Questions are being raised about AARP’s support for a New Jersey bill that, while consistent with other positions it has taken on the IP transition, would benefit a cellphone company that pays the organization royalties. Verizon, in a statement to us last week, singled out Consumer Cellular, “which is promoted by AARP to its members,” as a company that would receive “an unfair competitive advantage” from the passage of AB-2459 which the telco opposes (CD May 14 p8) (http://bit.ly/1oLtQU3).

With European Parliament elections May 22-25, and European Commission members changing in the fall, some telecom and civil society organizations are working to ensure that their issues remain high on the agenda of the bodies, they said. They may not be backing specific EC or parliamentary candidates, but they have made clear what they want from the winners.

HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- Commissioner Mike O'Rielly questioned the significance of net neutrality protests staged at the FCC last week, before Thursday’s net neutrality vote (CD May 15 p1). Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said most of news media failed to get the story right as the FCC voted on a net neutrality NPRM and three orders tied to the TV incentive auction. Both spoke Friday night at the annual FCBA retreat.

NHK, the world’s biggest 8K advocate with plans to begin Super Hi-Vision broadcasts in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is noncommittal whether it will propose 8K for ATSC 3.0, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the Japanese broadcaster told us by email. On whether NHK plans to propose 8K to ATSC’s “S34-1” ad hoc group, which is drafting specifications on ATSC 3.0’s video component, “we can’t say whether NHK is proposing or not at this stage, I'm afraid,” said the spokeswoman.

Broadcasters on the fence about participation in the incentive auction are unlikely to be encouraged to participate by Thursday’s auction order (CD May 16 p5), and aspects of the FCC’s repacking plans may lead to litigation before the auction, several broadcast attorneys told us. An NAB release immediately after the FCC vote criticized the commission’s handling of the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund and commitment to the TVStudy auction software, and the attorneys said there’s widespread industry concern that the FCC deferred many of the auction decisions to later proceedings. That delay could force opponents to take the commission to court sooner rather than later, said Cooley broadcast attorney Jason Rademacher. It’s much easier for a court to prevent or change a repacking process that hasn’t happened yet rather than unwind one that’s already occurred, several attorneys pointed out. “By deciding just these major policy things they've put people in a strategic box,” Rademacher said.

The controversial net neutrality proposal, approved Thursday by a 3-2 party line vote (CD May 16 p1), specifically asks about how bandwidth caps might relate to net neutrality concerns. That’s a pleasant surprise to Harold Feld, whose organization Public Knowledge has spent nearly four years asking the FCC to specifically solicit comment on bandwidth caps. But Phoenix Center economist George Ford noted upon reading the NPRM, “it’s clear that the economists have left the building."

Industry participation remains critical to the success of the National Institute of Standards and Technology-facilitated (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, federal officials said Friday during a USTelecom event. The federal government’s focus in the three months since NIST’s February release of the “Version 1.0” framework has shifted toward encouraging critical infrastructure entities to use the framework and tailoring the framework to sector-specific uses, officials said. The FCC is in the process of determining what role it can play in the communications sector’s voluntary use of the framework as a risk management tool, said Public Safety Bureau Chief Counsel Clete Johnson. USTelecom Vice President-Industry and State Affairs Robert Mayer told us he believes the commission will and should continue to allow the private sector to drive the process of determining the FCC’s role in that process.

The soon-to-emerge Authors Alliance, a copyright revamp advocacy group, provoked skepticism and condemnation from authors’ rights groups, including the Authors Guild, said organizations advocating for “working” writers last week. The alliance seeks to be a “voice” for authors in copyright debates, particularly on the preservation of fair use and the digitization of library works, said its Executive Director Pam Samuelson, who is also University of California-Berkeley’s Center for Law & Technology co-director. The alliance’s four board members -- Samuelson also serves as chair -- are Berkeley professors (http://bit.ly/1gwSAzV). “The intellectual-property shop at Berkeley’s law school has a very aggressive and expansive agenda that was crafted without working authors in mind,” said Authors Guild board member T.J. Stiles in a letter (http://bit.ly/1gMSgre) to the San Francisco Writers Grotto, posted on the guild’s website Friday.

The FCC voted 3-2 Thursday to explore the potential of Internet fast lanes, as expected (CD May 15 p1). But Chairman Tom Wheeler wanted to make one point clear: Fast lanes for some will not mean slow lanes for others. “I don’t like the idea that the Internet could become divided into haves and have nots,” he said. “I will work to see that does not happen.” Wheeler said he wants rules in which, if an ISP slows speeds below what the consumer bought, “it would be commercially unreasonable and therefore prohibited.” Republican commissioners said net neutrality rules are a government solution in search of a problem.

The FCC approved service rules for the TV incentive auction and provisions that restrict bidding in the auction, over strong objections by FCC Republicans Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly. Both Republicans warned Thursday that the rules as structured could lead to a failed auction next year.