Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn again pushed back, in responses released Tuesday to Senate Commerce Committee members’ follow-up questions against claims she hasn't been sufficiently candid about whether she played a role as a board member for Locast operator Sports Fans Coalition (SFC) in securing a revised $700,000 settlement of broadcasters’ lawsuit against the shuttered rebroadcaster (see 2202090070). Sohn got repeated GOP criticism during a second confirmation hearing earlier this month over the Locast settlement process and her January commitment to temporarily recuse herself from some FCC proceedings involving retransmission consent and broadcast copyright matters (see 2201280066). Sohn’s repeat appearance in front of Senate Commerce isn't considered likely to have changed her prospects of getting support only from committee Democrats (see 2202090070).
Country of origin cases
The FCC doesn’t have the authority to require easy access to closed captioning display settings and doesn’t need to, said NCTA, ACA Connects and CTA in comments posted Friday in docket 12-108 in response to the Media Bureau’s call for a refreshed record (see 2201100052). A host of consumer groups disagreed, according to a joint filing from groups including Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the Helen Keller National Center, the National Association of the Deaf and the American Association of the DeafBlind. The problems highlighted in the FCC’s previous caption display settings round of comments have gotten worse, the groups said. “Apparatus and navigation devices still implement caption display settings through obscure, hard-to-find, hard-to-use, and inconsistent interfaces.” NCTA’s members already “have devoted significant resources to ensuring that the captioning features they provide are straightforward and simple to use,” NCTA said. The consumer tech industry “continues to innovate in user interface design” and “such advances demonstrate that the proposed mandate is unnecessary,” said CTA. The 1990 Television Decoder Circuitry Act “does not authorize the Commission to adopt rules regulating the provision of ‘ready access’ to closed captioning display settings by MVPDs,” said ACA Connects. Enabling viewers to easily access caption display settings is “required by the letter and spirit” of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act “as originally drafted” and consistent with other captioning rules, the consumer groups said. If the agency adopts a display setting requirement, it should include a “reasonable” compliance period and “narrowly tailored exemptions,” said CTA.
Amazon’s foreign sites were removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 2021 Notorious Markets List (see 2108270030 and2101140046), which was released Thursday. The platform’s British, German, French, Italian and Spanish sites were included in the 2020 report. The report “highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.” China is the top country of origin for which U.S. Customs and Border protection seize counterfeit goods, the report said. The report flagged for the first time China’s AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce platform. The report also flagged China’s Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine. DHgate, Pinduoduo and Taobao also made the list. The report draws attention to Singapore-based Fmovies, also known as Bmovies and BFlix, as “one of the most popular websites in the world for streaming pirated copies of popular movies and TV shows.” Russian websites RuTracker, Flvto and MP3juices also made the list. The report credits Brazil’s Operation 404 for its 334 piracy website takedowns, and India for taking the torrent site TamilRockers offline. The report highlights Vietnam’s ongoing investigation of Phimmoi.net, and credits Thailand for seizing more than 100 broadcasting and streaming devices, which were used for the Fwiptv pirating service. The report focused on “the adverse impact of counterfeiting on workers involved with the manufacture of counterfeit goods,” the USTR said. The USTR recommended “labor inspectors, labor-focused organizations, workers’ rights associations, and others target counterfeit manufacturing facilities for Enforcement.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) issued subpoenas to USTelecom and ThinQ Technologies in an investigation into scammers using robocalls to pretend to sell AT&T DirecTV services, Nessel’s office said Thursday. Judge Joyce Draganchuk of Michigan’s Ingham County Circuit Court authorized the AG to issue subpoenas based on an ex parte petition describing about 500,000 spoofed calls coming into the state monthly. With the subpoenas, the AG seeks to learn the identity of the callers and VoIP or voice service providers involved in the scam, including contractual and financial arrangements and detailed call records, the petition said. The petition said there's probable cause to say ThinQ, of Raleigh, was one originating VoIP provider that brought the calls into the country. USTelecom and ThinQ didn’t comment.
