February 2012

Convention city wants OK for safety network

Charlotte (NC) is pushing the Federal Communications Commission to approve the city’s advanced wireless public safety network, arguing that it needs to be in place before thousands of high-profile targets like President Barack Obama arrive for the Democratic Convention.

In a filing at the commission made public Wednesday, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County contend that they meet all the interoperability requirements needed for an FCC waiver that will let public safety officials there light up their network — code named CHARMECK — before the convention starts Sept. 3. “Since the president of the United States and other key dignitaries will be in attendance, the 700 MHz public safety wireless broadband network is anticipated to be used by thousands of federal agents, state and local first responders to ensure the security of thousands of participants to this worldwide event,” the city wrote in an FCC filing.

Facebook and Zynga’s co-dependent relationship

When Zynga went public, analysts dinged the social gaming company for its heavy reliance on Facebook. Now that Facebook’s filed to go public, it appears that the same is true of the social media giant.

In its S-1 filing, the company revealed that its partnership with Zynga accounts for 12 percent of its total revenue — a very surprising amount for a single vendor. And, just as Zynga listed the possibility of its Facebook partnership going south as a risk factor on its paperwork to go public, Facebook listed a similar provision when discussing the Farmville maker. According to the filing: “If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected.” Facebook is also working hard on expanding its platform to more developers and will have to keep up good relationships with new partners, such as Spotify and Ticketmaster, to keep it robust.

Telecom group backs FCC reform bills

A major telecom trade group threw its support behind legislation to overhaul the Federal Communications Commission ahead of next week's markup in the House Commerce Committee.

U.S. Telecom, which represents both large and small telecom providers, sent a letter to panel Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) applauding the scheduled markup Feb 8 of two bills from Telecom subpanel Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) that would reform the way the FCC does business. "As Communications subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden has indicated, the bills being scheduled for markup Tuesday will ensure that best practices become a part of statute, that transparency will not depend upon who is serving as chairman, and that there will be consistency of application and predictability among administrations," wrote U.S. Telecom President Walter McCormick Jr. The process reform bills would consolidate some reporting requirements, codify the unofficial shot clock for merger reviews and limit the types of conditions the agency can place on transactions. Other provisions would likely make it more difficult for the FCC to pass new regulations.

Silicon Valley Rep congratulates Facebook, promises to keep pressure up on privacy

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), who represents the district just north of Facebook's headquarters, congratulated the social media giant after it filed papers to begin publicly selling its stocks.

"It's going to make real estate in my district much more valuable and expensive," she joked. "lt's going to make a lot of instant millionaires." Facebook aims to raise $5 billion in its initial public offering. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's share in the company could be worth as much as $28 billion, according to some estimates. "It's very exciting when a young entrepreneur shows that the American dream continues to be one that we can all attain," Rep Speier said. "So more power to him and to all those great Facebook employees." But she added that she plans to continue scrutinizing the company's privacy policies. "I still have issues on privacy — I still want them to work on their privacy policies," she said.

Megaupload data safe for now

The company that stored data for file-sharing site Megaupload.com said it has no plans to delete users' files.

Prosecutors shut down Megaupload earlier this month and charged its operators with copyright infringement, money laundering and other charges. In a letter to Megaupload's attorneys last week, prosecutors said they had completed their search of the site's servers, which are operated by two data companies, Carpathia and Cogent. With their search complete, prosecutors said the companies could begin deleting Megaupload's data soon. Although the site is charged with hosting illegal copies of movies and TV shows, many people used Megaupload to store legitimate files, such as family photos.

Michigan man charged with illegally streaming sports games

Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized 16 websites and arrested a Michigan man as part of an operation to crack down on pirated streams of sports games and counterfeit sportswear ahead of the Super Bowl. Yonjo Quiroa, 28, of Comstock Park (MI) was arrested and charged with operating nine of the 16 websites seized as part of Operation Fake Sweep, which was announced at the Super Bowl Media Center in Indianapolis. "Sports fans may be tempted by illegal streaming websites, but in the end, it is they who pay the price," said U.S.

