February 2009

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2009

This week in telecommunications policyland: 1) The House explores reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act, 2) the Senate considers Ensuring Television Carriage in the Digital Age, and 3) Catholic University hosts a discussion on Interference -- Wireless Innovation, Public Interest, Regulatory Response. Learn more at http://benton.org/calendar/2009-02-22--P1W

THE ECONOMY
   Skepticism arises over rural broadband stimulus
   Lack Of National Broadband Strategy Costs Industry Billions in Stimulus
   How Will the $7.2 Billion Allotted for Broadband Stimulus Be Spent?
   ConnectedNation model has pitfalls
   A blind curve on the info highway?
   The Bridge to Smart Technology
   Did TV Coverage of Stimulus Miss Point?
   Government Gets Chance To Prove It Can Work
   Video cord-cutting? Not so much

DIGITAL TELEVISION
   FCC Unveils Plans For Second Wave Of DTV Transitions
   Top DTV Call Category Is Reception Issues
   NTIA Will Prioritize Analog-Only Coupon Requests

THE TRANSITION
   White House Office of Urban Affairs
   Fearing 'Cyber Katrina,' Cyber Czar Candidate Urges a ''FEMA for the Internet"
   Why the census is always political
   Adelstein Takes Aim at Martin Over Time Warner Cable Spin-Off Hold Up

JOURNALISM
   More Newspapers File for Chapter 11
   Information Wants to Be Expensive
   The Media Baron and His Soft Spot
   Lobbyist settles with New York Times
   Beyond Stimulus, Bloggers Focus on Pupils, Penance and Puppets
   Anchors Oblige Public's Craving for Tweets

DIGITAL CONTENT
   Lawmakers Unveil ISP Data Retention Bill and Get Chilly Reception
   Congressman Frank to push repeal of online gambling ban
   Social networks are telcos' new best friend
   California's video game law ruled unconstitutional

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Free Press Resumes Network Neutrality Push
   Comcast: 50Mbps speeds to 65% of territory by end of 2009
   Universal Service Fund Expansion Pilot Approved by State Commissioners
   Exploring a 'Deep Web' That Google Can't Grasp

QUICKLY -- Opinion Could Dampen Zeal To Classify Government Information; States put spending details online; Nominees Sought for National Medal of Technology and Innovation; Competition Pushes Up Content Costs for ESPN

Comment on Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics

back to top

THE ECONOMY

SKEPTICISM ARISES OVER RURAL BROADBAND STIMULUS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Peter Svensson]
The stimulus bill provides $7.2 billion for grants, loans and loan guarantees, primarily for areas that lack broadband or are "underserved," though the term is not defined. Some of that money is set aside to expand Internet access at public centers like community colleges and public libraries. B one reason the money may not have much impact is its small size: less than 1 percent of the overall stimulus package, and substantially less per citizen than some countries, like Ireland and Sweden, have spent on improving their networks. The Obama administration is looking at creating a more comprehensive plan to get the whole country covered by broadband, technology adviser Alec Ross told The Washington Post this week, but it's not yet clear if that would mean more subsidies. A possible point of comparison is phone service for rural areas, which has long been subsidized through a program that has critics, too. A study by Robert Crandall of the Brookings Institution said that the program produces customer savings of about $2 per month for $20 in monthly subsidies. But he conceded that when phone service was being built out, subsidies may have helped. Raul Katz, a Columbia Business School professor, estimates that the broadband plan will create 128,000 jobs over four years, because it will put installers and equipment makers to work, and those people will then spend the money they make. He's much less certain how many jobs the Internet access itself will create. It could be as many as 273,000 or closer to zero.
http://benton.org/node/22346
Recommend this Headline
back to top

LACK OF NATIONAL BROADBAND STRATEGY COSTS INDUSTRY BILLIONS IN STIMULUS
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
Discussing the broadband provisions of the stimulus law, Blair Levin, a member of President Obama's tech policy transition team, said that because we didn't have a national broadband policy in place the stimulus package couldn't include as much money for broadband as it may have otherwise. Blair's comment alludes to the fact that with a clear, coherent, comprehensive national broadband strategy in place and everyone supporting it, that our elected officials are ready, wiling, and able to pursue transformative action in spurring the deployment and use of broadband. Blair set out his hopes for how these dollars will be spent, simply stating that he'd like to see the money spent quickly, tracked accurately (which is no small feat for government or for a program of this size), and that we learn something from this process that we can apply to future decisions.
http://benton.org/node/22345
Recommend this Headline
back to top

