September 2005

There's a full communications policy docket today: NATOA meets in DC;
experts talk about a post-Katrina agenda; the Senate hears about
Communications in a Disaster; and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs considers a bill on Emergency Communications. For
upcoming these and other media policy events, see http://www.benton.org

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Hard Lessons of Katrina Being put to Immediate Use
It's Not Just Open Standards, it's Open Spectrum
Katrina Could Unite Wireless, Satellite Industries
Florida Broadcaster Pushes Power Priority

LEGISLATION
Telcos Criticize Barton Bill's Franchising Provisions
Local Officials Push Hill for Say in Telecom Rewrite

BROADCASTING/CABLE
Coalitions Take Competing Stances Over 'Multicasting' Rules
NCTA: Cable Ops Might Exit if Telcos Come
Katrina, Indecency Put Payola On Hold At FCC
CPB/Tomlinson Report Expected Late Next Month
Stevens Backs Ex-Aide in NAB Job Hunt

INTERNET/BROADBAND
FTC Member To Oppose State Limits On Municipal Broadband Networks
The Meaning of Free Speech
Broadband Penetration Slowing
New Technology Aims to Improve Internet Access for the Impaired
Internet Deals: A Tangled Web

DIGITAL CONTENT
Better Information Isn't Always Beneficial (Say it ain't so!)
Verizon to Police Web Customers To Protect Disney From Piracy
Feds Announce Global Anti-piracy Initiatives
TiVo Users Fear Recording Restrictions
China's Model for a Censored Internet

QUICKLY -- Time To Also March On The Media?; Clock Stopped on Verizon-MCI
Merger Review

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

HARD LESSONS OF KATRINA PUT TO IMMEDIATE USE
Less than four weeks after Katrina, preparations for Hurricane Rita appear
to be based on lessons learned from the last major storm hitting the
region. When Katrina wiped out communications along the Gulf Coast,
officials and key emergency workers were cut off from each other. That
contributed greatly to the chaos on the ground. This time, said R. David
Paulison, new chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the
Pentagon is sending in five two-person teams to set up communications after
the storm comes through. If fire and police communications are down, he
said, "we're going to help them very quickly get those back up in place so
they can do the job that they are trained to do." In New Orleans, where
officials are concerned that weakened levees could be breached even if Rita
makes landfall elsewhere, the military was bringing in a $4.5 million
satellite communications system for authorities, said Lt. Gen. Russel
Honore, commander of the military's Joint Task Force Katrina.
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Mimi Hall]
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050922/1a_lessonscov22_dom.a...

IT'S NOT JUST OPEN STANDARDS, IT'S OPEN SPECTRUM
[Commentary] The problem of interconnecting communications services is not
generally an open standards problem. It is an open spectrum problem -- and
one we could solve today. Ever since 9/11, the communications world has
known about the problems of interconnectivity among public safety services
and the general public. Long ago, when radio was becoming a useful tool for
public safety and not just for broadcasting, the FCC divided up the
spectrum into little slices and gave them out by service. Thus,
"firefighters" got a slice of spectrum, "police" got another, "forest
rangers" a third, etc. This seems nuts today, but at the time it made
sense. Most of the time, firefighters and police officers don't need to
communicate by radio. In the old days of primitive radios and powerful
transmitters, there was fear that police radios and firefighter radios on
the same band would interfere with each other. So the FCC put them on
separate bands and relied on the stationary command centers (the fire house
and the police station) to communicate with each other and then re-
transmit to the units of their forces that needed to coordinate. While this
did not allow instantaneous coordination between units on the scene, this
was felt to be a reasonable trade off against the risk of regular
interference, police responding to fire calls, etc. Unfortunately, we are
now living in a world where each service has its own special type of highly
expensive (because economies of scale never kick in) radio on its own
frequency. It's not just open standards, the radios simply cannot
communicate with each other because they do not send or receive on the same
frequencies. The second problem is overwhelming existing infrastructure by
civilians and triaging civilian use with emergency use. Even in 9/11, when
cell sites (other than those on the Towers) were not destroyed, the sheer
volume of civilians trying to call each other overwhelmed the system
(although text-messaging, which uses much less bandwidth, worked better).
Public safety folks want a way to take over that bandwidth if needed. At
the same time, however, you don't want to cut off the civilian population
completely from telecom services. Civilians need to coordinate with each
other to ease evacuation, locate missing relatives, or even report new
developments to authorities. Finally, there is the problem of replacing
critical infrastructure when it gets destroyed. Radio isn't magic, and
communications systems designed around a particular architecture, like
cellular, will not work with a different sort of architecture. For years,
open spectrum advocates have touted the virtues of "smart radios." Using
existing technology, a radio can scan the spectrum for usable bands, find
the receivers that should receive the messages, and use the unused bands to
send the message. The receivers ignore incoming signals unless they are
tagged to attract attention, in which case they tune in. But the FCC's
rules prohibit all but the most primitive "smart radios." The FCC prohibits
the sort of frequency hopping described above. In fact, to get a device
approved for operation, you need to show the FCC's engineers that the
device will not broadcast out of band, and that you have taken steps to
prevent others from tampering with the device to make it operate out of its
assigned band.
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
http://www.wetmachine.com/totsf/item/353

KATRINA COULD UNITE WIRELESS, SATELLITE INDUSTRIES
Cable and satellite industries might never converge, but they could be
partners, industry officials said at an Federal Communications Bar
Association lunch Wednesday. After Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the
Gulf Coast terrestrial wireless network, satellite phones and satellite
data services played a critical role in filling communication gaps left by
the storm. So how about a "satellite backup" service for terrestrial
wireless networks, some asked. Convergence between wireless and satellite
hasn't been a reality, a satellite industry official told us, but it could
be a different story for next-generation systems.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Adrianne Kroepsch]
(Not available online)
See more on how Katrina is changing the communications landscape at:
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=taxonomy/term/7

FLORIDA BROADCASTER PUSHES POWER PRIORITY
Patrick Roberts, president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters, told
a Senate Commerce Committee panel Tuesday that several changes should be
made to emergency communications procedures. He argued that radio and TV
stations should be given priority status for fuel during emergencies. He
pointed to several Gulf Coast stations that almost went dark for lack of
fuel for back-up generators. In addition, Roberts said that the Emergency
Alert System needs to be changed, and he called for a nationwide
preparedness public awareness campaign that state associations and the
National Association of Broadcasters are ready to help spearhead.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6258669?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

LEGISLATION

TELCOS CRITICIZE BARTON BILL'S FRANCHISING PROVISIONS
You may not know this, but you have until September 28 to send your
comments to the House Commerce Committee on proposed, but as yet
introduced, legislation aimed at reforming US telecommunications law.
Apparently, large telephone companies already got the word and are visiting
Hill staff and complaining about the draft bill's franchising provisions.
Parts of the draft threaten to "deny consumers of many of the benefits that
today's technology and marketplace can deliver," Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke
said Wednesday at a Progress & Freedom Foundation conference. And, let's
face it, we're all about consumers. One passage essentially would mandate a
redesign of the set-top box for Verizon's new video service that launches
today Thursday, he said. Tauke also questioned placeholder provisions on
build-out requirements. He'd like to see a Federal Trade Commission model
of regulation because the FTC doesn't try to set rules shaping a market's
development. Speaking at the same event, Public Knowledge President Gigi
Sohn said that any net neutrality requirements would entail "massive
regulation" and mounds of paperwork. She hasn't heard anyone champion
sweeping rewrite like 1996's Telecom Act, but "the notion that consumers
should be able to go where they want to go on the Internet, attach the
equipment they want to attach without restriction or degradation" should be
paramount.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes, Anne Veigle]
(Not available online)
* Verizon Critical of House Telecom Draft
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6258923.html?display=Breaking+News
* Verizon Exec Knocks House Telecom Bill
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-USVF1127346400334.html
* Self-Regulation Advocated On 'Network Neutrality' Issue
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-XUDQ1127334475906.html
* For more on this yet unnumbered and untitled bill, see:
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/65

LOCAL OFFICIALS PUSH HILL FOR SAY IN TELECOM REWRITE
As many as 20 elected local government officials Wednesday began lobbying
key members of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, urging Congress to
"recognize the importance of local franchising authority." More than 50
meetings with members of Congress and staff have been set, said Arvada (CO)
Mayor Ken Fellman, who chairs the National League of Cities' (NLC)
Information & Technology Communications Committee. Cities are willing to
consider streamlining the franchising process, Mayor Fellman said. But
local governments must be involved in any telecom law rewrite, he said.
"It's crucial that we have a seat at the table." NATOA President Coralie
Wilson said the NATOA annual conference starting today in Washington will
let local telecom regulators meet congressional representatives to "express
our concerns and interests on the telecom rewrite legislation."
[SOURCE: Communications Daily, AUTHOR: Dinesh Kumar]
(Not available online)
* City Official Gives House Telecom Bill Mixed Reviews
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-HMSQ1127334669173.html
See info on pending telecom reform at:
http://www.benton.org/?q=tracking_legislation

