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December 2016

Net Neutrality Rollback Under Trump Will Face Hurdles

As Republicans prepare to take over the Federal Communications Commission in 2017, don’t expect them to make a quick, clean break with the agency’s 2015 network neutrality rule. Two commission officials said that procedural hurdles and related programs may make scrapping the Open Internet order more complicated than GOP rhetoric suggests. The commission is still required to issue a proposed rule, which typically takes months to craft, and the comment period spans about two months.

Political precedent will weigh in. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai will likely be acting chairman starting on Jan 20, and he will have to balance any desire to move quickly on Title II with some deference to the administration’s pick for chairman. That nomination could take months to finalize. Perhaps most importantly, the two commission officials separately noted that a rule to roll back net neutrality could face scrutiny in the courts. A federal appeals court upheld the net neutrality rule in June, and the decision relied on evidence of how the broadband market changed over the previous 10 years, making it difficult for Republicans to argue for a rollback now.

How Tech Leaders Should Engage With Trump in 2017

[Commentary] Ideally, President-elect Donald Trump would form at least four tech councils focused on key issues impacting tech’s future. These councils would be used to help him develop a tech policy that advances the role of tech as a key part of our economic growth. They would work to create an environment where innovation can happen without excessive regulation. They would also look at how the job market of the future will be impacted by artificial intelligence and robots, and propose educational reforms to prepare a new kind of workforce.

1) Education reform
2) Immigration reform
3) Telecom and networking: New 5G technology will be a major economic driver in the coming years. It will create fast wireless broadband networks destined to deliver new forms of high-speed connectivity that will impact any connected digital service. The council would advise Trump on the technology and its effects. It would help the administration develop policies that help the companies building the networks, and keep them free of stiffer regulations or negative laws. This would help bring broad deployment of 5G networks to most of the US by 2020-2022.
4) The Future of transportation

[Tim Bajarin is president of the research and consulting firm Creative Strategies.]

Tech groups warn against EU copyright rule

Tech trade groups penned a letter to US regulators warning against a European Union copyright proposal. “The Commission’s Proposal on copyright in the Digital Single Market risks undermining trans-Atlantic commerce and internet openness,” the groups wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman. The letter's signatories included the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and the Internet Association (IA) — groups that represent a number of major tech companies such as Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook.

At issue is an EU measure that would require internet companies to create content filtering software to detect copyright material. But the tech groups say the proposal breaks from established international standards and wrongly put liability for copyright violations on internet companies instead of those who actually publish copyrighted material on their platforms. The letter argues that the content filters are expensive to maintain, citing the $60 million YouTube has reportedly spent on the technology.

After failing to strike a new deal, Nokia is suing Apple for patent infringement

After failing to strike a new deal with Apple, Nokia is suing the iPhone maker for patent infringement in both Germany and the US. The two companies had a deal in 2011 that covered some Nokia patents, but Nokia says efforts to reach a broader pact have gone nowhere. “Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products,” Nokia patent head Ilkka Rahnasto said in a statement. “After several years of negotiations trying to reach an agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

One of the big concerns in the phone industry has been just how agressive Nokia might be in pursuing large patent claims now that it is no longer in the phone-making business. (New phones are being introduced under the Nokia brand, but through a brand licensing deal, not because Nokia itself is selling phones.) Nokia’s remaining business is largely focused on making network equipment, though its smaller Nokia Technologies unit has a mission to both innovate in new areas and license the company’s brand and vast patent portfolio.

Facebook inks research deal with 17 universities

Facebook’s secretive lab Building 8 has signed a collaboration deal with 17 universities to speed up the research cycle for hardware and software. Building 8, headed by former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chief and Google executive Regina Dugan, has entered into a "Sponsored Academic Research Agreement."

That means Facebook can get new research projects launched in weeks, bypassing the nine to 12 months it usually takes, Dugan said. Facebook is hoping to tap "the best research minds in the world" to speed up product development, Dugan said. The academic institutions, which include Stanford, Harvard and MIT will be paid a fee by Facebook.

Fake News: A New Name For An Old Problem

[Commentary] It’s been just over a month since Donald Trump’s victory, and as the media is still in the midst of its post-election autopsy, a super villain has emerged: fake news. Fake news has been with us, in different guises, since long before anyone ever had the chance to tweet it. And our understanding of the current fake news problem, and our ability to combat it in the future, depends on our willingness to expand our study and skepticism of news that, for various reasons, has the power to misinform – and have serious consequences.

It’s been said many times in the wake of Trump’s election that there’s never been a more important time for thorough, uncompromising reporting, and this is true. But it will take more than simply blaming social media for its powers of distribution, or sniping about those on the other side of the ideological divide who get their news from sources different from our own.

[Arianna Huffington is the founder of the Huffington Post. Ari Emanuel is the CEO of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment]

National Telecommunications and Information Administration
Department of Commerce
January 25, 2017
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (EST)
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-12-21/pdf/2016-30679.pdf

The Committee provides advice to the Assistant Secretary to assist in developing and maintaining spectrum management policies that enable the United States to maintain or strengthen its global leadership role in the introduction of communications technology, services, and innovation; thus expanding the economy, adding jobs, and increasing international trade, while at the same time providing for the expansion of existing technologies and supporting the country’s homeland security, national defense, and other critical needs of government missions.

The Committee will hear the response of NTIA to the Committee’s recommendations provided at the end of the last session in August 2016, as well as discuss the questions it will address this session.

NTIA intends to post a detailed agenda on its Web site prior to the meeting, at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/category/csmac.


The New Democratic Mix on Senate Commerce Committee

The Senate Commerce Committee is adding a few new Democratic faces, according to a list released by incoming-Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Here’s a rundown of who’s staying and going, assuming the full Democratic Caucus ratifies the moves next month:
Staying : Ranking Member Bill Nelson (FL), Maria Cantwell (WA), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Brian Schatz (HI), Ed Markey (MA), Cory Booker (NJ), Tom Udall (NM) and Gary Peters (MI).
Leaving: Joe Manchin (WV) and Claire McCaskill (MO).
New: Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Sens.-elect Tammy Duckworth (IL), Maggie Hassan (NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).

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