Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a bill Wednesday to clarify regulations for healthcare-related software (http://1.usa.gov/1a7BHaE). The Sensible Oversight for Technology Which Advances Regulatory Efficiency (SOFTWARE) Act would codify some of the Food and Drug Administration’s guidelines (http://1.usa.gov/140wCKv) on protecting medical devices, which were updated this summer to include an expanded section on cybersecurity. The FDA “lacks the necessary tools to appropriately oversee” the rapidly growing amount of medical software “without overstepping their authority and stifling innovation,” said a news release from Blackburn. The agency could broadly define the term “medical device” to assert far-reaching control over new medical software. The bill aims to explicitly define exactly which types of software the FDA could closely oversee. “This bill would provide the FDA with the tools it needs to effectively protect consumers who use high risk technologies, while allowing the innovation of low risk technologies to continue without being caught up in the expensive and time consuming FDA approval process all while protecting patient safety,” Blackburn said in a statement.

With 4G LTE networks that offer speeds comparable to Wi-Fi on-the-go, “the future of any content, anywhere, anytime is right here, right now,” said FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn. “These technical changes have been massively disruptive for both the news and entertainment media, creating real challenges,” she said Tuesday at a Media Institute event in Washington for Freedom of Speech Week. Digital piracy has cost intellectual property creators billions of dollars, she said. “With subscribers shifting to online alternatives, and with advertisers doing the same, cash-strapped newsrooms laid off 13,400 reporters in the preceding four years.” There also are opportunities in the digital age, she said. Digital technology enables more piracy, “but it also enables the creation and consumption of massive amounts of entertainment,” like content via on-demand and streaming media platforms, she said. “No one should be left unable to access the fruits of tomorrow’s journalism or the many other benefits of the Information Age.” NAB President Gordon Smith received the American Horizon Award. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., who introduced Smith, credited him with urging broadcasters to embrace mobile DTV, allowing them to deliver broadcast signals to consumers wherever they are: “As consumers’ appetite for local TV on-the-go continues, Gordon has urged broadcasters … to meet the consumers’ desire for more live and local TV content.” Many broadcasters risk life and limb to cover emergency situations, said Smith. Whether it’s the telephone, Internet or cable business, “everything that we do drips with constitutional implications,” he said. AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan also attended the event and received the Freedom of Speech Award.

Comments are due Nov. 21 in WC docket 13-227 on Verizon’s application to discontinue certain legacy telecom services across the Eastern Seaboard, said a Tuesday public notice by the FCC Wireline Bureau (http://bit.ly/19sx2gx). Verizon wants to stop providing “DOVPATH,” a service that provides an analog channel for both synchronous and asynchronous data transmission; Wideband Analog, which provides an analog channel with a bandwidth measured in kHz for the transmission of a wideband signal; and Wideband Data, which provides an analog channel for the transmission of synchronous serial data or asynchronous serial data. Verizon plans to discontinue the services Dec. 19, “because they are outdated and customers no longer use or want them,” the public notice said. “In fact, Verizon notes that no customers currently subscribe” to any of the services.

Increasing the amount of unlicensed spectrum available for Wi-Fi use is “a major policy objective” for Comcast, said Executive Director-Regulatory and Public Affairs David Don at the Institute for Policy Innovation’s Communications Policy Summit Tuesday. Calling Wi-Fi “the last bottleneck,” Don said Comcast is investing millions of dollars in wireless connectivity. A 200,000-hotspot network built by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cablevision and Cox Communications could soon be at 500,000 or even over a million hotspots, he said. Don said moving the country to a next generation Wi-Fi standard that will allow gigabit speeds “needs to be a focus” for the communications industry. Though Don acknowledged there are no applications that would make full use of those high speeds, he said as more devices in homes make use of Wi-Fi connectivity, the higher speeds will be needed to accommodate the increased traffic. Regulators and others are becoming open to the necessity of freeing up unlicensed spectrum, Don said. “Folks are starting to come around in this town to the idea that we need a balanced spectrum policy.”

