The International Trade Commission ordered a Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into allegations in a Nov. 1 complaint that MediaTek chipsets and downstream streaming media and smart home products containing them from Amazon, Belkin and Linksys infringe five NXP Semiconductors patents, said Tuesday’s Federal Register. The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against the allegedly infringing products. None of the named respondents commented.

YouTube's community guidelines and strikes process for violations will be codified as part of its terms of service effective Jan. 5, increasing transparency, it told users. It said while TOS is still a legal document, "we've done our best to make them easier to understand" through reorganization and rewording.

Amazon doesn’t actually own the digital content it sells the public, but sublicenses from the content owner, and when a licensing agreement terminates, Amazon pulls the content from a consumer’s purchased folder and music library “without prior warning, and without providing any type of refund or remuneration,” alleged a class-action complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. Amazon’s sale of digital content it doesn't own “is made more egregious” because Amazon “charges just as much for that content,” sometimes even more, than stores like Best Buy and Target that “actually transfer title” to its customers, access to which “can never be revoked,” said the complaint. Amazon continues to “mislead consumers into believing it's selling them digital content, “even though it is merely providing them with a license to view it, which can be terminated at any time, for any reason and without any type of warning so that a consumer can take steps to attempt to preserve it,” said the suit. Amazon has sold more digital content, “and at substantially higher prices per unit, than it would have in the absence of this misconduct, resulting in additional profits at the expense of deceived consumers,” it said. The complaint seeks “punitive or exemplary” money damages, alleging unjust enrichment and violation of consumer protection laws. Amazon didn’t comment.

Broadcasters want the FCC to distinguish between “next-generation EAS” (emergency alert system) and enhanced alerting through ATSC 3.0, said replies posted Friday in docket 15-94. “Conflating the two platforms threatens to encourage the migration of the rules and requirements that govern EAS (which have accrued from the 1950’s to this proceeding) to ATSC 3.0 emergency messaging,” said the Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance and ATSC. The 3.0 “optional, value-added urgent news information service” is called “Advanced Emergency Information” and is a valuable supplement for EAS alerts but isn’t the same thing, NAB said. “Refrain from regulating such an optional ATSC 3.0 content service because it is unrelated to the vital service provided by the EAS system and doing so could hinder innovation.” AWARN and ATSC urged the FCC not to impose alerting regulations on streaming media. NAB reiterated (see 2110200065) that an FCC proposal for persistent EAS alerts isn’t feasible.

Cisco revenue growth in its fiscal Q1 ended Oct. 30 of 8% year over year to $12.9 billion was “solid” but was hindered by supply constraints, CEO Chuck Robbins told analysts. “Our product orders were extremely strong and balanced across our markets, but we are constrained in what we can build and ship.” The company takes “multiple steps to mitigate the supply shortages and deliver products,” including paying “significantly higher logistics costs,” said Robbins Wednesday. It “thoughtfully raised prices” to offset the impact of higher costs from suppliers that are crimping its gross margins. “Most customers are very understanding. They are super-frustrated with the lead times.” Many Cisco customers “are doing the same thing to their customers, so this is a whole inflationary trend that we see across the entire economy,” said the CEO. When its order backlog might clear is “the $64,000 question,” said Chief Financial Officer Scott Herren. “It's not just one commodity that's constrained,” he said. “Then you have to overlay on that the snarled logistics position that we find ourselves in, really across all lanes, whether it’s ocean or air or trucking.” The company expects revenue growth of 4.5% to 6.5% for this quarter, said the CFO: “The Q2 guide is impacted by the supply chain -- the component supply issues that are putting a headwind on what we can get pushed out the door.” Thursday, the stock closed down 5.5% at $53.63.

Tidal launched direct-to-artist payments, said the streaming music service Wednesday. Each month, beginning in 2022, a percentage of Tidal’s highest tier’s subscribers' membership fees will be directed toward the top streamed artist. Royalties will be paid based on the actual streaming activity of individual HiFi Plus subscribers as opposed to the industry-accepted method of aggregating streams. Tidal also announced it entered the free streaming music space with a U.S. advertising-supported tier.

The FTC will vote at a Nov. 18 open meeting on whether to issue orders to large retailers and consumer goods suppliers to study the competition impact of supply chain disruptions, the agency announced Wednesday. The FTC Act Section 6(b) study would “focus on why these disruptions occur, whether they are leading to specific bottlenecks, shortages, anticompetitive practices, or contributing to rising consumer prices.” The White House launched a supply chain task force in June, and President Joe Biden in October addressed efforts from major retailers like Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Target and Samsung. FTC speaker registration and comment submissions are due Monday. Also on the agenda is a staff report on “the status of criminal referrals by the Bureaus of Competition and Consumer Protection that have resulted in criminal enforcement action by federal and state legal authorities.” Commissioners will vote on whether to issue a statement regarding FTC commitments in this area. The meeting is at 1 p.m. EST.

Most artists are self-employed, earning modest livings and lack a systematic means of identifying copyright infringements, so a strict three-year limit on recoverable damages regardless of when a claim accrues would be a hardship, artists' rights organizations told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In an amicus brief backing plaintiff-appellee Starz (docket 21-55379), organizations including the Authors Guild, Romance Writers of America and Songwriters Guild of America said defendant-appellant MGM -- in asking the court for that limit -- is "sharply limiting the ability of blameless artists to recover damages" and discouraging private enforcement of infringements. MGM is appealing a lower court's denial of a motion to dismiss 378 of Starz's 1,020 copyright claims on MGM licensing content to Starz and subsequently to other content service providers while Starz allegedly had exclusive license. Santa Clara University law professor Tyler Ochoa in an amicus brief said MGM's read of Supreme Court precedent is wrong and there should be a presumption that acts happening more than three years before filing are barred, but that copyright owners can recover damages if shown they didn't and couldn't discover the infringement earlier. MGM's outside counsel didn't comment Thursday.

Movie production companies suing WideOpenWest for alleged piracy committed by WOW broadband subscribers are "part of a well-known web of copyright trolls" and haven't alleged facts showing WOW knew of, encouraged or profited from any copyright infringement, it told U.S. District in Denver on Friday in a motion to dismiss in docket 21-cv-01901. Counsel for plaintiffs didn't comment Monday.

Apple is “very, very focused" on discussing the privacy and security elements of the App Store with regulators and legislators, said CEO Tim Cook, responding to a question Thursday from Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty on how Apple will balance consumer preference for App Store transactions with legislators’ push for more choice. The analyst cited a Morgan Stanley survey of 4,000 consumers showing most customers don’t want to pay for apps directly to developers because they value the security and privacy of transactions within the App Store. Apple is working “to explain the decisions that we've made that are key to keeping the privacy and security there, which is to not have sideloading" or to open the iPhone to unreviewed apps, which would sidestep privacy restrictions Apple put on the App Store, Cook said. Morgan Stanley didn't provide a copy of its survey Friday. Meanwhile, for the holiday season, Apple faces chip shortages and high demand across product lines, Cook told a quarterly call for the three months ended Sept. 25. See Q4 materials here.