June 10, 2011 (AT&T's Day at the FCC)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011 (AT&T's Day at the FCC)
A busy Friday http://benton.org/calendar/2011-06-10/
JOURNALISM
Information Needs of Communities: The Changing Media Landscape in a Broadband Age - press release
Bloggers Focus on Palin's "One Nation" Tour - research [links to web]
It's the future of media! [links to web]
AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T gave cash to merger backers
California PUC votes to scrutinize AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile USA
AT&T says its needs T-Mobile spectrum
AT&T officials not reading into merger silence from tech leaders even after CEO talks
AT&T official commends FCC restraint as GOP raises concerns
Why the FCC should deny the AT&T / T-Mobile Merger - op-ed
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Mayor Bloomberg Backs Incentive Auctions [links to web]
Vulcan Wireless pushes for 700 MHz interoperability
IDC: Smartphone Market To Grow 55% In 2011 [links to web]
T-Mobile USA Offers $200 Credit To Lure Business Customers [links to web]
Visa makes two moves into mobile banking
More Tests Show GPS Interference From LightSquared's Network [links to web]
O2 warns Ofcom on airwaves sell-off rules [links to web]
NHTSA chief vows to fight cars becoming smartphones on wheels [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
First National EAS Test Scheduled for November
Supreme Court Schedules June 23 Conference on TV Profanity Case
In swift talks, TV networks win big ad price rises
NCTA: Marketplace Doesn't Need Old Regulations
30.9% of American TV Homes Using Alternative Video Delivery [links to web]
Black Heritage Network to Get Aid in Carriage Hunt From MMTC [links to web]
American Cable Association CEO: "Underserved is a dangerous term" [links to web]
CONTENT
Apple Backs Down on App Subscription Rules
Why Apple Backed Down in Fight With Publishers - analysis [links to web]
Apple Will Reject DUI Checkpoints Apps [links to web]
Lawmaker tweeting falls in week after Rep. Weiner's troubles [links to web]
YouTube in Network Deal Talks With Operators, Manufacturers [links to web]
Teens Love Mobile Videos, Accept Mobile Ads [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
Attorney General Holder: Cybersecurity is a 'top priority' [links to web]
Akamai President Urges U.S. Companies to Increase Security [links to web]
Experts recommend an international code of conduct for cyberwar [links to web]
World IPv6 Day draws attention to security issues with new protocol [links to web]
CIA chief Leon Panetta: The next Pearl Harbor could be a cyberattack [links to web]
We have a right to information on data security breaches [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Google Will Keep Washington Regulators Busy With $400 Million AdMeld Deal
Investors Seek to Pull $1 Billion From Harbinger Capital Partners [links to web]
ACCESSIBILITY
Nearly 1 In 7 People On Earth Is Disabled, Survey Finds
HEALTH
HHS: Harnessing the power of open data [links to web]
Steve Case and Jerry Levin reunite to accelerate health technology [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Obama Administration Establishes White House Rural Council to Strengthen Rural Communities - press release
Tech policy gurus outline priorities [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Inside the US-Anglo-French plan to civilize the Internet
Facebook's Test in China: What Price Free Speech?
MORE ONLINE
FCC Expands Electronic Filing for Carriers - press release [links to web]
Fine, 1 Year Sentence for E-Rate Fraud - press release [links to web]
FTC Settlement Bans Online U.S. Electronics Retailer from Deceiving Consumers with Foreign Website Names - press release [links to web]
California Purges Thousands of State-Issued Cell Phones [links to web]
Apple Upsets the Department-Store Cart [links to web]
JOURNALISM
INFORMATION NEEDS OF COMMUNITIES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission's Working Group on the Information Needs of Communities delivered an in-depth analysis of the current state of the media landscape along with a broad range of recommendations. Key findings and recommendations include:
Fueled primarily by broadband-enabled innovation, the news and information landscape is more vibrant than ever before. Digital technology is creating a world of opportunity to keep the public informed in ways unimaginable just a few short years ago.
The disruptive impact of the Internet has enabled an unprecedented free exchange of ideas and information. Breakthroughs in hyperlocal news and citizen journalism are on the rise, empowering individuals with a wealth of new information to better inform decisionmaking and engender more accountable government.
