| Sen. Breaux Introduces
Broadband Regulatory Parity Act |
4/30. Sen. John Breaux
(D-LA) and others introduced the Broadband
Regulatory Parity Act of 2002, a bill that would require
the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to pass regulations subjecting all
providers of broadband services, and broadband access
services, to the same regulatory requirements.
Moreover, the bill would require that the FCC do so without
increasing the regulatory requirements of any service
provider. The immediate effect of the bill would be to remove
regulatory requirements that are imposed upon the incumbent
local exchange carriers (ILECs) in the provision of DSL
service, but that are not imposed upon cable companies in the
provision of cable modem service. Like HR 1542,
the Tauzin Dingell bill, this bill is supported by ILECs.
FCC Promulgation of Regulatory Parity Regulations. The
bill would add a new Section 262 to Title 47. It would require
that the FCC, within 120 after passage, "prescribe
regulations to ensure that (1) all broadband services, and all
broadband access services, are subject to the same regulatory
requirements, or no regulatory requirements; (2) all providers
of broadband services, and all providers of broadband access
services, are subject to the same regulatory requirements, or
no regulatory requirements, with respect to the provision of
such services and the facilities and equipment used to provide
such services in the provision of such services; and (3)
paragraphs (1) and (2) are implemented without increasing the
regulatory requirements applicable to any provider of
broadband services, or broadband access services, on any such
service or on any facilities or equipment used to provide any
such service in the provision of such service."
No State Jurisidiction Over Broadband. Furthermore, the
bill provides that "broadband services and broadband
access services, and the facilities and equipment used to
provide such services in the provision of such services, shall
not be subject to the jurisdiction of any State."
Obligations of ILECS to ISPs. The bill also provides
that "each incumbent local exchange carrier has the duty
to provide all Internet service providers with the
telecommunications necessary for such provider to provide
broadband access service to its subscribers. Such
telecommunications shall be offered on rates, terms, and
conditions that are just and reasonable."
The bill also states that "Nothing in this section
affects the requirements of section 271",
"Nothing in this section affects the obligations of
incumbent local exchange carriers under section 251(c)
to provide requesting telecommunications carriers with
services and access to facilities and equipment necessary for
the provision of switched band voice telecommunications
service" and "Nothing in this section affects
section 251(f)."
256 kpbs. The bill defines broadband as "256
kilobits per second in at least one direction".
The bill's original cosponsors are Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK),
Sen. Max Cleland
(D-GA), Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-KS), Sen.
Zell Miller (D-GA), and Sen. Kay Hutchison
(R-TX).
Sen. Breaux stated in a release
that "To ensure and encourage the widespread deployment
of broadband networks in this country, Congress must level the
regulatory playing field in the broadband market ...
Unfortunately, different rules for competing high speed
Internet companies are stifling competition. This bill aims to
make regulations more simple and more fair, insisting that all
broadband service providers play by the same rules."
Walter McCormick, P/CEO of the U.S.
Telecom Association (USTA), a group that represents ILECs,
stated in a release
that "We commend Senators Breaux and Nickles for their
introduction of this important legislation that will spur the
deployment of broadband infrastructure, unleash vigorous head
to head competition for broadband service providers, increase
consumer choice, and stimulate the nation's economy."
BellSouth's Herschel
Abbott stated that "this is a reasonable approach that
deserves wide and immediate support in Congress. Passage will
encourage broadband providers to compete for consumers who
will be offered improved service, better access and more
choices in internet service providers."
SBC issued a release
in which it stated that "While the Breaux Nickles bill
takes a different approach than that of the House passed
Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act (H.R. 1542),
both recognize the fundamental need for all providers of
broadband services to compete under the same rules and
regulations."
In contrast, Russell Frisby, President of CompTel, a group that
represents competitive local exchange carriers, stated in a release
that "Members of the Senate should not be fooled;
Breaux's bill is the Tauzin Dingell bill. It was a bad bill in
the House and will continue to be a bad bill in the
Senate." |
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| Powell Addresses U.S.
Chamber on Broadband Policy |
4/30. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell
gave a speech
on broadband policy to the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC.
He stated that four principles will guide the FCC's actions in
the broadband space. "First, we will promote the
ubiquitous availability of broadband capable infrastructure to
al Americans."
"Second, the Commission will conceptualize broadband
broadly to include any platform that is capable of fusing
communications power with computing power to provide high
bandwidth intensive content to meet the broad needs and
demands of consumers. That is, we recognize that broadband is
not merely cable modem service or DSL."
