May 18, 2009 (Law Students Teach Scalia About Privacy)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY MAY 18, 2009
NATOA's 2009 Spring Conference begins today. The FCC's Digital Closed Captioning and Video description Technical Working Group meets today. And the Brookings Institution hosts a discussion on The Future of the News Industry. For all of this week's events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar/2009-05-17--P1W
POLICYMAKERS
Law Students Teach Scalia About Privacy and the Web
Confirmation Hearings For Strickling and Chopra -- When Will the Rest Follow?
Open Government Advocates Urge Senate to Move on CRS Report Access
BROADBAND
Verizon Shows The Limits of Fiber
ANTITRUST/OWNERSHIP
New Mood in Antitrust May Target Google
Separating telecoms?
Public harm in Intel case hard to determine
Can Miramax survive?
Silicon Valley startups slash costs to survive in downturn
WIRELESS
Cellphone Makers Hope for a Blockbuster Summer
Cheaper iPhone Plans from AT&T?
TELEVISION
Broadcast networks may find it tougher to sell TV ad time for top dollar
TV Ads vs. the DVR
JOURNALISM
The Times and the Future
Media's want to break free
POLICYMAKERS
LAW STUDENTS TEACH SCALIA ABOUT PRIVACY AND THE WEB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
This spring, the students of an elective course on Internet privacy at Fordham Law School experienced a number of fascinating "teaching moments" during an assignment meant to demonstrate how much personal information is floating around online. The assignment from the class's professor, Joel R. Reidenberg, was, admittedly, a bit provocative: create a dossier about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from what can be found on the Internet. Why Justice Scalia? Well, the class had been discussing his recent dismissive comments about Internet privacy concerns at a conference. His summation, as reported by The Associated Press: "Every single datum about my life is private? That's silly." The class managed to create a dossier of 15 pages, Professor Reidenberg reported to a conference on privacy at Fordham, that included the justice's home address and home phone number, his wife's personal e-mail address and the TV shows and food he prefers. Justice Scalia responds: "I stand by my remark at the Institute of American and Talmudic Law conference that it is silly to think that every single datum about my life is private. I was referring, of course, to whether every single datum about my life deserves privacy protection in law. It is not a rare phenomenon that what is legal may also be quite irresponsible. That appears in the First Amendment context all the time. What can be said often should not be said. Prof. Reidenberg's exercise is an example of perfectly legal, abominably poor judgment. Since he was not teaching a course in judgment, I presume he felt no responsibility to display any."
http://benton.org/node/25343
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CONFIRMATION HEARINGS FOR STRICKLING AND CHOPRA -- WHEN WILL THE REST FOLLOW?
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] The Senate Commerce Committee has announced confirmation hearings for Larry Strickling as head of NTIA and Aneesh Chopra for CTO. Hopefully, swift confirmation by the full Senate will follow. Feld really can't stress too much how important it is to get the Administration up to full strength. Which is why the delay in confirmation for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, FCC Commissioner Clyburn and Rural Utilities Services head Jonathan Adelstein are is unfortunate. Everyone understands the time pressure to start spending stimulus money. But that hardly covers the damage of having the major telecom and IT elements of the Administration stuck in a holding pattern. Many are debating the urgency of resolving dozens of critical issues — from the issue du jour of saving newspapers to the insanely detailed problem of special access. But we can't even start to work on these issues in a substantive way until the Obama nominees get confirmed and installed.
