February 2012

Want an iPad? Pentagon CIO thinks you should be able to have one.

Teri Takai, the Defense Department's chief information officer, kicked off a speech at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Cyberspace Symposium by asking, "Everyone wants an iPad, right?" and then implied quick deployment of tablet computers and smartphones across the department without defining the timeline. Takai said, "we have to get those devices out there," but cautioned their use had to conform to strict information security guidelines.

Chicago Tribune eyes price tag for online news

The Chicago Tribune will begin charging online readers for access to content and is considering a “creative way” to do that, said Gerould Kern, the paper's editor. “I think we will begin to charge in a selective way,” Kern told a group gathered to hear him speak at the Niagara Foundation in Chicago. “That's coming.” In his comments during a question-and-answer session, Mr. Kern said he wasn't prepared to make a formal announcement on the topic or say when the newspaper will begin seeking payment. Still, he said the paper is reviewing ways to tap revenue from its online product. One Chicago Tribune rival has already made the leap to have online visitors pay. The parent of the Chicago Sun-Times began charging readers to access most news on its websites after a certain number of monthly visits.

Groups Want better Look at Verizon-SpectrumCo Marketing Agreements

In the Federal Communications Commission’s review of Verizon’s acquisition of spectrum currently owned by cable television companies, Verizon Wireless and the cable companies files copies of commercial agreements that provide the parties to those agreements with the ability to act as agents selling one another’s services. The companies claim that the agreements are neither anticompetitive nor relevant to this proceeding, claims that cannot be evaluated without reviewing the agreements themselves. The agreements are subject to the stringent confidentiality provisions of the protective orders issued by the FCC in this proceeding. But the companies filed them with redactions concerning pricing and compensation.

Now groups participating in the FCC review are asking that:

The FCC should direct the parties to produce complete and unredacted versions of the Commercial Agreements for the record of this proceeding, subject to the Protective Orders.
Given the centrality of the information withheld to the public interest analysis, the FCC should also suspend both the pleading cycle in this proceeding and the informal 180-day “transaction clock,” and reset them to zero once the parties have provided full disclosure of their arrangements.

Make FTC Act Against Google, Privacy Advocates Ask Court

Advocates asked a federal court to order the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its privacy settlement against Google, saying the company’s new privacy policies violate the agreement.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center said it would file a motion in U.S. District Court in Washington. A complaint from the same group led to an FTC settlement last March with Google over allegations that it engaged in unfair and deceptive practices when it automatically signed up Gmail users for its now-defunct social-networking service Buzz. “Google’s recent announcement that the company intends to consolidate users’ personal information without individuals’ consent violates the consent order and threatens to harm consumers,” EPIC said in a document it filed with its motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. “The FTC is required to enforce the consent order. But the commission has failed to do so.” The settlement prohibits the Internet giant from misrepresenting its privacy practices. It also requires Google to obtain users’ consent before disclosing their personal data and to comply with a comprehensive privacy program, subject to periodic independent audits for two decades. EPIC argued that the proposed privacy changes Google announced last month violate the FTC settlement by “misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains and protects the privacy and confidentiality” of the information covered by the agreement. In addition, Google also violated its FTC settlement by failing to obtain its users’ consent before sharing their data with third parties, EPIC claimed.

Reddit founder: SOPA showed democracy works

Social news website Reddit, Wikipedia and scores of other smaller websites that went dark in protest of anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA helped turn the inside-the-Beltway lobbying racket on its head, said Reddit’s co-founder Alexis Ohanian. The outcry from Internet users proved “that Americans actually still can dictate policy and not just lobbyists,” Ohanian said. “It’s motivating because this was a decentralized movement. Lots of people with great ideas started contributing and it started to get momentum,” Ohanian added. “This idea went viral. It’s powerful when you think we’ve now hit this critical mass. We can get a message out there that actually affects politicians.” While the Reddit team had talked behind the scenes about shutting down the website for a day in protest to the bills moving through Congress, Ohanian said it was the calls from the site’s users to take the drastic move that ultimately convinced the company to black out the site for the day. In an unprecedented move, Wikipedia and thousands of other sites participated in the blackout and Google also blocked out its colorful logo to show opposition to the bills.

