The major area of disagreement remaining between the House and Senate on spectrum legislation is the governance structure for the national public safety network, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. Middle ground has been found on several other contentious issues, he told Communications Daily on Tuesday. The House was expected after our deadline to pass the original Walden spectrum legislation as part of a larger spending bill (HR-3630) to extend the payroll tax cut and other items. The bill’s spectrum language is expected to change later in the process to reflect bicameral talks.
There is an urgent need for Congress to pass a bill that curbs theft of copyrighted content and the sale of counterfeited goods online, some lawmakers, companies and associations said Tuesday on Capitol Hill. At an event, representatives of 17 companies and organizations put their support behind the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas (WID Oct 27 p1) OR (CD Oct 27 p13) OR (CED Oct 27 p8). The problem with “rogue sites” goes beyond the country’s borders, he said. “When you look at global Internet traffic today … one quarter is thought to violate copyright.” It has a negative impact on the economy and it steals innovator profits and jobs, he said.
The FCC unanimously approved at its Tuesday meeting an order implementing the CALM Act that incorporates a “safe harbor” approach backed by cable operators to lower the volume of pay-TV and broadcast ads without unduly burdening industry. The regulation also exempts smaller TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors (CD Dec 5 p9), although they may be required to perform spot checks if consumers complain to the commission.
LightSquared made the latest in a series of concessions in response to persistent objections from government and business to interference risks to GPS from the company’s proposed wholesale wireless-broadband network. By ex parte filing with the FCC late Monday, the company agreed to make the use of its spectrum closest to GPS subject to approval by a federal interagency committee in addition to the commission and to limit its increase in power on the ground over time.
Cable operators told the FCC to resist CEA’s request to address its AllVid proposal and other home-networking issues before adopting rules to let cable operators encrypt their basic digital service tiers, reply comments filed with the commission this week show. “There is no justification for depriving consumers of the demonstrable benefits of the proposed rule pending resolution of other, more complex technological and standard-setting issues of interest to All-Vid proponents,” said Cablevision. Public interest groups even appear split with CEA on this point, Cablevision pointed out: While Public Knowledge and Media Access Project asked the commission to address AllVid, “they also recognize that the Commission should act swiftly to permit basic tier encryption,” Cablevision said. Delaying action on this item “pending resolution of the unrelated AllVid proceeding … would be inappropriate,” Time Warner Cable said. The MPAA also threw its support behind allowing basic tier encryption but didn’t address the AllVid rules in its reply comments.
MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd sought to dismiss what he called the “misconceptions” about the anti-piracy bills being considered in Congress. His comments came in a speech at the Center for American Progress on Tuesday. The House Judiciary Committee plans to mark up the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on Thursday despite the loud chorus of opposition from Internet and technology groups (WID Dec 13 p7) or (CD Dec 13 p13) OR (CED Dec 13 p4). Dodd said he rejected the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act, recently offered by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. (WID Dec 9 p1) OR (CD Dec 9 p6) OR (CED Dec 9 p2), as an alternative to SOPA and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act, and called it a “delaying approach” that is too burdensome for the content industry.
EU governments should “encourage the principle of net neutrality” and ensure the open and neutral character of the Internet as their policy objective, the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council of Ministers said in conclusions adopted Tuesday. Officials also agreed generally on many aspects of a European Commission proposal to drive data and voice roaming charges down, but many details remain to be settled, they said. The council also finalized its position on a five-year spectrum policy.
AT&T could have to accept a mandate the company has long sought to avoid if it wants to win quick approval from the FCC of its proposed buy of 700 MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. Two members of the FCC, Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps, are both asking whether the purchase should be conditioned on AT&T’s agreement to abide by a 700 MHz interoperability requirement, agency and industry officials said Monday.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act could “break a fundamental aspect of the Internet,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told reporters Monday after a luncheon hosted by the Washington, D.C. Economic Club. “What these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet. By doing so, it’s a form of censorship, it’s not a good thing.” Schmidt scoffed at the mobile-phone patent battle being waged in the International Trade Commission (ITC) and said he expects to hear a decision from European antitrust regulators sometime in the first half of 2012.
CBS said it agreed to buy WLNY-TV Riverhead, N.Y. a full power DTV station on Long Island. The station has pay-TV distribution around the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey region, and is not affiliated with a major broadcast network. CBS also owns WCBS-TV New York. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said the transaction was a smart one for CBS to make. Owning two stations in the largest U.S. media market, CBS could probably increase margins at the two stations by 10 basis points, and potentially increase revenue at WLNY-TV by adding new programming and through retransmission consent revenue, she said.