July 2008

"McCain's interest in tech policy is about as robust as the Horse Traders Association's interest was in steam engines."
-- Andrew Rasiej, the founder techPresident and the Personal Democracy Forum

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY JULY 9, 2008

For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2008/7

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Domestic spying quietly goes on
   White House: Retroactive Liability Protection Is Critical to Our National Security
   FISA's Fetters
   Report Finds Gaps in Federal E-Mail Records

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   Five cities test high-tech 911 system

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   What's John McCain's Technology Policy?
   McCain to Lay Out Market-Oriented Technology Policy
   Campaign Narrative Has Candidates on Defensive

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Court: FCC Should Decide Net Neutrality Issues
   Internet Provider As Gatekeeper: FCC Mulls The Limits
   Senate panel to examine NebuAd's Web monitoring system
   Massive Internet security flaw uncovered

CABLE/BROADCASTING
   Small Cable Ops Asks FCC for Retrans ‘Quiet Period’
   Small Cable Ops To Get ABC Signal For Free
   Court OKs EchoStar Distant Signal Deal
   ‘Boob Tube’ Still King: Nielsen
   Industry To FCC: Investigate Arbitron's PPMs

LABOR
   AFTRA approves contract

QUICKLY --    Consumers Union Takes FCC’s Side vs. Verizon;    Inouye, Stevens: Shorten Number Portability;    Orlando to Advise FCC's Tate

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

DOMESTIC SPYING QUIETLY GOES ON
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: Bradley Olson]
With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy. These programs - most of them highly classified - are run by an alphabet soup of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies. They sift, store and analyze the communications, spending habits and travel patterns of U.S. citizens, searching for suspicious activity. The surveillance includes data-mining programs that allow the NSA and the FBI to sift through large databanks of e-mails, phone calls and other communications, not for selective information, but in search of suspicious patterns. Other information, like routine bank transactions, is kept in databases similarly monitored by the Central Intelligence Agency. "There's virtually no branch of the U.S. government that isn't in some way involved in monitoring or surveillance," said Matthew Aid, an intelligence historian and fellow at the National Security Archives at The George Washington University. "We're operating in a brave new world."
http://benton.org/node/15061

WHITE HOUSE: RETROACTIVE LIABILITY PROTECTION IS CRITICAL TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY
[SOURCE: The White House]
Congress should act quickly to pass the crucial long-term FISA modernization bill to keep our Nation safe. The strong bipartisan legislation passed in the House provides the Intelligence Community with the tools it needs to secure our Nation while protecting the liberties of Americans. This bill also provides the necessary legal protections for those companies sued in the aftermath of 9/11. Liability protection is a fair and just result and is necessary to ensure the continued assistance of the private sector. Three possible amendments to the FISA update threaten the bill's liability protection: 1) The Dodd/Feingold/Leahy amendment proposes to entirely eliminate retroactive liability protection from the bipartisan House intelligence legislation. 2) The Specter Amendment would continue to leave companies vulnerable to unwarranted and unfair lawsuits. 3) The Bingaman amendment would unnecessarily postpone a decision on whether to provide liability protection to telecommunications companies.
http://benton.org/node/15060

FISA'S FETTERS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The measure overhauling the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reflects a reasonable compromise, worked out over long months of negotiations, between the legitimate needs of intelligence agencies and the legitimate privacy interests of Americans. The measure requires an individualized, court-approved warrant to conduct surveillance targeted at Americans' communications with those overseas and -- in an expansion of existing FISA protections -- at Americans abroad. Purely domestic-to-domestic communications, even among foreigners here, would require a warrant as well. Intelligence agencies would be able to target and collect the communications of non-Americans "reasonably believed to be located outside the United States," even if their phone calls or e-mails passed through or were stored in the United States. But the agencies are required to adopt procedures to "prevent the intentional acquisition" of purely domestic communications and to minimize the retention and dissemination of such information.
http://benton.org/node/15079

REPORT FINDS GAPS IN FEDERAL E-MAIL RECORDS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Lyndsey Layton]
Federal officials inconsistently preserve government e-mail, creating gaps in the public record and making it difficult for the public to understand the activities of the government, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office. The report came before a scheduled House vote today on a bill that would create standards for the electronic storage of e-mail by federal agencies. As the use of e-mail has increased dramatically, federal agencies are struggling to determine which e-mails can be deleted, which must be preserved as public records and how those records should be stored.
http://benton.org/node/15078