BROADCASTING/CABLE

COALITIONS TAKE COMPETING STANCES OVER 'MULTICASTING' RULES
Two coalitions of public-interest advocates are taking different lobbying
approaches to the question of whether broadcasters should obtain carriage
of multiple channels on cable systems -- so-called multicasting. One
coalition -- including Consumers Union and Free Press -- adamantly opposes
a multicast "must carry" mandate, which broadcasters are seeking in
exchange for a fixed date on the transition to digital television. "There
exists no compelling public policy reason" for the multicast mandate, the
group said in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce
committees. The Consumers Union coalition -- which also includes the
Consumer Federation of America and Center for Digital Democracy -- is
raising concerns about media concentration being exacerbated by a multicast
mandate that would grant up to five new channels for each broadcaster. But
a rival group led by the Campaign Legal Center offered an alternative
approach. "No decision on must-carry should be made until and unless your
committees have set forth provisions which spell out meaningful and
effective public-interest obligations for digital television broadcasters,"
that group wrote in another letter to the committees. "Not only will clear
public interest obligation ensure strong civic discourse and quality
programming for viewers, but it will also increase certainty for
broadcasters who must build a business model that can succeed in a new,
extremely competitive environment," said that group -- which included
Common Cause, the Media Access Project, the New America Foundation and the
United Church of Christ.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-OSRE1127334909332.html

NCTA: CABLE OPS MIGHT EXIT IF TELCOS COME
Allowing phone companies to cream-skim cable markets instead of providing
service to every household could put some cable systems at a large economic
disadvantage -- and these lopsided regulations may force some cable
operators to abandon local markets, the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association told the FCC. In the FCC filing, the NCTA said that an economic
consultant it hired concluded in a study that cable companies that have
been required to offer service to every household in a community for
social-policy reasons might not have a cost structure capable of
withstanding competition from a deep-pocketed rival employing a strategy
that ignores low-income consumers. "Cable operators could not continue to
compete effectively in the areas served by telcos while still sustaining
the higher costs of serving the areas that the telco chose not to enter. As
(our consultant) shows, a cable operator will not be able to upgrade
service in those areas or might not be able to continue serving them at
all," the NCTA said. Wow this seems like the all-so-successful AT&T
strategy of competing with Baby Bells!
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6259027.html?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)

KATRINA, INDECENCY PUT PAYOLA ON HOLD AT FCC
Nearly two months after New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer
unveiled a landmark $10 million settlement with Sony BMG, the Federal
Communications Commission has yet to examine a motherlode of evidence
collected in Spitzer's continuing payola investigation. The FCC has had its
hands full with a host of post-Hurricane Katrina communications issues. And
the Enforcement Bureau, which would take the lead in a federal payola
investigation, has been dealing with a backlog of indecency complaints.
"We're keeping our powder dry before we try to blow the roof off," said an
FCC official who requested anonymity. "We're waiting for that opening when
we can push for payola to be the next item that we intend to dedicate a
certain amount of resources toward." After reviewing the evidence in New
York (and perhaps taking some of it back to Washington), the Enforcement
Bureau would make recommendations to the FCC. If it decided to proceed, the
Commission would then send Letters of Inquiry to any licensees it
determined had violated the federal payola statute, which prohibits
stations from accepting money, gifts or other valuable consideration in
exchange for airplay without disclosing the arrangement on the air. The
licensee would then have the opportunity to respond to the Commission and
provide additional documentation in its defense.
[SOURCE: Radio Monitor, AUTHOR: Paul Heine]
http://billboardradiomonitor.com/radiomonitor/news/business/leg_reg/arti...

