Media Access Project Talks with Obama's FCC Transition Team
On December 16, MAP’s legal team met with the Obama FCC transition team of Susan Crawford, Kevin Werbach, and Larry Strickling as part of a larger group of public interest organizations. MAP Senior Vice President Harold Feld presented specific recommendations for changes in spectrum policy focused on enhancing competition, enhancing efficient use of spectrum, aggressive outreach to traditionally marginalized stakeholders such as women and minority-owned businesses, and creating an overall change in culture driven less by ideological commitment to the discredit Chicago School “free market” approach and more driven by actual consumer and provider behavior. Associate Director Parul Desai discussed the need to clarify the FCC’s jurisdiction in specific areas where jurisdiction is ambiguous or has been challenged.
You can find the spectrum policy presentation here, the FCC authority presentation here.
Dec 23 under Press » | Read more »
MAP Announces Reorganization
December 8, 2008
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project (MAP), today announced that MAP will undergo a reorganization. The plan is designed to enable MAP to take advantage of the new political climate and to adapt to the forthcoming departure of MAP’s Senior Vice President, Harold Feld.
Dec 10 under Press » Press Releases | Read more »
MAP President Issues Statement
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, President and CEO of Media Access Project, issued the following statement on Chairman Martin’s announcement that he seeks to assure that Class A television stations obtain cable must-carry privileges:
We are pleased that Chairman Martin is continuing to press for giving must-carry rights to Class A stations. It is of particular importance to us that, unlike other broadcasters, Class A licenses are conditioned on fulfilling specific local public interest obligations.
Sep 26 under Press » Public Interest Obligations | Read more »
Media Access Project Asks Federal Court To Enforce FCC Order In Comcast-BitTorrent Immediately
On August 29, 2008, MAP filed three different Petitions for Review of the FCC’s decision to allow Comcast to continue to block BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer traffic until the end of the year. On behalf of Vuze.com, Consumers Union, and PennPirg (a member of Consumer Federation of America), MAP asked the court to uphold the FCC’s decision but require that the FCC issue an immediate injunction against Comcast to stop blocking p-2-p uploads.
“Comcast has until the end of the year to stop blocking. If they can delay compliance for 3 weeks, they will get a new FCC and another chance to spin this out indefinitely. Meanwhile, every day Comcast continues to illegally interfere with user traffic, subscribers cannot use the legal applications of their choice or distribute legal content of their choice. Simply waiting to see if the FCC will have the political will to enforce its Order is not an option.” The Petitions are in the Ninth Circuit (for Vuze.com), the Second Circuit (Consumers Union), and the Third Circuit (for Penn Pirg).
Sep 4 under Press » | Read more »
Public Interest Organizations Commend FCC For Action On Unauthorized Wireless Mics
Background: The FCC today released a notice of proposed rulemaking asking for comment on the use of unauthorized wireless microphones in the spectrum band to be used by new digital television stations. The FCC document is here.
The following is the statement of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition:
“We commend the Commission on its quick action to look into how the widespread use of unauthorized wireless microphones will affect the transition to digital television and the introduction of new public safety and commercial wireless services. As the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) told the Commission in July, the transition will be threatened by the ‘illegal and deceptive’ practices of the manufacturers of wireless microphones, which operate in the 700 MHz band to be used by digital TV stations.
“We are pleased that the Commission took our complaint seriously and has begun an investigation into the marketing practices of manufacturers of wireless microphones. This is a welcome step. As we told the Commission in July, ‘In violation of FCC rules, manufacturers persuaded unauthorized users to buy expensive wireless microphones that manufacturers had no right to sell and the public has no right to use. As a result, somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million unauthorized wireless microphone systems operate on UHF Channels 52-69 – creating pools of potential interference that could undermine the reliability of these new public safety and commercial wireless systems.’”
The PISC complaint is here.
Current PISC members, in alphabetical order, are: The CUWiN Foundation (CUWIN), Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Consumers Union (CU), EDUCAUSE, Free Press (FP), the International Association of Community Wireless Networks (IACWN), Media Access Project (MAP), the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), the New America Foundation (NAF), the Open Source Wireless Coalition (OSWC), Public Knowledge (PK), and U.S. PIRG.
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Contact:
Harold Feld
Senior Vice President
Media Access Project
hfeld@mediaaccess.org
202-454-5684
www.mediaaccess.org
Aug 21 under Press » Spectrum Reform | Read more »