August 14, 2008
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY AUGUST 14, 2008
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Cyberattacks on Georgian Web Sites Are Reigniting a Washington Debate
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
McCain Tech Plan to Continue Hands-Off Approach to Regulation
Why The PK Petition On Mobile Texting And Short Codes Matters
Conventional Nonsense
INTERNET/BROADBAND
McDowell Links Net Neutrality, Fairness Doctrine, and the Election
McDowell's Scare Tactics Reach New Low
Content Neutral, Market Friendly
Study shows US broadband speeds continue to lag
The Top 5 Bandwidth-Hungry Apps
Residents "own" last-mile in Canadian broadband trial
Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software
ADVERTISING
Congress to Push Web Privacy
Advertisers will see you read this
Woman to Woman, Online
UK online ad spend overtakes mainstream TV
BROADCASTING/CABLE
The digital TV cliffhanger
Classic shows could find new life in digital TV
Dish Joins Cable in Opposing NAB Quiet Period Start Date
Time Warner Fears Cable Indecency Rules
TELECOM
Good, Tough and Timely. Revising Intercarrier Compensation
4 Affiliate Groups Endorse 'Quiet Period'
Alternate-Delivery Hits All-Time High; Cable Falls to 18-Year Low
QUICKLY -- Wanted: Writers for DC tech lobby group, secrecy mandatory; Barack Obama dominates Twitter; The great untethering
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CYBERATTACKS ON GEORGIAN WEB SITES ARE REIGNITING A WASHINGTON DEBATE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
The cyberattacks in Georgia are re-energizing a debate over whether the laws of war apply in cyberspace. Among the biggest questions: When is a cyberattack an act of war? Cyberweapons are becoming a staple of war. The Georgian conflict is perhaps the first time they have been used alongside conventional military action. Governments and private cyberwarriors can exploit Internet security gaps to not only take down government Web sites but also take control of power grids and nuclear reactors. US officials have begun to consider the legal and policy problems that cyberwarfare presents, but cybersecurity experts said the government has been slow to resolve them in the face of an increasing likelihood that cyberattacks will be used to augment, or even supplant, typical military action.
http://benton.org/node/16112
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
MCCAIN TECH PLAN TO CONTINUE HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO REGULATION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Holmes, Amy Schatz]
Technology policy has not been a front-burner issue for either Sen John McCain (R-AZ) or his Sen Barack Obama (D-IL). However, it has become more critical for the McCain campaign in recent weeks, as perceptions grow that Sen McCain is less than tech-savvy. On Thursday, Sen McCain is expected to unveil a technology agenda that bundles previously announced pro-business proposals with continued support for a hands-off approach to regulation. The plan, dubbed "John McCain and American Innovation," will call for a 10% tax credit on wages paid to all research-and-development employees. At the same time, it will reiterate Sen McCain's opposition to Internet taxes and new laws guaranteeing Network Neutrality, the idea that Internet providers must treat all legal Internet traffic equally. The goal of the plan, said McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin, is to create "good, high-paying, innovation-oriented 21st-century jobs." The plan resulted from months of work by several of Sen. McCain's former telecommunications-policy aides and supporters, including former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell.
http://benton.org/node/16111
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WHY THE PK PETITION ON MOBILE TEXTING AND SHORT CODES MATTERS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Recent news about Sen Obama's use of text messaging to announce his VP pick provides a nice reminder about the importance of the pending Petition by Public Knowledge and others on text messaging. Not that Verizon or any other provider would be so foolish as to deny Sens Obama or McCain campaigns short codes or block their messages. No, Feld is worried about us ordinary schlubs or unpopular folks who can't count on getting a front page story if something happens. If a cell phone company denies a short code to a group like Recreate68 or Operation Rescue or IndyMedia, or yanks a short code or blocks messages during the convention, will it make the news? And even if it does, and the group gets a nice apology after the convention ends, what good will it do? In a world where the telephone companies agreed to spy on all Americans as a favor to the government, then got retroactive immunity from Congress, it's not crazy to suggest that unpopular groups or potentially disruptive speakers need more protection than the assurance that the cell phone companies would never do such a thing.
http://benton.org/node/16110
Barack Obama dominates Twitter
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CONVENTIONAL NONSENSE
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Jack Shafer]
[Commentary] With just one exception over the last three decades, the two major parties have known the identity of their likely presidential candidate weeks or even months before gaveling their national political conventions open. For that reason, one way to improve coverage of the four-day, quadrennial conventions of Republicans and Democrats would be for the TV networks to assign sportscasters like Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and John Madden instead of political journalists to report on the gatherings. They know how to make a game with a foregone conclusion seem entertaining. A still better way to improve convention coverage would be to withdraw all reporters and force the curious to rely on a C-SPAN feed: Unless a brokered convention threatens to break out, these political gatherings tend to produce very little real news. Yet the networks, the newspapers, the magazines, and the Web sites continue to insist on sending battalions of reporters to sift for itsy specks of information.
http://benton.org/node/16109
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
MCDOWELL: FAIRNESS DOCTRINE, NET NEUTRALITY LINKED
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Joel Topcik]
Following a speech to bloggers at the conservative Heritage Foundation, in which he discussed Internet policy and the Federal Communications Commission's recent ruling against Comcast, Commissioner Robert McDowell warned that an effort to reimpose the defunct Fairness Doctrine could sync up with efforts to regulate network management, resulting in "government dictating content policy" on the Web. "This [presidential] election, if it goes one way, we could see a reimposition of the Fairness Doctrine," Commissioner McDowell told BMI, the economic arm of the conservative Media Research Center. "I think it'll be intertwined into the [Network Neutrality] debate ... because there are a few isolated conservatives who might be cherry-picked in a Net Neutrality effort, and I think the fear is that somehow, large corporations will censor their content, their points of view. I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy -- which, by the way, would have a big First Amendment problem -- then whoever's in charge of government is going to determine what is 'fair' under a so-called Fairness Doctrine." Visit B&C and see video of the statement.
http://benton.org/node/16090
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MCDOWELL'S SCARE TACTICS REACH NEW LOW
[SOURCE: SavetheInternet.com, AUTHOR: Josh Stearns]
[Commentary] FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell increasingly sounds like a man stranded on a desert island, willing to say anything to get a ride back to shore. In recent remarks, Commissioner McDowell has tried to tie Network Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine (which at one time regulated equal airtime for diverse perspectives in broadcast media), saying they are both about content regulation. But contrary to these misleading assertions, Net Neutrality has nothing to do with empowering the FCC to regulate content. Net Neutrality is the First Amendment of the Internet, and has been part of the Net since its inception. It says that no one -- government agency or corporate giant -- should be able to tell consumers what legal content they can access and share online. It is absurd to equate Net Neutrality -- a principle that promotes and protects free speech on the Internet -- with any effort to regulate speech.
http://benton.org/node/16089
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CONTENT NEUTRAL, MARKET FRIENDLY
[SOURCE: TechRepublican.com, AUTHOR: Nicola Karras]
[Commentary] In response the recent remarks from FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Karras writes, "It's tempting to fall back on our old friend Let The Market Decide. After all, if Comcast throttles BitTorrent traffic, the BitTorrent folks use a different ISP, Comcast loses market share, and eventually it changes policy. Voila: market signals triumph, seed rates soar, and everyone gets a pony. But it's not a free market. Most Americans are confronted with a duopoly (at best) when choosing broadband providers, and the infrastructure is so expensive that it's hard to break into the market. Without meaningful competition, consumers can't push for better service. I can get my high-speed Internet from Comcast, with all its attendant issues, or I can use dial-up." Call it "net regulation" if you want -- I suppose it is, technically -- but mandated content neutrality protects the customer without hurting competition.
http://benton.org/node/16088
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STUDY SHOWS US BROADBAND SPEEDS CONTINUE TO LAG
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
The average download and upload speeds for broadband services across the U.S. have remained relatively unchanged over the past year as the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries in terms of broadband speeds, according to a report published by the Communications Workers of America labor union. The report consists of data from 230,000 online speed tests across the U.S. In its Speed Matters blog announcing the study's results, the group highlighted that the average download speeds increased only 0.4 megabits per second to 2.3Mbps. By contrast, the average download speed in Japan is 63 Mbps and in South Korea the average download speed is 49 Mbps. As for upload speeds, the average in the U.S. was only 435 kilobits per second.
http://benton.org/node/16087
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WHY WE NEED FAT PIPES: THE TOP 5 BANDWIDTH-HUNGRY APPS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The debate over managing networks can seem hopelessly abstract. To help the rest of us understand why fast networks with a lot of capacity are so important, here's a list of the top bandwidth-needy applications. 1) High-definition telepresence requires 24 Mbps and about a 50 millisecond latency to recreate the feeling of sitting in a room speaking with people. 2) Telemedicine and Remote Surgery. 3) Video Instant Messaging and Video Presence. 4) High-Definition Television requires between 8 and 5 Mbps to deliver crisp video to consumer's televisions. 5) Real-Time Data Backup require speeds of up to 2 Mbps and 10 milliseconds of latency, and they may become more necessary as enterprises begin to store and save data in the cloud.
http://benton.org/node/16086
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RESIDENTS "OWN" LAST MILE IN CANADIAN BROADBAND TRIAL
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Johna Till Johnson]
Canadians generated one of the most innovative ideas ever for last-mile connectivity. In an experiment led by Bill St.Arnaud, researcher at Canarie, a Canadian government-funded institution, 400 houses are being wired with optical fiber -- for which the homeowners will pay an estimated $2,700. The fiber connects up to the nearest network access point, and homeowners own it outright -- meaning they can resell it with their homes, or lease out capacity to their neighbors. Here's why this is a great idea.
http://benton.org/node/16100
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RULING IS A VICTORY FOR SUPPORTERS OF FREE SOFTWARE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
A legal dispute involving model railroad hobbyists has resulted in a major courtroom victory for the free software movement also known as open-source software. In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected. The decision legitimizes the use of commercial contracts for the distribution of computer software and digital artistic works for the public good. The court ruling also bolsters the open-source movement by easing the concerns of large organizations about relying on free software from hobbyists and hackers who have freely contributed time and energy without pay. It also has implications for the Creative Commons license, a framework for modifying and sharing creative works that was developed in 2002 by Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford.
http://benton.org/node/16099
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ADVERTISING
CONGRESS TO PUSH WEB PRIVACY
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Heather Green]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) says he and others plan to introduce comprehensive online privacy legislation in the coming congressional session. Dubbed the Online Privacy Bill of Rights, the law may require companies to get approval from consumers before collecting information about their Web-surfing habits, a process known as behavioral targeting that helps Web sites more strategically place ads. The legislation may also demand that companies disclose more information on how they collect and use people's Web-use data. "There is a reasonable chance that we will see something in the next Congress," says Michael Hintze, an associate general counsel at Microsoft.
http://benton.org/node/16104
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ADVERTISERS WILL SEE YOU READ THIS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: John Gapper]
[Commentary] If you feel like a shock, try finding out how many online advertising companies are tracking you every time you use the Internet. One way to do so is to go to the Network Advertising Initiative site in the US (www.networkadvertising.org) and click on the opt-out button that allows you to evade their surveillance. It also tells you how many have been watching you already. Worries about online surveillance and privacy are growing. The US Congress is investigating Internet "behavioral targeting" of this kind and Yahoo last week tightened controls on personalized advertising. There is plenty to be worried about.
http://benton.org/node/16103
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WOMAN TO WOMAN, ONLINE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
Sites aimed primarily at women, from "mommy blogs" to makeup and fashion sites, grew 35 percent last year — faster than every other category on the Web except politics, according to comScore, an Internet traffic measurement company. Women's sites had 84 million visitors in July, 27 percent more than the same month last year, comScore said. Advertisers are following the crowd, serving up 4.4 billion display ads on women's Web sites in May, comScore said. That is more than for sites aimed at children, teenagers or families. The rapid growth in advertising and traffic to women's sites has attracted the attention of major media companies and venture capitalists.
http://benton.org/node/16102
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UK ONLINE AD SPENDING OVERTAKES MAINSTREAM TV
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Georgina Prodhan]
Spending on online ads overtook advertising on mainstream TV in Britain last year, growing 40 percent to $5.3 billion and accounting for 19 percent of all advertising, UK regulator Ofcom said.
http://benton.org/node/16101
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
THE DIGITAL TV CLIFFHANGER
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] In preparing for America's big switch to digital-only broadcast next year, the US government has neglected to say much about trees. And hills. And buildings. These can disrupt digital signals and result in blank screens. It's a significant oversight that may cost millions of viewers money and aggravation. Even new digital TVs may have reception problems. The reason is the "cliff effect." When analog signals are disturbed, the picture gradually degrades. But digital signals are much more sensitive to disturbance, and screens can suddenly break into pixels or freeze, or just be blank. There's no way to fix this, except to re-aim an antenna, upgrade to a more expensive and stronger one - probably on the roof - or subscribe to cable or satellite.
http://benton.org/node/16108
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CLASSIC SHOWS COULD FIND NEW LIFE IN DIGITAL TV
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
Everyone knows that the national transition to digital broadcast television will promote sexy new technologies including high-definition TV (HDTV). But few could have imagined that it might also revive some of the creakiest movies and series ever committed to celluloid, including The Lone Ranger, McHale's Navy and The Addams Family. Vintage reruns and other inexpensive shows are in vogue, though, as stations and programmers rush into a potentially important new business: multicast networks. Multicast services piggyback on digital signals from local stations, including those offering HDTV versions of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS. Most stations also have room in the airwave spectrum the government has allocated to transmit two standard-definition channels. That could mean up to a dozen stations for a moderate-size market.