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

FIVE CITIES TEST HIGH-TECH 911 SYSTEM
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Matthew Daneman]
Five cities across the USA are testing a new national 911 system that would allow communications with police and other emergency personnel by text message and take advantage of the latest technology to pinpoint accident scenes. Call centers in Rochester, N.Y; Bozeman, Mont.; King County, Wash.; St. Paul, MN; and Fort Wayne, Ind., began testing the Department of Transportation's Next Generation 9-1-1 system in June with the goal of replacing the four-decades-old technology that governs how the nation's 6,000-plus 911 call centers operate. Under the new system, emergency personnel could more quickly pin down the location of a call from a wireless network. The nation's 911 call centers would be more uniform and networked so that a call to a busy or incapacitated 911 center could instantly be routed to another center acting as a backup.
http://benton.org/node/15077

ELECTIONS & MEDIA

WHAT'S JOHN MCCAIN'S TECHNOLOGY POLICY?
[SOURCE: Mother Jones, AUTHOR: Jonathan Stein]
Where is Sen John McCain (R-AZ) on tech policy? His campaign website fails to address America's lagging performance on broadband access or affordability, the technological capabilities of the federal bureaucracy, or the Internet's ability to increase government transparency. Sen McCain has few fans in the tech sector. His campaign website does not have a section about technology. Sprinkled throughout the site are a handful of references to tech issues. He promises to keep the Internet free of taxes, so "this engine of economic growth and prosperity" will not be threatened. He advocates the "rapid deployment of 21st century information systems and technology" that would allow "doctors to practice across state lines." "John McCain Will Streamline The Process For Deploying New Technologies And Requiring More Accountability From Government Programs To Meet Commercialization Goals And Deadlines." "John McCain Will Ensure Rapid Technology Introduction, Quickly Shifting Research From The Laboratory To The Marketplace." But McCain's site is most elaborate when it refers to the danger the Internet poses to America's children. His website also lacks a statement on Network Neutrality. When prompted, though, he has seemed to come out against it, saying, "When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment."
http://benton.org/node/15059

MCCAIN TO LAY OUT MARKET-ORIENTED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Congressional Quarterly, AUTHOR: Adrianne Kroepsch]
Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell is drafting a technology agenda for Sen John McCain (R-AZ) that the campaign expects to release this month. While Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) backs legislative initiatives to promote Network Neutrality, diversity in media ownership and consumer privacy, Powell said Sen McCain would take a more typically Republican market-oriented approach. Powell said the highlights of McCain’s technology agenda will include proposals to: 1) Lower capital gains taxes to encourage large companies to invest profits domestically. 2) Develop an immigration policy that would allow skilled technology workers to remain in the U.S. and an education policy that would produce more engineering and computer science graduates. 3) Promote free trade and open global technology markets. 4) Create a permanent research and development tax credit. Such incentives are typically renewed every year by Congress. McCain’s upcoming policy statement is expected to serve as a rejoinder to Obama’s technology platform.
http://benton.org/node/15075

CAMPAIGN NARRATIVE HAS CANDIDATES ON DEFENSIVE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
The dominant theme of election coverage June 30 - July 6 revolved around the candidates’ problems and had both Sens John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) on the defensive. The single biggest story was McCain’s decision to shake up his top campaign staff by elevating Steve Schmidt, a close ally of Karl Rove, to a bigger operational role. That development -- covered in the context of growing concern about the direction of McCain’s campaign -- accounted for 12% of the campaign newshole studied. The most heavily covered story about Obama focused on his efforts to again assert his patriotism (8% of the newshole) in the face of stubborn rumors and speculation to the contrary. Another 6% of the coverage was devoted to whether Obama was -- on issues from gun control to Iraq -- rushing toward the political center. Or, to put it in more unflattering terminology, whether Obama was flip-flopping. Those three story lines combined accounted for more than one-quarter (26%) of all the campaign coverage last week.
http://benton.org/node/15072

INTERNET/BROADBAND

COURT: FCC SHOULD DECIDE NET NEUTRALITY ISSUES
[SOURCE: OnlineMediaDaily, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
US Federal Judge Phyllis Hamilton has suspended proceedings in a subscriber's lawsuit against Comcast while the Federal Communications Commission completes its investigation into whether the company violated Network Neutrality principles by slowing traffic to peer-to-peer sites. In the ruling, Judge Hamilton said the FCC has "well-established" authority to regulate broadband companies' services. "The reasonableness of a broadband provider's network management practices has ... been firmly placed within the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission," she wrote.
http://benton.org/node/15058

