Largely dismissing an April plea from the U.S. Copyright Office to cast the Performance Rights Act (HR-848) in a more favorable light, GAO maintained that the bill would raise costs for broadcasters and boost revenue for the recording industry. A GAO report dated August 2010 and released Friday reached the same conclusion as a February preliminary report made public in June. That earlier version had prompted an April rebuke from the Copyright Office (CD June 8 p11).
The FCC would expand the types of providers getting guaranteed space on Sirius XM as full-time channels to be set aside for such use were expanded beyond those owned by minorities, in an order that circulated last week, agency officials said. The draft written by career agency staffers makes good on the 2008 commission order conditionally approving Sirius’s purchase of XM in a several-billion-dollar deal by dictating terms of channel set-asides. Instead of using minority-owned companies to fill 4 percent of the company’s channels, the draft would let Sirius XM pick as qualified entities any firm that doesn’t already have a programming relationship with the company, commission officials said. The channel set-aside was part of FCC approval of the 2008 deal that created the company.
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission seeks comment on an update of a “concept paper” proposing how the state should restructure its universal service fund, the commission said Thursday. The extensive document, submitted Wednesday by the Washington Independent Telecommunications Association, reflects revisions to a July proposal and goes into significant detail in recommendations. The commission tentatively set Oct. 4 for a third workshop on the document and related matters. Comments are due Sept. 17.
September is expected to be busy for public safety issues in Washington, but time and funding concerns are working against passing any legislation this year, said public safety and telecom industry officials. Legislation to set up a $70 million NTIA grant competition for public safety communications devices (CD July 30 p5) may have a better shot than bills involving the D-block, they said. The House and Senate have introduced nearly identical bills, HR-5907 and S-3731, sponsored by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and neither has generated opposition.
The repositioning of Mobile Marketing Association disclosed Thursday is to create more commercial opportunities; better educate brands, agencies and consumers; offer better guidelines, standards and measurement; and better represent the industry before regulators and legislators, said Chief Marketing Officer Paul Berney. The group doesn’t have a position on net neutrality, but supports network openness, he said in an interview.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate an order late Thursday for the Sept. 23 meeting that finalizes rules for the use of the TV white spaces to surf the Internet. In one key change, agency officials said, the order is expected to eliminate the requirement that the devices have the capacity to sense whether TV broadcasts are using a channel. Instead, the order would permit devices to rely on a national database containing information on which channels are occupied in a given area. The commission released the tentative agenda for the meeting, but the order had not circulated at our deadline.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said Thursday he’s not pleased with continuing delay on a net neutrality order, after the Wireline and Wireless bureaus posed a new series of questions on net neutrality (CD Sept 2 p1). But some industry, Hill and FCC officials said Wednesday’s public notice left the agency room to begin regulating wireline before the fall Congressional elections. Meanwhile, the outlook on industry talks conducted by the Information Technology Industry Council remains unclear.
Alaska launched its first statewide broadband availability map, announced Commissioner Susan Bell of the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development in a webcast by Connect Alaska late Wednesday. The web-based map, funded by an economic stimulus grant, could be key to better broadband access and adoption, Connected Nation officials said.
Increased interest on retransmission consent among legislators of both parties and from many parts of the U.S. is demonstrated in a spate of recent letter-writing by members of Congress on the subject to the FCC, some broadcast and cable executives agreed. At least 49 members of Congress have written the FCC, some multiple times, on the subject of contracts between TV stations and subscription-video providers, often cable operators, our research found. The 33 Democrats and 16 Republicans represent 19 states. Two letter writers each sit on the Senate and House Commerce committees.
A proposal identified as combining cybersecurity bills introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., would give the president broad emergency powers over critical infrastructure in the event of a cyber emergency and make the Department of Homeland Security the lead civilian agency setting cybersecurity regulations for private industry. The 81-page proposal we obtained from an industry lobbyist is titled “HSGAC/Commerce Combined Draft” and labeled “Staff Draft-for discussion purposes only” and “Last revised 8/2/10, 4:15 p.m.” It would make the private sector “responsible for enhancing security of the nation’s most critical systems while the government ensures effective oversight and compliance,” said a summary provided with the draft. None of the Senate offices we contacted would comment on the proposal.