July 17, 2012 (Google revises concessions to EU)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

A busy day includes Online Public Inspection Files, Cybersecurity and the Smart Grid, Distance Learning, and lots on Social Media http://benton.org/calendar/2012-07-17/

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   700 MHz Spectrum License Questions Remain Unanswered
   Why a Mandate Won’t Solve the Real Challenges in the Lower 700 MHz Band - press release
   That’s No Phone. That’s My Tracker. - op-ed
   Cellphone carriers warn FCC not to regulate privacy protections
   Democrats press for hearing on police tracking of cellphones
   In mobile, it's now a three-way race
   Samsung widens lead over Apple, says survey [links to web]
   New Report Outlines the Promise and Challenges of Spectrum Sharing - research
   86% of U.S. Smartphone Users Would Prefer Fast Video [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Sen Lieberman: Senate to consider cybersecurity bill by 'end of next week'
   Calix: 60% of Rural Subscribers Receive 3 Mbps or Less
   Mapping the Internet
   Should cyber crime defense include some offense?

TELEVISION
   Comcast says government needs to stay out of programming business
   Analyst: Broadcast Took a Pounding in Q2 [links to web]
   Political ad money flows to local broadcast outlets

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Major label uses DMCA to take down Romney ad of Obama crooning
   Statement by the President on the DISCLOSE Act
   Political ad money flows to local broadcast outlets

ADVERTISING
   Consumer Awareness of Ad Biz's Privacy Self-Regulation Low, but Improving
   TiVo to Buy Company That Tracks Shopping of TV Viewers [links to web]
   Major label uses DMCA to take down Romney ad of Obama crooning
   Political ad money flows to local broadcast outlets

OWNERSHIP
   FCC Commissioners Call on Congress to Revive Minority Tax Certificate Policy
   Justice Department allows FBI anti-piracy seal on books, photos, doodles [links to web]
   TiVo to Buy Company That Tracks Shopping of TV Viewers [links to web]

CHILDREN AND MEDIA
The Secret Lives Of Teenagers Online: A Full Report From Business Insider - research [links to web]

EDUCATION
Universities Reshaping Education on the Web
Web-based education tries to get more social

JOBS
FCC Chairman and Labor Secretary Announce American Jobs Centers to Join National Digital Literacy Coalition - press release [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
Chairman Upton Releases 2nd Quarter Report on House Commerce Committee - press release [links to web]

LOBBYING
Tech lobbyists’ new mantra: strength through unity

COMPANY NEWS
Yahoo! Appoints Marissa Mayer Chief Executive Officer - press release
TiVo to Buy Company That Tracks Shopping of TV Viewers [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Google revises concessions to EU
   France: Google may have to censor for piracy after all
   New Zealand judge in Kim Dotcom case calls US "the enemy" on IP policy [links to web]
   Free access to British scientific research within two years [links to web]

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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

