Dish Network’s call for sanctions against Standard General and its attorneys should be ignored. Instead, Dish should be sanctioned, said Standard General in a response filing Thursday in U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit (see 2409240017). Standard argued Dish’s filing substantially repeats its earlier dismissal motion and violates court procedures. Contrary to Dish’s arguments, Standard’s complaint “amply supports the alleged conspiracy, detailing circumstantial evidence that warrants an inference of conspiratorial agreement,” Standard said. “The timing and posture of DISH’s motion show its purpose is either to intimidate Plaintiffs and their counsel to dismiss claims against DISH and Mr. Ergen in the infancy of this case or to increase the chances that the Court does so.” Since Dish filed the motion for an improper purpose, the court should award Standard sanctions in the form of the expenses incurred in responding to the motion, Standard said.
Dish Network and its CEO Charles Ergen want Standard General (SGCI) and its attorneys to be sanctioned over the broadcaster’s lawsuit against Dish, Byron Allen, the FCC and several unions and public interest groups (see 2409100008), said a motion for sanctions Tuesday. The Standard filing is “frivolous,” violates federal rules of civil procedure and infringes on Dish’s First Amendment rights, the filing said. Dish wants the court to sanction SGCI and its attorneys to cover all of Dish’s expenses from the case and dismiss the complaint. “Frustrated that SGCI’s transaction financing expired and the merger agreement terminated, Plaintiffs have concocted a false narrative that the FCC’s actions must have been caused by a vast racist conspiracy against Mr. Kim,” said the Dish filing, referring to Standard founder Soohyung Kim. The Standard complaint doesn’t show any evidence of a conspiracy but rather disparate parties that disliked the Standard/Tegna deal for different reasons, Dish said. “There is absolutely nothing actionable about a desire to see a deal fail, especially a deal that was artificially engineered to raise DISH’s costs,” Dish said. Standard’s conspiracy claims “rest on the mere fact” that attorney David Goodfriend, who represented unions against the Standard deal, has also worked for Ergen and Allen, Dish said. “This ‘conspiracy’ theory offends the First Amendment’s right to association,” Dish said. “This action was commenced in retaliation, as a rich man’s manifestation of a temper tantrum, in order to harass the parties that Plaintiffs hold responsible for the failure of their merger deal.” Standard didn't comment.
U.S. companies and trade groups applauded a recent Bureau of Industry and Security rule that expanded the agency’s export control exemption for certain standards-setting activities. They said the rule change will help remove licensing barriers that American officials face at international bodies while working on emerging technology standards. While the Technology Trade Regulation Alliance welcomed the rule changes, it said BIS should continue expanding the exemption to cover a wider set of technologies discussed in standards bodies involving the electronics, telecommunications and aviation industries. For example, the TTRA said BIS should harmonize its standards-setting-related controls with how it treats other information shared publicly, such as fundamental research. The rule “appears inconsistent with the BIS approach to other First Amendment protected commercial speech,” the alliance said. UL Standards & Engagement, a nonprofit standards development organization, and the Wi-Fi Alliance said the rule update will help their members more easily participate in standards bodies. The Wi-Fi Alliance specifically said the rule confirms that the type of standards-related activity its members are involved in “is not restricted by the Export Administration Regulations.” BIS issued rules in 2020 and 2022 that authorize releasing certain controlled technology for specific standards-setting activities, including when companies on the Entity List, such as Huawei, are participating in those bodies.
NTIA urged the FCC to defer action for now on NextNav's proposal that would reconfigure the 902-928 MHz band, "enabl[ing] a high-quality, terrestrial complement” to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services (see 2404160043). NextNav, meanwhile, defended the proposal but agreed testing is needed. Other commenters objected to the proposal, reflecting concerns raised in initial comments (see 2409060046). Replies were due Friday in docket 24-240; many were posted Monday.
