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June 27, 2012 (FCC Stops Clock on Verizon-SpectrumCo)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012
The Future of Video (see preview below) headlines a busy day http://benton.org/calendar/2012-06-27/
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
FCC Stops Clock on Verizon-SpectrumCo and Verizon-Cox - public notice
Despite T-Mobile Deal, Verizon Still Faces Battle Over Marketing Agreements with Cable Firms
Consortium of Higher Education Groups, Microsoft and Google Launch Program to Deploy Big Bandwidth to Underserved College Communities - press release
NAB's Smith: FCC Should Limit Station Moves in Repacking
Cell Internet Use 2012 - research
FCC Rules Might Tighten up Use of Cell-signal Boosters
Should DOD be taking more risks with mobility? [links to web]
The iPhone Turns Five - op-ed
THE FUTURE OF VIDEO
House Commerce Committee Staffers: Time to Revisit Must-Carry/Retransmission Regulations
NCTA’s Powell: Antitrust allegations 'flatly wrong'
NCTA’s Powell: TV's Golden Age Is Set Against Tarnished Regulations
Ergen to Congress: Parents Can AutoHop Over Booze, Junk Food Ads
House Dems: Data Caps, SpectrumCo Key Future of Video Issues
Sweeping Effects as Broadband Moves to Meters
Viewers Show Interest in TV on Mobile Devices [links to web]
CONTENT
Authors Guild Slams e-Book Settlement
Chicago Tribune gives readers Economist, Forbes under new paywall plan [links to web]
UK three-strikes plan shifts financial burden to rightsholders [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Should Google and Amazon be allowed to control domains?
July Fireworks: Senate May Take Up Cybersecurity, But Then What?
State Department: Human Rights Exist in Digital Realm
PRIVACY
On Facebook, the Semantics of Visibility vs. Privacy - analysis
Web Privacy Census shows tracking pervasive
California bill on social media privacy moves forward
KIDS AND MEDIA
Can Gadgets Bring You Closer to Your Children?
Tweenage Wasteland
Half of the world's kids fear the online bully, report says [links to web]
FTC offers tips on protecting kids from identity theft [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Kill Newspaper-TV Crossownership Rule, Now
Who Owns the News Media Database – A Summary of Findings - research
Has Facebook ruined Silicon Valley or just changed it?
NBC Stations Keep Tabs on Employee Tweets [links to web]
US Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Against Samsung Galaxy Tab
EU court upholds Microsoft antitrust fine
HEALTH
Electronic records tied to fewer malpractice claims [links to web]
HHS outlines health IT innovation projects [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
California Broadband and Digital Literacy Assistant Secretary Appointed [links to web]
Romney gains toehold in Silicon Valley fundraising [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Facebook pulls Find Friends Nearby GPS-locator feature
SEC Said to Be Poised to Sue LightSquared’s Philip Falcone [links to web]
Competing With Amazon on Amazon [links to web]
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
FCC STOPS MERGER REVIEW CLOCK
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Rick Kaplan]
On June 25, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile filed five applications requesting Federal Communications Commission approval for the full and partial assignments of certain AWS-1 licenses by and between Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile. The licenses that Verizon Wireless would assign to T-Mobile include 47 licenses (covering all or portions of 98 CMAs) that Verizon Wireless has proposed to acquire from SpectrumCo and Cox Wireless, as well as from Leap Wireless International. T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless state that assignments proposed in the T- Mobile/Verizon Wireless Applications are contingent upon regulatory approval of these other pending applications. Given the express connection between the T-Mobile/Verizon Wireless Applications and the Verizon - SpectrumCo and Verizon Wireless - Cox Applications pending in WT Docket No. 12-4, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issued a Public Notice on June 26 establishing a 14-day period in which interested parties can comment on the impact of the T-Mobile/Verizon Wireless Applications on the transactions in this docket. In light of this comment period, the FCC is stopping for 14 days the commission's informal 180-day clock for the proposed Verizon Wireless - SpectrumCo and Verizon Wireless - Cox transactions in WT Docket No. 12-4, effective June 26 and restarting on July 10, 2012, which will be Day 138.