There are nonetheless serious gaps, including in local accountability reporting. These deficits increase the likelihood of corruption, wasted tax dollars, worse schools and other problems for communities.
Accelerate move from paper to online disclosure. Disclosure information required by the FCC should be moved online from filing cabinets to the Internet so the public can more easily gain access to valuable information. FCC should eliminate burdensome rules and replace the current system with a streamlined web-based disclosures focused on providing information about local programming.
Remove barriers to innovation and online entrepreneurship by pushing for universal broadband deployment and adoption. Achieving this goal would remove cost barriers, strengthen online business models, expand consumer pools and ensure that the news and information landscape serves communities to the maximum possible benefit of citizens.
Target existing federal spending at local media. Existing government advertising spending, such military recruiting and public health ads, should be targeted toward local media whenever possible. Each year, the federal government spends roughly $1 billion in advertising without maximizing potential benefits to local media.
benton.org/node/76927 | Federal Communications Commission | fact sheet
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AT&T/T-MOBILE
AT&T GAVE CASH TO MERGER BACKERS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Eliza Krigman]
AT&T is lining up support for its acquisition of T-Mobile from a slew of liberal groups with no obvious interest in telecom deals -- except that they've received big piles of AT&T’s cash. In recent weeks, the NAACP, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the National Education Association have each issued public statements in support of the deal. The groups all say their public positions have nothing to do with the money they received from AT&T. And AT&T says it supports nonprofit groups because it’s the right thing to do — and not because of any quid pro quo. “For decades, AT&T has proudly supported numerous diverse groups and organizations,” a company spokesperson said. But not everyone’s buying it.
“The money that nonprofits receive from their corporate sponsors sticks not only in their bank accounts but in their minds,” Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to government transparency, said. “This is what I think of as deep lobbying — there is an expectation that when push comes to shove, these groups will come out in favor of their benefactors.” AT&T’s corporate giving arm, the AT&T Foundation, doled out $62 million in 2009 to support a variety of arts and education programs, charities and organizations. Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president and top lobbyist, chairs the foundation. AT&T’s record of corporate giving is widely touted by recipients, many of whom cite the company’s extensive record on promoting minorities, women, schools and the arts. But some public interest groups question whether the company is cashing in on its status as one of the country’s biggest corporate donors.
AT&T has assembled a platoon of more than 72 outside lawyers and consultants to work the FCC and Justice Department on the deal. And it’s brought on public relations agencies and other consultants to craft a message that the merger is more about spreading wireless broadband to underserved populations across America than about enriching the company’s shareholders. To build support, AT&T employees and consultants have been making personal visits and calls as well as holding luncheons. Out of about a dozen supporters interviewed by POLITICO, the vast majority said they decided to issue a statement supporting the AT&T/T-Mobile deal after being approached this way. The company has put much of its efforts into winning support from left-leaning groups like labor unions, environmentalists and minorities. Support from these groups may give pause to Washington Democrats who might otherwise rail against wireless industry consolidation.
benton.org/node/77002 | Politico
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CALIFORNIA TO REVIEW AT&T/T-MOBILE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
In a split vote, state regulators decided to scrutinize AT&T's proposed $39-billion purchase of T-Mobile USA to make sure that the deal is good for California's consumers and its economy. The California Public Utilities Commission's approval marked a major departure from the commission's 16-year policy of taking a hands-off attitude toward the wireless industry. The commission wants detailed information about whether the request to consolidate much of the state's cellphone and wireless broadband business might limit competition, giving control of nearly four-fifths of the market to just two companies — AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Some of the data will be collected in a series of public hearings to be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, Orange County and the Central Valley. The 3-2 vote was "a big win for consumers," said Bill Nusbaum, a lawyer with the Utility Reform Network, which advocates for telephone and power utility customers. The majority — three members appointed this year by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown — also defeated a less stringent alternative proposal by commission President Michael Peevey, who was appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, and reappointed by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nusbaum said his group was "gratified" that the commission would engage in a "rigorous, data-driven analysis" on the effect the proposed purchase would have on competition, service quality, pricing and other issues.
