FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft net neutrality order would fully forbear from Sections 203, 204 and 205, “the core of Title II utility-style rate regulation,” an FCC official told us Thursday, speaking with more specificity about agency claims it won't impose traditional rate regulation on broadband providers under Title II. Gone with the forbearances would be requirements that carriers file rates with the agency and charge customers only those rates. Also to be forborne is authorization for the agency to hold hearings on the lawfulness of the rates, and for the FCC to set rates if carriers’ rates are unlawful, the official said.
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
The FCC has “the authority and the duty” to pre-empt state taxes on Lifeline benefits, such as the 19 percent tax imposed in Alabama (see 1408040048) and the 6 percent tax in Indiana, TracFone officials told Chairman Tom Wheeler, aides Daniel Alvarez and Maria Kirby, and Associate Wireline Bureau Chief Trent Harkrader Friday, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 11-42. State officials in Alabama didn't comment. The FCC lacks the authority to pre-empt Indiana’s 911 charge, a spokesman for the Indiana Attorney General’s office told us in a statement. “Contrary to TracFone’s claims, Indiana’s 911 charge does not reduce the benefit received by TracFone customers but instead funds enhanced 911 dispatching services which are essential to public safety,” the spokesman said. A November 2013 FCC notice of apparent liability for $4.6 million should be canceled, company President F.J. Pollak; General Counsel Richard Salzman; Mark Rubin, senior executive-government relations; and Greenberg Traurig’s Mitchell Brecher told the FCC. TracFone said no laws were violated and there was no overpayment to the company. TracFone also endorsed a number of Lifeline reforms, including requiring providers to retain and make available for audit applicants’ eligibility documentation.
Public comments on the Cross Community Working Group’s (CWG) Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition draft proposal for ICANN involved ICANN accountability as much as the technical aspects of the IANA functions. Internet governance experts told us earlier this month that the draft’s primary problems stemmed from a lack of clarity and tight deadlines. The comment period ended Dec. 22, though a few late comments were filed Dec. 23.
TechAmerica will begin work to form a position on the classification of smart watch products for customs duty purposes, the group said on its website. TechAmerica's Customs Committee formed a working group "to develop common positions to provide in advocacy efforts" with Customs and Border Protection and other countries' customs officials, it said. The effort is in preparation for the World Customs Organization Harmonized System Committee meeting in March, during which one or more smart watches will be classified, it said Wednesday. The classification decisions are used to promote consistency in product tariff treatment around the world. The past few years have seen major progress in smart watch technology, and many TechAmerica members now sell the products, it said. "Due to the different functions included in the smartwatches," several classification categories are being considered, including classification as digital cameras, pedometers or wrist watches, it said: "Depending on how these products ultimately are classified, the rate at which wearable technologies and/or their components are assessed for tariffs can vary significantly."
Multiple state agencies say they believe FirstNet should give maximum possible latitude to the states to develop localized definitions for their segments of the planned national public safety broadband network (PSBN) but also encouraged FirstNet to adopt a federal standard for its request for proposals (RFP) process. Telcos and industry groups provided mixed opinions on both issues. FirstNet had sought comment from stakeholders on its proposed interpretations of the 2012 Spectrum Act, which established FirstNet to create a nationwide PSBN, to inform forthcoming RFPs and the creation of network rules and policies.
The FCC proposed a joint $10 million fine for two carriers for allegedly failing to protect their phone customers' sensitive information. TerraCom and YourTel allegedly breached the personal data of up to 300,000 consumers “through their lax data security practices and exposed those consumers to identity theft and fraud,” the FCC said Friday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1wmkB3C). They placed hundreds of thousands of their customers’ personal, sensitive information on the Internet, said Travis LeBlanc, Enforcement Bureau chief. The personal information the companies apparently failed to protect include Social Security numbers, names and addresses, and driver’s licenses, he said Friday during a teleconference with reporters.
The House Judiciary IP Subcommittee hearing on copyright remedies will be at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, instead of the originally scheduled 2 p.m., in 2141 Rayburn, said the committee site (http://1.usa.gov/1mnU4sl) Wednesday. The hearing’s witnesses are David Bitkower, deputy assistant attorney general-criminal division; Matt Schruers, Computer & Communications Industry Association vice president-law and policy; CEO Steven Tepp of Sentinel Worldwide, an intellectual property consulting firm; Sherwin Siy, Public Knowledge vice president-legal affairs; and Nancy Wolff, Cowan DeBaets partner, according to a committee document. “The first duty of a remedies system must surely be to end infringements, or ideally to prevent them from occurring,” said Tepp in prepared testimony he provided us. Tepp was formerly chief IP counsel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center. “Equitable, injunctive relief is available for precisely these purposes,” he said. “Consistent with the goal of preventing infringement, section 503 of the Copyright Act grants courts the authority to order the impounding of infringing copies, the means by which those copies are reproduced, and records documenting the manufacture and sale related to the infringement,” Tepp said. “It can scarcely be argued that allowing infringing copies or the implements with which they are produced to remain in the hands of infringers is good policy,” he said. “In some cases the existing remedies are punitive, which discourages innovation,” said Schruers, in prepared testimony he sent to us. “The existing statutory damages framework has created incentives for so-called copyright trolling, or predatory enforcement,” he said. Secondary liability infringement claims can inflict “potential exposure to large damages, often for the acts of customers,” Schruers said. Section 504(c)(2) of the Copyright Act “could limit statutory damages only to cases of direct infringement,” he said. “Alternatively, Congress could forbid aggregation in secondary liability cases,” he said.
Proposed changes to how FCC regulatory fees are assessed impose a “disproportionate” burden on wireless, CTIA said in comments filed at the FCC. The FCC’s overall budget for FY 2014 is $449.8 million and Congress directed the agency to recover about $339.8 million through regulatory fees, and $98.7 million through revenue retained from spectrum auctions. Comments in docket 12-201 were due Monday on a June 12 NPRM (http://bit.ly/U1K1m0).
Many players in the media landscape that want video regulations that foster increased competition remained at odds over CableCARD and program access rules, in replies on the 16th FCC video competition report. Verizon again stated its case against technology mandates like CableCARD, while TiVo continued its support for a successor to that regime. DirecTV and NCTA battled over whether there’s a need to maintain program access rules. Replies were posted Tuesday in docket 14-16, and initial comments had broken down along similar fault lines (CD March 25 p12).
The defeat of 911 funding bills in Kentucky, Wisconsin and Mississippi this year has left those in charge of operating emergency services worried about aging equipment, and wondering how to fund upgrades for next-generation 911 (NG-911), even as they struggle to pay for current-generation systems. The bills were among at least six nationwide that sought additional funding to make up for a decline in 911 fees collected from the dwindling number of landline customers.