The Labor Department's Office of Trade and Labor Affairs has issued a notice announcing that it has decided to accept for review a submission alleging that the Government of Guatemala has violated certain labor provisions of the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA)1.
Congress and international treaties are jockeying for primacy over U.S. copyright law, judging from the amicus briefs filed in what could be a redo of the first completed P2P infringement trial. Judge Michael Davis, U.S. District Court in Duluth, asked for briefs to evaluate whether he made a “manifest error of law” by telling the jury in Capitol v. Thomas that “making available” files to download constitutes infringement (WID May 19 p4), leading to a $222,000 loss for Jammie Thomas. Much of the argument is old hat for P2P case observers, though RIAA supporters expanded their arguments that the U.S. would fall out of favor with the world by narrowing the scope of copyright protections.
Widespread academic distaste for the U.S. copyright system shouldn’t be used to trash the role of performance rights organizations (PROs), a law professor told a George Washington University event on music licensing Wednesday. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC already are providing a system that is fair for creators and relatively efficient for licensees, said Robert Merges, University of California at Berkeley professor of law and technology. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters defended PROs but said she would like their role to expand to streamline licensing. Antitrust concerns may make that a challenge, some speakers said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an "ACE Entry Summary, Accounts and Revenue at a Glance" fact sheet.
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain automotive parts pursuant to a complaint.
On June 4, 2008, the European Commission's proposal for a new Community Customs Code (aka, the Modernized Customs Code, MCC) was published in the European Union's Official Journal, meaning that the MCC will enter into force 20 days after June 4, 2008.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a CSMS message which states that at approximately 11:56 EDT on June 9, 2008 Automated Commercial Environment users began experiencing slow responses impacting CBP and Trade users. Service was expected to be restored at 13:30 EDT. CBP notes that updates will follow if necessary. (CSMS 08-000101, dated 06/09/08, available at http://apps.cbp.gov/csms/viewmssg.asp?Recid=17109&page=&srch_argv=08-000101&srchtype=all&btype=&sortby=&sby.)
Don’t let Core Communications revamp its intercarrier compensation, AT&T, Verizon and six phone trade groups told a federal appeals court. In an intervening brief filed last week, they urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to deny Core’s appeal of an FCC order denying forbearance. The forbearance petition sought in effect to replace access charges with reciprocal compensation (CD July 27 p8). Oral argument is Oct. 7. In its brief, the phone group panned the Core appeal as “the latest in a long series of efforts by [Core] to promote its own short-term interest in regulatory arbitrage at the expense of rational, pro-competitive regulation.” Besides AT&T and Verizon, the brief was signed by the National Exchange Carrier Association, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, Nebraska Rural Independent Companies, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and Western Telecommunications Alliance. Core had no basis for seeking forbearance in the first place, said the intervenors. A carrier may ask for forbearance only from a regulation governing itself or a “class of telecommunications carriers” of which it’s a part, they said: “Core sought to impose a new set of regulations on other carriers… as a means of gaining competitive advantage.” Forbearance wouldn’t have given Core automatic relief, but create a “regulatory vacuum,” they said. Core’s petition “was, in substance, a request for new regulation, not a request for forbearance,” they said. Core didn’t comment. “Our reply brief is due on June 17, and we'll use that opportunity to address any issues raised by intervenors that merit a response,” said Michael Hazzard, the company’s lawyer. The forbearance appeal isn’t Core’s only case on ISP compensation. The D.C. Circuit also is weighing whether to grant a writ of mandamus forcing the FCC to clarify its ISP- bound traffic rules (CD May 6 p1). Reversing the forbearance order would give Core future relief only, whereas a mandamus could lead to retroactive relief.
The International Trade Administration and the International Trade Commission have each issued notices initiating automatic five-year Sunset Reviews on the above-listed antidumping duty orders.
The U.S. Census Bureau has issued its final rule, effective July 2, 2008, which amends 15 CFR Part 30 to make mandatory1 the filing of export information through the Automated Export System or AESDirect2, for all shipments where a Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) is currently required, etc.