A prominent cable lawyer seeks consideration of a new “social contract” -- and of an entertainment tax -- for companies competing with traditional multichannel video programming distributors. Paul Glist, co-chairman of Davis Wright’s communications practice, told an FCBA event that traditional “video platforms typically come with a social contract. So we should be thinking of what might be a better social contract.” Public Knowledge lawyer John Bergmayer, speaking on the same panel Tuesday night, told us later that Glist’s comments have merit in considering how to apply old rules to newer, Internet-based firms. A veteran wireless lawyer said it may be too soon to regulate new Web video technologies.

The FCC should waive a requirement that retail cable set-top boxes include an analog tuner for its new device that TiVo called Premiere Elite and it plans to sell, the company said in a waiver request this week. TiVo said it’s taking orders for a different version of the device called the Premiere Q from cable operators who will begin deploying it later this year. It wants to sell the Elite box at retail with a larger hard drive, and for that it will need a waiver of the commission’s “Digital Cable Ready” (DCR) certification, marketing and labeling rules, to license CableLabs’ CableCARD technology, it said. Under those rules, such one-way cable products can’t be certified as digital cable-ready without including an analog tuner.

A report by the Commerce Department proposes a new cybersecurity framework for companies that use online services but aren’t classified as covered critical infrastructure. Companies in this “Internet and Information Innovation sector” (I3S) are “outside the orbit of critical infrastructure or key resources,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in the report. To reduce the number of vulnerabilities in the sector, the department makes recommendations that involve establishing voluntary codes of conduct, developing incentives to adopt cybersecurity practices and developing cybersecurity standards that extend into international markets. To craft the report, the department’s Internet Policy Task Force considered recommendations from a notice of inquiry last year that solicited comments on enhanced cybersecurity practices.

Studios’ nascent UltraViolet initiative amounts to a “do-over” for the industry to give consumers access to legally purchased content on a wide array of devices, the chief technology officer of a major movie company said. Sony Pictures’ Mitch Singer, president of the multi-industry group backing the project, told communications lawyers and executives that the initiative comes after studios tried a strategy of filing lawsuits to “stop the innovation from happening."

World IPv6 Day was “uneventful” in that things went “exactly as planned,” Akamai Vice President of Engineering Andy Champagne said in an interview Wednesday. Although the global test of the new Internet addressing technology was still going on, the day was already successful, said Robert Kisteleki, research and development science group manager of European Regional Internet Registry RIPE NCC. There were “very few hiccups” and those were expected, he said. One glitch was that Arabic versions for some major sites failed to work in the Middle East, leaving end-users access only in English, said IPv6 Forum President Latif Ladid.

TerreStar is in “active discussions” with interested bidders, the company said in a court notification of a bankruptcy auction delay filed late Tuesday. Bids for TerreStar’s assets were originally due Wednesday. TerreStar’s filing pushes the bid deadline back a week to June 15 and the auction to June 22. The TerreStar bankruptcy is one of several moving parts involved in what will happen in the S-band.

The FCC shouldn’t get bogged down in questions of how to classify text messaging for Universal Service Fund contributions or any other piecemeal approach to universal service contribution reform, USTelecom warned the commission in comments posted to docket 06-122 and released Tuesday. “Universal service contribution issues need to be addressed in a comprehensive proceeding, not through ad hoc proceedings, such as those for which the Commission requests comment here,” USTelecom executives David Cohen and Jonathan Banks wrote in their comments.

Free Press asked the FCC to investigate whether Verizon Wireless asked Google to block tethering apps in the Android Market. Free Press targeted Verizon since part of the spectrum it bought in the 700 MHz auction, the C-block, carries a requirement that the licensee not “deny, limit, or restrict” the ability of customers to use apps or devices of their own choosing. Free Press said AT&T and T-Mobile have also sought to block tethering unless a subscriber pays extra.

As part of the Internet Society’s World IPv6 Day, federal agencies, ISPs and other technology organizations are trying to help other entities understand the importance of preparing their services for the IPv6 transition of the Internet. There are 435 participants, including Google, Mozilla, the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau. Although they're attempting to motivate entities that are slow to transition, the participants also are expecting to continue educating themselves about the benefits and challenges of the new protocol, they said.

The price of public safety legislation is a major concern for Senate Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim DeMint, R-S.C., going into Wednesday’s markup of S-911 in the Senate Commerce Committee. While the bill by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, promises to send $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, the bill’s cost could be an issue for other budget hawks as well, telecom industry lobbyists said. Meanwhile, public safety pushed back against a campaign to add language requiring interoperability across the 700 MHz band.