March 3, 2009 (Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY MARCH 3, 2008
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Memos Reveal Scope of the Power Bush Sought
Can Congress Regulate All Political Speech?
Cyber review underway
Your Cell and Your Berry: Tools of the Enemy
Tweet, follow or get out of the way
THE TRANSITION
President Obama nominates Gov Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of HHS
Nominations on Hold For 2 Top Science Posts
Legislation Calls For Independent Census Bureau
THE BUDGET & THE STIMULUS
Many Hires Needed for Budget Goals
Agenda for March 10 Public Meeting on Broadband Initiatives
Does America Need Universal Broadband?
Rural Broadband At A Glance
One Step Off The Superhighway
Everybody Get Your DUNS! And Why Grants.Gov Needs An Extreme Makeover.
Industry coalition launches health IT security plan
NTIA: Coupon Waiting List Shrinks, But Only Slightly
Schools Crunch Calculus of Stimulus
RADIO
White House Lets Limbaugh Be Voice Of GOP Opposition
The unfairness of a Fairness Doctrine
DIGITAL CONTENT
Supreme Court Enters the YouTube Era
The Brief but Glorious Life of Web 2.0, and What Comes After
TV Everywhere -- As Long As You Pay for It
Digital Partnerships Could Revive, Energize Local Media
Selling Expertise On the Internet For Extra Cash
Supreme Court to hear freelance writers' settlement
WIRELESS
What made the cellphone revolution possible
Suit over $5K netbook 3G data bill; AT&T says "read the TOS"
New ITU ICT Development Index compares 154 countries
QUICKLY -- ICANN President Twomey Announces Departure at end of year; FTC Releases List of Top Consumer Complaints in 2008; Touchscreens Make A Grab Beyond Smartphones
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
MEMOS REVEAL SCOPE OF THE POWER BUSH SOUGHT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Neil Lewis]
On Monday, the Justice Department publicly disclosed nine secret opinions issued by the Bush Administration after Sept 11, 2001. The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting, for example, that the government could conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants. Some of the positions had previously become known from statements of Bush administration officials in response to court challenges and Congressional inquiries. But taken together, the opinions disclosed Monday were the clearest illustration to date of the broad definition of presidential power approved by government lawyers in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. An Oct 23, 2001 memorandum said that "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully." It added that "the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically." In a speech a few hours before the documents were disclosed Monday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said: "Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties. Not only is that thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good." Holder said that the memorandums were being released in light of a substantial public interest in the issue.
http://benton.org/node/22794
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CAN CONGRESS REGULATE ALL POLITICAL SPEECH?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bradley Smith, Jeff Patch]
[Commentary] Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., which will be argued before the Supreme Court today, is one of the most important cases this term. Unfortunately, much of the press coverage of this dispute is superficial and misleading -- and as a result, the public is unaware of the momentous First Amendment issues at stake. National media coverage has framed the issue as one of defining a standard for recusal due to contributions to judicial campaigns -- but it has muddied a crucial distinction between independent spending and direct campaign contributions. Left undiscussed as well are the free speech consequences of requiring a judge's recusal based on the spending of an independent group. Recusal rules present a serious issue. Yet a victory for Mr. Caperton would establish the proposition that political speech -- not contributions to a politician's campaign, but the independent speech of citizens -- "corrupts" democracy. For those who think that free speech and a healthy democracy go hand in hand, the stakes could hardly be higher.
http://benton.org/node/22792
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CYBER REVIEW UNDERWAY
[SOURCE: The White House]
John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism: "National Security Council and Homeland Security Council are presently conducting a 60-day review of the plans, programs, and activities underway throughout the government that address our communications and information infrastructure (i.e., cyberspace). The purpose of the review is to develop a strategic framework to ensure that our initiatives in this area are appropriately integrated, resourced and coordinated both within the Executive Branch and with Congress and the private sector. The review will be completed by the end of April 2009. At that time, the review team will present its recommendations to the President regarding an optimal White House organizational construct to address issues related to U.S. and global information and communications infrastructure and capabilities. The recommendations also will include an action plan on identifying and prioritizing further work in this area."
