September 2014

Attorney General Holder urges tech companies to leave device backdoors open for police

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that new forms of encryption capable of locking law enforcement officials out of popular electronic devices imperil investigations of kidnappers and sexual predators, putting children at increased risk.

“It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy,” AG Holder said. “When a child is in danger, law enforcement needs to be able to take every legally available step to quickly find and protect the child and to stop those that abuse children. It is worrisome to see companies thwarting our ability to do so.” He became the highest government official to publicly chastise technology companies for developing systems that make it difficult for law enforcement officials to collect potential evidence, even when they have search warrants.

The Internet is broken

Reports of Internet bugs are growing more frequent and the problems they pose are increasingly more dangerous. Why? For two reasons that aren't going to change anytime soon.

The Internet was never meant for this. We use the Internet for banking, business, education and national defense. These things require privacy and the assurance that you are actually who you say you are. The Internet, as it was designed, offers neither. The Internet was also built on set of rules that requires every packet of sent information to have a valid address, kind of like a phone number -- but the rules aren't strict about validating the source. So, it can be spoofed. As a result, hackers can fake a return address.

FCC considers banning use of term 'Redskins'

The Federal Communications Commission is mulling whether TV and radio stations should be banned from repeatedly saying the name of the Washington Redskins.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC is examining a petition to deny renewing the license of Washington sports radio station WWXX-FM because it “deliberately, repeatedly and unnecessarily broadcasts the word ‘R*dskins’ during most of its broadcasting day, and especially in prime time.” "I must say that football has long eclipsed baseball as America’s national pastime...This is true even considering the current fate of Washington’s football team, which is saddled with injuries, wrestling with quarterback challenges, and resisting calls to change the team’s name for being offensive to Native Americans," said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and then added: "And it is true even with a league heavily criticized for its repeated fumbles for insensitivity to spouses and girlfriends, and for not incorporating the principles of The Rooney Rule to hiring advisers to address those headline-grabbing issues which have occurred off the field."

FCC To Send Broadcasters Economic Pitch For Auction

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC will start sending information packets, prepared by an investment banker, to broadcasters making the economic case for why they should participate in the incentive auction.

He said nothing was more critical to the success of the auction than broadcaster participation. That is because the auction is voluntary, and if no broadcaster showed up, there would be no spectrum to auction to wireless companies hungry for more. "Tomorrow we will begin sending to every eligible broadcaster an information package that was prepared for the FCC by investment banker Greenhill Associates," said Chairman Wheeler, holding out a copy. "It will describe in detail the economic potential of the auction. This is an economic decision that broadcasters have to make. Let's approach this like a traditional economic transaction."

Chairman Wheeler: FCC 'Kicking Around' Idea of Making Some OVDs MVPDs

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler was asked to comment on a story that the a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was in the works that would classify linear over-the-top video providers as Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs), subject to access to programming as well as the retransmission payment regime.

At a press conference following the FCC's September public meeting, Chairman Wheeler was asked to elaborate on the thinking that went into the "proposal going around." "You guys are good," he said, "and somebody found out that it was an idea that was being kicked around, rather than going around, and that's where it stands." Chairman Wheeler said the FCC considers "a whole heck of a lot of ideas floating around here. You always want to make sure you are keeping up with technology and innovation in the marketplace," and that the "kicking around" of OVDs (online video distributors) as MVPDs fell into that category.

ACA to FCC: Reject Programmer Request to Limit Access to Contracts

The American Cable Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny a petition by some programmers that they not have to submit sensitive documents to the FCC, but instead have the FCC vet copies at the Justice Department, which is also reviewing the proposed mergers of Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV.

The FCC had sought outside comment on whether the FCC should extend additional protections to copies of retransmission consent- and program carriage-related documents it is asking for in connection with the mergers. ACA called "unrealistic" the programmers fears that "parties obtaining access to their contracts under the Commission’s protective orders may violate the orders." It says such violations are rare and is trumped by the "public’s right to participate in a license transfer or assignment proceeding is an integral part of any review."

