TMT Law Watch : Washington, DC Telecom & Technology Attorneys & Lawyers : K&L Gates Law Firm

By Samuel Castic

California recently passed several amendments to the state’s data breach notification laws to expand the kind of information that must be included in data breach notices under Cal. Civil Code section 1798.29 and 1798.82. The amendments apply to private and public sector persons and organizations doing business in the state that suffer data breaches.

California was the first state to mandate that businesses that experience a data breach must inform all persons whose personal information was involved in the breach. Almost every other state has enacted a version of a data breach notification law. The amendments have updated California’s law to expand the content of breach notifications. Specifically, parties covered by the breach notice law must now include the following in their breach notifications:

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The FCC issued a public notice last week announcing that FCC licensees and various types of FCC-regulated service providers must pay their 2011 annual regulatory fees to the Commission no later than September 14, 2011. Entities owing fees must ensure their payments are received by September 14th to avoid incurring a 25% late-payment fee. The annual regulatory fees are mandated by Congress under Section 9 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which requires the FCC to collect regulatory fees to recover the regulatory costs associated with the agency’s activities. Regulated entities can find additional information regarding the assessment of fees and payment methods at a special section of the FCC’s website.

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By Scott M. Mendel and Michelle S. Taylon

In Realcomp II, Ltd. v. FTC (6th Cir. April 6, 2011), the Sixth Circuit upheld the Federal Trade Commission's conclusion that Realcomp, a Detroit area multiple listing service, violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by adopting rules restricting the ability of its broker members to advertise discounted brokerage services. While none of Realcomp’s website restrictions eliminated discount brokerage services or information regarding such services, they made such information less accessible and more costly to obtain. That was enough for the court to conclude that Realcomp’s policies had an actual anticompetitive effect based on the decline in the share of listings accounted for by discount listings.

The Realcomp decision can have significant implications for businesses, especially joint ventures, considering rules that restrict the information that can be disseminated over their websites. Rules that prevent, restrict, or make more costly the dissemination of information relating to discounted services must be reviewed carefully to determine their potential for anticompetitive effects.  

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by Brendon P. Fowler

On April 7, 2011, the FCC voted 3-2 to require mobile broadband operators to offer data roaming arrangements to other providers. Such arrangements allow consumers with mobile data plans to remain connected by utilizing another network while roaming outside their own provider’s network coverage. Conceptually, the data roaming rules are related to those already established for voice roaming, and Chairman Genachowski tied the Commission’s present action to its prior efforts to develop "automatic" voice roaming and nationwide voice services. Analysts believe that the decision will benefit companies like Sprint Nextel Corporation and MetroPCS Communications Inc. at the expense of AT&T and Verizon Wireless by allowing smaller competitors onto the networks owned by larger rivals, and by enabling smaller carriers to offer more broadband services.

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By Holly K. Towle, Henry L. Judy, Samuel R. Castic

On July 6, 2010, Mexico’s “Law on the Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties” took effect, and some of the most stringent requirements are currently scheduled to take effect in July 2011.  Accordingly, the time for companies that are covered by the law to adjust their privacy policies and business practices is today, not mañana.[1]   In many ways, this law is more robust than approaches taken to data protection in the United States.  It brings Mexican privacy law far closer to, or goes beyond, the concepts and structure of the European Data Protection Directive (“EU Directive”)[2] or other approaches such as the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.[3]   The law also seems to approximate the European Union approach of treating data protection as a basic right.[4]   This Alert discusses some of the key provisions of Mexico’s new law.

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K&L Gates recently published its Global Government Solutions 2011 Annual Outlook, which contains articles from around the firm on key governmental developments expected in 2011.

The Annual Outlook includes an article addressing developments affecting the Telecom, Media and Technology sector in 2011 by DC partners Marc Martin and Marty Stern, noting that the TMT sector enters 2011 with significant regulatory uncertainty and the FCC facing an uphill battle on many signature regulatory initiatives.

The article reviews the FCC’s net neutrality order and the challenges it faces in court and on Capitol Hill, discusses the recent FCC and Department of Justice approvals of the Comcast/NBCU transaction, and a number of additional issues getting significant focus in 2011. These include retransmission consent battles between broadcasters and cable/DBS providers and the FCC’s expected rulemaking proceeding on this issue, the Commission’s implementation of new communications accessibility requirements under the new 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, and continued efforts to reform the Universal Service Fund and make it broadband-centric.

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Recent leaks to the New York Times, as reported in September and October, indicate that the Obama administration will next year be pushing for sweeping expansions of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).  CALEA facilitates government surveillance by, among other things, requiring companies subject to the law both to design their systems so that the government can easily plug in and intercept communications in real-time and to provide assistance to the government in these efforts. 

A task force comprised of representatives from DOJ, Commerce, the FBI, and other agencies, are discussing amendments to the law.  These changes would greatly expand the reach of CALEA, would significantly increase the costs of non-compliance for covered companies, and would include other requirements which may fundamentally change business models for companies promising encryption and decentralized communication services.    

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By Marty Stern (Washington, DC), Carol Lumpkin (Miami) and Stephanie N. Moot (Miami).

The President signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 on October 8, 2010 (the “ComVid Accessibility Act” or “Act”). The ComVid Accessibility Act expands various disability access requirements to VoIP phones, browser-enabled smart phones, text messaging, Internet-enabled video devices, on-line video of TV programming, TV navigation devices, and programming guides and menus, among other things. 

Karen Peltz Strauss, who has the lead at the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or “Commission”) on implementing the ComVid Accessibility Act, appeared on a recent live program on Internet TV channel Broadband US TV and discussed the FCC's "enormous mandate" to implement the new Act.  Click here for a clip of Ms. Peltz Strauss' comments on the program.  (with permission from TV Worldwide).[1]  According to Ms. Peltz Strauss, “Every segment of the industry that has anything to do with broadband, television, including cable, satellite or broadcast, Internet-based television, as well as . . . Internet-based providers, traditionally regulated [telephone] companies, wireless companies” needs to be paying attention to the new Act.   “Virtually every segment that has anything to do with communications or video programming is covered.” 

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December 9-10, 2010 

Washington State Convention Center
Seattle, WA

Online brochure

Presenters: Holly K. Towle
Sponsors: Law Seminars International

As the distinctions between telephone, television and data services disappear, many of the old geographical and functional boxes that used to help us organize our thinking have become irrelevant. Super computing, almost ubiquitous broadband, advanced visualization and large-scale data gathering have created new competitive opportunities on a global scale. They also have unleashed a torrent of fragmented information and the pressing question of what is really valuable.

We now have news aggregation services to manage the torrent, but what are the limits on the aggregator's use of copyrighted material? New social media services have created new marketing opportunities, but also new challenges for managing your online reputation. Distributed computing services are triggering a transition from point-of-sale product licensing to services access subscriptions and long term interactive relationships. New friction points, particularly those involving consumers, are leading to new regulatory requirements for technology companies.

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by Marc S. Martin, Henry L. Judy, Lauren Bergen Pryor

On June 24, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") reached a proposed settlement with the online social networking company Twitter, Inc.[1] ("Twitter") concerning data security breaches that resulted in unauthorized disclosure of users' personal data. While this is the first time that the FTC has held a social network liable for a breach of data security, it is not the first time that the FTC has sanctioned a company for failing to protect its customers' data and personal information.

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