June 2011

MORE ON SCOTUS

FIRST AMENDMENT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
The Supreme Court term that ended June 27 was marked by accomplishment and anticipation. The court continued its work on two signature projects of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: defending free speech and curbing big lawsuits. And it dropped occasional hints about the blockbusters on the horizon. The First Amendment dominated the term, with the court ruling for funeral protesters, the makers of violent video games, drug marketers and politicians who decline public financing. The American commitment to free expression, the court said, cuts across politics and commerce, requires tolerance of offensive speech and forbids the government from stepping in when powerful voices threaten to dominate public debate. In cases involving the nation’s largest private employer, Wal-Mart, and its second-largest cellphone company, AT&T Mobility, the court tightened the rules for class actions and made it easier for companies to do away with class actions entirely by using form contracts. All of the decisions this term were scrutinized for clues about the arc of the Roberts court as it settles into a period of consolidation and awaits a series of colossal cases, notably the challenges to the health care law championed by President Obama. This term was significant, but the next one may include the most important clash between the Supreme Court and a president since the New Deal.
benton.org/node/80054 | New York Times
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NOW GAMES HAVE A DUTY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Seth Schiesel]
[Commentary] It is now the law of the United States that video games are art. It is now the law of the United States that video games are a creative, intellectual, emotional form of expression and engagement, as fundamentally human as any other. As Justice Scalia pointed out, the Supreme Court originally found motion pictures unworthy of First Amendment protection. (You know, that freedom of speech thing). In 1915 the court ruled that states could broadly censor films because movies could be “used for evil.” It took until 1952 for the court to grant film constitutional recognition. (It bears noting that television historically has not been entitled to full First Amendment protections from the state because television uses the public airwaves.) And now video games — as vulgar, crude, disgusting and thoroughly unredeeming as they often may be — have finally been fully recognized as a worthy element of our culture. Of course those of us who actually play games figured this out a long time ago. We knew that the most important video games were not merely matters of technology or neuromuscular coordination, but of finding new ways to explore and think about both human relationships and the wider world around us. Not all games allow this. Not even most of them. Most video games — like the vast majority of any medium — are insipid junk. But of course one person’s insipid junk — whether books, movies, TV shows or games — is another’s masterpiece. The point is that as a basic principle, those decisions about value and worth and importance must be left to the individual and protected from politicians. That is what the First Amendment is all about.
benton.org/node/80052 | New York Times
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VIDEO GAMES AND THE 1ST AMENDMENT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Supreme Court took almost eight months to render a decision in a case challenging California's law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. The wait was worth it, and not just for the video-game industry. In striking down the law, the court bolstered anew the protections of the 1st Amendment. Although seven justices voted to invalidate the law, it was five led by Antonin Scalia who grounded the decision in a compelling opinion that examined new technology through the prism of the 1st Amendment. Justice Scalia dispatched all of the major arguments for the law and fended off a theory that would have created a new loophole in the protections afforded to free speech. Sexually explicit materials sold or given to minor are considered legally obscene — and outside the protection of the 1st Amendment — even if the materials wouldn't be obscene for adults. The state wanted the court to treat violent materials provided to minors as unprotected; Scalia, for the court, declined. The case law on obscenity is confused enough; there is no need for another category of unprotected speech. And if fictional violence is treated as illegal speech, the effects surely would soon creep beyond video games and beyond children.
benton.org/node/80051 | Los Angeles Times
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AT&T/T-MOBILE