700 MHZ SPECTRUM LICENSE QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED
[SOURCE: Urgent Communications, AUTHOR: Donny Jackson]
Exactly how and when the license to public safety's 700 MHz broadband spectrum should be transferred from the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) to the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) remains undecided, according to PSST Chairman Harlin McEwen. The PSST has recommended to federal officials that the 700 MHz broadband spectrum license be transferred to FirstNet around the beginning of September, when almost all of the existing spectrum-lease agreements with the PSST are due to expire, McEwen said. To date, the PSST has not received any indication as to when or how the transfer would occur, he said. "They're not talking," McEwen said. Under a law passed in February, the FirstNet board — the entity that will oversee the buildout of a nationwide LTE network for public safety — is supposed to be appointed by Aug. 20. However, there is not a clear statutory deadline for transferring the license, although the law mandates that FirstNet hold the license eventually.
benton.org/node/129554 | Urgent Communications
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LOWER 700 MHZ BAND
[SOURCE: AT&T, AUTHOR: Joan Marsh]
AT&T will file reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission in a proceeding launched to explore interoperability challenges in the lower 700 MHz spectrum bands. Amid the noise of the opening round of comments, fundamental facts have emerged that underscore that the proposed elimination of Band 17 would be profoundly poor public policy.
First, the proposed interoperability mandate sought by some commentators would be pointless. The A Block licensees’ central claim is that they cannot obtain Band 12 devices without a mandate. This claim has now been soundly rebutted. Although the first A Block LTE service was only recently launched, A Block licensees already have access to Band 12 handset, tablet, and hotspot variants of devices first produced for other LTE bands, most significantly, Verizon’s Band 13 LTE devices that fall back to CDMA technologies.
Second, the comments confirm that an AT&T Band 12 device would be virtually worthless to any A block licensee requiring CDMA fall back. As one A Block licensee candidly noted, a Band 12 mandate “makes no difference to people like us. … If AT&T is forced to go from 17 to 12, they will still have GSM fallback, so that wouldn’t open up the availability of handsets to anybody.”
benton.org/node/129553 | AT&T
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MY TRACKER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Peter Maass, Megha Rajagopalan]
[Commentary] The device in your purse or jeans that you think is a cellphone — guess again. It is a tracking device that happens to make calls. Let’s stop calling them phones. They are trackers. Thanks to the explosion of GPS technology and smartphone apps, these devices are also taking note of what we buy, where and when we buy it, how much money we have in the bank, whom we text and e-mail, what Web sites we visit, how and where we travel, what time we go to sleep and wake up — and more. Much of that data is shared with companies that use it to offer us services they think we want. We have all heard about the wonders of frictionless sharing, whereby social networks automatically let our friends know what we are reading or listening to, but what we hear less about is frictionless surveillance. Though we invite some tracking — think of our mapping requests as we try to find a restaurant in a strange part of town — much of it is done without our awareness. We can love or hate these devices — or love and hate them — but it would make sense to call them what they are so we can fully understand what they do. [Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan are reporters on digital privacy for ProPublica]
benton.org/node/129582 | New York Times
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CELLPHONES AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Wireless carriers are urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not to impose aggressive new regulations aimed at protecting the privacy of cellphone users. In filings with the FCC, the companies argued that voluntary guidelines are preferable to mandatory rules for how they must handle their customers' personal information. CTIA, the wireless industry's trade group, warned the commission not to adopt new regulations aimed at restricting the use of network diagnostic tools like Carrier IQ. "Such rules are unnecessary and would actually harm consumers by hamstringing providers in their ability to improve service quality, especially in these times of wireless spectrum capacity constraints," the group wrote. CTIA argued that the FCC actually lacks the legal authority to regulate privacy issues that are not directly related to telecommunications networks. So the privacy of text messages, pictures and emails stored on mobile devices is outside the commission's authority, according to CTIA.
benton.org/node/129581 | Hill, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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CELLPHONE TRACKING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A group of House Democrats urged Republicans to hold a hearing on how police obtain people's personal cellphone data. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA), who all serve on the House Commerce Committee, urged the committee's GOP leaders to schedule a hearing to examine "whether consumer privacy is being adequately protected by law enforcement officials and wireless carriers." The Democrats noted that the carriers acknowledged that they often accept payments for processing the police requests. Verizon, for example, charged police $50 to retrieve five days of text messages and $1,825 for multiple wiretap switches. AT&T received more than $8.2 million in 2011 for complying with the requests. The wireless companies said that compensation is inconsistent and complying with requests often imposes costs on the companies. They insisted that they are not "selling" their customers' information to police. The Democrats said the information provided by the carriers "raises concerns about law enforcement’s use of cell phone tracking and what is being done to protect the privacy of consumers."
benton.org/node/129605 | Hill, The
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THREE-WAY MOBILE RACE
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Kevin Kelleher]
