Washington state House appropriators were expected to vote Thursday afternoon on state privacy and municipal broadband bills. Earlier at the livestreamed hearing, the tech industry and other businesses told the Appropriations Committee that it’s too hard to comply with last week’s Judiciary Committee changes to SB-5062, which included adding a private right of action and sunsetting companies’ right to cure (see 2103260034). The American Civil Liberties Union said the bill lacks teeth to ensure compliance. Such disagreement shows the bill is “actually a good compromise,” testified Common Sense Media Director-State Advocacy Joseph Jerome. The Internet Association wants the privacy bill restored to the measure that passed the Senate, said Rose Feliciano, director-state government affairs, Northwest. She complained about “zero public input” on the Judiciary Committee’s changes, echoing comments by Washington Technology Industry Association and Association of Washington Business witnesses. Funding for attorney general enforcement of the privacy bill is “grossly inadequate to address the scope of the problem," said ACLU-Washington attorney Bill Block, citing a fiscal note saying the AG would get support for 1.2 attorneys and 3.6 full-time equivalents (FTEs). “It assumes only three full investigations and no litigation a year.” The private right is toothless because Block doubts individuals will sue if they can’t seek damages, he said. The Washington Independent Telecommunications Association will take a “leap of faith” and support SB-5383 to loosen municipal restrictions if appropriators adopted the committee amendment, said Executive Director Betty Buckley. The Washington Public Utility Districts Association also supported the bill with those changes.

BlackBerry is in "an exclusive negotiation" to sell a “major portion” of its patent portfolio to a “North American party,” said CEO John Chen on a Tuesday call for fiscal Q4, ended Feb. 28. BlackBerry would retain rights to use the patents, he said. Those for sale are “relevant” for mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking but “not useful to us today,” he said. The patents associated with BlackBerry’s “strategic software and services business” won't be involved, he said. “The company has not yet reached a definitive binding agreement, and negotiations are ongoing.” Licensing and other revenue was $50 million in Q4, said Chief Financial Officer Steve Rai. “Licensing activities have been limited not only due to the ongoing negotiations, but also because revenue from additional transactions that could have been completed in the quarter would have been treated as contingent revenue and deferred to future periods,” he said. “Had negotiations not been in progress, we believe licensing revenue would have been higher.” Rai's disclosure sent the stock tumbling 9.7% Friday, closing at $8.43.

The Biden administration should partner with democratic countries to combat China’s tech strategy, a bipartisan group of ex-national security officials wrote Tuesday. They urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to consider provisions in the Democracy Technology Partnership Act from Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ben Sasse, R-Neb.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Todd Young, R-Ind. “The bill offers an important idea: creating a diplomatic mechanism to execute a national security strategy, which places technology competition and international partnerships at its center,” the group wrote. Signers included: ex-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter; ex-Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper; ex-Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig; ex-Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden; ex-National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy; and former Department of State Policy Planning Director Anne-Marie Slaughter.

The FTC won’t petition the Supreme Court to review its antitrust case against Qualcomm, the agency announced Monday (see 2010280058). Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter cited the “significant headwinds facing the Commission” here and continues "to believe that the district court’s conclusion that Qualcomm violated the antitrust laws was entirely correct and that the court of appeals erred in concluding otherwise.” Bold antitrust enforcement is needed more than ever, she said: “I am particularly concerned about the potential for anticompetitive or unfair behavior in the context of standard setting and the FTC will closely monitor conduct in this arena.” The company didn’t immediately comment.

Copyright royalty judges’ initial determination in a webcasting rate-setting proceeding is now due June 14, the Copyright Office said Monday, citing COVID-19. The original Dec. 16 due date was first postponed to April 15 (see 2007060031).

Comments are due April 26, replies May 10, on regulations to establish the new Copyright Claims Board under the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (see 2012290048), the Copyright Office announced Friday. The board will let parties voluntarily resolve copyright claims of “low financial value.” The CO expects to issue “multiple notices of proposed rulemaking, each focusing on one or more regulatory categories.”

Recent filings from music licensing groups such as musicFIRST and SoundExchange attacking FCC relaxation of radio duplication rules (see 2102090063) “appear disingenuous,” NAB said in docket 19-310 Thursday. Those organizations say digital services have become more important than radio when arguing that Congress should enact performance fees, NAB said: “Be highly skeptical” of arguments from the groups that radio deregulation would harm music creators.

Despite a 30%-plus jump in video streaming in 2020 as consumers ratcheted up viewing during stay-at-home orders, there’s a large revenue opportunity in transactional video, Studio Distribution Services President Eddie Cunningham told a virtual Digital Entertainment Group Expo Wednesday. “Of course there’s room for physical still at the table,” said Cunningham, acknowledging that the segment won't drive growth for the entertainment industry over the next 10 years. Studios will follow the consumer and “get content out in front of eyeballs in terms of how consumers want to consume that,” said the executive. Attention to electronic sell-though, subscription VOD, ad-based VOD and premium VOD is understandable, given growth in streaming, and physical is a “huge, important part of the mix," he said. Physical video disc sales were $7 billion globally in 2020, Cunningham said. “It’s still going to be important to the industry for a long time.” The SDS 10-year joint venture was announced last year to distribute discs for new releases, library titles and TV shows, along with marketing initiatives, in the U.S. and Canada. The JV of Universal Pictures and Warner Media launches early next month.

The Commerce Department should expand export restrictions on China’s top chipmaker to prevent it from accessing more manufacturing equipment, wrote Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas. Their letter last week to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo asked the agency to apply the foreign direct product rule to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., which would restrict the company’s ability to import certain foreign-made semiconductor equipment with U.S. technology. SMIC would face similar restrictions imposed by the Bureau of Industry and Security on others on the entity list, including Huawei. The department and SMIC didn't comment Monday.

The FCC should eliminate “loopholes” that let broadcasters create duopolies, triopolies and quadropolies that would otherwise not be allowed under ownership rules, said the American Television Alliance in calls last week with aides to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, per filings in docket 18-349. Studies by broadcasters such as Gray that show such consolidation leads to increased local news “seem contrary to our understanding of the marketplace,” ATVA said. Examine any increased costs associated with local news, “particularly if those costs caused MVPD households to drop their subscriptions or led MVPDs to cease carrying stations, and especially if such subscribers are in rural areas located outside of a station’s signal contour,” ATVA urged.