The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Free Flow of Information Act by a vote of 13-5 Thursday, Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a news release (http://1.usa.gov/15Vha8h). The legislation offers protections to journalists engaged in newsgathering activities, though it includes exceptions in national security cases in order to allow federal law enforcement to compel information that would mitigate terrorist threats. The bill passed after Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., offered an amendment that defined more specifically which journalists are covered. That amendment includes journalists working for news websites, mobile applications or other news or information services, digitally distributed or otherwise, according to its text (http://1.usa.gov/15VqtVM). “This bill carefully balances the need to protect confidential source information with the need to protect law enforcement and national security interests, so that we can better protect the American people’s right to know,” Leahy said. In the past, media shield bills have been defeated for failure to clearly define whether journalists like bloggers would be covered (CD Aug 1/08 p14).

The FTC should provide more guidance on what constitutes reasonable steps for protecting user data, TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said during the group’s Thursday event. If the agency is going to use its authority to penalize unfair and deceptive practices on companies that don’t take reasonable steps to protect user data, the FTC should make it clear what steps count as reasonable, he said. Instead, the agency has used “the worst, most ad hoc way to go about that,” leaving companies unclear as to what is required of them, he said. Szoka and panelist Tom Sydnor -- speaking for himself and not in his capacity as Association for Competitive Technology senior intellectual property fellow -- said the FTC should be going after peer-to-peer service Limewire, rather than medical testing firm LabMD, which is facing a data breach case after files containing patient information were accidentally made available through an employee’s desktop, which was running Limewire. The agency should be going after companies that design software intended to trick users into making files on their computers available, Szoka said. “This is a problem the FTC could have solved” by going after Limewire years ago, Sydnor said. “It had multiple chances to stop it … and it didn’t."

The New York Public Service Commission further suspended a tariff amendment to allow Verizon to discontinue its current wireline service offerings in Fire Island Thursday (http://bit.ly/14PqODj). The commission approved an amendment to allow Verizon to use Voice Link to serve customers on a temporary basis on May 18 and it directed Verizon to submit a comprehensive report no later than Nov. 1 to evaluate the quality and reliability of the use of Voice Link to Fire Island customers, said the PSC. The initial suspension period runs through Saturday and the commission’s investigation can’t reach a conclusion within the 120-day suspension period, said the PSC. The tariff provision is suspended for a six-month statutory maximum period from Sept. 15 to March 14, said the PSC. The suspension holds no bearing on Verizon’s filing (CD Sept 12 p3) to suspend the PSC’s investigation of Voice Link on Fire Island, a commission spokesman told us.

Warner Music Group will share in revenue from all of Clear Channel’s platforms, under a partnership the companies announced Wednesday in a joint news release (http://aol.it/15VdPpQ). The agreement is Clear Channel’s first with a major music company, the release said. “WMG is showing the way for what a true 21st century music company can be -- a music company built for the digital age,” said Bob Pittman, chairman of Clear Channel.

Aereo, TMSoft and Uber joined CEA, the association said in a news release Thursday commending the companies for their “disruptive technology” (http://bit.ly/16nRM8A). All three have “faced challenges from entities threatened by and seeking to stifle their innovative technologies,” said CEA. It cited Aereo’s ongoing court struggles with broadcasters over its streaming TV service (CD July 17 p6), Uber’s battles with local governments over its ride service mobile apps and TMSoft’s dispute with patent holding company Lodsys over smartphone apps. CEA compared the companies with other members that it said were disruptive, such as streaming radio service Pandora and 3D printer MakerBot.

CTIA urged the FCC to reject a petition for reconsideration filed in July by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) objecting to the FCC’s reclassification of the outer ear as not subject to specific absorption rate limits for radiation from cellphones (http://fcc.us/13SvTNS) under the agency’s radio frequency rules. “Unlike the Trial Lawyers, CTIA strongly supports the Commission’s decision in the First [report and order] to classify the pinna as an extremity based on the expert determinations of the [Food and Drug Administration] and of the IEEE, and the Commission’s conclusion that this specification has no practical effect on human exposure to RF energy permitted by the FCC’s rules,” CTIA said (http://bit.ly/19M0u0o). “Because the Commission’s inclusion of the pinna with the ankles, wrists, feet, and hands for purposes of RF [radio frequency] exposure compliance was properly guided by the recommendations of federal agencies and organizations with expertise in measuring RF exposure and evaluating its environmental effects,” CTIA said the FCC should reject AAJ’s petition.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., were among lawmakers Thursday introducing the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act. The bill would make permanent the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, which “placed a moratorium on the ability of state and local governments to impose new taxes on Internet access or to impose multiple or discriminatory taxes on e-commerce,” the lawmakers said in a statement. Other sponsors were Reps. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., and Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced the Senate companion bill, S-1431, last month. “In this increasingly digital age, Americans rely on access to the Internet to apply for employment, to seek and share innovative ideas, to keep governments accountable, to run small businesses, and to communicate with their families and friends,” said Goodlatte. “This legislation will help ensure more Americans have access to this tremendous medium by reducing cost barriers.” Industry members and trade groups praised the bill’s introduction. In a statement, AT&T applauded the lawmakers for introducing the bill, saying “it is critical that Congress permanently extend the Internet Tax Freedom Act.” “Extending the current Internet tax moratorium will protect consumers and small businesses from new and burdensome state and local taxes on Internet access, helping more Americans get online and ensuring that the Internet continues to power U.S. economic growth,” NCTA said in a statement. “We look forward to swift passage of this legislation in the House and towards it eventually being signed into law.” CTIA said the bill would provide “a reasonable and permanent tax structure that guarantees affordable access to the Internet and the incredible services it provides,” which it called “vital for consumers and continued innovation."

