Cable-Copyright: the Corruption of Consensus, 6 Hastings Comm
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APRIL 17, 2015 Chairman Tom Wheeler Federal Communications
APRIL 17, 2015 Chairman Tom Wheeler Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, SW Washington, DC 20554 Re: Applications of Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. for Consent to Assign or Transfer Control of Licenses and Authorizations, MB Docket No. 14-57 Dear Chairman Wheeler: It has been more than a year since Comcast announced its intention to acquire Time Warner Cable to form a cable TV and ISP behemoth. The combined company would, among other things: control over half of the high-speed residential broadband connections in the United States; dominate pay-TV across the nation; combine even stronger distribution muscle with NBC-Universal’s “must-have” video programming; and control critical advertising and set-top- box inputs. Opposition to this merger began the day the deal was announced and has grown to historic proportions. Over 700,000 Americans have called on you to reject the proposed merger, far more people than have opposed any other merger in the history of the Commission. Diverse industry and public interest group stakeholders (several of which are represented by the signatories below) have filed extensive documents in strong opposition to the merger. 1 The message is clear: the Commission should reject this merger because it would result in too much power in the hands of one company. You have staked your chairmanship on the importance of fostering competition to protect consumers and spur innovation, investment, lower prices and diversity. We agree. And the only way to protect that competitive future now is to reject the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger outright — no conditions, no side deals — no merger, period. -
Copyright and State Sovereign Immunity
united states copyright office Copyright and State Sovereign Immunity A REPORT Of ThE REgister Of cOPyRighTs AugusT 2021 united states copyright office Copyright and State Sovereign Immunity A report Of ThE REgister Of cOPyRighTs AugusT 2021 The Honorable Patrick Leahy Chair Subcommittee on Intellectual Property United States Senate 437 Russell Senate Building Washington, D.C. 20510 The Honorable Thom Tillis Ranking Member Subcommittee on Intellectual Property United States Senate 113 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 August 31, 2021 Dear Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Tillis: On behalf of the United States Copyright Office, I am pleased to deliver a copy of a report entitled Copyright and State Sovereign Immunity, which is available to the public on the Office’s website. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Allen v. Cooper, you requested that the Copyright Office undertake a study to determine whether, consistent with the Court’s analysis, Congress could legislatively abrogate state sovereign immunity to suits in federal court for damages for copyright infringement. In response to your request, the Office solicited the views of interested stakeholders and held roundtables to amplify the record. The Office received comments from many copyright owners who believed that their works had been infringed by state entities. A number of state entities provided information about their policies on copyright, and views regarding allegations of infringement and the possible effect of abrogation on their operations. The Office also conducted extensive research into the legal standards governing abrogation in the context of copyright infringement. After carefully evaluating the information provided, the Office can report that the number of allegations of state infringement provided in the course of this study is substantially greater than the number Congress considered when it adopted its prior abrogation legislation, and greater than the evidence found insufficient in prior intellectual property cases. -
The FCC's Knowledge Problem: How to Protect Consumers Online
The FCC’s Knowledge Problem: How to Protect Consumers Online Hon. Maureen K. Ohlhausen* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. A FRAMEWORK FOR THINKING ABOUT REGULATION: COMPARING THE FCC AND THE FTC .................................................................. 205 A. The Regulator’s Knowledge Problem....................................... 206 B. The FCC’s Prescriptive, Ex Ante Regulatory Approach .......... 208 C. The FTC’s Flexible, Ex Post Enforcement-Based Approach ... 212 II. NET NEUTRALITY AND THE FCC: A CASE STUDY IN REGULATORY DIFFICULTY ..................................................................................... 214 A. What is Net Neutrality? ............................................................ 215 1. Proponents of Net Neutrality Regulation .......................... 215 2. Opponents of Net Neutrality Regulation .......................... 216 B. The FCC’s History of Broadband Regulation: The Road to Reclassification ........................................................................ 218 1. Broadband as a Title I information service ....................... 218 2. The Verizon Decision ........................................................ 220 3. The Aftermath of Verizon ................................................. 221 Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission. I would like to thank Neil Chilson for his contributions to this essay. The views expressed here are solely my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission or any other individual Commissioner. Portions of this essay were adapted from a keynote -
