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In Verizon's reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the company essentially counts all the ways it says the Federal Communications Commission got it wrong in its defense of the network neutrality/open Internet rules, including what it says is the FCC's first claim that it has the direct authority to regulate the Internet.
Verizon said: 1) The FCC's reasoning that the order "escapes" a statutory ban on common carrier regulations is wrong and flatly conflicts with existing doctrine; 2) the commission relies on "far too slender a thread" to support its claim of Internet regulatory authority; 3) contrary to the FCC's assertion, broadband providers are speakers, whose speech the FCC has curtailed without justification; and 4) the order is arbitrary and capricious because there is no record of abuse.
Verizon: Let Us Count the Ways FCC Is Wrong on Open Internet
[Commentary] Robert Caro’s latest installment of his five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson spells out how the president used the Federal Communications Commission to cajole and control TV and radio station owners, a tactic later adopted by Richard Nixon to try to control the Watergate scandal. Heed the words of the late judge David Bazelon: “Under the First Amendment, the licensor's motivation should be irrelevant: the exercise of power over speech leads the government knee-deep into regulation of expression. And that, we have always assumed, is forbidden by the First Amendment."
Why Regulation and Free Speech Don’t Mix
Carnegie Mellon University said it was awarded $1.17 billion by a federal jury in Pittsburgh in a unanimous verdict that found the Marvell Technology Group had sold billions of semiconductors using technology developed at the university without a license.
The award is one of the largest in a patent infringement case, and comes after a $1 billion verdict awarded to Apple this summer over its smartphone design. Carnegie claimed that Marvell had infringed on a pair of patents relating to fundamental technology for increasing the accuracy with which hard drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks. The patents were developed by José Moura, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, and Aleksandar Kavcic, a former Ph.D. student now a professor at the University of Hawaii. Their work was supported by Carnegie’s Data Storage Systems Center, a university research organization.
Jury Awards $1.17 Billion in Patent Suit
Apple has agreed to withdraw patent infringement allegations against the new Galaxy S III Mini following Samsung’s pledge that it will not market the device in the US.
“Apple will agree to withdraw without prejudice its request to include the Galaxy S III Mini in this case given Samsung’s representation that it is not making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing that product into the United States,” Apple said in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Jose (CA), adding that it would do so only if that withdrawal doesn’t prejudice its “ability later to accuse the Galaxy S III Mini if the factual circumstances change.”
Apple to Samsung: Keep Galaxy S III Mini Out of the U.S. and We Won’t Sue
Samsung lost a bid to keep sales data of some of its products sealed in a US patent dispute with Apple. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose denied Samsung’s request to keep the sales figures secret while the company appeals an earlier sealing order. Samsung sought to delay the implementation of the order until its appeal is heard by the Federal Circuit court. “Samsung’s appeal involves pricing information and profit margins,” Judge Koh wrote. The exhibit at issue “only lists the number of units sold in each of several recent months.”
Samsung Loses Bid to Seal Sales Data in Apple Dispute
On December 24, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) responding to two petitions for rulemaking that seek to “secure the ‘just and reasonable’ interstate rates for prisoners required by Section 201(b) of the Communications Act” by initiating this NPRM to consider changes to FCC rules governing rates for interstate interexchange inmate calling services (ICS). In the first petition for rulemaking, filed in 2003, (First Wright Petition), Petitioners requested that the FCC “prohibit exclusive inmate calling service agreements and collect call-only restrictions at privately-administered prisons and require such facilities to permit multiple long distance carriers to interconnect with prison telephone systems. . . .” In the second petition for rulemaking, filed in 2007, (Alternative Wright Petition), Petitioners proposed that the FCC require debit calling, prohibit per-call charges and establish rate caps for all interstate, interexchange inmate calling services. The FCC received significant comment on the two Petitions for Rulemaking.
Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a Report and Order establishing rules to help speed the deployment of Internet services onboard aircraft. The FCC’s action enables broadband providers to meet increasing consumer demands and promotes the economic growth and job-creating impacts of ubiquitous broadband. This action also continues the FCC’s efforts to update and streamline regulatory requirements across the agency.
