A recent decision by a federal judge in New York setting the royalties MobiTV is to pay ASCAP for use of songs that are part of the TV programming it distributes over wireless networks has brought a level of certainty to the mobile TV field and should help spur future business deals, MobiTV CEO Charlie Nooney said. “It’s a real watershed moment for the industry,” he said. “It puts mobile in the same category as cable TV or satellite TV, where it should be."

A draft spectrum bill by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., emphasizes that it should be entirely voluntary for broadcasters to give up spectrum. As reported (CD May 27 p10), the bill would codify the National Broadband Plan goals of making 500 MHz of spectrum available over 10 years for wireless broadband, 300 MHz of it within five years, and amend Section 309(j)(8) of the Communications Act to set up incentive auctions under which the government could split auction proceeds with broadcasters that give up spectrum. An eight-page draft we received uses the word “voluntary” and variants of it nine times.

Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” proposal for reclassifying broadband isn’t about FCC policy on the Internet itself, but the legal foundation for net neutrality and other policies that the agency decides to pursue, FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick said on a Thursday webinar sponsored by Broadband US TV. Meanwhile, as expected, Genachowski circulated his reclassification proposal to the other commissioners for a vote at the June 17 commission meeting. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., sharply opposed the plan.

The applicability of the 1996 Telecom Act will continue to spur dialogue over how the Internet and other new services should be regulated, panelists said at the National Press Club. The dialogue goes back to when the Act was established, said attorney John Nakahata of Wiltshire & Grannis, ex-FCC chief of staff. “We didn’t have Internet as we know it,” he said. “The Telecom Act is a creature of a different world, and that became pretty apparent pretty quickly as the FCC started to grapple with how do you apply the statutory definitions to the world of the Internet."

The report from the FCC Future of Media Project, parts of which are just starting to be drafted, may include reference to additional studies that are ongoing now, initiative head Steve Waldman said Thursday. Officials at the New America Foundation and Michigan State University said they hope to finish research in time for it to be used for the report, which Waldman said he continues to expect to finish this year. Other FCC and industry officials said the report may be unveiled in late 2010, not the fall time frame that some aides to Chairman Julius Genachowski had been anticipating (CD May 13 p17).

Government and industry officials disagreed over how far along interoperability standards are for public safety wireless communications. At a House Technology Subcommittee hearing Thursday, witnesses from Harris and Motorola said work on Project-25 (P25) standards for public safety, started in 1989, are mostly finished. But officials from the Homeland Security Department and the National Institute of Standards and Technology pointed to interoperability gaps remaining.

The federal appeals court that granted en banc review of a decision enforcing TiVo’s patents against Dish Network appears interested in bigger-picture questions about patent law rather than the details of the case, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said Tuesday on the company’s Q2 earnings call. “They clearly are looking at these broader policy questions,” Roger said. “And if you believe that our case is strong, when it comes to the facts and the patent, we think it only becomes a more compelling case when it comes to these policy issues.” The policy question at issue is how long it should take to enforce an injunction over a patent when the infringer claims to have made changes to its product that mean it no longer infringes the patents, Rogers said.

House and Senate sponsors of Internet accessibility bills hope to pass the legislation this year. At a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said he aims to have S-3304, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., ready for President Barack Obama’s signature this year. Kerry said he hopes to address concerns raised by USTelecom “in the next few days.” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who has a similar bill in the House (HR-3101), agreed in testimony that the bill should be passed this year.

A new FCC survey shows that “bill shock” is a major concern to wireless customers, said Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The commission will consider imposing rules on carriers, but no decision has been made, Gurin said. CTIA went on the attack immediately, asking why the FCC seems intent on micro-managing a competitive industry.

The broadband reclassification proposal that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will circulate Thursday makes clear the agency won’t forebear from its responsibilities under Section 257 of the Telecom Act to file reports on reducing market barriers to small and minority-owned companies, a commission official said. Genachowski’s proposal is for the agency to reclassify broadband transport from a lightly regulated information service to a common carrier service under Title II and forbear from all but six of its 48 sections. Concerns have been raised that the commission would forgo enforcement of the civil rights provision.