FCC Eliminates Sports Blackout Rules

The Federal Communications Commission repealed its sports blackout rules, which prohibited cable and satellite operators from airing any sports event that had been blacked out on a local broadcast station. The action removes FCC protection of the NFL’s current private blackout policy, which requires local broadcast stations to black out a game if a team does not sell a certain percentage of tickets to the game at least 72 hours prior to the game.

The Order finds that the FCC’s sports blackout rules are no longer justified in light of the significant changes in the sports industry since these rules were first adopted nearly forty years ago. At that time, ticket sales were the primary source of revenue for the NFL and most NFL games failed to sell out. Today, television revenues have replaced ticket sales as the NFL’s main source of revenue, and blackouts of NFL games are increasingly rare. The NFL is the most profitable sports league in the country, with $6 billion in television revenue per year, and only two games were blacked out last season. The Order also finds that the NFL -- whose current contracts with the broadcast networks extend through 2022 -- is unlikely to move its games from free, over-the-air broadcast television to satellite and cable pay TV as a result of elimination of the sports blackout rules. The Order therefore concludes that the sports blackout rules are no longer needed to ensure that sports programming is widely available to television viewers. Today’s action may not eliminate all sports blackouts, because the NFL may choose to continue its private blackout policy. However, the NFL will no longer be entitled to the protection of the FCC’s sports blackout rules. Instead, the NFL must rely on the same avenues available to other entities that wish to protect their distribution rights in the private marketplace.

FCC Issues Declaratory Ruling in Incentive Auction Repacking Process

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a declaratory ruling clarifying how the repacking approach it adopted in the Incentive Auction Report & Order meets Congress’s mandate to make all reasonable efforts to independently preserve TV station coverage areas and population served. Given the importance of this issue, the FCC took action to ensure that its approach is fully understood by the public and by broadcasters that could be affected by the repacking that follows the incentive auction.

FCC Adopts Major Reform Proposals to Streamline Satellite Rules

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to comprehensively simplify and streamline its rules governing satellite communications to make the regulatory approval process for satellite licenses easier and more efficient. This rulemaking was one of the key reforms called for by the Report on FCC Process Reform released earlier this year.

The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes changes to increase satellite operational flexibility, eliminate outdated information requirements and update rules to better accommodate evolving technology. Many of these proposals were first identified in the Report on FCC Process Reform, while others grew out of last year’s FCC proceeding revising or eliminating many licensing and operating rules for space and earth stations (Part 25). These new proposals would ultimately benefit consumers by facilitating introduction of new satellite services, lowering costs and regulatory burdens, and promoting competition among service providers.

Specifically, the FCC’s Further Notice proposes changes that will:

Facilitate international coordination of proposed satellite networks, by permitting early submissions to the International Telecommunication Union;
Simplify showings associated with milestone requirements and eliminate some of the current milestone requirements;
Revise the two-degree spacing requirements to better accommodate the use of small antennas, and
Expand options for simplified routine earth station licensing.

The Further Notice also simplifies, eliminates, updates, or clarifies definitions and technical terms throughout Part 25.

FCC Proposes to Modify Rules for Unlicensed Use of TV & 600 MHz Bands

The Federal Communications Commission proposed to modify its Part 15 rules to accommodate growing demand and encourage innovation in the provision of wireless broadband data services.

The Commission’s Part 15 rules permit devices to operate on unused “white space” spectrum between TV stations. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking fulfills the Commission’s commitment in the Incentive Auction Report and Order to consider changes to its existing Part 15 rules to facilitate unlicensed use of the television bands, 600 MHz Band guard bands and channel 37. Following the incentive auction, with the repacking of the television band and the repurposing of current television spectrum for wireless services, there will be fewer frequencies in the UHF band available for use by unlicensed fixed and personal/portable white space devices and wireless microphones. The proposed changes to Part 15 rules are designed to allow for more robust service and efficient spectral use in the frequency bands that are now and will continue to be allocated and assigned to broadcast television services, while continuing to protect authorized users from harmful interference.

Benton

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