A "plain reading" of the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) "confirms" that the CD-copying hard drives built into Ford vehicles don't violate the law, Ford and its supplier Clarion said in a joint motion to have the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) lawsuit dismissed. Ford and General Motors and their respective suppliers Clarion and Denso violated the AHRA because they shipped vehicles with CD-copying hard drives without building the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS) into the devices or paying the Copyright Office the required 2 percent hardware royalty on the wholesale price of the hardware, said the AARC lawsuit filed late July in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

LOS ANGELES -- The ICANN Board addressed concerns over the deadline of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition and how it will respond to the Cross Community Working Group’s (CCWG) final accountability proposal, at ICANN 51 panels Tuesday. Board members underscored the importance Country Code Supporting Names Organization (ccNSO) to the policy development process of the IANA transition. The board will release a statement Thursday clarifying how it will deal with the CCWG accountability proposal, said Board Vice-Chair Bruce Tonkin in an interview. (See separate report in today’s issue.) Tonkin said it’s highly unlikely the board would reject that proposal.

LOS ANGELES -- The ICANN 51 conference opened with a likely resolution to recent disputes over its accountability process as hoped 1410140002, said Obama administration officials and ICANN’s leadership and stakeholders Monday. ICANN released revisions (http://bit.ly/1ERFmXb) to its accountability process proposal over the weekend, which many believe will put the ICANN community back in the driver’s seat to develop a final accountability proposal that corresponds with and extends beyond the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker underscored ICANN’s importance to the multistakeholder model of Internet conference, in remarks Monday.

The information and communications technologies (ICT) sector is now substantially aware of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework and is working to align it with often-robust existing cyber risk management practices within the sector, industry stakeholders told NIST in filings released through Tuesday. That level of awareness also extended into state governments, state agencies said. NIST sought feedback from stakeholders within critical infrastructure sectors about the “Version 1.0” framework, which it released in February 1402130026. Comments were due Friday.

The U.S. appears to be falling behind Asia and Europe in the development of next-generation mobile technologies, said those active in 5G research, in interviews. Governments in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region "have been very aggressive" in funding 5G initiatives, said 4G Americas President Chris Pearson. The U.S. doesn't consider that "the term 5G is worth discussing" because the very definition of the technology is still uncertain, said Thibaut Kleiner, European Commission DG CONNECT head of unit, network technologies. Both men, nevertheless, expect the U.S. to move forward rapidly. To help American industry, the National Institute for Standards and Technology is establishing research projects to develop the next wave of communications technologies,said Kent Rochford, director of NIST's new Communications Technology Laboratory.

Though the FCC’s announcement Friday of two actions to ease the effects of the incentive auction on LPTV is encouraging, the commission didn’t go far enough and may have raised more questions than it answered, said LPTV attorneys and advocacy groups in interviews Tuesday. As the LPTV industry requested 1409050029, the FCC suspended construction permit deadlines for new digital LPTV stations, and issued an NPRM seeking comment on what the incentive auction will do to LPTV. However, LPTV advocates said FCC proposals in the NPRM on LPTV channel sharing aren’t viable, criticized the deadline suspension for punting the issue down the road, and said the NPRM avoids the critical issue of LPTV participation in the auction. “They could have sought comment on protecting LPTV in the repacking process,” said LPTV attorney Aaron Shainis of Shainis & Peltzman.

With two major spectrum auctions in the works, the FCC and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration zeroed in on tower climber safety during a workshop Tuesday. OSHA said in a release 11 tower workers lost their lives in 2014, compared with 13 in 2013 and only two in 2012 (http://1.usa.gov/1trnUGf). FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman opened the event, arguing that worker deaths are not inevitable.

The FCC largely clearing out pending Enforcement Bureau complaints that were holding up almost 700 license renewals bodes well for broadcasters trying to get deals done, said broadcast attorneys in interviews Friday. The cleared pending complaints, announced in a blog post on fcc.gov Thursday (CD Oct 10 p14), were likely nearly all invalid indecency complaints, said broadcast attorneys with clients among those receiving the 700 renewed licenses sent out last week. With the licenses renewed, the application process to have deals approved should become more streamlined for many stations, broadcast attorneys said. The application delays caused by such complaints “were far worse than any fine the FCC might levy,” said Pillsbury Winthrop broadcast attorney Scott Flick in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1rlHkVa) Thursday. The FCC didn’t comment on the nature of the cleared pending complaints.

California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey’s plans to leave the CPUC in December are unlikely to affect its telecom regulatory policy priorities, industry participants and observers said in interviews Friday. Peevey, who led the CPUC since 2002, said the day before he won’t seek reappointment to the commission when his term expires in December. Peevey’s critics had called for his ouster last week over what they said were unethical back-channel discussions between his office and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) (CD Oct 10). The protests stemmed from the contents of emails that PG&E released last week between the utility and members of Peevey’s staff as part of a federal investigation into the relationship between CPUC and PG&E. The rest of the commission declined to comment.

Upcoming FCC spectrum auctions will set the stage for wireless tower companies to get more business, said analysts and wireless industry professionals in interviews last week. The terms of recent tower transactions could result in more tower sales, an analyst said. Bringing more spectrum into the market would be an advantage for the wireless tower industry, an economist said.