July 23, 2012 (Make-or-break time for cybersecurity bill)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JULY 23, 2012

Today’s events http://benton.org/calendar/2012-07-23/

CYBERSECURITY
   Make-or-break time for cybersecurity bill
   Cybersecurity Compromise: Responsible Move or Political Cover?
   Privacy advocates satisfied with Lieberman’s cybersecurity rewrite
   Chamber not sold on revised cybersecurity bill
   The Lesson of Google's Safari Hack - op-ed

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Measuring Broadband Performance - analysis
   The Future of Big Data - research
   Who Really Invented the Internet? - editorial
   UN's bid to regulate Internet - editorial

DIVERSITY
Another Day of Digital Opportunity Denied - speech

OWNERSHIP
   Murdoch Quits Boards of News Corp. Subsidiaries
   Tribune's bankruptcy exit could mean company breakup
   Google Says Some Apple Inventions Are So Great They Ought to Be Shared
   Kodak Loses Patent Case Against Apple, RIM [links to web]

TELEVISION
   FCC Releases 14th Video Competition Report - public notice
   FCC Seeks Comment For The 15th Video Competition Report - public notice
   Lawmakers Hope to Turn Off the Dark
   Cable operators and networks keep threatening divorce
   Mediacom Will Freeze Prices If Programmers Freeze Rates
   Affiliates Make Case to Commerce for Retaining Retransmission
   Padden: Get Rid of Compulsory License and Retransmission
   Viacom’s $5 Billion DirecTV Deal Keeps the Bundle Intact for Seven More Years
   Cox Puts Four TV Stations on Block After Acquiring Four From Newport [links to web]
   Netflix, YouTube top apps for smart-TV users [links to web]
   How TV Shows Are Tricking You Into Watching Ads - analysis [links to web]
   Like what you see on TV? Buy it now. [links to web]
   Groups Oppose NAB Court Petition to Delay Political File Rules

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Making the Most of the Wireless Spectrum
Sprint Struggling to Keep Up the Pace in Spectrum Marathon [links to web]

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
No answer at 911 - editorial

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   Candidates to take down negative ads after Colorado shootings [links to web]
   Groups Oppose NAB Court Petition to Delay Political File Rules
   National Journal Bars Quotations Tweaked by Sources

PRIVACY
California Starts Up a Privacy Enforcement Unit [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Reporters oppose Pentagon monitoring [links to web]
Skype Won't Say Whether It Can Eavesdrop on Your Conversations

HEALTH
Why telemedicine must become a healthcare priority in America - op-ed
GAO: White House plan for streamlined data centers failing [links to web]

LOBBYING
NPR hires lobbyists as GOP targets public broadcasting funds [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Chinese Protesters See Greater Online Freedom About the Environment
   Press misdeeds probe widens in UK
   EU gets tough with US tech groups
   Universal Faces Fresh Hurdles in Europe on EMI Deal [links to web]
   Universal asset sales may bypass rivals [links to web]
   Big Carriers Win an EU Victory on Landline Charges - analysis
   Phone subsidies: Are they just bad loans in disguise?

MORE ONLINE
   Two Units of AT&T Reach Pacts With Union [links to web]
   Don't Buy Media - Buy the Buyers - op-ed [links to web]
   Twitter Embraces Olympics To Train for the Big Time [links to web]

