committee on diversity, and expanding its jurisdiction to encompass closing the digital divide, Chairman Pai has brought the FCC back to its historic and nonpartisan public interest mission,” Keenan emailed. “MMTC is especially pleased that the new committee will be charged with the tasks of developing a media incubator program as well as providing solutions to the vexing moral issue of telecom redlining. This is a defining step toward closing the digital divide for every American.” But former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps slammed the new committee. “It is unnecessary and harmful for Chairman Pai to replace the FCC's Diversity Advisory Committee, which for years drew on the expertise of diversity experts to generate valuable and vetted proposals to advance important diversity initiatives,” Copps said in a statement. “Commission leadership from both parties too-often ignored that committee's proposals. But instead of reconstituting that committee and finally acting on its many extant recommendations, Chairman Pai has chosen to ignore it and create a new committee which will take months or longer to organize, meet, and come up with proposals.” Copps said that based on the Trump administration's record so far, Pai likely will appoint members who have an industry focus. “Shameful,” said Copps, now an adviser at Common Cause. "It is decades beyond time for serious action to help minorities and women in media ownership. Pai's announcement is a serious step backwards.” But Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she would work with the new committee. “While no single initiative will solve the digital and opportunities divide, I believe that the formation of this Committee is the first of many steps the FCC can take to ensure all Americans have access to robust and affordable communications services," Clyburn said. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., a new member of the Commerce Committee, said a problem exists. “I noted lack of diversity in tech to @AjitPaiFCC," Cortez Masto tweeted. “Glad @FCC is addressing the issue and hope it's not just all talk.”

Some satellite interests and the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) disagree about recommended changes to the spectrum frontiers order. The satellite interests, in a docket 14-177 filing Friday, rejected some FWCC proposals for spectrum frontiers changes (see 1704170045). They said the FWCC-proposed tiered population limits ignore the size difference between counties in 28 GHz licensing, and partial economic areas in 38 GHz licensing requires two parallel sets of tiers, not the single set as FWCC proposes. They also said they were using Transportation Department road classifications when determining a road is a principal arterial. They said FWCC's proposed definition of an urban mass transit route "is vague and overbroad," and FWCC actions to use a database in earth station/upper microwave flexible use system (UMFUS) facility coordination ignores that earth stations would be eligible for licensing on a protected basis as long as they comply with siting restrictions and coordinate with existing UMFUS facilities. Signatories of the satellite letter were Boeing Senior Director-Frequency Management Services Audrey Allison, EchoStar Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner, Inmarsat Director-Regulatory Giselle Creeser, Intelsat Associate General Counsel Susan Crandall, O3b Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Suzanne Malloy, SES Senior Legal and Regulatory Counsel Petra Vorwig and OneWeb Director-Spectrum Affairs Marc Dupuis. FWCC didn't comment.

The Connect America Fund Phase II bid weights regime gives so much auction advantage to fiber broadband providers "that it effectively excludes satellite broadband providers from participating and limits competition among platforms," Hughes Network Systems said in a docket 10-90 petition for reconsideration posted Thursday. Hughes said there's no reason for so heavily favoring higher speeds and lower latency when consumer satisfaction data shows satellite broadband being "in the same range" as terrestrial, it said. It recommended a bid weighting matrix with a latency penalty of no more than 10 and a maximum weight of 25 for 10/1 Mbps service, 15 for 25/3 service and 10 for 100/20 service, with gigabit service getting no additional weight. Lower weights are favored in a reverse auction of subsidy support. A satellite operator petition for reconsideration was expected (see 1704170035). Pennsylvania government entities also asked the FCC to reconsider one aspect of the ruling on CAF II support for the state previously declined by Verizon as the incumbent telco. The commission should modify the rules for Pennsylvania bids only to add "a negative weight to the recently-proposed auction formula to reflect additional resources brought to the auction through the state," said a petition from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Granting the relief request "would allow carriers operating in the state to access up to the remaining $139.62 million in total CAF Phase II model-based support funding" ($23.27 million in annual support over the six years) originally offered to Verizon's ILEC areas in the state, their petition said.

