July 11, 2012 (FCC Oversight Hearing)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012

Unlicensed Spectrum, Patents, and File Sharing on today’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2012-07-11/

NEWS FROM THE HILL
   Recap: House FCC Oversight Hearing
   Congress to discuss sales bans if key patents infringed
    See also: The 'broken patent system': how we got here and how to fix it - analysis [links to web]
   Senators Hoping to Add Net Sales Tax Measure to Small Business Bill
   Senators aim to win over industry with new cybersecurity compromise
   House panel approves crackdown on child pornography [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Federal Spectrum Working Group Seeks Update on Government Spectrum Use
   Regulatory Quest for Spectrum Sharing Solution Underway
   The Power of the Unlicensed Economy - op-ed
   Mobile tech’s future isn’t in the phone, it’s in your car [links to web]
   More Consumers Making Mobile Payments [links to web]
   Sprint on Galaxy Nexus Ban: Carriers Suffer Collateral Damage
   Amazon, With Suppliers, Is Testing a Smartphone [links to web]
   We already use Wi-Fi more than cellular; Why not continue the trend?
   Cable Ops, Verizon: T-Mobile Swap Makes SpectrumCo Deal Even More Consumer-Friendly

BROADBAND
   South Carolina passes bill against municipal broadband
   Study: Telcos face dilemma on when to cut over from DSL to FTTH [links to web]
   Broadband speeds outpacing demand
   Columbia, University of Missouri exit Gig.U broadband group
   Amazon finds upside to sales tax payment

OWNERSHIP
   EMG sues Google for infringing mobile device technology [links to web]
   Sprint on Galaxy Nexus Ban: Carriers Suffer Collateral Damage
   The 'broken patent system': how we got here and how to fix it - analysis [links to web]
   Is Google a Monopoly? Wrong Question - op-ed
   A Fight in Silicon Valley: Founders Push for Control
   Comcast sells A&E stake to Disney, Hearst for $3B [links to web]

CONTENT
   House panel approves crackdown on child pornography [links to web]
   Secret Bill Pushes Part of SOPA and Wastes Your Money - analysis
   Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales on Internet laws, the threat of Apple [links to web]
   NBC and Facebook to Announce Olympics Partnership [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   NAB Seeks Emergency Stay of Online Political File Rules
   PIPAC: NAB Online Political File Stay Should Be Denied
   Romney: 'I'm fighting uphill battle' in media
   Political Text Message Donation Mess is Wholly Preventable - analysis
   Campaign ads -- an American art form - analysis [links to web]

TELEVISION
   Judge Sends Dish Ad-Skipping Dispute to California, Where Broadcasters Want It [links to web]
   Univision Tops the English-Language Broadcasters in the Demo [links to web]
   NBC and Facebook to Announce Olympics Partnership [links to web]
   TV networks vs. the Dish's commercial Hopper - editorial

PRIVACY
Obama executive order on emergency communications riles privacy group

JOURNALISM
Americans' Confidence in Television News Drops to New Low - research

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Bill to Restrict Web Content Is Assailed in Russia
   Fujitsu withdraws from broadband bidding
   What to Do About Huawei? - editorial

