An increase in songwriting royalty rates should be prioritized as Congress continues its copyright review led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., a member of that committee, and music royalty advocates in interviews. Collins said he’s “hopeful” that a copyright revamp will happen next year. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers held a concert at the Library of Congress Tuesday and ASCAP plans a “lobbying day” on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
An increase in songwriting royalty rates should be prioritized as Congress continues its copyright review led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., a member of that committee, and music royalty advocates in interviews. Collins said he’s “hopeful” that a copyright revamp will happen next year. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers held a concert at the Library of Congress Tuesday and ASCAP plans a “lobbying day” on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
Parts of proposed FCC rules for unlicensed use of the TV bands will be the subject of further thinking following a May 15 FCC vote on service rules for the TV incentive auction, industry officials said Friday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler likely will face pressure from his two fellow Democrats to adjust the rules to give unlicensed users greater access to the TV spectrum following the proposed 2015 auction, agency officials told us.
Parts of proposed FCC rules for unlicensed use of the TV bands will be the subject of further thinking following a May 15 FCC vote on service rules for the TV incentive auction, industry officials said Friday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler likely will face pressure from his two fellow Democrats to adjust the rules to give unlicensed users greater access to the TV spectrum following the proposed 2015 auction, agency officials told us.
An April 9 and 10 outage that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls in Washington state also disrupted calls in Minnesota and North Carolina, CenturyLink acknowledged in an April 24 major outage report (http://1.usa.gov/1hVzai5) filed with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). The incident occurred when a public safety answering point trunk member (PTM) threshold counter, which routes calls to the appropriate PSAPs, ran out of capacity, CenturyLink said. The PTM is run by CenturyLink contractor Intrado, in the Englewood, Colo., Emergency Call Management Complex. When the counter reached capacity, calls couldn’t be assigned a trunk for delivery, said the telco. It said Intrado has increased the thresholds “so that it is not theoretically possible to exhaust the threshold ranges” and has created an alarm should the threshold be met. The contractor will also begin manually checking to see if the system is nearing capacity, said CenturyLink. A spokeswoman said the majority of the 4,500 calls impacted nationally were in Washington state but had no breakdown of how many calls were affected in North Carolina and Minnesota. John Garrison, director of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, said the outage affected PSAPs in a small number of rural areas in eastern North Carolina, and the PUC likely would not open an investigation. Intrado referred questions to CenturyLink. The WUTC has opened an investigation into the case (CD April 18 p11) and plans to hold an as-yet-unscheduled public hearing, a spokeswoman said. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission isn’t investigating the outage, a spokesman said.
The House Homeland Security Committee cleared the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Modernization Act, HR-3283, Wednesday by unanimous voice vote. A version of the bill had cleared the Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee last month. The committee considered an amendment in the nature of a substitute, used as the base text going into the discussion (http://1.usa.gov/1o3TSS5).
The U.S. government seized nearly $7 million from bank accounts related to the owner of a network of industrial companies in Eastern China due to his non-compliance with sanctions imposed for doing business with Iran, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Li Fangwei, also known as Karl Lee, also faces additional sanctions and new charges that could lead to 30 years in prison if he is apprehended. Fangwei, a national of China, is currently a fugitive.
Proposed spectrum aggregation rules for the TV incentive auction could mean as much as 50 percent of the spectrum offered for sale in some markets would be set aside for competitors to Verizon and AT&T and off limits to any carrier that already has a dominant sub-1 GHz spectrum position in that market, FCC and industry officials tell us.
Proposed spectrum aggregation rules for the TV incentive auction could mean as much as 50 percent of the spectrum offered for sale in some markets would be set aside for competitors to Verizon and AT&T and off limits to any carrier that already has a dominant sub-1 GHz spectrum position in that market, FCC and industry officials tell us.
The World Trade Organization environmental goods agreement could be “critically important” for the growth of U.S. industry and the export of clean energy products, said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz during an Export-Import Bank Annual Conference panel on April 25. The markets for environmentally friendly products are currently forming across the globe and will likely take multiple decades to emerge, said Moniz. The U.S. aims to formally begin negotiations by June on the agreement that could eliminate or reduce tariffs on a wide range of energy products (see 14041724).