Headlines

Benton Foundation provides free, daily summaries of articles concerning the quickly-changing telecommunications policy landscape.

Protests erupt across Europe against web piracy treaty

Location:
Dublin, Ireland
Recommendation:
2

Tens of thousands of protesters took part in rallies across Europe on Feb 11 against an international anti-piracy agreement they fear will curb their freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage Internet surveillance.

Google tells FTC of progress on privacy

Location:
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA, 94043, United States
Recommendation:
2

Amid controversy over its plans to combine user data from search to YouTube, Google told the Federal Trade Commission in a self-assessment report that the upcoming changes in its privacy policy are fully in compliance with the company’s settlement with the federal government last year.

Apple sues Motorola Mobility over Qualcomm license

Location:
United States District Court for the Southern District of California, 880 Front Street, San Diego, CA, 92101, United States
Recommendation:
2

Apple sued Motorola Mobility in a US court in an attempt to stop Motorola from asserting some patent claims against Apple in Germany, according to the lawsuit.

BlackBerry out at U.S. climate agency, iPhone in

Location:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Room 5128, Washington, DC, 20230, United States
Recommendation:
1

Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphone has struggled to win over U.S. consumers but the Canadian company has long been able to rely on the loyalty of corporate and government clients who depend on its secure email. No more.

Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple IPad 2s

Location:
Department of Defense, Army Navy Dr & Fern St, Arlington, VA, 22202, United States
Recommendation:
1

The U.S. Air Force may buy as many as 18,000 iPad2s in what would be one of the military’s biggest orders of computer tablets, accelerating Apple’s inroads into the federal government.

Intel settles NY antitrust case for just $6.5 million

Location:
Albany, NY, United States
Recommendation:
2

Intel Corp agreed to pay just $6.5 million to resolve an antitrust lawsuit in which New York's attorney general accused the world's largest chipmaker of threatening computer makers and paying billions of dollars of kickbacks to maintain its market dominance.

Petitioners demand Comcast carry Al-Jazeera nationally

Location:
Comcast, 1500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102-2148, United States
Recommendation:
1

Grassroots activists are going to deliver a popular online petition asking Comcast Cable to carry Al-Jazeera English nationally to Comcast headquarters in Philadelphia.

Madonna slams MIA's Super Bowl finger gesture

Location:
Indianapolis, IN, United States
Recommendation:
2

Madonna has slammed British rapper MIA's offensive finger gesture during her Super Bowl show as juvenile, negative and out of place.

BTOP Case Study Five: Bill Callahan, Connect Your Community Project Director, OneCommunity

Location:
OneCommunity, 800 W. St. Clair Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44113, United States
Recommendation:
2

OneCommunity, a non-profit broadband provider in Northeast Ohio, is using Recovery Act funding to expand innovative broadband adoption work it is doing in Cleveland and replicate the program in seven other communities in Ohio and four other states.

Iran increasingly controls its Internet

Location:
Recommendation:
2

Having seen social media help power uprisings across the Middle East, Iran’s leaders are trying to get control over what is uploaded, posted and discussed on the Internet. And after a slow start, authorities are becoming more and more successful, Iranian Internet users say.

Netflix, Hulu original shows challenge broadcast, cable TV

Location:
Netflix, 100 Winchester Cir., Los Gatos, CA, 95032, United States
Recommendation:
2

Within just over a week, Netflix and Hulu are both debuting their first stabs at original scripted programming.

Broadcasting, Disclosure and Democracy

Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
Recommendation:
2

When we speak of “wireless” these days, we’re talking about cell phones and other devices we use on the go – many enabled with mobile broadband. But the term wireless first came into use about 100 years ago when radio receivers and transmitters were introduced. Radio broadcasters and, of course, television broadcasters are licensed by the federal government to use spectrum, the airwaves, to transmit their signals. With those licenses come requirements to serve the public’s interests, not just the narrow commercial interests of the licensees. This week we look at developments in broadcast regulation that could have a major impact on our democracy.

FCC’s McDowell On Putting Political Files Online: What's the Rush?

Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
Recommendation:
2

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell says that the FCC's proposal to make TV stations' political files part of an online public database managed by the FCC is fixing "what appears to be a nonexistent problem" with "little to no" evidence that the information in that file is not already available to whoever needs to see it.

Fox Knows What FCC’s Genachowski Should

Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
Recommendation:
2

Fox executives visited the Federal Communications Commission to tell officials all about MundoFox, a Spanish-language broadcasting network. That a company with the indisputable media acumen of Fox was investing millions of dollars into a broadcasting network makes hash out of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's contention that broadcasting is an obsolete medium and that its continued use of spectrum is of a waste — or at least the underutilization — of a precious natural resource.

Mobility Fund Phase I Auction

Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
Recommendation:
3

The Federal Communications Commission announced steps to close our nation’s gaps in mobile service as part of the agency’s groundbreaking reforms under the Connect America Fund, which the FCC adopted last year to put America on the path to universal broadband and advanced mobile coverage by the end of the decade.

Google testing Google-manufactured personal communication device

Location:
Cambridge, MA, United States
Recommendation:
2

Google is testing its own "next generation personal communication device," according to a document submitted to the Federal Communications Commission.

Rural Telcos: FCC Sec. 706 Authority Covers Retransmission Reform

Location:
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20554, United States
Recommendation:
1

Representatives of rural telecommunications companies met with top Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau staffers to argue that the ancillary authority the FCC has asserted in taking steps to promote broadband deployment and adoption, and buttress its network neutrality regulations, can be used to justify reforming retransmission consent rules.

Google: Will it be vulnerable in mobile search?

Location:
Sanford Bernstein, 1345 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10105, United States
Recommendation:
2

Google dominates mobile search courtesy of its Android operating system and deals with Apple on iOS, but its position could become tenuous as the value stack in smartphones shifts.

Android to overtake Apple in app downloads

Location:
Apple, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA, 95014, United States
Recommendation:
2

Android could notch 8.1 billion app downloads this year, compared with 6 billion for Apple's iOS devices.

Romney in His Comfort Zone in Technology Speech

Location:
Northern Virginia Technology Council, 2214 Rock Hill Road, Herndon, VA, 20170, United States
Recommendation:
2

Appearing at home in front of an audience of technology executives and workers, Mitt Romney extolled the virtues of innovation, limited regulation, and low taxes to spur the US economy.

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