May 2016

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 25, 2016:

Updating the Public Inspection File Requirements: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on proposals to eliminate the requirement that commercial broadcast stations retain copies of letters and emails from the public in their public inspection file and the requirement that cable operators reveal the location of the cable system’s principal headend. (MB Docket No. 16-xxx)

Enhancing Public Safety and Network Reliability Through Communications Outage Reporting: The Commission will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update its Part 4 communications network outage reporting requirements (PS Docket Nos. 15-80, 11-82; ET Docket No. 04-35)

Connect America Phase II Auction: The Commission will consider a Report & Order adopting rules to implement a competitive bidding process for high-cost universal service support from Phase II of the Connect America Fund. (WC Docket Nos. 10-90, 14-58, 14-259)

Most US households rely on cable or satellite operators to watch television broadcast programming. These operators are able to provide their subscribers with broadcast programming—including local news—by retransmitting local broadcast television stations' over-the-air signals. Three statutory licenses permit operators to offer copyrighted broadcast programming in return for paying a government-set royalty fee. For 2014, these fees totaled about $320 million.

Congress created statutory licenses as a cost-effective way for operators to air broadcast programming without obtaining permission to do so from those that own the copyrights for this programming. However, changes in the video marketplace have led some industry stakeholders to question the need for the licenses. The Satellite Television Extension and Localism Reauthorization (STELAR) Act of 2014 included a provision for GAO to review possible effects of phasing out the statutory licenses. This report addresses (1) what is known about the feasibility of phasing out the statutory licenses and (2) views of selected stakeholders on the implications of such a phaseout. GAO analyzed Federal Communications Commission's cable price data from 2010 to 2014 and the US Copyright Office's royalty data from 2014, the most recently available; reviewed relevant laws and reports; and interviewed 42 industry stakeholders, selected for their role in the video marketplace and expertise on the issue.

The old adage, "it's best not to ask how laws and sausages are made," doesn't apply here. Consider that the US surveillance state was greatly expanded, and yet not a single member of Congress voted for the Justice Department's proposal during the week of April 25. That's because of a quirk in US law that allows so-called "procedural rules" of court to be written by unelected advisory committees under the umbrella of the Administrative Office of the US Courts. From there, they are generally rubber stamped by the Supreme Court. The only way these rules don't become law is if Congress takes action to thwart them. So what happened here?

The Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure was amended to allow judges to sign warrants to allow the authorities to hack into computers outside a judge's jurisdiction as part of a criminal investigation. What's more, Rule 41 would allow judges to use one warrant to search multiple computers anywhere instead of having to get warrants for each computer. Without Rule 41, judges could authorize electronic searches only within their own judicial district. Although this is an amendment to courthouse procedure rules, it has a huge impact in practice and on the Fourth Amendment. The Justice Department even said so as early as last week.