May 2011

House Committee Demands Sony Data Breach Answers

House Commerce Committee Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Chairman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) sent a joint letter to the Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment America seeking information about the company’s recent data breach, which compromised the personal information of up to 77 million account holders.

The facts surrounding the breach, which occurred between April 17 and 19, still remain unclear and the extent of the damage is largely unknown. The letter states, “Given the amount and nature of personal information known to have been taken, the potential harm that could be caused if credit card information was also taken would be quite significant. The Subcommittee on Manufacturing, and Trade has a longstanding interest in consumer privacy, identity theft, and industry efforts to address threats posed by unauthorized access to consumers’ personal information resulting from a data breach.” The Committee is expected to introduce legislation on data security later this year and has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, May 4, to discuss data theft issues.

House Dem says Panetta understands cybersecurity

Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta would make an excellent secretary of defense in part due to his appreciation for the urgency of protecting the nation's computer networks, according to a House Democrat vocal on cybersecurity issues. Rep Jim Langevin (D-RI) praised President Obama's plans to nominate Panetta to lead the Pentagon and Gen. David Petraeus to succeed him at the CIA. Rep Langevin introduced a comprehensive cybersecurity bill in the House last month as Senate Democrats promised to reopen the debate in the coming months.

More Bad News for Google TV

It was pretty much established that Google TV wasn't ready for prime time when it launched last fall, and now comes more proof.

Logitech has reported that the company's Revue with Google TV set-top box and the accompanying gear generated only about $5 million in sales during the last quarter. That's only about 72 percent less than the $18 million Logitech had expected. Not only did Google launch a Web TV strategy that required users to shell out money for hardware, such as the Revue or a TV from Sony, but at the same time, competitors such as Netflix offered a much simpler and less-expensive option--they enabled users to watch Web TV with little more than a browser. Google TV's content strategy also stumbled badly out of the gate. Why launch and enable users to access the Web content from the major networks without cutting deals first? Google set itself up for a headline-grabbing smackdown, and that's what it got when the networks all blocked Google TV access.

How Social Commerce Really Works & Why

GroupOn might be darlings of the web right now, but as the launch of Facebook Deals shows, the game is far from over and we have just now taken first steps towards what is real (online) social commerce. If the first phase of e-commerce was the utilitarian hunt for staples, the next phase of e-commerce is about recreational shopping where the merger of social and interest graphs would drive buying decisions.

President Obama: Don't Just Scold the Media, Fix It!

[Commentary] After revealing his "long form" birth certificate, President Barack Obama scolded the news media for letting this non-issue become a national obsession. But if President Obama really wants to restore reporting to its rightful role, he needs to act on commitments he made immediately after his inauguration.

For more than two years, GOP extremists have made the president's birth certificate an issue that has successfully permeated the country's consciousness. According to a New York Times-CBS News poll last week, 43% of the country is not sure Barack Obama was not born in this country, despite long standing factual evidence to the contrary. How did GOP extremists manage to make a non issue such a huge issue? They used the power of broadcasting to beat the drums of paranoia into 50 million people across our land. They used the power of talk radio, which they have used to successfully marginalize Democrats and anyone else outside their narrow point of view. It is critical to understand that we the people own the airwaves. Broadcasters, (local TV and Radio stations) own a lot of fancy equipment which allows them to broadcast over OUR air. They made a business deal with us that they get to broadcast over our air ONLY if they serve the public interest.

Politico, which has a dog in this fight, blesses the giveback canard

[Commentary] In a Politico op-ed by Peter Passell and Robert Hahn write: "As part of the deal for switching to a spectrum-efficient digital system, the broadcasters gave up about one-quarter of their spectrum — what used to be UHF channels 52-69. This was auctioned to the wireless telecoms for close to $20 billion."

Snider responds: This is certainly a common canard used by the broadcast lobby and its champions. But the fact is that the DTV transition was a huge giveaway to, not a giveback from, the broadcast industry. As part of the DTV transition, broadcasters greatly increased their coverage areas at public expense and also won the right to transmit more than a dozen TV channels (hundreds if you include low definition mobile television channels) in the band that previously they were only licensed to transmit a single standard definition TV signal. They also got many other perks that are too technical to go into here. The broadcasters were indeed forced to give up some of the unused guard band channels they had previously polluted with harmful interference. But the guard bands were never the broadcasters to give up. The DTV technology that allowed the broadcasters to vastly increase their service rights also allowed the FCC to reduce more than $20 billion worth of wasted guard band space in the general TV band allocation. This tradeoff of giving to TV broadcasters around a hundred billion dollars worth of new spectrum rights in return for reducing their pollution of the wasted guard band space was at the core of the win-win of the so-called DTV transition (originally called the HDTV transition for lobbying purposes). To only focus on the reduced pollution and waste of the guard band channels, while a good lobbying point for the broadcast industry, is fundamentally misleading.

Examination of Online Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Promotion

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing an opportunity for public comment on the proposed collection of certain information by the Agency. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), Federal Agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information and to allow 60 days for public comment in response to the notice. This notice solicits comments on a series of studies, . These studies are designed to test different ways of presenting benefit and risk information in online direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug Web sites. Submit either electronic or written comments on the collection of information by June 27, 2011.

Rep. Markey Concerned Chevron Ad Misleading

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) has referred his concerns about a Chevron TV ad to the Federal Trade Commission for a determination of whether or not it is misleading. "Even as Chevron reported $6.2 billion in profits over the first three months of 2011," said Markey's office in a statement, "potentially questionable television advertisements by the company claim that it spent 'every penny and more' of the $19.1 billion in 2010 profits on "bringing energy to the world." Rep Markey has written the company to ask it to square that claim with the fact that it spent $6.5 billion buying back its own stock in 2010 and $1.1 billion on "exploration for energy."

Electricity out? Crank up this radio's power

The first time that nasty spring weather knocked out power at our house and tornado sirens sent us scurrying to the basement, we had to stop along the way to gather up our storm supplies. Among the items we needed were a flashlight (preferably one with working batteries), a weather radio (ditto on the batteries) and our cell phones (hopefully with a full charge). The next time bad weather moves in, we'll be better prepared with the Rover, one of several new multipurpose emergency gadgets from Eton Corp. The Rover combines an LED flashlight with a radio that has AM, FM and weather bands. A ring around the radio dial has seven slots that are pre-tuned to the each of the NOAA weather channels used across the country. You can tune in your favorite local AM or FM station, then pop back and forth between it and weather alerts for your region. But the Rover's best feature is its power source: you. It has a pop-out hand crank that recharges the permanent battery inside.

Benton

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