National broadcasters said Tuesday they’re “wholly satisfied” that shuttered rebroadcaster Locast has transferred “all of its physical assets” and certain intellectual property and has paid the entirety of its remaining cash assets, as agreed in an October lawsuit settlement (see 2110280039). The satisfaction of judgment statement (docket 19-cv-7136) cites the original $32 million settlement figure rather than the lower $700,000 figure included in a confidential revised settlement (see 2201260056) that became a central issue in Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn’s stalled confirmation process. Senate Commerce Committee Republicans said last week after a second confirmation hearing for Sohn that the nominee still hasn't been sufficiently candid about whether she played a role as a board member for Locast operator Sports Fans Coalition in securing the revised settlement (see 2202090070). Locast, Sohn and broadcasters involved in the lawsuit didn’t comment. Senate IP Subcommittee ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., urged his colleagues during a Tuesday floor speech to vote against Sohn, arguing she’s still “hiding relevant information” about the Locast settlement. If confirmed Sohn “would undermine public confidence in the FCC and our government,” Tillis said. “If this were any other nominee, especially a Republican nominee, any one of these issues would be enough for my colleagues on this side of the aisle to stand up and as the president of our party to withdraw the nominee.”
NTIA could require states to include public utilities commissions as they decide how to use federal infrastructure funds, said Doug Kinkoph, associate administrator, NTIA Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth, at NARUC’s partially virtual conference Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the NARUC Telecom Committee axed overbuilding language from a proposed resolution about the coming billions of dollars.
State utility commissioners should get active in broadband funding talks, said NTIA and U.S. Treasury officials at the partially virtual NARUC conference Monday. Each state is to receive at least $200 million combined through Treasury’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund and NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program. State commissioners may no longer say broadband is “not my jurisdiction,” said former FCC and South Carolina Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: “I’m sorry, you can’t rest on that anymore.”
MVPD groups and broadcasters disagree whether proposed rule changes designed to ease the ATSC 3.0 transition should come with additional restrictions on the standard, said comments filed by Friday’s deadline on a November further NPRM in docket 16-142 (see 2111050049).
The FCC’s public notice seeking additional comment on rules for a 2.5 GHz auction, the next big 5G auction at the FCC, was seen as a positive by industry officials, but there's a wrinkle. FCC auction authority expires Sept. 30, which means the agency may have to move quickly to do an auction by that date. T-Mobile is still expected to be the biggest player, adding to its already considerable 2.5 GHz holdings.
NAB raised concerns and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council supported a Land Mobile Communications Council petition asking the FCC to modify its Part 90 rules on sharing of TV channels 14-20 with the T-band to reflect the changes that have occurred due to the DTV transition. Comments were posted Thursday in RM-11915. The T-band is shared with public safety and gets the most use in major cities, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C. “The changes LMCC proposes could have the practical effect of increasing instances of harmful interference between television stations and land mobile operations in the T-band by allowing television stations and land mobile operations to operate in closer proximity to one another,” NAB said. It noted “occasional complaints concerning interference issues between television stations and T-band land mobile operators under the existing rules, including from LMCC itself.” NPSTC said “time is ripe” to update the rules. “The Commission is fortunate that the LMCC has done so much of the work required to initiate the rulemaking proceeding it has requested,” NPSTC said: “The LMCC petition is comprehensive and includes the background leading to the request, specific recommended changes to the rules, and the rationale for the recommendations provided. The petition even provides a succinct summary on the history of the T-Band spectrum sharing that began in the 1970s. This summary should be helpful as well in crafting the NPRM.” Los Angeles County noted the rules were last updated in the 1990s. “Experience gained from (1) combating interference from DTV operations (new since original rules were adopted), (2) the transition of some [land-mobile radio] systems from analog to digital (which is a continuing process), and (3) the lack of vacant channel options due to channel repacking -- all mandate that the Commission revisit equipment performance assumptions made over two decades ago,” the county said. Issue an NPRM “at the earliest opportunity,” urged the Enterprise Wireless Alliance: T-Band applicants “must comply with a rule that protects television station contours as though they still were operating in NTSC [National Television System Committee] format even though they are required to operate in ATSC [Advanced Television Systems Committee] format. In the interim, television stations are receiving greater than necessary protection while, conversely, affected land mobile systems are not able to derive maximum use of T-Band spectrum.”