The 2016 nationwide emergency alert test showed emergency alert system (EAS) officials should focus on the integrated public alert warning system (IPAWS) as the primary source of alerts, use the older over-the-air system as a redundant backup, improve compliance with its requirements, and do targeted outreach to “Low Power broadcasters and other EAS Participants with poor performance” said the FCC Public Safety Bureau in a report on the test, issued Friday (see 1612280045). Though the test showed the effectiveness of the IPAWS alerts and the “vast majority” of over 20,000 participants received and retransmitted the test alert, there’s still room to improve, the report said. The September test was also a test of Spanish-language alerts. Spanish language alerts were available only on IPAWS, but stations are required to retransmit the first alert they receive, whether from IPAWS or over-the air from another broadcaster upstream in the “daisy chain” of EAS stations, EAS officials told us. Stations that received the alert first from another broadcast station didn't have the option to transmit in Spanish, even if they served a Spanish-language audience. Over half the alerts in the test were triggered through the over-the-air system, rather than IPAWS, the report said. The IPAWS alert also delivers other content, such as text files, that isn't available in the over-the-air alert. “In light of the additional capabilities offered by IP-based alerts, the Commission should facilitate and encourage the use of IPAWS as the primary source of alerts nationwide,” the report said. Many of the stations that didn’t retransmit the test alert did so because of equipment errors or not following EAS requirements, the report said. The FCC should “take measures to improve EAS Participants’ compliance with and understanding” of the rules, the report said.

The U.S. still has a big role to play in international internet governance and the record shows that abrogating its responsibilities doesn’t work, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a Friday blog post. “Over the last several years, we’ve been lectured by many that the U.S. position on Internet governance was no longer sustainable in the larger, global community,” O’Rielly wrote. “So-called experts claimed that the U.S.’s minimal government involvement in Internet issues was no longer a prudent approach. These ‘experts’ added that if the U.S. just ceded on our sound principles a little bit, authoritarian governments of the world would end their continued effort to seek increased government regulation and control of the Internet. In other words, they sought an appeasement strategy.” The record shows that strategy won’t succeed, he said. In October, the U.S. officially terminated its last remaining contractual relationship with ICANN, he said. Six months later, “authoritarian governments continue to persist in their efforts to have multilateral organizations, such as the UN, regulate the Internet.” One case in point is a recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin wherein he said “the ICANN transition did not change its overall stance and Russia will continue to pursue government involvement, perhaps through the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union, in the workings of the Internet,” O’Rielly said. He pointed to discussions at the ITU’s World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in Tunisia in October. “Member States specifically discussed such topics as the Internet of Things, cybersecurity, privacy, and the possible regulation of Internet companies and applications,” he said. “Specifically, the ITU Member States embarked on a discussion of the standards needed to facilitate such regulation and deployment.” In March came a position paper from China, “International Strategy of Cooperation on Cyberspace,” China’s “plan to seek global, multilateral governance of the Internet,” he said.

Commissioner Clyburn didn’t say Thursday whether she will remain at the FCC after her term expires in June, though she was asked during a news conference if she had informed anyone of her plans. Clyburn said she believes the FCC needs a voice for consumers, and said she had an important job to do at the commission as “a steward” for consumers, even singing a few lines from the Isley Brothers song “Work to Do.” But she also said she would perform such work no matter her ”title,” leaving her plans unclear. There's some industry concern that Clyburn could depart in June, leaving the commission without a quorum (see 1704140061).

Microsoft President Brad Smith spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai by phone on the importance to the company of unlicensed spectrum in the TV white spaces. The FCC should designate at least three channels in each market for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use, Smith said, according to a Tuesday filing in 15-146. “Microsoft along with its broadband and other partners are using TV white spaces to bring high-speed internet access into the homes of previously unconnected students in rural Southern Virginia,” the filing said. “This single project will serve 7,500 primary and secondary school students when the system is fully deployed." Smith also expressed Microsoft’s general support for “enforceable net neutrality rules,” the filing said.

The FTC extended the comment period on privacy and security issues for automated connected cars to May 1, said the commission in a Wednesday news release. The comments will be examined at a webcast June 28 workshop at 400 7th St. SW that's being co-hosted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. No agenda has been listed for the workshop but the agencies are seeking answers to several questions, including what data vehicles with wireless interfaces collect, store and transmit, how data is used and shared, how consumers will benefit and what are the roles of automakers, parts suppliers, tech companies and others in collecting data and ensuring security.

A court sent Lifeline broadband provider rules back to the FCC for further proceedings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Wednesday issued a brief order (in Pacer) granting the agency's unopposed remand motion in NARUC v. FCC, No. 16-1170. NARUC says the FCC's process for designating Lifeline broadband providers bypasses state authority under the Communications Act. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he plans to scrap the process (see 1703290025), drawing criticism from Lifeline advocates and support from others (see 1703290054).