The only regulatory hurdle between Tribune and its exit from bankruptcy is FCC approval of its pending applications, the company’s lawyers and lawyers for its financers told an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski last week, an ex parte notice said (http://xrl.us/bnuizz). “The Tribune representatives urged the Commission to take all steps to act expeditiously on the applications in order to allow Tribune to exit bankruptcy as soon as possible."
The FCC should push back by 18 months a deadline for HD cable set-top boxes to comply with new home networking requirements, cable attorneys told Media Bureau officials in a meeting last week. Lawyers from NCTA, CableLabs, Davis Wright and Willkie Farr told the officials that work within the Digital Living Network Alliance and other industry groups is ongoing to come up with a replacement for the IEEE 1934 standard, an ex parte filing said. “Even once standards are finalized, all parties would benefit from more time to implement final standards in their offerings.” If the bureau waives a Dec. 1 compliance deadline for TiVo, which has sought one, such a waiver should be extended to “all providers and manufacturers,” the cable attorneys said.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, recently returned from two major international meetings in Asia, said Tuesday she came back to the U.S. with a renewed sense of the importance of international discussions. Clyburn told a 4G Americas briefing Tuesday she had attended the International Regulators Forum in Singapore and the Global Symposium for Regulators in Sri Lanka. “Something stood out that none of us should ever take lightly,” Clyburn said (http://xrl.us/bnuizk). “No matter our level of expertise, and no matter how advanced we are by way of deployment or opportunities, value can always be gained from sharing each other’s perspective, for we all face similar challenges.” Clyburn said the spread of technology has “flattened borders, crossed digital divides, and has even empowered the most remote global players with the means to address many of the same issues. By analyzing what is happening elsewhere, we can continue to strive to maximize our markets and positively improve lives worldwide.” Clyburn said access to broadband has become a necessity. “We still have families who live in areas, many of them rural, with no access to broadband,” she said. “A ‘broadband gap’ is measured in the jobs not created; economic opportunities lost; rising educational inequalities; and reduced healthcare services. Broadband has become vital to our economic well-being, and the need to undertake long-term planning poses a vital challenge for our nation."
Cumulus Media said it agreed to buy WFME(FM) New York from Family Stations Inc. The station will represent Cumulus’s second FM station in the New York market, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said in a news release. Media Venture Partners was broker in the deal. Cumulus also owns an AM station there, it said.
The NAB should encourage members to run public service announcements explaining their audience’s voting rights, former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps wrote NAB President Gordon Smith (http://xrl.us/bnuixp). The association should urge stations to expand news coverage of state, county and municipal elections, Copps said. “Sometimes it is difficult from the national news to discern that there are other critical elections taking place,” he said. “Our broadcast media can do so much ... to bring needed issues and substantive campaign coverage to every listener and viewer.” Broadcasters “coast-to-coast are dedicating significant time and resources to candidate coverage, debates and voter education efforts,” an NAB spokesman said. “NAB encourages all Americans to exercise their legal right to vote."
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he will vote against the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) if Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., doesn’t allow senators to amend the bill when it comes to the floor. The bill failed in August “because it had major flaws,” Johnson said by email. “Senator Reid was playing election-year politics and refused to allow amendments or changes to the bill,” he said. “If Senator Reid puts the same bill on the floor and refuses to allow amendments again, my vote will be the same.” Specifically, Johnson said there are concerns that the bill is both costly and fails to create an environment that “adds flexibility to address future cybersecurity threats.” He said he will again offer an amendment that requires the Congressional Budget Office to score the bill before it’s implemented. “We still don’t know how much this bill would cost if it became law,” he said in an email. “I would offer that amendment again -- it’s time for Harry Reid to be accountable for the burden he’s placing on job creators.” Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., doesn’t support S-3414 in its current form, though he’s pleased Reid offered this weekend to resurrect the debate on cybersecurity legislation in the lame-duck Congress (CD Oct 16 p5), his spokesman said. “I hope this action reflects a recognition that an Executive Order simply cannot provide the statutory authorities and protections needed to address the serious danger posed by cyber attacks,” Coats said in a written statement. “When bringing cyber security legislation to the Senate floor in November, the Senate Majority Leader should allow an open and thorough debate with the opportunity for both sides to offer amendments.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it still prefers the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-3523) to S-3414 which it said could impede the ability for companies to share cyberthreats with the government, said Ann Beauchesne, vice president of national security and emergency preparedness, in a blog Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnuiwh). “It’s a hub-and-spoke model, and its strict definition of cyber threat information could erect -- not bring down -- barriers to productive information sharing,” she wrote of S-3414. Its liability protections related to voluntary information sharing are “vague, if not purposefully qualified, and would invite -— rather than deter —- lawsuits,” she said. Beauchesne argued against the bill’s baseline security standards, saying they're costly to businesses and would hinder the private sector’s ability to respond to attacks. “We need to make sure that the private sector is spending scarce resources managing risk and implementing robust and effective security measures instead of hiring more compliance officers to deal with red tape,” she said.
