Changes to music licensing laws should come in a comprehensive bill that favors free-market policies, said House Judiciary IP Subcommittee members and some witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing on music licensing. Legislation targeted at specific problems within music licensing, such as the Songwriter Equity Act (HR-4079), could add another layer of complexity to an already entangled issue, they said. A free-market approach doesn’t guarantee improved efficiency and could give performance rights organizations (PROs) monopoly control over the industry, said Lee Knife, Digital Media Association (DMA) executive director.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the FCC 2011 USF/intercarrier compensation order (CD May 27 p1) (http://1.usa.gov/1r18uaa) won’t have an immediate impact on state utilities commissions that had been taking administrative steps to incorporate the order in rules, particularly reductions in intrastate access rates, said officials at NARUC and several regulatory commissions in interviews. Barring an appeal and a reversal, there could be long-term ramifications, they continued to caution, by weakening the authority of state regulators, while forcing the commissions to deal with the order’s ramifications. Ohio, where Middle Point Home Telephone Co. is seeking state permission to raise residential rates by nearly a half in response to the FCC order, is an early example, said David Bergmann, a National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates attorney on its 10th Circuit petition for review of that order. State interests or perhaps other losers have indicated an appeal is all but certain (CD May 28 p3).

A Nexstar deal to sell three TV stations to African-American-owned Marshall Broadcasting that involves sharing arrangements (CD June 9 p15) could provide a template for the rest of the industry to get deals through an FCC perceived as hostile to such transactions, said broadcast attorneys in interviews. Though the $58.5 million deal involves practices specifically discouraged by recent FCC rule changes on sharing arrangements, its stated goal of helping the public interest by increasing minority broadcast ownership is exactly the sort of exception the commission said it would endorse, said broadcast attorneys and public interest officials Monday. “This is the type of transaction NABOB was hoping to see as a result of the new JSA rule,” said National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Executive Director Jim Winston.

The FCC was set to seek comment late Monday on a federal advisory committee recommendation that Ericsson subsidiary Telcordia, doing business as iconectiv, become the new local number portability administration (LNPA) vendor. The current vendor, Neustar, has waged a monthslong battle against that expected selection, saying the selection process was flawed. Federal agencies typically aren’t bound by advisory committee recommendations, and the FCC has ignored them in the past. Observers on both sides of the aisle say this is the most hotly contested FCC advisory committee recommendation in recent memory.

Wireless organizations reiterated stances against Globalstar’s proposal for a terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) without further testing. Some commenters, like the Mobile Satellite Users Association, backed TLPS with conditions. Replies were posted Monday in docket 13-213.

The FCC continues to log thousands of brief net neutrality protests, with more than 10,000 posted on its Electronic Comment Filing System on Monday alone. Most of the comments are extremely brief. Some contain profanity, one commenter wrote only “FCC F*** YOU” several dozen times. Most touch on the importance of the Internet to innovation or rail against powerful ISPs. Net neutrality advocates like Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu see the comments as important as the FCC weighs its next steps under Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Broadband download speeds of 10 Mbps, as a draft inquiry signals the FCC wants to be the new benchmark instead of 4 Mbps (CD June 4 p1), were described by experts in interviews as sufficient for most residential Internet uses. A notice of inquiry circulating at the FCC asks about raising the benchmark to 10 Mbps, which some called the new 1 Mbps, although others questioned if the threshold needs to increase.

The Copyright Alert System (CAS) could pose potential problems for consumers with the Internet of Things (IoT), said copyright and software experts in interviews. The first CAS report, of the system’s first 10 months (http://bit.ly/1isdnzM) (CD May 29 p4), revealed a relatively low number of multiple alerts -- of the 1.3 million notices sent, only 60,477 accounts were each sent five notices -- and 265 challenges to all notices. The report doesn’t indicate how CAS affects consumer behavior, or consumer reaction to the program, said experts.

U.S. mayors may weigh in on the net neutrality debate and high-profile proposed telecom deals. The mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Tucson are proposing a resolution to be taken up at the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting June 20-23 urging the White House and Congress to support reclassifying broadband as telecom service instead of an information one.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to release bipartisan Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization legislation as soon as this week, a Judiciary aide told us. Ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa “hopes that a bipartisan, clean reauthorization can be introduced next week,” his spokeswoman also confirmed Friday.