Legal News

March Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Including Online Public File for Radio and Biennial Ownership Reports, Effective Date of ATSC 3.0, Comments on TV National Ownership and Media Modernization, and GMR Extension

By David Oxenford|2018-02-26T10:58:58-06:00February 26th, 2018|Legal News|

March is one of those months where without the Annual EEO Public File Reports that come up for different states every other month, or without the Quarterly Issues Programs List and Children’s Television Report obligations that arise following the end of every calendar quarter. But this March has two very significant deadlines right at the...… Continue Reading

Another Media Regulation Modernization Proposal – Abandon the Form 397 EEO Mid-Term Report (Though Maintain the EEO Performance Review)

By David Oxenford|2018-02-23T10:57:54-06:00February 23rd, 2018|Legal News|

At its meeting yesterday, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggesting the abolition of the EEO Mid-Term Report, FCC Form 397. That form is filed at the mid-point of the renewal term of TV stations with 5 or more full-time employees and radio clusters with 11 or more full-time employees (see our post...… Continue Reading

Above 95 – FCC Hits the Stratosphere

By Peter Tannenwald|2018-02-22T14:44:39-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Legal News|

The FCC voted today to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order looking toward issuing licenses for frequencies above 95 GHz. That’s GigaHertz, not MegaHertz – way up there, beyond the highest frequencies that are commonly used today, at least by the private sector. Historically, frequencies this high were not considered useful for communication...… Continue Reading

FCC Officially Publishes Net Neutrality Rollback Rule; Will Take Effect on April 23

By FHH Law|2018-02-22T12:55:20-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Legal News|

Well, it’s official: the Open Internet rule, better known as Net Neutrality, will go bye-bye starting April 23. Today, the hotly debated final notice of the Open Internet Rule (better known as Net Neutrality) was published in the Federal Register. Net neutrality goes away as of April 23 except for certain provisions that require review...… Continue Reading

FCC Officially Publishes Net Neutrality Rollback Rule; Will Take Effect on April 23

By FHH Law|2018-02-22T12:55:20-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Legal News|

Well, it’s official: the Open Internet rule, better known as Net Neutrality, will go bye-bye starting April 23. Today, the hotly debated final notice of the Open Internet Rule (better known as Net Neutrality) was published in the Federal Register. Net neutrality goes away as of April 23 except for certain provisions that require review...… Continue Reading

Court Finds That Embedded Twitter Photo on Website May Subject Website Owner to Copyright Liability – Be Careful What You Post

By David Oxenford|2018-02-22T10:50:37-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Legal News|

Last week, a US District Court Judge in the influential Southern District of New York issued an opinion finding that the fact that a picture of New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady that was displayed on the websites of a number of media defendants was potentially infringing – even though the photo was not copied...… Continue Reading

Starting Small on Media Regulation Modernization – Rule Requiring Hard Copy of FCC Rules Repealed

By David Oxenford|2018-02-21T10:55:40-06:00February 21st, 2018|Legal News|

One of the first proposals in Chairman Pai’s initiative for the modernization of media regulation (see our post here from when the Chairman announced the initiative) was to repeal an FCC rule that many did not even know was a rule – one requiring that broadcasters who have secondary licenses maintain a paper copy of...… Continue Reading

FCC Challenges Bitcoin Miner (But Not for Mining Bitcoins)

By Mitchell Lazarus|2018-02-16T12:37:59-06:00February 16th, 2018|Legal News|

You know how bitcoins work. Not yet? We’re still coming up to speed. But we do get the part where bitcoins are created by people doing a lot of intensive computation called “mining.” It reminds us of the old Warner Brothers cartoon where a character turns a crank on a machine and dollar bills fly...… Continue Reading

FCC LMS Filing System Off-Line for Maintenance For Parts of This Weekend – Making Biennial Ownership Report Filings More Difficult

By David Oxenford|2018-02-16T10:26:34-06:00February 16th, 2018|Legal News|

Note, for all of you who are trying to complete your Biennial Ownership Reports that are due for commercial and noncommercial stations on March 2 (see our post here about the March 2 filing date), the FCC yesterday posted a notice on the log-in screen for its LMS electronic database, in which the ownership reports are filed, that it will be off-line for...… Continue Reading