Petitions to Deny the newly-announced transaction are due July 10, 2012; Oppositions are due July 17; Replies are due July 24.
benton.org/node/127207 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC Public Notice | Pleading Cycle Established
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VERIZON STILL FACES HURDLES
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
After cutting a deal with T-Mobile USA, Verizon appears to have helped smooth the way for federal approval of its bid to buy spectrum from a group of cable firms. But it has done little to quell concern over related marketing agreements between the wireless provider and the cable operators. Analysts say Verizon's deft move to peel off T-Mobile from the band of critics of its deal with the cable firms will help clear the way for Federal Communications Commission approval of the spectrum transaction. "Our sense is the deal would address or largely address the FCC's spectrum concentration concerns resulting from Verizon's planned purchase of cable AWS (advanced wireless service) spectrum," the research firm Stifel Nicolaus said in a research note. Even critics acknowledged that Verizon's deal with T-Mobile, which is contingent on approval of its spectrum deal with the cable firms, has removed a major hurdle. "I definitely think that Verizon has played this very well," Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said.
benton.org/node/127205 | National Journal
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AIR.U
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: press release]
A consortium of higher education associations, public interest groups and high-tech companies today announced a partnership named AIR.U (Advanced Internet Regions) to deploy Super Wi-Fi networks to upgrade the broadband available to underserved campuses and their surrounding communities. By using unlicensed access to unused television channels (TV band “White Spaces”), universities and neighboring communities will be able to significantly expand the coverage and capacity of high-speed wireless connectivity both on and off campus. AIR.U will focus on upgrading broadband offerings in those communities that, because of their educational mission, have greater than average demand but often, because of their rural or small town location, have below average broadband. The consortium’s initial goal is to plan and deploy several pilot networks in diverse university communities and create a roadmap for the rapid deployment of sustainable, next generation wireless networks as White Space equipment becomes widely available in 2013.
The founding Higher Ed organizations collectively represent over 500 colleges and universities nationwide, and include the United Negro College Fund, the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, and Gig.U, a consortium of 37 major universities committed to accelerating world-leading broadband connectivity and services. Founding partners also include Microsoft, Google, the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation, a think tank based in Washington D.C., the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and Declaration Networks Group, LLC, a newly created organization established to plan, deploy and operate Super Wi-Fi technologies.
benton.org/node/127180 | New America Foundation | ars technica | GigaOm
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NAB LETTER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith has asked the FCC to limit the number of stations that will have to be repacked after its spectrum auctions. Smith said that would limit viewer dislocation and ensure that stations that do move are compensated in a timely fashion. Smith also asked that the FCC give broadcasters "ample time" to evaluate FCC auction and repacking plans. Smith's letter comes the day after NAB exec Jane Mago made those arguments at an FCC repacking workshop, and a day before Hearst TV President David Barrett will make a similar pitch to Congress at a future of video hearing. If "hold harmless" was the NAB rallying cry before the auctions were approved, "transparency" is the new watchword as the FCC comes up with a game plan for reclaiming and re-auctioning spectrum.
benton.org/node/127175 | Broadcasting&Cable | TVNewsCheck
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CELL INTERNET USE 2012
[SOURCE: Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Aaron Smith]
Some 88% of U.S. adults own a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012, and more than half of these cell owners (55%) use their phone to go online. We call these individuals “cell internet users” throughout this report, and this represents a notable increase from the 31% of cell owners who said that they used their phone to go online as recently as April 2009. Moreover, 31% of these current cell internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone, and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer. That works out to 17% of all adult cell owners who are “cell-mostly internet users”—that is, who use their phone for most of their online browsing. Young adults and non-whites are especially likely to use their cell phones for the majority of their online activity:
Nearly half of all 18-29 year olds (45%) who use the internet on their cell phones do most of their online browsing on their mobile device.
Half (51%) of African-American cell internet users do most of their online browsing on their phone, double the proportion for whites (24%). Two in five Latino cell internet users (42%) also fall into the “cell-mostly” category.
Additionally, those with an annual household income of less than $50,000 per year and those who have not graduated college are more likely than those with higher levels of income and education to use their phones for most of their online browsing.
benton.org/node/127153 | Pew’s Internet & American Life Project
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CELL-SIGNAL BOOSTERS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Stephen Lawson]
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA unveiled a high-profile spectrum deal, but the odd couple also joined together earlier this month on a lesser known proposal for Federal Communications Commission rules on cellular signal boosters. The two carriers were the largest players that signed on to a detailed set of specifications for boosters, which are two-way radios that amplify cellular coverage in a building or vehicle. The devices are largely unregulated today, but the proposed rules could introduce new requirements for users. The specifications emerged from a lengthy rulemaking process launched last year and from technical work to narrow down the proposals, said Joe Banos, chief operating officer of Wilson Electronics, which makes boosters and has been pushing for Federal Communications Commission rules on them for years. He thinks there is a good chance the FCC will approve the rules, with little or no modification, within 90 days. "I think we're close to the end of the road," Banos said. After the FCC’s vote, the industry would have to settle on procedures for compliance testing, which might take six months, he said. At some point after that, products would be tested and boosters that didn't comply would have to be removed from sale.
benton.org/node/127151 | IDG News Service
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THE IPHONE AT FIVE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Hazlett]
[Commentary] On June 29, 2007, thousands of fan-boys and -girls camped in long lines to inhale a wisp of sweet techno fairy dust. The new iPhone rocked the world. Revolutionary in design, function and ecosystem, it set off the mobile data tsunami. In three days, Apple sold a million of them. The iconic innovation of the Information Age, however, inspired a fierce counterattack. Columbia University Law Prof. Tim Wu condemned the iPhone business model as "iPhony." The handset was cool, he said, but the business model tied the customer to AT&T's wireless network (where Apple struck a four-year exclusive deal) and to iTunes (Apple's content store). Soon the Apple App Store would deepen the master-slave relationship. This supposedly condemned users. "The closed iPhone," wrote Prof. Wu, "stands in contrast to the open-platform design that has been the bedrock of both the personal computer and Internet revolutions. . . . Once Big Brother's foe, [Apple is] now more like Little Brother, happy to sell cute little devices that are easy to use, make money, and spread false consciousness." Are you kidding me? The magic is not in a particular model but in the dynamics of platform competition. Shouting out "open" or "closed" as a prescription for categorical success is at best a mirage and at worst a predicate for anticonsumer public policy, like the government's long antitrust crusade against Microsoft. [Hazlett is a professor of law and economics at George Mason University]
benton.org/node/127220 | Wall Street Journal
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THE FUTURE OF VIDEO
TIME TO REVISIT MUST-CARRY?
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Republican staffers on the House Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee signaled in their memo on the June 27 Future of Video hearing that that future should be a deregulatory one, including that if Congress rethinks any regulations, they should be must-carry/retransmission and program access rules. "The Communications Act is woefully out of step with the state of competition and technology in video distribution and programming," the staff write. That means, they argue, that retransmission consent deals between MVPDs and broadcasters and program carriage deals between MVPDs and programmers "are best left arranged by the respective parties and their viewers, free from regulatory intervention." That would be good news for broadcasters not looking for the government to step in and mandate carriage or arbitration during impasses. "Both sides should be able to withhold valuable assets," the staffers say, otherwise no "true negotiation can take place." The alternative, they say, is the "risky" proposition of asking regulators to weigh the relative value of programming and carriage.
benton.org/node/127170 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ANTITRUST ALLEGATIONS ‘FLATLY WRONG’
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Michael Powell, the president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), pushed back against claims that cable companies are trying to stifle competition from online video, saying the allegations are "flatly wrong." Powell, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said critics of the cable industry have "radically exaggerated" the problem. He argued that cable companies want to see their customers consume more content on the Internet, noting that Internet service is a more profitable business than cable television for most companies. "Why would you want to frustrate consumers?" Powell asked at a briefing for reporters. Powell said broadband caps are a way to ensure that the heaviest data users pay their fair share. He said the issue is not dividing up a limited resource, but ensuring that the top users pay more for the expensive Internet infrastructure they are using. He compared data caps to the Occupy Wall Street movement's calls for the richest one percent of Americans to pay more in taxes. "One percent of heavy broadband users probably cause 42 percent or more of the consumption of the network," Powell said. Powell, who also worked in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, said he believes the investigation is routine.
benton.org/node/127171 | Hill, The
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POWELL’S TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell said his testimony about the future of video will focus on three things: 1) cable's golden age is now; 2) technology is driving choice, removing friction points between cable and consumers including set-tops, navigation; and 3) the cable industry is not trying to thwart over-the-top video. Given those, he says, it is time to take a fresh look at regulations that are premised on either a concentrated, vertically-integrated monopolist model of cable that is not true today, or on subsidizing broadcasters and protecting them from competition. Whether those should continue to be the national judgments on those services "is worth some reconsidering by Congress," he says.
benton.org/node/127199 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AUTOHOP AND KIDS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen will testify before the House Commerce Committee’s communications subcommittee this week and plans to say that Dish's AutoHop ad-skipping option allows parents to shield their kids from commercials for "junk food and alcohol." He is defending Dish's Hopper service from the broadcast networks, who have sued the company over the AutoHop commercial-skipping feature, saying it breached contracts and violated copyrights. In his testimony, Ergen positions the service as the evolution of giving consumers what they want, when they want it, which includes allowing them to skip "what they don't want to see."
benton.org/node/127166 | Broadcasting&Cable
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HOUSE DEMS HEARING AGENDA
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Not surprisingly, the House Communications Subcommittee Democratic staffers have a slight different to-do list than their Republican counterparts. While over-the-top video, retransmission rules and Dish's Hopper ad-skipping DVR are on both lists of key topics that might come up in the June 27 future of video hearing in the subcommittee, Democrats have a couple more on their list. According to a copy of the Democrats' memo on the hearing, data caps are a key issue, as is the sale of spectrum from cable operators to Verizon.
benton.org/node/127197 | Broadcasting&Cable
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BROADBAND MOVES TO METERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
The broadband era began with the expectation that Internet connections were like buffets — all you can eat, 24 hours a day. But users are now being prodded to think about how much they’re consuming. Internet service providers are moving slowly but surely, toward tiers of pricing for higher speeds and bigger amounts of broadband at home, mimicking the wireless industry’s much-maligned pricing plans. The strategy, called usage-based billing, is advantageous for the companies that control the digital pipelines. But it may be detrimental for customers who are watching more and more video on the Web every month, as well as companies like Netflix that distribute it. Some fear that as customers become more aware of how much broadband they’re using each month, they’ll start to use less of it, and in that way, protect traditional forms of entertainment distribution and discourage new Internet services. Executives at cable and broadband providers dispute that by saying it is in their interest to make broadband a must-have product. “The exploding growth of online video usage undercuts any argument that cable is standing in the way of this business,” said Brian Dietz, a spokesman for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the industry’s trade group. But some government officials aren’t so sure. The Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers are conducting an investigation into the cable industry’s treatment of online video companies with an eye toward deterring anticompetitive behavior. Some analysts say the investigation could, perhaps counter-intuitively, accelerate the move to usage-based billing.
benton.org/node/127203 | New York Times
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CONTENT
AUTHORS SLAM E-BOOK SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Adam Mazmanian]
The Authors Guild is objecting to a proposed settlement between the Justice Department and three publishers over charges of price fixing in the electronic book trade, saying the deal gives Amazon the ability to "reshape the literary market" through excessive discounting. The Authors Guild complains of "Amazon's monopolistic reach" in the bookselling market, and charges that the online retailer is relying on a set of unfair tactics to ensure that publishers comply with Amazon's pricing policies.
benton.org/node/127191 | National Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
SHOULD GOOGLE AND AMAZON BE ALLOWED TO CONTROL DOMAINS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
Google wants the exclusive right to reserve domains such as .search and .blog for its own use, and Amazon wants to do the same with .music and .cloud. Some critics, including open-web advocate and blogging pioneer Dave Winer, think this is wrong and shouldn’t be allowed. Are they right? Even something as seemingly innocuous as .cloud could become contentious, especially since both Google and Amazon are vying for exclusive control of the domain — and Google is expected to announce at its upcoming I/O conference that it is launching an Amazon-style cloud service, which it will presumably want to distinguish from that of its competitor. Should ICANN be giving one company or the other the exclusive right to offer companies a .cloud address? And what about .news? Controlling that could theoretically allow Amazon to convey benefits on news entities that play by its rules. Whether ICANN accepts any of the applications from Google and Amazon remains to be seen — but if it does, there will be an even bigger spotlight on what those companies plan to do with them, and whether that is in the interests of the web as a whole.
benton.org/node/127161 | GigaOm
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JULY FIREWORKS: SENATE MAY TAKE UP CYBERSECURITY, BUT THEN WHAT?