UPDATED INFO REQUEST FOR WIRELESS INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Rick Kaplan]
The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau has revised its initial request for billing and sales information from AT&T and T-Mobile and asked the companies to respond to the request by July 7, 2011. The request is to inform the FCC's review of AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. In addition, the FCC is requesting information from Cellular South, Leap Wireless/Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint Nextel, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless.
benton.org/node/79941 | Federal Communications Commission | letter to T-Mobile | letter to Cellular South | letter to Leap Wireless/Cricket | letter to MetroPCS | letter to Sprint | letter to US Cellular | letter to Verizon
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CALL FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Press release]
Seven public-interest and consumer groups asked Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski to hold public field hearings on AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile. “Holding hearings would be consistent with the Commission’s recent actions to increase public participation in its proceedings. In fact, the Commission has previously held field hearings about proposed mergers and other topics that greatly impact consumers,” said the letter, which was signed by Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, Free Press, Future of Music Coalition, Media Access Project, National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Open Technology Initiative of the New America Foundation. Chairman Genachowski has said the FCC wants to be a leader in harnessing communications and technology to improve public participation, the letter noted, adding: “But as the Commission realizes, online participation is not enough—particularly when millions of Americans do not have adequate broadband access. Therefore, public hearings will provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to provide their input directly to the Commission.”
benton.org/node/79975 | Public Knowledge | read the letter
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SPRINT VS AT&T
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Greg Bensinger]
Dan Hesse’s White Room is closely guarded even within Sprint Nextel Corp. The chief executive officer carries the only key and draws black curtains over his scribblings before leaving. This is where Hesse retreats to map out “nukes” in red, blue and green ink, lately his tactics for stopping AT&T Inc.’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA. “Clearly, purely, we want to win and block the merger,” said Hesse, during an interview at the company’s Overland Park, Kansas headquarters. “This one poses real risks.” Hesse has already thrown personal and corporate resources at blocking AT&T. He tripled the amount of time he’s spending on government affairs, testifying before Congress and making regular trips to Washington. Sprint is organizing industry opposition and filed a 377-page dissent with the Federal Communications Commission. The company even tapped its own engineers to show AT&T how to get more capacity from its wireless network so it wouldn't need to buy T-Mobile. Hesse is just getting started. He’s courting top technology CEOs to come out against the deal and sway public opinion. He’s working to get as many as 18 state regulators to scrutinize the purchase, which may slow down approval or prompt divestitures. He’s working on other tactics he’s not ready to disclose.
benton.org/node/79969 | Bloomberg
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OWNERSHIP

NJ FAILS TO BLOCK NJN DEAL
[SOURCE: Star-Ledger, AUTHOR: Peggy McGlone]
The New Jersey Senate failed to block Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to let New York's WNET/Channel 13 run New Jersey public television, signaling a big win for the Republican governor and the demise of New Jersey Network after 40 years of broadcasting. Lawmakers were one vote short in their effort to reject the governor’s negotiated agreement with WNET, the nation’s flagship PBS station based in New York. A similar resolution overwhelmingly passed the New Jersey Assembly. The unsuccessful vote means Public Media NJ, a New Jersey incorporated subsidiary of WNET, will begin operating the new network, to be called NJTV, on July 1, 2011. The state’s contract with Public Media NJ mandates the new entity produce a nightly news show, cover elections and other important Trenton events, including the governor’s budget and State of the State addresses. The contract does not require Public Media establish a permanent New Jersey studio or place reporters around the state.
benton.org/node/79933 | Star-Ledger
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DENVER TV MERGER
[SOURCE: Colorado Independent, AUTHOR: John Tomasic]
The sprawling greater-Denver metro region is in news-media crisis. In the information age, when there seems to be more and more to know, there is less and less being reported by the diminishing number of local mainstream news outlets here. So it comes as little surprise that media watchdog organization FreePress this week is highlighting the Denver news market as a negative example for the nation. The organization reports that, on top of shrinking newspaper reporting, the local TV news market is host to a “severe” form of the kind of sly consolidation that media corporations have been effecting across the country for nearly a decade. FreePress says this “covert consolidation,” where direct ownership is never transferred, is gaining momentum and that it skirts federal ownership laws and erodes market variety and competition. Over the last two years, Denver news stations Fox 31 KDVR and CW 2 KWGN have entered a “shared services” agreement through which station operations are merged. The stations share broadcast scripts and reporting, for example, the same way they share staffers, equipment, management personnel and studio and office space. “Just because the name on the letterhead hasn't changed, doesn't mean that the spirit of media ownership laws hasn't been violated,” FreePress Program Director Josh Stearns told the Colorado Independent. He said the owners of the stations are squatting on public airwave space that could be taken up by another company or organization, which would hire its own writers, reporters and producers to deliver an original and rival product to KDVR and the other stations in the market. Stearns believes the KDVR-KWGN agreement effectively tramples regulations meant to guard against media “duopolies,” where a single company owns two or more stations that serve the same community.
benton.org/node/79928 | Colorado Independent
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KUSF TRANSACTION
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Peter Doyle]
The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing the application seeking consent to transfer the assignment of KUSF (FM) from the University of San Francisco to Classical Public Radio Networks, LLC (CPRN). As part of the transaction, the University of San Francisco and CPRN negotiated and executed a “Public Service Operating Agreement” (PSOA) pursuant to which CPRN provides programming to be broadcast on KUSF prior to approval and consummation of the assignment. The terms of the PSOA present issues involving the parties’ compliance with FCC rules and policies concerning the operation and control of the station and, so, the FCC has some questions to ask about the agreement.
benton.org/node/79938 | Federal Communications Commission
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BROADCASTING

FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) responded to the Federal Communications Commission’s agreement to eliminate the Fairness Doctrine and other outdated regulations by August. FCC Chairman Genachowski initially agreed to strike the Fairness Doctrine from the Code of Federal Regulations in response to an inquiry made by Chairmen Upton and Walden on May 31.
“We are pleased that Chairman Genachowski has finally set a target for striking the Fairness Doctrine from the rulebooks once and for all,” said Chairmen Upton and Walden. “The rules are outdated, unnecessary, and needlessly endanger our sacred freedoms of speech and the press. The Commission says it plans to eliminate these obsolete rules through a streamlined, delegated-authority process, and we will continue to monitor the issue until they are fully repealed.”
In addition to the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC Chairman has agreed to review and eliminate antiquated regulations that hamper economic and job growth in line with President Obama’s Executive Order. In particular, Chairman Genachowski said that his staff already adheres to the directive that all major new rules be accompanied by an analysis of costs and benefits and is working with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on best practices going forward.
“The committee appreciates Chairman Genachowski’s agreement that burdensome regulations—even those not subject to President Obama’s Executive Order—should be subject to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis before adoption,” said Upton and Walden. “We are also dedicated to assisting the FCC’s efforts to eliminate burdensome regulations in order to unleash private sector investment, spur growth, and create jobs for the American people. The committee urges the FCC to coordinate its plans to review and repeal job-crushing regulations with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).”
benton.org/node/79939 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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RALPH JENNINGS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Dwyer]
Ralph Jennings was packing up his things after 26 years at WFUV-FM, where he had transformed a chaotic college radio station at Fordham University with a tiny audience into one of the leading public radio outlets in the country and a rare cultural force. More than half a century ago, he discovered the force of broadcasting could bend the steel of the world into a better, fairer place — for anyone willing to crawl under a desk, stretch a roll of electrician’s tape or hang a length of cable. Or, as in the case of Dr. Jennings, to do all that, and also travel to corners of the country where radio and television stations practiced open bigotry in their programs and hiring, but could be pressed to change.
benton.org/node/80034 | New York Times
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MORE ON SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

FASTEST MOBILE NETWORKS
[SOURCE: PC Magazine, AUTHOR: Sascha Segan]
PC Magazine sent six drivers on a cross-country road trip in Ford cars with lots of mobile phones and custom software designed by network testing firm Sensorly to see just how fast 4G Internet connections really are. In a 21-city test across the United States, it found that Verizon's new 4G LTE network is much faster than other mobile Web options, with speeds that often exceed home Internet connections.
benton.org/node/79959 | PC Magazine
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REAL SMARTPHONE WARS
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
Seventy percent of the world relies on pre-pay cell phones and their tariffs and unsubsidized handset prices. This may come as a surprise to US consumers, used to two-year contracts and handset prices that sometimes cost nothing. But it also highlights something surprising: All the battles we've heard about so far in the rapidly growing smartphone market are really only addressing 30% of the globe. The real war is about to begin. Yet another statistic for you to think about: 40% of European phone buyers, according to a recent survey, are planning on buying an iPhone next--twice as many as plan on buying an Android device, and this is a region where nearly half of the phones sold are on a pre-pay basis. Do you see where we're going with this? Nearly everything we think about the smartphone wars rests on relatively few markets, and in the case of the U.S., mostly on contracted, post-pay vendor models. As smartphone sales explode around the world, Android is certainly the most popular OS for now--it's taking up the gap that the demise of Nokia's Symbian-powered feature phones once occupied. But if Apple really does bring its "luxury" iPhone to a lower price, then it will target that 70% global space that we tend to forget about. Though probably not for long
benton.org/node/79957 | Fast Company
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YOUTH DITCHING LANDLINES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
The shift away from landlines continues, as 24.9 percent of all American adults now live in homes with wireless-only voice connections. Among younger adults aged 25 to 29, the numbers are twice as high; more than half have only a cell phone. Don't feel too bad for the phone companies. The largest wireline companies, such as AT&T and Verizon, are linked with wireless units that have cashed in on the switch to cell phones and now rake in huge profits.
benton.org/node/79968 | Ars Technica
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

WHY IS EUROPEAN INTERNET BETTER?
[SOURCE: Engadget, AUTHOR: Rick Karr]
Why are Internet speeds and prices better in the Netherlands and the UK than in the United States? The government. Not government spending. The UK's administration hasn't invested a penny in broadband infrastructure, and most of the network in the Netherlands has been built with private capital. (The city government in Amsterdam took a minority stake in the fiber network there, but that's an investment that will pay dividends if the network is profitable -- and the private investors who own the majority share of the system plan to make sure that it will be.) The game-changer in these two European countries has been government regulators who have forced more competition in the market for broadband.
benton.org/node/80030 | Engadget
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HEALTH

FINAL MEANINGFUL USE RULES
[SOURCE: HealthLeaders Media, AUTHOR: Margaret Dick Tocknell]
Look for the Office of the National Coordinator to release by next year all of the final rules for Stage 2 of meaningful use. Farzad Mostashari, MD, the National Coordinator for Health IT, explained that his office is busy reviewing information from the Health IT Policy Committee, which in early June recommended delaying for a year, until 2014, Stage 2 of the meaningful use program for those providers that comply with Stage 1 criteria in 2011. Without being specific, Mostashari said that while the final rules will pull from the policy committee recommendations, "they will not be identical," although "a lot of deference will be given to the committee." Mostashari challenged the audience to not think of meaningful use as a random bureaucratic checklist of hoops to jump through, but rather "the roadmap for delivering higher quality healthcare." He said the mindset is shifting from seeing meaningful use as a distraction from providing quality patient care to the "way to get there."
benton.org/node/79971 | HealthLeaders Media
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EDUCATION

NATIONAL ED-TECH PLAN
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Laura Devaney]
The second day of the International Society for Technology in Education’s annual conference featured an hour-long presentation and Q&A session with Karen Cator, director of educational technology for the Department of Education. Cator reviewed the nation’s progress toward implementing ed-tech projects and highlighted some of the National Education Technology Plan’s top priorities.
The plan focuses on:
Learning: Personalized learning and true engagement can make for a powerful learning environment, the plan says.
Teaching: Technology has the opportunity to really augment teaching capacity in every single classroom, it says.
Assessment: For feedback and better understanding, educators must understand how people learn, and they should be able to take that feedback and improve teaching and learning.
But to execute the plan, several essential components must be in place, she said -- such as broadband Internet access, devices in all places where learning can occur (including school, homes, and libraries), and the human infrastructure necessary to support such a system.
benton.org/node/79965 | eSchool News
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NEW E-RATE RULES
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
A proposed new rule for the federal e-Rate program could discourage schools from buying service contracts when they purchase network equipment, at least one program expert warns.
The rule is part of a draft version of the latest Eligible Services List for the e-Rate, which provides discounts on the cost of telecommunications services and Internet access. If approved, the revised list would take effect in the 2012 program year. Released June 24 by the Federal Communications Commission, the draft doesn't propose any major changes to the list of services that would be eligible for e-Rate support, but it does clarify several points. One of these points is whether the e-Rate should apply to maintenance and support for internal connections, or the wiring, routers, switches, and file servers needed to bring Internet access into classrooms. The FCC’s proposal states that basic maintenance of internal connections is to be reimbursed only for “actual work performed.” That means schools can’t apply for e-Rate discounts on the service contracts they might buy along with any internal connections; instead, they must wait until work is performed and then apply to be reimbursed for the cost of this work.
Cathy Cruzan, president of the e-Rate consulting firm Funds For Learning, said she worries that the rule might discourage schools from buying service contracts on their network gear, because they would have to go through two sets of program reviews.
benton.org/node/79963 | eSchool News
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PRIVACY