HOW WILL THE $7.2 BILLION ALLOTTED FOR BROADBAND STIMULUS BE SPENT?
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, recently enacted by Congress, many details regarding the allocation of funds for high-tech projects remain blurry. Nevertheless, the nation's tech community appears to be encouraged by the $7.2 billion provision for broadband. The bureaucracy to allocate the money has not been set up yet, and no one can be absolutely sure exactly how the broadband program will work. Once the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the Department of Agriculture create a system for distributing stimulus grants, they will work with the various states to outline the states' needs. Industry watchers say that the new law is crucial if some 20 million Americans are to obtain the broadband Internet access they need. In coming weeks, the person appointed as Secretary of Commerce by President Obama will appoint an assistant secretary--and that person will bear primary responsibility for overseeing execution of the broadband provisions.
http://benton.org/node/22344
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CONNECTEDNATION MODEL HAS PITFALLS
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Rebecca Cole]
Congressional leaders and the White House hope that a wired-up "e-infrastructure" reaching all corners of the country will create new jobs and stimulate economic growth.
Fifty-five percent of all Americans already have broadband access at home, up from 47 percent in 2007, according to a July 2008 Pew Internet & American Life Project report. The study also found that 38 percent of rural Americans have broadband at home, an increase of 23 percent from the previous year. In 2004, Kentucky set out to build a statewide broadband network. In conjunction with ConnectKentucky, a nonprofit organization that leverages partnerships between state government and broadband providers, the state has significantly increased broadband availability, spending about $7.5 million on the project. ConnectKentucky claims that 95 percent of all Kentuckians—546,000 new households—now have high-speed Internet access, up from 60 percent. The organization points to a detailed map of broadband availability showing cable, DSL, wireless and satellite services down to the census-block level as evidence. The map is compiled from 88 different service providers, according to Brian Mefford, former head of ConnectKentucky and now chairman and CEO of ConnectedNation, a national offshoot based in Washington, D.C. But the organization keeps details about providers as a proprietary and closely held secret. This has set off alarms for some industry experts, who question whether entities such as ConnectedNation are acting as shills for preferred partners and carriers. Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C., focused on the emerging digital culture, questions ConnectKentucky's assertion of nearly 100 percent broadband penetration. "Carriers should be required to submit the data that the states want, not have it be tucked away in some black hole," Brodsky said. "The map isn't transparent. There's no information about competing carriers and their rates. The data just cannot be verified." Brodsky's proposed alternative is to have the states, not a third party such as ConnectedNation, manage a more ambitious broadband rollout. But this may prove difficult. Faced with a pile of money that must be spent in a short amount of time, states already are turning to ConnectedNation for help in replicating its model.
http://benton.org/node/22343
Recommend this Headline
back to top

A BLIND CURVE ON THE INFO HIGHWAY?
[SOURCE: Charlotte Observer, AUTHOR: Mary Schulken]
[Commentary] The federal stimulus package includes more than $4 billion for rural broadband access. That's great news. Plenty of rural communities in North Carolina still don't have access to broadband. Their residents, businesses and prospects are stuck in the age of dial-up. Upgrading those connections is an urgent public need. Yet we're poised to decide where to spend those precious dollars for rural broadband based on maps we let telecommunications companies draw ­ at public expense. That's nuts. The problem is, there is no precise grid in North Carolina (and most states) showing the areas broadband is and is not available. A bigger problem: The cable and telephone companies are tight-fisted with specifics about the level and location of service. They are not regulated as public utilities in North Carolina, so nothing says they have to release that data. And when they do, there's no way to check its accuracy. A bigger problem still: The stimulus package includes $340 million for nationwide broadband mapping. But there's a move to put the mapping for where service is needed in the hands of Connected Nation, a company representing big telecommunications companies. We're going to spend millions in public stimulus money on a hard-to-address public need based on information gathered by secretive companies who are protecting their proprietary interests? And, by the way, companies who stand to gain from these new connections? Broadband is the gold standard in education, medicine and economic development. It's the equivalent of a 16-lane interstate in a global economy. North Carolina has a shot at a few dollars to put some of its most underserved communities on that powerful highway. But will that money be wasted because we use biased information to decide where?
http://benton.org/node/22342
Recommend this Headline
back to top

