The Senate Judiciary Committee appears poised to advance a package of music copyright legislation recently passed with unprecedented consensus in the House (see 1805100072, 1804250078 and 1804200052), Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and industry stakeholders told us. Six months ago, sponsors Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., came to Grassley with a stand-alone bill that drew deep skepticism. Despite the addition of two more controversial bills, Grassley said the majority of players remain in support. “I think it’s going to go fairly smooth, and I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of opposition. You’re going to find a lot of people praising" the package, he said.
The Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (Browser) Act (HR-2520) is back in the public debate over privacy legislation amid the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data privacy controversy (see 1804100054 and 1804130057). Lawmakers and industry stakeholders remained divided in interviews on how influential HR-2520 should be in shaping the legislative process this year and into the next Congress, especially in the context of other bills being explored post-Cambridge Analytica. Capitol Hill has been grappling with whether and how to legislate in response to claims that Cambridge Analytica bought private data of some 87 million Facebook users in support of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign (see 1804110065, 1804300048 and 1805100038).
AT&T apparent ousting of Senior Executive Vice President Bob Quinn after controversy over the company's hiring of Donald Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen (see 1805090080) isn't going to change how lobbying is practiced in Washington or by AT&T, experts said. Unless other related issues come up, there's no long-term damage to AT&T and "people move on," said professor David Rehr, who teaches legislative advocacy at George Mason University's Scalia Law School and used to be NAB head. He said government relations offices or corporate personnel might be more careful in vetting who interacts with the administration. "Everyone is going to go 'better double-check that person,'" Rehr said.
The White House established a select committee on artificial intelligence under the National Science and Technology Council to advise the president on interagency AI efforts, White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios told about 40 industry representatives, 25 government officials and 10 academics Thursday (see 1805090048). The “most senior” R&D officials will be members, he said. The panel will consider federal partnerships with industry and academia and leverage federal data to promote the national AI ecosystem, he said.
The FCC fined telemarketer Adrian Abramovich $120 million for "malicious spoofing" in a "massive robocalling operation aimed at selling timeshares and other travel packages," which the agency said was the largest "forfeiture" in its history. The commission found Abramovich, of Miami, or his companies spoofed 96 million calls over three months in 2016 "to trick" consumers into listening to advertising pitches, violating a Truth in Caller ID Act prohibition against callers "deliberately falsifying caller ID information with the intent to harm or defraud consumers or unlawfully obtain something of value," said a release. Commissioners approved a forfeiture order at Thursday's meeting, with Commissioner Michael O'Rielly partially dissenting.
Carriers and their associations urged the FCC to move forward on scheduling auctions for high-band spectrum beyond 28 and 24 GHz. The comments came on a public notice on rules for the auctions, scheduled to get underway in November, starting with 28 GHz. “By bringing millimeter wave bands to market this year, the Commission will help facilitate the development and deployment of 5G technologies and services across the country to the benefit of the nation’s economy, businesses, and consumers,” CTIA said. The FCC needs a schedule for making more bands available, but it warned against extending anti-collusion rules across both auctions.
Pearl TV and its partners in the Phoenix ATSC 3.0 model-market project are “collaborating” with the Spectrum Co. consortium that Sinclair shares with American Tower, Cunningham Broadcasting, Nexstar and Univision to fashion a “transition model that we could offer to the industry as a way to move multiple markets, so that we’re all operating on the same sheet of paper,” Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle told us Wednesday. The ultimate goal is to blanket the U.S. with coverage in a "rapid build" over three years, said Schelle.
The FCC unanimously approved an NPRM on changing the way the agency handles interference complaints involving FM translators and full-power FM stations, as expected (see 1805030043). The approved version of the NPRM in docket 18-119 is little changed from the draft and proposes allowing translators facing interference to relocate to nearly any free frequency. “Our current process for resolving such interference complaints can be nasty, brutish and long,” Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday. ”That’s why we aim to streamline and expedite it.”
Satellite earth station operators say as Intelsat, SES and Intel pursue their plan for clearing part of the C-band for potential terrestrial wireless use, one big question is how costs incurred due to changes to those earth stations will be reimbursed. "That's one of the many mysteries of this particular proposal," NPR Vice President-Policy and Representation Mike Riksen told us.
The FCC approved 4-0 an NPRM on ways to spark interest in the 2.5 GHz band. The item was changed while on the eighth floor to ask additional questions about how to make better use of the band, for example, holding an incentive auction like the one held for broadcast TV, officials said Thursday. Few carriers are expected to pursue the band, which is largely controlled by Sprint, despite the push (see 1805040036). The band, once dedicated to use by schools through the instructional television fixed service starting in 1963, was made available for other uses through the educational broadband service (EBS) launched by the FCC 2004.