New legislation that would repeal the Cybersecurity Act information sharing language included in the FY 2016 omnibus spending bill isn’t likely to gain much traction, but its introduction signals that critics of the Cybersecurity Act will continue pushing for further privacy and civil liberties protections as federal agencies begin writing new information sharing program rules, stakeholders said in interviews. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., filed his repeal bill (HR-4350) Friday as expected (see 1512290044). Congress retained the Cybersecurity Act in the FY 2016 omnibus despite concerns from digital rights groups and privacy advocates that the legislation didn’t retain the same level of privacy and civil liberties protections included in earlier House and Senate legislation (see 1512160068).
A proposed set of changes to ICANN’s accountability mechanisms is in question again amid continued work by the Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) to address concerns raised in public comments on the latest draft of its accountability proposal, stakeholders said in interviews. Most parties that submitted feedback about the latest CCWG-Accountability draft supported the draft proposals. But they raised significant concerns about recommendations on how the ICANN board should handle Governmental Advisory Committee consensus advice after the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition and stakeholders’ rights to inspect ICANN documents (see 1512220040).
The Copyright Royalty Board’s nascent proceedings to decide the 2018-2022 rates for statutory mechanical royalties and royalties for public performances of sound recordings via satellite digital radio and pre-existing subscription services (PSS) are likely to be contentious, stakeholders said in interviews. The CRB published notices in Tuesday's Federal Register that open both proceedings, along with one to set royalty rates for performances via public broadcasters and other noncommercial broadcasters (see 1601040069 and 1601050034). The public broadcasting proceeding has historically been noncontroversial because noncommercial rates are much lower and tend to be much harder to successfully litigate than those on mechanical and satellite/PSS royalties, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford.
A planned Copyright Office study of implementation of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 1201 is the likeliest among the trio of new studies the CO began in December to affect the direction of U.S. copyright policy, stakeholders told us. The planned Section 1201 study, announced last week, will examine the CO’s triennial rulemaking process for granting exemptions to the section's ban on circumvention of technological protection measures, along with permanent exemptions and the section’s anti-trafficking provisions (see 1512280030). A planned study of Section 512 also announced Thursday will include a look at general operation of the section's safe harbor provisions (see 1512300039). The CO also began a study in December of how software embedded in everyday products affects and is affected by U.S. copyright law (see 1512150050).
The Authors Guild’s petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court seeking a review of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Google Books case is unlikely to be granted, legal experts said in interviews. The Authors Guild filed its petition Thursday, saying the 2nd Circuit’s October ruling in favor of Google “fundamentally remakes” the fair use doctrine and conflicts with fair use cases in three other circuit courts. The 2nd Circuit had said the Google Books project to digitize portions of the world’s books is a “transformative” example of fair use and wasn’t an “effectively competing substitute” for full versions of the books (see 1510160063). Google didn’t comment.
Enactment of the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 is unlikely to reduce Congress' interest in cybersecurity issues during 2016, but it's equally unlikely that Congress will pass similarly major legislation in the coming year due in large part to the uncertain dynamics of the presidential election, cybersecurity stakeholders told us. The Cybersecurity Act was Congress' final version of conference cybersecurity information sharing legislation, after contentious negotiations over whether to favor language from the Senate-passed Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) or two House-passed information sharing bills (see 1512160068).
The U.N.’s high-level meeting on its 10-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society outcomes (WSIS+10) concluded with the U.S. and allies praising an outcome document approved Wednesday at the U.N. meeting that reaffirmed international acceptance of the multistakeholder Internet governance model. Rhetoric from China in the midst of the WSIS+10 meeting indicates supporters of the multistakeholder model will continue to face challenges in 2016 in promoting that model to skeptical governments, stakeholders said in interviews. The WSIS+10 review was intended to evaluate progress on the original second-phase 2005 WSIS outcomes adopted in Tunis and decide how to make further progress.
The 2016-2020 noninteractive webcaster royalty rates the Copyright Royalty Board released Wednesday are effectively a win for Pandora and broadcasters even though the actual rates fall between those parties’ proposed rates and a higher rate proposed by SoundExchange, industry lawyers told us. Noninteractive webcasters will be required to begin paying a 0.17 cent royalty per performance on nonsubscription services and a 0.22 cent royalty per performance on subscription services, the CRB said. The 2016-2020 webcasting rates take effect Jan. 1 and last through the end of 2020 (see 1512160076). The CRB’s ruling is likely to draw an appeal from SoundExchange, industry observers said.
The text of the Cybersecurity Act -- the conference-approved cybersecurity information sharing bill -- as anticipated (see 1512070056 and 1512150074) is included in the FY 2016 omnibus spending bill released Wednesday and this almost certainly means the conference language will make it through Congress. What happens once it reaches President Barack Obama is far less clear, industry lawyers and lobbyists said in interviews. The omnibus didn’t include policy riders that would have curbed the FCC’s February net neutrality order but did include a bipartisan rider that would grandfather broadcaster joint sales agreements from before the FCC limited them in March 2014 (see 1512160061). The omnibus also extended the current ban on NTIA’s use of funds for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition through the end of FY 2016. NTIA’s current contract with ICANN to administer the IANA functions is set to expire at the end of FY 2016. The IANA transition rider doesn’t extend into FY 2017 absent “any other law” enacted in the meantime.
It was increasingly likely -- but still uncertain -- that conference language for cybersecurity information sharing legislation would be included in the expected FY 2016 omnibus funding bill, two industry lobbyists told us Tuesday. The omnibus text wasn't available at our deadline but was expected to circulate late Tuesday. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told reporters she was still uncertain if the cyber bill would be included in the omnibus but said most issues with the conference language had been resolved. Negotiation leaders were attempting to assuage concerns that earlier draft language significantly reduced the Department of Homeland Security's role as a civilian information sharing portal, industry lobbyists said. Other issues remained under negotiation. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that negotiation leaders hadn't officially told her that they'd removed from the conference bill a section of the Senate-passed Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-754) that would require the Department of Homeland Security to assess which critical infrastructure entities are most at risk. Collins, who had sought to preserve the section in the conference bill, said she wouldn't sign onto the conference report if the section was ultimately removed. Several telecom industry entities indicated their opposition to requiring the DHS assessments in a conference bill soon after the Senate passed S-754 (see 1510280057). R Street Institute and TechFreedom were among four groups that jointly urged House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Tuesday to stop efforts to attach the conference information sharing bill to the omnibus. Efforts to fast-track negotiations on the conference bill are “contrary to Republican pledges about restoring normal legislative order,” the groups said in a letter.