Copyright concerns related to AI can be addressed using existing law and litigation, so Congress should avoid new legislation, legal experts told the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday.
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A key privacy negotiator for House Republicans said Tuesday he’s “optimistic” privacy legislation can be expedited and signed into law “very soon.” House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said in a statement Tuesday he was “glad” to see House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., release “historic draft legislation” (see 2404080062). Bilirakis lauded the lawmakers for including a state preemption provision and data minimization measures: “The end result is a product that will help safeguard all Americans' sensitive data, maximize transparency, and empower users to control how their personal information is collected, used, and stored.” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., an original member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s privacy working group (see 1906270053), said Tuesday he expects the panel will hold hearings and “produce a bill that protects consumers and fosters an environment which promotes innovators and job creators.” A comprehensive federal privacy law would help solve issues related to children’s online data collection and foreign access to U.S. user information, he said.
Some Minnesota lawmakers want to craft a net neutrality law even as the FCC prepares to vote on restoring federal open-internet rules. At a Tuesday meeting, the legislature’s Senate Commerce Committee laid over a bill (SF-3711) banning state contracts with companies that violate open-internet rules. While the action indefinitely postponed further Senate action on the measure, the proposal remains part of a pending House Commerce Committee omnibus (HF-4077). Also at the Senate Commerce hearing, members postponed action on a social media bill and advanced legislation meant to stop copper theft.
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin won’t broaden the scope of a hearing involving Antonio Cesar Guel's apparently fake sale of broadcast stations to include other questionable transactions because she doesn’t want to interfere with possible FCC Media Bureau investigations, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest (see2402060049). Granting the Enforcement Bureau’s request to enlarge the hearing proceeding against Guel would also not be “efficient,” she said. The initial proceeding concerned Guel's sale of low-power radio and TV stations to his niece Jennifer Juarez, and false statements Guel made to the FCC, including hiding his lack of U.S. citizenship. The EB wanted the proceeding to include other companies -- Mekaddesh Group, Hispanic Family Christian Network and JPX Global -- whose ownership was the focus of contradictory filings at the FCC and SEC from Guel, his daughter and their associates. “It seems that with each filing in this proceeding, the control and operation of the Guel family’s broadcast licenses becomes less clear,” Halprin wrote. She said that keeping the case narrow is consistent with the Media Bureau’s approach when it originally designated the Guel matter for hearing, though it was aware of other possible violations. “These ambiguities, when considered with the numerous FCC violations to which Mr. Guel has already admitted . . . suggest a pattern of obfuscation and noncompliance” that “warrants further exploration,” the order said.
The FCC’s unanimous order Tuesday allowing radio stations to use FM boosters to offer geotargeted ads and announcements comes over the objections of the nation’s largest radio broadcasters and NAB's years-long campaign against FCC authorization (see 2209230070. Although Tuesday’s order allows broadcasters to receive only temporary authorization for geotargeted content and seeks comment on procedures for a more permanent process, advocates for the ZoneCast technology pushed by GeoBroadcast Solutions (GBS) see the order as a win and the accompanying Further NPRM as mostly ministerial. “Today marks a monumental victory for small- and minority-owned FM radio stations,” said Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts, a longtime proponent of the technology. NAB “is pleased that the Commission is only authorizing the use of GeoBroadcast Solutions’ troubling technology on an experimental basis at this time,” the trade group said.
The FCC unanimously approved an order allowing broadcasters to use FM boosters to originate geotargeted radio content (see 2402090044). The order lets broadcasters apply for an experimental license to carry geotargeted content for a maximum of three minutes per broadcast hour. Such content is expected to be mostly advertisements, and the push for geotargeted radio has faced heavy opposition from NAB and larger broadcasters over concerns about ad rates and interference (see 2210210050). The item includes a further NPRM that seeks comment on establishing a more permanent process to replace the experimental license. In comments included with the order, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the order would help minority and small- market broadcasters. “No fewer than 21 civil rights organizations also urged us to make this change,” he said. “They believe geotargeting has the power to diversify media ownership, while giving small businesses and community organizations more of an opportunity to get their message on the air.” The FCC has for years “ensured that various technologies from cable to 5G to next-gen broadcast TV have the freedom to target their content to specific geographies,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr in his statement with the order. “Except the FCC has never allowed radio broadcasters that same opportunity. It has artificially limited broadcasters’ business models,” he said. The order said: “Weighing the competing interests in this proceeding, we find that program origination over boosters will advance the public interest with benefits that outweigh the concerns.”
The FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it amended rules incorporating four new equipment testing standards, and did so without the proper notice and comment protocol, alleged iFixit, Public Resource and Make Community in the opening brief Wednesday (23-1311) of their petition for review at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The opening brief asks that the court remand the rules to the FCC for what the three organizations contend should be a proper rulemaking (see 2311090002).
The FCC is moving toward requiring georouting of mobile calls made to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office Thursday circulating on the 10th floor a draft NPRM proposing a georouting rule. Mental health interests applauded the move. "This is something we've been pushing for pretty much since the law that created 988 passed" in 2020, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski told us. The text of the draft NPRM wasn't released.
A draft order on circulation that would update the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules in response to a July 2022 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling against the agency could be interpreted to require that entities buying political issue ads must first show broadcasters they aren’t foreign agents, broadcast and FCC officials told us. That language could change before the item is approved, although when it will be voted on is unclear, FCC and industry officials said. The draft item “just creates more questions,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Robert Folliard.
USTelecom asked the FCC to ensure providers have flexibility to comply with any new call blocking rules (see 2309110060). The group told Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau staff that many providers rely on the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group's do-not-originate (ITG DNO) list and expanding the DNO requirement "could force providers to inefficiently allocate resources to measures that will not have the highest protective impact for their customers and networks," said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-59. USTelecom also warned "any signal from the commission" that the ITG DNO list doesn't meet a provider’s "applicable reasonable DNO requirement" would "call into question whether it makes sense for the ITG to continue to maintain its DNO list" and "whether providers could continue to rely on it."