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May 5, 2011 (Sony Explains PlayStation Attack)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011 (Feliz Cinco de Mayo)
Today's agenda includes Accessibility, Internet Governance, Spectrum and Network Neutrality (preview below) http://benton.org/calendar/2011-05-05/
AGENDA
Will We Define or Limit the Future? - analysis
CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
Sony Explains PlayStation Attack to Congress
Sen Blumenthal: Sony's response on breaches 'unacceptable' [links to web]
FTC Testifies on Data Security - press release [links to web]
Department of Justice launches probe into Sony data breach [links to web]
New York Attorney General Subpoenas Sony [links to web]
Security remains the biggest hurdle for agencies moving operations to the cloud [links to web]
Do-Not-Track Bill Clears California Judiciary Committee [links to web]
Facebook, Google, Yahoo Fight "Do Not Track" Privacy Measures
New App Aims to Erase Swingers’ Online Tracks [links to web]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Testimony preview: Genachowski on network neutrality
Testimony preview: McDowell on network neutrality
Rep Waters: FCC's Network Neutrality Rules Could Harm Consumers
AT&T|T-MOBILE
How Consumers Would Benefit From the AT&T/T-Mobile USA Merger - op-ed
Throw Your Smartphone Down the Rabbit Hole
Sen Eshoo sees red flags in AT&T merger
Chairman Rockefeller not surprised as AT&T, Sprint vie for his affections
AT&T Beefs-Up Lobbying [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Apple Updates Software to Fix Problems With Collecting Location Data
FCC Seeks Comment on Verizon Wireless Petition
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Valuing the Internet
New Report Questions Satellite Internet for Rural Areas
North Carolina Senate approves heightening hurdles for muni-broadband
And the leader in high speed fiber broadband is... Lithuania [links to web]
What Happens When the Cloud Meets a Bandwidth Cap - editorial [links to web]
CONTENT
Reports suggest studios should be afraid, very afraid (of Netflix) [links to web]
Time Warner buys Flixster in bid to counter Netflix [links to web]
AG Holder: Rogue websites are 'substantial problem' [links to web]
Sen Wyden Aims To Protect Digital Goods From Some Taxes
Sen Wyden: Let's hope Hillary Clinton, and not DHS, prevails on Web issues
Comcast to invest additional $300 million for NBCUniversal programming [links to web]
Harsh reality for hopefuls: You are what you tweet
Sports viewers boost TV ad revenues in US [links to web]
Vatican invites bloggers to first-ever summit [links to web]
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Attorney General Holder: Comcast/NBCU Merger Review was "Appropriately Aggressive"
TELEVISION/RADIO
TV At Any Cost No Longer The Rule For Many Young Adults - analysis [links to web]
FCC Ends Arbitron Inquiry
TV Everywhere approaches ubiquity, study finds [links to web]
Will Marijuana Ads Make License Renewals Go Up in Smoke?
Sports viewers boost TV ad revenues in US [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
State allocates final $28 million for Internet freedom programs
State Department Is Trying To Make A Thousand Ushahidis Bloom
HEALTH
Electronic Health Records: Green or Polluter?