"Third, at this stage in the development, any broadband
regulatory environment must serve to promote investment and
innovation." And "Fourth, sound regulatory policy
should, where appropriate, harmonize regulatory rights and
obligations that are attached to the provision of similarly
situated services across different technological
platform."
Powell was the keynote luncheon speaker at a Chamber event
titled Beyond Broadband: Policy and Business Strategies for
Next Generation Applications and Services. |
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| CTIA Files Petition with
FCC to Eliminate Rules |
4/30. The Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) filed a
Petition for Rulemaking [Part 1
and Part
2 in PDF] with the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) asking that it eliminate
unnecessary regulations pertaining to Customer Proprietary
Network Information (CPNI), E-911, local number portability,
tower citing, and other topics.
The CTIA's petition relies on the February 19, 2002, opinion
in U.S.
Court of Appeals (DCCir) in Fox v. FCC, 280 F.3d 1027,
which applies a plain meaning construction to Section 202(h)
of the Telecom Act of 1996. This section requires that the FCC
"shall review its rules adopted pursuant to this section
and all of its ownership rules biennially as part of its
regulatory reform review under section 11 of the
Communications Act of 1934 and shall determine whether any of
such rules are necessary in the public interest as the result
of competition. The Commission shall repeal or modify any
regulation it determines to be no longer in the public
interest."
Tom Wheeler, P/CEO of CTIA, stated in a release
that "The Fox decision gave clear direction to the FCC:
prove a regulation is vital and indispensable or get rid of it
... We want to help the Commission meet this standard by jump
starting the 2002 Biennial Review Process."
On April 19 the FCC filed a Petition
for Rehearing En Banc [40 pages in PDF] in the Fox case
with the Court of Appeals. The FCC argues for less literal
construction of Section 202(h). It wants "A less
stringent interpretation of the term ``necessary´´ ".
It argues that the Court should construe this word in its
"statutory context" rather than "in its most
literal sense".
CPNI. The CTIA stated in its release that "The FCC
should eliminate its CPNI rules that were recently vacated by
the 10th Circuit Court and adopt modified rules based on the
Federal Trade Commission's Fair Information Practices."
47 U.S.C. § 222 provides, in part: "Except as required
by law or with the approval of the customer, a
telecommunications carrier that receives or obtains customer
proprietary network information by virtue of its provision of
a telecommunications service shall only use, disclose, or
permit access to individually identifiable customer
proprietary network information in its provision of (A) the
telecommunication service from which such information is
derived, or (B) services necessary to, or used in, the
provision of such telecommunications service, including the
publishing of directories."
The FCC adopted rules pursuant to § 222 in its CPNI Order on
February 26, 1998. US West and other telecommunications
carriers challenged the constitutionality of the order on
First Amendment free speech grounds. The 10th Circuit agreed,
and vacated that part of the order pertaining to opt in
requirements. See, opinion
of the U.S. Court of Appeals (10thCir) in U S WEST v. FCC, 182
F.3d 1224 (10th Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 120 S. Ct. 2215
(Jun. 5, 2000).
On September 7, the FCC released a document
[32 pages in PDF] titled "Clarification Order and Second
Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking."
The CTIA wrote in its petition that "While the Commission
takes the position that the Tenth Circuit's vacatur applied
only to a single provision of the CPNI rules, 47 C.F.R.
64.2007(c), the court vacated the entire Section 64.2007
rulemaking as constitutionally inadequate. ... the Commission
must eliminate all of its rules on the use of CPNI that were
vacated by the Tenth Circuit. Furthermore, in light of the
Tenth Circuit.s vacatur Order, the Commission should abandon
its prior approach to CPNI rules, and adopt modified rules
based on the Federal Trade Commission's Fair Information
Practices." (Footnotes omitted.) |
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| USTR Releases Annual
Special 301 Report |
4/30. The Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual "Special
301" report identifying foreign countries that fail
to protect intellectual property rights.
The Trade Act of 1974 requires the USTR to identify annually
foreign countries that deny adequate and effective protection
of intellectual property rights or fair and equitable market
access for U.S. persons that rely on intellectual property
protection.
The sole priority foreign country is the Ukraine. The report
states that it retains this categorization "due to its
persistent failure to take effective action against
significant levels of optical media piracy and to implement
intellectual property laws that provide adequate and effective
protection."
