By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-24-18 The House has overwhelmingly (351 to 66) passed the massive defense appropriations bill HR 5515, the National Defense Authorization Act for 2019, a bill that includes a data privacy win for tech companies. In a late-edition amendment, the Email Privacy Act was adopted by voice vote Thursday [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 5-24-18 Facebook is continuing to try to address the issues around fake news that have put it in the spotlight in Washington, including threats that if it did not do something about being used as a misinformation tool by foreign actors and others, Congress would. That threat came [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, and other reports, 5-23-18 A U.S. district court judge in Manhattan has ruled that if a Twitter account is used by a government official, then it constitutes a public forum subject to First Amendment protections. The Knight First Amendment at Columbia University had filed suit in the Southern [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]