April 23, 2012 (Welcome to Cyber Week)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
FCC’s Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability meets today http://benton.org/calendar/2012-04-23/
AGENDA
House to vote on four cyber bills, leaves out Lungren measure
House gears up for 'cyber week,' but security bill’s fate rests with Senate [links to web]
Everyone Should Pay for Cyber Defense - op-ed [links to web]
FCC Confirms April 27 Agenda - press release
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
Meet the Media Companies Lobbying Against Transparency
In Pennsylvania Primary, Television News is Late to the Game
California: Bloggers should disclose political pay [links to web]
Mitt Romney’s record in Silicon Valley
How the Media Covered the 2012 Primary Campaign - research
2012: The mobile web election [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Union asks FCC to delay decision on $3.6 Billion Verizon spectrum deal
How mobility is stressing the chip industry
If You Have a Smart Phone, Anyone Can Now Track Your Every Move
Stolen Smartphone Database: Good for Consumers? - analysis
Spectrum Crisis, Hyperbole or Quest for Market Control? - analysis
Declined CAF Phase II Support Should Go to Mobility Fund, Says RCA
Popularity Of Mobile Devices Still High [links to web]
Lawsuit against Apple for 'bait' apps moves forward [links to web]
Michael Copps: A Whole Lot of Spectrum Lying Fallow [links to web]
Can the Phone Be Reinvented? - analysis
FCC Okays Second Area for "White Space" Operations [links to web]
Can Twitter's new innovator's agreement end the patent wars? - analysis [links to web]
Carrier Trade Is Still In Apple's Favor - analysis
Vodafone snaps up C&WW for £1bn [links to web]
CONTENT
Bridging the News Industry's Digital Divide
In online video, minorities find an audience
Americans Watching Billions Of Video Ads, Content Monthly
YouTube loses court battle over music clips
Hollywood Studios Lose Australia Lawsuit Over Downloads [links to web]
Critics of E-Books Lawsuit Miss the Mark, Experts Say
Justice Department Bites Apple - editorial [links to web]
US Web site covering China scandal disrupted by cyberattack [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
Stations’ Online Future Hinges on ‘MVPD’
Revision of the Program Access Rules
Disney: FCC may find itself looking for ways to incent, rather than restrict, broadcast ownership [links to web]
Strategy, Serving Audiences And Saving Money Top The Agenda At BBG Board Meeting - press release [links to web]
DVR may be behind primetime ratings woes [links to web]
TV Corrects Itself, Just Not on the Air
Prime-Time Ratings Bring Speculation of a Shift in Habits
Online Video Turns Up Heat
Broadcast Reality Check [links to web]
Ofcom launches Sky News probe [links to web]
INTERNET
The Internet has become too big to fail, says In-Q-Tel's Dan Geer
Internet service customers paying for inefficiency - analysis
ICANN Explains Domain Name Database Glitch; Outage Continues [links to web]
Hundreds of thousands American households may lose Internet in July
PRIVACY
Watching Every Click You Make
Facebook apps rated on privacy protection [links to web]
HEALTH
Technology Enables Collaborative Doctor-Patient Relationships [links to web]
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
FCC Seeks Comment on Lifeline Petitions for Reconsideration - public notice
Declined CAF Phase II Support Should Go to Mobility Fund, Says RCA
Montana Telecom Association Cautions the FCC on Rural Health Care Pilot Project [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Misinformation campaign targets USA TODAY reporter, editor
Judges Drive Truck Through Loophole in Supreme Court GPS Ruling
ACLU: Wireless Carriers Enable Warrantless Cellphone Tracking
COMPANY NEWS
Don’t Be Evil, but Don’t Miss the Train
Disruptions: With New Comforts, Growing Complacent - analysis
Larry Page Seems to Be Running Low on Products to Kill [links to web]
Oracle Vs. Google, Week One [links to web]
Has CNN's All-News Strategy Become Old News? [links to web]
UK phone hacking lawyer brings News Corp case to US [links to web]
Apple's big year outshines mixed result for Silicon Valley [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Chairman Upton Outlines House Commerce Committee Accomplishments in Quarterly Report to Members [links to web]
AGENDA