The findings from the California investigation will be submitted in October to the Federal Communications Commission, which will vote on the deal if the Justice Department clears it of antitrust concerns. But the California investigation will have a bigger mission, said Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, a Santa Clara University law professor and former FCC staff attorney. "Only this body can determine how this measure affects California consumers," she said. "Our analysis will give the public an opportunity to determine if this serves competition and the public interest."
benton.org/node/77001 | Los Angeles Times
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AT&T NEEDS T-MOBILE SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
AT&T will be able to significantly improve its mobile network capacity and give better service to its customers because of its proposed acquisition of rival T-Mobile USA, company officials said. Critics of the deal, including competitor Sprint Nextel, are incorrect in asserting that AT&T is sitting on mobile spectrum, said Bob Quinn, AT&T's senior vice president for federal regulatory affairs. The proposed $39 billion deal, announced in March, is a "very clean and quick way to deal with some of the spectrum issues that are facing this country and this company in particular," he said. The deal is necessary because AT&T is facing a spectrum shortage as mobile broadband use continues to skyrocket, the company has argued. While critics have suggested AT&T is hoarding spectrum, the company is using its 700MHz spectrum, acquired in 2008 auctions, and its AWS (advanced wireless services) spectrum to roll out 4G LTE (long-term evolution) service, Quinn said. In a response filing to be sent to the FCC on June 10, AT&T will argue the merger will be good for mobile customers. By combining networks, AT&T will be able to increase its mobile capacity by 60 percent in New York City in the short term, and by more than 80 percent in the long term, Quinn said. Los Angeles and San Diego would both see short-term spectrum gains of more than 45 percent, Quinn said. The merger would give AT&T more spectrum and cell tower coverage, giving customers better mobile data service, he said. AT&T has tried other ways to improve capacity, including distributed antenna systems and Wi-Fi hotspots, Quinn said. "We are not stupid," he said. "We've been in the wireless business for a long time. We've tried all of these as short-term methods ... to fix and provide for more capacity. While they give you some short-term benefit, they're not long-term benefits to address the kind of bandwidth demands that we're seeing." AT&T, in its FCC filing, will also note support for the merger from dozens of groups, including 15 state governors, 10 labor unions, nine venture capital firms and several tech firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, and Yahoo, Quinn said.
benton.org/node/76980 | IDG News Service
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AT&T OFFICIALS OK WITH SILENCE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
AT&T officials did not sound concerned during a media briefing that the most influential tech companies in the country have failed to endorse their merger even after officials blitzed Silicon Valley to lobby for merger endorsements. The silence from previous AT&T regulatory opponent Google and from Apple, a top AT&T partner who agreed to an iPhone exclusivity deal with the carrier until this year, is set against the backdrop strong endorsements form Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech giants as well as top venture capitalists. Bob Quinn, AT&T senior vice president for federal regulatory and chief privacy officer, said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spoke with officials from Google and Apple. AT&T officials likely met with trade associations they belong to. "I don't interpret silence by anyone as anything," Quinn said, noting that "they haven't come out against the merger." He suggested that for Apple and Google, who have been under tough privacy scrutiny in recent weeks, the silence might be a result of a desire to avoid the Washington spotlight. "Both of those companies in the last thirty days have had more of Washington than they want to deal with," he said.
benton.org/node/76978 | Hill, The
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AT&T COMMENDS FCC
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
An AT&T official said that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has traditionally done a good job of tailoring merger conditions to address the impacts of a particular transaction. "They've been very good at looking at proposals and determining whether there's a merger-specific angle to it and rejecting those proposals [that aren't related to the merger]," said Joan Marsh, AT&T’s vice president of federal regulatory. The comment about FCC restraint comes in spite of repeated warnings from House Commerce Committee Republicans that the FCC might add unrelated conditions to the merger in order to fulfill a policy agenda. The same members expressed concern about the Comcast merger with NBC Universal.
