January 2012

Chamber Holds Out Fig Leaf To SOPA Critics

The Chamber of Commerce, which is leading a broad coalition pushing for legislation that would crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites, pledged to work with critics of such measures who argue that they will stifle free speech, innovation and could harm the Internet.

The chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center has helped lead a coalition of content creators and trademark owners in support of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP bill in the Senate. The bills would give the attorney general authority to seek a court order to require online advertisers and payment processors to stop doing business with foreign websites that provide pirated music, movies and other content or counterfeit goods. In addition, the legislation also allows a court to order search engines to stop showing results for such websites and to require service providers to block U.S. access to such sites. The measures, however, have sparked fierce opposition from Internet firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter, as well as privacy advocates, Internet users and others.

Can Issa, Wyden Change Piracy Debate?

The debate in Congress over the best way to shut down foreign websites that steal U.S. copyright material and sell counterfeit goods could be about to shift. At least that's the hope of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who outlined their strategy during a press briefing with reporters at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The unlikely partners have teamed to oppose two bills in the House and the Senate, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) that would shut down foreign websites by forcing search engines and domain name servers to block the infringing sites, an approach the lawmakers say will damage the architecture of the Internet. Issa, Wyden and a group of bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers are pushing a bill called the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN), which would use the International Trade Commission to shut off the funds that support the infringing websites. Issa, Wyden and the tech community know they're in for a tough fight that's shaping up to be one of the biggest fights in Washington pitting the Hollywood and the content community up against big technology. "I am not underestimating what a tough lift this is," said Sen Wyden, who put a hold on PIPA last year. "My goal for 2011 was to keep PIPA off the floor so we would have a chance to go to the country. I'm not going to pretend this is a walk in the park. We're up against the toughest, savviest lobbying folks."

FCC Commissioner McDowell questions whether Comcast misled regulators

Speaking at CES, Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell reportedly questioned whether Comcast misled the agency when it acquired airwave licenses. “Were they purchased under false pretenses?”

Commissioner McDowell asked, referring to comments that Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis made at a conference last week. When asked about Comcast’s recent deal to sell its airwave licenses, or spectrum, to Verizon, Angelakis said, “We never really intended to build that spectrum, so therefore it’s a really good use of that spectrum.” The FCC’s mandate is to promote the “best and highest use” of the airwaves, and the regulators might have not allowed Comcast to acquire the spectrum licenses in the first place if they thought the company did not plan to use them.

Dish Network "open" to acquisition as rumors swirl on possible T-Mobile bid

Dish Network is open to a potential acquisition once it builds out its wireless telephone and entertainment businesses, president and chief executive Joe Clayton said.

"We're open to all possible options," Clayton said in response to future merger possibilities. "We could be acquired, or we could be the acquirer." The cost to protect against losses on Dish Network debt jumped on speculation that the satellite-television company may be considering a bid for T- Mobile USA. Speculation that Dish might be interested in acquiring T-Mobile has been "rather rampant," according to Dave Novosel, an analyst at bond researcher Gimme Credit LLC in Chicago. Dish could partner with T-Mobile or another wireless company to create a strengthened competitor to AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Clayton said last month. While a deal wouldn't be "inconsistent with the recent moves they've made," Novosel said, "the nature of the deal makes some sense, but the size of the deal precludes something from happening."

Obama Administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings

The Obama Administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man's cell phone and deleting its contents. The deletions were allegedly in retaliation for the man's use of the phone to record the officers' arrest of his friend. According to the Maryland ACLU, this is the first time the Obama Justice Department has weighed in on whether the Constitution protects citizens' right to record the actions of police with their cell phones.

If Content Is Free, People Like Ads On Apps

Free apps on a smartphone could be the key when it comes to reaching consumers.

According to Nielsen’s “State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report,” more than half (51%) of consumers said they have no problem with advertising on their mobile devices if it means they can access content for free. However, consumers don’t want the ads to take them out of the app experience. Among the respondents, 58% of users don’t want to be removed from the app, but they will follow up on their own. About a fifth said they the searched or looked online after seeing an ad on their mobile device, says Monica Bannan, vice president of product leadership for mobile media at Nielsen.

Study: Old-School TV Viewing Is Still Growing

A range of on-demand viewing options—and some new platforms to watch that content on—has traditional television watching on the run, right? Well, not quite.

The average number of hours Americans spend every week sitting on the couch watching terrestrial, cable and satellite television continues to rise, according to a new year-end report from Turner Networks. According to the report, the average number of hours a typical viewer spent watching TV in 2011 was 34.2. The figure was 34.0 hours in 2010 and 32.3 hours in 2006. This despite the rise of on-demand services like Netflix, HBO Go and Hulu, and the emergence of new devices to watch that content on, from tablets to gaming consoles.

Is Ron Paul right?

[Commentary] If someone were visiting from outer space and got wind of the Republican primary and caucus results, he might be a tad bewildered by the coverage.

“This is clearly a two-man race now,” he'd say, waving a tentacle significantly. “There's only one candidate capable of a respectable showing on two separate occasions when everyone else but Mitt Romney struggled. Both times, he drew strong, passionate support, and landed in the top tier — a feat no one beside the front-runner could pull off. It's a two-man race now.” We earthlings would try to explain. “Ah,” we’d say, “but — gee, look, uh, this — you’re talking about Ron Paul.” “Why is the Mainstream Media not giving the man his due?” the alien would say, sounding a bit more like a Paul supporter every second. “Especially when polls indicate that if he ran as a third-party candidate, he'd pull in about 20 percent of the vote and change the game entirely.”

The search for the right candidate just got more personal

The 2012 presidential campaign is about to get a lot more personal, at least if Google has any say in it.

Type in the name of a candidate, the name of a campaign ad, or a debate topic, and soon you’ll be seeing search results from your friends, colleagues and leading online influencers at the top of the page. Instead of clicking on the top-rated result as voted on by the collective intelligence of the Web, you'll be given an opportunity to click on what your in-laws or co-workers have to say about politics. This change to the Google search engine — perhaps the biggest change to Google in the past decade — is all about integrating all of your loose online social connections with the traditional search results of the “public Web.” Just as Facebook realized that the opinions of our friends matter more to us than the opinions of strangers, Google has finally come to the conclusion that what we really want to read about is what our friends and colleagues are reading about.

Social Media Focuses on Rep Ron Paul

The GOP candidate who has consistently proven to be a favorite among social media users was among the top subjects on blogs and YouTube last week, triggering a debate about his politics and policies. For the week of January 2-6, stories about the presidential campaign, most prominently featuring Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), constituted the No. 4 subject on blogs, according to PEJ's New Media Index. The second most-viewed news video on YouTube was also related to his campaign. The results of the Iowa caucuses-where Paul finished third-and an opinion piece claiming Paul's libertarian beliefs present a challenge to liberals led to complex conversations on different sides of the political divide.

Benton

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