The Federal Election Commission couldn’t reach consensus at a meeting Wednesday on draft advisory opinions by staff regarding Facebook’s request for exemption from disclaimer rules. The company told the commission it wants to sell “small, character-limited ads” to candidate, party and other political committees, and asked if those qualified for the “small item” or “impracticable” exemptions from disclaimer rules. “Standard ads” on Facebook give the advertiser up to 25 text characters in the title and 135 in the body. “Sponsored stories” provide zero to 100 text characters, though they lack “communicative content” beyond a note that a Facebook user’s friend “likes” the advertiser’s page, a friend has “checked in” to an advertiser’s offsite location, or the ad simply republishes a post on the advertiser’s Facebook page. The first draft by commission staff said the ads didn’t qualify for either exemption. But based on an opinion from an earlier Google request, staff said the ads don’t need to include disclaimers, provided that the linked website or Facebook page includes a full disclaimer and the disclaimer and ad are “paid for and authorized by the same person or persons.” In the second draft, staff said the Facebook ads indeed qualified for the “impracticable” exemption. In standard ads, required disclaimers would “consume much to most of the text characters available to the ad payor” -- 57 characters alone for the phrase “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee,” the second draft said. Sponsored stories “would not accommodate any type of additional disclaimer, regardless of length.” The draft continues: “Although, in theory, it may be technologically possible for Facebook to modify the character limitations available in its advertising program to accommodate the Commission’s standard disclaimers applicable to political advertising, the Commission’s disclaimer exceptions ... take an entity’s existing advertising model as it is,” not requiring, for example, that bumper stickers “be made bigger” to include a disclaimer. The second draft also declined to state that a full disclaimer on a linked page satisfied the rule, which would answer “a question not asked” by Facebook. Since staff decided the ads fall under the impracticable exemption, no disclaimer of any kind is required, the draft said. It’s also not necessarily “viable” to require a modified disclaimer in the case of an advertiser whose ad links to a third-party landing page over which the advertiser has no control, staff said. In a third draft, submitted by Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, Facebook’s ads were again judged ineligible for either the small or impracticable exemptions. But that draft, which appears to repeat much of the first draft’s argument, said the disclaimer rules could be satisfied by “technological means,” such as “if the ads contain a rollover display or link to a website or Facebook page containing a full disclaimer.” In a section unique to the third draft, the opinion states that “technological innovation may promote compliance with campaign finance laws,” pointing to a recent rule change by the California Fair Practices Commission that suggests small ads use features such as “rollover displays, links to a webpage, or ‘other technological means’ to meet disclosure requirements.” A full disclaimer at the linked page, a rollover, or some future mechanism for delivering a disclaimer would all satisfy the requirement, the third draft said: “The essential requirement is that identifying information about the source of the advertisement ... be provided to the public.” At Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners “did not reach consensus” to approve a draft, the commission said in a notice Thursday. The commissioners voted on the second and third drafts. Both votes failed 3-3, a spokeswoman told us. The advisory opinions are available at http://xrl.us/bkrvm3.
The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) has announced "Operation Chain Reaction," a new comprehensive initiative targeting counterfeit items entering the supply chains of the Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies.
On June 2, 2011, the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security held a markup of the following: H.R. 1299, the Secure Border Act of 2011; H.R. 1922, to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection with access to Federal lands to carry out certain security activities in the Southwest border region, and for other purposes; and H.R. 915, the Jaime Zapata Border Enforcement Security Task Force Act. H.R. 915 and H.R. 1299 were approved and forwarded to the Committee, as amended and H.R. 1922 was approved and forwarded to the Committee without amendment.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to conduct a National Customs Automation Program1 pilot test for the in-bond highway transit of commercial goods through the U.S. from one point in Canada to another point in Canada. The test will be for nine carriers only and will commence no earlier than July 13, 2011. Comments may be submitted at any time during the test period.
