TiVo signed a global intellectual property license agreement with LG, it said Tuesday. It expands on LG's previous Rovi patent portfolio license to add the TiVo patent portfolio.

Copyright royalty judges adopted regulations for determining the budget for the Music Modernization Act’s mechanical licensing collective (see 1907050027). The Digital Music Association, National Music Publishers Association and SoundExchange generally supported the proposed rule, offering various amendments. The Copyright Royalty Board announced, also in Monday's Federal Register, an initial administrative assessment proceeding to fund the MLC, requesting petitions to participate, due July 23.

The Copyright Office designated the Music Modernization Act’s (see 1812210051) mechanical licensing collective (MLC) Friday, a move backed by key publisher and songwriter groups. In addition to designating the MLC, the CO also designated a digital licensee to administer music rights. The National Music Publishers’ Association, Nashville Songwriters Association International and Songwriters of North America supported the designation. The MLC is expected to fully launch in January 2021. Its work will include budget negotiation with digital streaming services, which will fund the collective. The MLC will also need to partner with a vendor to “provide administration and matching services and development of a user portal through which publishers and songwriters will be able to manage rights and royalties,” the groups said.

Music labels have given Charter Communications clear notice of hundreds of thousands of its subscribers illegally pirating those labels' songs since 2012 but Charter chose to keep those subscribers and their subscription fees rather than terminate the accounts. That's according to the labels in an opposition to Charter's motion to dismiss the claim for vicarious liability (see 1905290002) filed (docket 19-cv-00874, in Pacer) Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver. They said the ISP has both the right and ability to control users' infringing conduct but receives direct financial benefit from that conduct. Charter outside counsel didn't comment Wednesday.

If DOJ terminates the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees without an alternative licensing framework, it would severely disrupt the entire music licensing market (see 1906050060), groups wrote Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday. The South Carolina Broadcasters Association, South Carolina Brewers Guild, South Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association and South Carolina Retail Association signed the letter defending consent decrees that govern performing rights organizations. It encouraged Graham to continue his “effective and even-handed” oversight of the DOJ’s consent decree review.

Safety and security concerns are what drive the vast majority of Information Technology Industry Council member companies to limit device repairs to “authorized/qualified” service technicians, and not third-party repair outfits or do-it-yourselfers, said a September survey the trade group submitted to the FTC’s “Nixing the Fix” inquiry. The filing, posted Tuesday in docket FTC-2019-0013, was submitted at the agency’s April 30 deadline for "empirical research" to help staff prepare for a July 16 workshop on whether manufacturer repair restrictions can thwart the consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (see 1903130060). All the survey respondents “indicated intellectual property and/or proprietary information would be at risk in using an unauthorized/untrained repair provider,” said ITI. All also cited the “risk to user safety in using an unauthorized/untrained repair provider,” while 83 percent identified the “risk to data security” as their rationale for barring third-party or self-repair, it said. Three-quarters of the members responding “require authorized/qualified providers to protect privacy and data through contractual requirements and OEM practices/procedures,” it said. ITI didn’t comment Wednesday on how many members participated in the survey or why it predated the initiation of the Nixing the Fix inquiry by about six months. The 22 filings posted this week in docket FTC-2019-0013 were virtually all the agency received by its April 30 deadline for submissions of empirical research into manufacturer repair restrictions, emailed spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Wednesday. Though the deadline for research submissions has lapsed, the FTC said it will accept written comments in the proceeding through Sept. 16.