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CYBERSECURITY

MAKE OR BREAK TIME FOR CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez, Brendan Sasso]
It’s make-or-break time for cybersecurity legislation in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will likely move to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) cybersecurity bill this week once the upper chamber finishes up votes on taxes, an aide said. That could come as early as July 25 or 26, while a procedural vote to move the bill to the floor is expected July 30. The stakes are high for industry groups and for Sen Lieberman, the bill's lead co-sponsor, who has eyed the measure as a part of his legacy before he retires at the end of this Congress. Sen Lieberman has said a cybersecurity bill would either move to the floor before the August recess or not at all, and has been working on a compromise that he hopes will attract GOP support.
benton.org/node/130206 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY COMPROMISE: RESPONSIBLE MOVE OR POLITICAL COVER?
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
In showing flexibility on their demands for cybersecurity standards for the private sector, the White House and Senate sponsors of broad cybersecurity legislation joined the prevailing view that passing a bill is more important than fighting over the details. After months of closed-door briefings by federal officials intent on impressing upon lawmakers the threat of cyberattacks, the Senate appears to be following the House’s lead in moving forward on cybersecurity proposals that have broadest support while leaving more-contentious issues for another day. But is the new bill an example of rare bipartisan compromise, or political cover for politicians fearful of appearing weak on national security? Lawmakers and security experts have increasingly said that passing anything, even if not comprehensive, is better than not acting. And that’s a potent message for lawmakers sensitive to being singled out for blame if the worst should happen.
benton.org/node/130165 | National Journal
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PRIVACY ADVOCATES LIKE CYBERSECURITY REWRITE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Revisions that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) made to his Cybersecurity Act seem to have appeased privacy advocates who lobbied against an earlier version of the bill. American Civil Liberties Union’s Michelle Richardson said that Sen Lieberman and other co-sponsors made "substantial changes" and undertook a "Herculean effort to build privacy protections" into the bill. Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior policy counsel at The Constitution Project, applauded the changes, saying they "go a long way toward alleviating our concerns." "The amendments address key civil liberties concerns that have dogged the cybersecurity debate," agreed Leslie Harris, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. The statements mark a major shift for the privacy groups, which had urged the Senate to reject the previous version of Lieberman's bill to prevent an erosion of civil liberties.
benton.org/node/130179 | Hill, The
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CHAMBER REACTS TO CYBERSECURITY BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
The US Chamber of Commerce said that it isn't sold yet on the revised version of the cybersecurity bill by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), arguing that it would take an "overly prescriptive" approach towards protecting the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. "While we continue to review the revised bill and consult with our members, we believe that we will still have concerns with it," said Ann Beauchesne, vice president of national security and emergency preparedness at the Chamber. The business lobby's chief concern is with a section of the bill that is aimed at incentivizing critical infrastructure operators to meet a set of security standards approved by a government-led interagency council. The section proposes to create a voluntary program where companies would receive liability protections or other incentives by certifying that its computer systems meet these cybersecurity standards. Beauchesne said Congress should focus on passing bills "where consensus has already been reached," such as measures aimed at boosting cybersecurity research and development and improving information sharing about cyberthreats.
benton.org/node/130178 | Hill, The
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GOOGLE’S SAFARI HACK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Michael Chertoff]
[Commentary] In the cyber age, privacy and security are two sides of the same coin. Digital privacy concerns can't be separated from security ones, and vice versa. That's why the government's response to "Safarigate"—in which Google hacked a popular Web browser, changing users' settings without their knowledge—is troubling. In announcing recently that it would settle claims against Google in the case, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) addressed concerns about consumer privacy. But it failed to recognize the deeper problem that an invasion of privacy is often a security breach. The gaps in Safari's security and the ease with which Google found them pose a broader cybersecurity problem than the threat of some unwanted Web ads. For if Google can spoof Safari to allow tracking cookies without seeming to, then so can anyone else. Imagine how this vulnerability might affect a government employee who used Safari on a government-issued computer as part of his official duties and whose browser usage would now be open to surreptitious inspection.
benton.org/node/130232 | Wall Street Journal
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

MEASURING BROADBAND PERFORMANCE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] On July 19, the Federal Communications Commission released “Measuring Broadband America”, a report, the FCC notes, revealing that broadband providers have significantly improved accuracy in actual versus advertised broadband speeds during the past year and that consumers are subscribing to faster speed tiers and receiving faster speeds than ever before. The FCC surveyed more than 5,500 users in April. Overall, the 13 top US broadband providers, representing four-fifths of all U.S. landline broadband connections, are coming much closer to consistently delivering their advertised speeds.
http://benton.org/node/130129
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THE FUTURE OF BIG DATA
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie]
The growing technological ability to collect and analyze massive sets of information, known as Big Data, could lead to revolutionary changes in business, political and social enterprises, according to a new survey of internet experts and stakeholders. But while leading technologists and researchers around the world look forward to the positive impact of Big Data, many also worry about potential drawbacks. A new Pew Internet/Elon University survey of 1,021 Internet experts, observers and stakeholders measured current opinions about the potential impact of human and machine analysis of newly emerging large data sets in the years ahead. The survey is an opt-in, online canvassing. Some 53% of those surveyed predicted that the rise of Big Data is likely be “a huge positive for society in nearly all respects” by the year 2020. Some 39% of survey participants said it is likely to be “a big negative.”
benton.org/node/130150 | Pew Internet & American Life Project
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WHO INVENTED THE INTERNET?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] It's an urban legend that the government launched the Internet. The myth is that the Pentagon created the Internet to keep its communications lines up even in a nuclear strike. The truth is a more interesting story about how innovation happens—and about how hard it is to build successful technology companies even once the government gets out of the way. If the government didn't invent the Internet, who did? Vinton Cerf developed the TCP/IP protocol, the Internet's backbone, and Tim Berners-Lee gets credit for hyperlinks. And it was at the Xerox PARC labs in Silicon Valley in the 1970s that the Ethernet was developed to link different computer networks. Researchers there also developed the first personal computer (the Xerox Alto) and the graphical user interface that still drives computer usage today. As for the government's role, the Internet was fully privatized in 1995, when a remaining piece of the network run by the National Science Foundation was closed—just as the commercial Web began to boom. Economist Tyler Cowen wrote in 2005: "The Internet, in fact, reaffirms the basic free market critique of large government. Here for 30 years the government had an immensely useful protocol for transferring information, TCP/IP, but it languished. . . . In less than a decade, private concerns have taken that protocol and created one of the most important technological revolutions of the millennia."
benton.org/node/130234 | Wall Street Journal
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UN’S BID TO REGULATE INTERNET
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Unpredictable, rules-averse, free and open - the Internet embraces all these terms. But has it grown to such a point that regulations and limits are needed? That's a decidedly difficult notion that a United Nations gathering will consider in a few months. The gathering set for December already has focused on censorship, which is not hard to imagine when tightly run countries nervously weigh the results of the Arab Spring and their own need to maintain control. But there's a secondary level of debate that's just as important. As more countries join the Internet and expand services, there's a push to lay out the terms more broadly. Phone calls, movies, e-mail and texting all soak up bandwidth on the communications highway. Who should pay to expand the service? Who gets priority? And who determines what is criminal or off-limits? The United States, as a leading tech innovator and civil liberties advocate, needs to defend its own policies. The Internet was brought to life here and nursed along to its unique, ungoverned stature. Freedom, we like to think, isn't something that should be put up to a vote, especially when the room is filled with the likes of Syria, Venezuela and Sudan. It's one thing to welcome a look at the Internet's global impact, especially as viewed from scores of countries feeling its overwhelming effect. But it would be wrong to limit such a powerful force.
benton.org/node/130228 | San Francisco Chronicle
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DIVERSITY

ANOTHER DAY OF DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY DENIED
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] Speaking at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, former Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps addressed media ownership diversity. “Every day that we fail to address the lack of minority and female ownership in our communications infrastructure is another day of digital opportunity denied. We’ve talked. We’ve studied. We’ve received all sorts of good recommendations for action. But for the decade-plus that I spent at the Commission, we’ve done precious little to improve a situation that is both dismal and appalling.”
http://benton.org/node/130135
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OWNERSHIP

