August 30, 2010 (Bush's Lost E-Mail)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010
Sorry we're late this morning. See this week's events http://bit.ly/bXqNjI
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Report details loss of millions of Bush administration e-mails
Kirchner's Assault on the Press
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Google's 'open Internet' proposal looks disappointingly conventional
OK Go on net neutrality: A lesson from the music industry
OWNERSHIP
Intel Buys Infineon Wireless Radio Chip Unit for $1.4 Billion
Comcast Gets Static on Net TV
Google, Apple, others sued by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen
PRIVACY
Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy
Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites
Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
Facebook sued over whether teens can 'like' ads
Look out Facebook Places, two overseas companies tout next-gen physical tie-ins
AUDIO/VIDEO
Think About It: 300 Million Mobile DTV Receivers
Time Warner Cable and Disney Are Near a Deal on Fees
Television goes smart in dramatic makeover
Delivery is key to keeping viewers connected
A Hit Song on YouTube, Unnameable on the Radio
WIRELESS
FCC indicates special-access measures could move 'soon'
A Pushback Against Cell Towers
CYBERSECURITY
Cyber threats can unite Japan and America
MORE ONLINE
San Jose Unified's online school a first in the San Francisco Bay Area
Comcast: Top gadgets encourage broadband adoption
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
BUSH'S LOST E-MAILS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ed O'Keefe]
Top aides to President George W. Bush seemed unconcerned despite multiple warnings as early as 2002 that the White House risked losing millions of e-mails that federal law required them to preserve. Problems first arose when an e-mail record-keeping system established during Bill Clinton's presidency failed to archive messages sent by the Bush White House as it started converting e-mail accounts from Lotus Notes to the Microsoft Exchange program. The White House's Administration Office warned top Bush officials about the glitch and potential loss of e-mails but were ordered to continue with the conversion. "It wasn't like it was a one-time event and they went out and fixed it," said CREW senior counsel Adam Rappaport. The Administration Office later proposed a plan to fully restore the missing e-mails in 2005, but White House counsel Harriet E. Miers rejected the plan. In the end, the Bush White House spent at least $10 million to develop new electronic record management systems that restored just 48 days' worth of e-mail. Missing e-mails included messages from the months preceding the start of the Iraq war and messages sent by Vice President Richard B. Cheney's office that were later sought by the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as a covert CIA spy.
benton.org/node/41161 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ARGENTINA'S ASSAULT ON THE PRESS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mary Anastasia O'Grady]
[Commentary] For almost a decade, loyalists to the Argentine republic have warned that the nation is headed for a return to authoritarian rule. Last week President Cristina Kirchner strengthened their case by moving to strip the two largest newspapers in the country of their ownership in the largest domestic supplier of newsprint. Argentine opposition leader Elisa Carrió says Kirchner supporters have used physical intimidation in front of the company's headquarters in Buenos Aires, and the government has harassed the company through its tax and regulatory agencies. After Mrs. Kirchner lost control of Congress in the June 2009 elections, she used the lame duck session that followed to push through a media law that gives the government the power to deny licenses to long-established television stations. The law also expands the government's share of the market. Clarín, which is in the television business, will be hurt by this. In recent weeks the government also revoked Clarín's license to operate as an Internet service provider. But print media, particularly Clarín and La Nación, remain a threat to Mrs. Kirchner. And this is why she is going after Papel Prensa. She aims to control the supply of newsprint and imprison principals of both companies.
benton.org/node/41164 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
GOOGLE AS CONVENTIONAL COMPANY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Google is a conventional company: It's trying to monopolize a market just like a conventional Bigfoot like Microsoft would, and it's trying to do so with the conventional corporate weapons of guile and misdirection. What prompts my disillusionment is a document Google issued a few weeks ago jointly with Verizon, the nation's biggest wireless communications company and therefore a very conventional company. Their "joint policy proposal for an open Internet" posed as a defense of network neutrality the principle that Internet service providers can't discriminate in transmitting anyone's data to users over anyone else's. In other words, no special deals by which, say, Google pays Time Warner Cable a fee so that its search pages get to subscribers faster than Yahoo's. Or by which Disney pays for its video streams to load faster than Fox's. Buried in there, however, were a couple of "buts." But, they said, network neutrality shouldn't apply to "wireless broadband" — which happens to be a market in which Verizon already leads, and where the phone company and Google expect to make gobs of money in the future. But, they also said, even in wired broadband, which is the flavor that comes into home computers via cable or DSL modems, there should be an exemption for service providers to offer new, "differentiated" services — assuming the providers otherwise comply with net neutrality. The companies didn't say what they thought these new services might be, other than that they might include entertainment or gaming, or life-saving functions such as health monitoring. But, they said, it should be kosher to give these novel apps priority on the network.