http://benton.org/node/25342
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OPEN GOVERNMENT ADVOCATES URGE SENATE TO MOVE ON CRS REPORT ACCESS
[SOURCE: Center for Democracy and Technology, AUTHOR: ]
The Center for Democracy and Technology is among more than 40 organizations and advocates that signed on to a letter today urging the Senate Rules Committee to hold hearings on open government issues and move on Sen. Lieberman's (I-CT) resolution to open Congressional Research Service reports to public access. Taxpayers spend more than $100 million to fund the CRS, which produces non-classified, detailed reports on current political issues for lawmakers. However, easy access to these reports has been kept from the public. Lieberman's resolution would allow cost effective, public access to an internal CRS web site that is already up and running but designated for congressional use only
http://benton.org/node/25341
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BROADBAND
VERIZON SHOWS THE LIMITS OF FIBER
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] Whenever the talk of a competitive high-speed Internet market comes up, defenders of the Bells are quick to point to fiber deployment as the great savior. Now it's clear that fiber deployments will be much more limited than previously thought. The debate should end about fiber being a ubiquitous, robust competitor in the market. The nonsense about "platform competition," with fiber as the poster child, is over. As part of its strategy to concentrate on wireless, and, for the lucky ones, fiber-based FIOS, Verizon is prepared to leave 10 million customers it currently serves out in the non-fiber cold. By the end of 2010, when the company's fiber build-out will largely be complete, about 17 million homes will have FIOS, Verizon Exec. Vice President John Killian said on an analyst call Wednesday. With the fire sale to Frontier, Verizon will be left with about 27 million lines, give or take. That's not the end of the story. Verizon is cutting loose another 750,000 customers who Killian said would have been eligible to receive FIOS, but are now part of the Frontier transaction. If nothing else, this deal opens the way for more acceptance of alternative fiber providers to step up, particularly in the soon-to-be former Verizon territories now being cut loose. The argument against municipalities and others getting into the business as competitors to the phone company creeps quietly away as the phone company abdicates.
http://benton.org/node/25340
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ANTITRUST/OWNERSHIP
NEW MOOD IN ANTITRUST MAY TARGET GOOGLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr, Miguel Helft]
For decades, the nation's biggest antitrust cases have centered on technology companies. And they have all been efforts by the government to deal with powerful companies with far-reaching influence, like AT&T, the telephone monopoly; IBM, the mainframe computer giant; and Microsoft, the powerhouse of personal computer software. Last week, the Obama administration declared a sharp break with the Bush years, vowing to toughen antitrust enforcement, especially for dominant companies. The approach is closer to that of the European Union, where regulators last week fined Intel $1.45 billion for abusing its power in the chip market. In this new climate, the stakes appear to be highest for Google, the rising power of the Internet economy. The new antitrust leadership, legal experts say, is likely to scrutinize networks — technology platforms that become so dominant that everyone feels the need to plug into them. The advantages to the companies that control such networks snowball as they attract more users, advertisers or software developers.
http://benton.org/node/25339
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SEPARATING TELECOMS?
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Eli Noam]
[Commentary] A specter is haunting European telecommunications companies: the prospect of being forcibly reorganized by governments through 'functional separations.' Brussels and several countries want the national telecom incumbents to separate their infrastructure network from the service riding on it, which would be open to competitors on equal terms. BT in the UK was an early example, and the idea has caught on. The basic concept would be like requiring railroad companies to separate their tracks from their train service, to permit rival transportation companies to use these tracks at a low and non-discriminatory rate, and to lease to rivals selected parts of the track infrastructure. All this sounds sensible. It is promoted by competitors and Internet companies. I advocated it myself for many years. But more recently I have come to have doubts, not from indulging in laissez-faire but from counting the transaction costs of such an approach, and from studying the historical record. The problem with discussing all this is that the debate has come to take on some aspects of a religious war, with true believers on each side issuing fatwahs on anyone who strays from their path to redemption. The truth, as often, is more complex. Today is a good time for policy makers and companies to shape alternative futures, and the American history can provide both positive and discouraging lessons. It suggests that structural solutions, while intellectually appealing, create major transaction costs and retard network evolution. There are better ways to protect users and competitors.
http://benton.org/node/25338
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PUBLIC HARM IN INTEL CASE HARD TO FIND
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Steve Johnson]
In slapping Intel with a $1.45 billion fine, European regulators this week said the Santa Clara company had harmed millions of consumers by limiting the use of its chief competitor's chips in computers and other gadgets. But assessing precisely how much the average person's pocketbook was affected — if at all — is not easy and is sure to be a key point of contention when Intel appeals the European case and girds itself for battle in the United States, where it faces similar allegations. Public harm tends to be one of the most hotly debated topics in antitrust cases. It also can be enormously complicated, some legal experts say. "It's incredibly hard" to make such calculations, said Robert Lande, a University of Baltimore law professor and cofounder of the American Antitrust Institute. Intel "has transactions all over the world, and trying to put a price on that ... oh man. It's a nightmare."
http://benton.org/node/25330
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CAN MIRAMAX SURVIVE?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Claudia Eller]
Filmmakers wonder how long Disney will stay committed to its specialty label, especially as its media rivals pull out of the independent movie business. Specialty divisions, which make offbeat movies aimed at sophisticated adult audiences and critics, do not typically generate the big returns that studios demand from their blockbuster-oriented priorities. That's more important than ever as Hollywood looks to make fewer but more reliable bets with broad comedies and easily marketable sequels and prequels. Films such as "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Star Trek" are driving ticket sales and theater attendance to record levels this year.
http://benton.org/node/25334
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SILICON VALLEY STARTUPS SLASH COSTS TO SURVIVE IN DOWNTURN
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Scott Duke Harris]
Silicon Valley is renowned for tech wizardry. But with the global economy sputtering and the valley's unemployment rate at a record 11 percent, many innovators are focusing their most creative energies on managing every penny. From venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road to techies bootstrapping new startups, business people are trying new tactics to control costs and survive what one techie describes as "the biggest economic smackdown of our lifetime." With money scarce, equity options are being re-emphasized as a form of compensation. Some tech entrepreneurs are negotiating creative business terms with lawyers, public relations firms and other vendors, including a wave of cheaper, on-demand back-office software services. A difficult economy, many say, presents opportunities as well as hardships.
http://benton.org/node/25331
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WIRELESS
CELLPHONE MAKERS HOPE FOR A BLOCKBUSTER SUMMER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel]
Because the smartphone market still has room to grow (according to Google, it is estimated that out of the four billion mobile devices in the world, only 100 million are smartphones), manufacturers hope there is room for more than one winner. The cellphone industry looks a lot like the movie industry nowadays. Some highly anticipated phones — including the Palm Pre, an updated iPhone and new phones using the Android operating system from Google — have focused the industry's efforts on the crucial months between Memorial Day and Labor Day. How is success measured for cellphones? A flop will sell fewer than 100,000 units, a hit at least one million, and a runaway success five times that or more, analysts say. In July 2007, the iPhone's first month on the market, 80,000 people bought one. Apple went on to sell iPhones, including the 3G version, to more than five million Americans, according to comScore.
http://benton.org/node/25337
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CHEAPER IPHONE PLANS FROM AT&T
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Olga Kharif]
AT&T, the exclusive US iPhone service provider, is considering cutting the price of its monthly service package or offering a range of lower-priced plans. One plan that could be introduced as early as late May would include limited data access at a $10 monthly reduction. The possible price cut likely reflects the back-and-forth between AT&T and Apple as they work out whether and under what terms AT&T would remain the sole US iPhone carrier. Apple may want flexibility in pricing as a condition. Lower-priced data plans would probably lure a lot of fence-sitters, including students and consumers with lower incomes. A reduction could boost AT&T's iPhone subscriber additions by 20% to 25%, estimates wireless industry consultant Chetan Sharma.