MURDOCH QUITS BOARDS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Martin Peers]
News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has quit the boards of several company subsidiaries as part of preparations for the coming split of the media giant into two companies, News Corp. said. The announcement suggests that Murdoch may be distancing himself from his British newspaper interests, which have been shaken to the core by a widespread phone hacking scandal. The boards include that of News International, the holding company of News Corp.'s U.K. newspapers, said a person familiar with the situation. Other boards are in the United States, Australia and India. Murdoch stepped down this past week as a director of NI Group, Times Newspaper Holdings and News Corp. Investments in the U.K., said Daisy Dunlop, spokeswoman for News Corp.'s British arm, News International. The companies oversee The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times. It was not immediately clear which of News Corp.'s U.S. boards Murdoch had left.
benton.org/node/130209 | Wall Street Journal | AP
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TRIBUNE BREAKUP
[SOURCE: Crain’s Chicago Business, AUTHOR: Lynne Marek]
When Tribune Company exits bankruptcy under new owners next year, its flagship newspaper is likely to go on the sales block, but that's not all. A host of other Chicago assets in the Tribune media empire, from WGN Radio to Chicago magazine to the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower itself, could be offered to buyers who have circled the properties for years. Any sale of Chicago assets could further loosen Tribune's ties to a city that has been home since 1847, following the move last year of its CEO post to Los Angeles and the coming ownership shift to East Coast financial firms. It also would restart the dismantling—paused after the 2009 sale of the Cubs—of a $7 billion media company cobbled together during the previous three decades. The three largest new Tribune owners will be investment firms Oaktree Capital Group LLC of Los Angeles and Angelo Gordon & Co. of New York, as well as New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. Oaktree will hold the biggest stake, at 22 percent. Because the fortunes of the newspaper and broadcast industries have diverged so much in recent years, with print losing to online competition, most industry professionals expect Tribune to sell its newspaper assets, including the Los Angeles Times, separately from the broadcast properties, such as WGN-TV/Channel 9 in Chicago and WPIX-TV in New York. The value of Tribune's broadcast operations rose during the past year, while the newspapers' value dropped, according to Tribune bankruptcy documents.
benton.org/node/130204 | Crain’s Chicago Business
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GOOGLE AND APPLE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Paczkowski]
In attempting to fend off Apple and Microsoft’s suits against Motorola Mobility and advancing its own patent litigation against both companies, Google, which is facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad over what some allege is abuse of standards-essential patents (SEPs), has been arguing that proprietary non-standardized technologies that become ubiquitous due to their popularity with consumers should be considered de facto standards. Google’s view is that just as there are patents that are standards essential, there are also patents that are commercially essential — patents that cover features that are so popular as to have become ubiquitous. The latter are just as ripe for abuse as the former, and withholding them is just as harmful to consumers and the competitive marketplace. Viewed through that lens, multitouch technology or slide-to-unlock might be treated the same way as an industry standard patent on, say, a smartphone radio.
benton.org/node/130189 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION

FCC RELEASES 14TH VIDEO COMPETITION REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission released the fourteenth report on the status of competition in the market for the delivery of video programming. The FCC focuses on developments in the video marketplace in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. The most significant trends since the last report relate to the increased deployment of digital technology, consumers’ rising demands for access to video programming anywhere and anytime, and the evolution of online video from a niche service into a thriving industry. The FCC categorizes entities into one of three strategic groups – multichannel video
programming distributors (“MVPDs” -- companies that offer multiple channels of video programming to consumers for a subscription fee), broadcast television stations, and online video distributors (“OVDs”). For each of these categories the FCC examines industry structure, conduct, and performance.
Cable MVPDs accounted for almost 60 percent of all MVPD subscribers at the end of 2010. The two DBS MVPDs, DIRECTV and DISH Network, accounted for over 33 percent of MVPD subscribers in 2010.
Since the last report, full-power television stations completed their transition from analog to digital service. Digital broadcasting gives broadcast stations greater flexibility, allowing them to offer high definition (“HD”) programming, multiple streams of programming of standard definition (“SD”) programming, and/or programming delivered to mobile devices.
Since the last report, OVDs have emerged as significant providers of video content. The OVD marketplace has expanded considerably, with all of the major providers either entering the market over the last few years or dramatically retooling their approach during that time.
benton.org/node/130212 | Federal Communications Commission | Commissioner McDowell | Commissioner Pai
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FCC SEEKS INPUT FOR NEXT VIDEO COMPETITION REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
This Notice of Inquiry (“Notice”) solicits data, information, and comment on the state of competition in the delivery of video programming for the Federal Communications Commission’s Fifteenth Report (“15th Report”). The FCC seeks to update the information and metrics provided in the Fourteenth Report (“14th Report”) and report on the state of competition in the video marketplace in 2011 and 2012. Using the information collected pursuant to this Notice, we seek to enhance our analysis of competitive conditions, better understand the implications for the American consumer, and provide a solid foundation for FCC policy making with respect to the delivery of video programming to consumers.
The invites all interested parties to provide input for the 15th Report. The Commission seeks to collect data to gain further insight into such areas as the deployment of new technologies and services, as well as innovation and investment in the video marketplace. The entry of each new delivery technology provides consumers with increasing options in obtaining video content. We therefore request comment on industry structure, market conduct and performance, consumer behavior, urban-rural comparisons, and key industry inputs for video programming. To the extent possible, we request commenters to provide information and insights on competition using this framework.
In particular, the FCC requests data, information, and comment from entities that provide delivered video programming directly to consumers. These entities include MVPDs, broadcast television stations, and OVDs. The FCC also seeks data, information, and comment from entities that provide key inputs into video programming distribution. These include content creators and aggregators as well as manufacturers of consumer premises equipment, including equipment that enables consumers to view programming on their television sets and on other devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets). In addition, the FCC requests data, information, and comment from consumers and consumer groups. The accuracy and usefulness of the 15th Report will depend on the quality of the data and information we receive from commenters in response to this Notice. The FCC encourages thorough and substantive submissions from industry participants, as well as state and local regulators with knowledge of the issues raised. When possible, the FCC will augment reported information with submissions in other Commission proceedings and from publicly available sources.
Comments due September 10, 2012; Replies due October 10, 2012. MB Docket No. 12-203
benton.org/node/130210 | Federal Communications Commission | Commissioner Pai
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CABLE ACT HEARING
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
This week’s Senate Commerce committee hearing on the Cable Act—the law often blamed for blackouts on cable and satellite TV—may not be the clash of the titans, but it will be close. On hand July 24 to testify will be representatives from the same crowd that brought the debate to a fever pitch last week: Viacom and DirecTV; Hearst Television and Time Warner Cable; and AMC and Dish Network. The high-profile disputes, coupled with fierce lobbying over the last couple of years, has led lawmakers to conclude it may be time to update the nation’s communications laws. “We can’t look to the future of video without evaluating the Cable Act’s impact on the modern television marketplace,” said Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), who chairs the Commerce committee. The 20-year act requires pay TV providers to carry TV stations unless stations choose retransmission consent, resulting in a negotiation for carriage fees.
benton.org/node/130227 | AdWeek
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CABLE OPS VS NETWORKS
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Sam Thielman]
If you've read any decent media coverage in the last few weeks, you could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that networks and cable operators have all gone totally bonkers at once. So why is it all going down now?
Netflix and Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, and half a dozen other content providers, including the networks' own websites. Consumers like these services; they don't require you to set aside a six-hour window to wait for a cable guy who probably won't show up, they don't cost an outrageous amount of money, and they allow you to watch whatever you're interested in watching when you have time, rather than having to schedule an appointment with your television set. Streaming content makes that even easier. If you can watch a digital copy of a television show with no ads any time you want, why would you ever go back to watching live TV for anything but sports? That's the question a lot of viewers are asking themselves, and it's led to quite a few cable cancellations, especially among young people.
