EU lawmakers are “copy-pasting” lobbyists’ amendments to the new data protection regulation into their own legislative proposals, Europe-v-Facebook.org and Privacy International said Monday. Website founder Max Schrems noticed striking similarities between proposed amendments and lobbying papers written by representatives from Amazon, eBay, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the European Banking Federation, they said. After talking to lawmakers, Schrems realized that several, particularly those from the U.K., had “unthinkingly copied entire paragraphs” written by lobbyists, they said. Brussels has been heavily lobbied by industry and government since the European Commission proposed the new measure last year, they said. The information technology industry “is about to kill our fundamental right to data protection and privacy and some Parliamentarians do not even notice when assisting them,” said Schrems. “Revelations like these add fuel to the fire of existing concerns about the democratic deficit in the European Union,” said Privacy International Trustee Anna Fielder. She urged lawmakers to take all sides of the argument into consideration when making law, not just the richest and most powerful corporate interests. Another website, LobbyPlag.eu, says it shows which industry-pushed changes went straight into amendments. Amazon, eBay and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce didn’t comment by our deadline. Meanwhile, the EC and European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association Monday jointly urged the European Parliament and Council to ensure that new data protection rules create a level playing field among all actors in the information and communication technology industry to safeguard competition between EU companies and those based elsewhere. The proposed measure, which subjects all EU and non-EU companies to the same rules when they offer services to European consumers, strikes the right balance between data protection and innovation, they said.
Netflix declined to comment Monday on the new, multi-year extension that Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Starz said they signed for content. The deal gives Starz exclusive pay TV rights to SPE’s theatrical releases through 2021, they said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bogbmf). The previous deal between SPE and Starz covered movies released theatrically through 2016. Starting with 2005 theatrical releases, Starz has been the exclusive first-run pay TV home for the exhibition of SPE films. The new deal provides movie content for all Starz platforms including its Starz and Encore TV channels in standard definition and HD, subscription SD video on demand services, HD On Demand and 3D On Demand, and online streaming services, they said. Terms weren’t disclosed. Starz also “remains the exclusive home” of Disney theatrical releases and their accompanying digital streaming rights “into 2017,” it said. Netflix declined to say if it sought a content deal with Sony. Netflix scored a victory in December, when it signed a multi-year distribution deal with Disney that will start with Disney’s 2016 theatrical releases, at least some of which won’t be available for streaming until 2017. In the past, Netflix had access to Disney content via a pact that Netflix had with Starz. Nearly a year ago, Netflix played down the significance of losing some content for streaming after the four-year contract it had with Starz came to an end. Netflix stopped making several movies available to its streaming subscribers once that deal ended. But Netflix told us then that Starz new release movies it had “accounted for only about 2 percent of Netflix viewing.” They included 15 Disney titles offered under a pay TV release window, “many of which,” including Toy Story 2, would “leave Starz in the coming weeks and months anyway,” he said. Amazon scored its own victory on Monday, saying it signed an exclusive content licensing deal with CBS for the new TV series Under the Dome. The coming program, based on Stephen King’s book of the same name and scheduled to premiere on CBS TV June 24, is the “first in-season, scripted series from a major broadcast network, to be offered exclusively” on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service, it said. Amazon Prime members will have unlimited streaming of all the series’ episodes four days after their initial broadcast on CBS, at no additional cost, and will be able to watch the show on devices including the Kindle Fire HD, iOS devices, Roku, and the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U game consoles, Amazon said. Amazon and CBS said in July 2011 that they signed a non-exclusive licensing deal that would allow Amazon customers to stream CBS TV shows.
The FCC stuck with an $11,000 fine against an FM translator for using unauthorized antenna equipment and higher-than-allowed power levels (CD April 24 p13). Ace of Hearts Disc Jockey Service “has not provided any basis to warrant reconsideration” of the penalty for W277AN Cape Canaveral, Fla., Enforcement Bureau Chief Michele Ellison wrote in an order released Monday against the broadcaster (http://bit.ly/14O6QKv).
The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network switched the Washington TV station it uses to simulcast over the air some Nationals baseball games carried on pay TV, from Tribune’s WDCW to Gannett’s WUSA, a MASN representative told us. WUSA will “simulcast 20 Nationals games” in “the upcoming 2013 season,” the cable-sports network said in a news release Monday.
Microsoft said it and Fox News Channel will collaborate on “Bing Pulse,” a “first-of-its-kind” online voting tool that Americans can use to track and share opinions in real time during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday. The tool will feature updated results “every few seconds throughout the speech”; let people self-identify by gender and register their party affiliation; and provide a live count of the number of “pulses,” or votes, alongside a “line graph of how users react to language and issues throughout the speech,” with data split by gender and political affiliation, Microsoft said (http://xrl.us/boga8r). It’s part of Bing.com/politics, which also has political news and “real-time conversations and social sentiment on major policy issues,” Microsoft said. The “Bing news selector” will let users filter coverage from left- and right-leaning sources, “Bing Beat” will provide “real-time social sentiment” across issues such as immigration and gun control, and a live feed of Twitter conversations will showcase reactions by “leading political pundits,” Microsoft said. Fox News’s contribution will be its political experts’ commentary and more analysis and multiple live video streams at foxnews.com/sotu. A recent Bing survey showed nearly three in four Americans “identified themselves as active participants or observers in political discussions,” Microsoft said. The survey was done in October by Los Angeles-based Impulse Research, through an online panel of 1,005 men and women ages 18-34, who “use the Internet for information on a regular basis,” Microsoft said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau gave itself a 90-day extension to act on a USTelecom petition seeking forbearance of several legacy rules, in an order adopted Thursday (http://bit.ly/WzsQqt). Without the extension, the requests would have been “deemed granted,” the order said. “The USTelecom Petition raises significant questions” that require “additional time” to “fully examine” whether forbearance is warranted, the order said. FCC officials said Tuesday an order on circulation would grant several unopposed items in USTelecom’s request, but that the more complex issues will require additional time to consider (CD Feb 6 p6).
