On March 23, 2010, Secretary of State Clinton met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Espinosa for the Merida U.S.-Mexico High Level Consultative Group meeting.
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled for March 22-27, 2010:
New rules make it easier for people to use mobile phones on ships in EU territorial waters when they're out of range of land-based networks, the EC said Friday. The rules standardize technical and legal requirements for use of 900 MHz and/or 1800 MHz GSM frequencies for on-board communications, bringing economic opportunities for operators who want to offer seamless maritime mobile connectivity, and ensuring that on-board mobile services don’t interfere with land-based ones, it said. The EC recommended that governments liberalize their authorization regimes so on-board service providers in one country can offer services in the territorial waters of other EU countries without obtaining additional licenses. The changes should end the patchwork of 27 different sets of laws on mobile phone coverage on cruise liners, cargo ships and ferries, it said. Countries now have 12 months to clear room for mobile communication services in the relevant spectrum bands and revamp their authorization schemes, the EC said.
The FCC should reclaim TV broadcasters’ spectrum by 2020, Sanford Bernstein analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a note to investors. Meanwhile, the agency should stay out of retransmission consent negotiations between stations and pay-TV distributors and relax ownership rules, he said. For emergencies, battery-operated radios or voice-mail blasts to land-line phones will suffice in a post-TV spectrum world, he said. For now, the government should let the retransmission consent process play out on its own, he said. “If the threat of a local station signal blackout gets cable MSOs to the negotiating table, don’t stand in the way of business negotiations,” he said. “After that, change the station ownership rules to allow a national roll-up of TV stations above the 39 percent cap and allow the cross-ownership of stations and newspapers,” he said. Deregulating ownership limits would prompt a flurry of transactions that “will make the local broadcast industry stronger during this time of change,” he said. It would also give stations more leverage in carriage negotiations with cable operators and the major networks, he said.
The most compelling argument in the world for retrieving seized domain names for gambling websites is pointless if the domain name owner doesn’t show up in court, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled. It overturned an appeals court ruling that said the state’s in rem law for seizing “gambling devices” only applied to tangible objects, not domain names. The state said later it had identified some of the owners and operators as U.S. citizens and would sue directly (WID Dec 21 p5). The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (IMEGA) and Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) argued they had standing because they claimed the targeted owners were members, and other lawyers purported to represent some of the names themselves without identifying their owners. But only “those with an interest in the property, such as current owners,” can participate in litigation, said the opinion by Justice Mary Noble. Her reasoning was joined by three other judges, while one judge concurred only with the result. “An Internet domain name does not have an interest in itself any more than a piece of land is interested in its own use,” she said. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was so outraged by the idea that property had in rem standing that it sanctioned lawyers making the claims in an earlier case, Noble said. IMEGA and IGC can’t claim to represent their purported members who own the domain names until they're identified: “This court cannot simply take their words for it.” The associational plaintiff in an earlier suit against ICANN eventually identified a member that it alleged had suffered harm, overcoming an initial hurdle to its suit -- showing that “the cyber-age status” of the gambling groups’ members doesn’t exempt them from standing rules. Noble said the groups had a low burden -- just identify a single member that suffered harm. “If a party that can properly establish standing comes forward, the writ petition giving rise to these proceedings could be re-filed with the Court of Appeals.” IMEGA called the ruling a “temporary setback” on a “technicality.” Chairman Joe Brennan said it would work with the others to identify and present a harmed owner. “The court is telling us that all that is necessary is for one domain owner to come forward, and we likely win,” he said.
A commission once so unpopular in Congress that it lost half its funding is well aware of having overreached and can be trusted now with broader rulemaking authority, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) conference Thursday in Washington. He sought to dispel advertisers’ fears that expanded commission authority, provided for in a bill passed by the House to create a financial regulatory agency, would produce an agency “on steroids,” in the words of former Chairman Jim Miller, that goes after a broad range of online practices. One of the industry’s biggest fears is apparently off the table: regulation of behavioral advertising.
A commission once so unpopular in Congress that it lost half its funding is well aware of having overreached and can be trusted now with broader rulemaking authority, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz told the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) conference Thursday in Washington. He sought to dispel advertisers’ fears that expanded commission authority, provided for in a bill passed by the House to create a financial regulatory agency, would produce an agency “on steroids,” in the words of former Chairman Jim Miller, that goes after a broad range of online practices. One of the industry’s biggest fears is apparently off the table: regulation of behavioral advertising.
The FCC approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote a brief statement of principles on broadband. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker were sharply critical of some aspects of the plan itself, which was not put up for a vote before being submitted to Congress. Both found lots to like in the plan but said it must not be used as a lever for imposing more regulation. Agency officials said the FCC will offer a list in coming days of more than 40 rulemakings that will be begun as a follow-up to the plan.
The FCC approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote a brief statement of principles on broadband. FCC Republicans Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker were sharply critical of some aspects of the plan itself, which was not put up for a vote before being submitted to Congress. Both found lots to like in the plan but said it must not be used as a lever for imposing more regulation. Agency officials said the FCC will offer a list in coming days of more than 40 rulemakings that will be begun as a follow-up to the plan.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to allow at least 10 more months of study on a proposal to impose toll-free calling intrastate, citing the need for accurate communication and as much public involvement as possible. It’s key that all stakeholders address issues that could affect the availability of phone service throughout the state, the commission said. The proposal, previously in line to be forwarded to the Legislature April 1 (CD Mar 11 p12), won’t see action before Jan. 19.