From the Copyright Alert System to his favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, CEA President Gary Shapiro took questions Tuesday on social-media news site Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” page (http://bit.ly/XekV0x). Shapiro called the just-launched Copyright Alert System -- in which ISPs give graduated warnings to users and penalties for infringement by someone using their accounts such as speed reduction (CD Feb 26 p10) -- a “noble experiment” that he likes because “it was worked out by the private sector rather than mandated by the government.” He took many questions on CES. Asked if he wanted Apple as a CES exhibitor, Shapiro said: “Yes. Is Halle Berry gorgeous?” Asked about the departure of other big names like Microsoft last year, and how such departures effectively killed the Comdex conference, Shapiro said Microsoft was at this year’s CES “in almost every way” and CES was “almost sold out” already for 2014. He said CEA “heavily scrutinize[s] credentials” from Nevada and California for CES attendance, and it’s not going to do shows outside of Las Vegas because “I don’t want to mess with love.” Asked how 3D printing could spur a new round of copyright disputes and perhaps legislation, Shapiro said: “My entire career has been spent fighting status quo industries that are concerned that innovation will take away their monopolies. ... Like when the Internet was created, 3D printing will face many attacks by those who ignore the potential and fear the worst.” The “netizens” should insist “that government step in only narrowly and carefully, and not in a way that chokes off threads of innovation that have yet to be born.” Though the U.S. has “the best university system in the world,” it is “somewhat divorced from the reality of the job environment, and hindered by the tenure system combined with age-discrimination laws.” Europe is “stuck in a beautiful past and biased against changing anything for the future,” he said of innovation there: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to innovate there.” Though Shapiro was a vocal Mitt Romney supporter in the 2012 presidential election, Shapiro praised “Obamacare” because it “allows for the sharing on a large scale basis of treatment results. Increasingly, technology will allow patients a major role in monitoring and determining their own healthcare. Combining wireless Internet, new apps and technologies, and healthcare is a winning combination for everyone.” The biggest challenge for innovation is “raising money, and thanks to recent innovations like crowd-sourcing, we're on the right path for anyone with a dream to pursue it,” he said.
The FCC Media Bureau opened a filing window for Form 349 applications for non-mutually exclusive tech box proposals. The window is limited “to timely filed proposals which are not mutually exclusive with any other applications submitted in the Auction 83 filing window,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/Wej1A8). These proposals also must specify transmitter site locations that are “outside all spectrum limited markets and not within 39 km of any spectrum limited market grid,” it said. “These ’singleton’ applications are exempt from the commission’s auction procedures.” Form 349 must be submitted by March 28, it said.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission updated the Legislature on the effects of a telecom law, Senate Bill 162, which passed and went into effect in 2010. The law helped level the playing field between regulated and nonregulated companies, PUC Telecom Chief Marianne Townsend told legislators in written testimony Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/V6lr27), adding it’s time to start evaluating the law. “We do know that SB 162 allows for some parity between these new, nontraditional Lifeline offerings and traditional wireline Lifeline service for those Lifeline subscribers who wish to maintain wireline service to their home,” she said. “Without SB 162, these customers would have to subscribe to a wireless service offering to receive the features they now enjoy with their wireline Lifeline service.” There’s “mixed results” in terms of consumer protections, she said. The law’s “hands off” approach to broadband has actually “enhanced an environment in which broadband deployment and adoption has flourished,” Townsend said. She spoke before the Select Committee on Telecommunications Regulatory Reform.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the Subcommittee on Space, Science and Technology, urged lawmakers during a joint hearing with the House Research Subcommittee Tuesday to improve and pass the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (HR-756). “Americans deserve better protection and the federal government can help make sensitive information more secure,” he said, according to a press release following the hearing. Smith, who cosponsored HR-756, said the bill would coordinate U.S. research and development activities to better address cyberthreats, and strengthen the efforts of the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop cybersecurity standards, awareness, education and workforce development.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has an updated version of its Community Owned Network Map, designed to show all the different municipal networks in different states. It tracks networks in 342 communities, a Tuesday blog post said (http://bit.ly/XZcdTV). “The map continues to track the [fiber to the home networks], cable networks, and partial fiber networks owned by local governments in the U.S.,” Telecom Director Chris Mitchell said in the post. “Now it also tracks dark fiber networks, publicly owned stimulus funded networks, and which networks are already advertising and/or delivering gigabit services."