http://benton.org/node/22752
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YOUR CELL AND YOUR BERRY: TOOLS OF THE ENEMY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
According to Joel F. Brenner, national counterintelligence executive and mission manager for counterintelligence for the director of national intelligence, in the new electronic information world, your cellphone or BlackBerry can be tagged, tracked, monitored and exploited by a foreign intelligence service between the time you disembark from a plane in that country's capital and the time you reach the airport taxi stand. Cellphones, he said, are great devices for sharing information, "but the mike can be turned on when you think it is off." An iPod's ear buds can be converted to a recording device when not in your ears. Brenner described thumb drives as "the electronic equivalent of unprotected sex" and the biggest source of what he calls "ETDs," or electronically transmitted diseases. Those vulnerabilities are increasingly exploited in the intelligence world as demand increases for the sharing of collected information and the resulting analysis. Brenner noted the countervailing pressures within the intelligence community and society in general to share intelligence as well as restrict it. The "propeller heads" who invent new "cool" ways to transfer information in the intelligence world, Brenner said, are similar to those in civilian companies: They believe in openness, not secrecy, and therein lies the problem.
http://benton.org/node/22784
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TWEET, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Oliphant]
Twittering is all the rage on Capitol Hill, with politicians sending their followers short messages. In Hollywood, celebrities using the blogging site to mold their online image might help the service hit the mainstream.
http://benton.org/node/22783
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THE TRANSITION
PRESIDENT OBAMA NOMINATES GOV KATHLEEN SEBELIUS SECRETARY OF HHS
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama officially announced his intent to nominate Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In this role, Sebelius will oversee a department with wide-ranging responsibilities essential to the American people, including the implementation of the President's vision for health care. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius will work with Democrats and Republicans alike to cut costs, expand access, and improve the quality of health care for all Americans. Nancy-Ann DeParle, one of the nation's leading experts on health care and regulatory issues, will serve as Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office for Health Reform. As commissioner of the Department of Human Services in Tennessee, she saw firsthand the health care system's impact on workers and families. In the Clinton Administration, DeParle handled budget matters for federal health care programs, and took on the tremendous task of managing Medicare and Medicaid.
http://benton.org/node/22763
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NOMINATIONS ON HOLD FOR 2 TOP SCIENCE POSTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Juliet Eilperin]
The nominations of two of President Obama's top science advisers have stalled in the Senate, according to several sources, posing a challenge to the administration as it seeks to frame new policies on climate change and other environmental issues. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has placed a "hold" that blocks votes on confirming Harvard University physicist John Holdren, who is in line to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, Obama's nominee to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to sources who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, Sen Menendez is using the holds as leverage to get Senate leaders' attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees' credentials. The delay -- which could end quickly if Sen Menendez dropped his objection or Senate leaders pushed for a floor vote that would require 60 votes to pass -- has alarmed environmentalists and scientific experts who strongly back Holdren and Lubchenco. They had a relatively friendly hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Feb. 12, and an administration official said yesterday that he anticipated the nominations would make it to a floor vote.
http://benton.org/node/22786
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LEGISLATION CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT CENSUS BUREAU
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe]
House Democrats, led by Rep Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), will unveil a measure today that would separate the U.S. Census Bureau from the Commerce Department and make it an independent government agency similar in design to the National Institutes of Health or NASA. The proposal comes in the wake of Republican allegations that the Obama administration is attempting to politicize the census by giving White House aides responsibility for overseeing next year's head count. Administration officials stress that while the White House is expected to take part in advertising and community outreach related to the 2010 Census, the census director will continue to report to the secretary of commerce. But with so much at stake in the outcome of the decennial head count, some House Democrats argue that the census should be insulated from any hint of political influence.
http://benton.org/node/22785
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THE BUDGET & THE STIMULUS
MANY HIRES NEEDED FOR BUDGET GOALS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Philip Rucker]
President Obama's budget is so ambitious, with vast new spending on health care, energy independence, education and services for veterans, that experts say he probably will need to hire tens of thousands of new federal government workers to realize his goals. The $3.6 trillion plan released last week proposes spending billions to begin initiatives and implement existing programs, and given Obama's insistence that he would scale back the use of private-sector contractors, his priorities could reverse a generational decline in the size of the government workforce. Exactly how many new workers would be needed remains unclear -- one independent estimate was 100,000. Administration officials said they cannot determine overall hiring projections until the president's full budget is released this spring, but acknowledged that significant new hiring will occur. "It is premature to be making any assumptions about overall federal employment levels," White House budget director Peter Orszag said. "We have no desire to bloat bureaucracy -- indeed, just the opposite -- and the budget will not do that." But, he added, "in several key areas -- from properly auditing contracts to providing quality medical care to veterans and reducing errors in Medicare and other programs -- investing in skilled professionals will not only pay off over time but also immediately deliver better service to taxpayers."
http://benton.org/node/22787
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AGENDA FOR MARCH 10 PUBLIC MEETING ON BROADBAND INITIATIVES
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development, and the Federal Communications Commission will hold a joint meeting Tuesday March 10 to discuss the broadband initiatives of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The meeting will take place in the Department of Commerce Auditorium and the agenda includes remarks from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack; FCC Chairman Michael Copps; the NTIA's Anna Gomez, Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, and Mark Seifert; David Villano, Assistant Administrator for Telecommunication Programs, USDA Rural Development; and Scott M. Deutchman, Acting Senior Legal Advisor to Acting FCC Chairman Copps. The Public Meeting will be streamed over the Web with captions and made available on NTIA's website www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants. Interested parties wishing to submit questions in advance of the meeting may do so by emailing them to Barbara Brown (NTIA) at bbrown@ntia.doc.gov; Christi Shewman (FCC) at Christi.Shewman@fcc.gov; or Mary Campanola (USDA) at mary.campanola@usda.gov.
http://benton.org/node/22762
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DOES AMERICA NEED UNIVERSAL BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: Popular Mechanics, AUTHOR: Glenn Derene]
The biggest problem with broadband service in America is not a lack of availability, it's a lack of competition. Most users have only one or two options for service, and while prices have come down slightly, they are still relatively high for Americans who feel increasingly pinched. A Pew study found an average monthly broadband bill of $34.50, down 4 percent from the previous year, but it also showed a gradual migration away from cable service, which tends to be faster and more expensive, to cheaper and slower DSL service. So the broad language in the stimulus law could end up defining an "underserved" area as simply an area without enough competition to make service affordable. Granted, there's plenty of room for skepticism here. With ambiguously written legislation cramming billions of public dollars down the throats of multiple government agencies with a mandate to spend the money quickly, the potential for confusion, waste and abuse is high. Nevertheless Derene is still cautiously optimistic, since the need for universal broadband adoption is actually far more pressing than even most public policy wonks understand. Without widespread broadband adoption, many other federal technology projects cannot move forward efficiently.
http://benton.org/node/22761
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RURAL BROADBAND AT A GLANCE
[SOURCE: US Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Peter Stenberg, Sarah Low]
Depending on the ultimate goal of universal Internet access, the distinction between individual access and household access can be important. The gap in Internet use between rural and urban households (9.3 percentage points) is wider than the gap between all rural and urban individuals (6.5 percentage points). Policies encouraging broadband access generally adopt either an implicit individual or household approach, where the policy addresses one population directly with only secondary efforts directed at the other. If, for example, the policy goal is to improve educational opportunities for school-age children, a program that improves in-school broadband access may be more cost-effective than one designed to improve broadband access to households, although such a program may also spur household adoption.
http://benton.org/node/22760
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ONE STEP OFF THE SUPERHIGHWAY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
President Obama made his first major push for the Web this month when he signed off on the stimulus bill, which includes $7.2 billion to bring high-speed Internet to rural America. But some critics say the administration's plan largely overlooks the biggest group of disconnected people: the urban poor. One provision in the stimulus plan could provide about $250 million for service and training in urban areas. Some of that money is likely to go toward boosting efforts at community centers, but interest groups say the amount is not enough to help an estimated 21 million low-income people get online. Access isn't the issue for them. In many of the nation's cities, residents have more than one option for service providers. What many do not have is the money to hop on the information superhighway.
http://benton.org/node/22759
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EVERYBODY GET YOUR DUNS! AND WHY GRANTS.GOV NEEDS AN EXTREME MAKEOVER.
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
As the Washington Post recently observed, the Obama Team keep running into the unexpected brick wall of finding that the Bushies did little to upgrade the government technology they inherited from the Clintons. So they keep assuming they are going to be able to do all this stuff which is utterly routine these days, only to discover that before they can launch they must simultaneously invest in needed technology and decide whether or not to build on the primitive, dead-end stuff they inherited. And so it goes for Grants.gov. I have no doubt this was cutting edge back when they put it together in 1999. And I expect that it's mission is further complicated by the need to comply with a whole host of laws around giving out government grants and maintaining federal databases, each developed by its own separate agency and using its own quaint rules and definitions. Which is why I recommend that Team Obama ditch the existing package and start from scratch. Don't try to build on Grants.gov. Create an entirely separate system for ARRA designed to meet the statutory goals of making it easy to apply, easy to use, easy to track money, and easy to define and collect metrics that show whether this stuff actually accomplishes anything. Oh, and for bonus points, make it customizable in a way that will let people tag information so they can use it for data collection and research purposes we haven't even thought of yet. Happily, all of this stuff is off the shelf technology these days.
http://benton.org/node/22758
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INDUSTRY COALITION LAUNCHES HEALTH IT SECURITY PLAN
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Susan Kelly]
A coalition of more than 50 healthcare companies and technology vendors on Monday unveiled a common security framework designed to be a benchmark for safeguarding the privacy of electronic medical records. The Obama administration is encouraging broader use of electronic records in the United States with the aim of reducing medical errors, eliminating redundant testing and saving money overall. But patient privacy concerns, a rise in security breaches in information technology and a lack of widely accepted security standards have been stumbling blocks. The coalition's plan creates guidelines for addressing the security and regulatory aspects of establishing a broad network for the exchange of electronic health records.
http://benton.org/node/22757
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NTIA: COUPON WAITING LIST SHRINKS, BUT ONLY SLIGHTLY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association says that over a million households who say they rely on analog television remain on the waiting list for DTV-to-analog converter box coupons, with over 600 TV stations having already pulled the plug on analog. NTIA is still waiting for the Office of Management and Budget to free up $650 million in converter box coupon funding so it can get 2.3 million households off the waiting list.
http://benton.org/node/22756
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SCHOOL CRUNCH CALCULUS OF STIMULUS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anne Marie Chaker]
Schools struggling with some of their worst budget crises in generations are taking stock of President Obama's stimulus package -- hoping the money will restore funding for things like textbooks, teacher salaries and tuition. The $100 billion in funding dedicated to education touches programs for almost every age group, from early-childhood programs to financial aid for college students. While the money, part of the $787 billion stimulus package, may not result in a full turnaround, districts say, it will help stop some of the bleeding. Included in the stimulus package is up to $33.6 billion toward school modernization, as well as $2 billion toward investments, such as administrative data systems. This is a huge boost, education advocates say, because states and districts haven't been equipped with systems to help them track progress adequately, and therefore "haven't had solid evidence to make decisions," says Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs at the Education Trust, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. Until now, much has been "based on ideology and not evidence."
