January 2011

Open Internet Apps Challenge

The Federal Communications Commission announced a challenge to researchers and software developers to engage in research and create apps that help consumers foster, measure, and protect Internet openness.

The Open Internet Challenge is part of the FCC's efforts to empower end users to help preserve Internet openness. The Open Internet Challenge seeks to encourage the development of innovative and functional applications that provide users with information about the extent to which their fixed or mobile broadband Internet services are consistent with the open Internet. These software tools could, for example, detect whether a broadband provider is interfering with DNS responses, application packet headers, or content. The research component of the challenge seeks academic papers that analyze relevant Internet openness measurements, techniques, and data. The challenge is designed to encourage and reward the creation innovative and useful research. The winners of the Open Internet Challenge will be invited to FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., to present their work to the Commission and be honored with an FCC Chairman's reception. Winners will have their apps and research featured on the FCC's website and social media outlets. Winners will be reimbursed for authorized travel expenses.

The submission deadline for the challenge is June 1, 2011, and a public voting period will run from June 15, 2011 through July 15, 2011. The winner of the public vote will receive the People's Choice Award. Other award category winners will be chosen by a panel of expert judges. Winners will be announced in August 2011.

Copy some webpages, owe more than the national debt

The Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine" is a set of snapshots of the Web over time. It's a wonderful way to delve into the past, but it's only possible thanks to rampant copying—and the potential copyright infringement that goes along with such copies. Thanks to US law, a successful copyright suit against the Wayback Machine could put the nonprofit Internet Archive on the hook for up to $150,000 per infringement. Multiply that $150,000 by the number of individual pages in the Archive and you quickly run into some serious damages.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation does the math:

"As of December 18, 2010, the Internet Archive had 600 preserved images of the website for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Were the RIAA to sue the Internet Archive for copyright infringement based on these preserved images and prevail, the Archive would face up to $89 million in statutory damages, even absent a finding of actual harm or any reprehensibility. And these 600 images of the RIAA website are but a small drop in the large lake of information that the Archive has collected, which includes over 150 billion web pages. Based on this figure, if all copyright owners of those webpages (or a certified class of them) were to sue and prevail, the Archive would face potential statutory damages of close to 2,000 times the United States’ national debt."

GOP readies major push for Internet transparency

Republicans are planning to use the Internet as a sledgehammer to clobber the secretive way in which Congress has traditionally done business.

Through a set of almost-radical changes that most Americans would probably view as common sense, the incoming GOP majority is set to approve rules saying that legislation must be posted online three days before a vote and that committee amendments will also be publicly posted. Politicians' formal votes in committees will also be disclosed, and audio and video recordings will be permanently posted "in a manner that is easily accessible to the public," according to the rules that are scheduled for a vote tomorrow. Witness testimony and amendments must be posted within 24 hours of a hearing. In two more nods to technology and openness, electronic devices will now be allowed on the House floor (as long as they don't impair "decorum"), and the opening session of the new Congress will be live-streamed on Facebook. These rules, championed by incoming House majority leader Eric Cantor and hinted at through a Twitter post last month by soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner, are part of the Republicans' efforts to reshape the legislative process.

An Ex-Regulator's Predictions for 2011

[Commentary] Gottlieb, former chief counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, shares his predictions for issues to watch 2011.

House GOP oversight of the FCC
Network neutrality goes (back) to court: who will sue, which court will hear the case, will there be a judicial stay, what if the FCC loses again?
Will Congress give FCC authority to do incentive auctions?
Is this the year for over-the-top video?
Wireless competition
Public safety
Universal service and intercarrier compensation
Privacy
Wireless tethering and sharing
New FCC commissioners: Commissioner Michael Copps, whose term expired last year, can only stay until the end of the 2011 congressional session. And Commissioner Meredith Baker’s term expires this year, though she can stay until the end of the 2012 session. One scenario is that the Senate confirms their replacements (or renominations) together in 2011. The other is that the commission ends up 2-2 through the 2012 election. As with all FCC nomination processes, this one will be subject to plenty of macro-trends, including the approach of the White House to new nominations and the always unpredictable relationship between Senate majority and minority leadership.

Facebook, States Reach Agreement

Facebook and two groups representing state attorneys general and chief information officers have reached an agreement aimed at resolving state concerns over the social media site's terms of service.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers and the National Association of Attorneys General said the agreement will apply to states already on Facebook, and they expect it will serve as a model to be used by other states as they move to set up pages on Facebook. NASCIO's Social Media Legal Workgroup and a NAAG task force began discussions more than a year ago with Facebook to resolve legal problems states identified related to Facebook's terms of service that kept many states from utilizing it and other social media sites. NASCIO said its workgroup would seek similar agreements with other social media sites to resolve concerns that have barred states from using those sites as well.