benton.org/node/41160 | Los Angeles Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
OK GO ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Damian Kulash]
[Commentary] On the Internet, when I send my ones and zeros somewhere, they shouldn't have to wait in line behind the ones and zeros of wealthier people or corporations. That's the way the Net was designed, and it's central to a concept called "net neutrality," which ensures that Internet service providers can't pick favorites. Recently, though, big telecommunications companies have argued that their investment in the Net's infrastructure should allow them more control over how it's used. The concerned nerds of the world are up in arms, and there's been a long, loud public debate, during which the Federal Communications Commission appeared to develop a plan to preserve net neutrality. The Obama administration has repeatedly promised that it supports net neutrality. Right now the FCC can lastingly protect freedom and equality on the Net. To establish that authority, the agency needs the support of three of its five commissioners. Two commissioners, Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn, Democratic appointees, have loudly backed the effort. What we need is for the chairman to join them and follow through on the plans he laid out months ago. Mr. Genachowski, we, the citizens of the Internet, are with you. [Kulash is the singer for the band OK Go]
benton.org/node/41159 | Washington Post
Recommend this Headline
back to top
OWNERSHIP
INTEL BUYING INFINEON
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Ian King, Ragnhild Kjetland]
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, agreed to buy Infineon Technologies AG's wireless unit for about $1.4 billion, gaining a foothold in the mobile- phone business it has struggled to crack for more than a decade. The all-cash transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, Infineon, Europe's second-largest semiconductor maker, said. The acquisition of Infineon's unit, on the heels of Intel's $7.68 billion purchase of security software maker McAfee Inc., builds on Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini's plans to break the company's reliance on the personal-computer market. Intel wants to get its processors into smartphones, such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a handset that uses an Infineon radio chip. Infineon is selling a unit that has struggled to turn a profit, letting it focus on areas where it can grab the biggest market share such as the automotive and industrial sectors. Infineon trails San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., which dominates the market for chips that control radio functions in phones.
benton.org/node/41144 | Bloomberg | New York Times | WSJ | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
COMCAST MERGER REVIEW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Thomas Catan]
Apparently, the Justice Department is focusing in on how Comcast's bid to purchase control of General Electric's NBC Universal television and movie unit could affect the emerging Internet video market. Competitors have complained that the combined powerhouse could stunt the Internet video industry's growth. During its eight-month review of the roughly $13.75 billion deal, the agency's antitrust division has become interested in finding out whether Comcast and other cable and satellite giants are trying to lock up distribution rights to television programming on the Internet, which would block potential competition, according to people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department's efforts, which are heating up, aren't likely to kill the deal, but they mark one of the first times that the government is seriously investigating—and could shape -- a debate raging through the media business: Will online video providers emerge as direct competitors or complements to the $69.8 billion U.S. TV subscription market? The regulators are considering the issue as the video market is undergoing its biggest transformation in decades. A range of companies -- Netflix Inc., TiVo Inc. and Apple Inc. among them -- are racing to provide access to video over the Internet, and a growing number of them are serving up content to Web-connected televisions as well as computers. That is further encroaching on the turf of cable and satellite companies, which are trying to co-opt the threat by launching Web-video services of their own.
benton.org/node/41162 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top
ALLEN SUES TECH COMPANIES
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen is suing nearly a dozen major technology companies, including Google and Apple, alleging that they infringed on four Web technology patents held by his company Interval Licensing. Interval said it filed the suit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle against the companies. Others named in the suit are: Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples and Google-owned YouTube. Interval owns patents from Interval Research, which was a technology research and development company that Allen started with David Liddle in the early 1990s. Interval said that the patents it believes are being violated are key to how e-commerce and search companies work. The patents described in the suit refer to technology used for things such as Web browsing and sending alerts over the Web.
benton.org/node/41151 | Associated Press
Recommend this Headline
back to top
PRIVACY
WEB PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Rubin]
[Commentary] Privacy on the Web is a constant issue for public discussion—and Congress is always considering more regulations on the use of information about people's habits, interests or preferences on the Internet. Unfortunately, these discussions lead to many misconceptions. Here are 10 of the most important: 1) Privacy is free. 2) If there are costs of privacy, they are borne by companies. 3) If consumers have less control over information, then firms must gain and consumers must lose. 4) Information use is "all or nothing." 5) If consumers have less privacy, then someone will know things about them that they may want to keep secret. 6) Information can be used for price discrimination (differential pricing), which will harm consumers. 7) If consumers knew how information about them was being used, they would be irate. 8) Increasing privacy leads to greater safety and less risk. 9) Restricting the use of information (such as by mandating consumer "opt-in") will benefit consumers. 10) Targeted advertising leads people to buy stuff they don't want or need. [Rubin teaches economics at Emory University]
benton.org/node/41163 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top
TARGETED ONLINE ADS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Miguel Helft, Tanzina Vega]
People have grown accustomed to being tracked online and shown ads for categories of products they have shown interest in, be it tennis or bank loans. Increasingly, however, the ads tailored to them are for specific products that they have perused online. While the technique, which the ad industry calls personalized retargeting or remarketing, is not new, it is becoming more pervasive as companies like Google and Microsoft have entered the field. And retargeting has reached a level of precision that is leaving consumers with the palpable feeling that they are being watched as they roam the virtual aisles of online stores.