In a world increasingly going mobile, platform is destiny. The operating system will determine who rules -- or at least who has a seat at a lavish feast. Whether manufacturing phones or tablets, selling mobile ads or developing apps, the operating software running the show will determine how well it succeeds. Although there are several mobile platforms in the market or in development, only three really matter: Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Phone 8. Each company creating these platforms have taken to manufacturing devices -- Google and Microsoft recently, Apple years ago -- to strengthen their software, whether through patents or device design. And all three companies are reaching out to developers, who build the apps that in turn draw in consumers. Over the past several weeks, Apple, Google and Microsoft have held conferences for software developers, introducing new software, new devices and new strategies -- all aimed at building or maintaining each company's respective market share. Together, they show an industry where large, cash-rich companies are vying against each other and rapidly innovating. Here is a quick look what Apple, Google and Microsoft announced in smartphone and tablet innovation, and where their relative strengths and weaknesses are.
benton.org/node/129562 | Fortune
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SPECTRUM SHARING REPORT
[SOURCE: Mobile Future, AUTHOR: Peter Rysavy]
This report examines both the short-term potential from developing, testing, and implementing spectrum sharing technologies and the longer-term technical, policy, market, and operational issues concerning spectrum sharing. The report identifies three significant factors that are fuelling the concept of spectrum sharing including the immediate need to provide additional spectrum to wireless broadband providers struggling to meet exploding consumer demand; the underutilization of some spectrum assigned to U.S. government agencies; and the progress being made in dynamic spectrum access through geolocation databases and cognitive radio. While the report concludes spectrum sharing can and will eventually result in more efficient overall use of spectrum, the process of developing economically sound and technically viable spectrum sharing technologies in the longer-term will be both complicated and time-consuming. The report encourages government to maintain focus on all available solutions including in the short-term placing priority on the rapid clearing and reallocation of spectrum while concurrently working with industry to develop and deploy sharing protocols and technologies over the long term.
benton.org/node/129564 | Mobile Future
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CYBERSECURITY BILL DEBATE COMING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said the Senate is going to begin consideration of his cybersecurity bill "by the end of next week." Sen Lieberman said the bill will be similar to the version introduced in February but there "will be some changes" made to the information sharing and critical infrastructure sections. He is working with bill co-sponsors Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on a draft with those changes. Sen Lieberman said he's "inclined" to include some of the elements of a compromise framework that Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) have been working on for the critical infrastructure provisions in the bill, but no final decisions have been made. Sen Lieberman believes including some components from the Whitehouse and Kyl compromise framework will help his bill get the votes needed to reach the magic number of 60.
benton.org/node/129603 | Hill, The
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RURAL SUBSCRIBERS GET 3 MBPS OR LESS
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Bernie Arnason]
Broadband access supplier Calix released its latest U.S. Rural Broadband Report, the second in its ongoing series that reveals the broadband usage of rural consumers served by their broadband service provider customers. The report now summarizes data captured from 50 U.S. broadband carriers who primarily serve rural markets and is based on data received during the first quarter of 2012. The data examines the broadband habits of 100,000 “subscriber endpoints” across broadband networks served by ADSL2+, VDSL2, GPON, and point-to-point gigabit Ethernet access technologies. One of the more interesting findings of the report involves broadband speeds in rural America. According to the report,”… the most common peak downstream broadband rate consumed was between 1.5 to 3 Mbps …” A telling statistic in a time where many carriers are pushing 50+ Mbps offers, at least in their marketing campaigns. By Calix’s measure, 60% of rural broadband subscribers received a maximum downstream broadband speed of 3 Mbps or less. By comparison, Akamai conducts similar research to Calix, but on a broader national scale, and their latest report covering 4Q11 pegs the average U.S. broadband downstream speed at 5.8 Mbps. Calix reports that some rural communities do have access to speeds that peak at over 100 Mbps, with even a few reaching 1 Gbps.
benton.org/node/129568 | telecompetitor | Calix
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MAPPING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Andrew Blum]
The global economy has arranged itself around a short list of dominant cities, the endpoints for movement of all kinds: goods, people, money, and, increasingly, packets of digital information. These packets -- some trillion bytes a second -- travel primarily as light through fiber-optic cable. E-mails, images, streaming movies, and money: millions and millions every millisecond. We take it for granted that the Internet, as much as any city, has a physical reality. Tracing the movement of a packet of information throughout this geography of fiber-optic cables and data centers casts the global economy in a different light. In places, the packets piggyback on existing telecommunications systems, traveling through the same capitals of finance and trade that have long been at the center of things. Elsewhere, the Internet disrupts and reshapes the traditional endpoints of movement. By looking closely at our world's digital infrastructure, we can discern broader lessons about emerging economies. By understanding how information moves and how networks are constructed, we can see where the Internet is headed, and where the dominant cities of tomorrow might appear.
benton.org/node/129558 | Fortune
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CYBER CRIME DEFENSE
[SOURCE: CSO, AUTHOR: Taylor Armerding]
A growing number of U.S. companies have concluded that in their battle against hackers, the best defense has to include some offense. It is known in the industry as "active defense" or "strike-back" technology, and Reuters' Joseph Men says that can range from "modest steps to distract and delay a hacker to more controversial measures," like hiring a contractor to hack the hacker -- something that could violate the laws of the U.S. or other countries. Shawn Henry, former head of cybercrime investigations at the FBI who recently cofounded a new cyber security company CrowdStrike to help companies respond to, as well as defend against, hackers, told Menn: "Not only do we put out the fire, but we also look for the arsonist." This, say some experts, is a bad idea that amounts to vigilante justice, and will just lead to an escalating battle between hackers and companies that the hackers are sure to win.
benton.org/node/129556 | CSO
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TELEVISION