FOUR CYBER BILLS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced that the House will vote on four bills next week to improve the nation's defenses against cyberattacks. But left off the list was the Homeland Security Committee's Precise Act, which the panel approved on April 18. Bill author Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) scaled back the legislation in a last-minute attempt to win the support of GOP House leaders, who had made it clear that they wouldn't support any bill that would create new regulations for cybersecurity. Rep Pete King (R-NY), who chairs the Homeland Security Committee and supports the Precise Act, said the measure could still come up for a vote next week. Democrats on the committee voted against the Precise Act on April 18, accusing the panel's Republicans of gutting their own bill to appease their party's leaders. The revised version of the bill would still authorize the Homeland Security Department to help critical infrastructure companies, such as electrical grids, protect their networks, but the system would be entirely voluntary. The White House and many Senate Democrats argue protections for critical infrastructure companies should be a central piece of cybersecurity legislation. The most prominent bill scheduled for a House vote next week is the Intelligence Committee's Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The bill would tear down legal barriers that discourage companies from sharing data about cyberattacks. Civil liberty groups are campaigning against the bill, warning that it would encourage companies to hand over private user data to the government spy agencies. Also on deck is Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-CA) Federal Information Security Amendments, which would provide for stronger oversight of the security of federal computer systems. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), aims to better coordinate federal research into cybersecurity. Finally, the House will vote on a bill from Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) that will reauthorize research and development of new computing technology, called the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program.
benton.org/node/120880 | Hill, The
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FCC AGENDA
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Friday, April 27, 2012. The FCC will consider:
a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that protects consumers by adopting and proposing additional rules to help consumers prevent and detect the unlawful and fraudulent placement of unauthorized charges on their telephone bills.
a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking inviting comment on whether to allow noncommercial educational broadcast stations to conduct on-air fundraising activities that interrupt regular programming for the benefit of third-party non-profit organizations.
a Second Report and Order that increases transparency and improves public access to community-relevant information by moving the television broadcast station public file from paper to the Internet.
a Report and Order establishing a regulatory framework for channel sharing among television licensees in connection with an incentive auction of spectrum.
a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on proposals to reform and modernize how Universal Service Fund contributions are assessed and recovered.
benton.org/node/120867 | Federal Communications Commission
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
LOBBYING AGAINST TRANSPARENCY
[SOURCE: Pro Publica, AUTHOR: Justin Elliott]
News organizations cultivate a reputation for demanding transparency, whether by suing for access to government documents, dispatching camera crews to the doorsteps of recalcitrant politicians, or editorializing in favor of open government. But now many of the country’s biggest media companies, which own dozens of newspapers and TV news operations, are flexing their muscle in Washington in a fight against a government initiative to increase transparency of political spending. The corporate owners or sister companies of some of the biggest names in journalism — NBC News, ABC News, Fox News, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Politico, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and dozens of local TV news outlets — are lobbying against a Federal Communications Commission measure that would require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Internet.
benton.org/node/120821 | Pro Publica
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TV LATE TO GAME IN PA
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Ken Knelly]
The battle between 10-term US Rep. Tim Holden and his Democratic primary opponent, attorney Matt Cartwright, is dominating the local television landscape in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Pointed ads from the campaigns have mixed with outside PAC spots gunning for the Blue Dog incumbent. The heavy airing has provided lots of fodder for print and public media reporters covering area races. But the beneficiaries of the significant ad buys -- local television stations -- have offered scant news coverage to cut through the clutter. The few reports that have made it on air have come just a few days before the April 24 primary. They generally follow candidate pressers or point viewers to what each side says is true, rather than scout out the full story themselves. They also offer up voters who say -- you guessed it -- they don’t like negative ads and political analysts who say the race is close.