THE BRIDGE TO SMART TECHNOLOGY
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Steve Hamm]
Over the next five years the U.S. is poised to spend more than $500 billion on infrastructure, more than the amount spent to build the entire Interstate Highway System in today's dollars. The money will come from President Barack Obama's stimulus package and a separate transportation bill that Congress is expected to approve in September. The avalanche of cash comes just as a host of so-called smart technologies is emerging to make it possible to build roads, bridges, mass transit systems, schools, hospitals, and electric grids faster and better, and to operate them more efficiently. There are tensions over how smart to make the country's infrastructure, though. On one side, tech leaders portray this as an unprecedented opportunity for the US to catch up with countries in Asia and the Middle East that have spent billions on futuristic cities and other projects in recent years. "Smarter infrastructure is by far our best path to creating these new, globally competitive jobs and stimulating growth," said IBM (IBM) Chief Executive Samuel J. Palmisano in January, after meeting with Obama to discuss the stimulus package. On the other side of the debate are traditional construction trade groups and many politicians. They argue that the emphasis in government spending should be on creating as many jobs as quickly as possible, so old-fashioned brick-and-mortar projects make the most sense.
http://benton.org/node/22341
Recommend this Headline
back to top

DID TV COVERAGE OF STIMULUS MISS POINT?
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
There were plenty of familiar faces on-screen during TV coverage of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, people like James Carville, Laura Ingraham, Karl Rove, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Joe Trippi and Dick Morris. What it lacked, some critics suggest, were people with real expertise in what the $787 billion plan will mean for the economy and for communities and individuals. In short, it was treated like just another political battle. Of the 681 people who appeared as guests on a dozen cable news and four network Sunday morning talk shows in the three weeks that ended last Sunday, only 41, or 6 percent, were economists, said the liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America. That count alone indicates a lack of effort in tracking down what was most important about the story, said Erikka Knuti, the organization's spokeswoman. "Hearing whether or not this package is going to work is more important than who has the snappiest quip," she said.
http://benton.org/node/22380
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOVERNMENT GETS CHANCE TO PROVE IT CAN WORK
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Alec MacGillis]
The stimulus package is not only a political crucible for President Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats who pushed it through; it is also the ultimate test of government's ability to deliver, from a vast array of federal agencies and departments down to state and local offices across the country. It will be up to thousands of Cabinet undersecretaries, regional agency directors and local contracting officers to get the stimulus money out fast enough to boost the economy and to meet Obama's broader policy goals. Obama has cast his election as a repudiation of an anti-government philosophy that has been in vogue for the past three decades. The stimulus spending offers the prospect of renewing confidence in the public sector just as many are losing faith in corporate America. If done poorly, though, it could undermine Obama's longer-term vision of reaffirming the positive role of government in the lives of Americans. Complicating matters further is the leadership vacuum at many agencies, where many top political appointees have yet to be confirmed. Agencies must rely on career officials who are experienced but may not have gotten much training or support over the years.
http://benton.org/node/22379
Recommend this Headline
back to top

VIDEO CORD-CUTTING? NOT SO MUCH
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Predictions that economic hard times and the widespread availability of video content on the Internet would lead to a decline in pay TV service sales did not pan out in the fourth quarter ­ quite the opposite is true, in fact. With Echostar's Dish Networks and a smattering of cable companies yet to report results, Sanford Bernstein Analyst Craig Moffett said the numbers show subscriber additions actually grew by 441,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008, fueled by the success of AT&T, Verizon and DirecTV, which sells directly and in partnership with telcos.
http://benton.org/node/22340
Recommend this Headline
back to top

DIGITAL TELEVISION

FCC UNVEILS PLANS FOR SECOND WAVE OF DTV TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission released its second order implementing the digital television transition delay bill, including changing all the relevant Feb. 17, 2009 dates to June 12, but it also contained various modifications and additions to handle the second wave of analog shut-offs. In a separate notice of proposed rulemaking the Commission proposes that no TV stations should cease analog broadcasts earlier than April 16. By March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), all TV broadcasters must inform the FCC of when they plan to cease analog broadcasts if it is before June 12 -- any stations that do not will be assumed to be going June 12 and won't be able to pull the plug earlier (absent a disaster or unforeseeable emergency). The Commission said that date certain was only fair given that cable operators, satellite carriers, broadcasters and tower crews will need that certainty. April 16 is the deadline for filing updated DTV Transition Status Reports that outline those transition plans.
http://benton.org/node/22339
Recommend this Headline
back to top

TOP DTV CALL CATEGORY IS RECEPTION ISSUES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Over 25 percent of the digital television-related calls handled by the Federal Communications Commission on Feb 17 were from viewers who were having reception or technical problems (problems receiving any channels, antenna problems, or weak or intermittent signals). Calls were down slightly Wednesday to 25,320, but reception and/or technical issues accounted for almost a third of the calls (32.5%). Coming in second were calls about problems with converter boxes (coupon had not arrived, had not been requested or the store was out of converter boxes), representing 21.8% of all calls on Tuesday, 20.1% of the Wednesday calls. Only 4.5% of the calls on Tuesday, the day when 421 stations pulled the plug on analog, were from people who were not aware of the transition. That number was down to 2.2% on Wednesday.
http://benton.org/node/22338
Recommend this Headline
back to top

NTIA WILL PRIORITIZE ANALOG-ONLY COUPON REQUESTS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will put analog-only households at the head of the line for DTV-to-analog converter box coupons if a crush for coupons creates a bottleneck similar to the one experienced since early January. As written, the law moving the DTV hard date from Feb. 17 to June 12 allows anyone whose coupons has expired to re-apply. Currently, there are more than 4 million applications on NTIA's waiting list, which it will take two or three weeks to clear up once the $650 million in funding from the economic stimulus package becomes available, which was estimated at about a week from the President's Feb. 17 signing of the bill.
http://benton.org/node/22337
Recommend this Headline
back to top

THE TRANSITION

WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF URBAN AFFAIRS
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama has established the White House Office of Urban Affairs in order to take a coordinated and comprehensive approach to developing and implementing an effective strategy concerning urban America. The principal functions of the Office are: 1) to provide leadership for and coordinate the development of the policy agenda for urban America across executive departments and agencies; 2) to coordinate all aspects of urban policy; 3) to work with executive departments and agencies to ensure that appropriate consideration is given by such departments and agencies to the potential impact of their actions on urban areas; 4) to work with executive departments and agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget, to ensure that Federal Government dollars targeted to urban areas are effectively spent on the highest-impact programs; and 5) to engage in outreach and work closely with State and local officials, with nonprofit organizations, and with the private sector, both in seeking input regarding the development of a comprehensive urban policy and in ensuring that the implementation of Federal programs advances the objectives of that policy. President Obama named Adolfo Carrion, White House Director of Urban Affairs and Derek Douglas, Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs.
http://benton.org/node/22336
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FEARING 'CYBER KATRINA,' CYBER CZAR CANDIDATE URGES A "FEMA FOR THE INTERNET"
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Keith Epstein]
Former White House cybersecurity official Paul Kurtz, in his first public remarks since becoming an advisor to President Obama's transition team following the election, describes his biggest worry: A "cyber Katrina" in which fragmented bureaucracies and companies fail to share critical information and coordinate responses to cyber intruders attempting to disrupt power grids, financial markets, or any number of now-plausible scenarios involving a Web shutdown. One recent fear is the cascading effects of even a partial Internet blackout that could add to economic anxieties. There's such electronic insecurity afoot, some are even beginning to suggest building an entirely new global computer infrastructure. "The bottom line is, is there a FEMA for the Internet? I don't think there is," Kurtz told an audience of security professionals at a Feb. 18 Black Hat security conference in Virginia. Kurtz' solution: A trio of key agencies - the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Communications Commission - but overseen by a new national cybersecurity center. Balkanized bureaucracies with incomplete awareness, conflicts, and unclear responsibilities - no single entity aggregates, analyzes and rapidly prescribes action for ongoing threats - "reminds me of the days before 9/11 when I'd be in meetings in the situation room, with NSA and CIA and FBI guys on different screens, and the FBI guys would say, 'oh, I can't share this because it's law enforcement information," says Kurtz, an infrastructure guardian who has served on White House homeland and national security councils. Kurtz also urges dealing openly with long-taboo subjects such as deploying cyber weapons that can disrupt cyber operations by hackers working for terrorists or other countries ­ and can be used to minimize the casualties in "kinetic" physical attacks.
http://benton.org/node/22335
Recommend this Headline
back to top