Introduction
Introduction It was the first week of 1980. Twelve months before, the University of Colorado Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (ITP) had suspended me for letting my grade point average drop below a 3.0. The ITP had admitted me with a provision that my grade point aver- age not fall below a 3.0. If not for a 750 score on the Graduate Record Exam and solid references from my sales manager, some of my previ- ous customers, and the training manager of Belden Corporation, the electronic cable manufacturing company that employed me, my appli- cation in 1977 to enter graduate school in the ITP probably wouldn’t even have been accepted. I’d previously been a factory sales representative for Belden in New York City in the 1970s. My sales territory predominantly served the national headquarters offices of broadcasters ABC, NBC, and CBS, the national headquarters offices of cable television industry multi- ple system operators (MSOs) Teleprompter Corporation and Warner Cable Corporation, and the two local cable television systems on xxix xxx INTrodUCTION Manhattan Island, Manhattan Cable Company (owned by Time Life Corporation) and Teleprompter Manhattan Corporation (owned by Teleprompter Corporation). In November 1975, I originated and arranged a meeting between Belden’s Vice President of Marketing, Jack McCarthy, and the President of Teleprompter Corporation’s Cable-TV Division, William Bresnan, to discuss a partnership to deploy light-wave technology via fiber-optic glass strands in cable television. On July 9, 1976, the New York Times reported, “TV Begins to Use Fiber Technology,”1 and the Wall Street Journal reported, “Tele- prompter Adds Light-Wave System to Cable-TV Unit.”2 The cable television industry obtained rights to pole attachment in public right- of-way from the FCC in 1978.3 After a summer session and the fall term in 1978 my grade point average slipped below a 3.0 due to a statistics class. -
Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission
S. HRG. 114–175 OVERSIGHT OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MARCH 18, 2015 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 98–498 PDF WASHINGTON : 2016 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 10:32 Feb 08, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\98498.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MARCO RUBIO, Florida CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota TED CRUZ, Texas RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut DEB FISCHER, Nebraska BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii JERRY MORAN, Kansas EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska CORY BOOKER, New Jersey RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TOM UDALL, New Mexico DEAN HELLER, Nevada JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia CORY GARDNER, Colorado GARY PETERS, Michigan STEVE DAINES, Montana DAVID SCHWIETERT, Staff Director NICK ROSSI, Deputy Staff Director REBECCA SEIDEL, General Counsel JASON VAN BEEK, Deputy General Counsel KIM LIPSKY, Democratic Staff Director CHRIS DAY, Democratic Deputy Staff Director CLINT ODOM, Democratic General Counsel and Policy Director (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 10:32 Feb 08, 2016 Jkt 075679 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\98498.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on March 18, 2015 ........................................................................... -
The High Cost of Doing Nothing on Net Neutrality Introduction
ISSUE BRIEF: Q4 2019 UPDATE THE HIGH COST OF DOING NOTHING ON NET NEUTRALITY INTRODUCTION Business Forward has organized hundreds of briefings across the country on technology and innovation, collecting recommendations from local business leaders on a range of issues, from how to protect IP to helping small businesses use the internet to find new markets. Few issues are as important – or contentious – as net neutrality. This issue brief explains why net neutrality matters and offers a path to achieving it. The term “net neutrality” was coined in 2003, capturing the belief that the best way to ensure an open and vital internet is to prevent network operators from interfering with traffic to favor data from some sites or applications over others. Without net neutrality, network operators could censor viewpoints, stifle startups by charging exorbitant tolls, or undermine competition by favoring their own web offerings over their competitors’ offerings. With net neutrality, companies operating at the “edge” of the network are more likely to invest in distance learning, telemedicine, media streaming, and other new, data-intensive businesses. FOUR DIFFERENT FCC CHAIRS, SERVING TWO PRESIDENTS, SUPPORTED NET NEUTRALITY PRINCIPLES, POLICIES OR RULES – BUT THEY LACKED CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE THEM. The FCC began working on ways to promote net neutrality in 2004. Four different FCC chairs (Michael Powell, Kevin Martin, Julius Genachowski, and Tom Wheeler) serving two presidents (George W. Bush, Barack Obama) issued net neutrality principles, policies or rules. But federal courts or subsequent FCC orders struck down these efforts. Martin’s “policy statement” was found to be unenforceable because it wasn’t a formal regulation. -
