The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) said Monday it’s joining a 15-plaintiff lawsuit against Google. The NPPA and the other plaintiffs claim Google Book Search violates “numerous” photographers’ and other visual artists’ copyrights. The plaintiffs said they're seeking monetary, injunctive and declaratory relief in the lawsuit, which they filed in U.S. District Court in New York. Google’s actions “have caused, and unless restrained, will continue to cause irreparable injuries” through continued copyright infringement, “diminution” of the value of the plaintiffs’ infringed visual works, lost profits and “damage to their goodwill and reputation,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint. It is the NPPA’s “responsibility to protect that principle of ownership, and not allow companies like Google to infringe upon our rights uncontested,” NPPA President Mike Borland said in a statement (http://bit.ly/YpYep1). Google did not have an immediate comment.
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Sprint Nextel’s appeal of an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that an access charge dispute between Sprint and Iowa Telecom, now Windstream Iowa, should first be heard in state rather than federal court. Sprint refused to pay access charges for calls carried by Windstream on the grounds that they were transmitted over the Internet rather than the public switched telephone network. The case centers on different interpretation of the Younger doctrine and how it’s applied in the different circuits. A federal district judge decided that state proceedings should be resolved before federal review and the St. Louis-based appeals court agreed. “The Eighth Circuit’s decision ... 1) creates a stark split in the circuits in the application of federal abstention doctrine under Younger v. Harris ... ; and 2) also represents a sharp departure from this Court’s jurisprudence establishing the ‘primacy of the federal judiciary in deciding questions of federal law,'” Sprint said in seeking review (http://bit.ly/YKdAJf). “The basic purpose of Younger abstention is to ensure that the States may try criminal cases free from federal judicial interference with their legitimate enforcement interests. ... Because Younger protects the States’ enforcement interests, a key requirement for Younger abstention is that the state proceeding must be a criminal, disciplinary, or similar civil-enforcement proceeding -- or as some courts have summed up that requirement, the proceeding must be ‘coercive’ rather than ‘remedial.'” Sprint said the 8th Circuit “has now rejected that core principle of Younger, and requires abstention in cases—like this one -- involving no coercive or enforcement action by the State.” The high court is expected to hear the case later this year or early next year.
McAfee said it will join the National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership, a part of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The company was one of the center’s charter members when it started in February 2012 as joint venture between the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the state of Maryland and Montgomery County, Md. McAfee said it signed a memorandum of understanding with NIST Monday to make the partnership official. The partnership will allow cybersecurity specialists from the private and public sectors to “benefit important national initiatives such as e-health and e-learning along with improving the security of the nation’s businesses,” said Tom Gann, McAfee vice president-government relations, in a statement. It said the center is focusing on “seamless security” and interoperable technologies, and it plans to release its work to the public (http://bit.ly/YXB4d9). Eleven companies have established partnerships with the center, NIST said. The other companies are: Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, HyTrust, Intel, Microsoft Federal Civilian Services, RSA, Splunk, Symantec, Vanguard Integrity Professionals and Venafi. All have pledged to contribute hardware and software components, as well as share best practices and personnel with the center, NIST said (http://1.usa.gov/XNtDXh).
BriarTek filed a Section 337 enforcement complaint Wednesday. Its complaint to the International Trade Commission alleged Delorme continued to offer for sale imported two-way global satellite communication devices that infringe BriarTek’s patents, despite an agreement not to. BriarTek said a consent order between the company and Delorme that went into effect April 1 barred unlicensed importation and sale of the infringing devices. Delorme never obtained the required licensing agreement, said BriarTek. Along with an ITC cease-and-desist order, BriarTek is requesting penalties in the amount of twice the value of the good, or $100,000, whichever is more. Delorme is reviewing the complaint, responded Kim Stiver, vice president-marketing.