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Jessica Herrera-Flanigan]
There is a lot of chatter on and around Capitol Hill about the possibility that the Senate will be taking up cybersecurity in July. It is unclear at this point which bill or issues will make it to the floor or even if any effort will garner enough support to pass, though more voices are calling for some sort of compromise. While those following cybersecurity legislation await some possible post-4th fireworks in the Senate on what was once a non-partisan issue, there is a larger question looming in the background: What's next? Even if cybersecurity legislation does get through the Senate, there is not a clear path forward for reconciling that bill (or bills) with any or all of the House cybersecurity measures passed earlier this year. Congress is only in session a short span in July, before lawmakers exit for August recess. September will be an even shorter work period before attention is turned to home districts and the upcoming elections. There is much talk of an end of the year marathon, but with the debt, sequestration, appropriations, tax cut extensions and other headline-grabbing topics front and center, will there be room for negotiated cybersecurity legislation? Could it be attached to another moving vehicle in hopes of passage? What would "it" be anyway?
benton.org/node/127157 | nextgov
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STATE DEPARTMENT: HUMAN RIGHTS EXIST IN DIGITAL REALM
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Ross Gianfortune]
With the Arab Spring's aftermath being felt around the world, the State Department is continuing to emphasize the importance of Internet freedom, both home and abroad. Building off Secretary Hillary Clinton's ongoing speeches of the last two years, Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe -- currently serving as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council -- writes that "human rights and fundamental freedoms are not eroded simply because they are being exercised in the digital realm." To help foster this, Donahoe writes, State and the U.S. Mission in Geneva are combining forces to promote the Internet Freedom Fellows program. Donahoe describes it as an effort to promote human rights via the Internet in the developing world.
benton.org/node/127156 | nextgov
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PRIVACY
VISIBILITY VS PRIVACY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
When I called Facebook to ask why the company had changed the settings for the display of people’s e-mail addresses without their permission, potentially violating users’ privacy, I was told that the swap was not a “privacy” change, but rather a “visibility setting” change. I offered a genuinely confused response to Jaime Schopflin, a Facebook spokeswoman I spoke with. “Um, isn’t changing the visibility of something actually changing the privacy setting?” I asked. “No,” Ms. Schopflin said, explaining that they are two different things. To Facebook, the words privacy and visibility may be as different as peas and carrots. But Facebook users and one linguistic expert I talked to seem to disagree. Jesse Sheidlower, the editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, said Facebook’s effort to draw such a distinction was “worse than playing semantics.”
benton.org/node/127202 | New York Times
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TRACKING IS PERVASIVE
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: James Temple]
University of California at Berkeley researchers will unveil a first-of-its-kind tool for measuring online tracking of consumers over time. The team has established the Web Privacy Census, a process for surveying top websites each quarter to evaluate the amount and kind of monitoring under way. The goal is to create benchmarks to accurately evaluate the shifting methods of Internet marketers, ideally enabling a better informed debate over privacy policy. The census primarily serves as a baseline for comparison with future surveys. But even on its own, the report highlights the almost dizzying amount of online tracking that occurs. Here's what that means: If you visit a single popular site, companies you've never interacted with, whose names you don't know, are putting dozens of pieces of software onto your computer. If that strikes you as invasive and presumptuous, that's only because it is.
benton.org/node/127172 | San Francisco Chronicle
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CALIFORNIA PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michelle Maltais]
California has inched forward in its efforts to protect your passwords for Facebook and other social networking sites from prying colleges and companies. One of a pair of bills making their way through committees in the state Legislature was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 1349 seeks to prohibit the practice at public and private California colleges and universities. It reads: "A public or private postsecondary educational institution shall not require, or formally request in writing, a student or prospective student to disclose the user name or account password for a personal social media account or to otherwise provide the institution with access to any content of that account." The bill, which has already been approved by the full Senate, moves on to the Assembly Higher Education Committee next week for consideration.