Schedule for the Assessment of HIT Policy Committee Recommendations [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Stations Go Multiplatform to Cover Storms [links to web]
Verizon sends portable cell towers to storm-ravaged Alabama [links to web]
Weather Leads the News - research [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Commerce Department Announces Members of New Innovation Advisory Board
Powell Gets FCC Welcome
Dr. Traci Morris Joins Native Public Media - press release [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
This headline is presented in partnership with:
China Creates New Internet Overseer [links to web]
Canada sets 5Mbps by 2015 broadband target [links to web]
WikiLeaks: US offered to bankroll New Zealand piracy crackdown [links to web]
South Korea raids Google over illegal mobile data collection [links to web]
France to launch LTE auction at end of May [links to web]
AGENDA
WILL WE DEFINE OR LIMIT THE FUTURE?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
[Commentary] Whether you look at Amazon’s outage, Sony’s network breach or the drama around Apple’s location data collection policies, you see that in all of them, the common thread was “we the people.” Our fears, our desires and our needs were behind the huge outcry around these problems that seemed to impact millions of us. This mainstreaming of technology has opened up new opportunities, but it has and will pose a brand new kind of challenge to companies in Silicon Valley. If the hue and cry over Apple’s location data collection methodologies is any indication, then are we the people becoming the limiting factor in the evolution of technology and its adoption? Will the idea of what computing can do and what it will be in the future be limited by our collective ability to grok these changes? I mean, things aren't exactly getting less complicated. The social web is about connecting people. On some networks it is real people (Facebook) and on some networks the web connects assumed identities (Twitter). If CPU, memory and storage defined the capabilities in the PC era, then in the Internet era, we saw software being defined by processors, memory, storage and bandwidth. The Internet era eased the way to the social web. In the social web, the software and with it the frontiers of technology being defined by the marriage of network connectivity, PC-era staples and social identity.
benton.org/node/59771 | GigaOm
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CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY
SONY LETTER TO CONGRESS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
Sony responded to lawmakers after the company was asked to answer a series of questions related to hackers breaching its network and gaining access to the personal data — including credit card numbers — of millions of its customers last month. In the letter to Rep Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) -- chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade -- Sony said it was the victim of a “large-scale cyberattack” that was carried out by “very professional, highly sophisticated” criminals intent on stealing personal and credit card information. Sony said in the letter it had determined that the PlayStation Network was attacked by two different groups. One group slammed the servers with a major denial-of-service attack while other hackers gained access to personal information on the servers. The company said it was unsure if the two groups were related and if the first group of hackers provided cover for those trying to steal personal data. Although Sony said it did not know who was responsible for the attacks, the letter said the company believed a group called Anonymous played a role, as Sony found files on its servers that said “Anonymous” and “We Are Legion.” Sony’s Web sites came under attack from this group several weeks earlier when it was hit with a similar “large-scale, coordinated, denial-of-service attack.” The company also said it had discovered that the hackers gained access to the servers through “a system software vulnerability.”
Despite suffering massive breaches that made national news, neither Sony nor Epsilon showed up to a House hearing on data theft this morning -- the predictable result of which was that both firms were just trashed in absentia.
benton.org/node/59838 | New York Times | ars technica | National Journal | Politico
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FIGHTING "DO NOT TRACK"
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
There's growing social and legal momentum behind the "do not track" initiative to protect online privacy, but now some of the biggest names in tech are opposing the legislation, hinting that job losses and profit cuts could be the result. Are they being totally honest? The key part of this to consider are the words "business model." Google and Facebook pretty much own the online ads business between them. A key part of this is highly targeted advertising based on key data on individual subscribers--acquired through systems like cookies, historical archives of web searches, or which sites users visit and log in to via Facebook Connect. The Do Not Track bill threatens this income, as many users could press a button and disconnect Google and Facebook (and other firms like Microsoft) from potential revenue streams. Apple is also an indirect signatory on the objections letter, possibly due to its interest in iAds--its new high-tech ad platform on iOS devices -- and other future ad-related plans the firm has, leveraging off increasing use of its iPhones and iPads. Would a Do Not Track button really put users at risk of security breaches, though? Surely a database of user profiled behaviors is actually more risky -- as the Sony hack is ably demonstrating right now. How about the TV business -- it doesn't track all the individual viewers, but it manages to bring in billions in advertising revenues by profiling ads in other ways. It's possible to make a case using these, and other, arguments that a Do Not Track law may actually encourage innovation in the online ad space.
