Yesterday FCC released a Report and Order amending its ex parte rules, a frequent topic in my personal blog.

Here are the basic results in this rulemaking:

In June I had a post here entitled "Should the Public Have to Pay $1149 to Hear FCC Officials Talk About Broadband Policy?".  In it I pointed out that 2 commercial groups were sponsoring in conjunction with the FCBA a seminar on broadband issues and you could hear a wide variety of officials from FCC, NTIA, and State speak for only $1149.   At the time I made a suggestion for reform:

"FCC should adopt an internal policy that its officials will not speak at events charging more than a certain amount, say $100, UNLESS the sponsors provide a video of the official’s remarks - including questions and answers - within 24 hours after the event for posting at the FCC web site."

CLICK HERE TO WRITE THE WHITE HOUSE NOW

The Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement continues to roll along with negotiations taking place in Switzerland in the coming weeks. Rumor has it that these negotiations might be bringing us to a finalized ACTA soon, despite protests from public interest groups, technology companies, and legislators around the world that its ham-fisted approach to enforcement can do grave harm to consumers, innovation, communication, and can even make it harder for lifesaving medications to reach populations in need. It’s time to make sure that your voices are heard on this important issue. And we have two ways that you can do that. One is by signing a declaration of principles crafted by a coalition of experts assembled at American University. The other, more direct method is by writing to the President himself, using our action alert submission form.

If you stand outside of the FCC on any given day, you will have the opportunity to witness the great ebb and flow of telecommunications lobbyists (and, admittedly, the occasional public interest representative) streaming inside.  These folks are at the FCC to have private meetings to discuss their issues with staffers and Commissioners.  Although these meetings are private, there are some rules – called ex parte rules – that require people meeting with Commissioners and Commission staff to write up a summary of what was discussed.  These summaries – called ex parte letters – are supposed to let the public know what happened.  Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, those letters are not always very informative.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has announced today that it will be making the text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) available to the public on April 21st. Here is the portion of the press release that talks about the latest round of negotiations in New Zealand and the decision to release the text:

Even as more and more voices are calling for the Anti Counterfeiting Trade agreement to be made public, the United States Trade Representative is insisting in maintaining a veneer of secrecy over the proceedings. While numerous advocates and other governments (including the European Parliament, and officials in the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands (pdf, in Dutch)) are actively calling for full openness and transparency, the U.S.

(cross-posted from the American Constitution Society blog)

UPDATE: The deadline for comments passed at 5 p.m. today.

As John noted not too long ago, the new Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator has asked for your opinions on how the various government agencies involved with IP enforcement should go about doing their jobs—what harms of infringement should be addressed, and what changes in policies, regulations, and even the law, need to be made so that we can have a workable and effective national enforcement policy.

We want to make sure that enforcement efforts aren't so broad and indiscriminate that they target fair uses of copyrighted works, or use draconian tactics that will cut off Internet access for those merely accused of infringement. We also want to make sure that changes to enforcement policy and IP law are made in open forums, not in secretive agreements like the proposed Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

If you'd like to send your thoughts to the nation's first "IP enforcement czar," have a look at the request for comments and send in an email. Or, if you like, you can use our action alert form here.

So now we’ve had National Broadband Plan Day!. And, despite undeniable flaws and places where the Plan Drafters wussed out/”avoided controversy,” The Plan looks pretty damn good, actually.

Let me stress that: Pretty . . . Damn . . . Good!