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NEWS FROM THE HILL

FCC OVERSIGHT HEARING
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing on July 10. The FCC’s five commissioner testified. There was a lot of attention on regulatory reform. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski got praise from both Republicans and Democrats for his efforts so far, but Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), a former broadcaster, called them the "minimum" and suggested much more needs to be done and others suggested the FCC had not been sufficiently aggressive in taking a weed whacker to the regulatory underbrush. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said the FCC should consider changing its approach to rule reviews by sunsetting regulations unless it can be affirmatively shown they are still in the public interest.
Republican lawmakers accused FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski of hypocrisy for opposing international efforts to regulate the Internet but leaving his own agency the power to do so. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) pressed Genachowski on whether he will close the commission's docket to re-classify the Internet as a "telecommunications service" under Title II of the Communications Act. The FCC's docket on whether to re-classify the Internet has been open since 2009, but the agency has not taken any action. Chairman Genachowski said the commission is still accepting public comments and that it would be "unusual" to close the proceeding. Rep Shimkus said closing the Title II docket would provide certainty to businesses and Internet users. But classifying the Internet under Title II would put the FCC's network neutrality regulations on firmer legal ground. Chairman Genachowski disagreed with the Republicans that classifying the Internet under Title II would lead to government control of the Internet. "I believe very strongly in Internet freedom ... no gatekeepers of the Internet, public or private," Genachowski said. The two other Democratic FCC commissioners sided with Genachowski, saying that net neutrality protects consumer choice. But the two Republican commissioners said the commission should close its Title II docket.
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) asked about the FCC’s pending incentive auctions of spectrum currently used by television broadcasters. Chairman Genachowski said that the FCC would make public all "actually helpful and relevant" information "that it can" about the commission's framework and technical parameters for TV station repacking. Chairman Walden urged the FCC to be as transparent as possible and said the committee was keenly interested in the allotment optimization model (AOM) the commission would use to repack TV stations following its reclamation of spectrum for wireless broadband, information he called critical.
Another issue that drew attention from the legislators was the FCC's proposed changes to the special access market in which incumbent telecom providers have to make their business service networks available to competitors. Under the Clinton administration, the price of those services was deregulated in areas where competition could be demonstrated, similar to the FCC's deregulation of basic cable rates in markets where there was demonstrable competition. Chairman Genachowski has proposed to freeze petitions for special access deregulation while the commission decides how to revamp the regulations for the digital age, saying the current deregulatory regime is malfunctioning. Republican legislators expressed their concern with that freeze on deregulatory petitions, while Democrats tended to agree that the freeze was OK and the Clinton-era deregulation was ripe for review.
Among the questions posed to the commissioners, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) asked whether they would support a privacy bill of rights for Internet users 15 and under. All the commissioners responded that they would support such a measure.
The commissioners took a beating from a number of lawmakers about its own poor communications. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle took aim at the FCC’s website, which was redesigned a year ago. Chairman Walden opened up the door when he asked the FCC to point out where on its website TV stations could find information about the new rule to put political files online in 22 days. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) did a search on the FCC site for another issue but didn't find what he was looking for. It isn’t only the GOP having trouble with FCC communications. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told the FCC commissioners that the agency needs to do a better job with its many reports. “I don’t know who reads them or who understands them,” Rep Eshoo said.
benton.org/node/128949 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | The Hill | B&C –spectrum auction | Washington Post | AdWeek | B&C - Hearst/TWC | Chairman Genachowski | Commissioner McDowell | Commissioner Clyburn | Commissioner Rosenworcel | Commissioner Pai
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PATENT DEBATE TO CONGRESS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
Congress is considering whether companies that hold patents essential to a standard, such as a digital movie format, should be forbidden from asking that infringing products be banned from the U.S. market. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing to discuss the antitrust impact of sales bans if the manufacturer infringes on a standard essential patent. The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are weighing, which is unusual in a patent infringement battle. Companies that hold patents essential to building devices to comply with these standards are expected to license them on fair terms to everyone, even competitors. The expectation is they will make less on each license, but will license the technology so broadly that the patent will still be extremely lucrative. But in an all-out patent war between smartphone makers, Motorola Mobility, recently acquired by Google, has raised hackles by asking for sales bans on products that infringe essential patents.
benton.org/node/128945 | Reuters
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ONLINE SALES TAX BILL
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
The authors of Senate legislation that would allow states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes from out-of-state customers are hoping to attach their measure to a small business tax credit bill that the Senate is debating this week. Sens. Mike Enzi (R-WY) Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others filed a proposed amendment to the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act that includes a modified version of their Marketplace Fairness Act. The Enzi-Durbin bill seeks to close a loophole stemming from a 1992 Supreme Court decision that essentially allows online retailers to avoid collecting sales taxes from customers who live in states where those businesses have no store or other facility.
benton.org/node/128944 | National Journal | The Hill