http://benton.org/node/22788
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RADIO
WHITE HOUSE LETS LIMBAUGH BE VOICE OF GOP OPPOSITION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
Who says radio is a dead medium? Radio host Rush Limbaugh appears to be the leader of the opposition -- just ask the Obama Administration: Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said the next day: "He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party, and he has been upfront about what he views, and hasn't stepped back from that, which is he hopes for failure." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said reporters should ask Republicans "whether they agree with what Rush Limbaugh said . . . in wishing and hoping for economic failure in this country." Limbaugh, a master at drawing media attention, has filled a vacuum for the GOP since the election, and Emanuel's comments served only to further boost his prominence. Limbaugh fired back on his show yesterday, saying the White House is trying to "malign me, take me out of context" and "attach it to the Republican Party in general, because President Obama wants no debate." He said that this is "a game of manipulation emanating from the Oval Office," and that he wants Obama's "socialist" policies to fail, but added that he does not want to see the economy and stock market tank. But White House officials contend that, with Limbaugh commanding more airtime than any other prominent Republican, they are obliged to respond to his call for the president's failure -- which they are more than happy to equate with financial ruin.
http://benton.org/node/22793
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THE UNFAIRNESS OF A FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Brian Anderson]
[Commentary] A new Fairness Doctrine, which could be imposed either by legislation or through Federal Communications Commission rule changes, wouldn't achieve more balance. Rather, it would obliterate political talk radio. If a station ran a popular conservative show it would face pressure to run a liberal alternative, even though almost all left-leaning efforts to date have failed to capture either listeners or advertising revenue. Now imagine all the lawyers that stations would have to hire to meet the new requirements, not to mention the burden involved in measuring and reporting just how much time was devoted to this topic or that. Many radio executives, already fighting for profits in a world of intense competition, would find the expense unsupportable and switch formats to sports or entertainment. Some might get out of the business entirely. The Obama administration may say that it doesn't back a new Fairness Doctrine, but it has suggested it might support another reform, called "localism," which should also worry defenders of media freedom. Localism would impose greater "local accountability" on broadcasters -- that is, it would force stations to carry more local programming. Localism, as sketched out in a recent FCC report, also could require stations to set up permanent community advisory boards (including "underserved community segments") that would have to be regularly consulted on "community needs and issues."
http://benton.org/node/22791
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DIGITAL CONTENT
SUPREME COURT ENTERS THE YOUTUBE ERA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
The Supreme Court is entering the YouTube era. The first citation in a petition filed with the court last month, for instance, was not to an affidavit or a legal precedent but rather to a YouTube video link. The video shows what is either appalling police brutality or a measured response to an arrested man's intransigence — you be the judge. Such evidence vérité has the potential to unsettle the way appellate judges do their work, according to a new study in The Harvard Law Review. If Supreme Court justices can see for themselves what happened in a case, the study suggests, they may be less inclined to defer to the factual findings of jurors and to the conclusions of lower-court judges.
http://benton.org/node/22790
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THE BRIEF BUT GLORIOUS LIFE OF WEB 2.0, AND WHAT COMES AFTER
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Bruce Sterling]
Web 2.0 is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices; Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform: delivering software as a continually-updated service that gets better the more people use it, consuming and remixing data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an 'architecture of participation,' and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experiences. It's a network in permanent beta. Web 2.0 theory is a web. It's not philosophy, it's not ideology like a political platform, it's not even a set of esthetic tenets like an art movement. The diagram for Web 2.0 is a little model network. You can mash up all the bubbles to the other bubbles. They carry out subroutines on one another. You can flowchart it if you want. There's a native genius here. Like many important concepts, Web 2.0 doesn't have a hard boundary, but rather, a gravitational core. You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core.