benton.org/node/59831 | Fast Company | Wired -- Google's Susan Wojcicki
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY
GENACHOWSKI TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski will argue at a House hearing May 5 that antitrust laws alone cannot do the job of protecting the open Internet. He will testify before the House Judiciary Competition subcommittee. Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has proposed tweaking antitrust laws to preserve the open Internet, rather than enforcing FCC rules. Chairman Genachowski will essentially oppose that strategy on Thursday. He will say he does not think that antitrust laws alone could preserve an open Internet or provide the regulatory certainty he says was another aim of the rules. He also argues against adopting new antitrust laws on Internet openness, saying that would be a "problematic approach, ill-suited to the fast-changing nature of Internet technology." He agrees with the Supreme Court that, "while statutes are hard to change in light of new developments in network technology or markets, expert administrative agencies have flexible processes for dealing with the unexpected and are, accordingly, better suited for handling this particular issue."
benton.org/node/59940 | Hill, The | B&C
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MCDOWELL TESTIMONY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell will testify at a net-neutrality hearing on Thursday that existing antitrust laws are sufficient to prevent abuses by service providers. Commissioner McDowell will argue that:
"Nothing is broken in the broadband Internet access market that needs fixing;
Congress never gave the FCC the legal authority to act as it did;
The order is likely to cause more harm than good; and
Sufficient antitrust and consumer protection laws exist to prevent and cure any of the contemplated harms outlined in the order."
benton.org/node/59939 | Hill, The | B&C
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY RULES FAIL CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) took aim at the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules in a speech to a Computer and Communications Industry Association meeting in Washington. An early supporter of the net-neutrality rule initiative, she was less sanguine on the resulting compromise rules. The FCC's new network-neutrality rules are insufficient and could harm consumers, she told the group, opining about the resulting rules arrived under "the immense pressure exerted on the FCC from industry stakeholders and some Members of Congress." The rules, approved in December but which will not go into effect for several more months, were the product of negotiations with industry stakeholders and a stand-down from initial proposals by the chairman to classify Internet access under some Title II common carrier regulations. Among the compromises was applying only some of the regulations -- transparency and non-blocking -- to wireless broadband. The FCC said there are legitimate network management and architecture differences that justified the disparate treatment, but Rep Waters was, and is, not convinced.
benton.org/node/59932 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AT&T|T-MOBILE
CONSUMER BENEFIT FROM MERGER
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Rick Carnes]
[Commentary] AT&T|T-Mobile merger critics argue that reducing the number of broadband service providers could allow the remaining service providers to increase the cost of monthly subscription fees. The merger partners dispute this point. But this "cost" critique ignores a crucial question: what do broadband consumers believe is of value in the wireless environment? The simple answer is "content" (that list includes such thing as music, movies, and games). Many Broadband customers will likely spend larger amounts of money on this content than on their monthly service plans. Yet critics of the merger ignore this essential point and focus instead on "price, price, and price." To the Songwriters Guild of America, the key question is: what value do consumers stand to gain, and what do they stand to lose, from this combination? Our conclusion is, because of the content-protection values advanced by the acquiring party -- AT&T -- and because of the economic importance that consumers place on music and other content when utilizing wireless and broadband services, consumers stand to gain significant content value by the merger. Given that potential price increases resulting from the merger are far from proven, the significant enhanced value that consumers should experience from properly protected content places this merger solidly in the public interest.
benton.org/node/59928 | Huffington Post, The
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THE RABBIT HOLE
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] Do you believe in fairy tales? AT&T wants you to. The phone giant is trying to make everyone believe that its takeover of T-Mobile would be good for jobs, innovation and the economy, while saving you hundreds of dollars on your smartphone. The opposite is true. But that didn't stop AT&T from making these claims in a 381-page FCC filing that was so filled with half-truths and fantasies that the Los Angeles Times said it came from Alice in Wonderland. "The wireless marketplace will be more competitive," AT&T claims in the filing. For those keeping score, the phone company is actually saying that consumers will gain more choice among mobile phone carriers by subtracting T-Mobile from your options. So should it be left to Washington and one exceedingly powerful company to decide the fate of our communications? If Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice hear from enough people like you and me, they can muster the courage to ask the right questions of AT&T.
benton.org/node/59767 | Huffington Post, The
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ESHOO RED FLAGS AT&T DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) says she has major concerns about AT&T's proposal to acquire T-Mobile to create the largest wireless company in the country. "This is huge -- $39 billion," said Rep Eshoo, the top Democrat on the telecom subcommittee, during a Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) event. "That's serious money, even here in this town." Declaring competition one of her top priorities as ranking member, Rep Eshoo said she is concerned that wireless prices could go up if the merger is permitted. "The [Federal Communications Commission, the Justice Department], and my subcommittee all need to very, very carefully scrutinize the merger, how it's going to impact the price of wireless voice and data services, its impact on the special access market, and whether there will be sufficient competition on a market-by-market basis to provide consumers with a choice in next generation wireless broadband," she said. Rep Eshoo, whose Silicon Valley district includes Google and other top tech companies, says she hears repeatedly from her constituents that they'd like to see more competition in the telecom industry. "Just because you're gigantic, just saying you're competitive and you offer choice is not [enough], I don't think," Rep Eshoo said. She also raised concerns that telecom industry lobbying can sway the Congress against "common sense," pointing in particular to network neutrality rules that are opposed by House Republicans.
benton.org/node/59770 | Hill, The
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AT&T, SPRINT VIE FOR ROCKEFELLER
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) does not sound like he was hugely moved by AT&T and Sprint this week as they vied to win his sympathies concerning the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, which his committee will review. Sprint and AT&T squabbled this week over how the merger could impact the powerful Senate chairman's home state in the first of a handful of arguments that could flare up in Washington on how the combination would affect voters represented by key members of the House and Senate. The argument started when Sprint made a formal request for the Public Service Commission in West Virginia to open a proceeding on the merger. AT&T shot back with a statement from its mid-Atlantic executive Michael Schweder calling Sprint's effort "cynical" and raising doubts about whether the company really has West Virginia's best interests at heart. Despite all the wooing, Chairman Rockefeller, on whole, did not sound particularly surprised or moved by all the attention.
benton.org/node/59935 | Hill, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
APPLE FIX
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
Apple released its promised software update for its mobile devices to fix a problem that enabled the iPhone and iPad 3G to collect customers’ locations. The update is available through Apple iTunes. When customers activate the update, they will see a screen explaining that the “update contains changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location database cache.” The company said the update would reduce the size of the location storage, which until now had been storing location data for up to a year. The update will also stop storing location data in iTunes when a device is backed up on a computer, and will completely erase the data from customers’ phones and tablets if they turn off Location Services.
benton.org/node/59949 | New York Times
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VERIZON PETITION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a petition filed by Verizon Wireless for reconsideration of the Wireline Competition Bureau's April 1, 2011 letter directing the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) to implement the company-specific cap on high-cost universal service support that the FCC imposed in October 2007 on Verizon Wireless's predecessor in interest, Alltel Corporation. Interested parties may file comments on or before June 3, 2011, and reply comments on or before June 20, 2011. All pleadings are to reference WC Docket Nos. 05-337, 06-122.