Emergency motions to stay and limit a nearly nationwide preliminary injunction against streaming TV service FilmOn X were denied in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Judge Rosemary Collyer in an opinion filed Thursday. “The conduct prohibited by the Preliminary Injunction is uncompensated infringement of those holders’ exclusive right to public performance of their works, and the public interest is not harmed by requiring FilmOn X to cease infringement.” Collyer agreed with broadcasters that Aereo’s wins in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals don’t mean that FilmOn will win its D.C. case. “FilmOn X has simply recycled the same arguments that this Court rejected,” said the broadcasters’ opposition motion, pointing to FilmOn’s contentions that the injunction undercuts other courts and will harm its business. “The mere existence of two non-controlling, widely-criticized cases supporting FilmOnX does not create a strong likelihood that the D.C. Circuit will reverse the injunction.” FilmOn had argued that being enjoined throughout the nation -- except in the jurisdiction of the 2nd Circuit -- will cause it to lose customers to similar service Aereo, which isn’t enjoined anywhere. That’s “unsupportable” said the plaintiff filings: “FilmOnX’s argument boils down to the plea that it should be allowed to continue to infringe because there is another infringing service in operation.” Filings by FilmOn also show that it has a substantial international following that would be unaffected by the injunction, broadcasters said. The court should also reject FilmOn’s argument that the injunction bond the broadcasters are required to pay should be increased from $250,000 to $2.75 million, the filing said. FilmOn X hasn’t presented any evidence “beyond the mere say-so of counsel that $250,000 would not be sufficient to cover its potential losses, and Plaintiffs have more than sufficient resources in the unlikely event that the injunction was erroneously issued and FilmOn X incurs more than $250,000 in losses,” said Collyer. “It doesn’t really harm us,” FilmOn CEO Alki David told us in an email. His service has many agreements with independent channels that won’t be affected by the injunction, and will still be able to stream the major broadcasters in the 2nd Circuit, where the injunction doesn’t apply, he said. “The Networks are a must have to be a real pro service but we can wait to get them … no biggie.” David said he will wait for Aereo to win the copyright case brought against it by Hearst in Boston, where FilmOn already has an “antenna farm.” Fox praised the decision and said it fully expects to “continue to prevail,” in an email. David’s attorney Ryan Baker, of Baker Marquart, confirmed his client will abide by the court’s order to cease streaming copyrighted material, but will appeal the decision.

The FTC has not opened a formal investigation into Facebook’s recently changed data use policy, an agency spokesman told us. The company recently told users it was going to alter the language in its data use policy, which provoked privacy advocates to ask the FTC to investigate whether the changes would violate its 2011 privacy settlement with the company. “As in all cases, we're monitoring compliance with the Order, and part of that involves interacting with Facebook,” the FTC spokesman said in a statement. On Wednesday, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged the FTC to investigate. “The proposed changes indicate that while the previous policy language offers Facebook users the explicit right to control how their names, faces, and other information are used for advertising and commercial purposes, that through the new policy, consumers would automatically cede to Facebook the right to use their information unless they expressly revoke permission,” Markey wrote: “I would like to know whether the FTC views Facebook’s plans to be a violation of the settlement agreement and what actions the Commission has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Facebook’s proposed changes to its privacy policy violate the agreement” it has with the FTC.

SES is using the IBC2013 show in Amsterdam to showcase two Ultra HD demo channels in the new high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard, SES said Thursday. For one of the Ultra HD channels, SES is partnering with Sky Deutschland and Harmonic to showcase delivery of Ultra HD content, including sports matches, movies and documentaries, to the first real Ultra HD consumer set-top boxes from Humax and Technicolor, connected to a Sony 84-inch 4K TV, it said. SES and Fraunhofer are using the other Ultra HD channel to broadcast Ultra HD content using HEVC, but at higher frame rates up to 60p as enabled by the new HDMI 2.0 specification, it said. SES has “immediate plans to use these Ultra HD transmissions to provide our industry partners with live satellite signals to demonstrate devices with the 50/60 Hz frame rates that the new HDMI 2.0 interface will be capable of,” said Thomas Wrede, SES vice president-reception systems. “As technologies for Ultra HD mature, SES will continue to work with partners to make Ultra HD the ultimate television experience for consumers, not just with more pixels but with better pixels that also deliver brighter, smoother and more colorful pictures.” IBC2013 opened Thursday for a six-day run.