Talks on a possible treaty to protect copyrighted broadcast signals resumed Wednesday in the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). The April 10-12 “intersessional” meeting will consider a March 6 working document (http://xrl.us/bot7g8). Treaty negotiations appeared to have been blocked in 2007 by “fundamental differences over the purposes and scope” of the pact, but in recent years the U.S. Copyright Office asked for the issue to be put back on the agenda, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) Director James Love wrote April 10. WIPO is seeking a conclusion, and several countries, including South Africa, Mexico and Japan, are working actively for a new treaty, he said in blog post (http://xrl.us/bot7mr). The discussion on what KEI dubbed the “zombie agenda” appears likely to be plagued by the same controversies that stalled the treaty years ago, including whether it includes webcasting.

As the House Intelligence Committee marked up its cybersecurity information sharing bill Wednesday, GOP senators said they have not decided how to approach the issue in this Congress. Two of the leading sponsors of last year’s Republican cybersecurity legislation, the SECURE IT Act (S-2151, S-3342), said in separate interviews they have held meetings with cybersecurity stakeholders this spring but have yet to put pen to paper on a new cybersecurity bill. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said he’s meeting with Democratic cybersecurity hawks this week to develop their plan to address any gaps in President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order.

LAS VEGAS -- Chances are the FCC won’t have finished the media ownership review due in 2010 by fall, with the 2010 quadrennial review likely to outlast the tenure of departing Chairman Julius Genachowski, agreed panelists including Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. “My guess is we'll still be working on it” in the fall, the fourth anniversary of a workshop that began the 2010 review, said Lake. With the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council study (CD Feb 27 p1) of the effect of cross-ownership on minority stations due to be complete in about four weeks, it’s still possible “the commission may be prepared to take a vote” then, Lake said Tuesday at NAB’s show.

In large part the order echoes what industry insiders said they were expecting (CD April 8 p6). It requires broadcasters, MVPDs, and “any other distributor of video programming for residential reception that delivers such programming directly to the home and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission” to put an aural description on a secondary audio stream of any emergency information that is available visually. There’s a two-year deadline for compliance with the new order, with a waiver for The Weather Channel and Direct TV, and commercial video equipment and display-only monitors don’t fall under the rules.

Bridging the rural communications gap has been complicated by uncertainty created by some FCC policies, said stakeholders at a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The hearing was the first of the subcommittee’s investigation into the state of the nation’s communications policy, and the first held by it’s new Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Subcommittee staffers said the panel will also seek to investigate the state of wireless communications and the state of video in future hearings.

"Under the NTTAA, DOE, as a federal department, is required to use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standard bodies unless these standards are inconsistent with applicable law,” wrote Doug Johnson, CEA vice president-technology policy. DOE has acknowledged that their proposed rules are based largely on the CEA-2043 VA, the test standard used in the industry consensus, but CEA and other industry commenters said the DOE should have to show that the VA is impractical under the law before developing it’s own standards. “U.S. law and good public policy favors simply relying on the standard rather than borrowing from, modifying or reinventing it,” wrote Johnson.

As the FCC moves forward on a draft order approving trials that would allow VoIP providers direct access to numbers in a few markets, the commission released a report Monday on number utilization. However, key data in the report are almost three years old.

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcaster uncertainty about the voluntary incentive auction was evident this week at NAB events, and in our interviews with station executives and lawyers. Class A station owners asked more questions than Media Bureau staffers working on the auction had answers for at a standing-room-only bureau event Monday evening. The next day, participants told us they're happy the bureau held the event and that staff will continue to engage with them, but questions still pervade. They have queries about the nature of the auction itself and about what a public notice Friday freezing processing of some broadcaster applications means (CD April 8 p5) as well as some comments by bureau staff that indicate some Class A’s may be ineligible to sell all or some of their channels.

The framework will need to take into account how government and industry typically view critical infrastructure cybersecurity, Microsoft said. The government “tends to look at critical infrastructure as a monolithic collection of systems and services,” while industry “looks at core elements within its direct control or its contractual obligations to deliver services,” Microsoft said. If the government focuses too much on high-impact -- but low probability -- threat scenarios, the framework could include “requirements and compliance obligations that may not necessarily improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure or private sector enterprises,” Microsoft said. The framework should be based on six foundational principles, Microsoft said -- risk-based, outcome-focused, prioritized, practicable, “respectful of privacy and civil liberties” and globally relevant. It should also include a cohesive risk assessment and risk management structure, Microsoft said.

Questions continue to surround the pending nominations to replace outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Robert McDowell, as lawmakers refused to say who, if anyone, had percolated to the top of the list. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., continued to stump for FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to replace outgoing Chairman Julius Genachowski as the top Democrat on the commission. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, again declined to say whether he had endorsed his congressional aide, Michael O'Rielly, to replace outgoing Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell.