December 2010

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010

McKinley Technology High hosts the FCC's Generation Mobile Forum today http://benton.org/node/45659

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Why Genachowski's network neutrality proposal is best
   Key network neutrality advocates oppose Genachowski's plan
   Groups say FCC proposal not real network neutrality
   Free Press Floods FCC With Network Neutrality Petitions
   Supporting Stability in the Online Marketplace w/video
   Burgundy makes Verizon complaint

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Obama's Broadband Punt
   The National Broadband Plan: Some Assembly Still Required
   e-NC Authority maps where broadband is in the state
   People Now Spend as Much Time Online at Watching TV

PRIVACY
   Internet users say, Don't track me

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
   Comcast, the biggest cable company, looks to get bigger
   Viacom Raises Red Flags On Comcast/NBCU
   Upton: No network neutrality rules for NBC-Comcast

TELEVISION/RADIO
   Time Warner-Fox Deal Changes Retransmission
   NAB Promoting Future of Broadcast TV
   Bid To Revive Community Radio Stalls In Senate
   Community Radio to NAB: Stop Clowning Around! - w/video!

CONTENT
   Senators press China on piracy, counterfeiting
   IFTA Seeks Government Action, Stakeholder Input
   Google's "Open" Books
   Comcast Tests Combo Internet-Cable Device
   For Google, Users Must Rank First
   'Hide/Seek' sponsor threatens to cut funding for Smithsonian

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   Telecom carriers continue push for "D-block" auction

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Telecom Scandal Plunges India Into Political Crisis
   UK cracks down on undisclosed "sponsored" tweets, posts

MORE ONLINE
   How Video Games Are Infiltrating -- and Improving -- Every Part of Our Lives
   Cancer 2.0
   Economy is 40% of the Newshole

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NETWORK NEUTRALITY

NETWORK NEUTRALITY COMPROMISE
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Jorge Bauermeister]
[Commentary] The bottom line is that the network neutrality order up for vote would be a consumer win, as it:
Protects an open Internet and prevents against discrimination of content.
Enables reasonable network management to protect consumers against privacy and cybersecurity concerns, as well as support the business of providing and consuming if more robust online experiences, in terms of performance and capacity demands.
Supports continued innovation and investment in communications technologies, facilitating broadband access improvements and network upgrades, as well as adding related American jobs.
We must look past the smoke and mirrors of the doomsday hypothetical's being thrown around by extreme proponents of reclassification of the Internet. The "what if" and "imagine this" scenarios are doing nothing but harming a best resolution of this complex issue, which lies in compromise.
[Jorge Bauermeister is a former commissioner of the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board and a former member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' (NARUC) Telecommunications.]
benton.org/node/46384 | C-Net|News.com
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NET NEUTRALITY ADVOCATES OPPOSE THE PLAN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
A who's-who of the most influential net-neutrality advocates has decided to oppose Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski's plan for regulating Internet lines, which he announced earlier this month. The groups declared their opposition to the proposal in a meeting with Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and his staff on Dec 9. The groups released the ex parte document describing the meeting on Dec 13. "At the outset of the meeting, the participants expressed their unanimous unwillingness to support the proposed open-Internet framework in its present form as they understand it," according to the ex parte document. The participants included Jeffrey Blum, Dish Network; Parul Desai, Consumers Union; Michael Drobac, Netflix; Harold Feld, Public Knowledge; Michael Forscey, Writers Guild West; Joel Kelsey, Free Press; Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation; Emmett O’Keefe, Amazon.com; Staci Pies, Skype; Andrew Jay Schwartzman, Media Access Project; Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge; Aparna Sridhar, Free Press.
benton.org/node/46382 | Hill, The
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GROUPS SAY FCC PROPOSAL NOT STRONG ENOUGH
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jasmin Melvin]
Public interest groups, businesses and civil rights groups signed a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, saying network neutrality rules should ban paid prioritization of online content. They also said the framework FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski laid out last week gave wireless carriers too much freedom to police Internet traffic. "This is a make-or-break issue, and the signatories on this letter are unequivocal in their demand that fatal flaws with Chairman Genachowski's draft proposal be fixed immediately," Sascha Meinrath, director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative, said. The groups identified what they consider to be shortfalls in the proposal that could allow Internet providers to "harm consumers, stifle innovation and threaten to carve up the Internet in irreversible ways." Among the areas needing improvement was the flexibility granted to wireless carriers.
benton.org/node/46381 | Reuters
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FREE PRESS PETITIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Free Press is killing some trees to try and "save" the Internet. Free Press says that SavetheInternet.com volunteers will be hand-delivering 2 million petitions to the Federal Communications Commission, with volunteers making the trek every hour on the hour until sometime Dec 14. Free Press wants the FCC to toughen up the chairman's proposed compromise order expanding and codifying its network openness rules. The order does not rely on reclassifying broadband access under some common carrier regs (Title II), allows for specialized services, and does not apply most of them to wireless broadband.
benton.org/node/46344 | Broadcasting&Cable | WashPost
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SUPPORTING STABILITY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Dan McSwain]
Internet businesses need stability to thrive. That’s the message that emerged from a meeting held at the Federal Communications Commission last week between Chairman Genachowski and CALinnovates, a group of start-ups and young businesses that are creating jobs and introducing new technology products into the online marketplace.
benton.org/node/46343 | Federal Communications Commission | see the video
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COMPLAINT AGAINST VERIZON
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ward]
Verizon has been reported to Sweden’s competition authority over allegations that it has barred a rival of Nasdaq OMX, the New York-based exchange operator, from its network infrastructure. Burgundy, a Stockholm-based trading platform owned by several of the biggest Nordic financial institutions and which competes with Nasdaq OMX’s Nordic stock exchanges, said Verizon was “choosing sides” in the trading industry by allowing Nasdaq OMX exclusive access to a data center in Sweden. The dispute highlights how data centers are becoming controversial parts of market infrastructure amid a technology arms race in share and derivatives trading. This is intensifying as exchanges, banks and brokers compete to build the fastest and most efficient trading platforms in an era when transaction speeds are measured in split seconds. Traders locate their computer trading systems in data centers in order to be close to an exchange’s trading system, shaving crucial microseconds off the time taken for trades to be done. Regulators are trying to ensure that operators of data centers allow access to them free of discrimination between types of market participant. While exchanges operate their own data centers, many are also run by independent operators such as Verizon, Nasdaq-listed Equinix and Interxion, a large European data center specialist.
benton.org/node/46400 | Financial Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

