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As PK legal eagle John Bergmayer noted in his blog post on attempts to "harmonize" copyright across national boundaries, the European Parliament decidedly rebuked the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in a decisive 663 to 13 vote yesterday. The approved joint resolution calls for the immediate release of ACTA texts and public access to the negotiations and prohibits the EU from continuing to engage in secret talks with the other ACTA parties. Moreover, the resolution forbids EU member states from implementing so-called "three strikes" regimes, which some have reported or interpreted ACTA as prescribing. Finally, the resolution, "stresses that, unless Parliament is immediately and fully informed at all stages of the negotiations, it reserves its right to take suitable action, including bringing a case before the Court of Justice in order to safeguard its prerogatives." Needless to say, this resolution holds the potential to deal a massive blow to the secretive ACTA treaty and to finally shine a light on a purposefully opaque process. Unfortunately, here in the United States, policymakers are singing a very different tune. read more

We are an unusual “nuclear” family. Unusual in the sense that I worked at FCC for almost 25 years and my wife’s career was mostly in the nuclear power area and included 13 years at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Thus in our household we have experience at 2 different regulatory commissions - probably a rare occurrence even in Washington. This week was NRC’s annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC) and we dropped by together to register her Monday afternoon and I was there yesterday for a bit to catch the flavor and go to some private company receptions in conjunction with the conference since I know many people in that industry.read more

BitStalker is a good way to get around some of the obfuscatory methods employed by some BitTorrent trackers that are primarily used for infringing content, like the Pirate Bay. It uses some clever data-gathering techniques to avoid falling for some kinds of spoofing (like listing phony IP addresses as peers). I’m glad that some of the people at my old school, the University of Colorado, are seriously addressing the fact that current anti-piracy technology used on the Internet is inadequate. One thing needs to be clear, though: when the paper claims that “false positives are rare with our active approach,” it’s referring to false positives as to whether a particular IP address is part of a BitTorrent swarm. That is, if a particular file is known to be infringing, this method is better at identifying the IP addresses that are downloading it.read more

Can we ever get international consensus on what the proper scope of “intellectual property” should be? ACTA and the Special 301 process are an attempt to “harmonize” international IP law—to use American trade muscle to get other countries to adopt IP regimes similar to ours. But it can be difficult to agree on the scope of intellectual property rights, as a recent court decisions in Singapore and Britain, and the European Parliament’s ACTA resolution, attest.read more

For Immediate Release:  March 10, 2010 Background: The European Parliament voted 663-13 in favor of a resolution opposing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The resolution calls on negotiators to make all documents public, and stipulates that no one can have Internet access taken away under a “three strikes” provision without a court order. The text of the resolution is here. A good background story is here. The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “The United States government would do well to take to heart the sentiment on the ACTA negotiations as overwhelmingly expressed by the European Parliament. Public Knowledge and others have said for months that these negotiations should be open and transparent.read more

As reported by Christopher Mitchel from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Qwest has scored quite the little victory in its efforts to keep itself (and the good people it serves in Minnesota) from the evil socialist menace known as “local government providing broadband when the incumbent does a lousy job.” Apparently,MN State Senator Bakk and MN State Rep Dill introduced a bill that would have made it easier to for local governments to build municipal networks. Right now, it takes a local referendum vote with 65% to authorize a locality to build a network that offers commercial telephone service (and therefore any “triple play” broadband access service — or so they read it in MN).read more

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will unveil its National Broadband Plan, which the agency describes as "a roadmap to connect all Americans to affordable, high-speed internet". Public Knowledge and other stakeholders will have plenty of questions and recommendations for the FCC once the Plan is unveiled and the agency will be tasked with accommodating these comments. Additionally, the FCC is seeking input from the general public via their Broadband.gov portal. As part of this ongoing public outreach initiative, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will participate in a YouTube interview on Tuesday, where he will be asked questions submitted by members of the general public about broadband and the National Broadband Plan. Head over to CitizenTube to submit your questions (text or video) and vote on the submissions made by others. read more

For Immediate Release:  March 10, 2010 Background: Public Knowledge is one of 14 parties asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider changing the rules governing the terms and conditions under which broadcast stations are carried on cable networks. Others asking the Commission to come up with new rules for so-called “retransmission consent” include Time Warner Cable, Verizon, DirecTV, Dish Networks, American Cable Association, New America Foundation and others. The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “Public Knowledge is pleased to join with a broad coalition of companies and non-profit groups to ask the FCC to establish new rules to protect cable customers. That is our only interest. The petition to the Commission shows that the current rules no longer work.read more

It’s springtime in Washington, finally, after the snowpocalypse of last winter. Pretty soon all sorts of summer foods will be available. Let’s take a stroll into the grove to see how some really big companies pick cherries. Over the last couple of weeks, a fierce little debate has started to rage about how the United States should treat high-speed Internet access. As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the whole ecosystem surrounding the big telecom carriers got together to warn the Federal Communications Commission about really and truly regulating this crucial service. While the whole letter was outrageous, there was one little part that particularly stood out for special mention, because it demonstrates the rhetorical trickery and intellectual dishonesty that unfortunately inhabits our little telecom world.read more

