Legislation directing the FTC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to establish a federal standard for vehicles that have “fully adopted wireless technologies,” to “secure our cars and protect drivers’ privacy,” was introduced Wednesday by Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the Internet of Things (see 1502110035). Introduction of the legislation came days after Markey released a report (see 1502090026) outlining privacy and security issues for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The legislation also would require new cars to be evaluated and rated based on how well the drivers’ privacy and security were protected. The information would be displayed in a manner similar to how fuel economy is currently displayed. “We need the electronic equivalent of seat belts and airbags to keep drivers and their information safe in the 21st century,” Markey said. “There are currently no rules of the road for how to protect driver and passenger data, and most customers don’t even know that their information is being collected and sent to third parties.” Connected cars "represent tremendous social and economic promise, but in the rush to roll out the next big thing automakers have left the doors unlocked to would-be cybercriminals,” Blumenthal said. The FTC and NHTSA didn't comment.
The You Own Devices Act (YODA) (HR-862) was reintroduced Wednesday by Reps. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Jared Polis, D-Colo. The bill would amend Section 109 of the Copyright Act to allow consumers to resell or lease their software, a joint news release said. “As technology advances, more and more of the devices in your home, office, and garage contain essential software that make them run,” Farenthold said in the release. That “opens the door to software licenses that erode how much you own these devices and how you can dispose of them,” he said. “YODA ensures that these devices are yours and you can sell them when you wish.” “For too long our antiquated copyright laws have been stifling innovation and blocking consumers from being able to access more efficient, effective, and affordable products and technology," Polis said. "YODA will bring our copyright laws into the 21st century and recognize that people can own and transfer devices without being strangled by paperwork and empty legal threats." The bill is the same as HR-5586, which Farenthold introduced last year, a spokesman said. Farenthold “understands we expect the devices we buy to belong to us, for us to re-sell or give away as we please,” Mike Godwin, R Street Institute innovation policy director, said in a news release. “This bill says in a very few words what we all believe about what we buy: we own it and we can re-sell it as we see fit.”
House Republicans received a record number of responses to their sixth Communications Act overhaul white paper -- 220. The white paper that received the next highest number of responses was the very first one a year ago, with 116. The 220 stakeholders weighed in on several video policy overhaul questions in the latest white paper (see 1501230062, 1501260045, 1501270041 and 1502040038). The House Communications Subcommittee had set a January deadline for responses and posted them all Wednesday. They included many community TV stations plus bigger stakeholders such as the American Cable Association, the American Television Alliance, Cox Enterprises, Dish Network, Public Knowledge, TVFreedom and Verizon. The American Television Alliance, which includes many pay-TV industry stakeholders, used its response to press for enactment of Local Choice, a broadcast a la carte proposal: “No price regulation, no blackouts, no threats, and most importantly, no drama for consumers,” the group said. Congress shouldn't have to wait for a comprehensive telecom rewrite to engage in retransmission overhaul, it said. Aereo, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, urged Congress to consider several changes. “Even though Aereo itself has permanently ceased all business operations and will no longer exist, we believe that the lessons we learned have helped further the conversation around video reform,” leading to a robust future market, Senior Vice President Virginia Lam wrote. Aereo backed “a regulatory framework that is technology-neutral and allows linear online video providers to compete in parity with incumbent providers.” The multichannel video programming distributor definition doesn’t need to apply to online video services offering “an on-demand or nonlinear channel format,” Aereo said.
Multiple House lawmakers focused on the Do Not Call list this week. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., wants the FTC to fight violations of the Do Not Call list. “Nearly every day I hear from constituents who are frustrated by the constant interruption of telemarketers,” Eshoo told the FTC in a letter sent Wednesday. “Despite more than 100 enforcement actions taken against companies and telemarketers for ‘Do Not Call’ violations by the FTC’s own admission, the number of consumer complaints for unsolicited telephone calls has doubled since 2010.” The Do Not Call registry “is not working as it was intended,” Eshoo said. She invited FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez to Silicon Valley for a summit on related technologies. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., meanwhile, introduced HR-827 “to revise the regulations regarding the Do-not-call registry to prohibit politically-oriented recorded message telephone calls to telephone numbers listed on that registry,” its title said. Its co-sponsor is Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., and it was referred to the Commerce Committee. Foxx is calling the bill the Robo Calls Off Phones (COP) Act. “Though citizens are able to stop receiving telemarketing calls, politicians made sure to exempt political robocalls from the power of the Do Not Call Registry,” Foxx said in a statement. “Removing that exemption through the Robo COP Act is a matter of fairness.”
