Cybersecurity, rollout of high-speed broadband networks and e-identification services top the list of telecom priorities for the Greek EU Presidency, whose six-month term began Jan. 1, Greece said in a work program. Greece will push to promote measures needed to establish a single digital market, it said. It will promote European Commission plans for cross-border and cross-sector laws that enable safe, reliable and user-friendly electronic transactions, and measures to cut the costs of deploying high-speed networks, it said. It also plans to work on ensuring a high level of network and information security across the EU, it said. The Greek government will “strive to promote” the EC proposal for a single telecom market, it said. Its program also includes work on making public entities’ websites accessible, and reviewing Europe’s digital agenda, it said. The presidency will help define the EU position for the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference, it said. On satellite issues, it will stress international relations and common minimum standards on rules for access to the public regulated service provided by the global navigation satellite system, it said. On digital content issues, the presidency aims to finalize procedures required for approval of legislation on collective rights management before European Parliament elections in May, said Maria Sinanidou, communications officer for copyright issues. It will also look at the future of copyright and the digital agenda, with a June 6 conference in Athens on current rules and future challenges, she said. Participants will consider how to make content accessible in a digital single market; how to deal with limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age and enforcement on the Internet; and future policy recommendations, the conference program said.
Notable CROSS rulings
Wireless cramming problems may soon disappear from the telecom landscape since all four major national carriers have said they will end premium SMS billing programs for their subscribers, CTIA told the FCC in reply comments on an Aug. 27 public notice. In July, the FTC urged the FCC to impose anti-cramming rules on wireless carriers, arguing that voluntary industry efforts aren’t enough to protect consumers (CD July 24 p1).
The Minority Media & Telecom Council again said it doesn’t object to some modest relaxation of the cross-ownership rule in large and medium markets, “so long as relaxation would not diminish minority ownership.” Comments were contained in an ex parte filing in dockets 09-182 and 07-294 (http://bit.ly/IQ3pwY). MMTC doesn’t believe the FCC “should further relax the television duopoly rule since that would deter growth of diverse ownership in broadcasting,” it said. “MMTC similarly feels that most shared service agreements are detrimental to minority ownership.” The filing pertained to a meeting with Maria Kirby, legal adviser to Chairman Tom Wheeler, it said.
Draft media ownership rules circulated 13 months ago were yanked from circulation recently by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, said agency, industry and public interest officials in interviews Friday. The draft order first circulated by then-Chairman Julius Genachowski and thought to have been largely unchanged when now-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was acting chairwoman would have ended some cross-ownership bans, which cheered some broadcasters and daily newspaper owners and upset some groups critical of media mergers and acquisitions. The rules, to TV stations’ chagrin, would have made it harder for them to enter into joint sharing arrangements that JSA foes say evade media ownership limits (CD Nov 15/12 p1).
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler backs a draft proposal to authorize cellphone use on airplanes in-flight, in prepared testimony for a Thursday House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing. “I do not want the person in the seat next to me yapping at 35,000 feet any more than anyone else,” Wheeler plans to tell Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1bWwJOQ). “But we are not the Federal Courtesy Commission.”
EU lawmakers and governments should make it easier for telecom companies to operate across borders, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes Monday. She’s pushing for action on key proposals in the European Commission’s “connected continent” telecom overhaul package, one of which is the creation of a one-stop shop for authorizing e-communications services. The proposed regulation eases telecom service expansion in several ways, the EC said. It replaces 28 different registration requirements with one single point of authorization and notification in the EU, lowering entry barriers for new companies and costs for service provision. The rule also ensures that multi-territory telecom companies get more consistent treatment from regulators, and makes it easier for smaller players to cross borders by ensuring that operators below a certain size don’t have to pay regulatory administrative costs or pay into universal service funds, it said. The European Parliament is about to begin discussion on possible amendments to the draft package.
"A large majority” of the nation’s broadcasters will sit out the TV incentive spectrum auction, NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan predicted Tuesday during a webinar sponsored by the Digital Policy Institute. Kaplan, a former FCC Wireless Bureau chief, also questioned why the FCC continues to push for a 2014 auction. Preston Padden, head of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said the auction should be a success as long as the FCC gets the rules right.
