With Canoe having shifted its focus away from pursuing interactive TV applications and ad technology (CD Feb 23 p8), other interactive TV application developers and technology vendors say cable distributors will still have a role in growth of interactive TV. Without Canoe, a joint venture of the major cable operators, coordinating efforts among its members, companies that want to reach cable subscribers with interactive TV products will often have to cut individual deals with various distributors.

TV stations didn’t back down from their political ad file proposal, envisioning putting online some but not all information in that part of the public inspection file now kept on paper at broadcaster studios. Lawyers for the 11 owners of 200-plus stations that made an alternative proposal to what’s in a rulemaking notice answered Media Bureau staffers’ questions last week on whether they'd amend the plan. The broadcasters are willing to provide some additional information than what they proposed last month, though not as much as nonprofit groups that seek more disclosure want or as much as the rulemaking sought (CD March 2 p7).

The Supreme Court’s Jones privacy decision is rippling through electronic communications well beyond the GPS tracking it involved, less than two months after the ruling came down, legal experts said. The decision was “very cautious” but “very important,” leaving the court “potentially poised to change 40 years” of law on Americans’ privacy in relation to the government, law Professor Stephen Henderson of the University of Oklahoma said on an American Bar Association webcast. The court decided Jones “on the narrowest possible ground, but they certainly left the door open in the years to come” for litigation to decide profound questions concerning technologies besides GPS, said moderator William Baker of Wiley Rein.

The FCC’s proposal to block LightSquared’s ability to provide terrestrial service would violate the company’s constitutional rights, LightSquared said in an FCC filing Friday. The agency has said it plans to rescind the waiver and suspend the company’s underlying ancillary terrestrial component. Sprint Nextel also said Friday it will terminate its network sharing agreement with LightSquared.

The White House plans to apply its new privacy guidelines to the mobile applications environment, said Danny Weitzner, policy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, during an event Friday hosted by the Consumer Federation of America. Weitzner said he hopes the administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights will encourage new codes of conduct in developing markets like the mobile space.

Clear federal/state jurisdiction on communications services is key for ensuring service quality and reliability, speakers said during a conference call organized by the National Regulatory Research Institute Thursday. They cited increasing product choice, consolidation and competition as well as reduced traditional state regulation and oversight as four key trends that have reshaped the telecom industry in recent years.

Prepaid phone card companies, without an association since the International Prepaid Communications Association folded in late 2005, are forming the American PrePaid Phonecall Association (APPPA) and recruiting members, said Executive Director Gene Retske. The group, which has 12 founding members, claims to already represent the majority of the U.S. prepaid calling market. It has established standards for all U.S. prepaid phone call providers who want to join, the association said Thursday.

The White House plans to “quickly engage” with federal lawmakers to implement baseline, enforceable data privacy laws, said Danny Weitzner, policy director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, at an event Thursday hosted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Media and Technology Institute. Last month the White House unveiled its proposal for data privacy protections, called the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. The voluntary code of conduct aims to protect privacy rights of online consumers while giving them more control over how their information is handled.

Cisco’s $5 billion purchase of software developer NDS will strengthen and speed deployment of Cisco’s Videoscape cloud-based video platform as North American cable operators increasingly adopt a hybrid QAM/Internet Protocol approach to deliver services, analysts and executives said.

The government’s delay in releasing a report on export control reforms continues to prevent movement on legislation that would relax regulation of satellite components, House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer David Fite told the Satellite 2012 conference late Wednesday. HR-3288, introduced last year by House Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Howard Berman, D-Calif. (CD Nov 3 p13), remains in limbo as a result of the slowness, Fite said. The bill would give the Executive Office of the President authority to remove commercial satellites and components from a munitions list closely regulated by the State Department.