benton.org/node/120832 | Columbia Journalism Review
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ROMNEY’S RECORD IN SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm, David Saleh Rauf]
Mitt Romney isn’t talking tech on the campaign trail, but that doesn’t mean industry insiders aren’t trying to read the tea leaves. Scattered throughout Romney’s memoir, statements and recent campaign documents are clues to how he regards Internet piracy and SOPA, tax reform, cybersecurity protections, network neutrality and federal research and design — all issues that could double as litmus tests for cash-flush Silicon Valley, where many potential tech allies and donors are still sizing up the candidates. As a former businessman, Romney has some early appeal in a region that boasts a strong investment community. And for now, he counts on a few powerful friends with heavyweight tech credentials — such as Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, a big Romney backer who’s contributed $100,000 to the super PAC angling on behalf of the former Massachusetts governor.
benton.org/node/120912 | Politico
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HOW THE MEDIA COVERED THE 2012 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Tom Rosenstiel, Mark Jurkowitz, Tricia Sarto]
Mitt Romney needed 15 weeks once the primary contests began to gain a secure hold over his party’s nomination for president. But he emerged as the conclusive winner in the media narrative about the race six weeks earlier, following a narrow win in his native state, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism that examines in detail the media’s coverage of the race. After Romney’s tight victory in the Michigan primary on Feb. 28, news coverage about his candidacy became measurably more favorable and the portrayal of his rivals—particularly Rick Santorum—began to become more negative and to shrink in volume. One main component of that shift in the narrative is that after Michigan, the news media began to view Romney’s nomination as essentially inevitable. Indeed, a close look at the coverage finds that references to delegate math and the concept of electoral inevitability spiked in the media the week after Michigan, rising twelve fold, for instance, on television news programs. From that point on, the amount of attention in the press to Romney’s candidacy began to overwhelm that of his rivals, and the tone of coverage about him, which had been often mixed or negative before, became solidly positive. A look inside the coverage also reveals that Romney endured more media "vetting" of his record and personal character than the other Republican contenders. Since November, just over 12% of the coverage in which Romney was a significant figure was devoted to those subjects. The press focused in particular on his wealth and his experience at the private equity investment firm Bain Capital.
benton.org/node/120910 | Project for Excellence in Journalism | AP
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
CWA ASKS FOR VERIZON DELAY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
The Communications Workers of America, the largest union for telecommunications workers, wants the Federal Communications Commission to delay a final decision on whether Verizon can buy $3.6 billion in spectrum from a consortium of cable companies. CWA says Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks and Cox have not provided meaningful details of their transaction. “Verizon Wireless and Big Cable are trying to keep their deal wrapped in secrecy behind closed doors,” said Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy director for the CWA. “The FCC should ‘stop the clock’ on its review and insist on a full public review of this proposed deal.” The union says the companies are obstructing a meaningful review of the deal in a number of ways; the companies have:
provided documents about the deal that include large redacted segments,
delivered materials in unreadable file formats,
hidden data behind proprietary file formats, and
buried the necessary information in an avalanche of “hundreds of thousands of documents.”
benton.org/node/120879 | Hill, The
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MOBILITY AND THE CHIP INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Qualcomm said it was having problems finding enough capacity to manufacture chips designed for mobile phones, something that’s likely to become more common as the physics that govern how we make semiconductors buckles under the demands of our increasingly mobile lives. But this isn’t just about Moore’s Law; this is a story of how the demands for more performance, less power and smaller sizes are all combining to force changes in the chip industry. The chip industry is well aware that it’s about to hit a wall and everyone from Intel to startups have been working on solutions. That’s why last year Intel made a big deal of its 3-D transistors. This is a new way of making transistors that helps address some of the problems that arise from smaller channel widths — a breakthrough that Intel has been working on for 10 years. The chip industry must adapt to deliver the performance we need in lower power envelopes, and the solutions to that problem range from “rip and replace” options like quantum computing to the efforts described above. All of these will help bridge the demand our mobile devices are placing on chips. In the meantime, the increasing complexity is helping chip manufacturing equipment makers like Applied and startups that are seeking a new way.
