The one thing everyone involved in the copyright debate agrees on is that it’s difficult to define fair use. That was evident on Capitol Hill late Tues., when several senators introduced a bill they claimed protects fair use, within hours of a House committee chmn. promoting a fair use bill that takes a dramatically different approach. Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Hatch (R-Utah)’s new bill, S-2560, has the backing of Senate leadership, and would hold P2P providers accountable for copyright infringements by software users. That approach is strongly opposed by backers of a House bill that would facilitate copying of digital files in ways that are currently prohibited. The debate occurred as a Senate subcommittee held a hearing on P2P.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum describing procedures for the implementation of enforced compliance and penalties for the prior notice of imported food (PN) requirements contained in the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act). In addition, an attachment to the memorandum provides guidelines for the assessment of penalties for Bioterrorism Act violations involving PN, and the mitigation of such penalties.
Copyright holders are using secondary responsibility theories -- contributory and vicarious liability for infringements -- to try to create world where entrepreneurs, financiers and vendors won’t touch peer-to-peer services, and self-sufficiency of premises technologies is crippled by mandatory rights-management tools, defense lawyers said. Lop- sided debate in San Jose last week at technology program from U. of Tex. law school and U. of Cal.’s Berkeley Center for Law & Technology saw attorneys for embattled file-sharing companies complaining that media companies had persuaded courts and congressional supporters to run roughshod over fair-use protections in Supreme Court’s Sony Betamax decision.
In a move reportedly encouraged by the White House, the Bell companies have promised the FCC they will retain current UNE-P wholesale prices for several months. In letters sent to FCC Chmn. Powell, Verizon promised a 5-month period of price stability while the other 3 Bells said they would keep the current prices until the end of the year. Powell released the letters to the news media late Mon., saying the agency’s “top priority is to ensure that consumers don’t experience any disruption in services” as a result of the decision by the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to vacate the FCC’s UNE rules. The court’s ruling becomes effective today (Wed.).
BOSTON -- FCC Chmn. Powell Wed. opened a major international meeting here on ultra wideband with a plea for the group to move forward with an international agreement. In coming days, ITU’s Task Group 1/8 will try to hammer out a consensus on UWB in a rare meeting outside Geneva. Powell told delegates that while balancing interests presents major “challenges” for regulators “the promise of UWB technology is simply too great to do otherwise.”
Nextel, still fighting to make certain FCC’s 800 MHz rebanding plan includes giving it spectrum at 1.9 GHz, has offered a new concession, giving up additional spectrum at 800 MHz to be used by public safety. The proposal appears designed in part to give FCC Chmn. Powell additional cover if he sides with Nextel against other wireless carriers, which have made the case Nextel instead should get 2.1 GHz spectrum. Nextel had proposed giving public safety 2.5 MHz and the new plan would essentially double that to 4.5 MHz. Based on Nextel’s numbers, the offer is worth $863 million more than the previous proposal, or $5.155 billion, a spokesman said.
The Journal of Commerce Online reports that on June 1, 2004, the World Trade Organization (WTO) delayed its decision on a request for sanctions against the U.S. in the "Byrd Amendment" case. According to the article, the European Union, Canada, Japan, India, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and South Korea are seeking the right to retaliate against U.S. exports because the U.S. Congress has failed to repeal the Byrd Amendment, which the WTO declared illegal more than a year ago. (JoC Online dated 06/01/04, www.joc.com.)
Pursuant to the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (the Offset Act), the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice of its intent to distribute assessed antidumping (AD) or countervailing (CV) duties for fiscal year (FY) 2004 to affected domestic producers for certain qualifying expenditures they incur after the issuance of an AD or CV order. Written certifications to obtain a continued AD or CV offset under a particular order must be received by August 2, 2004.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) makes available on its Web site a complete list of its informed compliance publications (ICPs), including a pdf file for each publication.
Shippers' Newswire reports that it now looks virtually certain that many ships and ports will fail to comply with the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) by July 1, 2004, stating that a May 17, 2004 survey of 35 governments by the IMO showed that only 1,902 of their 20,722 ships have received their ISPS ship security certificates, which represents only 9.2%. Regarding ports, the article states that only 301 out of 5,578 port facilities had received port security certificates as of May 17, 2004, which represents only 5.4%. (American Shipper, dated 05/27/04, ShippersNewsWire@americanshipper.com )