The International Trade Commission should deny Realtek’s request for “early adjudication” that a domestic industry doesn’t exist, in DivX’s patent complaint against major TV brands and chip companies, because of the allegedly questionable TV assembly operations of licensee Element Electronics (see 2009280034), DivX replied (login required) in docket 337-3489. Realtek based its petition on “unsubstantiated allegations” of deceptive ad claims against Element that the FTC declined to investigate, said DivX. Another DivX reply Monday said Samsung raised “no compelling public interest issues” when it argued Thursday against an exclusion order on LG, Samsung and TCL smart TVs (see 2009250060). DivX’s Sept. 10 complaint alleges the smart TVs and their video processors infringe four DivX adaptive bitrate streaming patents. Components suppliers MediaTek, MStar and Realtek are also named as proposed respondents. Element is the only company assembling TVs in the U.S., said DivX. Realtek and Samsung didn’t comment Tuesday.

Vehicles with “some degree” of autonomy will be the majority of those produced by 2024, reported IDC Monday. Fully autonomous vehicles will remain the “aspirational, revolutionary goal that has fueled the billions of dollars in investment by new and traditional automotive ecosystem companies,” it said. Their development and deployment “will require significant advances in technology, customer readiness and trust,” plus government regulation, it said. IDC expects no Level 5 vehicles with full autonomy will be available globally within the next four years, it said. Fully manual, driver-operated Level 0 vehicles remain the majority of those manufactured worldwide, but it's “the only autonomy level that will decline over the forecast period,” said IDC. Vehicles with Level 1 and 2 autonomy will have the largest autonomous growth through 2024, it said: “Because drivers must remain vigilant and in full operational control when these technologies are enabled, their introduction represents a more acceptable level of risk and liability for both vehicle manufacturers and government regulators."

Communications Decency Act Section 230 can be modified to ensure it’s not abused by tech companies seeking to avoid legitimate civil liability, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said on C-SPAN's The Communicators, to have been televised this weekend. Section 230 is important for a thriving internet, but there are concerns about tech companies using it as a shield against civil liability outside the statute's scope, she said. She said requiring viewpoint neutrality doesn’t have any basis in the law concerning Section 230. It’s difficult to visualize any actions the FTC could take consistent with its legal mandates in response to President Donald Trump’s social media executive order (see 2009220049), she said. The FTC isn’t “political speech police,” the Democratic commissioner added, calling the EO “confounding” from a legal basis. Slaughter supports an FTC study on targeted advertising, which Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Christine Wilson also support. There should be transparency in the “black box” into which platforms funnel data, Slaughter said. Congress needs to look at court cases that limited antitrust enforcement, and the agency needs more antitrust resources, she argued. With large companies, agencies are likely to find anticompetitive activity, which her agency needs to examine, she said. The next administration should reinstate net neutrality rules and return broadband to the FTC’s purview as a Communications Act Title II service, she said.

SpaceX, facing skepticism from Hughes and Viasat about its preliminary Starlink latency claims (see 2009210012), consistently sees latency in its beta testing of less than 40 milliseconds, CEO Gwynne Shotwell told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, per an International Bureau posting Wednesday. Shotwell argued against a rulemaking to change 12.2-12.7 GHz band rules. Viasat told aides to Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks that SpaceX's latency and speed claims are based on selective anecdotes that wouldn't back a conclusion that such performance would let the company meet Connect America Fund metrics.

A three-judge D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel scheduled oral argument Oct. 2 on the Open Technology Fund’s lawsuit against U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack. The D.C. Circuit in July temporarily stayed Pack’s bid to purge grantee OTF’s leadership, which got scrutiny from congressional Democrats (see 2006240054). Merrick Garland, Cornelia Pillard and David Sentelle will hear the case at 9:30 a.m., the court said (in Pacer). Meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee continues to push for Pack to testify at a planned Thursday hearing. Pack earlier committed to appear before House Foreign Affairs that day but pulled out without providing “any reasonable alternative dates,” forcing the committee to issue a subpoena. Pack is expected to defy the subpoena, a House Foreign Affairs aide said. The move has drawn the ire of Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and ranking member Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Use of YouTube's Content ID "requires far greater care and candor" than composer Maria Schneider and Pirate Monitor showed in their lawsuit, YouTube's Google said in an answer and counterclaim Monday (in Pacer, docket 20-cv-04423) in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Schneider and Pirate Monitor allege Google's YouTube facilitated piracy by keeping individual artists from being able to access Content ID to prevent piracy of their works. Google said Content ID can easily be misused and Schneider and Pirate Monitor are examples of how. Google said Pirate Monitor's video uploading breached terms of a service agreement. Plaintiffs' counsel didn't comment Tuesday.

Roku users can now access NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming video. The free tier includes 13,000 hours of current, classic and original movies and shows, plus live and on-demand content covering news, sports, reality, late-night and Spanish-language programming. For $4.99 monthly, Roku customers have access to the full Peacock Premium portfolio of 20,000 hours of content; another $5 zaps advertising, said Peacock Monday. A Roku spokesperson emailed there's no update on talks with AT&T to carry HBO Max, which isn't available on Roku or Amazon Fire TV platforms. Peacock is available on Apple devices, Google platforms and devices, Microsoft’s Xbox One family consoles, Vizio SmartCast TVs, Sony’s PlayStation 4 family consoles and LG Smart TVs. Eligible Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex customers and eligible Cox Contour customers get Peacock Premium for free. In July, Comcast said Peacock had 10 million signups (see 2007300032).

The FCC should clarify in its 30-day cable lineup notification draft order on September's agenda (see 2009090048) that local franchise authority-imposed notices should be required only in circumstances in a cable operator's control and that operators should be allowed to deliver them electronically. That's per a docket 17-105 posting Friday recapping NCTA teleconferences with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Brendan Carr. NCTA urged the FCC to end the requirement cable operators notify subscribers 30 days in advance of any big changes in the information in required annual notices.

Generalized assertions about Viasat's plans to modify its non-geostationary orbit constellation aren't a credible basis for denying the modification application or pushing it to a later processing round, Viasat told the FCC International Bureau Wednesday: No other NGSO fixed satellite service operator will have to reduce spectrum more frequently because of the modification application. It responded to comments including petitions to defer or deny by Telesat, O3b and SpaceX. Those companies argue its plans to increase its constellation from 20 satellites to 288 operating at a lower orbit (see 2005270010) would worsen the NGSO interference environment.

Deerfield station groups "are evaluating [their] options" after the full FCC upheld a Media Bureau ruling they failed to negotiate in good faith with AT&T's DirecTV on carriage of those stations (see 1911080036), outside counsel for the stations emailed us Wednesday. Per the docket 19-168 order in Wednesday's Daily Digest, the FCC rejected the station groups' application for review and proposed a $512,228 fine against each of 18 stations. The commission said the record clearly shows the Deerfield stations repeatedly refused to negotiate carriage or respond to DirecTV proposals, unreasonably delaying the negotiations and causing a blackout. “We disagree with the decision on the merits and its proposed penalties," the outside counsel said. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the bureau called it the most egregious example of delay in the good faith negotiation rules' history, so the maximum forfeiture is justified. He said other negotiating parties should be on notice they could face similar penalties for similar instances of failure to negotiate for retransmission in good faith, especially when the result is blackouts and other consumer harm. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, who approved in part and concurred in part, said there's enough evidence to justify the notices of apparent liability, but he concurred on only the forfeiture amounts. "Imposing the statutory maximum on individual stations by way of a novel, first-time application of the rules could be disproportionately punitive and significantly threaten the operations of these stations," he said.