Broadband is a key infrastructure priority for the next Congress, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a statement on the coming year’s agenda. “We must ensure that all of our people have access to broadband connections,” he said. Hoyer’s endorsement is good news for broadband backers who spoke at a Wednesday conference of the need for activist policies from the new president.
MONTPELLIER, FRANCE. - The transition from conventional telecommunications to Internet Protocol networks raises key questions on the character of regulation and how providers’ financial relationships will evolve, speakers said Wednesday at the IDATE DigiWorld Summit on Internet’s future. Another issue is whether to standardize IP network service quality, raising irksome questions about net neutrality, they said.
The President has issued a notice announcing that he is continuing for one year that national emergency with respect to Iran that was originally declared by Executive Order 12170. (Notice, FR Pub 11/13/08, available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-27171.pdf.)
The World Customs Organization has posted a press release announcing that on October 22, 2008, Ecuador deposited with the WCO Secretary General its instrument of accession to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (Harmonized System). This makes Ecuador the 135th Contracting Party to the Harmonized System Convention. (WCO, dated 11/07/08, available at http://www.wcoomd.org/press/default.aspx?lid=1&id=168)
GENEVA -- Nations are cooperating more in an effort to deal more effectively with children’s safety online, officials said at the ITU Council’s high-level segment on cybersecurity and climate change. Countries are revamping domestic controls and adopting policies and best practices to find and punish wrongdoers and to protect kids. The first World Congress on Child Online Protection is planned for next year in Geneva, the ITU said.
Major labels don’t control digital-music prices simply by running businesses similar to each other with similar expenses, the U.S. District Court in New York ruled. The decision came in a long-running antitrust class-action suit against Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Bertelsmann and Time Warner that had served as fodder for defendants in several P2P infringement suits. Bertelsmann and Time Warner are now out of the recorded-music business. Another antitrust challenge to the labels, filed by P2P software maker Lime Wire in counterclaims, was rejected last year (WID Dec 5 p2). The Oct. 9 ruling on In Re Digital Music Antitrust Litigation was recently unsealed. The RIAA declined to comment.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has issued a release regarding its hosting of more than 1,000 leading suppliers, Chinese officials, and NGOs in Beijing, China. The company outlined a series of aggressive goals and expectations to build a more environmentally and socially responsible global supply chain. (Wal-Mart press release, dated 10/22/08, available at http://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/NewsRoom/8696.aspx.)
Cyren Call warned the FCC in a filing that it can’t stay on as adviser to the 700 MHz Public Safety Trust unless the commission decides how Cyren Call will be paid. Meanwhile, the PSST said implementing rules proposed for the 700 MHz D-block national public safety network would put too great a limit on its role in protecting the interests of users nationwide. It asked for enough money to pay debts it has piled up, including to Cyren Call.
The FCC should allow video-relay service interpreters to disclose visual information from 911 calls to the public safety answering point and keep records for “some period” after an emergency call ends, Sorenson Communications said. In an ex parte filed Monday, the video relay service provider supported a National Emergency Number Association request for clarification of a rule barring interpreters “from disclosing the content of any relayed conversation regardless of content, and … from keeping records of the content of any conversation beyond the duration of a call.” Sorenson said the clarification would protect VRS users. For example, an interpreter “handling a 911 call could tell the PSAP that he or she had seen a fire raging in the background of an emergency call or a person brandishing a gun,” the company said. Sorenson said it wants the FCC to act on the issue by Dec. 31, the deadline for VRS providers to adopt E-911 technology.
The U.S. Commercial Service announced that a European Union REACH webinar will be held on November 6, 2008. There is a $50 fee for this webinar and registration is required. (Webinar information available at https://emenuapps.ita.doc.gov/ePublic/newWebinarRegistration.jsp?SmartCode=9Q15.)