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wants answers on how private companies store the data of school students, as more school districts make use of private companies to handle such data. He sent a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/1aEyOsS) asking about student privacy and how the Department of Education assesses the information shared and whether there are minimization requirements on these private companies. Markey wants a response to his queries by Nov. 12.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board rescheduled its public hearing on National Security Agency surveillance, it said in a notice Monday (http://bit.ly/16ZHxVd). The board originally planned the hearing Oct. 4 but postponed it due to the government shutdown. The hearing will be Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington. PCLOB will post an updated agenda soon, it said.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee scheduled a hearing on broadband adoption Oct. 29, it said in a notice Tuesday. It will be at 10:30 a.m. in 253 Russell. Witnesses haven’t been posted. “The Subcommittee will examine how to increase broadband adoption in the United States; explore challenges to broadband adoption among various demographic groups and regions; and strategies to overcome those barriers,” the notice said.

Netflix will double its spending on original programming in 2014 to an amount less than 10 percent of annual operating expenses and will continue to review that amount going forward, Chief Financial Officer David Wells said on an earnings call. Wells didn’t say how much Netflix will budget for original content in 2014, but Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has said it could be 10 percent to 15 percent of operating expenses by 2016 (CED May 31 p1). Netflix is expected to launch the first wave of animation from DreamWorks late this year and in 2014, along with a second seasons of House of Cards, Hemlock Grove and Orange is the new Black and is “actively looking” at “a few” documentaries, Wells said. The documentaries would premier on Netflix, he said. “It just takes a long time in terms of lead time to get the shows out and with the commitment to quality to get those out, but doubling expense over time is certainly there” for original content, Wells said. “We have talked about 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent” of annual operating expenses, but “we don’t know what the right number is. We know it is going to grow over time and with the success we have had to date, we are going to continue to expand it.” Among its new content, Orange is the new Black will be Netflix’s most watched original series ever by the end of the year, the company said. Netflix confirmed talks with cable operators about pre-loading the service in set-top boxes. But Netflix and cable operators have yet to “figure out deal terms that make sense for both sides,” CEO Reed Hastings said. Netflix’s Open Connect content delivery network (CDN) that’s built into its service and is being deployed by Virgin Media in the U.K. has weighed “a little bit” on the company’s securing wholesale deals with cable operators, Hastings said. Netflix has agreements with 10 ISPs, including Bell Canada, Cablevision and Google Fiber in addition to Virgin, the company has said. ISPs can link the Open Connect for free by tying to common Internet exchanges. Under Open Connect, Netflix shares its hardware design and open source software components of the server, the company has said. “What we want to do is have a great experience on these boxes and the ISPs that directly connect to our Open Connect CDN get a better experience, higher video quality, less rebuffering,” Hastings said. “I don’t think it would be a problem to be on a Comcast box and presumably others. Historically there were some concerns, but I think we are through those at this point.” Comcast officials didn’t comment. In September, Netflix made Super HD titles -- which the company said are comparable to Blu-ray video quality -- and 3D content available to all members instead of only those whose broadband service was part of Open Connect. The change was made to accommodate the arrival of 4K on Netflix in 2014, Hastings said. “We want to be one of the big suppliers of 4K content next year and we didn’t want to complicate things as to which networks it is available on” by restricting it to Open Connect-equipped broadband services, he said. The change with Super HD was “really driven by the impending expansion of 4K next year, Hastings said.

The U.S. Army Aviation Systems Command team bought additional airborne satellite radios from Raytheon to support full-spectrum Army aviation mission execution. The order is an addition to an original $13 million award from the Army Defense Logistics Agency under the Multi-mode Airborne Radio Set (MARS) program, Raytheon said in a news release (http://bit.ly/17dNkfP). The additional equipment increases the MARS contract value to more than $370 million and 5,600 radio sets, it said. The Army standardized Raytheon’s ARC-231 satellite communications systems across Army aviation platforms, Raytheon said. Comtech received a $1.1 million order of satellite equipment spares from the Brazilian military. The spares will support an existing system, Comtech said in a news release (http://bit.ly/H8JmZZ).

The House Privacy Working Group will hear briefings Wednesday on data collection practices from consumer privacy advocates and a technology policy expert, said two of the people briefing the group. Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester said in an email he will discuss “contemporary data profiling practices and how a individual is tracked and targeted.” Consumer Federation of America Director of Consumer Protection Susan Grant will also meet with the task force, Chester said. Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, will also take part in the meeting. Thierer is “going to talk about the benefits of data collection for the information economy and the provision of digital services,” he said in an email. Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., chair the task force, which was formed in early August and has met with 10 companies that collect and study user data (CD Oct 3 p10).