The FTC sent warning notices to 19 online marketers notifying them that they may be violating the FTC Act by advertising invalid documents as legitimate forms of identification, commission staff said without identifying the marketers (http://1.usa.gov/T5U5IS). Staff said the ads claim to be for legitimate international driving permits (IDPs), which translate drivers licenses into foreign languages to be used in other countries. Countries determine which agencies and organizations can issue valid IDPs to their residents, the release said. In the U.S. the agencies that can issue IDPs to residents with U.S. drivers licenses are the American Automobile Association and the American Automobile Touring Alliance, the FTC said in a “sample letter” (http://xrl.us/bnuiys). Consumer groups and law enforcement agencies have found that the documents are being advertised as legitimate documentation to undocumented immigrants, staff said. The 19 online marketers are advised to review the products’ websites to identify deceptive claims and notify the FTC if they revise or remove those claims, according to the release.
FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen wants lawmakers to take a look at the commission’s existing authority to regulate consumer privacy violations, before they consider additional privacy legislation, she said Tuesday. “I'm not convinced that the FTC is currently lacking any statutory authority in the general privacy area.” For now, Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act “is sufficient to protect consumers,” the Republican said during an event at the Hudson Institute. As a lawyer in private practice before becoming a commissioner, she had said the FTC would be a “second legislature” without existing restrictions on its Section 5 authority. Ohlhausen said Tuesday the commission is “uniquely positioned” to balance the interests of consumer protection and marketplace competition, and has the tools necessary to reach consumers and regulate violators. Congress has been unable to pass privacy legislation this session despite a chorus of calls from lawmakers and the White House to develop enforceable baseline privacy standards to govern the collection, sale and use of consumer data (CD Feb 24 p6). But critics of privacy legislation have said they're skeptical that legislation is needed and they're not hearing a public outcry about any harms from consumer data collection and use (CD March 30 p8). Ohlhausen did not rule out the need for federal privacy rules and said narrowly tailored data-breach legislation could help close the gaps in the commission’s authority. Ohlhausen said there is a need for a uniform federal law to notify consumers when their data have been compromised. Although the many state and federal laws governing data breach notification are similar, she said none of them are identical and a “single standard would let companies know what to do and let consumers know what to expect.” Ohlhausen she had the opportunity to briefly review the European Union’s privacy recommendations for Google, which she said struck “a different balance” from the perspective of U.S. regulators. Ohlhausen would not comment on the commission’s ongoing investigation into Google’s alleged antitrust violations, or discuss her thoughts on the FTC’s proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act rule.
The FTC should review how all search engines comply with the agency’s search engine paid ad disclosure guidelines, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) said in a letter to the agency dated Monday. The organization includes employees of Google and is sponsored, among others, by the company, which may be the subject of a potential FTC antitrust action. “Regulating individual companies’ search algorithms is undesirable,” said the letter, signed by SEMPO President Mike Grehan, Chairman Chris Boggs, Vice President Rob Garner and Treasurer Mike Corak. Rather than regulation targeting specific companies, the FTC could update its search engine disclosure guidelines from 2002, the letter said. SEMPO includes “leaders and experts in the Search Engine/Search Marketing industry” while remaining “an unbiased third party, working from the principles of fairness and equity,” the letter’s authors wrote. The group can provide the Consumer Protection Bureau with “valuable insight … on the topic of a search engine guideline compliance review, and in presenting considerations for the transparency policy development process that might result after such a review,” the letter said. Other SEMPO sponsors include Chinese search engine Baidu and conference organizer Search Engine Strategies. The group’s board includes representatives of Razorfish, formerly owned by Microsoft, and Google, while its board of advisers includes representatives of Google rivals Facebook and Yahoo. The FTC had no comment.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission denied tw telecom’s motion to dismiss an effective competition proceeding focused on CenturyLink. “Until CenturyLink QC establishes minimum prices and demonstrates that those prices are set at or above costs, it is not entitled to a finding of effective competition,” tw telecom said, according to the PRC order released Monday (http://xrl.us/bnuiik). CenturyLink has petitioned for a ruling for effective competition in New Mexico in order to allow for deregulation (CD Aug 30 p5). The PRC hearing examiner didn’t find any reason to compel companies to produce this minimum pricing information, according to the order.”