February 2010

Italy's Google Miscarriage

[Commentary] In the annals of judicial folly, a place of honor ought to be reserved for this week's conviction of three Google executives by an Italian court. Their crimes, apparently, included a failure of clairvoyance and an inability to time-travel. It's hard to see what interest of justice is served by holding Google's employees responsible for the actions of others. Under European Union law, Web hosting companies are meant to have a safe harbor against culpability for content posted to their sites by outside users, and this gives Google solid grounds for appeal. The criminals here are those who committed the assault and filmed and posted it—and they've been brought to justice already. Prosecuting Google employees because they couldn't know in advance what might be uploaded, or go back in time to un-post the video, is crazy even for Italy

Iraqi journalist sees threats to press freedom

Iraq has been the world's deadliest country for journalists since the war began in 2003. At least 140 have been killed, many of them targeted by militia and insurgent groups, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Although freedom of the press is guaranteed in Iraq's 2005 constitution, lawmakers have not passed legislation to enforce it. Government officials and private citizens have increasingly resorted to litigation to muffle critical reporting. And a commission that reports to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently unveiled guidelines that Iraqi journalists and press freedom advocates call authoritarian.

Obama honors leaders in arts and humanities

President Barack Obama awarded the National Medal of the Arts and the National Humanities Medal to 20 recipients, including singer Bob Dylan, actor and director Clint Eastwood, painter Frank Stella and Nobel laureate and author Elie Wiesel.

In the arts, the recipients were Stella, designer Milton Glaser, architect Maya Lin, soprano Jessye Norman, Charleston, S.C., Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, composer John Williams and actress and dancer Rita Moreno, who gave the president a big hug upon receiving her award and then an I-can't-help-it look to first lady Michelle Obama, who was seated in the first row. Dylan and Eastwood did not attend, but representatives of two groups that were cited for contributions to the arts did: the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the School of American Ballet. The humanities citations went to prizewinning authors and historians Robert A. Caro ("The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, Means of Ascent and Master of the Senate"), Annette Gordon-Reed ("The Hemingses of Monticello"), David Levering Lewis ("W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963") and William H. McNeill ("Plagues and Peoples"). The list also includes speechwriter and lawyer Theodore Sorensen, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Philippe de Montebello and philanthropist Albert H. Small

'Up to' claims for Internet connection speeds next to worthless

When it comes to high-speed Internet access, are you getting what you pay for? Although Internet service providers market "up to" speeds, consumers may rightfully ask "What's the usual speed?"

Apparently that's not a question Verizon is comfortable answering. And neither are most other Internet service providers, which routinely promise speeds "up to" certain cyber-velocities but have a hard time specifying what most customers can really expect. "Truth in broadband advertising is a giant problem in the United States," said Joel Kelsey, a telecom policy analyst for Consumers Union. "These 'up to' speeds are not what the typical customer experiences." A more straightforward sales pitch would feature the average speed that Internet customers experience in a certain area, he said. Many business customers are provided such information by telecom companies, Kelsey said, and some are even guaranteed minimum access speeds.

Who decides what's indecent on cable, late night?

The Federal Communications Commission has 1.45 million pending indecency complaints and 12,049 open cases. But many of the complaints are directed at cable networks and other content outside of the FCC's jurisdiction.

As many as 7,000 of those cases could be directed at political or racial content, as well as violent programming or material that aired on late-night broadcast channels or on cable networks. The FCC defines indecency as sexual or excretory material that does not rise to the level of obscenity. The material must also be "patently offensive" under current community standards. In determining indecency, the FCC looks at whether the material is explicit or graphic, whether it dwells on sexual or excretory activity or depictions, and whether it was made to pander, titillate or shock. These rules only apply to programming appearing on broadcast networks from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. All other content is not subject to the FCC's indecency enforcement.

The program that is keeping the FCC most busy is Fox's animated sitcom "Family Guy." A March 2009 episode alone generated almost 200,000 complaints.

Mandelson criticised for backing Google plan

Lord Mandelson has been accused of backing multinationals over British start-ups after the business secretary publicly endorsed a joint venture led by Google and BT to build small business websites for free.

Anger flared on Thursday when the joint venture, called Getting British Business Online, announced that it would supply website-building tools and domain names for 100,000 UK-based small businesses. Although the Department for Business is not directly funding the initiative, Lord Mandelson provided an endorsement, saying: "I wish it every success." Several UK-based companies that specialise in this market complained that the business secretary should have at least highlighted the existence of home-grown alternatives.

BBC plans widespread cuts to services　

The BBC is planning widespread cuts in its digital radio, Internet and commercial magazines services as it tries to fend off criticism of its role in UK media.

A draft of the strategic review which has been presented by Mark Thompson, the director general, to the BBC Trust, the broadcaster's sovereign body, spells out the extent of cuts the executive is prepared to swallow. They would see the end of the relatively little-used 6Music and Asian Network digital radio stations and a halving of the size of the BBC's Internet operations. The sale of magazine titles published by Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, is also included in the draft, the people said. The BBC would rein in the amount of money it spends on buying sports rights and imported programmes such as Mad Men and Heroes. The budget for sports acquisition will be capped at 8.5 per cent of the £3.5bn licence fee, currently about £297m, according to the draft. There would also be substantial cuts to the £100m spent on mainly US imports.

Google Street View May Breach EU Law, Officials Say

Google's Street View may break European Union privacy laws, according to data-protection regulators who say the mapping service stores images for too long.

The EU's privacy watchdog said in a Feb. 11 letter to Google that "it is disproportionate to retain unblurred copies of the images for one year," and urged the company to cut the period to six months. Street View, which offers photos of roads and intersections, was introduced in early 2007 in the US and is being rolled out across Europe. Google, which has almost 79 percent of the European search- engine market, according to ComScore Inc., faces growing scrutiny from regulators and competitors in Europe. Two company managers and a former executive were found guilty of privacy violations by an Italian court this week, and three companies have filed antitrust complaints with the EU. Google must cooperate with data-protection agencies and "promptly react to requests for deletion of personal data," Alex Tuerk, president of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party said in the letter. Google also has to "take positive measures to avoid capturing images of a sensitive nature" or those with "intimate details."

Big Biz Embracing Twitter

Fortune 500 companies got into the Twittering act in a big way last year, according to a study released by the Society for New Communications Research.

Thirty-five percent of Fortune 500 corporations had an active Twitter account as of last year (i.e., one with a post within the past 30 days), according to the study. Among the top 100 companies on the roster, 47 percent had a Twitter account. Twenty-two percent of all Fortune 500 companies had a "public-facing corporate blog," and more than eight in 10 of those linked directly to a corporate Twitter account. Four of the top five corporations -- Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric -- "consistently post on their Twitter accounts," according to the study.

Common Sense Bestows Genachowski With Minow Award

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday night accepted an award from Common Sense Media -- he is a former board member of the group -- with many nods to the award's namesake, former FCC Chairman Newton Minow.

Chairman Genachowski, though, did not use it as a platform for staking out any new ground on the issue of content control and kids. The speech came the day after comments were due to the FCC on that subject as part of the FCC's review of its implementation of the Children's Television Act and how and whether it should be updated for the digital age. According to a copy of his speech (see link below), Chairman Genachowski used the time to praise Minow, who famously called TV a "vast wasteland," but who, Genachowski pointed out, also helped usher in the satellite age, UHF TV, and public broadcasting, including helping to fund Sesame Street.

Benton

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