Defending an independent Star Trek film as a fan film "is a legally irrelevant designation" since fan films don't receive special treatment under the Copyright Act, said CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures in a motion (in Pacer) for partial summary judgment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Prelude to Axanar, distributed free online by Axanar Productions and principal Alec Peters, doesn't even qualify as a fan film -- that being an amateur work created by fans simply for fun -- since Axanar is making professional productions intended to be unlicensed independent Star Trek films targeted at the same audience as Paramount/CBS' Trek movies and TV shows, said the plaintiffs, who are suing for copyright infringement (see 1609300002). The motion asks the court to enter a judgment against Axanar and Peters on liability on the copyright infringement claims and enjoin them from further infringement, such as completing filming of a full-length Axanar motion picture. In the motion, Paramount/CBS said Peters repeatedly referred to the Axanar works as professional productions. They also argued against the Axanar works constituting fair use, since making "an authentic and 'independent Star Trek film' that stayed true to Star Trek canon down to excruciating details" falls well outside Section 107 of the Copyright Act, which covers fair use. Counsel for Axanar and Peters didn't comment Friday.

With wireline and wireless industry convergence leading to a "coopetition" industry framework, cable "has the most to win" due to its fiber assets, Wi-Fi and mobile virtual network operator agreements, said Macquarie Research analyst Amy Yong in a note to investors Friday. Backhaul needs will grow with 5G rollout, meaning telcos could forge closer ties to operators like Charter Communications and Comcast for their fiber assets, she said. Meanwhile, the new Trump administration could see more mergers via "a fresh and business friendly DOJ-FCC team," she said, with likely scenarios including cable-wireless combinations such as Charter and Comcast or Charter and Altice uniting to buy T-Mobile or Sprint, a Dish Network/wireless or Dish/cable deal, or a wireless merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

With Charter Communications' withdrawal of its appeal and petition for stay of a Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable local rate order, the FCC Media Bureau said in an order Tuesday it dismissed the appeal.

TiVo's waiver of FCC rules requiring that its set-top boxes include a digital interface for connecting to other consumer electronic devices expires June 1, 2017, and the company is seeking an extension through Dec. 31, 2018, the Media Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday. Comments are due Dec. 6, replies Dec. 13.

The FCC Media Bureau should act on a petition from NCTA and the American Cable Association asking that email be included in the definition of “written notice,” NCTA said in a meeting with bureau staff Nov. 17, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-126. “Given the latitude the Commission has already afforded cable operators under Section 76.1603 to give notice of rate and service changes via newspaper publication, the Bureau could clarify that electronic communications reasonably calculated to reach individual customers are also appropriate for notices.” Allowing “greater use of electronic notices would be convenient for consumers, reduce unnecessary yet burdensome costs for cable operators, and greatly reduce environmental waste,” the associations said. “With the scheduled pleading cycle complete, abundant support for the Petition having been expressed, and the few late-filed concerns having been answered, we urged the Bureau to complete its review.” Some want conditions on the request (see 1606130028).

Lions Gate Entertainment is butting heads with Ameritrade and Havas Worldwide over the scope of discovery in Lions Gate's copyright and trademark infringement claim involving Ameritrade/Havas use of the media company's "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner" trademark (see 1607120017). In a supplemental memorandum (in Pacer), Ameritrade/Havas accused Lions Gate of "a cat-and-mouse game, trying to narrowly and self-servingly limit" discovery request responses. It said Lions Gate could have reviewed roughly 9,900 emails or suggested a compromise, but instead delayed to the point that the motion to compel plaintiffs' production of documents ate up three meet-and-confer calls and more than 26 hours of Lions Gate attorney time. Ameritrade/Havas called false the Lions Gate allegations that the defendants want 29 years' worth of communications, when they want documents going back only five years related to the Dirty Dancing trademark, except when Lions Gate licensed the "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner" line for advertising. Lions Gates' supplemental memorandum (in Pacer) said its assessment of the burden from discovery sought by Ameritrade/Havas "is even greater than it originally understood," saying it hired a third party to collect and search for potentially responsive documents. The company said it agreed to produce documents in the discovery order the defendants seek.

Comcast's NBCUniversal is increasing its investment in BuzzFeed by another $200 million, NBCU said in a news release Monday. That follows a $200 million initial investment it made last year (see 1508180051). The money will extend the advertising sales relationship between the two, while BuzzFeed also will work with NBCU on production and social distribution, the programmer said. The investment also will let BuzzFeed expand its Tasty food media network and create cross-platform ad products and expand BuzzFeed News.

Charter Communications hasn't shown substantial grounds for difference of opinion in a controlling issue of law nor that an appeal would advance the ultimate termination of Entertainment Studios Networks' (ESN) complaint, in appealing a denied motion to dismiss. the plaintiff said. In an opposition filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, ESN said Charter's argument (see 1611140044) that the First Amendment bars the claim the cable company was racially discriminatory in not carrying ESN content isn't appropriate for interlocutory appeal because there isn't a full factual record. "Supreme Court case law confirms that Charter does not enjoy blanket immunity under the First Amendment," ESN said. "Charter wants to delay this case by having a 'do over' in the Ninth Circuit." The operator didn't comment Monday.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau should focus on "hard down outages" if the FCC extends Part 4 outage reporting requirements to broadband internet access service (BIAS) providers, NCTA officials told bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing Friday in docket 15-80. Limiting broadband outage reporting to hard down outages -- complete losses of broadband or a lack of broadband dial tone -- "would be clear and straightforward" to put in place, it said. Monitoring and reporting BIAS network performance using such metrics as latency, throughput and packet loss "would be virtually impossible to implement," and costly, the group said. Performance degradation reporting also would mean a filing deluge, but the quality of service information "would only seldom, if ever, describe outages that actually affect consumers' ability to contact emergency personnel," it said. At the meeting were NCTA staffers including Associate General Counsel Steven Morris and bureau personnel including Chief David Simpson.

The FCC set-top box draft order would allow companies like Google “unfettered access" to pay-TV information and could lead to consequences for consumer privacy, said Oracle Senior Vice President Kenneth Glueck in a letter posted Monday in docket 16-42. The proposal would replace multichannel video programming distributor gatekeepers with a “global hungry, market dominant, Google, largely outside FCC authority." Google is “the clear winner” from the proposal if it increases that company's access to consumer data while carriers have to abide by further regulations, Oracle said. The FCC shouldn’t require cross platform search only of pay-TV carriers, the software maker said. Google’s Android operating system ties developers into a proprietary application program interface and shouldn’t be designated a widely available platform, Oracle said. Google didn't comment.