STANFORD, Calif. -- The handling of mobile location information in a new draft bill by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., was the hot button issue in a privacy discussion last week at the Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference. President Pam Horan of the Online Publishers Association expressed qualms about a provision that information about a person’s precise location be treated as sensitive information subject to a requirement of express opt-in. She called the data crucial to location-based services. Precise location information “adds a ton of great value” to ads, agreed Matthew Carr, general manager of Microsoft Advertising. Targeted ads “could be the final blow” to newspaper circulars, he said. But “we won’t get out of the gate on this” if the use and privacy of data aren’t handled properly, Carr said.
Ireland’s High Court cleared the way for a constitutional attack on EU Internet and telephony traffic data-storage rules, saying Wednesday that Digital Rights Ireland can pursue a challenge to national law in the European Court of Justice on the grounds that the data retention directive violates fundamental rights. The move, which follows decisions against data retention in Germany and Romania, has implications for data storage across Europe, said DRI Chairman TJ McIntyre. Meanwhile, a preliminary European Commission assessment of the directive shows wide divergence among national laws, and concerns from civil society and telecom providers.
HyperCube contested as erroneous a state administrative law judge’s proposed decision on its conflict with Level 3 Communications. The challenge came in a Thursday filing by HyperCube to the California Public Utility Commission. In May 2009 the competitive local exchange carrier filed a complaint with the state regulator over what the company alleges to be Level 3’s unlawful refusal to pay about $5.5 million for tariffed access services and late charges levied by HyperCube. The charges arose in connection with Level 3’s provision of toll-free calls that originate and terminate in California. Level 3 has been boycotting the charges for years on grounds that the CLEC illegitimately is inserting itself into Level 3’s business. The proposed decision was issued April 16 (CD Apr 21 p9).
The departing head of FCC’s broadband work crew said the agency doesn’t need a permanent czar to ensure that the commission stays focused on high-speed Internet service even after execution of the National Broadband Plan wraps up. Blair Levin sees changes to the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation as linked and thinks they need to be done together, he said in an exit interview Friday. He remains confused why broadcasters are publicly resisting the plan’s recommendation to create a market for other uses of TV spectrum and said that, despite much speculation about what he'll do next, he himself doesn’t know.
The public interest benefits of allowing the major studios to use selectable output controls (SOC) to beam first-run movies to pay-TV homes before their release on DVD or Blu-ray, “outweigh the limited impact on consumers who rely on unprotected outputs on the set-top box,” the FCC’s Media Bureau said Friday. It granted the MPAA’s request for waiver of SOC rules with conditions, as had been expected (CD Dec 1 p1). “We believe that providing consumers with the option to view films in their homes shortly after those films are released in theaters will serve the public interest,” the bureau said.
The Title II sections of the Communications Act the FCC would apply to broadband under Chairman Julius Genachowski’s reclassification plan could still burden operators with cumbersome rules and expose them to costly legal challenges, communications attorneys said Friday. Statements from Genachowski and FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick Thursday indicated Sections 201, 202, 208, 222, 254 and 255 would remain in place after a substantial forbearance from other Title II elements (CD May 7 p1). Sections 201 and 202 “are the key provisions of the Communications Act that have sort of kept behavior in check for almost 80 years,” said telecom lawyer Glenn Richards of Pillsbury Winthrop. “Anything that folks do, they're always thinking about it in terms of ‘Will it cause a 201 or 202 issue?'"
An upcoming FCC order on pole attachments leaves some industry officials worried and others hopeful about the fate of pole attachment rates. The items are circulating at the FCC and will focus on “ensuring nondiscriminatory, just and reasonable access to utility poles,” the commission said when the May 20 meeting preliminary agenda was released. “We need a regime that is essentially going to set pole rates that are as low as possible, while still providing appropriate rental costs from pole owners,” NCTA Executive Vice President James Assey told us.
Monthly FCC meetings are running longer, partially due to the intricacies of the National Broadband Plan, but also because of additional time spent on Haitian earthquake relief efforts earlier this year and bureau chiefs going over items also discussed in staffers’ presentations. The 10 meetings under Chairman Julius Genachowski lasted an average of 2 hours 13 minutes, our research found. That’s 33 percent longer than the last 10 meetings under Kevin Martin, though meetings now start on time. It’s also longer than the last five meetings whose video we could access under two previous chairmen. Before items were approved on circulation, meetings sometimes would last all day.
The Rural Utilities Service opened the window Friday for applications for broadband stimulus funds for projects using satellites to increase the reach of broadband. The request for proposals (RFP) was printed in Friday’s Federal Register and outlines the application process for rural library broadband and technical assistance projects as well. The satellite broadband funds are part of the second round of broadband stimulus fund distribution through RUS’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). The agency will accept applications for funds through June 7, it said.
The FCC will have to be lithe as a circus performer to pull off Chairman Julius Genachowski’s so-called “third way” for regulating broadband, said officials from industry and a free-market think tank at a Progress & Freedom Foundation event Friday morning. And the approach would create significant market uncertainty if applied, they said. Genachowski revealed his plan to seal the commission’s broadband Internet authority on Thursday (CD May 7 p1).