Court rejects Webcasters' plea for relief
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Blog: Barring a last-minute industry compromise, new royalty rates--which Internet radio operators argue could cripple their services--are slated to kick in Sunday.
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday sidestepped a dispute over whether Internet providers can be forced to identify subscribers illegally swapping music and movies online. -AP
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Blog: New fees don't appear to have stopped many Webcasters from silencing their streams yet, but they're still counting on a formal compromise with the music industry.
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In response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision to reject an emergency stay of an injunction that would prevent it from rebroadcasting local TV channels to rural areas, EchoStar has agreed to pay $100 million to a group of network affiliates. Fox, however, has refused to accept the deal.
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The US government has asked the Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court ruling that could lead to heavier regulation of cable companies&#39; high-speed Internet service.
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The Supreme Court rejected a request from The Times to stay a lower courtÂs decision allowing a a federal prosecutor to review the telephone records of two reporters.
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A judge refuses to issue an injunction against a reality TV show about boxing brought by a rival network.
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Organisers trying to overturn court decision suspending free show over security concerns.
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A federal appeals court tossed out an indecency ruling against Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network today, sending a stern rebuke to the Federal Communications Commission and groups that seek tighter federal regulation of the airwaves.
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A U.S. court on Thursday barred  EchoStar Communications Corp. from retransmitting distant TV  stations, adding weight to a recent settlement between the  satellite television provider and broadcast networks.
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The name of Court TV is getting disbarred.
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A Superior Court judge rejected a motion Friday to throw out comedian Dom DeLuise's lawsuit claiming his former daughter-in-law caused him emotional and financial distress when she sued him for $2 million.
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An appeals court denied Vonageâs challenge of an F.C.C. rule requiring providers to pay into the Universal Service Fund.
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Blog: The latest front in Webcasters' protest of elevated royalty fees is a "day of silence," and some larger stations are expected to participate.
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(InfoWorld) - M2Z Networks may sue the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after the agency turned down its request for radio frequencies for a national broadband wireless network. On Aug. 31, the FCC rejected M2Z's plan to roll out free and paid services reaching at least 95 percent of the Americas. For that service, M2Z asked for 20MHz of spectrum for which it would pay the government 5 percent of its annual gross revenue. M2Z proposed the plan in May 2006. The FCC didn't rule on the plan within a year and apparently didn't look at M2Z's supporting documents because it never commented on them, according to M2Z co-founder and CEO John Muleta. Legally it had to do both, Muleta said, so M2Z is considering filing suit in a federal appeals court. The issue of wireless spectrum is heating up as the FCC heads toward its planned JanuaryÂ auction of frequencies in the 700MHz bandÂ being vacated by analog TV stations.Â Google and othersÂ wanted the FCC to require wholesale access to that spectrum so that multiple providers could offer services. It eventually included a provision for some spectrum to be usable for any application on any device. M2Z wants to use spectrum between 2155MHz and 2175MHz, a band previously used for microwave links between carrier facilities, which the FCC set aside for AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) in 2000. The agency has no plan yet for how to assign the spectrum. In its order rejecting M2Z's plan, the FCC said, "the public interest is best served by first seeking public comment on how the band should be used and licensed." The order turned down M2Z's plan "without prejudice," meaning it didn't stop the company from proposing it again, according to Muleta. M2Z plans to participate in the future public comment process but believes FCC's indecision has gone on too long already. "They took 15 months to decide that they really couldn't make a decision," Muleta said. Meanwhile, the country still lacks sufficient broadband competition, he said. M2Z wants to deliver a free service, supported partly by locally targeted search advertising, at 384Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream. People would only have to give a valid e-mail address or phone number to use it. Like broadcast TV, the free service would be "family friendly," meaning it would filter out content that wasn't appropriate for children. A paid service on the same network would offer 3Mbps throughput and access to anything on the Internet. Muleta knows who he's up against. He was chief of the FCC's wireless bureau from 2003 to 2005. M2Z, founded in 2005 and based in Menlo Park, Calif., is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms. One wireless analyst said the free service wouldn't be fast enough for most consumers. He also questioned its "family friendly" content restrictions. "At that point, you're not really giving Internet service," said Sascha Meinrath, research director for the Wireless Future program at the public policy group New America Foundation. But even if its service never gets turned on, M2Z has done its part to foster broadband competition, Meinrath said. "M2Z has pretty single-handedly shifted the debate," Meinrath said. Its plan to pay for spectrum through royalties rather than up front, as well as to make more efficient use of spectrum and offer a free service, are likely to show up in future spectrum allocation plans, he said. More efficient wireless networks should mean more bandwidth at lower cost --Â a better deal for consumers, Meinrath said.
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A U.S. appeals court on Thursday put  on hold the Federal Communications Commission's ruling that  four television broadcasts of profanity violated decency  standards.
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A federal appeals court denied requests Wednesday to reinstate a lawsuit filed by hundreds of people affected by a race riot in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921.