Issa, Other Lawmakers Urge FCC 'Decline' Bid to Refresh vMPVD Docket
House IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and three other lawmakers urged the FCC Thursday to "decline" a push to potentially refresh its long-dormant docket (14-261) on reclassifying streaming services as virtual MVPDs to fix a perceived disparity in retransmission…
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consent rules (see 2307180058). House Communications Subcommittee Republicans similarly discouraged a revisit of the proceeding during a hearing earlier this month (see 2309130072). "Apart from it being of questionable substantive merit, that proceeding was based on highly questionable legal authority," Issa and other lawmakers said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "Perhaps most troubling, that proceeding appeared to presuppose an outcome that would have required a change in policy" from the House Judiciary Committee and Copyright Office, "thereby raising serious jurisdictional concerns." Both have "repeatedly rejected calls for the creation of new statutory licenses for video distribution," the lawmakers said.