The U.S. Trade Representative should designate Ukraine as a “Priority Foreign Country” in its Special 301 proceeding because of “severe legal and copyright enforcement problems,” said the International Intellectual Property Alliance Friday in comments to USTR. The Special 301 report focuses on the extent of copyright piracy and market access barriers U.S. creative industries face in some overseas markets. The USTR should also “immediately suspend Ukraine’s eligibility to continue receiving Generalized System of Preferences benefits,” IIPA said in a news release. “Problems in Ukraine include rampant online and hard goods piracy, governmental decisions to act against the legitimate collecting society instead of against rogue societies, and the pervasive use of unlicensed software by businesses and government ministries.” The piracy rate and the level of copyright protection in Ukraine have worsened in the last two years, including “widespread” film and music piracy, IIPA said. The group acknowledged that Ukraine’s government has aided in multinational efforts to stem piracy in the country, but said the government never implemented the IPR “Action Plan” with the U.S. government -- and its recent actions “would weaken, not strengthen, enforcement.” IIPA also recommended the USTR place or maintain seven nations on its Priority Watch List: Argentina, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia and Russia. IIPA said 25 more nations should be placed or maintained on the Watch List: Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam (http://xrl.us/bofo8v). Public Knowledge also filed comments in the Special 301 proceeding. The group told USTR (http://xrl.us/bofo74) its comments were similar to those it made in previous filing cycles and weren’t specific to any country. The entire Special 301 process “takes a one-sided view of copyright law” that “promotes excessive copyright owner control over content and hurts developing countries’ ability to confidently adopt copyright laws that allow libraries to lend and preserve books, educators to use material in teaching, citizens to make social and political commentary using popular film and television shows, and a variety of other socially, economically, and politically beneficial uses,” said Rashmi Rangnath, director of the group’s Global Knowledge Initiative, in a separate statement (http://xrl.us/bofo8x). A “balanced view” of copyright would not only benefit other countries but also U.S. tech companies, which rely on limitations and exceptions “to make and market their products abroad,” she said.
The payphone industry may be in decline, but it’s still providing valuable services, the American Public Communications Council told FCC Wireline Bureau officials at a meeting Tuesday, according to a slide presentation (http://bit.ly/XXzO64). That’s why the FCC should reconsider its refusal to initiate a proceeding to assess whether payphones should get Lifeline support, APCC said. About 700 million calls are placed each year from payphones, and anecdotal evidence from a San Diego study “conducted several years ago” indicate that up to 25 percent of calls from payphones went to social service agencies, APCC said. The group said it was attempting to gather additional data, and believed that “this number may have increased.” The same study shows that, on average, there’s “slightly more than one” 911 call per month from each payphone. The commission needs to take a comprehensive look at its regulatory scheme for payphones, said Albert Kramer, APCC counsel. Despite the “mobile explosion,” payphones play a valuable role that should be considered in any regulatory rewrite, especially since the FCC “set up a regulatory scheme that has nothing to do with the world as it exists today,” Kramer told us.
The proposed sale of Cablevision’s Optimum West cable systems (CD Feb 8 p18) was probably already priced into its stock value, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker wrote investors. The deal is not significantly “delevering” for Cablevision, and marks the sale of that company’s fastest-growing asset with virtually no overlap of AT&T or Verizon’s pay-TV services, she wrote. The $1.37 billion price is a gain for Cablevision, Evercore Partners’ Bryan Kraft wrote investors. Charter was probably attracted to the systems because of the lack of competition from the major phone companies and the ability to “finance a growing cash flow stream with low interest rate debt,” he said. Moody’s said it changed the outlook on one of Charter’s holding companies to stable from positive but affirmed its Ba3 corporate family rating.
That FCC systems were hacked is more reason for investors in broadcast licensees not to give the agency their Social Security numbers, said a foe representing broadcasters opposed to such disclosure. The lawyer, Harry Cole of Fletcher Heald, cited a recent GAO report on such a security breach at the commission in September 2011. It’s “especially galling” that during the period the GAO said the FCC didn’t take adequate steps to protect its systems against another hacking incident, “the Commission has proposed to force a large universe of individuals to trust the FCC with their social security numbers,” Cole wrote on the law firm’s blog Thursday (http://bit.ly/128Y8Dm). “And in so doing, the Commission hasn’t bothered to mention that the computer systems on which those numbers would presumably be maintained have already been shown to be vulnerable to hackers.” A commission spokesman had no comment. The agency has proposed to end an exemption allowing some not to provide Social Security numbers for biennial Form 323 broadcast ownership disclosures (CD Jan 4 p5).