WHY THE CENSUS IS ALWAYS POLITICAL
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Tyche Hendricks]
With the 2010 census a year away and the Obama administration still taking shape, the survey has emerged as a partisan political football. But politicians, demographers and other census observers know that this year's dustup over the census is only the latest chapter in a long history. "It has been a political process since the first decision on how to count slaves. It goes back to 1790," said Roberto Suro, a University of Southern California communications professor and long-time census watcher. The nation's first census, he noted, considered a slave as just three-fifths of a person for the decennial head count. The primary purpose of the census is to count every person living in the United States in order to draw the boundaries of congressional districts and ensure an approximately equal population in each. States and localities also use the data to determine political districts. And the federal government allocates funds for highways, schools, police and other purposes based on the population count. "What's not political about the census? It's the basis of the two most important things in politics: money and representation," said Harvard professor of government D. Sunshine Hillygus. "Mayors and governors are keenly aware of this. They know that getting an accurate count of their cities is going to directly translate into dollars. "They also know that whether they get an additional congressman or one less congressman will depend on getting an accurate count."
http://benton.org/node/22370
Recommend this Headline
back to top

ADELSTEIN TAKES AIM AT MARTIN OVER TIME WARNER CABLE SPIN-OFF HOLD UP
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein took aim at former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over what Commissioner Adelstein called the "no brainer" approval of the spin-off of Time Warner's cable assets. He pointed out that it had taken the FCC over 220 days to hold up what he said should have essentially been a "rubber stamp" approval of a routine spin-off, calling its hold-up an abuse of power. "That was being held up over an unrelated issue," he said. "The previous chairman felt he was going to take unrelated issues like a la carte and try to force them into what would otherwise be a rubber stamp. Now, I'm not one to rubber stamp media transactions, but this was de-consolidation. This was a cable company dealing with a lot of the problems Congress was concerned about with integrated cable companies that had programming and distribution." He also pointed out that it had been difficult for "marketplace participants to do their business with that kind of abuse of power."
http://benton.org/node/22334
Recommend this Headline
back to top

JOURNALISM

MORE NEWSPAPERS FILE FOR CHAPTER 11
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shira Ovide]
The weekend bankruptcy filings of Philadelphia's two major newspapers and Journal Register Co., publisher of the New Haven Register and 19 other dailies, marks the latest in a wave of companies crushed by corporate debt and is likely a sign of more pain to come. The operating arm of Philadelphia Media Holdings, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, sought bankruptcy protection Sunday, following on the heels of a Saturday filing by the Journal Register. Both companies were victims of debt taken on for acquisitions, which became a noose as advertising revenue shrivels across the newspaper industry. Publishers are proving especially vulnerable in a global economic downturn that has forced firms from telecommunications to the car-parts industry to tip into Chapter 11. Four newspaper owners have filed for bankruptcy protection since December, and there is a queue of others whose debt ratings are considered risky: MediaNews Group, publisher of the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News; Orange County Register publisher Freedom Communications Inc.; and small-town newspaper publisher Morris Publishing Group. More are scrambling to rework their debt terms.
http://benton.org/node/22378
Recommend this Headline
back to top