benton.org/node/76977 | Hill, The
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NEW MEDIA RIGHTS OP-ED
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Art Neill]
[Commentary] In order for the Federal Communications Commission to approve the mega-merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, AT&T has to make a showing that the merger is in the public interest. Despite AT&T’s declaration that this merger is the most pro-consumer, pro-innovation and pro-investment solution to America’s wireless problems, a mega-merger like this can only hurt the broadband market, both for innovators and consumers alike. The current “gatekeeper” model of wireless internet access, where access providers like AT&T and service providers like Apple can control the services we can access, will only become more rigid should this merger be allowed. In the past few years AT&T has shown that it will work with other gatekeepers, such as Apple, in order to keep competitive products, such as Google Voice, out of its markets. The fewer wireless internet access providers available to internet users, the greater the ability of gatekeepers at all layers of the communications marketplace to affect how we use the internet and what services we access. It should be consumers driving the future of the mobile Internet, picking the winning and losing services and applications at different layers of the market through individual choice. Instead, this merger will allow AT&T and Apple the kind of vertical market power that, instead of promoting competition, permits preemptive elimination of services and applications that are perceived to be competing. Innovation and consumer choice will be what suffers. [Neill is Director of New Media Rights]
benton.org/node/76924 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
700 MHZ INTEROPERABILITY
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
Vulcan Wireless, a 700 MHz licensee that is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is advocating for interoperability among the various 700 MHz spectrum band classes. Vulcan, which owns 700 MHz spectrum licenses in the lower A Block in Oregon and Washington, is trying to use AT&T's proposed $1.93 billion acquisition of Qualcomm's MediaFLO spectrum, which sits in the lower D and E Blocks of the 700 MHz band, as a vehicle to push for the changes to interoperability rules. "One way forward would be to impose a narrowly tailored and transaction-specific condition in the AT&T/Qualcomm transaction," said Michele Farquhar, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells, which represents Vulcan at the Federal Communications Commission.
In a March 28 filing with the FCC, Vulcan argues that to ensure interoperability and prevent interference with the lower A-Block licensees, the FCC should prevent AT&T from pairing its 700 MHz B and C Block licenses with any newly acquired D and E Block licenses. As a condition of the deal, Vulcan is pushing to have the FCC require interoperability across the entire 700 MHz band by June 2013, when AT&T and Verizon Wireless are expected to be nearing the completion of their LTE deployments. Vulcan thinks that its strategy is more practical than that of another group, which is also advocating for 700 MHz interoperability. The 700 MHz Block A Good Faith Purchasers Alliance, a joint venture among Cellular South, Cavalier Wireless, Continuum 700 and U.S. Cellular, wants interoperability rules in place before any more 700 MHz equipment can be authorized by the FCC.
benton.org/node/76902 | Fierce
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VISA AND MOBILE BANKING
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Visa announced two moves into mobile banking, buying a company that makes software for mobile banking users in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and striking an agreement with another company that works with bank customers. Visa said it would pay $110 million in cash for privately held Fundamo, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Fundamo now has more than 5 million subscribers, and Visa said it has the potential to reach more than 180 million. Visa expects to complete the deal June 9 and said it will slightly hurt its earnings for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Visa also announced an agreement with mobile banking software maker Monitise. Visa said the deal will expand delivery of mobile financial services to Visa account holders through banks. Monitise software will let Visa make existing accounts available on mobile phones. It also allows Visa account holders outside the U.S. to make electronic payments, buy phone minutes and obtain transit tickets. Visa said it also plans to use Monitise to make it possible for U.S. financial institution customers to expand mobile banking to customers with debit and prepaid cards.
benton.org/node/76935 | Associated Press
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TELEVISION/RADIO
EAS TEST IN NOVEMBER
[SOURCE: Television Broadcast, AUTHOR: Deborah McAdams]
The feds have scheduled the first ever national test of the Emergency Alert System. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission will conduct the test Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. EST. The duration may last up to three-and-a-half minutes. A national alert enables the president to break into regular broadcasts and address the American public during emergencies. One has never been issued in the history of the system, established in 1951 by then President Harry Truman during the Cold War. It was then known as CONELRAD and included the capability to jam aircraft homing devices. It was replaced in the 1960s by the Emergency Broadcast System, which in turn was supplanted with the current Emergency Alert System in 1997. “It is important to remember that this is not a pass or fail test, but a chance to establish a baseline for making incremental improvements to the Emergency Alert System with ongoing and future testing,” said Damon Penn, FEMA’s assistant administrator of National Continuity Programs. “It is also important to remember that the Emergency Alert System is one of many tools in our communications toolbox, and we will continue to work on additional channels that can be a lifeline of information for people during an emergency.” The November test is a culmination of more than two years of planning and development. A limited-area test was done in Alaska in January of 2010, with 104 radio stations and 26 TV stations participating. There were points of failure involving audio levels and improperly functioning encoders and decoders. That the hardware is not configured to a single standard complicates matters.
