The start of the Copyright Alert System (CAS) will be delayed, and participating ISPs will begin sending infringement alerts to subscribers “in the early part of 2013,” said a statement Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn3w9f) from Jill Lesser, executive director of the Center for Copyright Information, which oversees CAS. She attributed the delays to “unexpected factors largely stemming from Hurricane Sandy which have seriously affected our final testing schedules."
CallFire is touting its performance in the Obama 2012 presidential campaign in Nevada. The company partnered with the campaign on cloud telephony applications designed to monitor voter turnout and monitor what it calls “suppression activity” on Election Day. “Four times while polls were open in Nevada, volunteer observers dialed a special number that automatically reported the time and prompted them to report the telephone number from which they were calling, the precinct number and other information that assisted the campaign in tracking voter turnout and any attempts to inappropriately influence voters or otherwise prevent them from exercising their right to vote,” the company said Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn3wu3).
"Caribou migration, foot, jeep, tractor, winter trails [and] roads across tundra that are inaccessible by most vehicles” were erroneously included in data that the FCC Wireline Bureau relied on in calculating some benchmarks for the new high-cost loop support rules. In an order Wednesday, the bureau found “good cause” to grant a request of Arctic Slope Telephone Cooperative (ASTAC) for an expedited waiver to correct the road miles, road crossings, and the number of exchanges in the study area that were used in the regression analysis establishing benchmarks for the co-op (http://xrl.us/bn3w63). The bureau has modified the relevant variables, and calculated revised capital expenditure and operating expense benchmarks for ASTAC.
Copyright royalty rates for noncommercial broadcasting will be in effect Jan. 1, 2013, and will apply through Dec. 31, 2017. The rates cover performance of musical compositions by PBS, NPR and other public broadcasting entities; by pubcasters licensed to colleges and universities; and by other public broadcasting entities, the Copyright Royalty Board said in a Federal Register notice to be published Thursday. The board adopted the rates that were proposed in April (CD July 3 p4).
Verizon’s argument that the Internet can be closed or managed by private parties is the “exact opposite” of America’s foreign policy regarding Internet openness, said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt at a Capitol briefing Wednesday. Hundt co-authored an amicus brief that objected to Verizon’s argument to overturn the FCC’s Open Internet order based on the company’s First Amendment rights (http://xrl.us/bn3w5m). Verizon’s challenge before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Verizon vs. FCC argues that the company has a First Amendment right to decide what it transmits online, and that right trumps the commission’s December 2010 net neutrality order. “It is perfectly OK that they can raise these arguments,” Hundt said, “but it is also a really great time to say this is not the vision we have for the world.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made several speeches since 2010 to advocate for a free and open Internet.
Preferred Long Distance changed three individuals’ telecom service providers without authorization, the FCC said in an order released Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bn3w5o). PLD said authorizations were received and confirmed through third-party verifications, but in each case the verifier recited a phone number to be switched, when rules require the verifier to “specifically elicit” the number to be switched, the FCC said. PLD must remove all charges incurred for the service for the first 30 days after the alleged unauthorized changes, the order said.
SES Americom requested special temporary authority to use an earth station to communicate with the foreign-licensed QuetzSat-1 satellite. The earth station will continue to be used for tracking, telemetry and command functions at 61.5 degrees west “and during and after the planned relocation of the satellite to the DBS cluster at 77 degrees west,” SES said in its application filed with the FCC International Bureau (http://xrl.us/bn3w6x).
Verizon is acting in “bad faith” by not turning over identities of Internet subscribers alleged to have shared porn films via BitTorrent, said porn studios Malibu Media, Patrick Collins Inc. and Third Degree Films in a motion to “enforce subpoenas and for contempt” in U.S. District Court in Dallas. The motion, filed Nov. 19 but unearthed by P2P news site TorrentFreak this week, said Verizon objected to identifying subscribers “based on numerous inappropriate and baseless grounds,” which should put it in contempt of court (http://xrl.us/bn3w5y). Echoing some district court judges considering porn infringement cases in venues such as in Long Island, N.Y., Verizon told Malibu Media Nov. 19 in a related case in Philadelphia (http://xrl.us/bn3w6a) the defendants in the suits weren’t “properly joined” because they are alleged to have shared files in the same BitTorrent “swarm” at different times and may have different defenses. Verizon also declined to identify subscribers because it said Malibu Media hadn’t shown prima facie evidence of personal jurisdiction or demonstrated it would use subscriber information for a “proper purpose” -- an allusion to porn studios extracting settlements from defendants early in litigation rather than proceeding to trial. The three studios told the Dallas court such arguments can’t be made by Verizon because it’s not a party to the litigation and “misjoinder” isn’t a reason to quash a subpoena. The defendants’ alleged sharing is “part of the same series of transactions and occurrences,” the threshold for joinder, the studios’ motion said: “Time constraints should not impact that the infringements occurred through a series of transactions.” They said Verizon’s claimed “undue burden” from turning over identities “is disingenuous given that Verizon enjoys limited liability despite its facilitation of infringing activities under the current state of the law.” The ISP must be asserting objections in bad faith, “with the expectation to continue to profit from BitTorrent infringement at the expense of other, lower-tier ISPs and the consuming public at large,” they said. Verizon didn’t show any evidence that the subpoenas would be used “to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of litigation,” as prohibited in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the motion said.
Sea Launch AG signed an agreement to provide backup launch services for AsiaSat using the Sea Launch Zenit 3L launch system. Sea Launch will give AsiaSat “an integrated schedule assurance plan in support of AsiaSat’s satellite deployment plan,” Sea Launch said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn3w4z). The agreement also includes an option for the launch of a future AsiaSat satellite on Sea Launch, it said.
House GOP members elected Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, to chair the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in the next session of Congress. Smith was formerly the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a post he will vacate at the end of this year when he reaches his six-year term limit. Smith said in a news release Wednesday he will be an advocate for America’s innovators by “promoting legislation that encourages scientific discoveries, space exploration, and the application of new technologies to expand our economy and create jobs for American workers.”