The Next Great Copyright Act
THE NEXT GREAT COPYRIGHT ACT Twenty-Sixth Horace S. Manges Lecture by Maria A. Pallante1 I. INTRODUCTION Tonight my topic is the next great copyright act, but before I speak about the future, I would like to talk a little about the past, including the role of the Copyright Office in past revision activities. In my remarks, I will address the need for comprehensive review and revision of U.S. copyright law, identify the most significant issues, and suggest a framework by which Congress should weigh the public interest, which includes the interests of authors. I also will address the necessary evolution of the Copyright Office itself. Those of you who have been to our offices in Washington know that we have a conference room featuring portraits of the former Registers of Copyright dating back to 1897.2 When guests are seated at our table, the former Registers preside on high, wearing a variety of expressions and overseeing complex conversations about copyright law in the digital age. Sometimes I think they would be startled by the discussions we have, but then again it might all sound familiar. Solberg (1887-1933) Thorvald Solberg was the first and longest-serving Register of Copyrights. He seems inspired in his portrait, and for good reason. Solberg was a visionary leader, a champion of authors’ rights, and an early advocate for the United States’ adherence to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (“Berne Convention”).3 Under his care, the Copyright Office grew from a handful of employees to more than a hundred professional staff, and took on the many assorted roles that are still critical to the mission of the Office today. -
Public Service Commission Must Fight for Internet Freedom by Roger
Public Service Commission Must Fight for Internet Freedom by Roger Koopman When, in the spirit of bipartisanship, Congress and the Clinton Administration deregulated the Internet in 1994, the results were predictable. Fueled by freedom and entrepreneurship, the United States became the international Internet leader, attracting a steady stream of investment capital and creating the most robust, innovative and competitive broadband market in the world. All of that is about to change though, because the Federal Communications Commission knuckled under to a president whose vision for America is conformity, not liberty -- a place where free thought and free expression must first approved by the federal government. They call it “Net Neutrality,” which, like the camel’s nose under the tent, appears harmless enough. But what’s the real agenda here? Net Neutrality is a solution in search of a problem, based on the unsubstantiated fear that unless the government steps in and places its homogenizing thumb on the Internet, service providers (ISPs) will somehow create unequal access for transmission of broadband data. Thus, we must be protected from such bureaucratic boogeymen as “throttling,” “fast lanes,” and “blocking.” But guess what? Free market competition (which the FCC stands ready to ruin) has already exorcized those ghosts and goblins. Our nation has 17 large broadband providers and over 3,000 smaller ones. There is no monopoly and there is no problem. There is only the insatiable appetites of Obama Administration extremists, who wish to place every human activity under the expert supervision of the government elite. The biggest target of the professional controllers and planners is the Internet. -
The FCC Is Involved in a Never Ending Fight to Ensure Net Neutrality As a Law Volume 1 (2) 2015
The FCC is Involved in a Never Ending Fight to Ensure Net Neutrality as a Law Volume 1 (2) 2015 Fast Lanes without Slow Lanes: The FCC is Involved in a Never Ending Fight to Ensure Net Neutrality as a Law Matthew C. Quattrochi* 1. Introduction The overall purpose of this work is to discuss the current state of net neutrality. Given Federal Communication Commission (“FCC”) Chairman Tom Wheeler’s most recent proposal to pass net neutrality into law, net neutrality is ripe for discussion.1 The court ruling striking down the infrastructure of the Open Internet Order in Verizon v. F.C.C., and the devaluation of Title I regulatory authority exhibited in the decision made in Comcast Corp. v. F.C.C. bring about an appropriate point to stop and reflect concerning the options the FCC has to instill net neutrality regulation.2 Part II of this work will be dedicated to explaining net neutrality and addressing the overall question of whether net neutrality needs to be enacted into law. Part III will be dedicated to discussing Verizon v. F.C.C. and Comcast Corp. v. F.C.C. as well as other applicable case law concerning net neutrality violations. Part IV will address FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s most recent net neutrality proposal, now law. Part V will consider the authoritative options that the FCC has in regulating net neutrality violations. * Matthew C. Quattrochi is a 3rd Year law student at Barry Law School in Orlando Florida. He is an Orlando Chapter Attorney Liaison and the member of American Constitution Society. -
THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Brookings Cafeteria Podcast How We Connect: Network Revolutions from Gutenberg to Google February 22, 2019
THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION Brookings Cafeteria Podcast How we connect: Network revolutions from Gutenberg to Google February 22, 2019 CONTRIBUTORS FRED DEWS Host Managing Editor for New Digital Products BILL FINAN Host Director, Brookings Institution Press TOM WHEELER Visiting Fellow, Governance Studies, Center for Technology Innovation JOSEPH PARILLA Fellow - Metropolitan Policy Program (MUSIC) DEWS: Welcome to the Brookings Cafeteria. The Podcast about ideas and the experts who have them. I’m Fred Dews. How we connect defines who we are says former SCC Chair Tom Wheeler, the guest on today’s episode. He is author of a new book published by the Brookings Institution Press titled, From Gutenberg to Google: The History of our Future. In which he brings to life the great network revolutions of our past to help us understand and deal with what is to come. You’ll hear my colleague, Bill Finan’s interview with him in just a moment. Also, on today’s episode, Metropolitan Policy Program Fellow, Joseph Parilla, shares his thoughts on Amazon’s decision to discontinue plans to open a new headquarters in New York City and what this means for economic development incentives. You can follow the Brookings Podcast network on Twitter @policypodcasts to get the latest information about all our shows, including Dollar and Cents, the Brookings’ trade Podcast, Intersections, and 5 on 45. Find them on our website, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to get Podcasts. And now, on with the interview. Here’s Bill Finan, Director of the Brookings’ Institution Press. FINAN: Fred, thanks, and Tom, hello. -
Money for Something: Music Licensing in the 21St Century
Money for Something: Music Licensing in the 21st Century Updated February 23, 2021 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R43984 SUMMARY R43984 Money for Something: Music Licensing in the February 23, 2021 21st Century Dana A. Scherer Songwriters and recording artists are generally entitled to receive compensation for Specialist in (1) reproductions, distributions, and public performances of the notes and lyrics they create (the Telecommunications musical works), as well as (2) reproductions, distributions, and certain digital public Policy performances of the recorded sound of their voices combined with instruments (the sound recordings). The amount they receive, as well as their control over their music, depends on market forces, contracts between a variety of private-sector entities, and laws governing copyright and competition policy. Who pays whom, as well as who can sue whom for copyright infringement, depends in part on the mode of listening to music. Congress enacted several major updates to copyright laws in 2018 in the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA; P.L. 115-264). The MMA modified copyright laws related to the process of granting and receiving statutory licenses for the reproduction and distribution of musical works (known as “mechanical licenses”). The law set forth terms for the creation of a nonprofit “mechanical licensing collective” through which owners of copyrights in musical works could collect royalties from online music services. The law also changed the standards used by a group of federal administrative law judges, the Copyright Royalty Board, to set royalty rates for some statutory copyright licenses, as well as the standards used by a federal court to set rates for licenses to publicly perform musical works offered by two organizations representing publishers and composers, ASCAP and BMI. -
Copyright Publication on the Internet
1 COPYRIGHT PUBLICATION ON THE INTERNET DEBORAH R. GERHARDT* I. Introduction................................................................. 1 II. Ambiguities Latent in Copyright Publication Doctrine....................................................................... 5 III. The Enduring Significance of Copyright Publication ................................................................ 13 IV. Internet Publication................................................... 23 V. Internet Publication Indicators.................................. 38 VI. Conclusion ................................................................ 43 I. INTRODUCTION This Article tackles the question of when a work distributed over the Internet is published as a matter of copyright law. Copyright publication doctrine retains significant practical importance and can have a dispositive impact on the economic value of a work. Publication can also determine whether a court has jurisdiction over a * Associate Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law. I am grateful to Ann Bartow, Jim Gibson, Rebecca Tushnet, Alfred Chueh-Chin Yen, and participants at the 2019 University of New Hampshire Redux Conference and the 2019 Intellectual Property Scholars Conference. I am also grateful to Chandler Martin and R. Taylor Townes for excellent research assistance. Volume 60 – Number 1 2 IDEA – The Law Review of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property copyright claim. For many twentieth century works, publication with observance of formalities was required