OBAMA'S BROADBAND PUNT
[SOURCE: Newsweek, AUTHOR: Paul Richards]
[Commentary] The US is squandering a once-in-a-generation chance to modernize its digital footprint. The die was cast almost two years ago when President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus lobbed a disappointing $7 billion toward broadband: mainly grants to help municipal, nonprofit, and private entities connect rural digital backwaters. By contrast, green energy received 13 times more funding. Now, with unemployment beached at 9.8 percent, it looks as though President Obama made the wrong bet. President Obama's flunks the test as short-term stimulus. Due to a complex tender process, the Department of Commerce (allotted most of the $7 billion) finalized its 233 grants only two months ago; in dozens of cases, environmental-impact assessments are causing delays. More seriously, it undersells the need for long-term transformation. The goal set by Obama’s National Broadband Plan is 100 million households (of about 130 million nationwide) accessing world-class speeds of 100 megabits per second by 2020. Encouragingly, the private sector is already inching America toward this target. Verizon, AT&T, and Qwest have committed to build high-speed fiber past 50 million homes in the next two years; cable-television companies also plan upgrades. But these expansions are concentrated in dense areas that are profitable to serve, leaving pockets of the country languishing.
benton.org/node/46349 | Newsweek
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NORTH CAROLINA BROADBAND MAP
[SOURCE: e-North Carolina Authority, AUTHOR: Press release]
As part of its on-going data collection and mapping work, The e-NC Authority has officially launched its newly updated online map to show where broadband is available across the state. Plotting data down to the census block level and street segment level in some areas, the North Carolina Broadband Map is a highly-interactive GIS (Geographic Information System) tool that outlines what types of broadband technologies - including DSL, cable, mobile, wireless and fiber - are available to households statewide, which companies are offering these services and the exact areas providers say they are currently serving or could serve customers. Users query information by plugging in a street address or selecting a specific technology type. The map is also intended to assist e-NC and state and local leaders in identifying unserved and underserved pockets of broadband availability in North Carolina.
benton.org/node/46368 | e-North Carolina Authority
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PEOPLE ONLINE AS MUCH AS WATCHING TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries]
The average US consumer now spends as much time online as watching television, according to research being released by Forrester. To technophiles, it might seem strange to think of people ever watching TV more than they surfed the Web. But the stat marks a big shift for the country at large; this is the first year in Forrester’s survey that people have reported spending equal amounts of time on the two activities -- 13 hours a week. And it’s not because people are spending less time watching TV; those numbers have remained about the same. It’s because Internet usage has grown so dramatically -- 121% in the past five years. So what are people doing less? Listening to the radio and reading things like newspapers and magazines offline, according to the survey.
benton.org/node/46348 | Wall Street Journal
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PRIVACY

