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Broadcasters are defending radio stations’ ability to play music without paying musicians as Congress looks to update the copyright system. The National Association of Broadcasters released a new study arguing that musicians sell more songs when radio stations play those songs.

"This study highlights clearly the enormous value that radio airplay provides in promoting music and generating music sales," NAB Executive Vice President of Communications Dennis Wharton said. “Local radio remains the premiere platform for exposing new music and generating sales for record labels."

According to the study -- conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by NAB -- increased radio airplay has “an immediate” impact on a song’s sales and drives on-demand streaming of that song. The study noted to a strong correlation between radio airplay and sales, which is even stronger for country, Latin and Top 40 music.

The study also pointed to a previous Nielsen study, which found that 61 percent of people discover new music through AM/FM radio stations. Currently, AM/FM radio stations do not pay musicians to play their songs over the air, a facet of the current copyright system that some lawmakers are determined to change.

Microsoft’s top lawyer is warning that US government surveillance could open the door for other countries to try to spy on data stored by tech companies in the US.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith criticized the US government’s attempts to compel American tech companies to hand over data about foreign users stored abroad. He pointed to a US warrant for information about a person in Europe that was being stored at the company’s data center in Ireland.

“If the data is in the US, it’s subject to the reach of US law,” but if the data is stored in a data center in a foreign country, it is subject to that country’s laws, Smith said. If the US goes after data stored abroad, other countries will be emboldened to pursue data stored in the US, he continued.

“If we want to protect the rights of Americans for data that exists in the US, we has a country need to pursue principles” that are agreed to and applied globally, he said. Rather than “deputizing” tech companies to spy on their users for government surveillance, the US should turn to established legal processes, Smith said.

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced two cybersecurity bills that will advance to a vote in the panel. The pair of bills should make it easier for government agencies and private companies to share information about hackers and focus federal efforts towards preventing stopping major hacks, Sen Carper said.

“Cybersecurity is one of our nation’s biggest challenges,” he said. “While our work in this area is far from finished, these bills are an important step in our effort to modernize our nation’s cybersecurity programs and help the public and private sectors work together to tackle cyber threats more effectively in the future.”

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center Act would codify an existing cybersecurity center run by the Homeland Security Department and make sure that it operators as a sort of clearinghouse for the issue. The Federal Information Security Modernization Act would reshuffle administrative roles and put more focus on stopping data beaches.

Members of Congress gave a warm reception to AT&T’s $49 billion proposal to buy DirecTV and suggested regulators should let the deal proceed.

Executives from the TV and Internet companies told lawmakers that they need to combine in order to stay competitive with rivals such as Comcast and Verizon, and members from both sides of the aisle seemed to agree.

Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA), the ranking member on the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee, said “the bulk of the evidence demonstrates that each company primarily serves different markets with different services,” which should protect them from fears about antitrust violations.

“Although the proposed merger represents a concerning trend towards industry consolidation, there is ample evidence that this transaction would create considerable public-interest benefits,” he said. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) indicated that federal regulators ought to butt out and let the merger move forward.

“It has been demonstrated repeatedly that a free and competitive marketplace yields lower prices, greater innovation, increased investment and better services,” he said. “We should strive to ensure that proposed transactions result in enhanced competitive marketplaces so that the attendant benefits continue to run to consumers.”

AT&T and DirecTV executives faced members of the House and will then head to a follow-up in the Senate later.

AT&T’s $49 billion plan to buy DirecTV could strengthen the company’s union, a move that is getting Democratic nods of approval on Capitol Hill.

“This transaction presents substantial opportunities for labor standards,” Rep Hank Johnson (D-GA) said in a hearing on the planned merger. “I know everybody doesn’t agree that that is something that is worthy, but I think that is very worthwhile.”

“Given the television industry’s famous reputation for opposing organized labor, this merger would have transformational benefit for thousands of employees in this industry, giving labor a strong foothold in the industry,” added Sen Johnson, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust.

AT&T currently has the largest full-time, private union in the United States with 41,000 members. If regulators allow the phone and Internet company to buy DirecTV, that option would extend to the satellite TV firm's 16,000 employees.

