Liability protections for third-party online content should be included in the North American Free Trade Agreement, said 55 scholars and groups of various regulatory persuasions in a letter Monday to trade heads of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The internet was an "obscure electronic network" when NAFTA was negotiated and now is an essential part of the economy, said the Center for Democracy & Technology, Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, R Street, TechFreedom and others. They urged that a new agreement include immunity provisions like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online companies from legal action for content on their sites. Immunity provisions make it easy for startups to launch new services, and advance consumers' free speech rights, the letter said. “The legal exposure of Internet businesses raises vitally important trade issues,” blogged Santa Clara Law professor Eric Goldman, who spearheaded the effort and has been critical of congressional legislation aimed at curbing online sex trafficking that would make exceptions to Section 230 protections (see 1801040050). "New rules on cross-border data flows, non-disclosure requirements for source code and algorithms, and highlighting the role of interoperability mechanisms to transfer data across borders" should be part of a new pact, said Software & Information Industry Association Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy.

Congress should decide the issues in U.S. v Microsoft​ (see 1710160009), said a brief filed Thursday by lawmakers including Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. Oral argument will be Feb. 27 in the case involving U.S. law enforcement authority to compel ISPs to disclose electronic information stored outside the country (see 1708010053). The lawmakers argue the court shouldn't interpret federal law to reach overseas but rather let Congress address the issue, which it began examining in the bipartisan International Communications Privacy Act. BSA|The Software Alliance and other industry groups filed an amicus brief Thursday arguing current laws don’t authorize law enforcement warrants for accessing digital evidence stored outside the U.S. The government’s position would subject U.S. companies to conflicting legal obligations among sovereign nations, and open the door to challenges from other nations seeking the same information from U.S. citizens, the brief said. It concurs with the lawmakers’ position that Congress should decide.

Amazon Music Unlimited will be available in Australia and New Zealand starting Feb. 1, said Amazon. Also Wednesday, it began taking orders for the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus in those countries.

CTA, General Electric and nearly 400 companies and trade groups signed a Thursday letter to congressional leadership asking for a quick Generalized System of Preferences program renewal. "The sooner it happens," the sooner "tariffs paid already are refunded," they said after Dec. 31 expiration of GSP, resulting in American employers now paying "over $2 million per day in new import taxes." The U.S. Trade Representative website says "GSP promotes economic development by eliminating duties on thousands of products when imported from one of 120 [of the world's poorest] designated beneficiary countries and territories."

A unilateral decision by ICANN's board to suspend review of domain name stability and security practices could jeopardize the internet body's transparency and accountability, new NTIA Administrator David Redl said in a Dec. 12 letter. Board members announced the action Oct. 28, saying the review "is a critical input for ICANN in service of its mission," but it's "imperative" the community assure itself the Security, Stability and Resiliency Review "is appropriately composed and structured." NTIA accused ICANN of violating its principles of openness and participation. The suspension "appears to have been done with little notice given and no clear rationale provided," NTIA said. ICANN bylaws provide little role for the board in workings of a review team, it said. The U.S. agency said its "concerns are compounded by the fact that the review teams ... are a critical accountability tool in the post [Internet Assigned Numbers Authority] stewardship transition phase of ICANN, something all stakeholders, particularly those in the United States are watching closely." ICANN hasn't yet responded, a spokesman said this week. NTIA's concerns are shared by many ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee members, and the agency expects the multistakeholder community will act, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Kaspersky Lab went to court seeking to reverse the Department of Homeland Security's ban on use of its products in federal IT systems, the company said Monday of its U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia case. "DHS’s actions have caused undue damage to both the company’s reputation in the IT security industry and its sales in the U.S.," Kaspersky said. The firm has been under fire for several months after reports that vulnerabilities in its software enabled the Russian government to breach U.S. federal systems (see 1712060045).

Only about 20 percent of the world’s e-waste was recycled in 2016, said an ITU report released Wednesday with the United Nations University and the International Solid Waste Association. Nearly 45 million metric tons of e-waste were generated last year, an 8 percent increase from 2014, said the report. “Experts foresee a further 17 per cent increase” to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021, it said. The assessment “highlights the significant and growing risk to the environment and human health due to increasing levels of e-waste and its improper and unsafe treatment and disposal through burning or in dumpsites,” it said. The “positive news” is that more countries are adopting e-waste legislation, it said. The report estimates two-thirds of the world’s population last year was “covered by national e-waste management laws,” a “significant” increase from the 44 percent that was covered only two years earlier.

Cisco and Chairman Emeritus John Chambers have been trying to get tax overhaul “pushed through” Congress for 15 years, “and so we are we are quite pleased that we are at the point we are at now,” CEO Chuck Robbins told the company’s annual shareholder meeting Monday. “There are lots of dynamics between the House version and the Senate version that we are obviously providing input on,” said Robbins, who assumed the executive chairman post from Chambers, who stepped down from the board effective with the annual meeting. “The biggest thing that we believe is important not only is a competitive tax rate for U.S. companies,” but also “the repatriation of foreign earnings would be very positive for us,” he said. “So, we are optimistic, or maybe I should say hopeful, that we get something done here in the next few weeks.”

Amazon Music Unlimited is in 28 more countries, along with the Echo smart speaker, said Amazon Friday. The on-demand paid music service, previously in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan, is now in Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and elsewhere.

Broadcom will follow through with its decision, announced last month at the White House (see 1711020069), to move co-headquarters to Delaware from Singapore “whether or not there is corporate tax reform” enacted in the U.S., said Chief Financial Officer Tom Krause on a Wednesday earnings call. Broadcom wants to make the move "in a manner intended to be tax-free to shareholders," said Krause. “We are confident that our shareholders will support this move,” but the "final form and timing" of the "re-domiciliation" and the shareholder vote to approve it “will depend in part on tax reform efforts” in Congress, he said. Broadcom also remains determined to buy Qualcomm for $70 a share, despite the target board’s rejection of the offer last month (see 1711130031), said Krause. Broadcom told Qualcomm earlier this week of its plan to nominate a “highly qualified” slate of 11 directors to run for seats on the Qualcomm board at Qualcomm’s next annual meeting in March (see the personals section of the Dec. 6 issue of this publication), he said. Packing the board with directors friendly toward approving Broadcom’s buy would be a big step toward a hostile Qualcomm takeover, but Krause said “it remains our strong preference to engage in a constructive dialogue with Qualcomm." Broadcom is confident it could complete a Qualcomm buy within a year after signing a “definitive agreement” on the acquisition and that the combined company would become “a global communications leader,” he said.