Pay-TV operators often rely on conditional access fingerprint techniques such as VCID or HashCodes to "fingerprint" their content for tracing piracy leaks to the source, but a rapidly growing number of HashCode removal tools can in real-time strip away those visual marks from a video feed, blogged Irdeto Senior Director-Cyber Services and Investigations Mark Mulready Wednesday. This tool is often available online for as little as $2,000 and falls into "a legal grey-area'" since it doesn't actively enable piracy but helps pirates mask identity, Irdeto said. The solution is covert watermarking, where a unique user ID is put into the stream, but pirates can't see the watermarks and have difficulty obscuring them, it said. Irdeto said most film and TV studios already use covert watermarking for high-value content, and sports rights holders increasingly are requiring it in new licensing deals.

Toy companies met Senate Finance Committee, Customs and Border Protection, Consumer Product Safety Commission and Alibaba and Amazon representatives June 14 to discuss intellectual property issues, the Toy Association said Tuesday. "Participating toy companies spoke about their experiences tackling infringing toys sold online and discussed possible solutions to improve toy safety and IP protection on e-commerce platforms." The committee is looking at online counterfeit good sales (see 1805300068). "CPSC’s director of import surveillance said that the volume of e-commerce packages, lack of data, and enforcement procedures designed for ocean containers (not de minimis shipments) have collectively resulted in numerous challenges," the association said. CBP reportedly is interested in training association members to identify counterfeits.

The Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. patent number 10,000,000 Tuesday to a Raytheon invention for a frequency-modulated laser detection and ranging system with possible applications in autonomous vehicles, medical imaging devices and national defense, said the agency. “Given the rapid pace of change, we know that it will not take another 228 years to achieve the next 10-million-patent milestone,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, referring to the first U.S. patent issued July 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash for fertilizer. When inventor Joseph Marron, a Raytheon engineer, applied for the patent three years ago, little could he predict he would land the milestone number in 2018, he said in a company statement. "It's equivalent to a guy who buys a lottery ticket every month," he said. "Eventually, it hits."

Criminal prosecution of violations is "a necessary alternative means" for stopping digital piracy, given its huge economic scope, and Congress should update criminal copyright law to make online piracy via streaming a felony, Free State Foundation President Randolph May and Senior Fellow Seth Cooper wrote Monday. They said criminal prosecution of copyright violations isn't common, with seven such prosecutions in the 12 months ended in mid-2017, and 23 annually on average over the prior five years. They said willful copyright infringement via online streaming is a misdemeanor, though willful infringement via download is a felony when statutory minimums are satisfied. FSF said Congress should give federal law enforcement officials more tools such as authority to seek wiretaps to obtain evidence of suspected criminal copyright activities.

A second U.S. House member from North Carolina went to bat for Cree’s attempt (see 1806110033) to fend off Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on U.S. imports of LEDs from China. The company produces LED wafers at its plant in Durham, North Carolina, exports them to China for making them into finished packaged chips and re-imports those chips to the U.S., said David Price (D) in a June 8 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer posted Wednesday in docket USTR-2018-0005. Cree would be forced to pay 25 percent higher duties on the devices, “despite the fact that approximately 70 percent of the value of these LED chips and components" is based on U.S. IP, Price said.

The Trump administration's threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports and China's possible retaliatory actions were top of mind for CTA President Gary Shapiro Wednesday at CES Asia. “The challenge with tariffs is that nobody wins, and these threats and the discussion about it causes global economic uncertainty,” he said in Shanghai. The White House announced May 29 that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will release its final tariffs list by Friday and the tariffs will take effect “shortly thereafter” (see 1805290046). The association disagrees with the administration’s position on tariffs, which Shapiro called “a different approach on tariffs than any in my professional life.” He believes Congress would be in opposition, too, “if they took a vote on it,” he said. Making it a point not to criticize President Donald Trump, “especially outside of U.S. soil,” Shapiro said the issue of tariffs is "potentially very dangerous, especially if you go to the next step, which is a trade war.” Meanwhile, government’s “natural reaction is to regulate,” Shapiro said. He described what he called a scary moment in Europe several weeks ago when the European commissioner responsible for privacy set his sights on regulating artificial intelligence. “I shook,” he said, over the idea of “regulating something without understanding it.” Lawmakers should attend shows like CES and CES Asia to better understand how technology helps improve lives, he said.

The White House said it's aiming to reshape Senate-proposed language for the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5515) that would retroactively restore a Department of Commerce-imposed seven-year ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE that the department announced last week it planned to suspend in exchange for alternate concessions from the Chinese manufacturer. “The massive penalties imposed on ZTE are part of an historic enforcement action taken by” Commerce, a White House spokeswoman reportedly told the press pool Wednesday. “This will ensure ZTE pays for its violations and gives our government complete oversight of their future activity without undue harm to American suppliers and their workers. The Administration will work with Congress to ensure the final NDAA conference report respects the separation of powers.” Commerce said last week it reached a deal for ZTE to pay $1.4 billion, institute major leadership changes and let U.S. inspectors monitor compliance (see 1806070040). Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and others successfully included their ZTE language in a manager's amendment for HR-5515 this week (see 1806120001). An earlier House-passed version of the bill also included amendments aimed at countering Trump on ZTE (see 1805240064). Senate votes on the NDAA amendments were Wednesday evening.

The Copyright Office is again extending the deadline for comments on its NPRM on royalty reporting practices of cable operators under Section 111 of the Copyright Act and proposed revisions to the statement of account forms, it said Wednesday. Comments, which had been due June 14, now are due Oct. 4, with replies due Oct. 25. It previously extended the deadline in March (see 1803080051). It said Wednesday this latest extension was to ensure enough time for interested parties to try to reach consensus.

The Senate should pass the Music Modernization Act (S-2823), wrote House Republicans, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Calif., Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Va., and Doug Collins, Ga., Monday on FoxNews.com (see 1805250036). Collins is lead sponsor of companion legislation that passed his chamber unanimously. “We are on the verge of a historic victory for American music creators, music distributors, and the public -- one that will help sustain the American music industry as it advances,” they wrote.

Roku landed publication Thursday of a U.S. patent application describing an “example apparatus” for skipping portions of content on a streaming device that are “of little or no interest to the user,” using metadata stored in the device’s database for triggering a “skip command.” On-demand availability of content “is commonplace,” but the “electronic and computerized storage and delivery of content offers the potential for far more than just the availability and vanilla playback of content,” said the application (2018/0152489) filed in November 2016, listing CEO Anthony Wood and Vice President-Intellectual Property Joseph Hollinger as inventors. “It is possible to generate content recommendations that are tailored for individual users, as well as to customize the viewing experience to each user's personal preferences.” Existing devices and services “fall short in many areas” in that regard, it said. Many force users to experience content in a “linear manner, requiring them to view portions of content having little or no interest,” it said. “Too often, media systems and services fail to leverage the immense knowledge base of the Internet and other sources when presenting content to users.” Though streaming content may be readily available on an on-demand basis, “related information is not, at least not in an easily accessible manner,” it said.