The U.S. National Security Agency has “weakened, misconstrued and ignored” civil liberties protections that Congress built into the Patriot Act, but the USA Freedom Act would fix that, Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, told the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee Monday. The legislation would deliver “real reform” by ending the NSA dragnet of information from Europeans and Americans, he said. Google, Microsoft and Facebook, meanwhile, denied they give intelligence agencies back-door access to users’ data, sparking skepticism from Parliament members (MEPs).
The FCC will do a study of how Hispanic TV station ownership relates to Hispanic programming and viewing habits, and begin field testing its study of critical information needs (CIN), the commission said in a news release Thursday. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and several industry observers said the study and the CIN test represent important steps toward more diversity in broadcasting and better serving the growing Hispanic population. “Latino ownership diversity has been an ongoing challenge for broadcast -- good, integrated data should direct the FCC’s future efforts to engender both ownership opportunities AND more robust Latino-serving content in English and Spanish, across platforms,” said Jason Llorenz, director-innovation policy for Latino Information Network.
Rules giving people more control over their personal data while making cross-Europe data flows easier won approval Monday night from the European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, said that LIBE committee. That was as expected (WID Oct 22 p2) OR (CD Oct 22 p7). European Parliament members (MEPs) responded to mass surveillance reports with a provision requiring that if a non-EU country asks a company such as a search engine, social network or cloud provider to disclose personal information processed in the EU, the company must seek authorization from the national data protection authority before transferring any data, LIBE said. The company also must inform the data subject of any such request, it said. The language is a response to mass spying activities unveiled in June, it said. The compromise text also sets penalties of up to 100 million euros ($137 million) or up to 5 percent of a company’s annual global turnover, whichever is greater, the committee said. Individuals would have the right to have personal data “erased” upon request, and organizations processing personal information must obtain clear permission from the data subject, it said. MEPs also clarified that the execution of a contract or the provision of a service can’t be made conditional upon consent to processing personal data that isn’t strictly necessary for the completion of the contract or service. The text also provides that profiling to analyze or predict people’s work performance, location, health or behavior is allowed only subject to their consent, when provided by law or when needed to carry out a contract, LIBE said. The data protection package contains two draft laws, the general regulation covering most personal data processing in the EU, and a directive covering personal data processed for law enforcement. LIBE also authorized Parliament to start negotiations with national governments, which will begin as soon as the Council agrees on its own position, LIBE said. Parliament wants to reach agreement on data protection before the May European elections, it said. The vote ensures European data protection rules are “up to the challenges of the digital age,” said the official reporter for the general data protection regulation, Jan Philipp Albrecht, of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany. Albrecht hopes the Council, which meets Thursday and Friday to discuss digital matters, will send a message to national governments to adopt data protection revisions before the elections, he said at a news conference Tuesday. The LIBE vote “is a strong signal for Europe,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. It paves the way for a uniform, strong data protection law that will cut business costs and boost protection of citizens, she said. “The European Parliament has proven that excessive lobbying can be counter-productive” by not only defending but also strengthening people’s right to be forgotten, she said in an EC memo. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx applauded LIBE’s action and urged the EU institutions to complete data protection as soon as possible. But the schism between rights activists and industry over some of the provisions continued in reactions to LIBE’s action. The Industry Coalition for Data Protection (ICDP) said the draft needs “considerable improvements.” The coalition, with members including DigitalEurope, the European Internet Services Providers’ Association, Business Software Alliance and TechAmerica Europe, urged lawmakers and governments to make several changes, including: (1) Using a risk-based approach that recognizes concepts such as context and risk in the definition of personal data, data processing and appropriate penalties. (2) Maintaining clear roles and duties in the data processing value chains. (3) Guaranteeing a free flow of data across international borders to give European companies access to fast-growing markets outside the EU. (4) Putting in place a meaningful one-stop-shop mechanism to make it easier for businesses and consumers to apply the new privacy rules. (5) Limiting the requirement for explicit consent to genuinely at-risk situations. European Digital Rights Executive Director Joe McNamee said that “if allowed to stand, this vote would launch an ‘open season’ for online companies to quietly collect our data, create profiles and sell our personalities to the highest bidder.”