House to live-stream committee proceedings

The House is now offering live video streaming of committee proceedings online through the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress also will archive previous committee proceedings, which the panel said would create the first “one-stop shop for House committee video content.” “These videos, now available to the public in one centralized location, will allow constituents to quickly access House committee proceedings,” wrote Administration Committee Chairman Dan Lungren (R-CA). “Our democracy is strengthened through transparency and an open congressional process,” he added. “I want to thank each of our committees, the House Recording Studio, and especially the Library of Congress for working collaboratively to achieve this important milestone, and I look forward to working with each entity to further increase legislative transparency.”

FCC Working on Device Interoperability Rules, Girding for Another Battle With Verizon, AT&T

The Federal Communications Commission is laying the groundwork for yet another battle with Verizon Wireless and AT&T over competition policy.

According to agency and industry sources, the FCC is expected to begin a formal rulemaking process by midyear that could result in manufacturers of handsets, chipsets, and network equipment being required to make their products compatible with all frequencies across the entire 700 megahertz band of radio spectrum -- not just particular slices under the control of Verizon and AT&T. “If you're a carrier that has only 1 million subscribers, you can't buy a handset that's uniquely designed for your 700 MHz band spectrum that's anywhere near cost-competitive to that of a Verizon or AT&T,” said Steven Berry, president and chief executive officer of the Rural Cellular Association. “This world is all about scale.” “Once my customer leaves my network and tries to go to another, they can't roam because it's technologically impossible.” Ben Moncrief C Spire Wireless Some manufacturers have declined requests to build phones and network equipment for C Spire Wireless, Cavalier Telephone, and U.S. Cellular, among others, for precisely this reason. If a manufacturer cannot sell 65 million to 80 million units globally, Berry noted, “they're just not making money.”

At the same time, many of the smaller, more regional carriers have stalled in their efforts to roll out the next generation of wireless coverage—4G—using the airwaves they purchased at the FCC's 700 MHz band auction in 2008.

Post-IPO, Facebook will have to make privacy investigations public

When it comes to information privacy concerns, Facebook already has a bullseye on its back. That won't change now that Facebook is going public in its highly anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO). But disclosure rules affecting publicly traded companies may force Facebook to reveal privacy-related investigations that it otherwise might have kept secret.

Facebook won't face any new regulations or government oversight specifically related to privacy, according to the experts who spoke to Ars. But in the cases of inquiries from the Federal Trade Commission or attorneys general, investigations that might otherwise remain private would become public because Facebook will be forced to disclose events that could have a material impact on earnings. Facebook settled a case with the FTC only last November, but it was known beforehand that privacy rights groups were asking the FTC to investigate Facebook, and details of the settlement were leaked shortly before the official FTC announcement. Still, it is possible for private companies to keep investigations secret in cases where public companies cannot, because the FTC does not announce investigations before they are concluded, and may not announce them at all, said Jules Polonetsky, director of the Future of Privacy Forum and former Chief Privacy Officer for both AOL and DoubleClick. Various quarterly and annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission must inform the public about risks potentially affecting earnings, which may include investigations into privacy practices.

Beyond ACTA: next secret copyright agreement negotiated this week -- in Hollywood

One of the worst parts of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was its ridiculous secrecy, under which it was easy for negotiators and industry reps to see draft text, but impossible for the public to do so except through leaks. Thankfully, those leaks showed just how bad ACTA was going to be for the Internet, and public pressure helped remove the worst provisions.

But the basic approach to doing deals didn't die, and it's back again this week as negotiators meet in Hollywood to discuss a new, totally secret intellectual property chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional trade agreement. Civil society and digital rights groups would dearly love to be part of the process; barring that, they'd like to know simply what the process is so that they can at least mount press conferences of their own. But even that is difficult. According to Sean Flynn, an American University professor who has worked on these issues for several years, the cloud of secrecy is again in force. "Although there has been no official announcement about the planned meeting, public interest advocacy organizations have determined that intellectual property negotiations will be held January 31-Feb 4th at a hotel in West Hollywood," he wrote.

Benton

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