benton.org/node/59809 | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
VALUING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daniel Alegre]
[Commentary] Everyone has heard the hype about the Internet's miraculous ability to spur the economy. That hype has helped drive both the development of new businesses and government investments in Internet infrastructure. Hong Kong and other Asian governments, for instance, have spent immense private and public capital laying telecom cable and the like. But the question remains for many Asian governments -- is it worth it? At Google we asked Boston Consulting Group to put together a study that helps answer that question in a concrete way. Until now, Internet true-believers have tended toward novel measures to justify such investments. They don't have much choice. What dollar amount do you put on keeping track of friends, planning routes quickly or more easily sharing jokes? Google's economist, Hal Varian, recently estimated that the time saved by our search engine alone was worth $65 billion a year to the U.S. economy. But few of us think in such abstract terms as saved time, even when the sums at stake are enormous. We are commissioning a series of studies in Asia that tries to put this issue in more comprehensible terms by measuring the Internet's contribution to GDP. This shifts the debate away from nebulous concepts such as "speeding up business processes" and "allowing companies to reach new customers" by looking at the bottom line: How much do all the Internet's benefits, taken together, add to an economy? The first study, "The Connected Harbour," looks at Hong Kong, among the most wired and the most freewheeling of Asian economies. More than 80% of Hong Kong's households have broadband access. While many Asian countries aspire to that level of connectivity, not all of them also boast Hong Kong's online openness. The territory has from the beginning kept the bidding for mobile-network licenses competitive, enshrined in law unfettered online commentary, and put a host of government services online. It is balancing the needs of copyright holders against the pace of the Internet's innovations. Hong Kong, therefore, shows what the Internet can be when it's allowed to be itself. The results are impressive. BCG estimates that in 2009 Hong Kong's Internet economy was worth 5.9% of the GDP -- ust behind the 7% that manufacturing industry contributes. [Alegre is President, Asia Pacific at Google]
benton.org/node/59830 | Wall Street Journal
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SATELLITE INTERNET FOR RURAL AREAS QUESTIONED IN NEW RUMBA REPORT
[SOURCE: , AUTHOR: Press release]
The Rural Mobile and Broadband Alliance (RuMBA) USA released a whitepaper on satellite Internet service that finds that, when measured against the prevailing definition of broadband, satellite technology falls far short of conventional wired and wireless alternatives, mainly due to latency, bandwidth, price, performance and service shortcomings. Key Findings:
The latency inherent in satellite Internet connections limits their use for standard broadband functions such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
The capacity limits of satellite Internet service rule out broadband functionality taken for granted by Americans living in communities served by cable, fiber optic, and DSL services. These functions include automatic software updates, online backup, streaming video, telecommuting, and website hosting.
Notwithstanding those limitations satellite Internet service is less affordable than wired Internet service.
benton.org/node/59793 |
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NC BROADBAND LAW
[SOURCE: Connected Planet, AUTHOR: Dan O'Shea]
The North Carolina State Senate has approved by an overwhelming margin a bill that seeks to force municipal broadband networks to submit to a public approval vote, as well as private network fees that some observers believe would derail recent progress in the municipal broadband sector. The legislation has been supported by a cadre of major broadband service providers who see the muni-broadband networks as competitive to them. It has been opposed by local media, municipal broadband advocates, such as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and public officials like FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who said the bill threatens the goals of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Assuming the legislation passes, at least five municipalities in North Carolina could be exempt from it because they already have operational broadband networks in place. Other municipalities with networks in the planning stages reportedly will need to review the new law before they proceed further. With the progress that has been made with this legislation in North Carolina, it's likely that similar efforts on other states’ legislatures could gain steam.
benton.org/node/59804 | Connected Planet
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CONTENT
DIGITAL GOODS AND TAXES
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) plans to introduce legislation with Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would block state and local taxes on digital goods such as music or software downloads if there is no similar tax on similar physical goods, such as CDs. The legislation would ban "multiple and discriminatory" taxes on goods delivered electronically. The legislation would not impact the efforts of states and some retailers to require online retailers like Amazon to collect sales taxes from customers in states where those companies don't have a physical presence.
benton.org/node/59931 | National Journal
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WYDEN PREFERS STATE TO DHS APPROACH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke out against Administration efforts to tear down rogue websites, saying foreign governments could see the U.S. domain seizures as a "green light" to tamper with the Web in their countries. Sen Wyden has panned domain-name seizures before, writing to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to question their policy of taking down websites that sell counterfeit and copyrighted goods. Speaking at an event hosted by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Sen Wyden said he sees a tension in the government between the aggressive ICE crackdown and the work of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to promote Internet freedom. The State Department funds technology aimed at derailing Web censorship by foreign regimes. Sen Wyden, who commended Clinton for her efforts and said he has spoken with her on the initiative, said domain-name seizures in the U.S. could be a setback to Clinton's Internet freedom work. "Hopefully, her views will prevail, and not the views of ICE," he said.