The report states that "In this year's review, USTR
devoted special attention to the growing issue of Internet
piracy, as well as the ongoing campaign to reduce production
of unauthorized copies of ``optical media´´ products such as
CDs, VCDs, DVDs, and CD-ROMs. Optical disk piracy is an
increasing problem in many countries, in particular, Ukraine,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and
Taiwan. In addition, USTR continued to focus on other
critically important issues including proper implementation of
the TRIPS Agreement by developing country WTO Members and full
implementation of TRIPS standards by new WTO Members at the
time of their accession. USTR also continued to encourage
countries to ensure that government ministries use only
authorized software."
"Strong IPR protection should also be a priority for
other countries because it will help them attract investment
and technology," said USTR Robert
Zoellick in a release.
"This report reflects the Administration's continued
commitment to ensure effective intellectual property
protection around the world. We will continue to work with
Congress to identify our priorities in this area."
Robert Holleyman, President of the Business Software Alliance (BSA),
stated in a release
that "Piracy is the largest trade barrier for the
software industry. While we have made great progress in our
efforts to get foreign governments to establish effective
legal protections for intellectual property, piracy costs the
software industry more than $11 billion a year. To combat this
growing trend, it is important that we have the government's
help in identifying countries and regions that continue to
allow software piracy and theft in violation of their
international treaty obligations".
International Intellectual
Property Alliance (IIPA) President Eric Smith stated in a release
that "The U.S. copyright industries are one of the most
productive and fastest growing sectors of the U.S. economy,
accounting for over 5% of the U.S. GDP and creating new U.S.
jobs at over three times the rate of the remainder of the
economy. Reducing copyright piracy in overseas markets
is vital to this sector’s continued health and growth.
IIPA and its members are particularly gratified with the U.S.
government’s attention on the ever growing scourge of
optical media piracy and its new initiatives against Internet
piracy."
Hillary Rosen of the Recording
Industry Association of America (RIAA) stated that
"Today's announcement by Ambassador Zoellick reflects the
importance that he and this Administration place in ensuring
that our trading partners live up to their international
obligations in the protection of these critical US assets. On
behalf of the creators of today and tomorrow, I thank
Ambassador Zoellick and his dedicated team for their essential
support." |
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| Hollings to Hold Hearing On
Muris James Merger Review Deal |
4/30. The Senate
Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the Memorandum of
Agreement between the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice's
(DOJ) Antitrust Division
regarding division of responsibility for merger reviews. The
hearing is set for Tuesday, May 7 at 9:30 AM. The witness list
has not yet been set.
Sen. Hollings is the Chairman of the Committee, and an
opponent of the deal, which was negotiated by FTC Chairman
Timothy Muris and Assistant Attorney General Charles James.
This agreement defines, by market, which transactions will be
reviewed by which agency. For example, the FTC will have
responsibility for transactions involving companies that
provide computer hardware, professional services, and
satellite manufacturing and launch, and launch vehicles. The
DOJ will have responsibility for transactions involving media
and entertainment, telecommunications services and equipment,
and financial services.
Back on January 22, the Consumers Union and
the Consumer Federation
of America wrote a letter
to Sen. Hollings, regarding "the Bush administration's
plans to transfer the oversight of media industry
mergers" from the FTC to the DOJ. They wrote that
"this jurisdictional gerrymandering seems to have been
motivated more by politics and ideology than a desire to
better serve the public. Such a move would be extremely
detrimental to the public interest and to media consumers. We
urge you to continue to do your utmost to persuade the
administration to abandon its plans." |
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| FRB Governor Addresses
Impact of Technology on the Financial Services Industry |
4/30. Federal
Reserve Board Governor Mark Olson
gave a speech
titled "Risk Management in a Changing Economic
Environment" to the Bank Administration Institute, in
Phoenix, Arizona.
He said that there are four "environmental factors that
have changed in the financial services industry ... industry
consolidation, increased competition, technological changes,
and management focus on shareholder value." He then
elaborated on technological changes.
"First, technological advances from the past decade have
allowed real time access to credit information and public
records. This ability to mine data allows providers of
financial products to identify target markets with minimal
geographic restraint. It has fostered development of monoline
credit card and mortgage lenders that have become major market
participants in a very short time. Second, technology has
allowed organizations to separate the various business
functions, such as product marketing, credit review and
administration, and asset funding, and to locate each of these
functions based on separate criteria, such as the availability
of labor or the tax environment. Third, technology has helped
institutions monitor and manage risk by hedging exposure to
credit risk and interest rate risk or by selling certain
assets in secondary markets."
