Iceland wants to position itself as a model for freedom of communications in the digital age, the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative said Monday. A parliamentary resolution introduced Feb. 16 asks the government to enact the best laws from around the world to protect freedom of expression and information and provide strong safeguards for reporters’ sources and whistleblowers, IMMI said. The move is the result of the collapse of the country’s banking sector in the global financial meltdown, and is intended to “make Iceland an attractive environment for the registration and operation of international press organizations, new media start-ups, human rights groups and Internet data centers,” it said. One aspect of communications protection is the provision in the EU e-commerce directive which provides indemnity for “mere conduits” such as telecom networks and Internet hosting providers, it said. There are a few, well-defined exceptions to the immunity, but the exemption for general court orders without more definition is “worrying,” it said. The exact circumstances when an ISP or other provider loses its liability should be clarified, it said. The legislation also provides protection from “libel tourism,” a statute of limitations to counter recent European court rulings that Internet page views constitute new publications regardless of how long ago the material was first released, and a court process that can’t be used to suppress free speech through unequal access to justice, IMMI said. French digital rights advocates La Quadrature du Net called the project “a major breakthrough.” Far from the conservative vision displayed by many “confused” governments seeking to control free communications on the Web through “three-strikes” anti- infringement regimes, Internet blocking and filtering or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, the legislative initiative will be a “historic event,” it said. It urged people to support the proposal, saying ACTA and other repressive measures mean “we might all end up hosting and sending our data through Iceland.”
Court of International Trade activity
Eastman Kodak complained to the U.S. International Trade Commission that Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s camera-enabled BlackBerry devices infringe a Kodak patent related to previewing images. Separately, Kodak filed two lawsuits against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York alleging the infringement of patents related to digital cameras and certain computer processes. Discussions with Apple and RIM have lasted several years, but the companies failed to resolve the issue “amicably,” said Laura Quatela, Eastman Kodak’s chief intellectual property officer. RIM and Apple representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FCC needs to make solving the digital divide a high priority for its broadband plan, Commissioner Michael Copps said at a Practising Law Institute conference Thursday. People are starting to realize that the broadband plan is not just “technospeak from broadband geeks” but can lead to policies that improve peoples’ lives, said Copps, who was introduced at the conference by Chairman Julius Genachowski. But if policymakers don’t get it right, the result could be “more and even wider divides in this country,” Copps said.
Sirius XM is weighing expanding into international markets, but the plans are in the “early days,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said Tuesday at the UBS conference in New York. Liberty Media owns 40 percent of Sirius XM.
MoneyGram International will pay $18 million in compensation to consumers to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company allowed its money-transfer system to be used by fraudulent telemarketers, the commission said. The No. 2 U.S. money transfer service will be required to adopt a comprehensive program to prevent fraud and monitor agents. The FTC charged that 2004-2008, MoneyGram agents helped fraudulent telemarketers and other con artists who tricked U.S. consumers into wiring more than $84 million within the U.S. and to Canada after the consumers were falsely told they had won a lottery, had been hired for a secret shopper program or were guaranteed loans. The $84 million in losses is based on consumer complaints to MoneyGram, and the actual losses probably were much higher, the FTC said. At least 65 of MoneyGram’s Canadian agents have been charged by Canadian or U.S. law enforcers with colluding in fraud schemes that used the MoneyGram system, or are being investigated. A negotiated court order settling the FTC’s charges bars MoneyGram from knowingly providing substantial help or support to any sellers or telemarketers violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule. MoneyGram must run background checks on would-be agents, educate and train its employees about consumer fraud and discipline agents who don’t comply with the rules. The order also requires the company to provide a clear, conspicuous fraud warning on the front of all its money-transfer forms. The order’s conduct provisions apply to all MoneyGram money transfers sent from the U.S. or Canada.
Sprint said it agreed to buy affiliate iPCS for $831 million, ending a legal battle between the companies going back to Sprint’s purchase of Nextel. Sprint expects a relatively smooth and quick regulatory review of the deal, a spokesman said.
A former Boeing engineer was convicted Friday of economic espionage and acting as an agent of China, for which he stole restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets including information related to the Space Shuttle program and Delta IV rocket, a court document said. Dongfan “Greg” Chung, 73, employed by Rockwell International from 1973 until its defense and space unit was acquired by Boeing in 1996, was found guilty by District Judge Cormac Carney after a three-week trial last month. He was immediately taken into custody awaiting sentencing.
The courts or the International Trade Commission or the Patent and Trademark Office, not the FCC, are the proper venues for challenging DTV patents if one deems they're not being licensed on reasonable and nondiscriminatory (RAND) terms, DTV licensors’ heavy hitters told the FCC in written comments Monday. All, including ATSC, Funai, LG, MPEG LA, Philips, Qualcomm, Thomson and Zenith, urged the commission to deny a Vizio-Westinghouse Digital petition that the FCC initiate a rulemaking to regulate the patent fees and impose fines on licensors that don’t comply.
BERKELEY, Calif. -- A former judge on a secret court of wiretapping appeals faulted Congress as having failed to do oversight of the Bush administration’s warrantless communications surveillance. Edward Leavy, who left the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review last year, said the lapse undermined the checks that Congress had set up decades earlier against a lawless executive branch. He still sits on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Commissioner Robert McDowell’s “geeky FCC reform wish list” includes enhanced communication, administrative audits and agency restructuring, the Republican said at a lunch Monday hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association. He gave more details on ideas pitched in a letter sent last week to Acting Chairman Michael Copps (CD Jan 28 p1). Copps and Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein also attended the event, but didn’t comment on their colleague’s suggestions. The three have agreed to boost FCC staff morale, promote transparency, encourage meaningful public comment and create “a more informed, collaborative and considerate decision- making process,” McDowell said.