The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court faced a flurry of separate filings from the American Civil Liberties Union, ProPublica and technology companies in the past week, all pushing back against the government urge to classify and redact. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn joined in a filing to attack the government’s redactions. “The government offers no explanation of how national security would be harmed by allowing the providers -- each of whom would have been or could be entrusted with the individual orders issued by the court -- to access the government’s response,” the tech companies said (http://1.usa.gov/1hCqyz5). “It fails to grapple with the specifics of this case, resting its response to the providers’ constitutional arguments on generalities about the protection of classified information.” The providers know what FISC requests they have received, if any, and “only now, in this lawsuit” does the government argue the information is too sensitive to reveal, the companies said, asking that the FISC strike the government’s Sept. 30 filing unless providers can access the unredacted version. The ACLU, in a separate proceeding, also criticized government redactions and pressed for release of opinions related to bulk collection of metadata. The ACLU joined the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic in the filing (http://1.usa.gov/1cm2Fe0), which asked for expedited consideration and oral argument before the FISC. The ACLU cited increased public debate on the programs, such as in the Klayman v. Obama opinion that ruled unconstitutional the surveillance. “Just days ago, the President’s own review group joined that conversation with a three-hundred-page report that recommends, in part, greater transparency in this Court’s operation,” the ACLU said. ProPublica, in yet another proceeding, had asked for release of phone surveillance opinions but attacked subsequent classifications and redactions, in a Monday filing. “But the Executive’s claims of classification have yet to be subject to judicial scrutiny, and therefore they do not moot ProPublica’s motion,” it said. The FISC should review the redacted opinions and “independently determine whether to publish it,” ProPublica said (http://1.usa.gov/1kDlOf6). “There is a growing recognition that the classification system itself is in drastic need of oversight."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau dealt with various requests for more time beyond a Nov. 20 deadline for licensees along the Mexican border seeking 800 MHz rebanding reimbursement from Sprint to file cost estimates with the company. The order released Tuesday was part of the ongoing 800 MHz rebanding process. FCC rules say “extensions of time shall not be routinely granted,” the bureau said (http://fcc.us/JoldPC): “The import of that rule is especially relevant to 800 MHz rebanding where delay in rebanding by one licensee can cause a ‘domino effect’ delay in the rebanding efforts of other licensees that have met the Commission’s 800 MHz band reconfiguration deadlines, with a consequent delay of the overall program.” The bureau approved some extensions for licensees that “have shown that grant of the request will not unreasonably delay rebanding” while holding other requests in abeyance. Among those getting an extension were Tucson Electric Power Co. and the Glendale Police Department in Arizona and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. Some large licensees need to justify an extension, including Maricopa County, Ariz., Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego County, Calif., the bureau said. All licensees that won approval have promised to complete rebanding cost estimates by March 10.

Special access purchasers rely heavily on five- and seven-year special access plans, and AT&T’s attempt to eliminate them will lead to increased rates, Sprint and XO told officials from the FCC Wireline Bureau and Office of General Counsel Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1eCFvUf). The companies repeated the points they made in their petitions to suspend and investigate AT&Ts tariff filing, they said. The FCC Wireline Bureau suspended AT&T’s latest tariff revision Dec. 9 and has five months to investigate and determine whether it’s reasonable (CD Dec 10 p1).

Vonage is modifying its VoIP service to comply with the FCC’s new rule banning false ringing tones, it said in a Thursday meeting with Wireline Bureau representatives (http://bit.ly/1eCDxmL). Currently, Vonage plays the rings on the small percentage of calls where it doesn’t receive a ring signal from an intermediate carrier within four seconds, it said. “It is not possible for Vonage to modify the analog terminal adapter to deliver a messaging solution consistent with the new ring signaling rules.” The VoIP provider said it’s “significantly modifying its service to deliver network-generated messages” to callers instead of the ringing tones.