However, he added that use of new technologies "also has
potential negatives ... Sophisticated technology can at times
be its own risk as a system failure or software error can have
extremely negative consequences." |
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| GAO Reports on Desktop
Outsourcing by Federal Agencies |
4/29. The General Accounting
Office (GAO) released a report
[PDF] titled "Desktop Outsourcing: Positive Results
Reported, but Analyses Could Be Strengthened".
The report addresses six "federal agencies' efforts to
engage in an information technology (IT) outsourcing
alternative for acquiring distributed computing services
(typically those pertaining to desktop management) known as
``seat management.´´" With seat management, the
contractor owns the desktop, and other computing hardware,
software and services are bundled and provided on a per seat
basis.
The report found that "No single overarching reason
emerged regarding why agencies decided to adopt seat
management to address their distributed computing needs."
The report also found that "we could not determine
whether any of the agencies were achieving expected costs and
benefits because they did not (1) perform sufficient up-front
analyses of their baseline and projected costs and benefits
and (2) routinely monitor all actual seat management costs and
benefits." Hence, it recommended that the six agencies
"monitor all actual seat management costs and
benefits."
The report was prepared for Rep. Tom Davis
(R-VA), the Chairman of the House Government Reform
Committee's Subcommittee on Technology and and Procurement
Policy. The GAO is an arm of the Congress. |
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| People and Appointments |
4/30. WorldCom
announced that Bernie Ebbers resigned his position as
P/CEO/Director of WorldCom. John Sidgmore, who was
previously Vice Chairman, is now the P/CEO. Bert Roberts
remains as Chairman of the Board. See, WC
release.
4/30. Louis Reigel was named deputy chief financial
officer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). See, FBI
release.
4/29. Sen. John Warner
(R-VA) spoke in the Senate about Henry Hudson,
President Bush's nominee for a seat on the U.S. District Court
(EDVa). Sen. Warner praised him as "highly qualified for
this judgeship". See, Cong. Rec., April 29, 2002, at
S3499. |
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| More News |
4/30. Delaware Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit of
Walter Hewlett seeking to block the merger of HP and Compaq.
4/30. The Copyright
Office (CO) published a notice
in the Federal Register that it is waiving its regulation
regarding mail delivery. It stated that "Due to the
continued disruption in the delivery of mail, the Copyright
Office of the Library of Congress is announcing alternative
methods for the filing of claims to the cable and satellite
royalty funds for the year 2001. In order to ensure that their
claims are timely received, claimants are encouraged to file
their cable and satellite claims electronically, utilizing the
special procedures described in this document." See,
Federal Register, April 30, 2002, Vol. 67, No. 83, at Page
21176 - 21178.
4/26. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
charged Richard Eitelberg by complaint with the unauthorized
intrusion of the computer network. He is accused of remotely
accessing the computers of his former employer and deleting
records. See, CCIPS
release. |
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| About Tech Law Journal |
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information page.
Contact: 202-364-8882; E-mail.
P.O. Box 4851, Washington DC, 20008.
Privacy
Policy
Notices
& Disclaimers
Copyright 1998 - 2002 David Carney, dba Tech Law Journal. All
rights reserved. |
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| Wednesday, May 1 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business.
The Supreme Court is on recess until May 13.
9:30 AM - 4:00 PM. The Antitrust
Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FTC
will hold another in their series of hearings on antitrust and
intellectual property. This event is titled "The
Strategic Use of Licensing: Is There Cause for Concern about
Unilateral Refusals to Deal?" The speakers will be Ashish
Arora (Carnegie Mellon University), Jonathan Gleklen (Arnold
& Porter), Paul Kirsch (Townsend Townsend & Crew),
Benjamin Klein (UCLA), Jeff Mason (University of Michigan),
Douglas Melamed (Wilmer Cutler & Pickering), Carl Shapiro
(UC Berkeley), Christopher Sprigman (King & Spalding),
Mark Whitener (General Electric), and John Wiley (UCLA). The
DOJ requires that attendees provide their name and date of
birth 24 hours in advance to Kathleen Leicht at kathleen.leicht
@usdoj.gov or 514-7018. For more information, contact Gina
Talamona in the Office of Public Affairs at 514-2007, or
Frances Marshall in the Antitrust Division at 202 305-2520.