http://benton.org/node/22754
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TV EVERYWHERE -- AS LONG AS YOU PAY FOR IT
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Michael Learmonth, Andrew Hampp]
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes hopes to put more TV on the Internet, but he's going to make consumers prove they've paid for it. He has a plan to put all cable programming on the web in places such as Hulu, MySpace, Yahoo TV, or even YouTube. Of course, there's a catch. To get it you'll have to prove you subscribe to pay TV through cable, satellite, or telco. He calls it "a natural extension of the existing model." Cable TV is one of the few sources of subscription-based content that most Americans have shown a willingness to pay for. Yet that's what keeps most of its programming off the web, as the networks fight to keep the 50% of their revenue that comes from cable subscriptions from suffering the same fate as newspapers or record labels.
http://benton.org/node/22751
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DIGITAL PARTNERSHIPS COULD REVIVE, ENERGIZE LOCAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Diane Mermigas]
[Commentary] Local news, interests and connections between consumers and advertisers are at the heart of both the failing traditional media saddled with legacy costs and the nimble Web-based contenders. The value of all things local has been woefully underestimated. It has been devalued in print and television, which can't quite make the leap to digital, and botched on the Internet -- where it seems impossible to capitalize on the hyperpersonal in bloggers and tweeters run amok. What could be more relevant than what is going on in consumers' own backyard? Institutional media (newspapers and TV stations) has failed to connect with local as it is being redefined by consumers who are obsessing over the interactive ME-dia they care about most: their needs, family and friends.
http://benton.org/node/22750
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SELLING EXPERTISE ON THE INTERNET FOR EXTRA CASH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Holmes]
As the recession deepens, a small but growing number of people are taking their skills online, doling out expertise or performing specified tasks for a fee. Labor-at-the-keyboard sites are gaining popularity as people increasingly turn to the Web in search of work. Internet job-search sites saw a 51% rise in traffic from January 2008 to January 2009, according to comScore Media Metrix, to 26.7 million unique visitors. Among the many fee-for-service Web sites out there, at least three are attracting a significant number of users -- though consumers should exercise a healthy degree of skepticism when consulting any of these sites. LivePerson seeks out experts on a slew of topics, including mental health, financial services, shopping and fashion, as well as psychics and spiritual advisers. Mechanical Turk, a Web service run by Amazon.com Inc., pays workers to perform tasks, such as cataloging products online. Associated Content pays contributors to write articles on a wide range of subjects, from organic flower gardening to how to apply for financial aid.
http://benton.org/node/22789
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SUPREME COURT TO HEAR FREELANCE WRITERS' SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: James Vicini]
The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would hear an appeal by a group of publishers seeking to reinstate a settlement with freelance writers in a copyright case involving work included in online databases. The settlement, worth as much as $18 million, was reached in 2005 after about four years of negotiations over claims by the freelance writers that their contracts did not allow for publication of their work electronically. The publishers that appealed to the Supreme Court included Reed Elsevier, New York Times Co , Thomson Reuters Corp, News Corp's Dow Jones & Co, and Knight Ridder, which was purchased by McClatchy Co in 2006. The writers had sued the publishers and electronic database services, saying their contracts did not grant the publishers the right to electronically reproduce their work or license it for others to do so. A federal judge in New York approved the settlement. But a U.S. appeals court panel, by a 2-1 vote, threw out the settlement on the grounds that the judge lacked jurisdiction over infringement claims arising from unregistered copyrights.