“We have a long history of working with our union members and collective bargaining,” AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson told lawmakers. “So with DirecTV, you should assume that DirecTV employees will be offered that same option to collectively bargain or not," he said. "That will be their choice.”

AT&T and DirecTV executives will make the case to lawmakers that the proposed $49 billion deal to merge the two companies is necessary to stay competitive.

“This transaction is about meeting consumer demand,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told members of the House Judiciary’s Antitrust subcommittee in his prepared testimony. “It’s about providing consumers with the integrated video and broadband Internet services they want, delivered over any type of device, to nearly anywhere in the country.”

AT&T offers phone and Internet service, but its television offerings do not turn a profit and “cannot meet the needs of enough consumers,” Stephenson claimed, noting that the company’s U-verse service operates in less than one-quarter of the country. And even in those markets, AT&T doesn’t have the “scale” to “to forge strong relationships with programmers and compete effectively against the dominant cable companies,” he said.

DirecTV, which has about 20 million TV subscribers in the US but no Internet service, needs the deal in order to keep up with the changing market, the satellite company’s chief executive Michael White added.

“If we want to compete effectively in today’s Internet-driven marketplace, we must adapt,” he claimed in prepared testimony. That means “integrated bundles” of TV and Internet service, like the deals offered by competitors at Comcast and Time Warner Cable, as well as the ability to offer subscribers chances to watch television online with companies like Netflix.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation that would allow people to “unlock” their cellphones when changing providers.

The bill, which is scheduled for consideration, would allow users to take their mobile device from one wireless network to another, and is backed by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“Consumers should be able to use their existing cell phones when they move their service to a new wireless provider,” Sen Leahy said. “Our laws should not prohibit consumers from carrying their cell phones to a new network, and we should promote and protect competition in the wireless marketplace,” he added.

Sen Grassley called the bipartisan compromise “an important step forward in ensuring that there is competition in the industry and in safeguarding options for consumers as they look at new cell phone contracts.” “Empowering people with the freedom to use the carrier of their choice after complying with their original terms of service is the right thing to do,” he said.

Russia wants Twitter to block or censor some “extremist” accounts, a top regulator said. The head of the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, claimed to ask for 12 “extremist” accounts to be deleted or restricted in a meeting with the head of Twitter’s public policy division during the executive’s first official trip to Russia.

“I hope the content of some extremist blogs will be deleted,” Alexander Zharov said, according to the state-owned ITAR-TASS news service. “It concerns not only Russian users. Even if the account has been registered on the territory of Ukraine, this information would be considered extremist as well," he added. "The management of Twitter has heard us, and I hope that these accounts will be deleted in the nearest time.”

Megamergers are heading back to Congress with lawmakers set to probe AT&T’s $49 billion bid to buy DirecTV, the second mammoth media deal to come under scrutiny in 2014.

The hearing comes with many lawmakers expressing growing skepticism about the trend toward consolidation following earlier hearings on the proposed Comcast and Time Warner Cable deal. That sentiment could boil over when the AT&T and DirecTV executives come to Washington for a set of double-header hearings in the House and Senate.

“On the one hand you’ve got to look at each of these mergers on their own individual merit but you can’t ignore the broader landscape,” said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at the consumer interest group Public Knowledge.

“Yes, you have to just look at the facts of this one but you also have to bear in mind an ever more concentrated communications market,” added Bergmayer, who has been critical of the deal and is slated to testify in the House. Both AT&T and DirecTV say they are missing a crucial component in the suite of services that their subscribers are looking for.

Republicans on a House panel want the country’s antitrust regulators, not its telecom regulators, to take the lead on net neutrality.

During a hearing held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Law, Republicans questioned the need for net neutrality regulation from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“The Internet has flourished precisely because it is a deregulated market” and should be kept open through “vigorous application of the antitrust laws,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said.

“As regulatory proceedings continue to stretch on, a question I have is whether there might be a more efficient and more effective way to safeguard against potential discriminatory behavior than federal rulemaking,” Subcommittee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said in his opening statement. “That is where antitrust law comes in.”

He also pushed for evidence that Internet providers are behaving in a way that warrants FCC intervention in the form of net neutrality rules and said the agency should conduct a cost-benefit analysis “before regulating such an important component of our national economy.”