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CYBERSECURITY COMPROMISE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Two senators seeking to build support for a compromise cybersecurity proposal have dropped a key provision requiring third-party audits for companies operating critical infrastructure. The move by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is intended to win industry support and break a stalemate over cybersecurity legislation in the Senate. Aides for the two lawmakers have been working to find a middle ground on establishing security standards for owners and operators of critical infrastructure, such as water systems, power plants and telecommunications networks. The latest version leaves out the so-called “national security need” section included in a draft proposal circulated last month, according to two people familiar with the updated framework. That section would have authorized the Defense Department (DOD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to require operators of infrastructure that would "cause a severe degradation of national security" if disabled to submit third-party audits on the security of their systems and networks.
benton.org/node/128942 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SEEKING UPDATE ON GOVERNMENT SPECTRUM USE
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Commerce Committee’s Federal Spectrum Working Group sent a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to examine government spectrum use. The group requests:
The number of spectrum authorizations each Federal user held in 2011, including the activities, capabilities, functions, or missions supported by the authorizations and whether they are space-based, air-spaced, or ground-based, broken down in frequency ranges from 300 MHz to 3 GHz, 1755 MHz to 1850 MHz, and 1755 MHz to 1780 MHz.
The amount of spectrum assigned to each Federal user, broken down in frequency ranges from 300 MHz to 3 GHz, 1755 MHz to 1850 MHz, and 1755 MHz to 1780 MHz – including a detailed explanation of temporal and shared nature of some government spectrum use.
benton.org/node/128932 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
According to a report from the Telecommunications Law Research Center, the government is considering spectrum sharing on a geographic basis or on a temporal basis. The report cites unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter” who said that in some instances, government spectrum may be in use for only several minutes of each day. If that’s true, temporal spectrum sharing might seem to have strong appeal. But unless the times of day that the government needs to use spectrum are during times when cellular traffic is lowest, that idea may have little appeal for network operators. The Telecommunications Law Research Center report did not speculate about the geographic areas where the government would need to continue to use its spectrum. But if the government’s usage pattern is anything like that of commercial users, it is likely concentrated in metro areas, which means that idea also may have little appeal to larger carriers – although it could appeal to more rural carriers. For now, though, I would expect network operators generally to be more supportive of technology-based spectrum sharing. The concern is how quickly the technology could be made ready. Several industry sources told the Telecommunications Law Research Center that they did not believe spectrum sharing technologies would be ready for deployment any time soon.
benton.org/node/128914 | telecompetitor
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THE UNLICENSED ECONOMY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Richard Thanki]
[Commentary] The power of the unlicensed economy derives ultimately from freedom: The freedom of innovators to bring their products to market and the freedom of businesses and individuals to build infrastructure to solve the issues they face, without requiring the permission of spectrum license-holders. By coordinating users through technical rules built into equipment, some of the unlicensed bands achieve unparalleled spectral efficiency, far in excess of any licensed bands. The FCC’s experiment appears to have succeeded; the tiny fraction of the spectrum devoted to unlicensed usage is already delivering substantial economic benefits. In fact, there are strong grounds to extend the unlicensed experiment into new bands, providing even greater scope for innovation, value creation and more efficient use of spectrum. [Thanki is currently completing a doctorate at the Institute of Complex Systems Simulation at the University of Southampton, and was formerly a senior associate economist at Ofcom]
benton.org/node/128938 | Wall Street Journal
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CARRIERS SUFFER COLLATERAL DAMAGE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Paczkowski]
Samsung has managed to rally another supporter for its motion to stay the Galaxy Nexus ban Apple won against it until a Federal Circuit court resolves the intellectual-property questions at issue in the case. On July 10, Sprint filed an amicus brief in support of Samsung, adding its voice to that of Google, which has dismissed the alleged infringement at issue in the case as a “trivial patented aspect of a single [smartphone] application.” Sprint’s argument: Injunctions against smartphones are generally a bad idea because they turn carriers into “unwitting victims” of litigation they’re not party to. “[An] immediate preliminary injunction against a device substantially and irreparably harms Sprint by leaving a void in its device portfolio,” the carrier said in its brief opposing the injunction.
benton.org/node/128968 | Wall Street Journal
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USING WI-FI NETWORKS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
We think of our mobile phones as connecting to mobile networks, but that’s really not the case. When it comes to mobile data, our smartphones are far more reliant on Wi-Fi. Given that’s the case, why are carriers so single-mindedly focused on acquiring new licensed spectrum and building expensive new 3G and 4G networks, when they could implement more Wi-Fi and tap into other sources of unlicensed spectrum? That’s the question a new study is asking. In a recently released report on unlicensed spectrum, wireless consultant and former Ofcom economist Richard Thanki argues that the wireless industry and its regulators have their priorities all wrong. If the idea is to build ubiquitous networks offering plentiful and cheap data, then carriers and governments should pursue the cheapest and most efficient technologies, which in most cases isn’t cellular infrastructure. That report will be one of the key topics of Center for Internet and Society conference held at Stanford University.
benton.org/node/128959 | GigaOm
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VERIZON-SPECTRUMCO MADE MORE CONSUMER FRIENDLY BY VERIZON/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Cable operators and Verizon argued that the impact of the proposed Verizon–T-Mobile spectrum swap on the proposed Verizon–SpectrumCo deal will be to make it even more consumer-friendly and give the government even less reason to take issue with it. Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox Wireless said that the T-Mobile swap can only enhance the public interest benefits and will "underscore the effectiveness of the [Federal Communications] Commission's secondary markets policies," while mitigating concerns the SpectrumCo deal would be putting too much spectrum in one company's hands. And in case there were any doubt that Verizon's T-Mobile deal was partly a way to boost its chances of snagging cable spectrum, the parties laid it on the table. "[T]he T-Mobile transaction further undermines spectrum aggregation claims made by some parties in the SpectrumCo–Cox proceeding." But they also argue that there is public interest benefit to the deal regardless of the separate Verizon–T-Mobile deal.
benton.org/node/128962 | Broadcasting&Cable
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BROADBAND