benton.org/node/76909 | Television Broadcast | Public Notice
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PROFANITY CASE UPDATE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Supreme Court has scheduled a June 23 conference to discuss broadcast television's challenge of Federal Communications Commission indecency enforcement. A lower court ruled that the FCC's ban is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. At the conference, the Justices will discuss whether or not they should hear an appeal. The FCC's indecency enforcement regime has been pretty much in limbo for the last half decade as its fleeting profanity and nudity enforcement regime was running a legal gauntlet. Broadcasters argue the FCC has not given them sufficient guidance on what it will find indecent, including ruling that swearing in a blues documentary was indecent, while finding that similar language in a scripted program -- Saving Private Ryan -- was not.
benton.org/node/76974 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NETWORKS SEE AD PRICES RISE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Paul Thomasch]
ABC, NBC and CBS are on the brink of wrapping up their advanced television advertising sales, winning double-digit price increases nearly across the board in one of the quickest selling periods on record. While Fox has already polished off its sales, the other three big broadcast networks could finish their deals by Thursday, according to industry sources. CBS should emerge with the biggest increases for its prime-time shows, with rates up between 14 percent and 15 percent from a year ago, the sources said. Stronger prices were widely expected during this year's upfront -- so called because the dealmaking is completed months before the fall TV season gets underway -- in light of fatter corporate marketing budgets and a general rebound in advertising spending. Still, there were doubts the broadcast networks could pull off double digit increases, a rarity even before the recession. The U.S. economy is still on tricky footing and the auto industry's marketing plans have been upended by Japan's troubles.
benton.org/node/76972 | Reuters
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NCTA: MARKETPLACE DOESN'T NEED OLD REGULATIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association argues that data from 2010 just adds to the growing body of evidence that the multichannel video marketplace is increasingly competitive and that any regulations adopted when it was otherwise -- as in the 1992 Cable Act -- now need to be shown the door, as it were. Program access, program carriage, and leased access rules are unnecessary. It also argues that the remaining basic-tier rate regulation should go the way of the rest of the rate regulations, which were scrapped in the 1996 Communications Act.
benton.org/node/76964 | Broadcasting&Cable
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CONTENT
APPLE CHANGES SUBSCRIPTION RULES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Apple appears to have backed down on a major component of its new in-app subscription rules, which should provide a big boost to content companies: It has scrapped a rule requiring apps that play content like music, movies, and books to also sell the same content within the app itself, and share the revenue with Apple. Now, apps can offer access to content purchased outside of Apple’s walls, as long as the app doesn't have a “buy” button that connects consumers directly to an external store. That is: Apple won’t make it easy for users to buy in-app content without going through Apple’s store, but it won’t outlaw it, either.
benton.org/node/76900 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP
GOOGLE TO BUY ADMELD
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
Google’s full employment program for anti-trust regulators continues: The search giant is in the final stages of a deal to purchase ad tech company AdMeld. Like other recent Google purchases, this deal will automatically generate scrutiny from Washington before it can formally close. That’s both because of the size of the deal — around $400 million — and because the purchase deals with a sector that Google already dominates — display ad sales. AdMeld is one of a handful of big ad optimization platforms that work on behalf of publishers by trying to get the best prices for their inventory from a variety of ad networks. That kind of work is one of the few parts of the ad tech ecosystem where Google didn't already have a presence, so a deal for AdMeld or one of its peers always seemed inevitable.
benton.org/node/76955 | Wall Street Journal
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ACCESSIBILITY
DISABILITY STUDY
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Joanne Silberner]
More than 1 billion people in the world are living with some sort of disability, according to a new international survey. That's about 15 percent of the world's population, or nearly one of every 7 people. The numbers come from a joint effort by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The last time anyone tried to figure out the prevalence of disabilities was back in the 1970s, when WHO figured it was about 10 percent. The current report suggests the 15 percent estimate will grow as the world's population ages.