Location: Great Hall, DOJ, Main Building, 950 Pennsylvania
Ave., NW.
10:00 AM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and
Administrative Law will hold a hearing on HR 4561, the Federal
Agency Protection of Privacy Act. This bill would require
federal agencies to include a privacy impact analysis with
proposed regulations that are circulated for public notice and
comment. Webcast. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM. The House
Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations will hold a hearing on titled "Oversight
and Management of the Government Purchase Card Program".
Location: Room 2322, Rayburn Building.
10:00 AM. The House Financial
Services Committee's Subcommittee on Capital Markets will
hold a hearing titled "Corporate Accounting Practices: Is
There a Credibility GAAP?" Location: Room 2128, Rayburn
Building.
11:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The USTrade
Coalition will hold a press conference regarding trade
promotion authority legislation. For more information,
contact Kitty Brims at 637-3074 or ustrade @nam.org. Location:
Room 215, Dirksen Building.
11:00 AM. The Cato Institute
will host a panel discussion titled A Progress Report on
the HDTV Transition. The scheduled speakers are Mark Cuban
(HDNet), Thomas
Hazlett (Manhattan
Institute), Rick Chessen (FCC), David Donovan (Assoc. for Maximum Service
Television), Michael Calabrese (New America Foundation),
and Richard Wiley (Wiley Rein
& Fielding). See, agenda and
online registration page. Location: 1000 Massachusetts
Ave., NW.
12:00 PM. The FCBA will
host a luncheon. The speaker will be Charlie
Ergen, Ch/CEO of Echostar. The price is $45 for FCBA
members, $35 for government and student members, and $55 for
non-members. There will be a reception at 12:00 NOON. The
luncheon will begin at 12:30 PM. RSVP to Wendy Parish at wendy @fcba.org by Friday,
April 26. Location: Capital Hilton, 16th & K Streets.
1:30 - 1:30 PM. The FCC's World
Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03) Advisory
Committee, Informal Working Group 7 (Regulatory Issues and
Future Agendas) will hold a meeting. Location: FCC, 445 12th
Street, SW, Room 7-B516 (7th Floor South Conference Room).
2:00 PM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and
Homeland Security will hold a hearing on the April 16, 2002,
Supreme Court opinion
[PDF] in Ashcroft v. FSC, which held unconstitutional a
prohibition on computer generated child pormography. The
scheduled witnesses include A representative from the FBI, Ernie Allen
(P/CEO of the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children), and Lt. Bill
Walsh (Dallas Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce).
Press contact: Brad Bennett (Comm. Dir. for Rep. Smith) at
225-4236. Webcast. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
Deadline to submit comments to the USTR
regarding U.S. negotiating objectives and the work program
launched at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO
in November at Doha. See, USTR
release and notice
in the Federal Register.
Extended deadline for submitting comments to the Treasury Department regarding
its study of information sharing practices among financial
institutions and their affiliates. See, notice
in Federal Register. |
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| Thursday, May 2 |
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for legislative business.
8:30 - 10:00 AM. The American
Enterprise Institute (AEI) will host a press breakfast
titled "Telecommunications and Media Issues" with
former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott- Roth and other AEI
scholars. RSVP to Veronique Rodman at 862-4871 or vrodman @aei.org. Location:
AEI, 1150 17th Street, NW, 11th Floor Conference Room.
9:00 AM - 12:00 NOON. The Antitrust
Division of the Department of Justice and the FTC
will hold another in their series of hearings on antitrust and
intellectual property. This hearing is titled "Patent
Settlements: Efficiencies and Competitive Concerns". The
speakers will be George Cary (Cleary Gottlieb), Steven Stack
(Dechert), Thomas Barnett (Covington & Burling), Joseph
Brodley (Boston University School of Law), Robert Cook
(Drinker Biddle & Reath), Richard Feinstein (Boies
Schiller & Flexner), Phillip Proger (Jones Day), and Carl
Shapiro (University of California at Berkeley). See, agenda.
For more information, contact Derick Rill (FTC Office of
Public Affairs) at 202 326-2472 or Susan DeSanti (FTC Policy
Planning Division) at 202 326-2167. Location: Room 432, FTC,
600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The NIST
will hold a proposers' conference for its Advanced Technology Program
(ATP). See, notice
in Federal Register. Location: Gaithersburg Hilton, 620 Perry
Parkway, Gaithersburg, MD.