Hungary Under Fire For Media Law As It Prepares To Take EU Helm

European human rights and Internet groups are urging the European Union to pressure Hungary to change a controversial media law that went into effect at the beginning of the month and places new restrictions on Internet and other content providers.

Hungary is set to take over the six-month presidency of the European Union on Jan 6. The country's new law requires all content providers including newspapers, broadcast outlets and online websites to register with a Hungarian government media authority and ensure they provide balanced coverage or face possible fines or restrictions. Several groups in Europe are participating in an online protest Wednesday of the Hungarian law by blacking out their websites. One of the participating groups, the French Internet freedom group La Quadrature du Net, wrote the European Commission and president of the European Parliament Wednesday calling on them to take "urgent and concrete steps" to oppose the Hungarian law.

Facebook Wants to Supply Your Internet Driver's License

Although it's not apparent to many, Facebook is in the process of transforming itself from the world's most popular social-media website into a critical part of the Internet's identity infrastructure. If it succeeds, Facebook and Facebook accounts will become an even bigger target for hackers. As security professionals debate whether the Internet needs an "identity layer" -- a uniform protocol for authenticating users' identities -- a growing number of websites are voting with their code, adopting "Facebook Connect" as a way for anyone with a Facebook account to log into the site at the click of a button.

The State Department Has $30 Million to Spend on Internet Freedom

The State Department might not be very happy about WikiLeaks (and its publication of hundreds of thousands of confidential diplomatic communications), but that’s not making it put the brakes on its quest to foster Internet freedom around the world. Foggy Bottom has just asked to hear from organizations that are interested in receiving government funds to “foster freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet and other connection technologies.” The agency has $30 million to spend on such programs and is planning on making grants to the tune of $500,000 to $8 million. The “Request for Statements of Interest” is specifically looking for projects and services that counter censorship and enable Internet users to get around firewalls and filters in "acutely hostile Internet environments"; provide secure mobile communications; train users in "digital safety"; and support “digital activists” and build the technology capacities of civil society organizations in the Middle East and Iran. It will also support Internet public policy work, emergency funding for netizens “under threat because of their web-based activism,” and centers that track censorship and online dialogue in those same “hostile Internet environments.”

Qualcomm Acquires Atheros for $3.1 billion

The worlds of cellular and Wi-Fi communications are about to get a whole lot closer. Mobile silicon technology vendor Qualcomm announced its intention to acquire Wi-Fi silicon vendor Atheros in a deal valued at $3.1 billion.

Qualcomm will pay $45 for each Atheros share and the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2011. With the acquisition of Atheros, Qualcomm adds extensive local wireless connectivity technologies including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The acquisition serves to highlight the continuing convergence of wide and local area wireless networking technologies as mobile devices continue to proliferate. Qualcomm is seeing a trend emerge where cellular, computing and consumer electronics mobility are beginning to converge. Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice-president and group president of Qualcomm, noted that with tablets, vendors have been pulling in technologies from both the PC and cellular worlds. He added that with a tablet there are more things that a user needs to be able to connect with, than what a phone typically connects to.

Tea Party Targets The FCC

[Commentary] All around Washington, members of the telecommunications lawyer clan are doing a good bit of navel-gazing about the Net Neutrality order released by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just before Christmas. They are delving deep into the subtleties of Sec. 706 (a) of the Communications Act, working out intricate arguments on FCC authority and policy. At the same time, the Tea Party is planning a naval bombardment offensive to counter the Commission’s order. Twice between Christmas and New Year’s, the Tea Party put the FCC in the sights of its 16-inch guns, sending emails to supporters to rally support for a campaign that would “Protect Our Internet Voice.”

The headline in the email reads, “The Tea Party Must Stop the Governments (sic) Freedom Grab!” If FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski thought he could escape Congressional and Tea Party-driven scrutiny by forging this weak “compromise” because AT&T was nominally on board, he certainly miscalculated. As a result, Chairman Genachowski and his colleagues will end up spending quality time before House interrogators to defend a rule that has loopholes larger in some respects than the rule itself. It’s just a shame that the FCC doesn't have something stronger to defend that would be equal to the vociferousness of the attacks.

Benton

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