Efforts to finalize a deal on updated EU copyright rules failed Thursday, leaving talks between the European Parliament and Council to be taken up again under the Romanian Presidency, which begins Jan. 1. The Dec. 13 "trilogue did not resolve all issues" and it's unclear when the next meeting will be, emailed a Council spokesperson. Asked whether the outstanding issues are still Article 13, which would require platforms to monitor uploads for copyright infringement, and Article 11, which would give press publishers a new right to remuneration, he said, "Basically yes." Heavy lobbying for and against both articles continued before the trilogue meeting. The plan by the current Austrian Presidency to finish negotiations last week seemed "very ambitious," Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda, of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Germany, told us earlier this month. "We are nowhere near a compromise on the most controversial articles 11 and 13." In a Dec. 13 post, she noted that major film industry associations -- including the Motion Picture Association and Association of Commercial Television in Europe -- and sports leagues wanted their sectors expressly excluded from Article 13 because the Council and Parliament versions would both end up benefiting big platforms. Others opposing the provision include the Computer & Communication Industry Association and European Digital Rights (see 1809120001). News publishers, meanwhile, said failure to negotiate a workable neighboring right to remuneration for press publishers would "condemn consumers to a future of news experienced through the lens of Google" since the provision would require Google to secure licenses to use their content. Google Vice President-News Richard Gingras blogged earlier this month that Article 11 could change the principle of equal access to information by requiring online services to strike commercial deals with publishers to show hyperlinks and short news snippets, forcing platforms to make decisions about what content to include.

EU net neutrality rules don't impede innovation, as some claim (see 1812130001), the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) told us. So far, regulators "have not received any actual examples that would prevent operators from innovation especially with regard to 5G," it emailed. The reason for updating the net neutrality guidelines next year "is not because they are too long or 'convoluted,'" but because the organization now has the benefit of two years of applying the open internet regulation and the guidelines and can see where clarity of specific guidance is needed, BEREC said. "We feel that this is also supported by stakeholders contributing to our consultation earlier in the year."

GAO found 26 long-range national security threats as identified by federal agencies, including the possibility adversaries could apply commercially available artificial intelligence to weapons. Other threats in Thursday's report include disrupting IoT-enabled critical infrastructure and devices; “developing autonomous capabilities that could recognize faces, understand gestures, and match voices of U.S. personnel, which could compromise U.S. operations”; and launching cyberattacks against critical and military infrastructure. Threat categories are: Adversaries’ Political and Military Advancements, Dual-Use Technologies, and Weapons, Events and Demographic Changes. DOD, the State and Homeland Security departments and Office of the Director of National Intelligence identified risks, and GAO reviewed national security documents and interviewed officials, it said. DOD told GAO the study provides “an accurate although sobering macro picture of how the US stands in the world against emerging threats.” The report is a public version of a classified one issued Sept. 28.

NTIA Chief David Redl will chat Friday with the U.S. ITU Association, discussing U.S. perspective on international communications policy, the agency said. It's at 4 p.m. at AT&T, 601 New Jersey Ave. NW.

The European Commission starting a Phase 2 review of Vodafone's buy of some Liberty Global businesses in Europe "is welcome and expected news," Liberty said Tuesday. It said it still expects regulatory approval by mid-2019. Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said it "always anticipated a second phase review given the size and scope of the transaction," and the body retaining regulatory authority over the case gives "the appropriate forum to demonstrate the consumer benefits that will be delivered." The EC said the review aims at ensuring Vodafone takeovers in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Romania "will not lead to higher prices, less choice and reduced innovation in telecoms and TV services for consumers." The $22.7 billion deal was announced in May (see 1805090005).

