Panelists at the final FCC net neutrality roundtable agreed Tuesday that litigation is all but certain as the FCC pushes forward with net neutrality rules. The sixth and final session focused on the open Internet and the law, with FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet asking most of the questions.

The FCC’s new Licensing and Management System is planned to completely replace the commission’s Consolidated Database System by late 2015 or early 2016, said a Media Bureau official in an interview Friday. The first phase of that replacement took affect Thursday, with LMS coming online and replacing CDBS as the only way for full-power TV stations to electronically file for construction permits and licenses to cover them (CD Oct 1 p17).

Since House Republicans said in December they plan to overhaul the 1996 Telecom Act, there has been limited Commerce Committee leadership outreach to House Democrats and committee Republicans, said lawmakers and Capitol Hill staffers. Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., hasn’t yet sought out his Democratic counterpart. Republicans said the minimal outreach is by design, with substantial dialogue expected to kick off soon.

Navigating the Federal Aviation Administration for an exemption may well not be the only challenge for companies or groups seeking permission to operate commercial drones. A day after the FAA’s chief issued a sweeping call that his agency “is open to receiving petitions from anyone” seeking an exemption like those granted Thursday to filmmakers to operate commercial unmanned aircraft systems (CD Sept 26 p6), an industry group representing major battery suppliers issued a stern advisory warning that “companies should be aware of the stringent transportation regulations applicable to the lithium ion batteries that power virtually every” commercial drone.

The FCC’s first-of-its-kind auction may present complexities beyond the technical details for longtime telecom attorneys with clients that may sell broadcast-TV frequencies to the agency or wireless carriers that may be wanting to buy that relinquished spectrum for wireless broadband. Such firms representing multiple clients in the incentive auction, which government and industry officials have called extremely complex, may face challenges avoiding conflicts of interest, said wireless and broadcast attorneys in recent interviews. Firms that represent both wireless and broadcast clients -- such as Wilkinson Barker and Wiley Rein -- may not be able to do so in the auction, under local bar association ethics rules or possibly FCC anti-collusion rules, the attorneys said. Since the parties are buyer and seller on opposite sides, firms may not be able to act for both kinds of participants in the auction expected to raise many billions of dollars.

The Federal Aviation Administration “is open to receiving petitions from anyone” seeking an exemption like those granted Thursday to filmmakers to operate commercial unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told a media briefing.

Though details “are not yet clear” on President Barack Obama’s forthcoming executive order on privacy concerns about commercial drones, it’s expected to “task” the NTIA with convening a multistakeholder process to develop privacy guidelines, “likely either in the form of best practices or a voluntary code of conduct,” said Wiley Rein lawyers Kathleen Kirby and Ari Meltzer in a blog post Friday (http://bit.ly/1poKN4V). “Best practices generally are not enforceable,” they said. “A voluntary code of conduct, however, is legally enforceable against companies that affirmatively commit to follow it. While the decision to adopt a code of conduct is voluntary, a public pledge to follow the code generally would amount to a representation enforceable by the FTC under its consumer protection authority.” There are incentives to adopting voluntary codes of conduct, as NTIA has done in its previous proceedings, they said. “Companies build consumer trust by engaging with consumers and other stakeholders in multi-stakeholder processes and by adopting privacy codes of conduct developed during those discussions,” they said. “Enforceable codes of conduct provide the public clear, understandable baseline protections and offer businesses greater certainty about how agreed upon privacy principles apply to them. Indeed, in any enforcement action based on conduct covered by a code, the FTC likely would consider a company’s adherence to such a code favorably. In the absence of a generally agreed upon code of conduct, the FTC could enforce privacy guidelines on a case-by-case basis, with less predictability and thus greater risk for businesses."

Senators showed a strong partisan split Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in how they saw net neutrality. It’s the second such hearing that Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has held this year. Democrats urged net neutrality protections, while differing on what underlying authority should be relied on, while Republicans scoffed at the notion that any rules are necessary and pointed to antitrust law.

Center for Democracy & Technology President Nuala O'Connor prefers a more nuanced application of legal authority for net neutrality rules, involving some but not complete Title II grounding, she plans to tell Congress Wednesday. She and Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner now at Wiley Rein, will testify on net neutrality Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. O'Connor has defended the need for net neutrality rules, while McDowell has questioned them. “I would like to discuss several proposals that draw upon, or are hybrids of, Title II and Section 706, and several implementation issues applicable to any approach,” O'Connor plans to say, according to written testimony. The real question is whether the “commercially reasonable” standard supports the concept of Internet openness, O'Connor’s testimony says. In it she proposes a potential modification of that standard to allow for rules crafted under Communications Act Section 706. She also discusses a “hybrid” authority that takes “some of the strengths of Title II and Section 706” and considers what it would mean to apply Title II reclassification to edge providers. But the FCC needs “clear rules now,” she argues. Other witnesses are Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Brad Burnham, actress Ruth Livier, and Jeff Eisenach, a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. The hearing will be at 10:30 a.m. in 216 Hart. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., also pressed for broader discussion of net neutrality outside of Washington and stronger rules in an op-ed for The Hill Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1m8GMGM). “To make sure they get this right, the FCC should leave Washington and go on the road to hear firsthand from consumers, small-business owners, entrepreneurs, educators and other citizens who will be directly impacted by the policies put in place for the Internet,” Leahy and Matsui said, emphasizing their work to hold events outside D.C. They had partnered to introduce legislation that would ban paid prioritization deals.

A TV station that won a rare FCC OK to move cross-country after a court ordered it to (CD Dec 17/12 p4) now wants to be what agency and industry officials said in interviews Monday would be a technological first for broadcasting. PMCM’s KVNV Middletown, New Jersey, wants to operate on the same main program and system information protocol (PSIP) channel as Meredith Corp.’s longtime WFSB Hartford, while each would have different virtual PSIP subchannels. Meredith opposed KVNV, which used to be licensed to Ely, Nevada, having the same PSIP as WFSB when the New Jersey station begins broadcasting from the new location. So, PMCM came up with an alternative idea that has never been presented before in the memories of TV station lawyers we spoke to or FCC officials.