SC MUNICIPAL BROADBAND BILL
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
South Carolina has become the latest state to pass a state-level bill that effectively makes it difficult, if not impossible, for municipalities to create their own publicly owned Internet service provider that could compete with private corporations. The bill passed the South Carolina General Assembly and Senate on June 27 and awaits the signature of the state’s governor. "It’s not an absolute ban, but it makes it pretty tough," said Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press. Oddly, the bill also defines broadband as being "not less than one hundred ninety kilobits per second," which is pretty laughable by any measure. Municipal broadband watchers like Phillip Dampier also say that the bill’s passage shows the effective lobbying of AT&T, the state’s largest telco, who has contributed thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. [June 29]
benton.org/node/128927 | Ars Technica
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BROADBAND SPEEDS
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Hiawatha Bray]
FiOS Quantum, the ultra-swift broadband service that Verizon launched in June, offers Internet download speeds of up to 300 million bits per second for a price of up to $209.99 a month. The company says that’s fast enough to download a high-definition Hollywood movie in about two minutes. “That’s like driving a Porsche or a Ferrari,” said Roger Entner, an Internet analyst for Recon Analytics LLC in Dedham. “You know it can go really fast. But does it really make a difference in the real world? No.” The problem is that most of the Internet isn’t transmitting data fast enough to take advantage of such rapid broadband speeds, Entner said. If a server computer transmits an Internet video at, say, 20 million bits per second, having a 300-million-bits-a-second connection won’t make any difference. “The website you are connecting to is the bottleneck,” he said.
benton.org/node/128911 | Boston Globe
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GIG.U UPDATE
[SOURCE: Columbia Daily Tribune, AUTHOR: Jacob Baker]
About a year after announcing they intended to join a national effort to induce providers to build ultra-high-speed broadband networks in research university communities, Columbia and the University of Missouri have dropped out of the consortium. Last July, the city and MU announced to great fanfare that they, along with 37 research universities and their communities, were joining Gig.U, the University Community Next Generation Innovation Project. The city invested $6,000 in the first phase, and MU put up $9,000 to participate in a request for information, or RFI, from Internet service providers on what it would take to extend ultra-high-speed broadband into the community. Blair Levin, executive director of Gig.U, confirmed MU and Columbia had not signed up for the second phase. More than 80 percent of the original members opted to participate in the next phase. "We recognize that there is more than one path up the mountain, however, and we greatly respect Columbia's decision," Levin said.
benton.org/node/128909 | Columbia Daily Tribune
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UPSIDE TO SALES TAX PAYMENT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Barney Jopson]
Amazon seems to be bowing to lobbying – funded in part by bricks-and-mortar rivals via campaign groups – that has tarred it as a tax cheat. All else being equal, the addition of tax to its prices is likely to result in some lost sales. But its rivals’ fixation on price has diverted attention from how the company is turning the tables on them by getting closer to customers. Amid the tax furor, Amazon is seizing the opportunity to expand its network of US warehouses – it had 34 at the end of last year – so it can place its merchandise nearer to big markets and offer same-day delivery to more consumers. That will erode one of the last advantages of the physical store: instant gratification.
benton.org/node/128964 | Financial Times
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OWNERSHIP