INTERNET PROVIDER AS GATEKEEPER: FCC MULLS THE LIMITS
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
A look at the challenges facing the Federal Communications Commission as the agency seeks to more clearly define the boundary between acceptable network management and anti-competitive behavior. The line is constantly being blurred by new technologies and innovations that are often unforeseen and not easily categorized. The main course on the FCC’s Network Neutrality plate involves a complaint filed by Free Press and another advocacy group, Public Knowledge, alleging that Comcast, blocked customers from uploading content to BitTorrent, a file-sharing site featuring movies, music, television shows and video games. The FCC is expected to rule on the petition this summer. Blair Levin, managing director at the investment firm Stifel Nicolaus, expects the FCC to declare that Comcast erred in blocking BitTorrent and that the firm should have been more transparent about its policies -- but to stop short of imposing fines. Levin expects the FCC to dodge what he considers the thorniest issue in the debate: whether broadband companies can establish Internet toll lanes featuring premium content with faster download speeds.
http://benton.org/node/15057

SENATE PANEL TO EXAMINE NEBUAD'S WEB MONITORING SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR:]
Executives from major Internet players are due for a grilling about online privacy in a Senate committee hearing today, but the company likely to get the most scrutiny is a small Silicon Valley start-up called NebuAd. NebuAd has drawn fierce criticism from privacy advocates in recent weeks for working with Internet service providers to track the online behavior of their customers and then serve up targeted banner ads based on that behavior. According to Ari Schwartz, vice president of civil liberties group Center for Democracy & Technology, NebuAd's business model raises many of the same concerns as an earlier generation of "adware" firms. Those companies developed software programs that -- when downloaded to a computer -- could track where a user went on the Internet and mine that information to deliver customized online ads. Privacy activists say adware companies duped many Web surfers into downloading their software programs by bundling them with free screen savers, online games and other Internet applications. But NebuAd has a new twist: It works directly with Internet service providers to scan their customers' Web surfing habits and deliver ads presumed to be of interest to them.
http://benton.org/node/15076

MASSIVE INTERNET SECURITY FLAW UNCOVERED
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
Security researchers on Tuesday said they had discovered an enormous flaw that could let hackers steer most people using corporate computer networks to malicious websites of their own devising. For bad news, that's pretty impressive. But there are two pieces of good news: First, no bad guys are known to be using the flaw yet. And second, in a possibly unprecedented display of industry cooperation, virtually every major software company affected is issuing patches to fix the problem. System administrators will have 30 days to apply those patches before the details of the flaw are disclosed. Security experts hope that the patches are broad enough that evil types won't be able to reverse-engineer them to exploit the vulnerability.
http://benton.org/node/15073

CABLE/BROADCASTING

ACA ASKS FCC FOR RETRANS 'QUIET PERIOD'
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The American Cable Association filed a formal request with the Federal Communications Commission for a retransmission-consent "quiet period" around the Feb. 17, 2009 digital television transition date. In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, ACA expressed support for a petition filed by ACA members Mediacom Communications and GCI Cable in April asking the FCC to call the retrans time out, saying that it was concerned that there could be confusion if stalled retrans negotiations led to stations withdrawing in the months before or after the transition. The ACA said thousands of retrans agreements expire in December 2008, adding that a quiet period starting at the beginning of 2009 and extending to May 31 is "reasonable and appropriate." FCC rules already prevent broadcast signals from being moved or dropped during sweeps periods, the ACA pointed out.
http://benton.org/node/15056

SMALL CABLE OPS TO GET ABC SIGNAL FOR FREE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Small cable operators based inside television markets where Disney owns the ABC affiliate will be able to carry the signal for free for the next three years. Disney owns 10 ABC stations. Under terms of the agreement, 91 out of 113 cable operators with systems inside those 10 owned-and-operated markets will get free access to the ABC signal. Disney intends to make the ABC signal available to "truly small" cable operators but not to big MSOs such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications. [Disney has always been an advocate for small, diversified media.] Starting on October 1, local TV stations need to decide whether to demand cable carriage or instead negotiate a deal for compensation, including cash and carriage affiliate cable networks. Disney will make ABC available to eligible small operators without the need to negotiate a deal.
http://benton.org/node/15055

