Legislators and industry players urged action in response to Facebook-Cambridge Analytica reports and big data’s relationship to privacy (see 1803200047 and 1803210056). And House and Senate Commerce Committee leadership submitted formal requests Friday for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before their respective committees (see 1803220052).
Debate over a European Commission proposal for a new e-privacy law is heating up as telcos and digital companies race to comply with the EU general data protection regulation. The e-privacy regulation (ePR), which would modify existing electronic privacy rules enacted as part of telecom liberalization, is an exception to Europe's general reluctance to impose sector-specific privacy regulations and a political move aimed at leveling the playing field between traditional providers and over-the-top players that offer telco-like services, Hogan Lovells (Paris) telecom and privacy lawyer Winston Maxwell told a Tuesday webinar. Communications providers said the current version of the draft is inflexible, while digital rights activists criticized EU governments' failure to move forward on the regulation.
If the autonomous vehicle that recently struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona is found to be at fault (see 1803200064), it further underscores the need for swift legislative action, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told us. “That is one of the arguments of why we need to get a bill that creates a policy framework and some guardrails around everything’s that’s happened.” Thune is lead sponsor of the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act (S-1885).
President Donald Trump signed the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) and other tech and telecom policy provisions included in the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625) Friday, despite a last-minute threat to veto the measure. The Senate passed the omnibus early Friday 65-32, after behind-the-scenes "begging, pleading and cajoling" to assuage objections from Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the floor.
The FCC and FTC took a deep dive on illegal robocalls during a joint forum at FCC headquarters Friday, a day after FCC members approved creating at least one reassigned numbers database to help businesses avoid calling reassigned numbers (see 1803220028). FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the fight against unwanted robocalls requires that his agency, the FTC and others work together. Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen agreed.
The judge overseeing the AT&T/Time Warner antitrust trial almost surely will evaluate the evidence and law dealing with the proposed vertical merger the same way he would a horizontal deal, experts told us. In opening argument Thursday (see 1803220033), companies' outside counsel Dan Petrocelli of O'Melveny told U.S. District Judge Richard Leon of Washington, "You're not going to need a crystal ball," since horizontal deals inherently reduce competition while verticals lead to increased business efficiencies and innovation.
The FCC took USF actions and made proposals intended to help rural telcos provide broadband-oriented service and to improve high-cost subsidy program operations. Dissenting Democrats said their requests for changes to an NPRM went unheeded. Chairman Ajit Pai said the minority members waited too long to make their suggestions, a charge they denied. The commission Friday released two orders and a notice (here) that provide up to $545 million in additional support to rate-of-return carriers, flesh out expense and investment cost-recovery restrictions, and aim to examine the rural USF budget and a possible tribal broadband factor. The item appears largely consistent with a draft (see 1801160040 and 1801170048).
States with laws or executive orders on net neutrality to counter the FCC’s December recision order should expect lawsuits, law experts and others said in interviews. Suits seem more likely to come from industry than the FCC, but industry may wait for the right moment, they said. In two states that passed net neutrality bills, ILEC associations said they won’t sue.
President Donald Trump’s signing of a memorandum Thursday proposing tariffs on about $60 billion worth of Chinese goods imported to the U.S. didn’t detail for now which specific products would be targeted. But CTA President Gary Shapiro wasted little time in warning the tariffs would threaten to put “a new tax on U.S. businesses” and force consumers “to pay dramatically more to access the technology products they need.”
Streaming music sales, 65 percent of music industry revenue last year, grew 43 percent to $5.7 billion, RIAA reported, as its continues seeking copyright law updates to match such changes. Paid subscriptions were the biggest growth driver for the music industry, RIAA said, posting $4 billion in revenue, up 63 percent. Paid subscriptions comprised 47 percent of the total recorded music market. RIAA differentiates full-service paid subscriptions and limited-tier services such as Amazon Prime and Pandora Plus, which accounted for 14 percent of subscription revenue vs. 11 percent in 2016.