IS GOOGLE A MONOPOLY?
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Google responded to European antitrust regulators investigating a long list of claims against the world’s largest search engine. Whether or not the complaints against Google are valid, they may be looking backward. Increasingly, Google is not a search engine. Yes, Google accounts for 80 percent of all Web searches in Europe. It is facing criticism (some of it prompted by Microsoft) for favoritism toward Google’s own specialty search products -- travel, finance, hotels, restaurants, maps -- that may put its competitors at a disadvantage. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has also been investigating Google for the past year. As pressure mounts on Google to change its practices, it’s not clear whether antitrust regulators are asking the right questions. Although European Commission authorities are focused on Google’s familiar Web pages of blue links, and the prominence of Google products on those pages, Google seems to be heading in a different direction. It wants to be whispering to individual users by way of its Google devices. Whether competition law has anything to say about this is an open question. Do we require Chevrolet to allow all car-radio manufacturers to install their devices in its vehicles? (No, we don’t.) What competition law has to say about the personalized, vertically integrated ecosystems now being built by Apple, Facebook and Google is far from clear. Consumers will have a choice of competing handsets, as they do now. But their subsequent options (what calendar, what map, what apps) may be sharply limited. Signing up with a particular brand of personal assistant will lead to a cascade of path-dependent filters, as software learns more about its users and serves them more directly.
benton.org/node/128934 | Bloomberg
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FOUNDERS PUSH FOR CONTROL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joann Lublin, Spencer Ante]
There's a power struggle underway in Silicon Valley. At stake: Power itself. Over the past two years, one of the most influential venture-capital firms has turned the usual rules of start-up investing on its head. Andreessen Horowitz is telling entrepreneurs it prefers situations where the founders have controlling stakes, reckoning that they'll be better able to resist outside distraction and focus on making great products. But Andreessen's approach is also exposing a rift in Silicon Valley, where a group of young and relatively untested entrepreneurs have maintained control over their rapidly growing companies. For now, venture investors are relatively content with the arrangement, as they've made immense sums along the way. The growing worry is that the setup leaves investors little recourse if a highly empowered CEO goes off track.
benton.org/node/128971 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT

NEW SOPA-LIKE BILL
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Michael Weinberg]
[Commentary] A mere 5 months after SOPA and PIPA met their very public demise, a new intellectual property enforcement bill is on the fast track through the House Judiciary Committee. The bill, which was largely secret until a day before it was scheduled to be marked up, is an attempt to revive an idea that was killed as part of SOPA earlier this year. In addition to being a surprising attempt to develop intellectual property (IP) legislation in secret again, it highlights a phenomenal waste of taxpayer resources. After all, what is going to improve our copyright system more: international IP attaches or being able to look up who actually owns a copyright? The bill itself establishes an “intellectual property attaché program.” Among other things, the program creates a new Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and seeds intellectual property attaches in U.S. embassies across the world. The people in this program will basically be tasked with patrolling intellectual property rights for private US rightsholders.
benton.org/node/128916 | Public Knowledge
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

