February 2009

Senator Gregg withdraws as Obama commerce pick

Sen Judd Gregg (R-NH) said on Thursday he was withdrawing as President Barack Obama's nominee to be Commerce secretary because of political differences. He said he pulled out because of disagreements with the President over issues including the economic stimulus package and the country's census, which the Commerce Department would be responsible for implementing. In a news conference, Gregg apologized for a decision he said he realized was "unfair in many ways." "I just realized it wouldn't be a good fit," Sen Gregg said, adding that it "would be a bigger mistake" to stay. "He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President's agenda," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. Gregg's withdrawal could prompt Obama to reconsider Silicon Valley executive John Thompson to head the commerce department.

Obama nears FTC picks

The Obama administration has not yet named a chairman for the Federal Trade Commission, despite the widespread expectation among Washington antitrust lawyers that the agency's sole Democrat, Jon Leibowitz, will get the job any day now. There's also another commissioner vacancy the administration will have to fill, but so far, no names have emerged as front-runners for that slot. In the meantime, antitrust lawyers Thursday said there's a rumor that Leibowitz may pick Rich Feinstein to head the FTC's Bureau of Competition, which investigates mergers.

Senate Commerce Committee Re-organization

John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison announced today the new Commerce Subcommittees for the 111th Congress:

1) Communications and Technology Chair: Senator John Kerry, Ranking: Senator John Ensign.

2) Science and Space Chair: Senator Bill Nelson, Ranking: Senator David Vitter.

3) Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion Chair: Senator Amy Klobuchar, Ranking: Senator Mel Martinez.

In addition the Committee adopted rules that will make it easier to issue subpoenas. Apparently, under the new rules, the chairman and the ranking member can make the decision together to issue a subpoena if they want to investigate something.

We must make good on the promise of access to broadband for everyone

[Commentary] It is even clearer now than it was five years ago that statements alone won't finish the job of expanding access to broadband. Instead, the nation that invented the Internet has steadily slipped in global broadband ranking. We face this challenge because the "laissez-faire" strategy that has proven effective for deploying broadband in densely populated areas has also left behind too much of rural America. Today's broadband challenge requires a laser-like focus from the federal government. We need a national strategy to get broadband Internet speeds into every American household, and it will require the federal government to partner with the private sector to get it done. President Obama has made it clear that broadband deployment is a priority for his administration, and that he sees it as a job creator. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for starters includes several billion dollars in grants and loans to build broadband infrastructure. This is a good start, but much more remains to be done. We need to look at every available tool for providing broadband access to all Americans. We need to look closely at the Universal Service Fund to determine how the nearly $7 billion in annual cross-subsidies can be best used in a world where communications technology is increasingly dependent on the Internet. And we need to examine our national spectrum policy to determine whether we can encourage innovation in wireless broadband development in a more efficient way. Finally, we need to make sure that we are promoting an Internet that is open, transparent, and does not discriminate with respect to how consumers use it within the confines of the law.

Boucher: Broadband Deployment Will Be Priority

House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) says that broadband deployment will be his priority as head of the subcommittee, and will push for requiring satellite companies to carry all local TV stations. said the good news is that the stimulus package contains about $6.9 billion for broadband deployment. He said that for the sake of the economy, the country needs to increase broadband deployment, particularly in rural areas. Chairman Boucher said his first hearing as chairman would be on reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Act, which allows satellite companies to import distant network signals to viewers who cannot receive a similar local signal. Chairman Boucher said that, as part of that reauthorization, he would like to require that satellite operators carry local TV stations in all markets, including the 30, mostly rural, markets, where satellite operators do not carry the local stations. He also said he would be overseeing the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and Rural Development Agency as they hand out the broadband grant money in the economic stimulus package, which is expected to be passed next week.

FTC extends privacy guidelines to mobiles, ISPs

The Federal Trade Commission extended guidelines for how websites collect, save and share information about their visitors to Internet service providers and mobile providers, saying those customers should also be able to protect their personal information. The FTC has urged that websites tell consumers that data is being collected during their searches and to allow them to opt out. Now that same guidance is directed at mobile companies and Internet service providers. "You may have a contract with your ISP and everywhere you go, they can be collecting information on you," said Jessica Rich, the FTC's assistant director in the division of privacy and identity protection. There are few US laws about the collection and use of data from the Internet, with exceptions for instances where firms fail to live up to advertised promises to protect privacy, or fail to deliver an expected level of data protection. One of the four FTC commissioners who approved the report, Jon Leibowitz, warned that the industry's failure to safeguard the public's privacy could lead to a tougher federal position.

Boucher, Stearns Working On Online Privacy Bill

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) and ranking Member Cliff Stearns (R-FL) are working on a bill that will "assure a higher level of [online] privacy protection" for online surfers, by establishing an opt-in model for collecting Web surfing information for marketing purposes. The goal is actually to expand electronic commerce dramatically, which he thinks will happen if "American consumers of products and services using the Internet as a delivery platform can be assured of a higher level of privacy with respect to their personal information."

FCC Allows 368 Stations to Cease Analog Broadcasts on Feb. 17

The Federal Communications Commission has said that 368 TV stations will be allowed to pull the plug on analog Feb. 17 (out of 491 that asked to do so). Of those 368, 100 said they planned to keep running their analog transmitters for at least two weeks past Feb. 17 for DTV and emergency information. The FCC also said those other 123 stations won't be able to unless certain conditions are met, including that someone in the market remains on in analog for 60 days past Feb. 17 with local news, public affairs, DTV and emergency information, or what the FCC is calling enhanced nightlight service. That means that either the stations have to remain on in analog until mid-April, or find someone else in the market to do so, and one with a local news operation. That enhanced nightlight programming can include advertising, which makes it different from the analog nightlight service approved for several weeks after the hard date, which is now June 12.

DTV delay now law, but confusion still persists over 700 MHz

President Obama may have signed DTV delay legislation late Wednesday, but the issue is far from settled. Many broadcasters are opting to make the cutover early, which could free up spectrum all over the country for 700 MHz license holders to deploy mobile broadband and TV services before the summer. That move has raised the ire of the Federal Communications Commission, which is forcing some broadcasters to keep transmitting a portion of their programming until the new deadline. The stations are scattered throughout the country, and at first glance the early cutoff would appear to be good news for the 700 MHz license holders targeting the spectrum for new mobile services. But the patchwork distribution of networks going off air does little good for companies planning nationwide rollouts. Qualcomm is trying to clear spectrum in four key markets—Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco—where broadcasters transmitting at Channel 55 or neighboring channels prevent it from launching its FLO TV mobile video service. Of the stations on those bands in those four markets, only one is making the cutover early.

What does broadband policy mean for musicians?

The Future of Music Coalition held its annual Policy Day in Washington (DC) bringing together the wonks who are regular fixtures in DC tech policy circles with the artists and entrepreneurs who are actually producing all this "innovation" that good tech policy is supposed to promote. Genuinely open and collaborative many-to-many networks and collaborative folk cultural production processes all run contrary to the interests of people in the bread-and-circuses business... the ones who, as Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy, Shocklee Entertainment) put it, are hoping to "sell you a pill to make you feel like yourself." It sounds a bit conspiratorial when put that bluntly, but it amounts to little more than the simple market observation that truly broad, participatory creativity constitutes competition: If it's a threat to the business model when people pirate songs instead of buying them, it's no less a threat when they get together to make their own music instead of consuming someone else's. That's not to say telecoms or content industries are engaged in a conscious campaign to stamp out creativity, like the villains in some Grant Morrison comic. But there's a case to be made that it's the upshot of their efforts.

Benton

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