PROGRAM CARRIAGE REGULATION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
Comcast has a message for the government: Don't tell us which channels to carry. "The government does not -- and cannot -- tell the Washington Post what columns to carry, or what sections of the paper to put them in, or what days of the week to run them," wrote Kyle McSlarrow, president of Comcast/NBCUniversal Washington (DC) in a blog post. "It doesn't tell Amazon what books to sell, or to recommend to its customers," he added. " It doesn't dictate what films Netflix licenses, or features. It doesn't specify which TV shows should be available on Hulu and which should be on Hulu Plus." That being the case, McSlarrow said, why should regulators have any role "in determining which networks a cable operator carries, what tiers they should be placed on, what channel numbers they should be assigned, and how much cable operators (and their customers) should pay for those channels?" McSlarrow's blog post was aimed at the Federal Communications Commission, which is expected to rule soon on a dispute that the cable giant is having with the Tennis Channel.
benton.org/node/129607 | Los Angeles Times | Comcast
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

DMCA AD TAKE DOWN
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
A YouTube video produced by the Romney for President campaign got hit by a takedown request, highlighting the challenges that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can pose for free speech. For days, President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney have been trading barbs over Romney's role in layoffs initiated by Bain Capital a decade ago. Obama's latest salvo, released over the weekend, was an ad featuring Mitt Romney singing "America the Beautiful" over images of shuttered American factories. The Romney campaign responded in kind, posting an ad that shows Pres. Obama singing Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" juxtaposed with "headlines about Obama rewarding lobbyists and campaign donors." But as the Huffintgon Post notes, if you try to watch the Romney campaign's ad, you'll be greeted with a message that says "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BMG_Rights_Management."
benton.org/node/129599 | Ars Technica
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DISCLOSE ACT
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: President Barack Obama]
Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that big corporations are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence American elections. They can buy millions of dollars’ worth of TV ads with no obligation to reveal who’s actually paying for them. The consequences of this decision are predictable. If we allow this practice to continue, special interests will have unprecedented influence over politicians. It’s wrong. It’s corrosive to our democracy, and it’s a threat to our future. Today, Republicans in the Senate had the chance to change it. They had the opportunity to support a bill that would prevent the worst effects of the Citizens United decision and require groups or special interests who are trying to influence elections to reveal their donors so the public will know who’s funding their political ads. This bill should have received broad, bipartisan support. Unfortunately, Republicans chose to block it. Instead of standing up for the American people, Republicans stood with big banks and oil companies – special interests that certainly don’t need more clout in Washington. I will continue to do everything I can to repair the deficit of trust between Washington and the American people. I’m disappointed Republicans in Congress failed to take action and hold corporations and special interests accountable to the American people.
benton.org/node/129597 | White House, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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TOLEDO POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: Toledo Blade, AUTHOR: Tom Troy]
Regular and even occasional television viewers hardly need to be told this, but we'll say it anyway: You're being inundated with political advertising. Political money is flooding into Toledo as never before, say television ad managers, and the cash flow is aimed especially at Ohio's presidential and Senate races. As of July 13, Toledo-area TV and radio stations had booked more than $7.8 million in advertising this year -- and local channels have not yet heard from presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. The biggest spender so far is President Barack Obama, with $2.1 million in air time reserved or already spent on Toledo television. And although Romney hasn't purchased a minute on Toledo TV or radio, his surrogates have been spending as never before: The second-biggest spender in the Toledo area is Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove, which has purchased $1.3 million worth of time in Toledo. The ads are split between attacking President Obama and attacking U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
benton.org/node/129596 | Toledo Blade
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ADVERTISING