Since 2001, the FCC has authorized a number of companies, on an ad hoc basis, to operate Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft (ESAA), i.e., earth stations on aircraft communicating with Fixed-Satellite Service (FSS) geostationary-orbit (GSO) space stations. Installed on the exterior of the aircraft, the satellite antenna carries the signal to and from the aircraft, providing two-way, in-flight broadband services to passengers and flight crews. The Report and Order formalizes ESAA as a licensed application in the FSS and establishes a regulatory framework for processing applications while ensuring other radio service operations are protected from harmful interference. Rather than have to license on-board systems on an ad hoc basis, airlines will be able test systems that meet FCC standards, establish that they do not interfere with aircraft systems, and get FAA approval.
By reducing administrative burdens on both applicants and the FCC, the new rules should allow the FCC to process ESAA applications up to 50 percent faster, enhancing competition in an important sector of the mobile telecommunications market in the United States and promoting the widespread availability of Internet access to aircraft passengers.
FCC Adopts Rules to Promote Deployment of Internet Services Onboard Aircraft Revisions to Parts 2 and 25 of the Commission's Rules to Govern the Use of Earth Stations Aboard Aircraft Communicating with Fixed-Satellite Service Geostationary-Orbit Space Stations (FCC)
In September, a passenger was arrested in El Paso after refusing to turn off his cellphone as the plane was landing. In October, a man in Chicago was arrested because he used his iPad during takeoff. In November, half a dozen police cars raced across the tarmac at La Guardia Airport in New York, surrounding a plane as if there were a terrorist on board. They arrested a 30-year-old man who had also refused to turn off his phone while on the runway. Who is to blame in these episodes? You can’t solely pin it on the passengers. Some of the responsibility falls on the Federal Aviation Administration, for continuing to uphold a rule that is based on the unproven idea that a phone or tablet can interfere with the operation of a plane. Dealing with the FAA on this topic is like arguing with a stubborn teenager. The agency has no proof that electronic devices can harm a plane’s avionics, but it still perpetuates such claims, spreading irrational fear among millions of fliers.
The Real Hazards of E-Devices on Planes
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Steven Wildman to the position of FCC Chief Economist. Professor Wildman, an expert on communications and media issues who holds the James H. Quello Chair of Telecommunications Studies and is serving as the Acting Chair of the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University, will commence his role in January 2013. Wildman will take over as Chief Economist from Marius Schwartz, who is returning to his prior role as a Professor of Economics at Georgetown University.
Wildman’s teaching and research focus on economics, law and policy across the communications industry, and the impact of information technologies on the organization of economic activities. He has conducted detailed research on broadband adoption examining infrastructure cost structures and demand in rural and underserved areas. He has also studied the efficiency properties of alternative spectrum governance regimes and network interconnection policy.
He has held numerous fellowships and received prominent awards, including the Information and Telecommunications Education and Research Association Distinguished Research Award, the Journal of Media Economics Award of Honor for Scholarly Contributions, and the McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Policy Research. Prior to joining Michigan State University, Wildman was an Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Department of Communications Studies. He has also worked at the University of California’s Department of Economics. Wildman holds a Ph.D in Economics from Stanford University, as well as an M.A. and a B.A. degree in Economics from Stanford University and Wabash College respectively.
FCC Names Steven Wildman as Chief Economist
The Federal Trade Commission announced the results of a comprehensive study of food and beverage industry marketing expenditures and activities directed to children and teens. The study, A Review of Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Follow-Up Report gauges the progress industry has made since first launching self-regulatory efforts to promote healthier food choices to kids.
It serves as a follow-up to the FTC’s 2008 report on food marketing requested by Congress. The report provides a picture of how food companies allocated $1.79 billion on marketing to youth ages 2-17 in 2009. The FTC found that overall spending was down 19.5 percent from 2006, with most of that decrease coming from less spending on television ads to youth. At the same time, food companies stepped up their spending to market to children and teens in new media, such as online, mobile, and viral marketing, by 50 percent. New to this report is a detailed analysis of the nutritional profile of foods marketed to youth. The analysis suggests that industry self-regulation resulted in modest nutritional improvements from 2006 to 2009 within specific food categories heavily marketed to youth, such as cereals, drinks, and fast food kids’ meals. According to the report, food company participation in self-regulation has increased, but some companies with significant marketing to children still have not joined the effort. The entertainment industry lags farther behind. With a few exceptions, media companies have not limited licensing of children’s characters and placement of ads during children’s programming to more nutritious foods.
FTC Releases Follow-Up Study Detailing Promotional Activities, Expenditures, and Nutritional Profiles of Food Marketed to Children and Adolescents A Review of Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Follow-Up Report (read the report)