A disappointed Lumen is reviewing its options after the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission rejected a proposed settlement between the company and UTC staff related to the state’s method of regulation, a Lumen spokesperson said Tuesday. The pact would have reduced regulation of the telco by classifying Lumen’s CenturyLink ILECs as competitive. In a 3-0 order Friday, the commission took issue with a proposed process for discontinuing service in challenging customer locations (CCLs), which the agreement defines as “an existing CenturyLink local service customer location in Washington that lacks both fixed internet availability from at least one provider at [25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload] speed or greater priced at $61.13 per month or less, and mobile wireless service at $61.13 per month or less.” Under the pact, CenturyLink would have to get UTC approval before discontinuing stand-alone residential or business exchange service to any area including a CCL. However, the commission agreed with concerns by the state attorney general’s public counsel office that “that the CCL definition is too narrow, and that the discontinuance process could leave some customers without adequate service.” The commission sought “broader protections and a more stringent approval process.” The UTC added that “CenturyLink, a profitable company that has previously accepted federal money to provide these services to customers needs to do more to meet the needs of its most vulnerable customers who would be affected by the inequities of this proposal.” The rejection means a “temporary extension” of the current alternative form of regulation (AFOR) scheme until parties can adjust the settlement and the commission can resolve Lumen’s Jan. 8 petition seeking competitive reclassification, said the order in docket UT-240029. CenturyLink has operated for nearly a decade under an AFOR in Washington state (see 2402060015). Lumen “worked closely with [Washington UTC] staff to reach a settlement creating a comprehensive new regulatory structure reflective of today’s competitive market,” said the company’s spokesperson. “The proposed settlement contained multiple levels of safeguards that ensured no CenturyLink customers would be left without service.”
China is ahead of the U.S. on many fronts in its plans to emerge as the world leader in 5G, and eventually 6G, experts warned Wednesday during a webcast by the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. The group released a paper urging that the U.S. reassert leadership in wireless technology.
Don’t expect major daylight between a Kamala Harris administration and the Joe Biden White House on major communications policy issues, industry and policy experts predicted. Much focus and effort would center on defending the FCC's net neutrality and digital discrimination orders in the current federal circuit court challenges, as well as pursuing net neutrality rules, they said. Less clear would be the nature of the relationship between Harris' White House and Big Tech. The Harris campaign didn't comment. Deregulation and undoing net neutrality are considered high on the to-do list for the administration of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump if he's elected (see 2407110034).
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez (D) is working with state lawmakers on legislation aimed at holding social media platforms more accountable for disseminating deepfake porn, he told us Wednesday.
The federal government shouldn’t impose immediate restrictions on the “wide availability of open model weights in the largest AI systems,” the NTIA said Tuesday (see 2402210041 and 2404010067). Model weights refer to core components of AI systems that enable machine learning. Open AI models are open-source, allowing public access to data, while closed models are private. NTIA gathered public comment on the benefits and risks of open and closed models in response to President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI. Current evidence isn’t “sufficient to definitively determine either that restrictions on such open-weight models are warranted, or that restrictions will never be appropriate in the future,” NTIA said in its Report on Dual-Use Foundation Models with Widely Available Model Weights. The agency recommended the federal government “actively monitor a portfolio of risks that could arise from dual-use foundation models with widely available model weights and take steps to ensure that the government is prepared to act if heightened risks emerge.” However, NTIA laid out possible restrictions for the technology, including a ban on “wide distribution” of model weights, “controls on the exports of widely available model weights,” a licensing framework for access to models and limits on access to application programming interfaces and web interfaces. NTIA noted that restrictions on open public model weights “would impede transparency into advanced AI models.” Model weight restrictions could limit “collaborative efforts to understand and improve AI systems and slow progress in critical areas of research,” the agency said. Open Technology Institute Policy Director Prem Trivedi said in a statement Tuesday that NTIA is correct in recommending the rigorous collection and evaluation of empirical evidence, calling it the right starting point for policymaking on the issue.
A case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Consumers' Research, et al. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, potentially has major implications for the FCC and FTC, and could permit a president to fire a commissioner at will, industry lawyers said. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups are asking SCOTUS in amicus filings to grant the writ of certiorari from Consumers' Research.