benton.org/node/127189 | Los Angeles Times
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KIDS AND MEDIA
GADGETS, PARENTS AND KIDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Somini Sengupta]
Two sharply different studies released this week offered glimpses into teenagers’ attitudes about their lives online. McAfee, the security company, said the teenagers that it spoke to were leery of too much parental vigilance. Two out of three teens said their parents did not need to know everything about their online travels, and half said they would amend their behavior online if they knew their parents were watching. In the other study, Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps parents navigate new technologies aimed at children, concluded that texting, tweeting and checking a social network had become part of an American teenager’s daily rhythm, and on balance, represented a good influence in their lives. Half of the teenagers in the study said social networking had mainly helped their friendships, while only 4 percent said it had mainly hurt their friendships, and more than one in four said that social networking made them feel more outgoing. At the same time, their frustrations with digital distractions are a lot like those of some adults. Nearly half of those in the study said they wished they could “unplug” sometimes. More telling, one in five wished their parents could too.
benton.org/node/127179 | New York Times
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TWEENAGE WASTELAND
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Tim Peterson]
OMG, tweens are such a headache. That’s not news to parents who regularly grapple with their own prepubescents, but Mark Zuckerberg may be about to find out too. Right now, Facebook is limited to users 13 and older, but as The Wall Street Journal first reported, tweens are very much on the social network’s radar. But experts on the demographic wonder whether the potential headaches, outside criticism, not to mention the limited revenue potential, make tweens worth it for Facebook and other social nets. “There are a multitude of concerns if not done right,” said Jim Steyer, CEO/founder of the nonprofit Common Sense Media. Not only could social networking negatively affect cognitive development, Steyer argued, but also a kid’s safety cannot be guaranteed no matter what the company’s technical prowess or monitoring assurances, he contends.
benton.org/node/127192 | AdWeek
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OWNERSHIP
LIFT CROSSOWNERSHIP BAN
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: John Sanders]
[Commentary] Since 1975, the Federal Communications Commission’s restriction on owning a television station and a newspaper in the same market has generated considerable debate in Washington — ranging from a slow simmer to white hot depending upon the state of the economy; the pace of the merger and acquisition market; and the growing number of media outlets. Last November, the FCC proposed relaxing the crossownership regulations in the 20 largest markets, feeding fresh fuel to the controversy. One side of the debate, espoused most vocally by a number of public interest groups and former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, states that newspaper-television crossownership threatens the diversity of voices and reduces journalistic quality. They further argue that such crossownership may diminish localism, result in layoffs of news staff and simply pump up the profit margins of media conglomerates. There is a concern, this argument goes, that relaxation of the crossownership rule will simply ignite another wave of media consolidation to the detriment of local consumers. The opposing view, articulated by industry participants like Tribune (which is periodically required to petition for a waiver in its crossownership markets) and several trade associations, is that in a world with hundreds of cable channels, Internet sites, blogs and satellite services that did not exist in 1975, the threat to diversity posed by newspaper-television crossownership — if it ever existed at all — has completely evaporated. They point to studies demonstrating that co-owned print and television outlets in the same market often take opposing views regarding community issues, and that combining resources greatly enhances the ability to produce quality, in-depth investigative reporting. One way of evaluating this debate is to look at how the permitted crossownership situations have fared over the years. The first point of view is seriously undermined because a large proportion of the legacy newspaper-television crossownership operations have not survived. The destruction of almost one-third of the legacy crossownerships leads to some interesting conclusions:
Ownership of both a newspaper and a television station in the same market is no guarantee of financial survival, much less extraordinary profits or market power.
The “iron fist of the marketplace,” by incentivizing operators to either divest holdings or terminate them, appears to be much more effective at ordering the competitive landscape than regulations do.
That the regulations even exist is somewhat mystifying — restrictive regulations typically exist to control economic arrangements that are growing to create unfair market power, not those which seem to be in a process of self-destruction.
benton.org/node/127222 | TVNewsCheck
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WHO OWNS THE NEWS MEDIA DATABASE -- A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR:]
In the last 18 months many newspaper companies divested most or all of their holdings while a number of new entities, including hedge funds and private equity firms, jumped in. According to the investment banking firm of Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, which monitors newspaper transactions, a total of 71 daily newspapers were sold as part of 11 different transactions during 2011, the busiest year for sales since 2007. And newspapers were not the only media to undergo major changes. The last 18 months also saw local television sales reach new heights, the merging of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal, the Huffington Post's movement into web TV and further reach among U.S. broadcast companies into the Hispanic market. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism has compiled a new interactive database to help users make sense of the changes at the highest levels. Who Owns the News Media provides detailed statistics on the companies that now own our nation's news media outlets, from newspapers to local television news stations to radio to digital, and this accompanying summary highlights the major changes of the year.
