John Eggerton

Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) said that while he continued to talk with Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) about a bipartisan network neutrality bill, the current reality is that "there are too many folks, from [FCC] chairman Ajit Pai to the stakeholders and lawmakers who are dug in on a particular side of this issue, so it is making compromise an impossible task."

That came in opening remarks in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on broadband deployment. Ranking Member Nelson said consumers "deserve better" than chairman Pai's proposal (to roll back Title II classification for both wired and wireless broadband, eliminate the general conduct standard, remove interconnection from net neutrality oversight, and review the Open Internet rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization). "Consumers need to know that we have their back and they deserve certainty and finality when it comes to their essential right to a truly free and open Internet protected by clear, enforceable net neutrality rules."

A Federal Communications Commission spokesman said that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was well within the law to speak out in favor of his network neutrality proposal, which includes rolling back Title II reclassification, eliminating the general conduct standard and reviewing the Open Internet order rules. That came after news that Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI) had suggested the chairman may have violated a requirement that the FCC must consider public comment before taking a particular policy position.

"Like Chairman [Tom] Wheeler before him and all others in FCC leadership, the law is clear that Chairman Pai can express his opinion and speak out in favor of his proposed approach to ensuring Internet Freedom," said the spokesman. "As Chairman Pai made clear in his speech, he intends to seek public input on his proposal and that this will be the beginning of the discussion, not the end."

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's effort to roll back Title II classification and rethink Open Internet rules was a threat to free speech online. Ranking Member Pallone, who strongly backed the Open Internet order, said that online dialog is critical to democracy but would be jeopardized by Republicans pushing to overturn the rules.

He said that without net neutrality rules, large corporations can "begin to choke off conversations they don’t like and speed up ones they do." He said network conglomerates that control the infrastructure are buying content, like news outlets, which gives them a financial incentive to give preference to their own news. But he says the incentive could also be political.

A group of legislators has formed a new "reality" caucus focused on the new realities of augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. Reps Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Bill Flores (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) have teamed up to launch the Congressional Caucus on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Technologies.

"As these technologies continue to advance and grow, this ‘Reality Caucus’ will work to foster information sharing between Congress and our nation’s world-leading technology industry," the legislators said. "These technologies have shown tremendous potential for innovation in the fields of entertainment, education and healthcare. As these technologies develop, questions will inevitably rise in privacy, intellectual property and other areas. This is an opportunity to educate our colleagues and others to ensure Congress is doing all it can to encourage – rather than hinder – these enterprising fields."

Sen Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) has introduced a bill, the Gigabit Opportunity (or GO) Act, that she says would accelerate the deployment of high-speed broadband in low-income and rural communities. It would also add some Hill imprimatur to proposals already offered up by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. The bill would give tax breaks to companies for investing in gigabit-capable expansion into those communities, direct the FCC to release a framework that encourages states, counties and cities to voluntarily adopt streamlined broadband laws and be designated as a “Gigabit Opportunity Zone," and defer capital gains for upgrades and allow companies to expense the cost of creating those zones, as well as allow states to more easily issue tax-exempt bonds.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has launched two proceedings to make it easier to build out broadband, wireless and wired, and has proposed creating Gigabit Opportunity Zones providing such tax breaks and streamlined approvals for buildouts.

Washington was quick to weigh in on the latest news in the multi-front debate/battle over Open Internet rules—that was the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decision not to review a three-judge panel of that court's decision that the Federal Communications Commission was within its authority to reclassify Internet service providers as common carriers after years of treating them as information services rather than telecommunications.

“The D.C. Circuit has once again confirmed that the FCC's Open Internet rules are lawful and supported by the evidence," said Public Knowledge senior counsel John Bergmayer. "Now, the primary threat to these important consumer protections is FCC Chairman Pai's determination to roll them back, and to hand more power to monopolistic internet access providers.”

In an interview with Breitbart, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was asked about fellow Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly's argument that Congress needs to "enshrine free Internet principles in law" to resolve the ongoing "political uncertainty." Chairman Pai agreed:

“I think the best solution would be for Congress to tell us what they want the rules of the road to be for the FCC and the country when it comes to the digital world," he said. "Part of the problem is that we are consistently looking at 1934 laws and 1996 laws then we try to shoehorn our modern marketplace to some of those paradigms that frankly we didn’t anticipate a marketplace as dynamic as the internet. I really think that Congress, ideally looking at all the opinions, and all the constituencies they can come to a consensus. Because again as Commissioner O’Rielly pointed out we don’t want the regulatory winds to keep shifting every four or eight years we want to provide some level of consistency to the marketplace so that consumers and companies alike can enjoy the digital revolution.”

The House has passed a bipartisan bill, the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act of 2017, that would make the head of the Copyright Office a presidential appointee, term limited to 10 years. The bill passed by a large margin, 378 to 48, but must still pass the Senate. Currently the register is an appointment of and reports to the Librarian of Congress and has no term limit.

The Register of Copyrights oversees the Copyright Office, whose opinion that online video streamers aren't pay-TV providers when it comes to compulsory license eligibility was just deferred to by the Ninth Circuit in ruling against streamer FilmOn X. The duties of the position include "legal interpretation of the copyright law… promulgating copyright regulations; advising Congress and other government officials on domestic and international copyright policy and other intellectual property issues." There is currently an acting register, Karyn Temple Claggett, but no permanent pick, so this would apply to the next full-time official. Claggett replaced Maria Pallante, who pushed for making illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony and shared ISP concerns with the impact of the FCC's set-top box proposal on copyrights and contracts.

Attorney Daryl Parks, who represented the family of Trayvon Martin, says AT&T has denied his request to speak at its shareholder meeting about his clients allegations of broadband redlining in Cleveland (OH). Parks recently said those clients would be suing AT&T over the issue and wanted to bring that to shareholders' attention personally. That comes as AT&T is trying to get its merger with Time Warner approved by the Justice Department, a point Parks made in announcing the suit.

"Yesterday I received a fax from AT&T’s Stacey Maris, Senior Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Secretary in response to the letter we delivered April 24th," Parks said. "AT&T has specifically denied my request to speak at the annual shareholders meeting that occurs this Friday, April 28, 2017. Stating that 'The agenda for our Annual Meeting is already established, but if you attend our Meeting, I hope you find it informative and enjoyable.'" Parks said AT&T did not address his request for a meeting or the merits of the allegations. He said the company was stonewalling, that the issue "will not simply disappear," and that redlining was not confined to Ohio.

AT&T is being targeted with a lawsuit following accusations of broadband digital redlining. Attorney Daryl D. Parks (he represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown) of Florida law firm Parks & Crump and attorney Walter Madison from Akron (OH) are representing families in Cleveland (OH) who allege they have been "severely impacted" by a lack of connectivity and want a meeting with AT&T top brass to talk about it. They are threatening a lawsuit and Parks has written AT&T President Randall Stephenson asking for a meeting April 28 at the AT&T shareholders' meeting in Dallas (TX).

Parks said in the letter that the redlining was an invidious practice "copiously" documented by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance report that had irreparably injured his clients. AT&T is trying to get its Time Warner merger through the Department of Justice, an approval that could be complicated by such a suit. In fact, among the threshold Parks talks about in his letter is whether AT&T's behavior is "relevant to its FCC character qualifications or its DOJ competitive qualifications to complete its merger with Time Warner?"