[Commentary] The tech blog Gizmodo paid a source $5,000 earlier this month for a prototype of a new Apple iPhone that had been left behind in a beer garden. It was a small investment, considering the huge audience for its posts about the device. But Apple is now pushing for criminal charges and Gizmodo is crying foul, saying investigators overreached when they seized the scoop-writer's computers. It's right, even if its brand of checkbook journalism seems wrong.
The examination of the computers and devices seized Friday by local law enforcers from a technology blogger who got his hands on an unreleased iPhone prototype has been put on hold while authorities discuss whether the operation conflicted with California's shield law.
San Mateo County chief deputy district attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Tuesday that attorneys with tech blog Gizmodo asked San Mateo prosecutors to consider how the raid on Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's Fremont home and the seizure of several items - including laptops, digital cameras, flash drives, a credit card and credit card bills - might conflict with the state's shield law, which protects journalists from sharing unpublished, work-related material. "The computers are not being examined to make sure we don't invade anybody's privacy," Wagstaffe said. He added that his office is studying the situation and is expected to send a legal memo this week to the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, the state high-tech crimes task force that served the search warrant, with its recommendations on the matter. Chen's property is currently in REACT's hands, and the team will have the final call on whether they inspect Chen's computers or return them, Wagstaffe said.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski pledged his "unwavering commitment" to a "free and open Internet" during a public workshop on the topic in Seattle.
He specifically called out Comcast's traffic throttling, which ultimately led to a court ruling that cast doubt on the FCC's ability to impose net neutrality rules. "And it was just a few hours south of here on the I-5-in Hillsboro, Oregon that Comcast's secret blocking of lawful Internet traffic was discovered -- by an engineer and former police officer who loves barbershop quartets and simply wanted to share lawful music clips with others. That experience and others made clear that an Internet in the dark runs too great a risk of becoming a closed Internet -- with substantial costs to our ability to lead the world in innovation and freedom."
A potential move by the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband Internet services as a Title II phone service wouldn't hold up in court, an attorney hired by trade group US Telecom wrote in a letter to the agency.
That could lead the FCC into a lengthy legal battle that when challenged in court would be "impossible to square with the deregulatory purposes of the Telecommunications Act of 1996," wrote former Supreme Court litigator Seth Waxman. His comments echoed those recently made by FCC member Robert McDowell.
Top Facebook officials on Wednesday admitted Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had aired "absolutely legitimate questions and concerns" during a recent meeting about the site's features that share user data with select websites and advertisers. However, representatives from the 400-million strong social network later stressed that negative reaction to those new tools on Capitol Hill differed markedly from the opinion of "the vast majority of users," who Facebook said, "appreciate these innovations." "That's why we're really pleased following the announcement we made last week... at the response that people have had," said Elliot Schrage, Facebook's vice president of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy. "Because while a lot of people in Washington may be focused on the concerns people have, the response across the Web has been that more people are more engaged..." "And candidly, the fact that users... consistently spend more time on Facebook and related services makes us feel like what we're doing is working in the right direction," Schrage added.
[Commentary] It's been a week since the Facebook developers conference, and I can't escape the feeling that it represented a pivotal moment in the history of the Internet. We will look back on that day as the point where Facebook usurped Google's position as the most important company on the Web. There's almost no way to overestimate the impact of what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled during his keynote address. The ambitious new set of features will make Facebook the central nervous system of the Web. This will grant Facebook an astonishing amount of power. While that has the potential to bring an array of benefits to users, it also means we must become more vigilant about our privacy, and that Facebook must recognize its new responsibilities.
The House Science and Technology Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would reauthorize a law that aims to double authorized funding for research and development at key science agencies, enhance support for science and math education and other programs aimed at boosting U.S. innovation.
After wading through dozens of amendments, the committee approved the bill (H.R. 5116) on a 29-8 vote with all the no votes coming from Republicans. It would reauthorize the 2007 America COMPETES Act for five years and authorize about $82 billion in funding for the bill's programs. The overall funding was reduced by 10 percent after the panel approved a manager's amendment that stretched the timeline to 2017 for doubling authorized funding for R&D activities at the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Energy Department's Office of Science. The 2007 law called for doubling research funding at these agencies by 2014. Republicans offered numerous amendments that attempted to cut authorized funding levels in the bill and aimed to reduce the bill's timeline from a five-year authorization to three years, which was the length of time covered by the 2007 law. "I remain committed to investing in basic research and development, but I am also mindful of our current dire economic situation," House Science and Technology ranking member Ralph Hall (R-TX) said. House Science Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) said he made a concession to such budgetary concerns by reducing authorized funding as part of the manager's amendment, which brought down the bill's funding total by about $9.4 billion from the $93 billion originally proposed.
NBC Universal needn't worry about a couple of its primary competitors trying to derail its merger with Comcast. It seems that Fox and CBS don't much care.
"From a macro perspective, I'm certainly not troubled by it," Chase Carey, News Corp.'s deputy chairman, president and COO, said Wednesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference. "Being that NBC is in fourth place, we sort of don't like anything to change," CBS president and CEO Les Moonves joked. "It will become a very powerful company," he continued. "There are other people out there that are worried that there may be some trade problems with that. I don't feel that way." Also top of mind, at least for Carey and Moonves, was the trend of cablers paying retransmission fees to broadcast networks. Carey said the fees were "truly way past due." "If broadcast is going to be competitive, it has to have a dual revenue stream," he said. Said Moonves: "All I can say about that is, it's about time. The fact is that networks are finally getting paid what they deserve from the cable operators. In a previous life, we weren't getting credit for the quality of the programming we were putting on or the tremendous sports rights we were paying."
Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Company filed a series of applications with the Federal Communications Commission necessary to emerge from bankruptcy protection with its broadcast portfolio intact. This will require the FCC to sign off on assignment of their broadcast licenses to the reorganized, post-bankruptcy iteration of Tribune Co., along with continued cross-ownership waivers. "Very simply," Tribune Co. Chief Executive Randy Michaels and Chief Operating Officer Gerry Spector wrote in a note to the company's employees, "this is a necessary step to ensure the orderly transition of our licenses to the new ownership structure that will be in place once we emerge." The company is at least temporarily exempt from restrictions on newspaper-broadcast combinations in Chicago, Los Angeles, South Florida, and Hartford, Conn. New York also is considered a cross-ownership market for Tribune Co. because, in addition to WPIX-TV, it retained a small percentage of Newsday when it sold that newspaper to Cablevision in 2008.
Illinois is moving forward with legislation that would educate (and punish) teenagers who forward around nude images of their peers, but not treat them as sex offenders. The bill, which has moved to Governor Pat Quinn's desk for signature, aims to take a more modern and realistic approach to teens making stupid decisions, though the door is still open for harsher punishments if needed. Under the Illinois proposal, teens who send racy images to just each other would not be punished -- only those who decide to widely distribute those images (usually as part of an attempt to blackmail or embarrass the sender). Those found guilty of sending the texts would be subject to juvenile court supervision, but wouldn't get labeled a sex offender for possessing an image of a minor, as would be appropriate under current Illinois law.
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