NAB SEEKS RULES STAY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters Tuesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to block the Federal Communications Commission's implementation of its online political file rules, the latest in a series of broadcaster moves to try and stop the FCC from posting individual TV station political spot prices online when cable and satellite competitors have no similar online reporting requirement. Scheduled to take effect Aug. 2, the rules require the top four network affiliated stations in the top 50 markets to start sending any information they must keep in their station paper political files, including spot prices, to the FCC for posting in a national, online database. The FCC will do a year-in check of the process then plans to apply the requirement to all TV stations a year after that. In its petition, NAB, which has already asked the same court to overturn the rules and the FCC to stay enforcement of them, said the emergency stay was warranted because it is likely to win its court challenge on the merits and that it is likely to suffer competitive harms if there is no stay -- essentially the same arguments it made to the FCC in calling for it to postpone enforcement until the court weighs in.
benton.org/node/128947 | Multichannel News
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DENY ONLINE POLITICAL FILE STAY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition (PIPAC) has filed a petition with the DC Federal appeals court opposing the National Association of Broadcasters motion, filed only hours before, for an emergency stay of the FCC's online political file rules, scheduled to go into effect Aug. 2. PIPAC -- comprising Free Press, the Benton Foundation and other online political file fans -- claims that NAB has not shown it is likely to prevail on the merits of its court challenge to the rules or that its members would be harmed if it goes into effect, both standards that must be met if a stay is to be granted. PIPAC adds that the stay would substantially harm other interested parties, its members, who it says would have to devote more time and resources to gather the info from stations -- political spot prices and who is buying the ads -- from local TV station paper files. Lastly, they argue that the stay would not be in the public interest.
benton.org/node/128961 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ROMNEY SAYS FIGHTING MEDIA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dylan Byers, Juana Summers]
At a campaign stop, Mitt Romney suggested he was a victim of media bias, even as he said that the growing number of media outlets made him optimistic about coverage of his campaign. "I'm hopeful, despite the fact that I realize now and then I'm fighting an uphill battle in some organs of the national media." he said at a town hall in Grand Junction (CO) in response to an audience member referred to the media as "the left wing of the Democratic party." "We're fortunate that the American people get their information from a larger and larger array of outlets -- so people get their news from cable, from talk shows, from the radio, from the Internet -- and so people find sources that they find to be the most reliable," Romney said. "And so we're able to communicate broadly to the American people, not just one or two networks or more but instead to a whole host of vehicles." A spokesperson with the Romney campaign declined to expand on those remarks, or specify the "organs" to which Romney was referring.
benton.org/node/128924 | Politico
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POLITICAL TEXT DONATIONS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Michael Weinberg]
[Commentary] For almost five years, we here at Public Knowledge have been asking the Federal Communications Commission to recognize that text messages exist. The FCC has steadfastly refused to do so. This has allowed to wireless carriers to write whatever rules they want for text messaging, keeping consumer prices high and limiting the kinds of services available via text. This lack of oversight manifests itself whenever a carrier shuts down a service just because they disagree with it, or in the fact that carriers keep 30 to 50 percent of every donation as a service fee (keep in mind that many Members of Congress recently called the 3% service fees that credit card companies charged businesses “out-of-control”). The state of text messaging is even stranger when you compare it to voice phone calls. If a presidential campaign wants to set up a bunch of phone numbers so that people can donate, they call up the phone company and get some phone numbers. In order to do the same thing with text messaging, the campaign has to submit a detailed proposal to all of the carriers, pay thousands in setup costs, and hope that each individual carrier decides to carry the campaign.
benton.org/node/128922 | Public Knowledge
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PRIVACY

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE ORDER
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Jaikumar Vijaya]
An executive order issued by the White House seeks to bolster the government's ability to keep its emergency communications capabilities intact during national emergencies. But the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) expressed concern that the order gives government unprecedented new authority to take over wired and wireless private communication networks in the pretext of national security. Amie Stepanovich, associate litigation council at EPIC, pointed to a one-sentence provision in the order [Sec. 5.2 (e)] that directs the secretary of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop measures for ensuring that commercial and privately-owned communications resources are available for government use when appropriate. The provision is troubling because it basically gives DHS new authority over private communication networks in emergency situations, she said. A takeover of private networks for government communications purposes during a crisis could degrade or severely compromise the civilian population's ability to communicate in an emergency, she maintained. "This specific authority is something that should have been granted through Congress," rather than through executive order, Stepanovic noted.
benton.org/node/128908 | ComputerWorld
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TELEVISION