10:00 AM. The Senate
Appropriations Committee will hold hearings on homeland
security and the FY 2002 supplemental appropriations request.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
is scheduled to testify at 2:30 PM. Location: Room 192,
Dirksen Building.
10:00 AM. The House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet
and Internet and Intellectual Property will meet to mark up HR
4125, the Federal Courts Improvement Act of 2002. Section
104 of the bill would affect the timing of judges' reports
regarding the expiration or wiretap orders, or denial of
requests for wiretap orders. Webcast. Location: Room 2141,
Rayburn Building.
POSTPONED TO MAY 9. 10:00
AM - 12:00 NOON. The House
Science Committee's Subcommittee on Research will hold a
hearing on HR ___, the National Science Foundation
Reauthorization Act of 2002.
1:30 PM. The House
Commerce Committee will meet to mark up HR 4560,
the Auction Reform Act of 2002, a bill to eliminate the
deadlines for spectrum auctions of spectrum in the 700
megahertz band previously allocated to television
broadcasting. Press contact: Ken Johnson or Jon Tripp at 202
225-5735. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
Bush Administration officials will meet with EU
representatives to discuss a wide range of issues, including trade
and trade disputes, terrorism, law enforcement, non
proliferation, Middle East, Balkans, Afghanistan, Russia, and
other topics. The meetings will include President Bush, USTR Bob
Zoellick, Secretary of the Treasury Paul
O'Neill, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of
Commerce Donald
Evans, and others. The meetings will also include
President of the European Commission Romano
Prodi, EU Commissioner for External Relations Chris
Patten, EU Commissioner for Trade Pascal
Lamy, EU High Representative for CFSP Javier Solana, and
others. At 1:20 Bush, Aznar, and Prodi will hold a press
conference at the White House. At 2:15 Prodi and Aznar will a
joint EU press briefing at the St. Regis Hotel. At 5:00 PM
Lamy will brief the press at the European Commission's
Washington Delegation, at 2300 M Street, NW. See, EU
release. |
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| Friday, May 3 |
The House will not be in session.
9:30 AM. The U.S.
Court of Appeals (DCCir) will hear oral argument in Trans
Union v. FTC, No. 01-5202. Judges Edwards, Henderson and
Garland will preside. Location: 333 Constitution Ave. NW.
9:30 AM - 3:30 PM. The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) will host a public forum
and technology expo on Telecommunications Relay Service.
Location: FCC, 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C305 (Commission
Meeting Room).
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM. The FCC's Consumer
and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) will host a public forum
and technology expo on the Telecommunications Relay Service
(TRS). Location: FCC, Commission Meeting Room, 445 12th St.,
SW.
Extended deadline to submit comments to the FCC in response
to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking titled "In the
Matter of Appropriate Framework for Broadband Access to the
Internet over Wireline Facilities". This is CC Docket No.
02-33. See, Order
[PDF] extending deadline from April 15 to May 3. See also, original
notice in Federal Register. |
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| Monday, May 6 |
| Deadline to submit requests to attend or participate in the Copyright Office's
(CO) public roundtable discussion concerning "issues
raised in the course of an ongoing rulemaking proceeding to
adopt requirements for giving copyright owners reasonable
notice of the use of their works for sound recordings under
the section 114 and 112 statutory licenses and for how records
of such use shall be kept and made available to copyright
owners." See, notice
in Federal Register. |
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| Tuesday, May 7 |
9:30 AM. The Senate
Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the Memorandum of
Agreement between the FTC and the Department
of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust
Division regarding division of responsibility for merger
reviews. Press contact: Andy Davis 224-6654. Location: Room
253, Russell Senate Office Building.
12:00 NOON. The Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus
will host a luncheon. The speaker will be Marty Cooper,
inventor of the portable cellular telephone and CEO or
ArrayComm. RSVP to rsvp
@netcaucus.org or Danielle Wiblemo at 202 638-4370.
Location: Reserve Officers Association.
1:30 to 3:30 PM. The State
Department's International Telecommunication Advisory
Committee, Radiocommunication Sector (ITAC-R) will hold a
meeting. The ITAC advises the State Department on policy,
technical and operational issues with respect to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This meeting will
address preparations for the ITU-R World Radiocommunication
Conference 2003 (WRC-03). See, notice
in Federal Register. Location: Department of State, Dean
Acheson Auditorium. |
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