FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin partially denied an Enforcement Bureau motion to compel Auburn Network and owner Michael Hubbard to produce certain documents as part of Auburn’s license hearing, said an order in docket 21-20 in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The hearing concerns Hubbard’s fitness to hold a license after he was convicted of six felonies for corrupt acts as speaker of the Alabama House (see 2102110005). EB asked the ALJ to force Hubbard to provide documents about the 23 felonies Hubbard was originally charged with, but Hubbard argued the non-convictions aren’t material. “The inquiry in this hearing proceeding does not extend to conduct beyond the six felonies for which Mr. Hubbard stands convicted,” ruled the ALJ. “Information regarding those charges for which Mr. Hubbard was not convicted or for which the conviction was overturned on appeal are not within the scope.” The ALJ agreed with the EB that Hubbard must provide the bureau with publicly available documents, and all documents about the six felonies that don’t fall under attorney client privilege. With the response likely to be large, Halprin extended the deadline to produce the documents from 10 to 60 days.
Country of origin cases
The Senate intends to take up the Endless Frontier Act next week in a package of legislation, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the floor Thursday. He’s hopeful for a Senate vote this month.
The FCC Media Bureau listed seven radio station licenses in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma that expire June 1 unless renewals are filed by then. Their applications were originally due Feb. 1, Monday's public notice said.
The Treasury Department released interim final rules Monday that would make broadband projects in areas that “lack access to a wireline connection capable of reliably delivering at least minimum speeds of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload” the only ones eligible for money from the $350 billion in state and local funding from the American Rescue Plan Act package. Congress allocated $10 billion of the state and local money specifically for broadband and other infrastructure projects (see 2103100065). Recipient governments have “broad flexibility” to decide how to allocate their share, Treasury said.
ABI warned about IoT security. “Some devices are incapable of being secured,” it said Friday: Original equipment manufacturers and vendors “often choose to accept the risk, rather than remediate it during a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA), while many others choose not to do a CBA.” ABI estimates 8.6 billion IoT global connections, rising to 23.6 billion by 2026: "This exponential growth will usher in a new era of connectivity and productivity in the years ahead" and "new threat vectors and vulnerabilities."
Altice USA hires Nelson Perez from National Grid as senior vice president-government affairs ... Twilio hires Leticia Santos Lewis from the BSA Foundation's Software.org as director-public policy, global public policy and government affairs ... JM Search executive search firm hires Jamey Cummings, ex-Korn Ferry Technology and Information Officers Practice, as a partner, Cybersecurity and Information Technology Officers practices.
Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York and other House Judiciary Committee members drilled down Wednesday on how to structure potential legislation to revamp Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512 (see 2009300068). They cited the need to bring back balance to how DMCA prioritizes interests of content creators, consumers and major tech platforms. Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., hopes to introduce DMCA revamp legislation soon that places a heavy emphasis on addressing Section 512 (see 2103080053).
The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency needs to beef up its Joint Cyber Planning Office for wider communication routes between government and industry and Congress “needs to put CISA on a path to being a $5 billion agency,” House Homeland Security ranking member John Katko, R-N.Y., told a Cybersecurity Subcommittee ransomware hearing. The past 18 months brought an increased frequency of cyberattacks, as well as growing sophistication of threat actors, and larger amounts being demanded of victims, experts said at a Chamber of Commerce webinar, also Wednesday. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called ransomware one DHS' "most-significant priorities."
A nationwide test of the emergency alert system will be Aug.11 at 2:20 p.m. EDT, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a letter to the FCC posted Tuesday in docket 15-94. The test will be originated using the legacy primary entry point system rather than the internet based common alerting protocol, a format similar to the last test, in 2019. “The public should be aware that full message text and multilingual messaging will not be available due to the over the air message delivery and relay used in this system of EAS message dissemination,” FEMA said. Along with the EAS test, FEMA will issue a wireless emergency alert test, “targeting only cell phones where the user has opted-in to receive WEA test messages.” The back-up date is Aug. 25.
Despite changes to patent, copyright and criminal law, China remains one of the top countries the U.S. is targeting for weak intellectual property protections, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Friday in its annual special 301 report (see 2004290059). China needs to strengthen such protection and enforcement, fully implement IP measures, stop forcing technology transfers to Chinese companies, open its market to foreign investment, and “allow the market a decisive role in allocating resources,” USTR said. “Severe challenges persist because of excessive regulatory requirements and informal pressure and coercion to transfer technology to Chinese companies, continued gaps in the scope of IP protection, incomplete legal reforms, weak enforcement channels, and lack of administrative and judicial transparency and independence.”