benton.org/node/59798 | Hill, The
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YOU ARE WHAT YOU TWEET
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Potential candidates are hiring Internet scrubbers these days to clean up their online images before they even declare candidacy. Online reputation management firms that already do big business in the corporate world are being hired by campaigns to monitor and manage candidates’ online brands. Integrity Defenders President Alan Assante said politicians, including state senators and members of Congress, now make up about 15 percent of the firm’s clients. Reputation.com, Integrity Defenders, Metal Rabbit Media and other digital-strategy firms now provide services — which can cost thousands of dollars — that can include burying unflattering Web content about a candidate in search engine results, monitoring edits made to a candidate’s Wikipedia page and other techniques to help sanitize an image. Some political consultants now provide these services as well. However, rewriting the digital past can be a political minefield.
benton.org/node/60242 | Politico
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
HOLDER DEFENDS MERGER REVIEW
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Attorney General Eric Holder told Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA), at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, that the Justice Department was not trying to regulate by consent decree in its merger review process, that its Comcast/NBCU merger review was "appropriately aggressive," and that the White House's courting of GE CEO Jeff Immelt did not and should not have played any part in that decision-making process. Rep Waters complained that Justice was providing "rubber stamp" approvals of mergers, a complaint Democrats levied against Justice under the Bush Administration. rep Waters focused on Comcast/NBCU, a merger she had numerous concerns and complaints about. She said the antitrust division was becoming more regulator than legal enforcement agency. She pointed to the temporary conditions it has to enforce in Comcast/NBCU and other mergers, as opposed to simply blocking a deal or requiring divestiture when appropriate. AG Holder said Justice was not trying to regulate via condition.
benton.org/node/59818 | Broadcasting&Cable
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TELEVISION/RADIO
FCC ENDS ARBITRON INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission granted PPM Coalition's request to withdraw its Emergency Petition for Section 403 Inquiry and terminated the FCC's inquiry into the impact of Arbitron audience ratings measurements on radio broadcasters without further action. PPMC had raised concerns about the use of the portable people meter and its potential impact on audience ratings of stations that air programming targeted to minority audiences.
benton.org/node/59812 | Federal Communications Commission
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MARIJUANA ADS AND LICENCE RENEWALS
[SOURCE: CommLawCenter, AUTHOR: Scott Flick]
[Commentary] Broadcasters don't know it yet, but recent actions by the Department of Justice suggest that the federal government may be moving closer to raining on their upcoming license renewals. The reason? Medical marijuana advertising. While it seems like a recent phenomenon, the first state laws permitting medical marijuana go back some 15 years. The movement by states to permit the use of medical marijuana has grown steadily since then, with half the states in the U.S. (and the District of Columbia) now having medical marijuana laws on the books or under consideration. Of course, when an entrepreneur sets up a medical marijuana dispensary, the next step is to get the word out to the public. In the past few years, these dispensaries began approaching broadcast stations in growing numbers seeking to air advertising. In the depths of the recent recession, medical marijuana dispensaries were one of the few growth industries, and many stations were thrilled to have a new source of ad revenue. But In February 2011, the Department of Justice said that it "will enforce the [Controlled Substances Act] vigorously against individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law. Far more likely than widespread prosecutions of media organizations accepting medical marijuana ads are headaches for stations seeking license renewal at the Federal Communications Commission. In processing license renewal applications, the FCC must determine whether, in light of the station's past performance, renewal of its license will serve the public interest. It is an admittedly ambiguous standard, and if the federal government, via the FCC, wants to use the license renewal process to pressure broadcasters to reject all future medical marijuana ads, it is not a difficult task. Fines and the threat of non-renewal can be very effective persuaders. By severing the link that advertising offers between medical marijuana producers and the patients who use their product, the federal government might feel that it can suppress demand for that product. In reality, the advertising would likely just shift from broadcast stations to other media not so dependent upon the federal government. Regardless, broadcasters whose license renewals are caught in the middle of this power struggle between the state and federal governments will be the ones feeling the heat.
