The federal government should take enforcement action against Amazon for violations of traditional antitrust statutes, leaders of the Author's Guild, New America and other anti-Amazon publishing interests said Wednesday. Many of the groups speaking at a New America event Wednesday previously urged action against Amazon, including a direct appeal in July by the American Booksellers Association, the Author's Guild and two other authors' advocacy groups for a Department of Justice Antitrust Division investigation (see 1507130065). A book pricing deal Amazon reached in 2014 resolved the e-book pricing dispute between the online retailer and Hachette (see 1407100037). The larger antitrust issues highlighted in the dispute have “not gone away,” Authors United President Doug Preston said. Amazon and Justice didn't comment.
ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee said it hasn’t reached a consensus on whether to support several controversial parts of the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability’s (CCWG-Accountability) draft proposal for changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms. GAC’s lack of consensus on some parts of the CCWG-Accountability proposal and earlier Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) feedback show the working group still needs to address significant issues in an expected supplementary draft of its proposal, ICANN stakeholders told us. The CCWG-Accountability proposal has become the main focus of the debate over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, other ICANN stakeholders said Monday during a State of the Net conference panel.
Almost all top communications Internet and tech firms, related industry groups and privacy groups remained as engaged in lobbying Capitol Hill on cybersecurity issues in Q4 as they had during the same period in 2014, while more entities from other industries lobbied on those issues during Q4 than had the previous year. The number of overall firms lobbying on cybersecurity issues increased more than 20 percent year-over-year in Q4 2015, while the number of major telecom and Internet entities lobbying on those issues remained nearly flat. Both communications and tech firms’ telecom expenditures were a mixed bag in Q4. AT&T was among the communications firms that increased their lobbying expenditures during the quarter (see 1601200061), while Amazon and Microsoft were among the tech firms that increased their spending (see 1601210034).
A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit panel focused on whether to rule on whether country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) can be considered attachable property for garnishment purposes or on the bigger issue of whether ccTLDs can be considered the property of national governments at all in claims brought under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), during oral argument Thursday in Weinstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran. The D.C. Circuit is reviewing Judge Royce Lamberth’s 2014 district court decision on Weinstein and six similar cases involving attempts to garnish ownership of the ccTLDs for Iran, North Korea and Syria as partial damages compensation following successful lawsuits against those nations’ governments (see 1601200063 and 1411130055). Lamberth didn’t rule in 2014 on whether a ccTLD could be considered government property. D.C. Circuit Judges Merrick Garland and Raymond Randolph actively questioned the merits of Weinstein while Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson observed.
The U.S. Department of Justice is set to join ICANN and the government of Iran Thursday in arguing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) aren’t the property of national governments and therefore can’t be garnished as assets in a lawsuit judgment. Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in a consolidated 2014 district court opinion on Weinstein v. Iran and six similar cases that “a ccTLD, like a domain name, cannot be conceptualized apart" from registry managers and was therefore not eligible for garnishment under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (see 1411130055).
The Supreme Court’s grant of certiorari Friday in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons sets the court up to potentially change the standards for awarding attorney’s fees to the prevailing party in copyright lawsuits, copyright lawyers and stakeholders told us in interviews. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in response to Thai citizen Supap Kirtsaeng’s petition for a review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s ruling in May that Kirtsaeng wasn’t entitled to receive attorney’s fees from textbook company Wiley after winning a 2013 Supreme Court case. The court had ruled Kirtsaeng’s resale an import of textbooks from Thailand to the U.S. that was covered by the first-sale doctrine (see report in the March 20, 2013, issue).
House supporters of the Consumer Review Freedom Act (HR-2110) are going through a “balancing act” to ensure the bill currently being considered by the House Commerce Committee’s Commerce Subcommittee broadly protects consumers’ right to free speech while also providing the right exceptions for companies, said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., during a Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee event Friday. Issa introduced HR-2110 in April as the House companion to S-2044, which the Senate passed in December (see 1512150012). If enacted, CRFA would prevent businesses from using “gag clauses” included in terms of service or other contracts with consumers to prevent consumers from posting negative reviews of goods or services online. Stakeholders generally praised HR-2110 and S-2044 at the Friday event.
The combined debate over whether to keep a permanent extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) in the conference Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act (HR-644) and a proposal to attach the controversial Marketplace Fairness Act to HR-644 has been “the big hold-up” delaying Senate consideration of HR-644, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President-Government Affairs Bruce Josten after a news conference Thursday on the industry group's business priorities for 2016. Supporters of keeping the permanent ITFA extension in HR-644 are seeking support for overriding an expected point of order from Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would challenge the provision as being outside HR-644's intended scope (see 1601130071). Although it would be “pretty easy” for everyone to support a permanent extension of ITFA, Durbin's quest to pair MFA with the ITFA extension has “complicated” the process, Josten told reporters. MFA passed the Senate last Congress but it's “never been considered” in the House, even via the House Judiciary Committee, Josten said. MFA “needs to be socialized” in the House and “dealt with through regular order, and it hasn't been,” he said.
Fundamental change is needed to fix the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) Section 1201 because the process for seeking exemptions to the section's ban on circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) has become increasingly burdensome, said several parties who backed Section 1201 exemptions during the Copyright Office's most recent triennial review of proposed exemptions. The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-proposed exemptions to Section 1201 in October that combined elements of 22 of the 27 exemptions that parties originally proposed, including an expanded exemption for jailbreaking and unlocking mobile devices and an exemption for circumventing TPMs on vehicle software to allow a car's owner to repair or otherwise legally modify a vehicle (see 1510270056).
Supporters of a permanent extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) are working to ensure an ITFA extension remains a part of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act despite a plan by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to seek a point of order that an ITFA extension is outside the bill's scope. Alexander and Durbin are both supporters of combining the permanent ITFA extension with the more controversial Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). The Senate is expected to turn back to consideration of HR-644 later this month, after stalling on the bill in December. The House passed HR-644 Dec. 11 with the permanent ITFA extension language included as part of conference negotiations (see 1512110058).