The FTC approved nine final orders settling allegations that seven rent-to-own companies and a software design firm and its two principals spied on consumers using computers the consumers had rented from them (CD Sept 26 p16) . Using software, the companies recorded screenshots of confidential and personal information, logged customers’ computer keystrokes, and took photos of people in their homes without the customers’ knowledge, said the complaint. Under the settlement, respondents will be prohibited from using monitoring software and banned from using “deceptive methods” to gather information from consumers, the FTC said (http://1.usa.gov/14qqOhT). The respondents will be prohibited from using geolocation tracking without consumer consent and notice, and from using “fake software registrations screens” to collect personal information. The seven rent-to-own stores are also barred from using information “improperly gathered” from consumers to collect on accounts, the FTC said. Respondents include DesignerWare and its principals Timothy Keller and Ronald Koller; Aspen Way Enterprises; Watershed Development Corp., doing business as Watershed and Aaron’s Sales & Lease Ownership; Showplace Rent-to-Own; J.A.G. Rents and Red Zone Investment d/b/a ColorTyme; B. Stamper Enterprises; and C.A.L.M. Ventures d/b/a Premier Rental Purchase. The agency’s vote, which took place after a public comment period, was 3-0-1. Commissioner Joshua Wright didn’t vote. Software company DesignerWare, and its principals, Koller and Keller, are prohibited from “providing others with the means to commit illegal acts,” said the FTC in announcing the approved orders. Under the settlements, the commission will have access to records so it can monitor compliance for 20 years, it said. Kelly said his company’s restricted Detective Mode Program could only be installed after a computer was reported stolen for tracking purposes, according to his public comment (http://1.usa.gov/11aDELh). The program was only installed when the renter claimed the computer was stolen and couldn’t be returned, he said. “DesignerWare has never had any reports that its license agreement with rental stores was ever violated and that the Detective Mode Program was ever installed on any computer other than one reported stolen.” He conceded that DesignerWare doesn’t know how all its licensees used the Detective Mode Program. Regarding improper use of video recording, Kelly said, “We have never been shown any evidence from the FTC that anyone was recorded having sex, pictures of children, etc.” He said every renter signed an agreement saying “if they steal it then the [sic] might be subject to being monitored!”
Expect Nexstar “to be active aggregators” of TV stations “as the year progresses,” predicted analysts. They said the broadcaster could use as much as $300 million in debt to make purchases without much increasing its leverage. “Investors continue to reward the synergies from consolidation,” wrote Credit Suisse’s Michael Senno and Ashton Ngwena, in an email to investors Monday. With Sinclair “likely constrained following its recent activity, and a number of stations still on the market, we expect” Nexstar to make deals this year, they wrote. Sinclair last week agreed to buy Fisher Communications (CD April 12 p14). Meredith Corp. meanwhile is seeing “Strength in Broadcasting,” read part of the headline of a Monday investor note by Benchmark’s Edward Atorino. That’s “buoyed by increased political advertising,” though “economic recovery in some key Meredith markets (e.g. Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Portland [Ore.]) has lagged,” he wrote. “However,” TV ad sales “have been picking up across the country in recent months and are expected to show further improvement” this year, said Atorino.
The Internet Society opened a chapter in Canada Monday. It plans to focus on three key issues first, Interim President Evan Leibovitch said: Net neutrality, access to quality Internet in rural and remote areas of the country, and technical standards. Other areas where ISOC Canada will offer a national voice on policy issues are ISP concentration and cross-ownership of content providers by Internet carriers, the chapter said. It will also advocate for Canadian priorities in Internet governance and accessibility at the global level, it said.
The European Commission cleared the proposed purchase of Virgin Media by Liberty Global (CD Feb 7 p16), the EC said Monday. The 17.2 billion-euro ($22.5 billion) transaction brings together the second largest pay-TV operator in the U.K. and Europe’s biggest cable operator, it said. The merger investigation confirmed that the acquisition won’t raise competition concerns, particularly because the parties run cable networks in different EU countries and because of the combined entity’s limited market position in the wholesale of TV channels in Britain and Ireland, it said. Both companies acquire visual content such as TV programs and entire TV channels, which they then offer to subscribers, it said. The inquiry found that the deal won’t hurt competition in those markets, because TV content is mainly licensed on a national basis or for linguistically homogeneous areas, and because there will still be competition from other players such as TV content providers and competing pay-TV retailers, it said. The probe also looked at the vertical link between Liberty Global’s activities in the wholesale supply of pay-TV channels such as CBS Reality, and Virgin Media’s activities in the acquisition of those channels and pay-TV retail services to U.K. customers. It concluded that the combined company is unlikely to shut out rival pay-TV retailers by withholding TV channels from them because of its limited presence in the wholesale supply of TV channels and the incentive to license its channels as broadly as possible. It’s also not likely that the new company will keep out competing TV channel owners from access to the retail pay-TV markets given the number of alternative distribution platforms to Virgin Media’s cable network, such as BSkyB’s satellite platform, the EC said.
The Department of Justice’s recent filing on spectrum shows that what the Obama administration wants is “Affirmative Action for wireless companies,” wrote Less Government President Seton Motley Monday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/104jZB8). Justice weighed in on the competitive complications of spectrum aggregation in an FCC filing (CD April 15 p7). “The Obama Justice Department wants the Obama FCC to rig the spectrum auction,” Motley wrote. “So that it’s not actually an auction -- it’s a quota set-aside program. ... Where people who don’t make the highest bids -- win the bids anyway. Or where the FCC forbids some willing participants from participating."
The House plans to vote on four cybersecurity bills this week, said a news release from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. On Tuesday beginning at 10 a.m. lawmakers will consider the following bills under suspension of the rules: the Federal Information Security Amendments Act (HR-1163) Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (HR-756) and the Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act (HR-967). On Wednesday beginning at 12 p.m. and on Thursday beginning at 9 a.m. the House will consider Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624).