INFORMATION WANT TO BE EXPENSIVE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] With newspapers in cities across the country on the brink, an old idea is being resurrected in the hope of saving them: They should charge for access to their journalism on the Internet. This is a great idea, but about 10 years late. People are happy to pay for news and information however it's delivered, but only if it has real, differentiated value. Traders must have their Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters terminal. Lawyers wouldn't go to court without accessing the Lexis or West online service. Yet few city newspapers try to generate revenues directly from readers online, a huge problem now that advertising is so weak in print and online. Something needs to change if these newspapers and their large news staffs are to survive. It's past time for news companies to regain the courage to ask readers whether what they produce is worth paying for online. If it's not, less news will be produced, and news companies and their journalists will have only themselves to blame.
http://benton.org/node/22377
Recommend this Headline
back to top

THE MEDIA BARON AND HIS SOFT SPOT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Arango, Richard Perez-Pena]
Rupert Murdoch, as much old-fashioned press baron as 21st century multimedia mogul, faces a depressing reality: his lifelong fondness for newspapers has become a significant drag on the fortunes of his company, the News Corporation. In more vibrant economic times, investors and Wall Street analysts were more willing to look past Mr. Murdoch's attachment to newspapers — the newspaper segment is now the company's biggest single source of revenue, about 19 percent in the most recent quarter. But they find that a tougher chore these days, as other media struggle and newspapers suffer through their worst slump since the Depression.
http://benton.org/node/22376
Recommend this Headline
back to top

LOBBYIST SETTLES WITH NEW YORK TIMES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Michael O'Brien]
Lobbyist Vicki Iseman has settled a libel lawsuit with The New York Times over an article that implied she engaged in a romantic relationship with Sen John McCain (R-AZ). She agreed to end her suit without payment or a retraction from the Times. The newspaper will publish a note on Feb. 20 stating that the Times did not intend to conclude that Iseman "had engaged in a romantic affair with Sen. McCain or an unethical relationship on behalf of her clients in breach of public trust." The newspaper will also allow Iseman's lawyers to offer her views regarding the lawsuit on the Times's website.
http://benton.org/node/22325
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BEYOND STIMULUS, BLOGGERS FOCUS ON PUPILS, PENANCE AND PUPPETS
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: ]
For the second straight week, the ongoing economic crisis dominated the social media, just as it did the more traditional press. The stimulus package that made it through Congress on Feb. 13 was the subject of half of all the links (50%) last week found in the New Media Index of Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, which analyzes millions of blogs and other social media sites each week. Many of posts either evaluated specifics in the bill or debated the Republicans' strategy in opposing President Obama-discussions that mirrored some traditional media commentary, but spent less time anointing political winners and losers.
http://benton.org/node/22331
Recommend this Headline
back to top

ANCHORS OBLIGE PUBLIC'S CRAVING FOR TWEETS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
Twitter, which began in 2006, has 6 million users, a fivefold increase since last summer. The 140-character limit on each message initially seems silly, but forces a witty sort of brevity that seems well matched to today's sound-bite culture. While dwarfed by the likes of Facebook, which has become so mainstream it can hardly be viewed as edgy, the bare-bones Twitter has been generating considerable buzz lately. In an age when people expect behind-the-scenes dish, the site enables television types to explain what they're doing -- and flatter their fans by soliciting their opinions.
http://benton.org/node/22372
Recommend this Headline
back to top

DIGITAL CONTENT

LAWMAKERS UNVEIL ISP DATA RETENTION BILL AND GET CHILLY RECEPTION
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced legislation that directs Internet service providers to retain subscriber information for up to two years. Rep Smith says, the bill helps law enforcement officials identify users who upload and view explicit child pornography and would impose record-keeping requirements similar to those already in place for telephone companies. Internet Service Providers routinely work with authorities and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on this front and have made strides to bolster industry efforts in recent years. In addition to record retention, the measure also makes it a crime to financially facilitate the sale, distribution and purchase of child pornography. The bill would provide additional funds to the FBI's Innocent Images program, which is the backbone of federal law enforcement's fight to eradicate child porn. High-tech and child safety advocates give the legislation a chilly reception.
http://benton.org/node/22332
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CONGRESSMAN FRANK TO PUSH REPEAL OF ONLINE GAMBLING BAN
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Doug Palmer]
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) will push legislation this year to repeal a US ban on Internet gambling that has hurt trade ties with the European Union. Supporters of the ban argued offshore Internet gambling websites take billions of dollars out the U.S. economy, damage families and serve as vehicles for money laundering. The law cost Europe's online gambling companies billions in lost market value as they were forced to retreat from one of their most lucrative markets. It barred businesses from knowingly accepting payments in connection with unlawful Internet gambling, including payments made through credit cards, electronic fund transfers and checks.
http://benton.org/node/22328
Recommend this Headline
back to top

SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE TELCOS' NEW BEST FRIEND
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Georgina Prodhan]
From the world's biggest phone maker, Nokia, to tiny Irish semiconductor start-up Movidia, delegates to the wireless industry's biggest annual gathering couldn't stop talking about Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. The majority of visits to such online communities are still made by people sitting at a computer telling their friends where they are and how they are feeling, exchanging opinions on their favorite movies and music or uploading videos. But the spontaneous and personal nature of much of that communication lends itself perfectly to the mobile phone.
http://benton.org/node/22327
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CALIFORNIA'S VIDEO GAME LAW RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Gina Keating]
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a California law restricting the sales and rental of violent video games to minors and imposing labeling requirements is too restrictive and violates free speech guarantees. The court found that the labeling requirement unfairly forces video games to carry "the state's controversial opinion" about which games are violent. The unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel could have a far-reaching impact on efforts by other states to establish mandatory video game labeling requirements. The court upheld a lower court finding that California lawmakers failed to produce evidence that violent video games cause psychological or neurological harm to children.
http://benton.org/node/22326
Recommend this Headline
back to top

INTERNET/BROADBAND

FREE PRESS RESUMES NETWORK NEUTRALITY PUSH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Free Press is renewing its push for Network Neutrality legislation. Executive Director Josh Silver, in an e-mail to supporters, said that the group is "re-engaging its Savetheinternet.com coalition," comprising 850 organizations, 6,000 bloggers and 1.6 million people. Silver says coalition members will press the flesh and organize a "letter to the editor" campaign to "flood local newspapers" with stories about "why an open, accessible Internet matters." The effort comes in the wake of the passage of the economic stimulus bill with $7.2 billion earmarked for broadband infrastructure that include openness conditions, interconnection and build-out conditions, though the former has yet to be defined.
http://benton.org/node/22333
Recommend this Headline
back to top

COMCAST: 50MBPS SPEEDS TO 65% OF TERRITORY BY END OF 2009
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
Comcast hopes to roll out wideband Internet connections to 65 percent of its footprint in the US this year. The cable giant said that it has already introduced beefed-up DOCSIS 3.0 speeds to more than 15 million homes and businesses, roughly 30 percent of its footprint, and its goal is to eventually get its entire footprint up to a minimum of 12Mbps. Comcast noted that its DOCSIS 3.0 rollout was already reaching customers in ten major markets across the US, including the Twin Cities, Boston, parts of New Hampshire, Philadelphia, parts of New Jersey, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Portland, and Seattle. Many of those markets are fairly recent additions to the list, and the fact that Comcast has already surpassed its October 2008 goal of reaching 10 million homes and businesses is encouraging. By the end of 2009, the company hopes to offer DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities to 30 million homes and businesses, enabling speeds of up to 100Mbps down.
http://benton.org/node/22330
Recommend this Headline
back to top

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND EXPANSION PILOT APPROVED BY STATE COMMISSIONERS
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has approved a resolution endorsing a Federal Communications Commission proposal to expand Lifeline and Link Up telephone subsidization programs to offer broadband service for low income consumers. The proposal will allow telecommunications companies, even those that do not currently receive USF dollars, to receive Universal Service Fund monies to help low income families connect to the Internet. Companies that do not currently receive USF funding for voice service would have to pay into the fund in order to be eligible.
http://benton.org/node/22329
Recommend this Headline
back to top