HILL WON'T GET PREVIEW OF CPB REPORT
The results of an inspector general's investigation into problems at the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting board involving Chairman Ken Tomlinson
will not be ready by the board's next meeting on Sept. 26. Although the
full report was not expected to be released until the beginning of
November, several Hill staffers had said last week they were told by
Inspector General Kenneth Konz during a three-hour briefing that they would
get a preliminary report by the end of this week. But the Hill got the word
Tuesday not to expect anything before the end of October. The report is
expected to outline "deficiencies in policies and procedures" at CPB.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6258688?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

STEVENS BACKS EX-AIDE IN NAB HUNT
With the National Association of Broadcasters close to naming veteran
Republican lobbyist and fundraiser David Rehr as its next president,
opposition is mounting from the office Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). The
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman continues to pull
for Mitch Rose, his former chief of staff who now lobbies for the Walt
Disney Co., even as Rose's hopes to succeed Eddie Fritts as head of the
influential trade group appear to be fading. If the broadcasters' lobby
picks Rehr, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, Sen
Stevens -- whose committee holds significant sway over the television
industry - may go so far as to refuse to meet with him, a source close to
Sen Stevens said. The wrangling over the NAB's top job comes at a
high-stakes moment for the industry in Congress. Broadcasters are
negotiating a transition from analog to digital television while fighting
to force cable operators to carry all the channels that broadcasters send
out over their digital stream.
[SOURCE: Roll Call, AUTHOR: Tory Newmyer]
http://www.rollcall.com/
(requires subscription)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

FTC MEMBER TO OPPOSE STATE LIMITS ON MUNICIPAL BROADBAND NETWORKS
Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Jonathan Leibowitz will champion the
ability of municipalities to offer high-speed Internet services in a speech
later this week -- and will argue that the agency can and should oppose
state legislation that would limit broadband competition on the part of
cities. Speaking to the National Association of Telecommunications Officers
and Advisors today, he plans to build upon a theme articulated by two
Republican colleagues: FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras as well as
former Chairman Timothy Muris. Majoras and Muris took actions against state
government restrictions on legal services, foreign exchange and Internet
wine sales. Leibowitz's speech also could interject another federal agency
besides the FCC into a rising telecommunications policy issue. In the past
several years, the FCC has not addressed municipal broadband issues.
However, in 1997, the FCC sustained the state of Texas' ability to restrict
municipal phone service -- even as it raised policy objections to the
action. That decision was sustained by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia. In 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the ability
of states to limit municipal broadband.
[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-HJJZ1127249130519.html

THE MEANING OF FREE SPEECH
The acquisition by eBay of Skype is a helpful reminder to the world's
trillion-dollar telecoms industry that all phone calls will eventually be
free. Founder Niklas Zennstrom's vision for Skype is to become the world's
biggest and best platform for all communications -- text, voice or video --
from any Internet-connected device, whether a computer or a mobile phone.
Skype can add 150,000 users a day (its current rate) without spending
anything on new equipment (users "bring" their own computers and Internet
connections) or marketing (users invite each other). With no marginal cost,
Skype can thus afford to maximize the number of its users, knowing that if
only some of them start buying its fee-based services -- such as SkypeOut,
SkypeIn and voicemail -- Skype will make money. This adds up to a very
unusual business plan. "We want to make as little money as possible per
user," says Mr Zennstrom, because "we don't have any cost per user, but we
want a lot of them." This is the exact opposite of the traditional business
model in the telecoms industry, which is based on maximizing the average
revenue per user. And that has only one logical consequence. According to
Rich Tehrani, the founder of Internet Telephony magazine, Skype and
services like it are leading inexorably to a future in which all voice
communication, near or far, will be free.
[SOURCE: The Economist]
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4400704

STUDY: BROADBAND PENETRATION SLOWING
A new survey published by independent think tank Pew Internet & American
Life Project finds that high-speed Internet adoption, after growing quickly
in the past several years, has been losing steam and is poised to slow even
further. During the first six months of 2005, 53 percent of home Internet
users said they use a broadband connection, up from only 50 percent during
the previous six months. This is a much slower growth rate than reported
for the same periods a year earlier. From November 2003 to May 2004,
high-speed Internet penetration grew by 20 percent, from 35 percent of home
users in December 2003 to 42 percent in May 2004. Pew attributed the
slowdown in broadband penetration to a maturing of the market. Early
adopters, who are typically savvy about the Internet, well-educated and
well-paid, have already signed up for broadband service. Today's dial-up
customers, by contrast, tend to be older adults with lower incomes and
educational levels. Most importantly, they do not use the Internet to do
much beyond basic Web surfing and e-mailing.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
http://news.com.com/Study+Broadband+penetration+slowing/2100-1034_3-5875...
* Broadband Adoption in the United States: Growing but Slowing
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband.TPRC_Sept05.pdf
** Results of the study will be presented at the Telecommunications Policy
Research Conference (www.tprc.org/TPRC05/2005.htm) in Arlington, Va., Sept.
23 to Sept. 25. I'll see you there tomorrow!

