The U.S. foreign Internet surveillance program was mischaracterized as a “bulk” program, and efforts to add warrant requirements could create burdensome delays and intelligence gaps, intelligence officials told the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). But civil rights advocates and international representatives said the Internet surveillance efforts -- authorized under Section 702 of the Patriot Act -- violated the First and Fourth amendments while displaying a lack of respect for international privacy standards.

Four years after its release, the FCC’s National Broadband Plan remains important, key staffers who worked on the plan said at an Independent Technology and & Innovation Foundation symposium Wednesday. Manager Blair Levin said the biggest gap in the plan in retrospect was its lack of focus on data privacy and security: “If a plan were to be redone, I think you'd focus a lot more on that.” Sunday marked the four-year anniversary of an FCC vote approving a statement of principles on broadband, though the plan itself was forwarded to the White House without a commissioner vote (CD March 17/10 p1).

Halfway through a daylong FCC rural broadband workshop Wednesday, an audience member stepped up to the mic and asked how much money is available for the rural broadband “experiments,” and how many of the nearly 1,000 expressions of interest received will be granted. “Nothing has been decided,” responded Carol Mattey, deputy Wireline Bureau chief. How best to dole out its limited universal service money is the challenge for FCC officials, who made it clear they are seeking answers.

Industry remained divided along traditional lines on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization, in responses to the Senate Commerce Committee leadership. Commenters split on such issues as how clean and narrow they want any STELA successor to be, whether it should tackle retransmission consent problems and whether it should repeal the set-top box integration ban against combined navigation and security functions. Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and subcommittee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., joined last month to send the letter to STELA stakeholders. They included questions specific to STELA as well as the broader video market.

The Communications Act is “serviceable,” Phil Verveer, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, told a Free State Foundation panel Tuesday. That’s good news, he said, because updating the act is going to be a challenge. Law professors on the panel agreed that FCC action on net neutrality under Section 706 of the Communications Act carries a huge number of potential “land mines” for the agency to navigate.

Broadcasters and their associations restated their stances on the draft FCC order to attribute joint sales agreements, which sent industry stocks down Monday on concerns future JSAs would be limited (CD March 18 p5). Broadcasters told the commission that attributing JSAs would heavily affect their stations, in ex parte filings in dockets 09-182 and 10-71. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters continued to support an end to approving JSAs.

The IP transition is happening irrespective of the FCC’s proposed trials, and smaller competitive providers worry about losing wholesale access to the telecom infrastructure, CLEC representatives said at a Comptel panel Tuesday, webcast from Las Vegas. Without definitive action from the FCC, CLECs have appealed to state regulators to maintain interconnection rights as the dominant technology changes, but it’s important for the FCC to help ensure regulatory certainty, they said.

The safe harbor and notice-and-takedown provisions of Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act still need refining, said DMCA experts and copyright stakeholders in interviews after Viacom settled its lawsuit against Google’s YouTube Tuesday. The case began in 2007 when Viacom filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube (CD May 2/07 p12). The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in favor of YouTube last year made Tuesday’s settlement “inevitable,” said Derek Bambauer, a University of Arizona law professor specializing in Internet law and intellectual property.

FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly questions Chairman Tom Wheeler’s use of delegated authority in recent weeks to get out orders without a commissioner vote (CD March 18 p1), O'Rielly said Tuesday at the Free State Foundation’s annual telecom conference. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn largely defended Wheeler during her remarks at the conference.

The current model for retransmission consent deals likely isn’t changing as a result of the over-the-top (OTT) deal this month between Dish Network and Disney, communications attorneys and analysts said in interviews. Some pay-TV industry observers said such a deal may lead to national OTT entry, but movement toward unbundling channels isn’t likely, the attorneys and analysts said.