DON'T TRACK ME
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Edward Baig]
Most Americans are ready to put Big Brother on alert. They don't want to be tracked on the Internet and are unwilling to trade their privacy for Web ads that are tailored to their interests. So suggest the results of a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of Internet users conducted over the weekend. Nine of 10 poll respondents say they pay little if any attention to the ads they see on websites. Still, 61% say they have noticed ads that "seemed to be directed specifically" at them and that are related to websites they've previously visited. Two-thirds don't believe Internet advertisers should be able to tailor pitches by collecting data that show where they've been prowling around in cyberspace. What's more, 61% of those surveyed don't believe that the methods used in targeting ads are justified just to keep costs down so that people can visit websites for free.
benton.org/node/46401 | USAToday
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP

COMCAST LOOKS TO GET BIGGER
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Zapler]
Comcast is by far the biggest pay-TV provider in the San Francisco Bay Area. It controls TV rights to Giants, A's, Sharks and Warriors games. Many of its customers also sign up for high-speed Internet service. And the company, if it has its way, is about to get a whole lot bigger. In a deal valued at $30 billion that was announced a year ago but has received scant attention outside the nation's capital, Comcast is attempting to buy a majority share of NBC Universal. The merger would give the nation's largest cable company control of a vast array of programming, in addition to the pipes that deliver it. And that powerful combination is prompting warnings that the company could use its newfound leverage to muscle out competitors like DirecTV and Dish Network, stifle the nascent market for TV over the Web and, over time, raise prices for subscribers with near impunity. Federal regulators appear to be taking those issues seriously. While the deal is expected to win approval by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission within weeks or months, regulators are weighing a range of options to prevent Comcast from abusing its expanded market power.
benton.org/node/46379 | San Jose Mercury News
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VIACOM HAS COMCAST-NBC CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Viacom expressed concerns that the proposed merger of Comcast with NBC Universal would impact independent programming during meetings with Federal Communications Commission members Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn. Viacom representatives said they were concerned about the impact the merger would have on independent programming, saying the new company would have "increased incentive and ability to impede competition in the markets for linear and over-the-top video programming by favoring its own content to the detriment of independent programmers." Those are the same concerns raised by some Members of Congress in calling on the FCC to put access conditions, including online access, on the joint venture.
benton.org/node/46377 | Multichannel News
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UPTON NO NET NEUTRALITY CONDITIONS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission on Dec 10 urging the agency not to impose network neutrality conditions on Comcast as part of the proposed acquisition of NBC Universal. Rep Upton said the only thing the FCC should be reviewing is whether or not the new entity would be able to unfairly influence the markets for video content creation and distribution to the detriment of consumers. He warned against using the merger as an excuse to impose network neutrality or achieve other political goals. "I will be troubled if it appears that the Commission is using this transaction to accomplish broader, partisan objectives that it does not have the policy support to impose industry-wide, that it might not have the authority to pursue were it not presented with a license transaction, and that the parties cannot object to without risking their propose endeavor," Rep Upton said. He also exhorted the FCC not to let third parties or groups hijack the review process to push their agendas.
benton.org/node/46380 | Hill, The
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TELEVISION/RADIO

