Comcast 2014 Annual Report Download - page 32

Table of Contents
enforcement in the United States or internationally, or a failure of existing laws to adapt to new technologies, could make it more
difficult for us to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could negatively impact their value and further increase
the costs of enforcing our rights.
Copyright laws also require that we pay standard industry licensing fees for the public performance of music in the programs we
distribute, such as local advertising and local origination programming on our cable systems, as well as in the content we create.
The fees we pay to music performance rights organizations are typically renegotiated when we renew licenses with those
organizations, and we cannot predict what those fees will be in the future or if disputes will arise over them.
There has been litigation related to a number of online entities that stream our broadcast television content online without the
consent of, or compensation to, NBC or its affiliates. In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that one such entity, Aereo, violated the
broadcasters’
exclusive right to perform their copyrighted works publicly. Subsequently, Aereo sought to operate as a cable system
under the Copyright Act, although the U.S. Copyright Office rejected its application for a compulsory copyright license. We also
have brought a suit against a multichannel video provider to challenge the commercial-
skipping functionality in its DVR.
Additionally, legislation has been proposed in the U.S. Congress that seems intended to legitimize the unauthorized online
streaming of local broadcast content. We cannot predict whether such legislation will be enacted or how any such legislation would
ultimately affect our businesses. In addition, the FCC recently sought comment on whether classifying certain OVDs as MVPDs
would give such OVDs the right to negotiate for retransmission consent with local broadcast stations and subject such negotiations
to the good-faith requirements under the FCC’
s rules. We cannot predict the outcome of the rulemaking, or how it would affect our
businesses.
Privacy and Security Regulation
The Communications Act generally restricts the nonconsensual collection and disclosure to third parties of cable customers’
personally identifiable information by cable operators. There are exceptions that permit such collection and disclosure for rendering
service, conducting legitimate business activities related to the service, and responding to legal requests. The Communications Act
and FCC regulations also provide privacy protections for customer proprietary network information related to our voice services.
Several states and numerous local jurisdictions have enacted privacy laws or franchise privacy provisions that apply to cable
services.
The FTC has continued to exercise authority over privacy protections generally, using its existing authority over unfair and
deceptive practices and other public proceedings to apply greater restrictions on the collection and use of personally identifiable
and other information relating to consumers. It also has undertaken numerous enforcement actions against parties that do not
provide sufficient security protections against the loss or unauthorized disclosure of this type of information. In 2013, FTC
regulations implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”)
went into effect. COPPA imposes requirements
on website operators and online services that are directed to children under 13 years of age, or that knowingly collect or post
personal information from children under 13 years of age. The FTC rules impose some significant new obligations on operators of
websites and online services, including expanded categories of personal information and new data security and data retention
requirements, and also expand the scope of COPPA to reach third-
party service providers that knowingly collect personal
information through a website or service focused towards children.
We are also subject to state and federal “do not call”
laws regarding telemarketing and state and federal laws regarding unsolicited
commercial emails, as well as FCC regulations relating to automated telemarketing calls, texts or SMS messages. The FTC and
state attorneys general also have initiated efforts to increase and enforce transparency requirements about the collection and use
of consumer information, even in an
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Comcast 2014 Annual Report on Form 10
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