NEW TECHNOLOGY AIMS TO IMPROVE INTERNET ACCESS FOR THE IMPAIRED
Aging populations in many developed countries mean disabilities --
especially impaired vision but also motor and cognitive dysfunctions -- are
likely to rise. By 2010, Microsoft estimates that 70 million people in the
U.S. will be using some form of assistive technology, like screen readers
or screen magnifiers, up from 57 million people in 2003. New technology
from Microsoft, IBM and others, as well as efforts by government and
standards bodies, are trying to address some of frustrations by making
computer programs and the Internet more accessible for the visually
impaired and other disabled people. One major obstacle to better access to
Web pages for the disabled has been differing standards. U.S. government
Internet accessibility guidelines, for instance, deviate somewhat from the
recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet's leading
standards-setting body. Harmonizing standards is "one of the things we hope
will improve over the coming years," said Judy Brewer, director of the Web
Accessibility Initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium. Better access to
Web pages also gives business a way to reach millions of potential
customers among the visually impaired. "This is an important market," said
Sharron Rush, executive director of Knowbility, a nonprofit organization
that promotes accessible technology. "You certainly don't want to miss out
on this amount of buying power."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Chris Reiter chris.reiter( at )dowjones.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112735318982648204,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)

INTERNET DEALS: A TANGLED WEB
Traditional media companies, lured by the growth potential of online
advertising, are "desperate" to acquire Internet assets. CNET, TheKnot and
iVillage are viewed as attractive takeover targets. Google may consider
making deals, but not in content, according to money managers.
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Paul R. La Monica]
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/20/technology/techinvestor/lamonica/index.htm
Also:
* Viacom Seeks to Join Internet Trend
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=story&articleid=VR1117929402&p=0...

DIGITAL CONTENT

BETTER INFORMATION ISN'T ALWAYS BENEFICIAL
[Commentary] It's scary for a Headlines editor to write this, but can more
and better information sometimes be a bad thing? Although information is
the antidote to uncertainty and speedier, cheaper information allows the
economy to produce more from less, sometimes -- sometimes -- it's bad to
make information readily available. (Now I have to go wash out my keyboard
with soap!) Some cases in point: it's stupid to help terrorists track the
president's movements or help identity thieves swipe personal information,
software programs that provide lawyers with information about judges' past
rulings or how to pick a jury are "socially useless but privately
valuable." "The contrast between the private profitability and the social
uselessness of foreknowledge may seem surprising," the late economist Jack
Hirshleifer wrote in 1971. But there are instances, he argued, where "the
community as a whole obtains no benefit ... from either the acquisition or
the dissemination (by resale or otherwise) of private foreknowledge."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: David Wessel capital( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112734060508547844,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)

VERIZON TO POLICE WEB CUSTOMERS TO PROTECT DISNEY FROM PIRACY
Stepping up the battle against entertainment piracy, Verizon and Walt
Disney have entered a long-term programming deal that calls for the phone
company to send a warning to Internet users suspected of pirating Disney's
content on its broadband services. Under the deal, one of the first of its
kind in the television industry, Disney will contact Verizon when the
company suspects a Verizon customer of illegally downloading content.
Without divulging names or addresses to Disney, Verizon will then alert the
customer that he or she might be violating the law. Disney will be able to
identify suspicious customers through an Internet coding system. The
provision was announced as part of a content deal that will provide Verizon
with Disney and ESPN programming and broadband services. New York-based
Verizon, one of several telephone carriers launching video services to
compete against cable companies, also secured 12 Disney channels, including
ESPN, ABC News Now and the Disney Channel for its new television service,
Fios TV, which will start rolling out today in Texas.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey( at )wsj.com
and Merissa Marr merissa.marr( at )wsj.com]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112731531212247388,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
* Texas town gets first crack at Verizon TV
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20050922/1b_verizon22.art.htm