CONSUMERS WANT PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
The vast majority of Internet users want to be able to stop companies from tracking their online activity and feel the government should take a more active role in safeguarding their privacy, according to a poll by Consumers Union. Consumers Union found that eight out of 10 respondents agreed they should be able to opt out of Internet tracking from a single location. That supports a “do not track” bill recently introduced by Sen. John “Jay” Rockefeller (D-WV). The public interest group plans to present the survey June 29 at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Internet privacy.
benton.org/node/80048 | Washington Post | Consumers Union | The Hill
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COMMERCE BACKS PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Department of Commerce's General Counsel, Cameron Kerry, will testify before the Senate Commerce Committee today and plans to say that the Administration backs consumer data privacy legislation that includes a privacy bill of rights and codes of conduct produced in concert with industry and enforceable by the Federal Trade Commission, but it also stresses there are necessary limits to government action. He'll also say:
Legislation should not create "overly burdensome regulatory requirements" for businesses that already adhere to the privacy principles embodied in that legislation.
Legislation should be technology neutral, both so that firms have compliance flexibility, including to adhere to the principles but use data in ways the bill might not anticipate.
Legislation should be a basis for greater cooperation between nations and reduced compliance "burdens" for U.S. companies abroad.
benton.org/node/80046 | Broadcasting&Cable
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APPS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Privacy advocates as well as some companies have long expressed support for "baseline" privacy legislation modeled on fair information practices principles. While details of exact proposals vary, many proponents say that at a minimum, companies should make clear what information is gathered and why, and allow consumers to decide whether they're willing to agree to the data collection. Online ad companies have tended to oppose new laws, arguing that they already voluntarily notify consumers about privacy issues and allow them to opt out of the use of their data (though not its collection).
Now that smartphone apps have become more popular, and drawn more scrutiny, however, it's clear that many -- perhaps most -- of the companies collecting data about mobile users don't inform them about information-gathering techniques or about how that data is shared. A study by the Future of Privacy Forum found that 22 of the top 30 apps lack privacy policies; other studies have shown that many apps transmit data about users, including their devices' unique identifiers.
benton.org/node/80045 | MediaPost
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JOURNALISM

COULD NEWSPAPERS HAVE SAVED THEMSELVES?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Erik Wemple]
If you hang around in the news media business long enough, you'll hear a certain lament about the last 15 years. It usually comes in a couple of layers:
If only news organizations had banded together to pool their precious content on the web.
If only they had started charging for their stuff right from dawn of the Internet.
Then, the thinking goes, darkness wouldn't have fallen on the industry. That argument surfaced just last week via James O’Shea, author of the new book The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers. A former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and former editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times, O’Shea told the New York Times, “None of this had to happen.” His book contains this riff: “The Internet and declining circulations didn't kill newspapers, any more than long stories, skimpy attention spans, or arrogant journalists did. What is killing a system that brings reliably edited news and information to readers’ doorsteps every morning for less than the cost of a cup of coffee is the way that the people who run the industry have reacted to those forces.” Contrary to popular mythology, it’s not as if they didn't try. As O’Shea outlines in his book, nine newspaper companies in the mid-’90s joined forces to create the New Century Network (NCN). If the title sounded evangelistic, perhaps that’s because it was: The papers were trying to bring about a new day, one where all their goodies would be packaged nicely and sold for reasonable prices to online readers.
benton.org/node/79945 | Washington Post | WashPost -- part 2 | NYTimes
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