benton.org/node/41168 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
PEOPLE DECLINE TO SHARE LOCATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller, Jenna Wortham]
Internet companies have appropriated the real estate business's mantra -- it's all about location, location, location. But while a home on the beach will always be an easy sell, it may be more difficult to persuade people to start using location-based Web services. Big companies and start-ups alike -- including Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, Shopkick and most recently Facebook -- offer services that let people report their physical location online, so they can connect with friends or receive coupons. Venture capitalists have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association, and companies like Starbucks and Gap have offered special deals to users of such services who visited their stores. But for all the attention and money these apps and Web sites are getting, adoption has so far been largely confined to pockets of young, technically adept urbanites. Just 4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly, according to Forrester Research. Eighty percent of those who have tried them are men, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35.
benton.org/node/41167 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
FACEBOOK SUED
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Two Los Angeles County teenagers are suing Facebook, claiming the social network effectively sold their names and images to advertisers without parental permission. The lawsuit filed August 26 in Los Angeles challenges a Facebook feature that allows members to note that they like an advertised service or product. Facebook broadcasts those endorsements to the user's friends. The lawsuit also claims minors unwittingly endorse Facebook when people typing their names in a search engine are steered to a Facebook sign-up page.
benton.org/node/41150 | Associated Press
Recommend this Headline
back to top
LOOK OUT FACEBOOK
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim, Benny Evangelista]
In the United States, Facebook has just introduced its Places feature, which lets members check in to where they are in the real world. But there are at least two companies overseas that are working on technology that could prove to be a glimpse of the next generation of Places - real-world Facebook "Like" buttons that tie physical places or objects back to the virtual social network.
benton.org/node/41149 | San Francisco Chronicle
Recommend this Headline
back to top
AUDIO/VIDEO
300M DTV RECEIVERS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Let's put a mobile DTV receiver in the pocket of every American so that they can tune into their favorite broadcast show anytime, anywhere — in the store, on the bus, at the dentist. How do we do it? Convince Congress to mandate DTV tuners in all new cell phones. There is precedent. In 1962, Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act requiring UHF tuners in all TV sets. Forty years later, drawing authority from the act, the FCC required digital tuners in some sets starting in July 2004 and in all sets after July 2007. Now, in an effort to end the long standoff over music royalties, the NAB and the recording industry are working on compromise legislation that, among other things, would mandate FM tuners in all cell phones. Though controversial, it could become law. What a good idea. A mobile DTV tuner mandate would not put a phone in the pocket of all Americans. Some are too poor or too young to own cell phones. Others, believe it or not, just don't roll with phones. They don't want to be on the grid 24/7 for whatever reason. But it would come pretty darn close.
benton.org/node/41145 | TVNewsCheck
Recommend this Headline
back to top
TIME WARNER, DISNEY DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brooks Barnes, Brian Stelter]
It looks as though Time Warner Cable customers won't lose ESPN after all. The Walt Disney Company and Time Warner Cable, which have been engaged in heated negotiations over a new distribution contract for Disney-owned television channels, were close enough to a deal on Sunday to remove attack ads aimed at each other. Even so, a final resolution remains days away, emphasized people briefed on the discussions who asked for anonymity because the talks are private. Time Warner Cable's contract with Disney expires Sept 2.
benton.org/node/41165 | New York Times | WSJ
Recommend this Headline
back to top
TELEVISION'S MAKEOVER
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Chris Nuttall]
The traditional big-box TV is being transformed in a technology makeover far more dramatic than seen on any reality show. Already whittled down to a wafer-thin flat-panel display, its innards are now being replaced with silicon - LED lighting, networking and computer chips - while the on-screen content is being supplemented by web connectivity. The choices being presented during this work in progress are confusing, with the options for delivering programmes ranging from digital and Internet-connected set-top boxes to games consoles. Hardware makers and technology companies are in a mad dash for market share.
