A draft order on circulation that would update the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules in response to a July 2022 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling against the agency could be interpreted to require that entities buying political issue ads must first show broadcasters they aren’t foreign agents, broadcast and FCC officials told us. That language could change before the item is approved, although when it will be voted on is unclear, FCC and industry officials said. The draft item “just creates more questions,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Robert Folliard.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 28-22 this week to approve a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on Chinese Communist Party leaders for committing human rights violations.
Senate Commerce Committee Democrats and Republicans who back allocating an additional $3.08 billion for the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and stopgap funding for the commission’s ailing affordable connectivity program used a Thursday spectrum-focused hearing (see 2403210063) to vent about the Hill's failure thus far to address either priority. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act FY 2024 minibus spending bill, which congressional leaders released early Thursday morning as an amendment to legislative vehicle HR-2882, as expected (see 2403190062) includes neither ACP nor rip-and-replace funding.
A Thursday Senate Commerce Committee hearing is likely to highlight stark differences between panel leaders’ competing proposals for a spectrum legislative package, including whether it should mandate sales of specific bands before NTIA completes studies of those frequencies in keeping with the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). Lawmakers’ apparent failure to reach a deal allocating additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2403190062) as part of a FY 2024 still-unreleased “minibus” spending package also ratchets up the pressure for a spectrum bill to use future auction revenue to pay for multiple telecom priorities, officials and lobbyists told us.
The 38 plaintiffs’ privacy complaint vs. Apple over the stalking capabilities of the AirTag tracking device has alleged enough to survive Apple’s motion to dismiss, though most of the claims are “inadequately pled,” said U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria for Northern California in a signed order Friday (docket 3:22-cv-07668) in which he partially denied and partially granted Apple’s motion. The ruling addresses negligence and product liability claims of five plaintiffs who were injured in California.
Calling Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending (CDL) an “industrial infringement program,” four publishers said in a Friday appellee brief (docket 23-1260) in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Appeals Court that IA “obtains physical copies of millions of in-copyright books, scans them without authorization in offshore scanning centers, and distributes the resulting ebooks online, where they can be read in full by anyone in the world without any payment to the copyright owner.”
Political consultant Steve Kramer, broadband provider Lingo Telecom and robocall broadcaster Life Corp sent “thousands of robocalls” two days before the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary to people they thought were likely Democratic voters, featuring deepfake simulations of the voice of President Joe Biden, alleged a complaint Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for New Hampshire in Concord.
Plaintiff Michelle Righetti moved to relate 14 class actions arising out of MGM Resorts International’s September data breach, said her motion to consolidate Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-01719) in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas. All the cases involve the same defendant, set forth similar or identical proposed classes, raise virtually identical legal and factual issues, and seek the same or substantially similar relief, said the motion, saying consolidation would provide “judicial efficiency and economy of resources.” Righetti sued MGM on Dec. 14, alleging claims for negligence, violations of the California’s Privacy and Customer Records acts and its Unfair Competition Law. The motion includes the 14 class actions plus any additional related cases that may be filed or transferred to the Nevada court, it said.
The Senate Commerce Committee needs to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Senate Intelligence Committee before deciding on potentially marking up TikTok-related national security legislation, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Thursday (see 2403130039).
The House voted 352-65 Wednesday to approve legislation that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest the app in six months (see 2403120062).