By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-20-19 The Justice Department and FCC have told a New York federal district court that their respective approvals of the T-Mobile-Sprint deal, with attendant conditions to drive rural 5G deployment and competition, should add legal weight on the Judicial scale in favor of that merger. That came in [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-19-19 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing net neutrality legislation that will essentially restore, on a statewide level, the net neutrality rules eliminated in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom order. California passed a similar law in the wake of the FCC's ISP deregulation. The Cuomo bill, which [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-19-19 AT&T is warning Congress that hundreds of thousands of viewers will lose access to broadcast channels they now get after the STELAR law sunsets at the end of the year. STELAR is primarily the compulsory license that allowed satellite operators to import distant network TV station signals [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Delaware Superior Court in Perlman v. Vox, a defamation case involving the application of California law. The brief focuses on the question of whether hyperlinks to previous articles constitute republication for the purpose of restarting the clock on the [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-18-19 In a move that could take a bite out of its share of the advertising pie, YouTube has agreed to update its ad policies in kids content on its main platform, an effort that drew praise from one of YouTube's loudest critics. In a letter to Sen. [...]
Participated in a letter (with the Reporters Committee and other news media organizations) sent to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The letter proposes a Supreme Court rule addressing sealed court records, given a recent upsurge in sealing at the Court. Such a rule, based on similar rules adopted by several [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-17-19 Bills that would end the every-five-year renewal of the satellite compulsory license passed the House Tuesday in a package of funding bills, H.R. 1865, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, expected to be passed by the Senate later this week. Those are the Television Viewer Protection Act and [...]
Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the Ohio Supreme Court in CNN v. Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Local Schools. CNN appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court after its request for the release of certain high school records relating to the deceased gunman from the Aug. 4, 2019 mass shooting [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-11-19 Attorney General William Barr signaled this week that the Justice Department is looking seriously, and critically, at social media platforms' Sec. 230 immunity from liability for third-party posts. "Section 230 has garnered significant attention from experts, consumer groups, and legislators," Barr said in a speech in Washington to [...]
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 12-10-19 Advertisers are telling the Federal Trade Commission that its rule implementing the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is working and needs only tweaks around the edges. In comments to the FTC, the Association of National Advertisers argued that its members "have historically demonstrated thoughtful and unwavering [...]