ITS America warned Congress against the Wi-Fi Innovation Act, introduced Tuesday and compelling the FCC to investigate unlicensed spectrum use in the upper 5 GHz band (see 1502100041). “Experts from the automotive, Wi-Fi and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) industries are working together to explore whether a spectrum sharing technology can be developed to allow Wi-Fi devices to operate in the same 5.9 GHz band set aside by the FCC for ITS safety systems without delaying time-critical communications needed to prevent crashes,” interim President Thomas Kern said in a statement. “This collaborative process should continue without Congressionally-imposed deadlines, restrictive parameters or political pressure that creates regulatory uncertainty and could delay bringing these life-saving crash prevention technologies to consumers." Kern and other auto industry stakeholders, including AAA and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, sent Hill Commerce Committee leaders a letter slamming the legislation’s “arbitrary deadlines and restrictive parameters.” The groups asked committee leadership to oppose the bill.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pressed the FCC and CTIA on cellphone unlocking, in a letter Tuesday. She referred to the voluntary commitment of the wireless industry and FCC to move forward on unlocking. “With the deadline for implementation of the voluntary agreement this week, I respectfully request, at your earliest convenience, updates on the implementation and success of this voluntary standard designed to give consumers choice and increase competition among carriers,” Klobuchar said. “I would like to know where each of the six principals [sic] stand[s] in terms of implementation, if the FCC or wireless carriers continue to receive complaints from consumers regarding unlocking policies even after the agreement, and if this voluntary policy has met the goals of increasing consumer choice and promoting competition.”
The Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act was reintroduced Tuesday by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a joint news release said. The bill is the Senate version of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s, R-Va., Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (HR-235) and would ban taxes on Internet access permanently (see 1501090042). Without the bill, “access to information would no longer be tax-free,” Wyden said in the release. ITFFA would “encourage more American innovators and entrepreneurs to use broadband to develop the next big thing,” Thune said. The Senate bill has 39 co-sponsors; HR-235 has 29 House co-sponsors. CTIA and USTelecom applauded the Senate bill in statements Tuesday.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers on Tuesday reintroduced the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-424), which would direct the FCC to investigate the possibilities of the upper 5 GHz band for unlicensed use. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., posted the 12-page bill text online. He introduced the bill with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., although Rubio told us late last week he didn't expect to introduce this or any of his wireless legislation until March and is also hopeful for Commerce Committee hearings on such wireless issues (see 1502050025). “By requiring the FCC to conduct testing that would provide more spectrum to the public, we are ultimately putting the resource to better use and recognizing the future needs and important work being done in intelligent transportation,” Rubio said in a statement. The bill’s backers in the House are Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.; Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio; and Reps. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif. It earned statements of approval from CEA, CTIA, PCIA, Public Knowledge and the Wi-Fi Alliance. These lawmakers introduced the bill last year but it never advanced.
The FCC should delay its planned Feb. 26 vote on net neutrality, House Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement Tuesday. “Allegations that the White House may have pressured Chairman Wheeler to adopt Title II Net Neutrality regulations are troubling,” Blackburn said. “This was supposed to be an open process. We have watched the FCC go through a lengthy notice and comment period only to learn that the rules may have been written behind closed doors at the White House.” Other lawmakers plan to gather for a net neutrality briefing in favor of the FCC action. The National Hispanic Media Coalition is co-hosting that briefing with Presente.org, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Media Action Grassroots Network, set for noon Thursday in B-338 Rayburn. Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairman Keith Ellison, D-Mich., is expected to attend.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., hasn't prejudged whether the White House wrongly influenced the FCC’s net neutrality proceeding, he told us Tuesday. Johnson pressured FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday about whether the White House interfered, sending a letter to Wheeler (see 1502090049). “It’s kind of the first step,” Johnson said. “But we still want to find out what extent his change of heart was actually his own or was it influenced by the White House. It’s supposed to be an independent agency. So we’re trying to find the information we want to find, the communication between himself and the White House, his agency and the White House, and see whether this truly was an independent act.” Johnson would defer any possible hearings or legislation, preferring to wait until the Feb. 20 deadline for his inquiry: “I’ll give the chairman a chance to respond.” Johnson isn't ruling out any actions, instead following the facts, a Republican Senate staffer told us. She predicted the FCC will face court scrutiny and changes under future FCC chairmen, creating uncertainty that will hurt the marketplace. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., was familiar with the inquiries in both the House and Senate letters and has also accused the administration of involving itself in the net neutrality debates. It’s “certainly within their purview to ask questions and I think they just want to get some answers,” Thune told us Tuesday of the letters from Johnson and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. Johnson backs the legislative route Thune has outlined, the GOP staffer said, saying the FCC should defer to Congress.