TOOLS TO PREVENT INTERNET BLACKOUTS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
Advanced technology that keeps dissidents online during state-sponsored Internet blackouts can help the rest of the world stay informed about and engaged in a faraway struggle against an autocratic regime, but it may be less useful at keeping protest movements on track. The Internet in a suitcase -- which provides access to a stealth Web, via satellite, and is designed to be smuggled into areas where the Internet either has not penetrated or has been shut off by authorities -- is just one of several new State Department-funded tools. All are centered on ensuring stable Internet and mobile access for dissidents in autocratic states and helping them circumvent government censorship. Portable Internet technologies have been in development for a long time, mostly for aid organizations to set up communications in disaster areas where the benton.org/node/79976 | nextgov
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THE NEW EGYPT AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Patrick Thibodeau]
Yasser Elkady survived Egypt's revolution to remain CEO of the country's IT development arm. He is now in the U.S. traveling city to city to meet with IT companies to assure them that Egypt remains a good place to do business. One message Elkady is delivering is a commitment from Egypt's provisional government that a decision to kill the Internet "will never happen again." Elkady says the government is rewriting its telecommunications law in response to the former government's decision to kill Internet access. The law won't necessarily preempt the government's ability from shutting down the Internet but will likely set many reviews and approval processes to ensure that a similar action does not happen again, he said.
benton.org/node/79931 | ComputerWorld
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CYBERSECURITY

HHS BOLSTERS SOFTWARE SECURITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Riva Richmond]
The Homeland Security Department unveiled a new system of guidance intended to help make the software behind Web sites, power grids and other services less susceptible to hacking. The system includes an updated list of the top 25 programming errors that enable today’s most serious hacks. It adds new tools to help software programmers eliminate the most dangerous types of mistakes and enable organizations to demand and buy more secure products. The effort to improve software security has been three years in the making, according to Robert A. Martin, principal engineer at Mitre, a technology nonprofit organization that conducts federal research in systems engineering. The costs of flaws or omissions that make software susceptible to attack was highlighted by a number of recent attacks that resulted in the theft of credit card information, user names and passwords from government and banking sites. During an online news conference, government officials pointed out that a wide range of stakeholders had an interest in seeing the top 25 errors addressed, and they stressed the need for better training and education for people writing software. Officials also noted that organizations are under “persistent” attack. The Homeland Security Department’s hope is that the program, which is voluntary, will make it easier for companies and agencies to better secure their corners of cyberspace and contribute to building safer global networks.
benton.org/node/79946 | New York Times
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CYBERCRIME SURVEYS
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Erica Naone]
Cormac Herley, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, embarked on a study of the methods used to calculate estimated losses to cybercrime and found them severely wanting. Most of the statistics come from surveys in which respondents are asked to report whether they've been victims of a crime and how much they lost. "Surveys are hard," Herley says. His research revealed a number of reasons why surveys about cybercrime are particularly hard. Scientists have pretty good methods for surveying, say, voter intentions. In that case, you focus on getting a good representative sample. Inaccuracies matter, but a few one way or another aren't going to make much of a difference. Cybercrime is a whole different story. For one thing, cybercrime surveys are trying to measure a number: how much money was lost. In that case, individual responses can make a huge difference. A voting survey isn't thrown off by much if someone who actually plans to vote Democrat states an intention of voting Republican. But if a survey respondent who has lost $50,000 to cybercrime claims to have lost $500,000, any calculations based on that information will be wildly out of whack.
There are other problems. Any registered voter has useful information to report. But not everyone has a useful story to tell about cybercrime, which means that a small number of responses can make a huge difference. For example, in a 2006 survey conducted by Gartner Research, 128 out of 4,000 people claimed to have been victims. Herley calculates that 59 percent of losses came from the top 1 percent of respondents who had been victimized—in this case, a single person. He believes that such concerns make it impossible to trust data coming from most cybercrime surveys.
benton.org/node/79936 | Technology Review
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Daily Digest

Analysis

June 2011

In a shift, firms say US will lead IT growth

Lack of cyber pros puts US in dangerous position

June 29, 2011 (FCC Hearings on AT&T Takeover Of T-Mobile?)

First Amendment Dominated Supreme Court Term

Supreme Court Has Ruled; Now Games Have a Duty

Ruling on violent video games: Score one for 1st Amendment

What next after Supreme Court ruling on violent video games?

Consumers want privacy, do-not-track rules