TWC-FOX DEAL
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Retransmission consent negotiations may never be the same. A deal struck last January between Time Warner Cable and News Corp. included a precedent-setting condition to allow TWC to carry Fox's network programming if retransmission negotiations with Fox affiliates break down. Many TV execs likened Fox's move to throwing its non-owned Fox affiliates under the bus. Just how much leverage Fox affiliates could lose in retransmission negotiations is getting tested right now as Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest Fox affiliate group with 20 Fox affiliates, and TWC try and hammer out a deal before the current one expires at the end of the year. In the case of Sinclair, negotiations will center on the value of the local news or syndicated line up. Sinclair is betting that only two hours of network programming a day will give it enough negotiating clout, according to a report in the Columbus Dispatch. Fox's position is that it is helping its affiliates, not hindering negotiations. "We are in their corner," said Scott Grogin, svp of communications for Fox. "The goal is to protect our viewers from service interruptions, allowing Sinclair to get local [advertising] dollars while they negotiate without deadline pressure." If the deadline passes without a deal, TWC will pay Fox a fee for network programming. If more TV networks bypass affiliates and do retransmission deals directly with pay-TV providers, it could add up to a tough situation for TV groups looking to retransmission fees as a viable second revenue stream.
benton.org/node/46375 | MediaWeek
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LPFM BILL
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Rick Karr]
For the past decade, a coalition of advocacy groups has been asking Congress to let hundreds of new community radio stations go on the air. Supporters of the idea — from the Christian Coalition and Sen. John McCain, to Move On and Sen. Maria Cantwell — say the new stations would do wonders for communities from coast to coast. But the bill to expand community radio is currently stalled in the Senate, the victim of anonymous holds by two or more senators, and supporters worry that even with bipartisan support, the bill may once again die without an up-or-down vote.
benton.org/node/46395 | National Public Radio
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LPFM RADIO
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: David Hatch]
Proponents of low-power, non-commercial FM radio stations have a circus-themed message for the National Association of Broadcasters: stop clowning around with our future! Community radio activists accuse the powerful lobbying group of quietly pressuring senators to block legislation that has passed the House and is pending before the Senate Commerce Committee that would pave the way for thousands of new low-wattage stations across the country. In an effort to shame the association, LPFM activists converged on its headquarters at noon today with hula hoops and juggling pins (shaped like radios) to signal they are tired of jumping through hoops and being tossed around by the influential NAB, which is run by former Senate Commerce member Gordon Smith. NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton said the group's main beef with the legislation is that it doesn't do enough to prevent interference with full-power stations.
benton.org/node/46372 | National Journal
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CONTENT

CHINA IP PIRACY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Doina Chiacu]
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) are urging China to step up efforts to protect American movies, software and other goods from illegal copying. The senators timed the release of a new US International Trade Commission report on piracy and counterfeiting in China to coincide with high-level U.S.-China talks taking place in Washington (DC). The report is the first of two the ITC is doing for the Senate Finance Committee. In the second one, due in May, the ITC will try for the first time to estimate the damage done to the U.S. economy by Chinese piracy and counterfeiting.
benton.org/node/46376 | Reuters
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OPEN BOOKS
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
What's the difference between Amazon's and Google's e-book stores? Not price. Not selection. But even if Google's e-book store offers no better prices, selection, or functionality than Amazon's Kindle Store, isn't it true Google's e-books are more "open" than Amazon's? The store's tag line promises that Google's books will "set your reading free." In a blog post, the company touts that its books are as portable as photos or e-mail -- you can access them on "just about any device" using nothing more than your Google username and password. Openness, it seems, is central to Google's push to become the Web's pre-eminent e-book seller. Google's e-books are "open" in the same way that politicians are "bipartisan" and oil companies are "green"—the claim makes for good marketing, even if it lacks substance. Buying from Google rather than Amazon will give you no greater control over your books. You're not likely to get any practical benefit from going with Google, either. In fact, Amazon's "closed" books will soon work on more devices than Google's "open" books.
benton.org/node/46345 | Slate
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   Piracy Fight Shuts Down Music Blogs