benton.org/node/41158 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CONNECTED TV VIEWERS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Chris Nuttall]
In the age of connected TV, "don't touch that dial!" has become "don't change that input!". Whereas broadcasters were once concerned over viewers changing channels during ad breaks, they are now worried that the public will desert regular television altogether for Internet-based content. About a quarter of TVs sold in the US this year will be able to connect to the Internet and bypass regular programming, according to research by Parks Associates, while WiFi and Ethernet connections are becoming standard on set-top boxes. It is getting just as crowded under the TV. Where there was once just a satellite or cable box feeding it programming, a games console or a Blu-ray player can now supply movies, information services and even live TV over their own Internet connections.
benton.org/node/41157 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
HIT SONG ON YOUTUBE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
While traditional entertainment increasingly relies on the anything-goes Internet to cultivate and stoke interest in music, TV shows and movies, there are still some important boundaries. The return to civilization comes at a cost. A case in point is a recent viral musical sensation -- a bouncy song by the soul-pop singer Cee Lo Green with over three million views on YouTube in little more than a week. The singer is peeved at a girl who has left him and concludes that "If I'd been richer, I'd still be with ya" and though "there's pain in my chest, I still wish you the best ..." followed by a certain crude phrase, and an "ooh, ooh, ooh." This is hardly a fleeting expletive of the kind the Federal Communications Commission has tried to regulate. While songs with vulgarities in them are a dime a dozen (actually more like $12 on iTunes), Cee Lo's single is unusual in that the crude phrase is the title, chorus and punch line to the song, said Craig Marks, the editor of Billboard magazine. He could conjure up only a handful of hit songs in a similar bind -- rarer still was the song that played a peppy tune against the crude lyrics.
benton.org/node/41166 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
WIRELESS
FCC AND SPECIAL ACCESS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
The Federal Communications Commission indicated August 26 it might move soon on special-access issues, a concern for wireless providers who have to pay bigger companies to connect their cell towers to wireline networks. Companies such as Sprint Nextel argue they pay too much in special access rates to Verizon and AT&T, and it raises consumers' bills. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released on Thursday said policymakers should seek better information. Rick Kaplan, the chief counsel to the FCC chairman, said the agency is pleased the GAO recognized "the need for the FCC to collect more comprehensive data on special access." He said the agency "will soon be taking steps to address many of the issues raised in the report."
benton.org/node/41147 | Hill, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top
PUSHBACK ON CELL TOWERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Marcelle Fischler]
By blocking, or seeking to block, cell towers and antennas over the course of the last year, Long Island (NY) homeowners have given voice to concerns that proximity to a monopole or antenna may not be just aesthetically unpleasing but also harmful to property values. Many also perceive health risks in proximity to radio frequency radiation emissions, despite industry assertions and other evidence disputing that such emissions pose a hazard. Emotions are running so high in areas like Wantagh, where an application for six cell antennas on the Farmingdale Wantagh Jewish Center is pending, that the Town of Hempstead imposed a moratorium on applications until Sept. 21. That is the date for a public hearing on a new town ordinance stiffening requirements. At a community meeting on Aug. 16 at Wantagh High School, Dave Denenberg, the Nassau county legislator for Bellmore, Wantagh and Merrick, told more than 200 residents that 160 cell antennas had been placed on telephone poles in the area in the last year by NextG, a wireless network provider. "Everyone has a cellphone," Denenberg said, "but that doesn't mean you have to have cell installations right across the street from your house." Under the old town code, installations over 30 feet high required an exemption or a variance. But in New York, wireless providers have public utility status, like LIPA and Cablevision, and they can bypass zoning boards.
benton.org/node/41148 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top
CYBERSECURITY
JAPAN, AMERICA AND CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: John Alkire]
[Commentary] Striking developments in the relationship between America and Japan suggest that a new type of strategic alliance is brewing. In particular, a series of seemingly unrelated events point to important shifts that could have significant implications for both countries as they contemplate an era of sophisticated electronic warfare. Fifty years after Japan and the US signed their treaty of mutual co-operation, Barney Frank, US congressman, in July described the stationing of US forces in Okinawa as a hangover from the second world war. Shortly after, John Roos, US ambassador to Japan, became the first American envoy to join the annual commemoration of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Then, Naoto Kan became the first Japanese prime minister in 25 years to instruct his cabinet to stay away from the annual event honoring Japan's war dead, at the Yasukuni shrine. Not only does all this suggest the strengthening of an old alliance, it also points to new possibilities for co-operation. Under their security treaty, the US and Japan agreed to help each other in the event of an attack on either side, although Japan's pacifist constitution forbids it from having an active military. Yet military hardware, so essential for security 50 years ago, is no longer the only form of security threat that matters. Cyber security now requires equal attention.
benton.org/node/41156 | Financial Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top