Spanish-language movie producer Carlos Vasallo turned down use of YouTube's copyright management tools but is now trying to force the service to provide a nonexistent version of Content ID tailored to his preferences, defendants Google and YouTube told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Monday in an answer to an amended copyright infringement complaint by Vasallo's Athos Overseas. The defendants in docket 1:21-cv-21698 said Digital Millennium Copyright Act safe harbors protect them from infringement claims. They said by not requesting the removal from YouTube of allegedly infringing content, Vasallo and Athos failed to mitigate damages. Counsel for the plaintiffs didn't comment Tuesday.
A 14-day blackout of 13 local Nexstar stations in 10 markets and of its NewsNation cable news network on Verizon FiOS is over, with the sides reaching a multiyear distribution agreement, they said Friday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that Nevada's Video Service Law (VSL) doesn't allow Reno to seek a private right of action as it tries to get video franchise fees from streaming services Netflix and Hulu. In the opinion (docket 21-16560), Judges Susan Graber, Michelle Friedland and Lucy Koh said they wouldn't address the parties' disagreement over the meaning of "video service provider" under VSL "because it is clear that Reno lacks a cause of action under both the VSL and the Declaratory Judgment Act." Oral argument was in September (see 2209190055).
An item on tentative noncommercial educational FM station selections was an order, and was approved by the full FCC (see 2210260031).
Pivotal Research Group raised Netflix to a “buy” from “sell,” analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak wrote investors Wednesday. PRG increased its subscriber forecast from 5.5 million to 15 million on what it believes will be a successful conversion of “effective pirates” to paying subscribers, plus short-term subscriber benefits of launching its ad-supported service next week. Wlodarczak is concerned about “consumer churn” down to $7 ad-supported tiers, “particularly in a recession,” though that isn’t likely to be an issue until second-half 2023, he said. The analyst views competitor price hikes as “fundamentally positive.” Despite growing competition in the streaming video space, Netflix “provides the most unique and powerful streaming experience globally” and has the opportunity to accelerate subscriber growth over the next year, he said. Wlodarczak expects co-CEO Reed Hastings to “look to sell” the streaming service as early as 2024.
The FCC should reexamine its proportional allocation of indirect full-time equivalents in the assessment of regulatory fees, said NAB comments responding to the agency’s notice of inquiry in docket 22-301. “Rather than assuming the work performed by all the noncore bureaus and offices of the Commission is so cross-cutting that it cannot be meaningfully disaggregated,” the FCC should examine whether those functions correspond to the way indirect costs are allocated, NAB said. The FCC's current division between indirect and direct FTEs is “too general to be a reasonably accurate proxy for the assignment of Commission work,” the Satellite Industry Association said. “Splitting all FTEs into direct and indirect FTEs based on whether they are assigned to a ‘core’ or ‘non-core’ bureau is an oversimplification.” The agency could assign indirect FTEs for noncore offices to the bureaus they largely support, or create a hybrid, “intersectional FTE,” the SIA said. NAB also called for the FCC to reexamine the Media Bureau FTEs working on broadband matters. “Regulatees in the other core bureaus also benefit from the Commission’s broadband work,” said NAB. “It would be inconsistent with the Commission’s methodology to not require such regulatees to share in the cost.” ACA Connects said the FCC should be cautious about altering the regulatory fee system. The system isn’t perfect, but it works, said the MVPD group. “As part of such an evaluation, the Commission should be guided by a bureaucratic Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.”
An online survey to collect data for an FCC content vendor diversity report could be “simple, easy, and non-burdensome,” said Fuse in a call with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Media Bureau staff Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 22-209 (see 2207260003). Fuse demonstrated a prototype survey portal for the bureau during the call, the filing said. The sample survey has drop-down menus to record licensees and distributors and a box to sign certifying under penalty of perjury that “every content vendor listed in response to this survey has been contacted by my organization by email or certified mail with the following message: 'The Federal Communications Commission requests that you complete the Content Vendor Diversity Report Survey.'” Even if some vendors wouldn’t respond or responded incorrectly “the resulting information nevertheless would be better than what the Commission has today in this area (i.e., nothing),” the filing said.
YouTube-ripping software company Yout appealed the U.S. District Court of Connecticut's ruling last month granting defendant Recording Industry Association of America's motion to dismiss plaintiff Yout's complaint (see 2209300061), per an appeal notice last week (docket 3:20-cv-01602). Yout sought a declaratory judgment that its software, which allows users to make copies of streaming video and audio files, doesn't violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. RIAA counsel didn't comment Monday.
East St. Louis, Illinois, appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a lower court's granting of a motion to dismiss a putative class-action complaint against defendant streaming services (see 2209230059), per an appeal notice filed Monday (docket 3:21-cv-00561) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The city was suing the streamers for franchise fees it said they owed as video service providers.
Music labels alleging Frontier Communications has turned a blind eye to copyright infringement by its internet subscribers (see 2108130033) asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to lift an 8-month-old stay on their complaint. In a docket 1:21-cv-05050 motion to lift the stay Monday, they said the stay was to allow for quicker resolution of related claims brought in Frontier's bankruptcy, but that isn't happening. Frontier counsel didn't comment.