Lobbying
Cable Industry Gears Up To Battle Bells Over Video
     The cable industry has begun coalescing around an aggressive stance to thwart or delay Bell companies from entering cable territories and competing for subscription-video service. The cable industry and its trade group, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, have ratcheted up their rhetoric against companies like Verizon Communications and SBC Communications, each of which plans to compete with cable by offering pay-television service. At the NCTA show in San Francisco last week, association CEO Kyle McSlarrow muffled the delivery of his most controversial line: "All multi-channel video providers should continue to make service available to all residents, regardless of income." It is an arrow into the heart of competition from Verizon and SBC, which pay between $1,000 and $2,000 per home to string fiber-optic wires. Verizon and SBC disagree about whether they must pay to obtain and pay franchise fees, generally about 5 percent of video revenue. "As long as there is a current law that governs how local video service is to be delivered, [franchisors must] abide by certain social obligations, including building out entire communities, and not-redlining or cream-skimming," said NCTA Vice President Brian Dietz. Hoewing said the term redlining "is just an emotional term that is really not helpful to the debate."

Telecom
Lawmakers Appear Open To Changes At Intelsat
     Three of the leading satellite communications companies told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that they need to be allowed to reconsolidate, a demand that attracted little protest or complaint. The leaders of the committee and the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee each said they were open to a change in a 2000 law that privatized two major inter-governmental satellite communications consortia, Intelsat and Inmarsat. An official from the Government Accountability Office and the FCC endorsed the need to consider allowing satellite mergers. The 2000 law, known as the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications Act, privatized the global bodies. The law required Intelsat to spin off New Skies Satellite as a subsidiary, and barred the two companies from combining for 15 years. Once government-owned, Intelsat is now 100 percent privately-held, as is New Skies.

Security
Senate Panel OKs Measure To Revamp Responder Funding
     The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved legislation to revamp the funding formula for first responder grants, despite arguments from a few panel members that the bill would not allocate enough funding on the basis of terrorist threats. The bill, S. 21, would require the Homeland Security Department to use a "sliding scale" methodology when doling out funding to states for fire fighters, police officers and other "first responders." Under the revised formula, each state would receive .55 percent of all homeland security grant funding. Larger states could receive a higher percentage -- up to 3 percent -- based on population and population density. The secretary would allocate the remaining funding, which the panel estimated would be over 60 percent, on the basis of risk, vulnerabilities and needs of local communities to prevent, prepare and respond to a terrorist attack.

Telecom
Commerce Bill Would Junk Junk Fax Regulation
     The Senate Commerce Committee has approved a bill to reverse the FCC's 2003 "junk fax" regulation, aimed at prohibiting businesses from sending commercial faxes without prior written consent from recipients. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., failed to add an amendment to the legislation requiring the federal government to inform audiences of "video news releases" paid for by government agencies. "We're not in the business of propaganda," said Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. But Republicans on the committee viewed the amendment as political and overreaching of Congress. "We see it as political," said Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Kerry and Lautenberg withdrew their amendment after Stevens agreed to hold a separate hearing and markup on their provision as early as next week.

Digital Convergence
Panel: Digital, Satellite Radio Transforming Music Distribution
     Podcasting, satellite radio and the impeding transition to "high-definition" digital radio have the potential to change the landscape for music distribution as much as peer-to-peer software like Napster and its successors, a panel of experts agreed. At a panel on digital audio broadcasting at a policy summit of the Future of Music Coalition, it was apparent that radio broadcasters and record labels alike are struggling to find stability in a digital music landscape roiled over the past several years by radio consolidation, peer-to-peer services, and new transmission technologies that allow music to be wirelessly distributed to cell phones. One reason is the lingering bitterness between broadcasters and record labels over the anomalous copyright situation in which composers, but not performing artists, are paid royalties when analog radio stations broadcast music.

Intellectual Property
RIAA Suing Students Swapping Files Over Internet2
     The recording industry will file lawsuits against 405 students at 18 colleges and universities nationwide for illegally file-sharing copyrighted songs and movies on the leading university computer network known as Internet2. The federal copyright lawsuits will be filed against song file-sharers operating in the i2Hub within Internet2, the foremost U.S. advanced high-speed networking consortium led by research institutions and universities, Recording Industry Association of America President Cary Sherman announced. The suits are the first to focus on alleged illegal activity on the network. The students who are being sued attend such schools as Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Although officials called it a "massive" problem, lawsuits were limited to 25 per school.

Intellectual Property
Impact Of BlackBerry Maker Patent Decision Remains Unclear
     The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recently announced in a finding last week that a patent licensed to the maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device is invalid, but the decision may just be a moot point by now. The PTO in a little-noted action issued a preliminary finding that one of the wireless e-mail patents held by the patent licensing company NTP is faulty. The finding comes after Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry device ubiquitous on Capitol Hill, paid NTP $450 million to settle NTP's patent infringement lawsuit over five of its patents. "Due to confidentiality restrictions, we cannot comment further on NTP-related matters at this time," said Mark Guibert, RIM's vice president of corporate marketing. "But I will say that we signed a binding term sheet that resolved the litigation, and we continue to negotiate the definitive agreements."

Intellectual Property
Nations Launch Debate On Change To WIPO's Mandate
     Members of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) this week in Geneva concluded the first round of talks on a proposal to reform the U.N. body's core mission to better reflect developing country concerns. The discussions were mandated by WIPO's annual General Assembly last fall after Argentina and Brazil offered a proposal for a "development agenda" with 12 other developing country co-sponsors, collectively known as the "Friends of Development." Developed countries proposed that the permanent committee be "strengthened and reinvigorated," as the U.S. delegate phrased it. But developing countries fear their proposal for fundamental reform might be relegated to that committee alone. They argue that development issues cut across numerous forums.