Communications and antitrust regulators need to update how they view broadcasters, because a spate of new rules and recent policy aims appear to treat TV station owners like behemoths and dinosaurs, said the head of Gannett’s broadcasting business. David Lougee said he wants an FCC “reboot” of how it treats his industry. He also wants an acknowledgement that the major wireless carriers and multichannel video programming distributors overseen by the commission are far bigger than the broadcasters facing increased MVPD and online competition. “We are asking policymakers to stay out of the way” of broadcasters, Lougee told lobbyists, industry executives and lawyers at a luncheon Friday.

Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday the July 2012 spectrum sharing report (CD July 23/12 p1) by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is important because of its implications for the economy. Furman said emphatically that President Barrack Obama cares about spectrum, in a keynote at a New America Foundation event on the PCAST report.

AT&T likes buildout requirements as part of spectrum licenses sold in FCC auctions, Vice President Joan Marsh said Thursday at a Silicon Flatirons conference on “Property Rights in Spectrum, Water, and Minerals.” Marsh also questioned whether proposals to make government agencies “pay for” the spectrum they use would mean more efficiency.

A new framework draft would establish a government approach to health information technology, including Internet-enabled mobile devices and healthcare mobile apps, said officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and FCC during a Thursday conference call. “This proposed strategy will facilitate innovation, protect patients and support FDA’s focused oversight on higher-risk technology, similar to medical devices that are currently regulated,” said FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Director Jeffrey Shuren. Industry and privacy advocates applauded the framework’s flexibility and risk-based approach, although some said Congress still needs to pass legislation to make the framework truly effective. Officials said there will be a public meeting in May to discuss the framework.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision against Aereo’s streaming TV service would stifle innovation and give copyright law too much power, said amicus briefs backing the company Wednesday. Filers included the American Cable Association, Computer and Communications Industry Association, and jointly by CEA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge. The broadcaster plaintiffs’ interpretation of the copyright laws governing the case “would strip away the commercial freedom that led to the home stereo, the VCR, all manner of personal audio and video technology and to Internet services of many kinds,” said EFF Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz in a news release. “Aereo is following the copyright laws to a T,” said a spokesman for Public Knowledge. Aereo’s case is set for oral argument at the Supreme Court April 22.

The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed consideration of the Patent Transparency and Improvements Act (S-1720) again Thursday, as expected (CD April 2 p14), but plans to convene Tuesday afternoon to mark up the bill. Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during a committee meeting that he’s confident “we are in the final stages of hammering out” a compromise version of the bill. Senate Judiciary plans to post the compromise bill -- to come in the form of a manager’s amendment -- and any additional amendments in advance of Tuesday’s markup. Some stakeholders told us the manager’s amendment could go public as soon as Friday, though Leahy said during the meeting that he believed the committee would continue to “work in good faith throughout the weekend” to reach a compromise.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency weighed in on an FCC public notice (CD March 13 p10) asking whether the commission should make broadcasters switch to a “designated hitter” system to send emergency alert system (EAS) messages in languages other than English when the foreign-language station is off-air. A one-paragraph FEMA comment posted Wednesday in docket 04-296, 26 days before initial responses are due to the Public Safety Bureau request (CD March 31 p15), backed the Minority Media and Telecommunication Council’s work to extend EAS warnings to those who don’t speak English. FEMA cautioned that using text-to-speech (TTS) technology to send such non-English warnings of bad weather, natural disasters and other events has “limitations.” A designated hitter approach would have stations in the same market of one that’s off-air distribute alerts in the language used by the knocked-out broadcaster.

The House Judiciary Committee is eyeing several key priorities in the coming months and has accomplished much, with a focus on the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, patents, surveillance law revamp and the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal, said Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Thursday at a Washington event hosted by National Journal and underwritten by NAB.

FCC staff has started to brief industry groups on proposed service rules for the TV incentive auction, more than a month before the commission’s May 15 meeting, at which Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to seek a vote on the rules (CD March 10 p1). The briefings have been with myriad public interest groups, as well as with broadcasters, carriers and companies concerned about unlicensed spectrum and wireless microphones, industry officials said. The FCC commissioners have also been briefed, as have been key Capitol Hill staff.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and Congress should build in accountability and private sector involvement guarantees as the organization overseeing core Internet functions develops a proposal for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, said two e-commerce experts at an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event Thursday. Private sector leadership “has been the bedrock” of Internet governance, said Phil Corwin, founding principal of e-commerce and intellectual property law consultant Virtualaw. Congress can help “put some meat on the bones” of the transition proposal guidelines, said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice. A congressional resolution could lay out several “stress tests,” or specific situations the proposal would have to address, DelBianco said.