Videogame makers conceded console technological protection measures (TPMs) and other design decisions can impact repairs, commenting April 30 to the FTC's right-to-repair proceeding. The agency posted comments Monday in part after our Freedom of Information Act request for all such comments. The FTC, which hadn't fulfilled our FOIA request, didn't comment on whether the filings just released are all of them. "TPMs and other design choices reflect a necessary weighing of multiple risks," said the Entertainment Software Association, which noted its members include Microsoft, Nintendo of America and Sony Interactive Entertainment. "As a practical matter, the use of TPMs tends to limit the ability to make certain types of repairs to consoles and other products to authorized parties." ESA noted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits "tampering with the digital locks that copyright owners use to protect this software." "Despite these design decisions" of component integration and cutting manufacturing costs and prices as well as energy use, consoles "generally do not require proprietary tools to open or repair them," the group said in docket FTC-2019-0013. "Compatible tools, such as tri-wing screwdrivers, are inexpensive and widely available." On adhesives, which other commenters that released their filings raised concerns about, console makers sometimes use them "to optimize product design and for safety reasons," ESA said. "Adhesives serve an important safety function in preventing access to lithium-ion batteries, which present special safety considerations (both for repair and proper disposal)." Batteries also came up in the proceeding (see report in this issue.) Consumer Reports, whose comments also were just posted, "does support right to repair generally," a spokesperson emailed when we asked about CR's principles on this matter. "We have been advocating for bills in multiple states." Many states recently introduced such legislation, but some consumer tech interests oppose them (see 1903190031). ESA couldn't immediately provide us with its own right to repair principles, beyond its intellectual property concerns. CR has "developed a model state law, and are working to help enact effective right-to-repair laws in a number of states, including co-sponsoring a bill currently under consideration in California," it said: "Adverse reliability reports" to the product research and ratings provider "demonstrate the common consumer experience of having products break and need repair, and the importance of having convenient and affordable options to obtain repair." CR's model state law is here. Last week, a representative of the group testified for a New Jersey digital right-to-repair bill. It would "require manufacturers to make basic technical information and repair protocols available to independent repair shops and consumers, so consumers can more easily and cheaply get their digital devices repaired, and in some cases, fix the devices themselves," the group's spokesman noted.

Roku components such as the Roku Streaming Stick infringe three Wi-Fi patents held by Aegis 11, alleged (in Pacer) the Luxembourg technology company Friday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. The patents were granted in January 2005, February 2017 and December 2017 and were originally assigned to LG, which was “actively involved with standards-development organizations that developed industry standards relevant to LG’s product portfolios, including LG’s Wi-Fi enabled consumer electronic goods,” said the complaint. Aegis 11 acquired two of the patents from LG in April and the third from Sisvel International this month, it said. Aegis 11 “reserves the right” to treat Roku as “an unwilling licensee,” it said. That frees Aegis 11 to seek “the maximum available reasonable royalty damages” to compensate for Roku’s allegedly infringing activities, regardless of IEEE bylaws requiring the licensing of Wi-Fi patents on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, it said. Roku didn’t comment Monday.

The proposed List 4 Section 301 tariffs cover “all of Apple’s major products,” and would harm the company’s “global competitiveness,” said the iPhone maker in heavily redacted comments posted Thursday in docket USTR-2019-0004. “The Chinese producers we compete with in global markets do not have a significant presence in the U.S. market, and so would not be impacted by U.S. tariffs,” said Apple. “A U.S. tariff would, therefore, tilt the playing field in favor of our global competitors.” Tariffs also would reduce Apple’s “U.S. economic contribution,” it said. It vowed last year “to make a total direct contribution to the U.S. economy of over $350 billion over 5 years and we are pleased to report that we are on track to achieve this contribution,” the company said now.

About three of four smartphones imported to the U.S. come from China, and those would rise in cost by 22 percent under U.S.-proposed fourth tranche 25 percent duties, said a study for CTA, posted Tuesday in docket USTR-2019-0004. Tariffs would generate a 14 percent cost increase in phones shipped to the U.S. from all countries, it told the U.S. trade representative. The average phone retail price would rise about $70, it said. U.S. consumers will be “forced to reduce overall purchases by 28 percent,” it said. Tariffs on Chinese laptops and tablets imported to the U.S. under Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8471.30.01 subheading would raise pricing by 19 percent, said the study. It estimates the retail price of the average laptop would rise $120. Tariffs on videogame consoles imported from China would seriously harm U.S. consumers, said Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony Interactive Entertainment in rare joint comments by the rivals for the removing HTS 9504.50.00 goods from List 4. In 2018, more than 96 percent of the consoles imported to the U.S. came from China, they said. “It would cause significant supply chain disruption to shift sourcing entirely to the United States or a third country, and it would increase costs -- even beyond the cost of the proposed tariffs -- on products that are already manufactured under tight margin conditions.” Proposed penalties on semiconductors and the IT industry “will harm America’s tech companies, and are an ill-equipped tool” to curb China’s “problematic” trade practices, said the Semiconductor Industry Association. The administration’s previous tariffs “encompass nearly the entire semiconductor supply chain,” said SIA. The proposed List 4 tariffs “now threaten virtually all information technology products -- and purchasers of semiconductors -- including key consumer products,” it said. Also, Tuesday was Day II of USTR hearings on proposed List 4 duties, which will stretch to June 25 (see 1906180030).