http://benton.org/node/22748
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WIRELESS
WHAT MADE THE CELLPHONE REVOLUTION POSSIBLE
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: David Gross]
[Commentary] Lost in the past month's dismal array of facts and figures was another number that actually tells a remarkably positive story. The world now has 4 billion mobile phone connections, according to the group that represents virtually all of the world's mobile phone carriers, the GSM Association. That number is up from just 100 million a decade ago, and most of that growth is in developing countries. Keep in mind that there are 6.8 billion people on the planet. Why is 4 billion an important number? For starters, it represents the majority of humankind talking to one another, sharing ideas and buying things. Second, amid the current "whither capitalism" headlines and calls for heightened regulation, it is a reminder of what can be achieved in free and open markets that promote competition. We didn't reach 4 billion connections by accident. We got there because governments implemented market reforms that allowed new carriers to enter previously protected telecom markets and to compete on price, service, and coverage. By opening up their markets to innovation and competition, developing countries attracted investors. Those investors put their money into infrastructure and training, resulting in millions of new jobs. It is through competition, not regulation, that billions of cellphone connections will soon be joined by billions of wireless Internet connections - connections to critical services such as medicine and education. If governments continue to promote these developments by allocating sufficient new spectrum and allowing entrepreneurs to build and operate competitive networks, millions of jobs will be created, economies will grow, and the free flow of information will empower those seeking a better future for themselves and their children.
http://benton.org/node/22782
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SUIT OVER $5K NETBOOK 3G DATA BILL; AT&T SAYS "READ THE TOS"
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
Oklahoma resident Billie Parks signed up for RadioShack's $100 netbook deal, but didn't think committing to a two-year AT&T data contract would leave her with a $5,000 bill for her first month of service. She has now filed a lawsuit against the two companies accusing them of fraud, but AT&T says the details on additional charges can be easily found.
http://benton.org/node/22781
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NEW ITU ICT DEVELOPMENT INDEX COMPARES 154 COUNTRIES
[SOURCE: International Telecommunication Union, AUTHOR: Press release]
The International Telecommunication Union's new ICT Development Index (IDI) compares developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in 154 countries over a five-year period from 2002 to 2007. The Index combines 11 indicators into a single measure that can be used as a benchmarking tool globally, regionally and at the country level. These are related to ICT access, use and skills, such as households with a computer the number of Internet users; and literacy levels. The most advanced countries in ICT are from Northern Europe. The exception is the Republic of Korea. Sweden tops the new ITU ICT Development Index, followed by the Republic of Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway. They are followed by other, mainly high-income countries from Europe, Asia and North America. Western and Northern Europe and North America are the regions with the highest IDI scores, and most countries from these regions are among the top twenty ICT economies. Poor countries, in particular the least developed countries, remain at the lower end of the index with limited access to ICT infrastructure, including fixed and mobile telephony, Internet and broadband.
http://benton.org/node/22755
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QUICKLY -- ICANN President Twomey Announces Departure at end of year; FTC Releases List of Top Consumer Complaints in 2008; Touchscreens Make A Grab Beyond Smartphones;
ICANN PRESIDENT TWOMEY ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE AT END OF YEAR
[SOURCE: Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, AUTHOR: Press release]
Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers President and CEO Paul Twomey will not seek renewal of his contract and will move on from ICANN at the end of 2009. Twomey was named CEO and President in 2003, after serving, for 4 years, as the Chairman of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). He oversaw the growth of an organization that has become the primary coordinator of the Internet's global address system.
http://benton.org/node/22753
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FTC RELEASES LIST OF TOP CONSUMER COMPLAINTS IN 2008
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Trade Commission released the list of top consumer complaints received by the agency in 2008 and, for the ninth year in a row, identity theft was the number one consumer complaint category. Of 1,223,370 complaints received in 2008, 313,982 or 26 percent were related to identity theft. Number four on the list is Internet Services; number eight is Television and Electronic Media; 10 is Computer Equipment and Software; 13 Internet Auctions; and 20 is Telephone Services.
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TOUCHSCREENS MAKE A GRAB BEYOND SMARTPHONES
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Eric Zeman]
The mobile industry has finally found its voice and is responding loudly to the Apple iPhone by offering a slew of new phones that rely on touchscreens for input. Just how far will this trend go? It's not only phones that are getting the tactile treatment. Touchscreens are finding their way onto laptops, netbooks, and other mobile devices.
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