AT&T will file comments Friday that run more than 200 pages, along with nine affidavits, disputing arguments made in various petitions to deny by opponents of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, Senior Vice President Robert Quinn said Thursday in a pre-filing briefing with reporters. Meanwhile, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to take a deep dive into information on the deal, launching a full review rather than just prepare comments to file at the FCC. Quinn said AT&T is not concerned about the CPUC investigation or any steps state regulators might take in California or elsewhere.
LOS ANGELES -- Coinstar’s Redbox division is skipping handheld system videogame rentals for now and sticking only with titles for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, Joel Resnik, vice president of video games, told Consumer Electronics Daily at E3. But portable system games represented “potentially” a big future opportunity for Redbox, he said. Redbox tested DS game rentals last year, and found that “the core demand” for game rentals was around the home consoles, Resnik said. The handheld game market “is in fluctuation” now. Among other things, dedicated portable videogame systems like the DS, 3DS, PSP and coming PS Vita face growing demand for games on the iPad, iPhone, and other mobile devices.
The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is designating an approved Native American Tribal Card issued by the Pascua Yaqui tribe to U.S. citizens as an acceptable travel document for purposes of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The approved card may be used to denote identity and U.S. citizenship of Pascua Yaqui members entering the United States from contiguous territory or adjacent islands at land and sea ports of entry. This designation is effective June 9, 2011.
CTIA strongly opposed an FCC proposal that wireless carriers pay Interstate Telecommunications Service Provider (ITSP) fees for the first time. The opposition came in comments responding to a May notice of proposed rulemaking on changes to the commission’s regulatory fees regime. PCIA said a proposed 20 percent fee increase on Private Land Mobile Radio Service (PLMRS) licenses would be unfairly burdensome. USTelecom said the FCC needs to make fundamental changes to its formula for calculating ITSP fees, which go well beyond anything proposed in the NPRM. For FY 2011, Congress has mandated that the FCC collect $335,794,000 through regulatory fees to cover its cost of operations.
TV makers seeking to qualify products for Energy Star certification would have to meet more-stringent energy use limits and new environmental rules, under revisions to the TV specification proposed by the EPA. The draft version 6.0 standard seeks to reduce the cap on energy use from 108 watts in the previous standard to 85 watts, a ceiling that one TV executive said would be “extremely challenging” for larger sets to meet. In a departure from the program’s focus on energy efficiency, the agency also is seeking to get manufacturers to meet requirements relating to supply chain emissions, toxicity and recyclability of their products.
The first major 3DS system update will be released in North America on Monday, Nintendo of America (NOA) said. By installing the free update via wireless broadband, 3DS users will gain access to a free Internet browser and the Nintendo eShop containing new downloadable content, NOA said. The browser will have “the capability to show 3D images on sites specifically designed to show 3D images,” it said. Initial content available for download to the handheld game system from the eShop will include Pokedex 3D, an application that will enable users of the 3DS to see Pokemon characters in 3D. Nintendo will offer the old Nintendo Entertainment System game Excitebike, remastered in 3D, as a free download until July 7 to anybody who installs the system update, NOA said. Coming Virtual Console content available in the eShop will include the Game Boy games Super Mario Land, Alleyway and Radar Mission. New content will be added to the eShop on Thursdays. The system update will also give DSi and DSi XL users the ability to transfer most of their previously downloaded Nintendo DSiWare games to the 3DS, NOA said. Not becoming available Monday, however, is the previously announced short-form video service. That will follow “in the near future” via download of a free application that NOA said will enable 3DS users to view specially selected video content, including 3D movie trailers, comedy clips and music videos automatically received when the device’s SpotPass feature is activated. Separately, NOA said “there soon will be 25,000 locations” where 3DS users will be able to get free Wi-Fi access. As of Tuesday, a deal with real estate company Simon Property Group will provide 3DS owners with complimentary wireless connections at almost 200 Simon shopping malls in the U.S., NOA said. Device users can also access hotspots at more than 1,000 Best Buy stores and, through an expanded deal with AT&T, 3DS users will have access to almost 24,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots, NOA said.