The three appeals judges who heard FCC v. Comcast expressed skepticism that the commission had ancillary authority to find the company had violated net neutrality principles in blocking peer-to-peer file transfers (CD Aug 4/08 p1). Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick Friday to cite a statute that gave the regulator direct authority over an ISP’s network management. Comcast’s lawyer was challenged to show how the company was harmed by the commission’s order against it, since no fine was imposed.
The three appeals judges who heard FCC v. Comcast expressed skepticism that the commission had ancillary authority to find the company had violated net neutrality principles in blocking peer-to-peer file transfers (WID Aug 4/08 p1). Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed FCC General Counsel Austin Schlick Friday to cite a statute that gave the regulator direct authority over an ISP’s network management. Comcast’s lawyer was challenged to show how the company was harmed by the commission’s order against it, since no fine was imposed.
An appeals court decided last week to hear oral argument Jan. 13 on an indecency case remanded from the Supreme Court (CD April 29 p2), a participant in the case said. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York will hear arguments of 22 minutes for each side in Fox v. FCC, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project.
The Media Access Project supports a bill to allow private meetings between three or more FCC members (CD Dec 3 p11). The Federal Communications Commission Collaboration Act (HR-4167) would “provide new safeguards which will actually provide greater transparency and disclosure to the public,” President Andrew Schwartzman said Wednesday. Commissioner Michael Copps also welcomed the proposed bill. A longtime advocate of revising meeting rules, Copps said he has seen “first-hand and up close the heavy costs of this prohibition.” The proposed bill from Rep. Bart Stupak, D- Mich., is a “balanced” remedy, Copps said.
A realistic approach to a dialog to repurpose radio waves for wireless broadband use is needed, said Executive Director Blair Levin of the FCC Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Broadcasters “will just say there is no way to do it, there is no creativity” when it comes to using TV spectrum for other purposes, he said Tuesday at a Progress & Freedom Foundation event in Washington. Stations want to engage in the dialog Levin seeks, but must know how much spectrum the FCC wants, said President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service Television.
A realistic approach to a dialog to repurpose radio waves for wireless broadband use is needed, said Executive Director Blair Levin of the FCC Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Broadcasters “will just say there is no way to do it, there is no creativity” when it comes to using TV spectrum for other purposes, he said Tuesday at a Progress & Freedom Foundation event in Washington. Stations want to engage in the dialog Levin seeks, but must know how much spectrum the FCC wants, said President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service Television.
Coming steps in the FCC’s media-ownership review probably will include a notice of inquiry and hearings outside Washington, said commission, industry and public- interest group officials we surveyed. The commissioners probably will approve a notice formally starting the review, done every four years, in the first quarter, FCC officials said. The office of Chairman Julius Genachowski has given little indication about timing, because the National Broadband Plan is due Feb. 17 and takes priority, officials said.
Top FCC staffers asked about how the commission should take account of the Internet, attribution of radio and TV station ownership and quality of programming in its coming media ownership review. Wide-ranging questions at a commission workshop Tuesday on ownership rules -- the second of three this week (CD Nov 3 p3) -- didn’t always yield many concrete answers, because some questions posed have no straightforward solutions, panelists’ responses suggested. High-quality news should be a goal of the ownership review, which Congress has required the FCC to do in 2010, speakers said.
Top FCC staffers asked about how the commission should take account of the Internet, attribution of radio and TV station ownership and quality of programming in its coming media ownership review. Wide-ranging questions at a commission workshop Tuesday on ownership rules -- the second of three this week -- didn’t always yield many concrete answers, because some questions posed have no straightforward solutions, panelists’ responses suggested. High-quality news should be a goal of the ownership review, which Congress has required the FCC to do in 2010, speakers said. Some results of the ownership are harder to measure than others, said moderator Colin Crowell, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Competition can be easier to measure “because we've done it before, even though it seems like only yesterday we were doing the last media ownership review,” he said. Crowell asked, “How would you quantify, or would you, new media? Do you count the Internet as one voice? Do you count blogging sites as a voice? And if you count a major blogging site as a voice, is it a national voice, is it a local voice?” It’s hard to “determine the ’true’ impact of the Internet” because “there is almost no original reporting, and what original reporting exists is on soft news,” said Research Director Derek Turner of Free Press. “The Internet definitely has much less impact on competition with the traditional sources. That will change over time. This is one of the pitfalls in trying to construct a diversity index” that takes new media into account. The commission needs to track where content is produced, said President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. “Identifying that which is repurposed and which doesn’t add to diversity … makes these proxies a lot more complicated.”
Anyone should have standing to file a complaint to the FCC alleging ex parte rule violations, not just participants in a proceeding, President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project told a workshop. (See separate report in this issue.) “The transparency function of the ex parte rule affects lots of people, and particularly the press,” he said.