benton.org/node/127154 | Project for Excellence in Journalism
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HAS FACEBOOK RUINED SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
As giants like Google and Apple and Amazon and Facebook battle for supremacy, venture-capital veteran Bill Davidow says, their main weapon is the ability to lock web users into their ecosystems and then exploit the data provided by consumers, along with the other elements of this unbalanced relationship. He doesn’t mention it, but a great example of what I think Davidow means is the way that Facebook routinely seems to change the terms of its offerings primarily for its own benefit — including the way it recently made facebook.com email addresses the default for all users without telling anyone. Would older Silicon Valley companies have treated their customers this way? It’s hard to imagine how — but then, their businesses were very different, in a time before social media took over the world. Davidow argues that this kind of behavior is almost required in today’s environment, since everyone is after the same goal: accumulating as large a user base as possible, so that it can be monetized in some way. If Google can’t generate what it needs with Google+, then Facebook wins — and if Facebook can’t make inroads into mobile, then Apple wins. The fundamental shift behind what Davidow is describing is that consumers are not really Facebook’s customers — as more than one person has pointed out, they are actually the product that is being sold.
benton.org/node/127159 | GigaOm
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GALAXY TAB INJUNCTION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ian Sherr, Jung-Ah Lee]
Samsung Electronics was dealt a blow when a California judge issued an injunction banning sales of the company's Galaxy Tab 10.1 touchscreen tablet at the request of Apple. The preliminary injunction, which bars Samsung from making or selling the tablet, or any similar device, in the U.S., is the latest twist in the ongoing legal battle between Apple and the Korean technology giant. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh wrote that Apple had made a strong case that Samsung had violated its design patent, which describes the front, back and sides of a device that looks similar to the iPad. The injunction is the first Apple has been granted against Samsung in the U.S. A trial is expected on July 30. Analysts said the ruling was unlikely to have an impact on the roughly 30 legal cases between the companies over design and technology patents in 10 different countries and won't significantly dent Samsung's earnings.
benton.org/node/127214 | Wall Street Journal | Financial Times
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EU UPHOLDS MICROSOFT FINE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Alex Barker]
Microsoft suffered another defeat at the hands of the European Commission, after failing to overturn a hefty fine in a court battle that is likely to draw the curtain on an antitrust feud lasting more than a decade. While the EU’s second-highest court shaved 4 percent from Microsoft’s €899m fine to €860, it threw out the US technology group’s main arguments to annul the first Brussels penalty levied on a company for non-compliance. The decision is an important victory for Europe’s highest competition authority and bolsters its powers to impose painful financial penalties on companies that refuse to implement its antitrust decisions.
One of the biggest ever EU fines was levied on Microsoft in 2008 after the software group failed to comply with a Brussels order to share data with rivals on reasonable terms. Microsoft offered the data but at a price the commission found excessive.
benton.org/node/127213 | Financial Times
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COMPANY NEWS
FACEBOOK PULLS FIND FRIENDS NEARBY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Salvador Rodriguez]
It was kind of creepy, but it also had potential to be useful. But in the end it didn't matter because Facebook has pulled Find Friends Nearby as unceremoniously as it debuted it. After the feature was introduced to the world Sunday by one of the Facebook engineers who created it, Facebook pulled the feature not long after, taking it offline the very next day. Find Friends Nearby was definitely not a polished final product, but the feature certainly seemed like it could have been useful. Essentially, it was meant to help you connect with new-found friends offline by having both people access it at the same time. Opening the tool from your phone's browser or Facebook app would show other users on the page within your proximity using your phones' GPS. That could've sped up the process of how new friends locate your profile to add you, which can be a huge obstacle for people trying to find users with common names, such as mine. But the feature, which was originally called "Friendshake," could have posed privacy problems for Facebook. Immediately, the possibility of members using the feature inappropriately came to the surface, with some expressing concerns that people could use the feature to locate information on others near them.
benton.org/node/127174 | Los Angeles Times
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