Telecom and Technology Law Blog

Washington, D.C., The FCC claims that the Communications Act of 1934 gives it authority to regulate “anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says. The FCC claims to have "the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect" any equipment that uses the airwaves to transmit data, according to Wired Online.

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Moscow, Russia: The Associated Press and the BBC reported last week that Russian businessman, Oleg Teterin, president of the mobile ad company Superfone, claims to have the trademark to the combination of punctuation marks used to convey the “winking face” ;-) emoticon in e-mails and text messages. Teterin states he does not wish to obtain money from individuals who use ;-) and similar emoticons. He does, however, intend to demand “tens of thousands of dollars” in payments from corporations who use the trademarked emoticons. Teterin claims similar emoticons like :-) or ;) or :) may fall under his trademark since they are similar to the wink ;-).

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“Opt-In” Web Tracking

Washington, DC: For some time, companies like Google and Yahoo have been tracking consumer searches on their own sites “to tailor advertisements to their interests.” Recently, however, the problem has grown as third-party advertising companies have teamed up with phone or cable Internet carriers to track user activities on the Internet more generally.

Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) and Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) believe that this automatic tracking process violates the public’s right to privacy.  To address this concern, they have proposed an “opt-in” program which would allow consumers to choose whether they want to have their data logged to receive customized advertising.

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Washington, DC: The ACLU plans to challenge the FISA bill passed on July 9, 2008, by the Senate. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") grants telecommunications companies, which helped the National Security Agency spy on Americans, retroactive civil immunity from lawsuits

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A study conducted in March and April 2008 by Pike & Fischer was released this week. The study surveyed 280 communications executives, engineers, and consultants in the cable, satellite, and technology industries asking about what they thought of the positions of each of the presidential candidates in relation to the communications industry and showed that 50.5% of communications executives are either "unfamiliar or unhappy with the telecommunications policies" of both presidential candidates.

Additionally, 40% of the respondents said that they do not even know what the candidates' policies are. The survey showed that the industry professionals are "wary about the ability of any of the presidential candidates to develop sound policies on such issues as broadband availability and media ownership." However, even though industry executives and professionals may be unfamiliar with the respective views of Senators Obama (D-IL) and McCain (R-AZ) on important industry issues, in fact, both candidates have taken strong positions on major issues such as media ownership, net neutrality, intellectual property protection, and patent system reform.

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Washington, DC., April 17, 2006. The Inernet has apparently hit the big-time. The days of a free, unregulated Internet are at risk of becoming a relic of the past as we (unknowingly) surfed into treacherous waters of bit discrimination; so much so that the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet is considering introducing drafted legislation in a bill likely to be titled, the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006," or COPE in the current session. If enacted, the proposed legislation establishes, among other things, the assurance of net neutrality.

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Washington, DC, April 5, 2006. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced this month that political blogs will remain (relatively) free from regulation. The FEC voted unanimously to exempt Internet sites, and blog sites in particular, from regulation citing Congress's "conscious, informed judgment" (their words, not ours) that "the Internet should not be subject to the many restrictions that McCain-Feingold (the act that regulates political campaign activity) applies to other types of mass communications."

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Washington, DC, February 17, 2006. To say the telecom industry is undergoing significant change may just be the understatement of the year. But perhaps the underlying facts in support of this not-so-profound observation make for interesting discussion. The recent AT&T-SBC merger, coupled with the prior RBOC mergers over the past ten years bring to mind the well-worn clich� "d�j� vu all over again."

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