Bundling. Pay TV providers HATE bundling.
Retransmission consent. Cable operators used to get a very cheap or even free signal from broadcasters (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) so that viewers didn't have to turn off their cable boxes to get the major over-the-air networks. Since the big switchover to an all-digital signal a few years ago, however, it's harder for viewers to get signals over the air, especially in urban areas, and most viewers have been watching broadcast networks exclusively on cable. Cable networks, meanwhile, are steadily on the rise, and fewer people are watching those broadcast networks than used to, though they still usually maintain a lead over cable. So broadcasters are suddenly charging more—sometimes a lot more—for a signal that used to be very cheap.
benton.org/node/130168 | AdWeek
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MEDIACOM AND CABLE COSTS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Mediacom chairman Rocco Commisso has committed to freezing the "published rates" for the cable operator's most popular video service tiers -- limited and expanded basic -- for two years if the cable and broadcast network/channel owners agree to freeze their fees. That proposal came in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee in advance of the July 24 hearing on the Cable Act, which created the retransmission consent-must carry regime, and put an exclamation point on his argument that the price to consumers is the main issue behind retrans blackouts and the main reason why Congress should conclude that the Cable Act has not fixed the "dysfunction" in the video marketplace. Commisso says that both broadcasters and cable network owners are increasing prices at an outrageous and unconscionable rate given the current economy. He says that if Congress and the Federal Communications Commission would back the freeze, he thought other MVPDs would join him in the pledge.
benton.org/node/130174 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NETWORK AFFILIATES ON RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The NBC and CBS affiliates have both sent letters to the Senate Commerce Committee making their pitch for preserving the must-carry/retransmission consent regime. In his letter to the committee in advance of a July 24 hearing on the 1992 Cable Act, which created that regime as well as program carriage and access obligations for cable operators, NBC TV affiliate board vice chairman Ralph Oakley said that "Congress should not interfere with fair market negotiations, and it should not choose to subsidize cable and satellite distributors by disrupting basic property rights and exclusivity protections that are at the core of our unique broadcasting system." He said that as the committee reviews the act, it should keep in mind that local broadcasters spend billions of dollars on news, sports and entertainment programming, that cable and satellite resell that content, that in order for broadcasters to pay for that content it needs and deserves compensation from those resellers, and that under the current system the vast number deals get done without incident. In their letter, CBS TV Affiliate Association chair Chris Cornelius and vice chair Michael Fiorile say that retrans was needed in 1992 and it still needed today. To repeal it, they say, would bring uncertainty and undercut localism.
benton.org/node/130172 | Broadcasting&Cable
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PADDEN ON RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Former Disney and News Corp. executive Preston Padden plans to tell the Senate Commerce Committee next week that it should "follow the roadmap" of the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act (S. 2008) that would repeal the compulsory copyright license, retransmission, must-carry and other ownership rules -- but scuttling the compulsory license needs to come first. The compulsory licenses allow cable and satellite operators to retransmit TV station programming into their local markets without having to negotiate with program owners for that right. The retransmission regime requires cable and satellite operators to negotiate for carriage of the TV signal delivering that programming, "thus setting up a negotiation that essentially is a substitute for the copyright negotiations that would take place absent the compulsory licenses." Padden, who is currently senior fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado, sees that combination of a compulsory license and retrans as a Rube Goldberg approach. "Broadcasters absolutely deserve to be paid by any commercial business that wishes to retransmit their programs for a fee to consumers. But, a far better course would have been to simply repeal the Compulsory licenses. The Retransmission Consent right is fundamentally flawed because it is based on a legal fiction -- the notion that consumers and MVPDs are interested in a broadcast station's signal rather than in the programs on that signal."
benton.org/node/130171 | Broadcasting&Cable
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VIACOM-DIRECTV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Remember when the DirecTV-Viacom standoff was going to be the first step of the beginning of the end of TV? Or at least the end of the bundle? Turns out you’re going to have to keep waiting for that. For a long time. DirecTV agreed to pay more for the programming, and will pass those fees on to its customers. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman will get more than $600 million for his shows this year. And because those fees will escalate over the course of a seven-year contract, that means the overall deal will be worth more than $5 billion. Which is why the company was perfectly content to take an estimated $14 million hit a week while its shows were off the air. DirecTV can also claim victory, because it’s paying less than Viacom asked for originally. And Wall Street seems just fine with it for both companies, because the prices of their shares are basically flat.
benton.org/node/130190 | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg | paidContent.org
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

