Commissioner Rosenworcel objects to licensing provisions in new set-top box plan

FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel has concerns with Chairman Wheeler’s new set-top box proposal. At a Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing, Rosenworcel explained that the licensing scheme in the new proposal is beyond the authority of the FCC.

“I have some problems with licensing and the FCC getting a little too involved in the licensing scheme here,” Rosenworcel told Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS). “I just don’t think we have the authority.”

She’s not alone. A diverse group of creative industry organizations, associations, and labor unions – representing hundreds of thousands of industry professionals – cited a similar concern. “The FCC creates an unacceptable and unworkable de facto compulsory licensing regime that requires creators to allow their work to be shared across multiple platforms without compensation and without regard to the creators’ rights to exclusively control their distribution,” the groups said in a statement. “That’s authority the FCC does not have.”

Links:

Oversight of the FCC (US Senate Commerce Committee, Sept. 15, 2016)

Creative industry groups, unions oppose new set-top box plan (Speed Matters, Sept. 15, 2016)

Creative community joint announcement opposing the FCC’s new set-top box proposal (Members of the creative community, Sept. 14, 2016)