FEDS ANNOUNCE GLOBAL ANTI-PIRACY INITIATIVES
During California visits with high-tech and movie industry representatives,
Commerce Department Secretary Carlos Gutierrez described two new programs
aimed at eroding intellectual property theft, which costs U.S. businesses
an estimated $250 billion and 750,000 jobs per year. One program would
place intellectual property experts on the ground in regions where piracy
is considered a concern. There they would work with overseas U.S.
businesses and native government officials to advocate improved
intellectual property rights protection, according to a department fact
sheet. Experts will be sent to Brazil, India, Russia, Thailand, China and
the Middle East and serve a five-year tour of duty. Another program, called
the Global Intellectual Property Rights Academy, would train foreign
judges, enforcement officials and other stakeholders in international
intellectual property obligations and best practices. The academy, overseen
by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, plans to convene in 24 sessions in
2006, paying all travel expenses for the foreign participants, who will
come from many of the same areas where experts will be working.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
http://news.com.com/Feds+announce+global+antipiracy+initiatives/2100-102...
* Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez Unveils Initiatives to Fight
Intellectual Property Theft
(Dept of Commerce press release)
http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/Secretary_Gutierrez/2005_Releases/Sept...

TIVO USERS FEAR RECORDING RESTRICTIONS
Many fans of digital video recorders made by TiVo Inc. are beginning to
fear that Hollywood studios will one day reach into their set-top boxes to
restrict the way they record and store movies and programs. Among the
functions included in TiVo's latest software upgrade is the ability to
allow broadcasters to erase material recorded by TiVo's 3.6 million users
after a certain date. That ability was demonstrated recently when some TiVo
customers complained on TiVo community sites that episodes of "The
Simpsons" and "King of the Hill" they recorded were "red-flagged" for
deletion by the copyright holder. Some users also were upset that they were
prevented from transferring these red-flagged shows to a PC via the
TiVoToGo service. Elliot Sloan, a TiVo spokesman, called the red-flag
incident a "glitch" and said it affected only a handful of customers. "It's
a non-story," Sloan said. Nonetheless, skeptics among TiVo users questioned
why TiVo would own such a technology unless the company planned to one day
use it.
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Greg Sandoval]
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/12708719.htm

CHINA'S MODEL FOR A CENSORED INTERNET
As China began to go online, observers made brash predictions that the
Internet would pry the country open. Cyberspace, the thinking went, would
prove too vast and wild for Beijing to keep under its thumb. Now these
early assumptions are being sharply revised. Under an authoritarian
government determined to control information, China has grown a new version
of the Internet. As former US President Bill Clinton noted recently,
China's Internet is very unlike the cauldron of dissenting voices that is
the hallmark of the Internet familiar to Americans. Instead, it's heavily
filtered, monitored, censored, and most of all, focused on making money.
The success of Beijing's strategy -- to harness the network's business
potential while minimizing it as a conduit for free speech -- has some
concerned that it has established a medium and new censoring tools that
other countries can adopt.
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Kathleen E. McLaughlin]
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0922/p01s02-woap.html

QUICKLY

TIME TO ALSO MARCH ON THE MEDIA
[Commentary] As peace activists plan protest marches in front of government
buildings in DC, Schechter asks, "Where is the march on the media?" The
media is the front face of the corporate interests who stage-manage the
government. In an age of globalization, challenging corporate power is
essential. And Washington is a media city. It is home to the Washington
Post, the Washington Times and USA Today. Every network has a big bureau
there. The National Press Building houses many media offices. There's also
the FCC offices and the National Association of Broadcasters HQ. So, why
not add some media targets to the mix so that marchers can express their
disgust with media subservience and demand truth as well as responsibility
and accountability? Schechter concludes, "The Hurricane Katrina coverage
gave us a glimpse of what American journalism can be when it gets up off
its knees and speaks truth to power. But far too many media outlets are
returning to their dumbed-down business as usual. As Nikki Finke wrote in
the LA Weekly, 'the pictures of angry black men are gone, replaced by white
politicians in suits.' We need to keep the pressure on, to move the media
and press the press to play the role they should be playing in a democracy.
And to protest their performance when they don't."
[SOURCE: MediaChannel, AUTHOR: Danny Schechter]
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/1090

CLOCK STOPPED ON VERIZON-MCI MERGER REVIEW
The FCC has extended its review of the Verizon-MCI merger until October 13,
2005.
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2480A1.doc
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Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are
factually accurate, their often informal tone does not always represent the
tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang
(headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
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