Robocalls may have always had some artificial flavor to them; however, the proliferation of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to blur the line between human and machine interaction. On July 17, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address the ability of the Telephone Consumer Protection
AI Robocall NPRM on August FCC Open Meeting Agenda
The FCC has published the tentative agenda for its August 2024 Open Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 7, at 10:30 a.m. EDT, and will be livestreamed at www.fcc.gov/live and available on the FCC’s YouTube channel. The agenda includes the following items:
Establishing a Missing and Endangered Persons Alert Code (PS Docket
August 15 Is the Effective Date of Requirements for Foreign Government Certifications for Political Issue Advertising and Paid PSAs
Update, 7/26/2024 – We understand that the FCC has decided that the requirement for verification of the buyers of issues ads and paid PSAs will not go into effect on August 15, as this article stated. Instead, as we report in this article, the new requirement will require approval of the Office of Management
FCC Releases Draft NPRM Considering Broader Regulation of AI-Generated Robocalls
By Jessica T. Nyman and Adam J. Sandler
Chairwoman Rosenworcel announced on July 16 that the Commission is considering adoption of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment on proposals to regulate AI-generated robocalls. The draft NPRM, released this afternoon, is the outgrowth of a November 2023 Notice of Inquiry and follows several
Paris Olympics & Paralympics – Part 2: What could possibly go wrong?
Having recently examined some of the legal issues that have overshadowed the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, in this article I will consider what could keep contentious/regulatory lawyers (and journalists) busy once the Games formally begin on 26 July 2024.
With ten days still to go before the Opening Ceremony, it is
Legal Riffs: Music Industry Alleges AI Is Out of Tune
In late June, Universal Music Group (UMG) Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and other major record labels filed two complaints against two generative artificial intelligence (“gen AI”) music startups, Suno, Inc. (Suno) and Uncharted Labs, Inc. (Udio). The concurrently filed complaints allege that the gen AI technology produced by Suno and Udio directly infringes on copyrights
What You Need to Know If You’re Using AI-Generated Voices for Your Company
Global music superstar Taylor Swift began her music career in Nashville, so we thought it fitting that on July 1, with the end of the Eras Tour in sight, the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act went into effect in Tennessee. This marks the latest front in the effort to navigate the interplay
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: July 1, 2024 to July 5, 2024
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from this past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The National Religious Broadcasters, American Family Association, and the Texas Association of Broadcasters jointly requested that the FCC stay the
AI Robocalls: Election Season Triggers Additional FCC Scrutiny
With the election cycle heating up as we approach the dog days of summer, so too is the Federal Communications Commission’s scrutiny of the use of AI technology in fraudulent robocalls. As we previously discussed, the FCC has already doled out fines for the use of deepfakes in political robocalls.
Now, FCC Chairwoman Jessica
Supreme Court Rejects the Chevron Doctrine – What Does it Mean for Broadcasters Regulated By the FCC?
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine, which required courts to defer to expert regulatory agencies, like the FCC, when interpreting ambiguous statutes, unless the agency acted unreasonably. Since the decision, we have seen all sorts of TV pundits predicting the end of “the administrative state” (presumably meaning the end of