A new U.S.-Japan trade agreement should “promote innovation” and U.S. "competitiveness," so it should include “a robust chapter” on digital trade modeled after the text of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, testified Charles Freeman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president-Asia, Monday at an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hearing on U.S. negotiating objectives for a free-trade agreement with Japan (see 1811270002). The digital economy “is growing at almost two and a half times faster than the global economy, and trade in digital goods is growing more rapidly than trade in traditional manufactured goods and agricultural products,” said Freeman. Negotiations with Japan are “a real opportunity to set the highest global standard” intellectual property “creativity and innovation,” he said. “Both countries should take this opportunity to advance a model approach to sustainable access to innovation and creativity by promoting respect for property rights and a return of fair value for innovation.” Along similar lines on negotiating objectives for a potential U.S.-EU pact, the Computer & Communications Industry Association wants the USTR to “seek a holistic trade agreement with the EU to reduce barriers and encourage investment across the economy,” it commented Monday in docket USTR-2018-0035. The USTR is “strongly encouraged” to make digital trade a “priority in these negotiations with the EU,” said CCIA. “Failure to do so would be a significant missed opportunity.” Commitments to digital trade in a U.S.-EU agreement “will be important in ensuring continued EU market access for innovative American firms and in establishing a model elsewhere in the world,” said the Software & Information Industry Association. Though the EU’s position is that privacy can’t be subject to a trade negotiation, the U.S. “should nonetheless strive to come to an agreement providing for a positive cross-border data flow commitment,” it said. The U.S. “should also push back against a highly likely EU request for a cultural carve-out,” it said. There also should be an effort “to establish closer U.S.-EU cooperation on both digital and intellectual property rights issues vis a vis third countries,” it said. A hearing on U.S.-EU negotiating objectives is set for Friday. Comments in the docket were due midnight Monday.

Neither the U.S. nor Canada has provided China “any evidence” to support allegations Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou “violated their laws,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told a Beijing news conference Friday. Meng was arrested Dec. 1 while changing planes in Vancouver (see 1812060042). China demanded the U.S. and Canada “immediately clarify the reason for the detention and release the detainee,” to no avail, said the spokesperson. He declined to say whether President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Meng’s arrest during their G20 dinner meeting in Argentina.

EU governments agreed on a position on rules against online terrorist content, the EU Council said Thursday. The proposed rules apply to all hosting service providers that offer services there. Providers would have to take down terrorist content or disable access to it within one hour from receiving an order from authorities or face potential penalties of up to 4 percent of global revenue for the previous year. They would have a duty of care to prevent dissemination of terrorist content on their sites, and would have to take measures to prevent previously removed content from reappearing. The European Parliament must now adopt its own position before negotiations with the Council can begin. Industry is concerned, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and eight other groups said in a Tuesday letter to European justice and home affairs ministers. They recommended cloud services be excluded and asked that provisions requiring hosting service providers to monitor and filter data be stricken. "This last requirement, coupled with unworkable deadlines and high penalties, would lead to numerous removals by strongly incentivising hosting service providers to suppress potentially legal content," said the signatories, including the European Internet Services Providers Association, BSA|The Software Alliance, DigitalEurope and online platform industry trade association EDiMA. CCIA Europe Senior Policy Manager Maud Sacquet Thursday urged EU lawmakers to ensure their approach is "effective, proportionate and compliant with fundamental rights."

Internal Facebook documents released by a British lawmaker Wednesday suggest CEO Mark Zuckerberg wasn't forthcoming with Congress when claiming the platform doesn’t sell user data, said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. British MP Damian Collins, chairman of Parliament's Digital Committee, released some 250 pages of seized internal documents showing Facebook discussing requirements for companies to buy a certain amount of digital ads to continue accessing user data. “Any evidence of a pay-for-data model would fly in the face of the statements Facebook has made to Congress and the public,” Markey said. The trove also included emails from Facebook Product Management Director Yul Kwon supporting questionable methods for accessing Android call history data without user consent. In February 2015, he discussed a change that “would allow [Facebook] to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all.” Facebook’s 2011 FTC consent decree requires affirmative user consent for the collection of certain user data. “This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective but it appears that the growth team will charge ahead and do it,” Product Manager Michael LeBeau wrote. The Android feature in question allows users “to opt in to giving Facebook access to their call and text messaging logs,” Facebook blogged Wednesday, addressing controversial issues cited in the documents. The data is used to “make better suggestions for people to call in Messenger and rank contact lists in Messenger and Facebook Lite.”

The EU abandoning a proposal to tax digital services means the region won’t be singling out a “key global industry dominated by American companies,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, Tuesday. Instead of pursuing similar “double taxation,” other countries should continue working through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development “framework on the important global dialogue regarding the digital economy,” he said.