http://benton.org/node/16107
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DISH JOINS CABLE IN OPPOSING NAB QUIET PERIOD START DATE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
Dish Network Wednesday joined its rival, the cable industry, in opposing the start time that broadcaster's have proposed for a retransmission-consent "quiet period" next year. Dish Network wants the quiet period to start Dec. 15, while the NTCA and the ACA want it to begin or before Jan. 1. However, Dish Network said it supports the quiet period ending March 4, like the NAB, while the NCTA and ACA want it to end May 31.
http://benton.org/node/16106
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TIME WARNER FEARS CABLE INDECENCY RULES
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Time Warner is concerned that banning fleeting indecency on broadcast TV could be used to justify regulating cable television programming for indecency for the first time. The company, a major owner of cable TV systems and programming networks, stated in an Aug. 8 filing in the U.S. Supreme Court that government regulation of television content shouldn't be allowed to spread to the cable medium. "This court should never lose its vigilance to prevent restrictions on broadcast speech from spawning copycat restrictions on non-broadcast speech," the company said. Time Warner noted in the court brief that prominent individuals such as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin have called for greater content regulation of the pay TV industry.
http://benton.org/node/16105
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TELECOM
GOOD, TOUGH AND TIMELY. REVISING INTERCARRIER COMPENSATION
[SOURCE: FierceVoIP, AUTHOR: Carl Ford]
Examining the political landscape, it's good that the Federal Communications Commission is focusing on the issue of Intercarrier compensation. It's also the focus via the topic of phantom traffic, a form of arbitrage based on the ambiguities in the rules about termination based on interconnection--not the call's origination. The existing system of Intercarrier compensation came about after the divestiture of AT&T, and it operated on assumptions about the cost of transport which were accurate for the time, but have lost relevance today. A call placed today, as Executive Director of the VON Coalition Jim Kohlenberger points out, costs as much to go across the office as it does to go around the world. State tariffs now have lower rates for services, thanks to competition between fiber and IP. Locally, however, the price may not reflect the market.
http://benton.org/node/16085
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4 AFFILIATE GROUPS ENDORSE 'QUIET PERIOD'
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: ]
The boards of directors of the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC affiliate organizations have agreed to support a voluntary month-long "quiet period" ensuring no disruption of local television service in the weeks leading up to and following the digital television transition.
http://benton.org/node/16084
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ALTERNATIVE-DELIVERY HITS ALL-TIME HIGH; CABLE FALLS TO 18-YEAR LOW
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
More U.S. TV households are receiving programming via an alternate delivery system, such as satellite, than ever before while wired cable's penetration hit an 18-year low in July, according to a Television Bureau of Advertising analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. ADS penetration -- which includes direct-broadcast satellite and satellite master antenna -- reached 28.4% of TV households in July, an all-time high that is up from 27.5% in July last year. It now represents 32.1% of subscription television customers (those paying for video delivery), another all-time high.
http://benton.org/node/16083
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QUICKLY
WANTED: WRITERS FOR DC TECH LOBBY GROUP, SECRECY MANDATORY
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
[Commentary] Op-eds of dubious provenance are nothing new in political circles, and fake grassroots "astroturf" campaigns enjoy a long, although hardly distinguished, history. One of the most influential practitioners of this art is the LawMedia Group, which has emerged as a behind-the-scenes Washington advocate for Comcast in its Net neutrality tussle with the FCC. In May, the LMG began representing Microsoft in its attempt to use the political process to sabotage a Google-Yahoo advertising deal. Even by Washington standards, the LawMedia Group is highly secretive. Until recently, nearly all pages on its Web site were password-protected. No clients are listed. Perhaps the oddest aspect is that not one employee's name--not even the identity of its founder or principals--is publicly disclosed.
http://benton.org/node/16098
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BARACK OBAMA DOMINATES TWITTER
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Stephanie Condon]
Sen. Barack Obama has already proven himself to be the most popular presidential candidate on the Internet, what with his more than 1.3 million Facebook supporters and lofty aims of 2 million online donors. Now Sen Obama is not only outshining other politicians on the Internet, but also the very stars of social networking -- Obama has just overtaken Kevin Rose's spot as the most followed person on Twitter, according to Twitterholic.
http://benton.org/node/16082
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THE GREAT UNTETHERING
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Mark Morford]
[Commentary] The land-line telephone is marked for imminent obsolescence. The phone companies are adding mountains of wireless customers as fast as they're losing land-liners, as millions of young whippersnappers switch to using their cell phones exclusively (or, more accurately, never order up a land-line in the first place).
http://benton.org/node/16097
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