PCAST SPECTRUM SHARING REPORT
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Jason Furman, John Holdren]
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released its latest report, Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth, which provides valuable insight on innovative ways to meet President Obama’s goal of maintaining and enhancing American leadership in cutting-edge wireless services — an important part of this Administration’s overall strategy to create jobs and increase growth. Spectrum sharing can take a number of forms, but its purpose is to ensure that when the primary user does not need the spectrum, another party can put it to good use, as opposed to allowing it to remain fallow. For example, while a government communications or radar system may depend on spectrum being available in certain places at specific times, that spectrum can be freed up for commercial purposes at other times and places while respecting the paramount needs of the Federal system. The FCC has already begun to put this approach into practice, for example by allowing wireless broadband services to be provided over unused broadcast TV channels. The PCAST report also identifies more advanced, dynamic forms of spectrum sharing, and new system architectures that are emerging as well.
benton.org/node/130191 | White House, The | see the PCAST report | FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel | FCC Commissioner Pai | AT&T | B&C | The Hill | Bloomberg | ars technica | GigaOm
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

NO ANSWER AT 911
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] One effect of the post-derecho uproar over power outages three weeks ago was to divert attention from an equally serious infrastructure meltdown: the collapse of emergency 911 service in most of Northern Virginia. Following the violent storm on June 29, some 2.3 million people lost access, for at least seven hours, to the nation’s most widely recognized telephone number, which in Northern Virginia is administered by Verizon; for some of them, it was not restored for several days. Incredibly, the lesson for Northern Virginians was that they can rely on emergency 911 service — except in an actual widespread emergency, when a critical mass of people need it most. As one official told us, “It was like the Titanic sinking and nobody rang the bell.” The 911 breakdown seems inexplicable; it is certainly inexcusable. Simultaneous investigations are now underway at the Federal Communications Commission, Virginia’s utility-regulating State Corporation Commission and the Metropolitan Council of Governments. Verizon, which is conducting its own inquiry, owes the public as well as the regulators some answers.
benton.org/node/130187 | Washington Post
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

GROUPS OPPOSE NAB PETITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Free Press, the Campaign Legal Center and other fans of the Federal Communications Commission's online political file-posting rules has told a federal court not to grant the National Association of Broadcasters' request that it stay the Aug. 2 effective date of the rules until the court rules on NAB's July 10 challenge. Campaign Legal Center et al. say that NAB has not met any of the criteria for such a stay. They say NAB is not likely to succeed on the merits of its argument that the FCC action was arbitrary and capricious, a standard of review it says is "narrow and deferential to the agency." It says the FCC decision does not raise antitrust concerns, nor was it unreasonable to have declined an alternative proposal by stations. As to the claim of irreparable harm, the groups say they are purely speculative and unsupported. By contrast, they say they would be harmed by the stay since it would make it much harder for them to research the impact of third party groups and campaigns on elections.
benton.org/node/130166 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NATIONAL JOURNAL BARS QUOTATION TWEAKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
National Journal said it would ban the use of quotations that had been massaged or manipulated by its sources, joining a growing chorus of news organizations that are objecting to a practice that has become increasingly common in political journalism. In a memorandum to the staff, Ron Fournier, National Journal’s editor in chief, said, “If a public official wants to use NJ as a platform for his/her point of view, the price of admission is a quote that is on-record, unedited and unadulterated.” Quote approval has become accepted in Washington and on the campaign trail, with politicians and candidates often refusing to grant interviews unless they have final say over how their quotations appear in print. The New York Times examined the issue in an article last week, drawing attention to a part of news gathering that journalists had long complained about but felt pressured into accepting. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns routinely demand that reporters consent to quote approval when giving interviews. If the reporters agree, quotations from campaign officials, advisers and candidates’ family members have to be sent to a press aide for the final go-ahead. Quotes sent back to reporters are often edited for style and clarity. If reporters refuse, they are not granted an interview. National Journal is among several news outlets that have said they find quote approval to be troubling, especially now that it has become standard for many politicians.
benton.org/node/130237 | New York Times
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SKYPE AND EAVESDROPPING
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Ryan Gallagher]
New surveillance laws being proposed in countries from the United States to Australia would force makers of online chat software to build in backdoors for wiretapping. For years, the popular video chat service Skype has resisted taking part in online surveillance—but that may have changed. And if it has, Skype’s not telling. Historically, Skype has been a major barrier to law enforcement agencies. Using strong encryption and complex peer-to-peer network connections, Skype was considered by most to be virtually impossible to intercept. Police forces in Germany complained in 2007 that they couldn’t spy on Skype calls and even hired a company to develop covert Trojans to record suspects’ chats. At around the same time, Skype happily went on record saying that it could not conduct wiretaps because of its “peer-to-peer architecture and encryption techniques.” Recently, however, hackers alleged that Skype made a change to its architecture this spring that could possibly make it easier to enable “lawful interception” of calls.
benton.org/node/130225 | Slate
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HEALTH