AD INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
The interactive advertising business has done a pretty good job of convincing regulators to give its self-regulation program for online behavioral advertising a chance to the point where the Federal Trade Commission publicly supported the program when it issued its privacy report in March. But it needs to do a better job when it comes to consumers. A new study from Truste, a company that provides privacy tools for companies to comply with the industry's ad choices program, found that public awareness for the icon remains low at 14 percent. Still, the figure represents an improvement over last year's dismal 5 percent, before the industry began rolling out an education campaign and website designed by McCann Erickson.
benton.org/node/129579 | AdWeek | GigaOm
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OWNERSHIP

MINORITY TAX CERTIFICATE POLICY
[SOURCE: Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, AUTHOR: Tiffany Bain]
Toward the end of a House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology oversight hearing on July 10, Federal Communications Commissioners told Congress to revive the law that broke down a major barrier to entry for potential minority and women media owners. During the 2½ – hour meeting, veteran Commissioner Robert McDowell and newly appointed Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel clearly advocated for the reenactment of the FCC’s Minority Tax Certificate Program. “This has been a very important issue of mine,” Commissioner McDowell told the committee. “Congress could be helpful by reinstating the version of the tax certificate law that was in place for many, many years.” Commissioner Rosenworcel agreed with Commissioner McDowell and said that the program “was one of the most effective means of promoting diversity of ownership.”
benton.org/node/129565 | Minority Media and Telecommunications Council
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EDUCATION

COURSERA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tamar Lewin]
As part of a seismic shift in online learning that is reshaping higher education, Coursera, a year-old company founded by two Stanford University computer scientists, will announce on July 17 that a dozen major research universities are joining the venture. In the fall, Coursera will offer 100 or more free massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally. Even before the expansion, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, the founders of Coursera, said it had registered 680,000 students in 43 courses with its original partners, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Now, the partners will include the California Institute of Technology; Duke University; the Georgia Institute of Technology; Johns Hopkins University; Rice University; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the University of Washington; and the University of Virginia, where the debate over online education was cited in last’s month’s ousting — quickly overturned — of its president, Teresa A. Sullivan. Foreign partners include the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, the University of Toronto and EPF Lausanne, a technical university in Switzerland. And some of them will offer credit.
benton.org/node/129612 | New York Times
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LORE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR:]
Three University of Pennsylvania dropouts are getting venture capital and the backing of Ivy League universities in their quest to get college students to use Lore.com, an interactive Web-based tool designed to make the academic process more efficient. The seven-month-old start-up unveiled an overhaul of Lore to make the platform more similar to a social networking site, such as Facebook.com. The site is also used for online courses and course management tools, including grade books and other tools. Universities, such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton, have adopted the platform, according to co-founder and CEO Joe Cohen, although Lore has an uphill battle in its bid to unseat Blackboard, a much larger company that offers similar services. Originally known as Coursekit, Lore's founders say their vision is to build a more consumer-friendly product on which students will interact with each other , not just with professors and college administrations.
benton.org/node/129611 | USAToday
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LOBBYING

STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
Silicon Valley CEOs re-engineered lobbying 15 years ago. Their invention, TechnNet, which brings members of Congress out to meet celebrity tech execs — and their checkbooks — is no longer seen as doing enough to deliver the goods, some say. Neither are the other tech lobbies. Tech companies nearly lost a battle with Hollywood over online piracy on the Hill this year. And their other pet issues — more immigration of high-skilled workers and a tax holiday for overseas earnings — have gone nowhere. TechNet member CEOs are now in the throes of deciding whether to merge with a more traditional Washington lobby, the Information Technology Industry Council, to push their agenda the old-fashioned way: by strength in numbers making the rounds in DC. “In order to strengthen our voice, we realized we could be more effective in joining with other organizations doing the same thing,” said Kim Polese, a startup founder and CEO of such companies as Marimba and SpikeSource who also is a member of TechNet’s executive council. “Our mission is too important not to have the maximum resources and a unified voice.” Some tech leaders are pushing for a single organization to represent the gamut of tech companies, which ranges from hardware manufacturers to Internet companies to mobile app developers, similar to the Motion Picture Association of America and PhRMA. Others say it’s time for tech to have its own super PAC or start a marketing campaign to better tell its story to the public and the Hill.
benton.org/node/129600 | Politico
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COMPANY NEWS

MARISSA MAYER
[SOURCE: Yahoo, AUTHOR: Press release]
Yahoo! announced that it has appointed Marissa Mayer as President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors effective July 17, 2012. The appointment of Ms. Mayer, a leading consumer internet executive, signals a renewed focus on product innovation to drive user experience and advertising revenue for one of the world's largest consumer internet brands, whose leading properties include Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, and Yahoo! Search. Most recently, Mayer was responsible for Local, Maps, and Location Services for Google, the company's suite of local and geographical products including Google Maps, Google Earth, Zagat, Street View, and local search, for desktop and mobile. Mayer joined Google in 1999 as its 20th employee and led efforts for many of Google's most recognizable products, including the development of its flagship search product and iconic homepage for over 10 years. Mayer managed some of Google's most successful innovations, launching more than 100 features and products including image, book and product search, toolbar, iGoogle, Google News, and Gmail — creating much of the "look and feel" of the Google user experience. Mayer received her B.S. in Symbolic Systems and her M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, specializing in artificial intelligence for both degrees. She is credited as an inventor on several patents in artificial intelligence and interface design.
benton.org/node/129593 | Yahoo | NYTimes | WSJ | WSJ – swing for the fences? | WashPost | LATimes | AP | FT | San Jose Mercury News | Fortune
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

GOOGLE REVISES EU CONCESSIONS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Alex Barker]
Google has submitted a revised package of concessions to address the concerns of Europe’s top competition authority, bringing the talks to settle the EU antitrust investigation to a critical juncture. Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, recently spoke to Eric Schmidt, the Google chairman, and requested the US group clarify some elements of its informal offer submitted two weeks ago. The initial Google proposal came after Almunia delivered an ultimatum to the Internet search giant to change its business practices or face formal antitrust charges, a protracted legal dispute and the threat of multi-billion dollar fines. Almunia’s demand for clarifications suggests Google’s first offer was not on its own sufficient to be accepted as a “serious and credible” overture to cease its allegedly anti-competitive behavior. But the bargaining under way indicates that Google put enough on the table to make serious follow-up worthwhile. Both Almunia and Google are keen to reach a speedy deal and avoid a decade or wrangling through the courts.
benton.org/node/129606 | Financial Times | Bloomberg
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GOOGLE AND PIRACY IN FRANCE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Bobbie Johnson]
France’s Supreme Court has set aside a critical piracy ruling, a move that could result in Google being forced to censor some of its search results. The case centers on the search engine’s autocomplete feature — the suggestions for commonly-used search terms that pop up when users start typing something on Google. While they are generally seen as a way to make search more efficient (and provide some amusement when the results behave strangely), not everyone is amused: in fact the French music royalties society SNEP has been campaigning for several years to force Google to stop associating musical terms with terms like “torrent” or the names of file sharing services like RapidShare or MegaUpload. The group argued that Google was promoting piracy by associating the two terms in public, making it easier for users to infringe copyright of the artists it represents. The Court de Cassation, France’s court of last resort, has said it will set aside the verdict because of a technicality.
benton.org/node/129571 | GigaOm
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