NETWORKS VS HOPPER
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The problem for broadcasters is that Dish is just one example of how control is moving from content distributors to consumers. That technology-driven shift, which is making it harder to force people to consume something they don't want in order to get something they do, is what's really threatening commercial-supported TV. The networks may be able to persuade a court to stop Dish's new service, and failing that, they can charge Dish more for the right to retransmit their channels. But neither of those steps will stop people from seeking more control over the shows beamed into their homes, or technological innovators from trying to accommodate them.
benton.org/node/128966 | Los Angeles Times
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JOURNALISM

CONFIDENCE IN TV NEWS DROPS
[SOURCE: Gallup, AUTHOR: Lymari Morales]
Americans' confidence in television news is at a new low by one percentage point, with 21% of adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it. This marks a decline from 27% last year and from 46% when Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in 1993. Among 16 U.S. institutions tested, television news ranks 11th, following newspapers in 10th place. The 25% of adults who express a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers is down slightly from 28% last year. Confidence in newspapers is now half of what it was at its peak of 51% in 1979. This year's updates mark a setback from last year for both television news and newspapers, when Americans appeared to be regaining some confidence in these institutions, though they are more in line with 2007-2010 readings.
benton.org/node/128906 | Gallup
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

RUSSIA BILL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Herszenhorn]
Major Internet sites and human rights advocates sharply criticized a proposed law that would grant the Russian government broad new powers to restrict Web content, ostensibly to protect children from pornography and other harmful material. Critics said the law could quickly lead to repression of speech and a restrictive firewall like the one in China. The bill has been moving quickly through the Duma, the lower house of Parliament. An initial version was approved last week and a second version, including some amendments, is scheduled for debate in the chamber on July 11. The new measure is part of a wider effort by the Russian authorities to crack down on the opposition since President Vladimir V. Putin’s inauguration in May. With television networks in Russia — and most newspapers and other media outlets — under tight government control, the Internet has emerged as the primary medium for political discourse. Citizens using cellphone cameras documented fraud in last December’s parliamentary elections, then posted video to YouTube and other sites. Organizers of the huge anti-government protests that followed turned to Facebook and other social media to draw tens of thousands of demonstrators on to the streets of Moscow.
benton.org/node/128974 | New York Times
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FUJITSU WITHDRAWS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
Fujitsu has withdrawn from two further areas being tendered under the £530m rural broadband delivery program, which is likely to raise further questions about the competitiveness of a process designed to roll out superfast broadband to most of the UK. The Japanese company was one of only two picked to compete under the government framework to help allocate funds for remote broadband last week alongside BT. The process had attracted criticism from other potential infrastructure suppliers, most of which have pulled out. Fujitsu’s decision leaves BT as the only party that has so far won any regional tender since the Broadband Delivery UK process began, although the Japanese company remains committed to bidding in future. Decisions are being made at a local authority level, with many deciding to use a national framework designed to make bidding quicker. Fujitsu plans to withdraw from bidding for the Cumbrian region, while North Yorkshire is expected to choose BT as its preferred supplier, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, thus forcing Fujitsu to withdraw from that region too. BT is also the only group left bidding for areas that have not used the national framework, such as Wales and Highland & Islands, and has already been selected in Rutland and Lancashire.
benton.org/node/128958 | Financial Times
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HUAWEI
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins Jr]
[Commentary] Think of Huawei as a battlefield, not a weapon, and one on which the U.S. can advance its interests. Claude Barfield, the eminent trade economist at the American Enterprise Institute, has the right idea. In return for greater access to the U.S. market, Huawei should be expected to list its shares on a U.S. stock exchange, forcing the company into greater compliance with Western standards of transparency and accountability. Yes, some are weary of the effort, but coaxing China into greater interdependence with the capitalist world is still a sound, long-run policy of the U.S.
benton.org/node/128956 | Wall Street Journal
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