Czech, Slovak governments backing away from ACTA, too

The European protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have now reached the highest levels of the Czech government. Prime Minister Petr Nečas has announced that the Czech Republic will follow Poland and suspend ratification of ACTA, which has become a local lightning rod after 22 EU countries signed on last month.

Ratification still needs to take place in various national parliaments. Anonymous has been attacking government websites, while the Czech Pirate Party has organized street protests in Prague. The Pirate Party isn't happy about the "suspension," though; they want to see full-blown withdrawal from the whole process. Neighboring Slovakia has also expressed doubts. Economic Minister Juraj Miškov said he opposes any deal that "would curtail basic human rights in any shape or form, particularly the right to freedom and privacy and that will superimpose copyright protection over these rights."

Boxee clashes with cable companies over encryption

Boxee’s live TV dongle has only been available for a few weeks, but the company is already embroiled in a fight with cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner Cable over it, and it is now getting support from groups like Public Knowledge and the Consumer Electronics Association.

At the core of the issue is whether cable companies should be allowed to encrypt their basic cable programming, something that existing regulation doesn’t allow. Unencrypted signals can be used by tuners built into most modern TV sets as well as equipment like Boxee’s live TV tuner to access these basic cable channels straight from the coax cable that comes out of your wall, without the need for any set-top box. Cable companies have asked the Federal Communications Commission for waivers to these restrictions, arguing that encrypted channels would reduce piracy and that encrypted cable connections can be remotely serviced, eliminating the need for many service visits. The FCC is currently hearing all sides of the issue as it contemplates whether to do away with the restrictions and allow all cable companies to encrypt basic cable.

Amazon, Up in Flames

Nancy Pearl, who has done as much to promote reading as anyone this side of Oprah, has been caught in the crossfire here.

Pearl is the Seattle librarian who popularized the notion of having everyone in a city read the same book at the same time. Her “Book Lust” series of volumes recommended thousands of titles. She was Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year in 2011. A superhero action figure was created in her likeness, and a tribute band named after her. There are some books that Ms. Pearl wants people to read that are not in print. Her agent, Victoria Sanders, shopped a rediscovery line to 20 publishers. None were interested. Last month Amazon made a deal with her. And that’s when the furor started. The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, which just gave Ms. Pearl its lifetime achievement award, described the reaction among its members as “consternation.” In Seattle, it was front-page news. “Betrayal” was a word that got used a lot.

Was Amazon sincerely trying to rescue lost classics or was it cynically buying a local hero’s endorsement to cover up its aggressive tactics? A month later, the debate is unresolved.

Social and online games drive growth in audience

Online social games and free-to-play games, especially those such as FarmVille on Facebook, have helped the number of people who play video games to more than double to 135 million from 56 million in 2008, according to a new report from Parks Associates. The research firm's report, Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games, finds that many new gamers are casual players who have been attracted by social and free games on smartphones and tablets. "Such a big increase is caused by an increase in gaming that affects most demographics and particularly older demographics who had never played games before -- and still do not consider themselves as gamers," says the report's author Pietro Macchiarella.

Gatekeeper for domain names seeks volunteers to evaluate applicants

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) asked for volunteers to help evaluate whether applicants for new Web domain endings should qualify for a reduced application fee.

ICANN, a California-based nonprofit that manages the Internet’s address system, began accepting applications last month for new Web addresses ending in almost any word or phrase, such as “.sport” or “.food,” instead of just traditional endings such as “.com” or “.org.” The full application fee for a new address ending, or generic top-level domain, is $185,000, but public-interest groups with limited resources can qualify for a reduced fee of $47,000. ICANN said the steep price tag is necessary to ensure that applicants have the resources to manage a new Web address ending. Volunteers will help the group decide which applicants qualify for the reduced fee, and should have experience running a small business, working in developing economies, analyzing business plans, serving the public interest, managing a domain name registry service or awarding grants.

Benton

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