The Senate approved, 92-0, Monday night Daniel Marti to be the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Six Republican lawmakers didn’t vote, as well as two Democratic members. The chamber also endorsed by voice vote Michelle Lee to be undersecretary of the Commerce Department for intellectual property and director of the Patent and Trademark Office. Immediately following the vote industry groups including the Information Technology Industry Council (see here and here), MPAA (see here and here) and TechNet (see here) issued statements applauding the confirmations.
More than 1,500 combined members of the Copyright Alliance and CreativeFuture sent separate but identical letters to Congress Monday, stating their commitment to strong copyright protections for content creators (see letters here and here). The groups said they recognize the Internet as a “powerful democratizing force for our world and for creative industries” and that “copyright promotes and protects free speech.” The groups urged “Congress to resist attempts to erode the right of creatives to determine when and how they share their works in the global marketplace.” Pro-fair use groups and law professors sent a letter to Congress Monday, saying, “Copyright overregulation merely enriches some at the expense of the very creators it claims to help” (see 1503090038).
Snowy weather derailed the schedule of private net neutrality stakeholder sessions that Capitol Hill Republicans planned to hold in Washington last week, multiple people familiar with the sessions told us. Top staffers for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., had planned to brief industry lobbyists on the draft net neutrality legislation that their bosses circulated in January and discuss its path forward as well as the FCC's net neutrality order (see 1502270050). They scheduled at least five sessions and at least two did happen as planned earlier in the week, one Senate staffer told us. Two of the meetings that happened included representatives from the tech companies and the competitive carriers, the staffer said. Meetings later in the week were postponed. These GOP lawmakers have said they want bipartisan negotiation and backing for the legislation -- which would codify net neutrality protections in exchange for limiting FCC authority -- but no Democrats have yet backed the draft bill. Democratic staffers were also invited to these sessions. Lawmakers called off much of the activity slated for Thursday and Friday last week due to the weather. Thune had said in February that he wanted to hold these private listening sessions as part of his commitment to advancing legislation following the FCC’s Feb. 26 net neutrality vote.
International Association of Fire Chiefs President Keith Bryant will testify about FirstNet Wednesday. He was added to the witness list for a Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing on the first responder network, scheduled for 10 a.m. in 253 Russell (see 1503030058). Recently, the Congressional Research Service released a report, dated Feb. 27, on the progress of the building effort and issues for Capitol Hill to consider. Congress "may be interested in the composition of private sector partnerships formed by FirstNet and individual states, not only for their business plans but also for the inclusion of a wide variety of stakeholders,” the 26-page report said. “For example, are rural and tribal wireless carriers included as business partners? Do secondary access agreements support services that meet social goals, such as for telemedicine, or are they exclusively for commercial purposes? Is competition in providing wireless services being enhanced or hindered?” CRS also discussed the state opt-out provision and cited concern among industry observers if “many states choose to build their own radio access networks,” with costs then possibly going up as economies of scale are lost. “A state that has its plans approved by the FCC may not be able to meet stipulated requirements when its network is built; absent any action by the FCC to enforce technical requirements, the goal of seamless interoperability across all broadband systems may be jeopardized,” CRS noted. “States operating within and outside the FirstNet deployment plan may, over time, have difficulty in finding the funds to complete radio access network build-outs, leaving significant gaps in what is intended to be nationwide coverage.” Congress “may want to consider ways to ensure that FirstNet will be self-sustaining and that the states will have adequate funds to participate in FirstNet and to maintain public safety communications networks,” CRS said. A FirstNet spokesman declined comment on the report
“Attempts to expand copyright law and increase regulatory control stifle the new creative revolution fueled by the Internet and constant advances in consumer electronics,” said a letter delivered to Congress Monday from several think tanks, advocacy groups and law professors. Think tank R Street Institute signed the letter, and Executive Director Andrew Moylan confirmed its contents and delivery. The letter’s signatories included the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Association, the Internet Infrastructure Coalition and Public Knowledge, it said. “The free market will find a way to integrate technological innovation in order to compensate creators over time,” the letter said. “Copyright overregulation merely enriches some at the expense of the very creators it claims to help.”