COURT OKs ECHOSTAR DISTANT SIGNAL DEAL
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
In a setback for the broadcast networks and their affiliates, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that EchoStar is not in violation of an injunction barring it from distributing distant broadcast signals to its satellite TV subscribers. "Put simply, EchoStar is out of the distant network programming business," the court's opinion reads. Two years ago, the same court enjoined EchoStar from the distant signal business after finding that the satellite carrier had repeatedly violated rules against offering distant network affiliates in areas where subscribers could receive local affiliates off air. But just before the injunction when into effect, EchoStar leased a satellite transponder to a third party, NPS, that would continue to provide a distant signal service to EchoStar subscribers. The broadcasters charged in a federal district court that EchoStar was using the NPS arrangement to circumvent the injunction. But the court disagreed, saying the networks failed to show the arrangement was "anything but an arms-length business transaction."
http://benton.org/node/15054

'BOOB TUBE' STILL CONTENT KING: NIELSEN
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
Video consumers are spending more time on every available platform, including TVs, computers and cell phones, according to a report on television consumption released Tuesday by Nielsen. Despite other options for consuming content, Americans are spending an increased amount of time in front of televisions: an average of 127 hours, 15 minutes a month. This viewing is not at the expense of Internet use: that metric is up 9%, to 26 hours and 26 minutes a month. Online viewing is estimated at 2 hours and 19 minutes and Americans watch 3 hours and 15 minutes a month on their cell phones.
http://benton.org/node/15053

INDUSTRY TO FCC: INVESTIGATE ARBITRON'S PPMs
[SOURCE: MediaDailyNews, AUTHOR: Erik Sass]
The Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age has asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the potential effects of measurement by the Portable People Meter, Arbitron's passive electronic measurement system, on radio stations with "urban" formats. They target specific minority groups, chiefly African-Americans and Hispanics. The advisory committee's request follows a series of public complaints by some radio groups about alleged flaws in Arbitron's sampling methodology for PPM, including open letters to Arbitron's management and ads addressed to the radio business at large in trade magazines. The alleged flaws include significant under-representation of minority groups, especially black males ages 18-54.
http://benton.org/node/15052

LABOR
AFTRA approves contract
AFTRA, IN BLOW TO SAG LEADERS, APPROVES CONTRACT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Richard Verrier, Claudia Eller]
A campaign by the Screen Actors Guild to persuade members of a smaller rival union to vote down a new contract has foundered, an outcome that could weaken SAG's leverage in its negotiations with the Hollywood studios. Members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on Tuesday approved a new three-year, prime-time TV contract, dealing a blow to SAG leaders who had gambled heavily on defeating a contract they blasted as bad for actors. The AFTRA vote -- widely viewed as a barometer of support for SAG negotiators -- doesn't eliminate the prospect of a strike, but it leaves the guild with fewer alternatives. The protracted negotiations are causing uncertainty throughout Hollywood, holding up feature film productions and casting a pall over the upcoming fall TV season. A LA Times editorial says now it's up to SAG and the studios to finally bring labor peace to Hollywood.
http://benton.org/node/15074

QUICKLY

CONSUMERS UNION TAKES FCC'S SIDE VS VERIZON
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
While Verizon Communications has argued that the Federal Communications Commission's demand that it stop its retention-marketing practices would hurt consumers, the Consumers Union disagreed and weighed in on the side of the FCC and cable operators. In an amicus brief to the Federal Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit, CU said that while Verizon's marketing program -- in the form of discounts, gift cards and information about alternatives -- "may afford some short-term savings," it does so "at the expense of the competitive process in general."
http://benton.org/node/15051

INOUYE, STEVENS: SHORTEN NUMBER PORTABILITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) have written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin expressing concern about phone number portability, the ability of phone customers to keep their number when they switch services. The senators suggested that the FCC might need to shorten that porting interval to "reduce the possibility of anticompetitive behavior."
http://benton.org/node/15050

ORLANDO TO ADVISE FCC'S TATE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Commissioner Deborah Tate]
Federal Communications Commission member Deborah Taylor Tate has tapped Greg Orlando to serve as one of her legal advisors, specializing in wireline issues, including broadband and universal service reform. Orlando most recently served as Legislative Director and Counsel to Representative Mike Ferguson. While in that position, he handled and advised on all issues under the jurisdiction of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, including video franchising, content protection and DTV transition legislation.
http://benton.org/node/15049
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