The FCC has started to dig through its backlog of indecency complaints. This predictably triggers some cheap shots at the FCC with the non-sequitor that somehow this is the fate of the Internet if the FCC does Net Neutrality. While it is no doubt laboring in vain to point out the unfairness of this for the FCC, here goes. I’m no fan of the broadcast indecency rules. I do, however, believe very strongly in the rule of law and the idea that an administrative agency has a duty to uphold the law and process complaints. That is what makes and keeps federal agencies accountable to Congress, the democratic process, and the rule of law generally. This means enforcing laws you don’t particularly like and defending them in court.read more

For Immediate Release:  March 7, 2010 The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “It is truly unfortunate the consumers in the New York City area are the latest victims in the continual dispute between broadcasters and cable companies. WABC-TV this morning pulled its signal from Cablevision’s systems, which provide service to about three million customers. “We have urged Congress to change this system in which consumers are usually the losers in the fights between broadcasters and cable companies. “At the same time, we were heartened by the comments of Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.read more

Channel

• Reforming the FCC

See video Click thumbnail above for video Event Video: Part 2 (video provided by NextGenWeb through UStream) read more

Channel

• Reforming the FCC

See video Click thumbnail above for video Event Video: Part 1 (video provided by NextGenWeb through UStream) read more

UPDATE: A copy of the audio recording of the Special 301 hearing is available on the USTR website at this link: http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/multimedia (scroll down to “Recent Audio”) The United States Trade Representative (USTR) held a public hearing on Wednesday, as part of its ongoing 2010 Special 301 review process. This year marks the first time that such a hearing was held and that public interest representatives, including myself, were invited to testify. The Trade Act first instituted the Special 301 process in 1988 and authorized the USTR to identify countries that fail to provide “adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights” or that deny “fair and equitable market access” to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property (IP) protection.read more

PK, the Silicon Flatirons, and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) are hosting a discussion on FCC Reform, entitled: An FCC for the Internet Age: Reform and Standard-Setting. You can watch it right now: Free Videos by Ustream.TV You can also read PK's FCC Reform Report Card and a detailed analysis of FCC Reforms. You can also follow our staff tweets, coming live from today's conference and every day, using this PK Staff Twitter List read more

For Immediate Release:  March 3, 2010 Background: There is yet another dispute between broadcasters and cable, this one involving WABC-TV in New York City and Cablevision, which provides service to Long Island, Westchester County, Brooklyn and the Bronx. If unresolved, cable subscribers would lose access to broadcast programming starting Sunday. The following statement is attributed to Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge: “It’s a shame consumers are once again caught in the middle of a dispute between cable companies and TV broadcasters over the terms of popular programming being carried on cable systems. The previous dispute came right before the Super Bowl. Now millions of viewers might miss the Oscars. It’s an unfortunate situation in which the system is obviously broken. This sad state of affairs has to change or consumers will, time after time, lose again either through loss of programming or higher cable rates.read more

For Immediate Release:  March 3, 2010 The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) needs to change the procedures it uses to put countries on a special “watch list” for failing to protect U.S. intellectual property interests, Public Knowledge Staff Attorney Rashmi Rangnath testified today. Speaking at the USTR hearing on the “special 301” intellectual property proceeding, Rangnath said the agency should 1) be mindful of the importance of balance to U.S. copyright law and to promote this same balanced system abroad; 2) not use the Special 301 process as a means to force countries to accede to or implement treaties; and 3) introduce greater transparency into its review process. The full written statement is here. One of the dangers of the process, she said, is that there is no public explanation of how a country gets put on the list, which could lead to trade sanctions.read more

Thanks to Mr. X-Parte for his excellent video on the FCC’s recent ex parte NPRM. I have been blogging on ex parte reform on my own blog for a while and have repeatedly complained to the FCC about the entity that I believe is the worst offender. Indeed, I have a petition for review of the latest in a series of staff rejections of complaints that has been pending before the Commission since September 2008. In that petition, I quote former Commissioner Abernathy who said to an ITU meeting “I believe that transparency is best achieved through the creation and publication of clear rules.read more

Today, Public Knowledge’s Director of The Global Knowledge Initiative and Staff Attorney, Rashmi Rangnath is testifying before the US Trade Representative on the “Special 301” process. You can read her testimony here (PDF). There is not a webcast or official live coverage, per USTR rules that “prohibit the use of electronic media in its hearing room.” So, despite this ban, we are relying on reports from the hearing room via twitter (using the #ustr hashtag), and hope to bring you more coverage as well. If you’re not familiar with the Special 301 process, the latest 5 Minutes with Harold Feld does a great job explaining what’s going on. So does Rashmi’s prior blog post — that encouraged so many of you to write comments to the USTR. Lastly, we have a link to today’s hearing schedule, that tells us who is testifying and who the Special 301 committee members are (PDF) … also pasted below:read more

Channel

• 5 Minutes with Harold Feld

Click thumbnail above for video In this episode of 5 Minutes with Harold Feld, Harold explains the “Special 301” process being conducted by the US Trade Representative (USTR) used to shape copyright, trademark, and patent policy abroad. Under this process, the USTR seeks input from US intellectual property owners about whether IP protection is strong enough in other countries. The process has generally been used by big media companies to bolster IP enforcement overseas. This time around, PK and others want to make sure the importance of limitations and exceptions — like fair use — that are beneficial to libraries, to education, to innovation, and to the public interest generally, are a healthy part of the Special 301 discussion.