Two Oklahoma companies participating in the Lifeline program will pay upwards of $1 million due to FCC enforcement actions. TerraCom and YourTel America will give this money in the form of reimbursements, totaling $416,000 plus interest for “duplicative payments,” and another $600,000 in “voluntary contributions to the U.S. Treasury,” the FCC said Tuesday (http://fcc.us/We7xgc). “Today’s enforcement action sends a clear message: the FCC will not tolerate waste or fraud in the Lifeline program,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison in a statement. “In order to prevent future violations, TerraCom and YourTel have agreed to a robust compliance plan that will govern their receipt of Lifeline funds for the next three years,” the FCC added. “Among other things, the companies must establish internal procedures to ensure accurate record keeping and appropriate claims for Lifeline support; provide annual training to their employees on compliance with FCC rules; develop and distribute a detailed compliance manual; and file regular compliance reports with the FCC describing and certifying to their compliance efforts.”
Stifel Nicolaus is among the courtroom observers predicting an FCC loss in Comcast’s challenge to a program carriage order in Tennis Channel’s favor (CD Feb 26 p1). That the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at Monday’s oral argument on Comcast v. FCC “pursued different lines of attack” against last year’s order “raises questions about the basis for a possible reversal,” wrote analysts David Kaut, who attended the hearing, and Christopher King to investors. “The D.C. Circuit panel questioned Comcast’s attorney, but at times the three judges seemed to agree with him or prod him to sharpen his points. On the other hand, the judges repeatedly pushed back against the arguments of the FCC and Tennis Channel attorneys, going way over the allotted time for each.” Stifel noted that a ruling is expected in the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals on Time Warner Cable’s lawsuit against the commission’s revamped program access rules, on which oral argument was heard in October (CD Oct 9 p5). “There’s a good chance the court will throw out” the 2011 program access order giving continued carriage of cable-operator affiliated networks to multichannel video programming distributors while the MVPD’s complaint over a network’s withholding is pending, the analysts wrote. They said the 2nd Circuit could also “reverse or remand other parts of the FCC order."
The Florida Senate is considering a bill that would require police to obtain warrants before examining data on cellphones. Senate Bill 846 was filed Feb. 12 and received its place on a committee agenda Monday. The Criminal Justice Committee will debate the bill March 4 at 3:30 p.m. It'll take effect July 1 if passed, according to the text (http://bit.ly/WguDlT).
The Copyright Office asked in a Federal Register notice Tuesday (http://1.usa.gov/WdwWXl) for a third round of comments on “adjudicating small copyright claims,” a proceeding prompted by Congress. The request followed public meetings with stakeholders in the fall (WID Nov 5 p6), which were preceded by notices asking for comment in summer 2012 and fall 2011. This most recent request is for “additional comments on possible alternatives to the current system to improve the adjudication of such claims,” the notice said. The office wants feedback on “how a small copyright claims system might be structured and function, including from parties who have not previously addressed these issues, or those who wish to amplify or clarify their earlier comments, or respond to the comments of others.” It’s interested in “the potential benefits and risks of creating a new procedure for adjudicating small copyright claims, as well as how such a system might be implemented -- for example, as a new adjudicative body, as part of the existing federal court system, by extending the jurisdiction of state courts, or as some form of arbitration or mediation system.” Subjects of inquiry for the notice, informed by the public meetings, are: (1) Voluntary versus mandatory participation. “Members of the public” at the meetings differed on the “efficacy of incentives for participation in a voluntary system and the constitutional implications of a mandatory system.” The office said it wants to know whether a voluntary system could be implemented on an opt-out basis -- deeming defendants to consent to the process unless they opt out within a certain time frame. (2) Eligible works. In the last round of comments and public meetings, some music organizations said musical works and sound recordings should be exempt from the system, since creators are represented by publishers, performing rights societies and record companies, the office said. But others said some artists -- “those who are self-represented” -- may not have resources to take action or be able to convince a larger organization to take up their case. The office wants more comment on the subject. (3) Permissible claims. Commenters and participants noted that “some infringement claims are intertwined with other issues” like contractual disputes, “thus suggesting a need for any such [small claims] tribunal to address these additional types of claims and defenses as well,” the office said. Others said such tangential matters should be excluded from the small-claims process entirely. The office wants “further thoughts” on permissible claims and how to address situations where an “additional cause of action” is implicated. (4) Injunctive relief. Though some stakeholders said it should be available for situations where infringement “exploits the work in a manner that the copyright owner would not license, or violates an exclusive arrangement between the copyright owner and a third party,” others said that could be complicated for small claims, the office said: It could be “one part of a larger work” such as a film, and monetary damages could be small but “economic consequences” could exceed “in value any damages cap adopted for the small claims process.” The office said it wants to know how the voluntary-versus-mandatory system would affect injunctive relief in each situation, and whether the federal courts should have review over such injunctions. (5) Secondary liability. Discussion has touched on the relationship of a small claims procedure to Copyright Act Section 512 takedown requirements, and it wants more comment on that, the office said. (6) Role of attorneys. Some said attorneys should be barred because they would “tend to favor defendants with greater resources” against plaintiffs representing themselves, while others said attorney participation should be encouraged, especially in cases “with a degree of legal complexity” and incentivized through “fee awards” in lower-value cases. (7) “Guiding law.” The office asked whether a small-claims tribunal should look “primarily to copyright decisions of any particular [federal] circuit” based on its location, the parties’ location or where the infringing conduct occurred. It also asked whether decisions should have “precedential effect” at least within the tribunal, because some told the office that defendants might opt out of a voluntary system if the decisions “had effect beyond the immediate dispute.” Other subjects for comment include willful and innocent infringement; how to serve defendants with legal notice; the propriety of a defendant-driven “offers of judgment” process as contemplated in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68; whether default judgments should be allowed; how to enforce judgments; whether a “John Doe” ISP subpoena process should be available for anonymous defendants; whether a “tiered system” for cases ranging from “straightforward claims” to those of “greater complexity” would be warranted; constitutional issues arising from creating tribunals outside the federal court system, availability of trial by jury, assertion of personal jurisdiction and due-process considerations from “abbreviated procedures.” The office also asked for thoughts on allowing foreign plaintiffs to seek U.S. redress and the same for U.S. plaintiffs abroad, and how it would implicate U.S. agreements in the Berne Convention among others; and for “additional surveys and empirical studies” showing whether copyright owners are now pursuing small claims through the federal courts, litigation costs to plaintiffs and defendants in federal courts, how often prevailing parties are awarded costs and fees, and how often litigants appeal state-court judgments. Comments are due April 12 (http://1.usa.gov/yHoBdZ).
The number of deployed small cells globally will reach 92 million by 2016 -- an eightfold increase from the 10.8 million small cells deployed today, the Small Cell Forum said Tuesday in a report. Femtocells will continue to lead other small cell types in 2016 with an 86 percent share of the market. Public access models will only make up 4 percent of all units at that time, but will dominate in terms of revenue -- they will have a market value of $16.2 billion, 73 percent of the predicted $22 billion value of the entire small cell market, the Small Cell Forum said. Carriers are already providing evidence of the public access models’ traction in the marketplace. AT&T plans to deploy 40,000 units by the end of 2016; Vodafone plans to deploy tri-mode (3G, 4G and Wi-Fi) units by March, while Verizon Wireless plans to deploy units in the second half of the year, Small Cell Forum said. “Public access small cells in busy urban areas are set to be one of the defining mobile network trends in the coming years,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, the report’s author and a principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, in a Small Cell Forum news release. “While operators won’t be deploying them in the same numbers as femtocells, they are arguably their best tool for bringing massive extra capacity to their mobile networks. ... All eyes will be on the deployments taking place in the coming months in order to establish best practice for the many more that will follow over the next few years” (http://bit.ly/XzhSBi).