The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia should block “onerous copyright rules that violate the First Amendment and criminalize certain speech,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a filing last week. EFF wants to reverse a district court decision in Green v. DOJ, in which EFF challenged anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Those measures prevent researchers, educators and others from “creating and sharing” their work. EFF filed its 2016 lawsuit on behalf of researcher Matthew Green and technologist Andrew Huang, whose projects could “run afoul” of the DMCA’s “anti-speech provisions,” EFF said. Section 1201 makes it illegal to work around software restricting “access to lawfully-purchased copyrighted material,” like films, songs and computer code, EFF said. Their projects are “highly beneficial” to the public and “perfectly legal” outside the scope of the DMCA, the organization said.

The FTC scheduled an open meeting Jan. 20 where staff will present on the agency’s identity theft program. Staff will report about recent trends and online resources for consumers. The public will have a chance to comment, and submissions are due Tuesday. The meeting begins at 1 p.m. EST.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr met virtually with Taiwan leaders, the FCC said Wednesday. Carr spoke with the country's National Communications Commissioner Yeali Sun and Jeff Liu, director-general of the Department of Archives, Information Management and Telecommunications, for Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Their discussion covered the two countries’ approaches to 5G and network security threats, as well as Commissioner Carr’s view that international telecom bodies should officially recognize Taiwan’s leading regulatory work,” said a news release. “As two vibrant democracies, our countries are vital economic and national security partners,” Carr said: “We also share a core set of values that inform our regulatory approaches to everything from next-gen networks to network security.” Carr has criticized Chinese policies. China's President Xi Jinping has made reunification with Taiwan a priority. China's Embassy didn't comment.

The “extraordinary reach” and “sheer pointlessness” of FCC foreign-sponsored content disclosure rules violates the First Amendment, said NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multimedia, Telecom and Internet Council in support of the groups’ stay request (see 2201040057) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in docket 21-1171. “The Order applies to every lease, even infomercials and church-service broadcasts,” the groups said Monday: “The object of the mandatory investigation is to redress a phantom harm never known to occur.” The FCC's filing cited examples of foreign entities leasing broadcast time, but those entities weren’t registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the groups said. If the broadcaster investigation determines that an unregistered foreign entity controls the leasing entity, the information needed for the required broadcast identifications of the foreign entity won’t be in the database, they said. The requirements are unreasonable and are outside the agency’s authority, the groups said. There were "multiple narrower alternatives that would have burdened significantly less speech.”

Thursday’s International Trade Commission vote was 4-0 to approve the final determination that Google devices infringe at least 17 claims in five Sonos multiroom audio patents (see 2201070022), said a voting sheet posted Monday in docket 337-TA-1191. Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein recused herself, as she did throughout the now-terminated Section 337 investigation into Sonos’ January 2020 complaint (see 2003050020). The ITC approved limited-exclusion and cease-and-desist orders on the infringing Google goods and ordered Google to pay 100% bond on imports of those goods during the 60-day review of the decision by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that runs through March 7.

Media and tech groups offered competing comments last week on the Copyright Office’s study on potential copyright and competition protection for the news industry. Comments were due Wednesday on a study about “effectiveness of copyright protections for publishers, with a focus on press publishers.” The CO should recognize that Big Tech’s aggregation of “valuable news content” is a “major contributor” to the struggle of news publishers, the Copyright Alliance commented. The organization suggested the office offer guidance on copyright principles for news aggregation and recommend further study on competition and antitrust issues. News publishers and creators are relying on the agency to “diagnose the problem and to clarify how copyright laws actually operate in the context of news aggregation,” the organization said. Clarify the law and policies to strengthen news publishers’ rights, the News Media Alliance asked. It recommended the CO amend its policies on copyrightability of “words and short phrases,” clarify the law on “substantial takings and systematic use of news content,” study the need for “sui generis protections for news publishers” and study further guidance or congressional action on "the use of news content for artificial intelligence applications.” The Computer and Communications Industry Association opposed the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (see 2103120066). JCPA is bipartisan legislation to give news outlets power to negotiate with Big Tech over compensation for content. A few commenters asked the CO to weigh in on the legislation. CCIA said the proposal is outside the scope of the CO’s inquiry and expertise. CCIA argued the legislation would allow larger news publishers to dominate negotiations, leading to further consolidation of the news industry. The JCPA would likely “benefit large actors, continuing the power imbalance and leaving smaller outlets and tech-enabled media startups behind,” commented Engine. Defining what is and isn’t subject to “enhanced copyright or competition protection” would put the federal government in the problematic position of “picking winners and losers when it comes to speech,” Engine said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) vetoed AB-5837 Wednesday, drawing praise from publishing advocates. The measure would have required publishers to license e-books to libraries under “reasonable terms,” including limits on the number of users who could simultaneously have access to particular titles and for a particular number of days. AB-5837 “would have forced authors, publishers, and other copyright owners to involuntarily grant licenses to New York libraries for their digital works on terms decided by the state of New York,” CA CEO Keith Kupferschmid said Thursday in a statement. “The bill was clearly unconstitutional, based on a campaign of misinformation, and in violation of federal copyright law.” Association of American Publishers President Maria Pallante thanked Hochul for "taking decisive action to protect the legal framework that has long incentivized the American private sector to invest in, publish, and distribute original works of authorship to the public, in service to society. The bill that she vetoed was rushed through the state legislature in response to a coordinated, misinformation campaign supported by Big Tech interests and lobbying groups that are notorious for wanting to weaken copyright protections for their own gain."

WideOpenWest and movie production companies suing it for secondary copyright infringement liability are at odds over attempts to get the names and addresses of thousands of WOW broadband subscribers. The plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court in Denver in a reply (docket 21-cv-1901) last week that WOW counsel never raised in discussions the time burden issue it's now bringing up. They said the court already ruled the plaintiffs can't use the identifications to bring other lawsuits, though WOW still claims that's the motivation. WOW said in its opposition last month it "would be extremely costly and labor-intensive" to ID the subscribers at issue and send them notice of a court order. WOW said if it needs to address its safe harbor defense, it would produce documents and information showing the stages of its Digital Millennium Copyright Act process, up to terminating subscribers' accounts, and no part of the inquiry requires discovery about the identities of individual accused infringers.

Broadcasters asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay FCC foreign-sponsored content disclosure requirements, after the Media Bureau shot down a similar request (see 2112090074), said a motion from NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and Multimedia, Telecom and Internet Council, posted Wednesday in docket 21-1171. “Broadcasters may determine that the heavy compliance burdens imposed by the Order outweigh the benefits of airing certain sponsored content,” the brief said. “Broadcasters curtailing their use of leases due to the Order have suffered irreparable harm." The broadcasters argue that the rules violate the First Amendment and the Communications Act, and that the FCC had less burdensome options. Staying the rule would only delay implementation by a few months if the FCC wins, because Paperwork Reduction Act requirements mean it's unlikely to take effect before late February, and oral argument would likely be in April or May, the groups said.

ICANN launched a process to help board members vet policy recommendations for the rollout of new generic top-level domain names, it announced Monday. During the "operational design phase," staff will develop relevant information on whether the policies are in the best interest of the community or ICANN, including potential obstacles, expected costs and the timeline for implementing new domains.