TELEMEDICING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), State Senator Sharon Weston-Broome (D-LA)]
[Commentary] With the wide spread expansion of broadband technology, telemedicine is becoming an incredibly effective solution that is providing a new alternative to improve our current health care landscape. These innovations not only result in the substantial reduction of health care disparities, but also in a reduction of healthcare costs across the country. Hundreds of applications have already been developed, and states that have passed telehealth legislation are realizing many of the benefits. Telemedicine is a global game changer in health care, and this initiative is one positive step that we as policymakers are taking towards eradicating healthcare disparities. As we continue in this fight, we are committed to addressing the needs of our communities, and we call on all of our colleagues to join us in this fight to improve America’s healthcare future.
benton.org/node/130181 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

ONLINE FREEDOM IN CHINA
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Dexter Roberts]
A wave of online activism and information aimed at addressing surging environmental threats is sweeping China. “In China there is a significant lack of tools to disseminate information. Before, we were almost fully dependent on the official media, but sometimes they were very hard to rely on,” says Ma. “Now Weibo has become almost like a self-media. It provides another way for the message to be disseminated to the public. And it has created a kind of forum for people to have debate and discussion over hot issues.” Protesters have used the Internet and simple phone texting to publicize projects seen as environmentally damaging before.
benton.org/node/130169 | Bloomberg
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PRESS PROBE IN UK
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fenton]
The police investigation into journalistic misdeeds has widened dramatically with two more newspaper groups drawn into corruption allegations, and the original target of the inquiry, News International, now being suspected of employing experts to hack into stolen mobile phones. The officer heading Operation Weeting, the original phone hacking investigation, and its offshoots looking into corrupt payments and computer hacking, told the Leveson inquiry of the developments. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers had become focuses of her officers’ suspicions over payments to public officials. She said they believed that one prison officer at a high security institution had received a total of £35,000 from News International, publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror titles and the People, and from Express Newspapers, publisher of the Daily and Sunday Express and the Daily Star and its Sunday title.
benton.org/node/130223 | Financial Times | Associated Press
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EU GETS TOUGH
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Alex Barker]
America’s tech giants suffered a bruising week in Brussels at the hands of Europe’s top competition authority. First Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, scolded Microsoft for failing to implement a settlement pledge to offer all Windows users a choice of web browser. Microsoft quickly apologized for the “technical error”. Even so Commissioner Almunia pledged to “punish” the US software group with potentially hefty fines once the non-compliance is confirmed by a formal investigation. More worrying still for Microsoft is that the European Commission investigation will also cover concerns about the Windows 8 operating system, a flagship product to be released in the autumn.
benton.org/node/130221 | Financial Times
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BIG CARRIERS WIN IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
The era of steadily declining phone bills in Europe, which began with deregulation of the industry in 1998, may have drawn to a close this month, with the European Commission’s decision to give the biggest operators greater leverage over what they can charge competitors for access to their landline networks. Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications, signaled the new era July 12 when she announced that further cuts in wholesale access charges, a basic type of regulated fee that operators receive from rivals, would discourage network investment and thwart the commission’s goal of creating a superfast broadband grid by 2020. The decision by Commissioner Kroes, a Dutch policy maker who served as the European Union’s competition commissioner from 2004 to 2010, drew praise from big operators and criticism from smaller carriers, most of which lack national coverage of their own and must lease access to a former monopoly’s landlines to deliver their services to customers. Besides giving operators more pricing power over their older copper networks, Commissioner Kroes said she might permit them to ban competitors temporarily from the new, faster fiber networks that are crucial to fulfilling the commission’s broadband aspirations. The announcement was an about-face in European policy.
benton.org/node/130217 | New York Times
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PHONE SUBSIDIES SUIT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
Iliad’s Free Mobile has opened a new front in its war with France’s incumbent operators. It’s taking Vivendi’s SFR to court over the handset subsidies it charges, claiming they amount to usurious loans that consumers wind up paying back in the form of hidden fees in their contracts. The subsidies, which depend on the consumer committing to a one- to two-year service contract, are effectively hidden consumer credits that skirt the rules governing such offers, and therefore constitute “usury rates of 300 to 400 percent that consumers don’t see,” said Iliad founder Xavier Niel.
benton.org/node/130163 | GigaOm | Bloomberg
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