By By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-16-18 With the help of three Republicans, the Senate has voted by a slim margin to nullify the FCC's effort to deregulate internet access, but it still faces an up-Hill battle that most observers believe will ultimately not be won. The vote on the Congressional Review Act [...]
By InsideRadio.com, 5-15-18 The Dept. of Justice’s list of which consent decrees to target for possible elimination continues to include the decades-old agreements covering how radio licenses music from ASCAP and BMI. Not only would such a move potentially upend how radio secures music rights, it would be “extraordinarily disruptive” to the entire music marketplace [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-10-18 The FCC has hitched enforcement of network neutrality, primarily by the Federal Trade Commission, to the promises and business plans ISPs outlined in new reporting requirements the OMB approved May 2, at least for a period of three years. According to a Federal Register notice being published Friday (May 11), [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-10-18 The FCC has unanimously approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) looking into opening up the 2.5-GHz band for wireless broadband, but not without pushback from some educational broadband services (EBS) that use the band. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who is exiting the commission, did not participate so [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) in the Supreme Court of the State of Idaho in Verity v. USA TODAY. The brief urges the court not to recognize a cause of action for “defamation by implication” based on the dissemination of concededly accurate facts about a matter of public concern. The case involves a [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-23-18 Both sides of the political spectrum have signaled in recent weeks the gloves are off when it comes to issues like privacy, fake news and Russian election meddling, with companies like Facebook – most prominently – Google, Amazon and others facing the strongest regulatory pushback in their relatively [...]
TMI staff report, 4-17-18 On April 17, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in United States v. Microsoft, dismissing the case as moot, vacating the Second Circuit opinion, and remanding with instructions to vacate the district court opinion. The U.S. Justice Dept. had asked the High Court to dismiss the case as moot owing to passage of [...]
Filed an amicus brief (with other amici) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Courthouse News Service v. Brown. The brief argues that the public has a First Amendment right to contemporaneous access to newly filed civil complaints at the time of filing. Contemporaneous access benefits the public by promoting greater understanding [...]
By Carolyn Giardina, hollywoodreporter.com, 4-10-18 FCC chairman Ajit Pai – who was appointed to his role in January 2017 – on Tuesday emphasized his aim to "modernize" the nation's media rules during an address at NAB Show in Las Vegas. “That’s required a lot of work,” he said of several decisions that have been welcomed [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 4-10-18 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced an hours-long gauntlet of frequently unhappy legislators Tuesday (April 10), in the first of two Hill hearings on privacy and access to Facebook users data. Among the takeaways of that grilling was that he would support, at least in principle, requiring opt-in [...]