Noting that many judges aren't technology experts, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham expressed concern Monday that many legal issues are decided using court documents instead of jury trials. “One of the frustrations” that stems from long-running litigation is that “a trial judge … never got to hear the full evidence,” he said during oral argument in CCIA v. Paxton.

CBS again faced controversy Monday over its editing of a 60 Minutes interview, this time with President Donald Trump, leaving FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Democrats at odds over whether the changes constituted a violation of the commission’s news distortion rules. The volley of barbs compared the removal of pieces of Trump's interview -- at his request -- to 60 Minutes’ controversial October 2024 editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris (see 2410100050). Harris' campaign didn't seek edits to her 60 Minutes interview, which is itself the subject of an ongoing FCC news distortion probe and a lawsuit from Trump that CBS settled in July (see 2507020053).

SBA Communications on Monday became the last of the three major U.S. tower companies to report Q3 earnings, releasing results after the close of the financial markets. In recent calls, American Tower and Crown Castle executives were positive on the outlook for their sector as U.S. carriers continue to deploy 5G.

The U.S. Supreme Court seems likely to reverse the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision against Cox Communications regarding music piracy by its broadband subscribers, a copyright expert told us Monday. Cox is challenging the 4th Circuit's ruling, which upheld a lower court's contributory copyright infringement finding against the ISP (see 2408160034).

A legislative proposal to eliminate the ConnectMaine Authority (CMA) saw both support and criticism in a hearing Thursday of the state's Joint Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee. LD-1975, introduced in May, would disband the agency -- the predecessor to the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), the state's broadband office -- by repealing the Advanced Technology Infrastructure Act. "Maine does not need two broadband authorities in the long term," said Rep. Jack Ducharme (R), the bill's sponsor.

Comcast and Charter continue to be hammered with fiber and fixed-wireless access (FWA) competition in residential broadband, though their wireless businesses are still growing. Between fiber overbuilding and FWA, "in any market, when you have new competition ... there's going to be a short-term impact on us," Charter CEO Chris Winfrey said in a call with analysts Friday as the cable ISP announced Q3 results.

The federal shutdown is keeping the FCC from processing transfer-of-control applications, but broadcasters are expecting a wave of station deal approvals when it ends, they told us in interviews. Being unable to file paperwork doesn’t delay negotiations, broadcasters told us. “We can’t file anything because nothing’s open right now,” said Circle City Broadcasting CEO DuJuan McCoy, who announced an $83 million deal Tuesday to purchase WRTV Indianapolis (ABC) from E.W. Scripps. “When you're doing deals, you worry about what you can control, and that's signing a deal, negotiating a deal and locking it up.”

The FCC released the draft items for its Nov. 20 open meeting Thursday, including an NPRM on clearing the upper C band, an order undoing the last FCC’s response to the Salt Typhoon attacks, and an NPRM seeking comment on updating telecommunications relay services.

NTIA is unfairly emphasizing use of low earth orbit satellite connectivity in BEAD, sometimes in cases where LEO doesn't make sense, some state broadband officials said Thursday. Speaking at the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition's annual conference, Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, said many BEAD locations being awarded to LEO bids won't actually get service due to geographic issues like dense foliage and mountains. Hallquist said that of the state's roughly 15,000 BEAD locations, about 1,300 are being awarded to LEO.

AT&T filed a lawsuit Thursday in Texas against industry ad watchdog the National Advertising Division (NAD) over its attempt to block the company from running ads about T-Mobile’s repeated violations of NAD rules on deceptive ads. “It is one thing for NAD to prove ineffective at stopping deceptive advertising,” said AT&T in a complaint at the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas. “It is quite another for NAD to demand, privately and publicly, that AT&T censor its own truthful statements about T-Mobile’s deceptive advertising history -- that NAD itself disseminated to the public.”