The bill text of the Department of Commerce and the Workforce Consolidation Act was posted online this week. This Senate legislation proposes to merge the Commerce Department and Labor Department; unsuccessful variations have been introduced in the past. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced S-1836 Dec. 17, and it was referred to the Homeland Security Committee. “The goal of this legislation is twofold: to achieve cost savings by combining duplicative functions, and to improve the quality of our country’s economic policies by ensuring a coordinated approach,” Burr said in a document providing background information on the bill. It would save billions of dollars, he said, citing the potential consolidation of 35 offices into 12 and the killing or reducing of funds for seven programs or initiatives. The new cabinet agency the bill proposes to create would be called the Department of Commerce and the Workforce. In an envisioned organizational chart of the department, NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology would report directly to the department’s secretary and deputy secretary. It would put the Small Business Administration within the Commerce Department and move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Department of the Interior, a news release said (http://1.usa.gov/1c522RI). The bill has two co-sponsors, Dan Coats, R-Ind., and James Inhofe, R-Okla.

Members of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee Jan. 14 on the group’s recommendations for changing U.S. surveillance law, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Sunday. The group’s set of 46 recommendations, released last week, included recommending that the government no longer store phone metadata on U.S. citizens (CD Dec 19 p4). The group’s recommendations “make clear that it is time to recalibrate our government’s surveillance programs,” Leahy said in a statement. “Momentum is building for real reform.” Several of the group’s recommendations align with Leahy’s USA Freedom Act (S-1599), the committee said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Pappas Arizona a “failing station” waiver, allowing it to assign the license of its station KSWT-TV, Yuma, Ariz., to Blackhawk Broadcasting. The FCC approved the application for assignment of KYMA-DT, Yuma, to Blackhawk this year, the bureau said in a letter (http://bit.ly/JWsRkS). The combined operation of the stations will pose minimal harm to diversity and competition and allowing KSWT to operate in tandem with a stronger station “will help it to become a more viable local voice in the market, through a definite improvement in facilities and programming,” it said.

Sony agreed to sell Gracenote to Tribune Co., ending a five-year effort to broadly deploy the music database service and position its automatic content recognition (ACR) software as part of a proposed Internet-based alternative to cable TV. Sony also had planned to use Gracenote to “enhance and accelerate” its digital content. The agreement is for $170 million, less than the $260 million Sony paid for Gracenote in 2008. The Gracenote sale will result in a gain of about $60 million to Sony’s operating income, Sony said. The Gracenote deal is expected to close in Q1, Tribune said. ACR software was designed to enable hardware to recognize the channel, program and advertisement that was playing on a screen. It was developed around an audio technology that was originally created to compare a song’s characteristics, or waveform “fingerprints,” with an archive of music fingerprints. Gracenote also developed the eyeQ interactive program guide (IPG), which it once positioned to compete with Rovi’s TotalGuide IPG. The eyeQ could well play into Tribune’s base of TV and movie metadata, which will be expanded with the addition of Gracenote’s base of 180 million music tracks. “This transaction extends and complements” Tribune’s metadata business while also “deepening” its “slate of subscription services,” said Tribune CEO Peter Liguori in a statement. The acquisition includes Gracenote’s portfolio of 90 patents as well as a business that provides data and information on 1 million TV programs and movies to 30 countries and is installed in 50 million vehicles. Gracenote counts Apple iTunes, MTV and Amazon among its customers.

The FCC Media Bureau reiterated that Jan. 1 is the compliance deadline for apparatus covered under closed captioning capabilities. The rules governing closed captioning requirements for video programming delivered using Internet protocol “specify what apparatus are covered by the new requirements and how they must implement closed captioning,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1ciD4D1).

Turksat and Eutelsat signed an agreement to increase satellite resources and services for Turkey. Eutelsat will redeploy Eutelsat 33A in May from 33 degrees east to 31 degrees east, “where it will be operated by Turksat under its satellite network filings,” Eutelsat said in a press release (http://bit.ly/JZCCPY). Turksat operates two satellites at 42 degrees east and it plans to launch Turksat 4A and Turksat 4B next year, Eutelsat said.