PIRACY FIGHT AND BLOGS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ben Sisario]
OnSmash.com and the handful of other music blogs shut down by the government post brand-new songs and videos without licenses, but much of that material is often leaked to them by managers, music labels and even the artists themselves. As a result, these sites have a complex symbiosis with the music business. While the Recording Industry Association of America wants to shut them down, the rank and file of the record labels — particularly in hip-hop circles — uses them as marketing tools and publicity outlets. In addition to OnSmash.com, the music sites shut down included Dajaz1.com, RapGodFathers.com and rmx4u.com; another, torrent-finder.com, is a search engine for users of BitTorrent, a file-sharing system that can be used for any kind of data. The seizures over Thanksgiving weekend — most of the 82 sites involved were shut down for selling knockoff handbags, sunglasses and other goods — were made without warning. Internet advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have expressed alarm at the precedent the action might set. Victoria Espinel, the White House’s intellectual property enforcement coordinator, said on Dec. 6 that more shutdowns could be expected soon as the government pursued “pirates and counterfeiters.”
benton.org/node/46407 | New York Times
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COMCAST TESTING NEW SERVICE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro, Sam Schechner]
Comcast is testing a new service that knits together television and the Internet, as the U.S. cable giant goes after rivals that threaten to undermine its business.
Under the new system, which is being tested in Augusta (GA) content flows through a set-top box that combines features of the Web with those of a digital-video recorder. Users can watch and search a smattering of Web video through their televisions and search across live, on-demand and recorded programming. The service, known to participants as "Spectrum" and internally as "Xcalibur," doesn't let participants freely browse the Web, though they do have some basic connections to social networks to comment on television shows
benton.org/node/46405 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE SEARCH
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rolfe Winkler]
If search results are all about relevance, Google could be risking its own. In local search, for instance, by promoting its own results over other, perhaps more relevant sites, Google may be doing users a disservice. It also may be giving rivals like Microsoft a chance to take share. Web publishers live and die on how Google ranks their relevance. It determines their traffic first and foremost. And when they are working with Google to sell ad space, it affects the ad rates they receive. Arbitrating website relevance for searchers, as Google does, is a tall order. Results that one web surfer finds informative may be useless to another. Google's two-thirds share of searches, according to comScore, suggests it has managed well, historically. Yet Google's investment in its own content has to conflict with its role as a neutral arbiter.
benton.org/node/46404 | Wall Street Journal
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WARHOL FOUNDATION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jacqueline Trescott]
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, one of the principal sponsors of "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture," demanded Monday that the Smithsonian restore the David Wojnarowicz video or the foundation would not fund future projects. The Wojnarowicz work, "A Fire in My Belly," contains 11 seconds of an image of ants crawling on a crucifix and was removed after criticism from Capitol Hill and conservative groups. The Smithsonian said the uproar over the video from supporters of the artist's work and from opponents to his images was a distraction from the overall show of many masterpieces. The Warhol Foundation is the first major funder to publicly voice outrage.
benton.org/node/46403 | Washington Post
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

D-BLOCK AUCTION DEBATE CONTINUES
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Backers of a stagnant Federal Communications Commission proposal for finally providing a cutting-edge communications network for emergency responders continue their 11th-hour push, arguing that the plan is the only viable option in today's economic reality. A coalition of telecom carriers, and now a few police and firefighter organizations, is lobbying the FCC to resurrect its plan to auction off 10 megahertz of communications spectrum known as the "D-block" and use the proceeds to help fund the construction of an emergency network. To that end, the group, called Connect Public Safety Now brought in former FEMA Director James Witt to call on lawmakers to give the FCC proposal another look.
benton.org/node/46369 | National Journal
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

INDIAN TELECOM CRISIS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Yardley, Heather Timmons]
Tycoons with friends in high places. Public tenders conducted by irregular rules. Tens of billions of dollars in potential losses for the national treasury. Allegations of government ministers on the take, and of a respected prime minister too aloof to notice. Those are some of the ingredients of a telecommunications scandal that is growing into India’s equivalent of Teapot Dome. It has produced almost daily revelations about bribery, abuse of power, and privatization of public wealth that paralyzed Parliament for more than three weeks before its winter session ended Monday and have plunged the governing Congress Party into its worst political crisis in years. The issue is how a minister allied with the party sold cellphone operators the airwaves to provide their service in 2008. But the amounts involved, and subsequent revelations of how some of India’s richest men sought to exercise influence over political appointments and regulatory decisions, have surprised a nation seemingly inured to reports of corruption in politics. An independent auditor estimated that the government may have left almost $40 billion on the table by selling the rights too cheaply. The political fallout seems to grow each day.
benton.org/node/46394 | New York Times
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SPONSORED TWEETS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in the UK is making good on its threat to punish companies that purchase coverage online without public disclosure. The OFT says it has "received undertakings" from at least one company for violating the UK's fair trading laws—a warning to others that might pay for blog or Twitter posts without admitting to doing so. Handpicked Media, a UK-based startup that provides "sponsored" posts to hundreds of blogs, got a public slap on the wrist from the OFT on Monday following the discovery that the company was not properly disclosing its paid online promotions. OFT noted that Handpicked Media cooperated with the investigation, but said that the company has now agreed not to engage in such activity without making it obvious that the posts had been paid for "in a manner unavoidable to the average consumer."
benton.org/node/46347 | Ars Technica
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