benton.org/node/59790 | CommLawCenter
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
INTERNET FREEDOM GRANTS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
This week, the State Department will tell Congress that it has allocated all of the $50 million appropriated so far for Internet freedom efforts around the world. With the Internet and social-media websites such as Facebook and Twitter often credited for helping to spark the popular revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. officials say they are stepping up efforts to keep the Internet open. "There's no questions that the ability of young activists in Egypt or Tunisia to organize themselves was dependent on not sitting in a coffee shop or hotel somewhere, but using the Internet and having access to each other online," said Michael Posner, assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights, and labor. He said that a free and open Internet is one of the keys to a functional democracy.
benton.org/node/59797 | National Journal
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STATE DEPT TOOLS
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: EB Boyd]
When the earthquake decimated Haiti last year, technologists around the world converged online to develop tools to help rescuers find victims and raise funds. Now the State Department wants to see if it can take that impulse and put it to work helping grassroots organizations tackle humanitarian problems around the world even when there isn't a horrible disaster to deal with. To do that, the State Department is convening a series of “TechCamps” in different parts of the globe this year to bring together non-governmental organizations that know the problems, with technology experts who might have innovative ideas about how to tackle them. “We saw the ability of digital natives and the networked world, using lightweight and easily iterated tools, to do something rapidly that a big organization or government would find difficult, if not impossible, to do,” said Richard Boly, the State Department’s director of eDiplomacy. “The question is: Can we get that same magic to happen when people aren't dying?”
benton.org/node/59794 | Fast Company | Fast Company -- Alec Ross
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HEALTH
ARE EHRs GREEN
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
This is the year that billions of dollars in government incentive payments are set to begin flowing to the nation’s doctors and hospitals to encourage them to adopt computerized patient records. The goal, of course, is to help improve the quality of care and curb costs. But what about the environmental impact? That was the question asked by researchers at Kaiser Permanente, a giant health-care group, which covers 8.7 million people in nine states and the District of Columbia. Kaiser used its own system — 454 clinics and 36 hospitals, using electronic health records — as its laboratory. The answer, published in the journal Health Affairs, is that the potential environmental benefit is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as much as 1.7 million tons a year. That’s the pollution equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off America’s roads.
benton.org/node/59760 | New York Times
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POLICYMAKERS
INNOVATION ADVISORY BOARD
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce, AUTHOR: Press release]
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the members of the new Innovation Advisory Board that will guide a study of US economic competitiveness and innovation to help inform national policies at the heart of US job creation and global competitiveness. The 15-member board will advise the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the National Economic Council and other federal agencies, on the development of the study – focused on America’s innovative capacity and global economic competitiveness. The Innovation Advisory Board was established by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, signed by President Obama in January of this year. Board members will offer advice and solicit feedback from stakeholders across the country, serving until the completion of the study – required before January 4, 2012. The study will analyze the competitiveness of the U.S. economy and its capacity for innovation in comparison to that of our global competition – covering all facets of the economy impacted by national policy, including trade and exports, education, research and development, immigration, technology commercialization, intellectual property and tax policy. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/59915 | Department of Commerce
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POWELL GETS FCC WELCOME
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Apparently, National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell will have a respectful and attentive Federal Communications Commission audience for his advocacy for the cable industry. From the hugs from FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to the shout-outs from old friend and current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, former FCC commissioner and chairman Powell was clearly among well-wishers at the Women in Cable Telecommunications reception at the Mandarin Oriental hotel adjacent to the FCC's headquarters in Washington. "For those of you who are our members, I promise to do my best," Powell told the crowd, "for those at the FCC, I promise to offer the most compelling, rational, and reasonable argument for why you should do what we want," he said, to applause and cheers. He said he had missed dealing with the most intellectually fascinating issues in America. He said he also missed it because it was a space "filled with people who are really trying to find solutions in a meaningful and pragmatic way to allow us to be proud of our country as the leading empire of the information age."
benton.org/node/60245 | Broadcasting&Cable
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