A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation last week to extend the deadline for positive train control implementation to 2020. Current law mandates that full implementation be completed by Dec. 31, and the FCC has sought to play its part in approving rail applications throughout the implementation. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., sponsored the bill (S-650) with the backing of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Commerce Committee leadership -- Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla. “Unmanageable deadlines could result in higher costs and a disruption of service,” Blunt said in a statement Thursday. “This bipartisan bill will help ease the Positive Train Control deadline to give railroads in Missouri and nationwide enough time to fully and safely implement this new technology.” Thune introduced a similar bill (S-1462), extending the deadline by five years, in August 2013, attracting 15 co-sponsors including Blunt, McCaskill and Nelson. The Association of American Railroads praised the new legislation. Current mandates “to have a fully interoperable, nationwide PTC system tested and safely operating by the end of 2015 is simply not possible and must be changed,” AAR President Edward Hamberger said in a statement. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently wrote to Congress to say the FCC is now able to process applications much more quickly (see 1503020047).
The FCC “is moving forward as quickly as possible” to implement Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II, Chairman Tom Wheeler told Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., in a letter the agency released Friday. The response was dated Feb. 27. “One of the next steps that we will take in this regard is to complete the process of adopting the rules and requirements that will apply to the competitive bidding process we will implement as part of CAF Phase II,” Wheeler said, saying a primary policy goal “is to ensure that we have widespread participation from all providers that can deliver a high-quality service.” Delaney had worried that the agency’s 100 millisecond latency requirement would prevent satellite companies from participating. Wheeler encouraged satellite companies to comment and submit proposals with agency staff, he said. He said he doesn't want to exclude any providers on account of lacking a “creative solution” in time.
The FCC plans to take stock of “lessons learned” from the AWS-3 spectrum auction as it goes into the broadcast TV incentive auction, Chairman Tom Wheeler told House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. Pallone had asked about the agency’s bidding rules for small businesses. “I remain committed to providing bona fide small businesses a meaningful opportunity to participate in that auction while protecting the integrity of the FCC auction program,” Wheeler told Pallone in a Feb. 27 letter released last week. The agency “takes seriously concerns” that some AWS-3 winners “may seek to capitalize on our rules” as a way to “receive benefits intended for small businesses or to game the auction process,” Wheeler said.
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., commended broadcasters in Wednesday’s Congressional Record. “These broadcasters provide the public with the news that is most important, and most useful for them, because it is the news from their own communities,” Matsui said. “This is true in Sacramento and across the nation. Our broadcasters play an integral role in Sacramentans' day-to-day lives, informing all of us about everything from local traffic to an in-depth look at local political issues.” She emphasized broadcasters' value during emergencies. “They have also played an important part in growing and investing in our nation’s airwaves,” she said. “The spectrum sharing agreement that the broadcasters entered into with the Department of Defense helped solidify the Federal Communications Commission’s recent record breaking spectrum auction of the AWS-3 band. This spectrum auction generated nearly $45 billion in revenue, enough to fully fund FirstNet, the nationwide interoperability network for America’s first responders and public safety officials.”
The Data Broker Accountability and Transparency Act (S-668) was introduced by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Al Franken, D-Minn., said a joint news release Thursday. S-668 would “allow consumers to access and correct their information to help ensure maximum accuracy,” it said. “The bill also provides consumers with the right to stop data brokers from using, sharing, or selling their personal information for marketing purposes” and “empowers” the FTC to “enforce the law and promulgate rules within one year.” Data brokers "seem to believe that there is no such thing as privacy,” Markey said in the release. “This legislation ensures that data brokers cannot take advantage of the most valuable possessions that consumers have: their personal information.” Americans "have a fundamental right to privacy, including the right to determine whether information about their personal lives should be available for sale to the highest bidder,” said Franken.