EXPLORING A 'DEEP WEB' THAT GOOGLE CAN'T GRASP
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alex Wright]
One day last summer, Google's search engine trundled quietly past a milestone. It added the one trillionth address to the list of Web pages it knows about. But as impossibly big as that number may seem, it represents only a fraction of the entire Web. Beyond those trillion pages lies an even vaster Web of hidden data: financial information, shopping catalogs, flight schedules, medical research and all kinds of other material stored in databases that remain largely invisible to search engines. The challenges that the major search engines face in penetrating this so-called Deep Web go a long way toward explaining why they still can't provide satisfying answers to questions like "What's the best fare from New York to London next Thursday?" The answers are readily available — if only the search engines knew how to find them. Now a new breed of technologies is taking shape that will extend the reach of search engines into the Web's hidden corners. When that happens, it will do more than just improve the quality of search results — it may ultimately reshape the way many companies do business online.
http://benton.org/node/22375
Recommend this Headline
back to top

QUICKLY -- Opinion Could Dampen Zeal To Classify Government Information; States put spending details online; Nominees Sought for National Medal of Technology and Innovation; Competition Pushes Up Content Costs for ESPN

OPINION COULD DAMPEN ZEAL TO CLASSIFY GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
If it is ultimately upheld, a memorandum opinion written by a federal judge in Virginia and released last week may limit the overclassification of information on national security grounds and prevent future prosecutions for leaking such information. The opinion could also spell the end to a four-year effort by the Justice Department to convict two former pro-Israeli lobbyists for allegedly violating the Espionage Act by passing classified government information to journalists and an Israeli Embassy official. U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Ellis III wrote the Feb. 17 opinion in a case, brought originally in 2005, that involves Stephen J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, both of whom at the time were working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Their jobs were to lobby U.S. executive and legislative branch officials who had policymaking responsibilities in areas of AIPAC's interest.
http://benton.org/node/22373
Recommend this Headline
back to top

STATES PUT SPENDING DETAILS ONLINE
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Tracy Loew]
A growing number of states are putting everything from budgets and contracts to travel expenses online for the public to scrutinize. Twelve states post all their state spending, six post the checkbooks of selected departments, and seven have passed laws ordering the creation of online spending websites, according to Sandra Fabry, executive director of the Center for Fiscal Accountability. The most recent to go online were Kentucky, Georgia and Maryland, which launched in January. An additional 15 are considering legislation, she says. "Taxpayers who fund every expenditure by government have the right to know how their tax dollars are being spent," Fabry says.
http://benton.org/node/22371
Recommend this Headline
back to top

NOMINEES SOUGHT FOR NATIONAL MEDIA OF TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: United States Patent and Trademark Office]
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is seeking nominations for the nation's highest honor for technological achievement. The USPTO administers the NMTI program on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce. The deadline for nominations is May 29, 2009. The nominations can be made for an individual, a team of up to four individuals, a company or a division of a company. The honorees are chosen for their outstanding contributions to the nation's economic, environmental and social well-being through the development and commercialization of technological products, processes and concepts; technological innovation; and development of the country's technological manpower. There are currently four vacancies on the committee that evaluates nominees for the NMTI. The Evaluation Committee reviews all nominees for the medal. Members are drawn from the public and private sector and are distinguished experts in the fields of science, technology, business and patent law. Committee members are appointed by the Secretary of Commerce for three-year terms. They are eligible for one reappointment.
http://benton.org/node/22324
Recommend this Headline
back to top

COMPETITION PUSHES UP CONTENT COSTS FOR ESPN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Sanders, Matthew Futterman]
Walt Disney's ESPN has come to dominate the lucrative business of sports broadcasting by locking up deals with entities ranging from Major League Baseball to NASCAR. But renewing some of those deals won't come cheap. And with ad revenue down, that could put ESPN in a bind and have repercussions for its parent company. Since Disney acquired 80% of ESPN in 1995, the cable network has become one of the entertainment company's most valuable properties. ESPN is now the largest component of Disney's Cable Networks franchise, which delivered $4.1 billion in operating income in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 27. That dwarfed the $655 million in operating income earned by the Broadcast Networks, which include ABC, and was 49% of Disney's total operating income. ESPN is already feeling the impact of the recession. Its advertising revenue is declining even as costs associated with many of its rights deals increase on schedule. For the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 27, revenue at Disney's Cable Networks division grew only 2% and operating income fell 12% from a year earlier to $517 million.
http://benton.org/node/22374
Recommend this Headline
back to top