benton.org/node/76953 | National Public Radio
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POLICYMAKERS
WHITE HOUSE RURAL COUNCIL
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Press release]
The White House announced the establishment of the first White House Rural Council. While rural communities face challenges, they also present economic potential. To address these challenges, build on the Administration’s rural economic strategy, and improve the implementation of that strategy, the President signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Rural Council. The White House Rural Council will coordinate programs across government to encourage public-private partnerships to promote further economic prosperity and quality of life in rural communities nationwide. Chaired by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the Council will be responsible for providing recommendations for investment in rural areas and will coordinate Federal engagement with a variety of rural stakeholders, including agricultural organizations, small businesses, and state, local, and tribal governments. The Council will begin discussing key factors for growth, including:
Jobs: Improve job training and workforce development in rural America
Agriculture: Expand markets for agriculture, including regional food systems and exports
Access to Credit: Increase opportunity by expanding access to capital in rural communities and fostering local investment
Innovation: Promote the expansion of biofuels production capacity and community based renewable energy projects
Networks: Develop high-growth regional economies by capitalizing on inherent regional strengths
Health Care: Improve access to quality health care through expansion of health technology systems
Education: Increase post-secondary enrollment rates and completion for rural students
Broadband: Support the President’s plan to increase broadband opportunities in rural America
Infrastructure: Coordinate investment in critical infrastructure
Ecosystem markets: Expanding opportunities for conservation, outdoor opportunities and economic growth on working lands and public lands.
The Council will include heads of 25 executive branch departments, agencies, and offices including the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Commerce, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
benton.org/node/76914 | White House, The | Executive Order | Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
CIVILIZING THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Get ready for international Internet regulation; top leaders from the US, UK, and France are making increasingly public statements about their plans to draft new rules that will make the 'Net more secure and will crack down on copyright infringers. On May 25, as President Obama wrapped up a UK visit with Prime Minister David Cameron, the two issued a joint statement on the Internet calling for "rules of the road" in cyberspace. Both singled out the London International Cyber Conference as a key event at which "consensus" would be sought on such rules. Both sides are deadly serious about policing the Internet. In October 2010, the UK issued the most recent draft of its National Security Strategy — and "cyber attack" was the second most pressing security risk faced by the country after terrorism. In May 2011, the US issued a cybersecurity policy document of its own which threatened even military retaliation. "When warranted, the United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would any other threat to our country," said the document. This is music to the ears of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who for years has called for a "civilized Internet." Sarkozy had a world platform for his ideas when he pushed the creation of the e-G8 conference last month in Paris, which took place just before a major G8 summit in the French resort of Deauville.
benton.org/node/77004 | Ars Technica
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FACEBOOK IN CHINA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Bussey]
Whoever dreamed up the legend of Faust, the sad tale of the man who traded his soul for unlimited knowledge, could well have been thinking ahead to Facebook and its fascination with China. What to make of Facebook -- which holds itself up as an icon of openness -- and its flirtation with the largest authoritarian nation on earth? Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social-networking behemoth, sees an inevitability to China. "How can you connect the whole world," he asked a group at Stanford in October, "if you leave out a-billion-six people?" And then Zuckerberg hinted at how he'll answer those who worry about compromises Facebook might make to get into China: "I don't want Facebook to be an American company," he said. "I don't want it to be this company that just spreads American values all across the world. ...For example, we have this notion of free speech that we really love and support at Facebook, and that's one of the main things that we're trying to push with openness. But different countries have their different standards around that. ...My view on this is that you want to be really culturally sensitive and understand the way that people actually think."
Soon afterward, Zuckerberg made the rounds of Chinese Internet companies, visiting Baidu and Sina. Facebook continues to explore possible partnerships, and Zuckerberg, who is studying Mandarin, may travel to China again this year.
"This is a train wreck waiting to happen," says a businessman in Beijing familiar with China's Internet legacy. He and others believe Facebook will be allowed into the country, subjected to the same treatment Google and Yahoo received, and then spit out -- its reputation for openness damaged, and its technology metabolized by a China eager to find new ways to spy on its citizens. The potential price for Facebook: its standing in the U.S., its most important advertising market.
benton.org/node/77000 | Wall Street Journal
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