http://benton.org/node/25336
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TELEVISION
BROADCAST NETWORKS MAY FIND IT TOUGHER TO SELL TV AD TIME FOR TOP DOLLAR
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
Television's cliffhanger this year isn't "Who shot J.R.?" but how many bullets the broadcast networks might take. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC for decades have leveraged their dominance to hike ad rates despite shrinking audiences. Advertisers grudgingly wrote bigger checks because they recognized that, even with viewership on the decline, network prime-time shows were still the biggest game in town. Broadcasters no longer seem so invincible. Slumping ratings, the lousy economy, ailing automakers -- some of the biggest advertisers on TV -- and increased competition from cable channels will make it harder for the networks to hold on to the $9 billion in prime-time commercials booked during the so-called upfront market. Wall Street expects sales during the annual bazaar -- which begins today in New York -- to be down 15% compared with last year, for a total haul of about $7.4 billion for prime-time TV commercials.
http://benton.org/node/25333
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TV ADS VS THE DVR
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: GigaOm]
We are watching as the unstoppable force of DVR adoption meets meet the immovable object of TV advertising. According to Nielsen, 30.6% of the households in its people meter have a DVR, up from just 12.3% in January of 2007, and MAGNA predicts there will be 52 million U.S. homes with the gadgets by 2014. Research from DVR pioneer TiVo found that over more than 90% of DVR users "almost always" or "always" fast-forward through commercials. During a speech at the National Association of Television Program Executives in Las Vegas in January, TiVo Chief Executive Officer Tom Rogers warned that the TV business wasn't moving fast enough to adapt to ad-skipping. Commercials and DVRs have been at odds since digital video recording debuted was first rolled out, and advertisers have been looking for ways to overcome its increasing popularity. This past season, FOX tried its "Remote-Free TV" experiment for shows like Fringe, and ran fewer commercials (in a similar fashion to Hulu) while charging higher rates for them in an attempt to keep viewers from fast-forwarding through the spots. Unfortunately, the premium the network could charge for fewer ads didn't match what FOX would have made selling more ads at lower prices, and it canceled the project last week.
http://benton.org/node/25329
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JOURNALISM
THE TIMES AND THE FUTURE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] "What's going to happen to The New York Times?" Can The New York Times's ownership and business be sustained into the teeth of historic changes in the media? First to the broader issue of ownership: Several reports have suggested that the capital structure of The New York Times Company, with $1 billion in debt and declining revenue, means it will be kicked into play. It makes for a tangy news narrative but lacks logic. The company is well within its existing debt covenants, and two transactions — a sale-leaseback of the building and a $250 million loan that included warrants from the Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim Helú — probably have given it the wherewithal to operate into 2011. If there is a recovery, six months away at least, will the advertising spent on newspapers return to anything like pre-recession levels? Many analysts don't think so, and if that's the case, paying for newsgathering will require additional participation from the consumer, which is why there is a great deal of talk about subscriptions and micropayments. Finding the sweet spot between protecting the newspaper's digital ad sales and extracting additional subscription revenue is paramount. For most of its history, The New York Times has had legions of detractors — competitors, gadflies, subjects — who wished it were dead. But given its inherent competitive strengths, brand value and ownership, it will probably take more than a change in publishing economics to make it so.
http://benton.org/node/25335
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MEDIA'S WANT TO BREAK FREE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
How much would you pay to read this page? At about 2,000 of the 50,000 or so words in the printed version of the Financial Times, it should in theory be worth about 4 per cent of the newspaper's cover price - 10 US cents, 17½ euro cents or 8p. To readers particularly interested in the subject, perhaps, it may be worth more. To others, though no journalist would like to admit as much, it will be worth nothing. Similar questions are being asked with growing urgency in boardrooms across the news industry and the wider media sector, as stalling economies challenge the foundation on which most content owners' digital strategies have been built. Digital delivery encouraged the unbundling of the album, allowing consumers to buy only their favorite music tracks. Now other media owners face the threat that customers will want to pay for just the online equivalent of the sports section or their prime-time hits, leaving them struggling to sell less valued parts of the paper or broadcast schedule. Micropayments will be only a small part of the solution, but the fact that such ideas are being pursued demonstrates the extent to which online advertising, media owners' current dominant business model, is failing to live up to its promise.
http://benton.org/node/25332
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