benton.org/node/120888 | GigaOm
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TRACKING SMARTPHONES
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Christopher Mims]
Location services company Navizon has a new system, called Navizon I.T.S., that could allow tracking of visitors in malls, museums, offices, factories, secured areas and just about any other indoor space. It could be used to examine patterns of foot traffic in retail spaces, assure that a museum is empty of visitors at closing time, or even to pinpoint the location of any individual registered with the system. But let's set all that aside for a minute while we freak out about the privacy implications. Most of us leave Wi-Fi on by default, in part because our phones chastise us when we don't. (Triangulation by Wi-Fi hotspots is important for making location services more accurate.) But you probably didn't realize that, using proprietary new "nodes" from Navizon, any device with an active Wi-Fi radio can be seen by a system like Navizon's.
benton.org/node/120858 | Technology Review
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WILL STOLEN CELL PHONE DATABASE BE GOOD FOR CONSUMERS?
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Sarah Rich]
The federal government, law enforcement and wireless carriers recently announced the creation of a new database that will attempt to make stolen smartphones unusable, and therefore less valuable. The Federal Communications Commission, police chiefs and wireless carriers said the new database will record a unique identifying number for each device, similar to a car’s vehicle identification number. When a smartphone is stolen, the device’s owner will be able to call his or her wireless carrier, which in turn will block the device from being reactivated on any carrier’s network. But the planned system could have some surprising consequences, industry observers say. Harry Sverdlove, CTO of security vendor Bit9, said that although government intervention on this issue is beneficial for consumers, it ultimately could be a bigger boon for phone carriers and manufacturers. Since the database would block a device from reactivation, Sverdlove said, more smartphones would need to be purchased, thus increasing revenue for the manufacturers. “By preventing phones from being reused illegally, that’s good for [the manufacturers],” Sverdlove said. “It’s to their benefit.”
benton.org/node/120863 | Government Technology
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SPECTRUM CRISIS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Fueled in no small part by a Congressional hearing, the need for more spectrum devoted to wireless telecommunications services was a big topic this week. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint say they need more spectrum to meet the exploding demands for mobile data. If they don’t get more soon, they warn, mobile users will experience slower, spottier connections – and higher prices. On April 18, the New York Times examined the spectrum issue but noted that some scientists and engineers say the carriers are playing a game that is more about protecting their businesses from competitors.
http://benton.org/node/120777
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CAN PHONE BE REINVENTED?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
Just look at the array of phones being spat out by the tens of millions from production lines now. They're all the same. They're all flat glossy screens married to a flat wedge of invisible high-tech magic circuitry. There are sub-genus types, coming with keyboards, but those are looking increasingly jaded. And don't let's talk about "dumbphones," which are basically walking dinosaurs in an era where smartphone Foursquare check-ins can help redefine a neighborhood. Blame Apple, if you like. It boiled the form and function of a smartphone down to its almost ultimate essence...a screen and a barely there frame to hold that screen. You can't even open the case. Pretty much every phone maker has followed the iPhone format for smartphone design. But it's not just the physical format of the phone that has gotten boring and predictable. It's the software it runs, from Android to Bada to iOS to Windows.
How about a smartphone that, through some gestalt trick of the sum of all its interactive apps, actually engages with you, instead of merely delivering data in an endless stream on its glowing screen? Siri-meets-Watson-and-a-benevolent-HAL, if you like. It may be on the edge of the possible, but someone's got to be working on that technology. Stick it in a super-smartphone that looks like none of the current crop of clones, and we'd all actively give it even more personal information than we already jam into Facebook or Google's databanks because instead of demanding our active attention, and thus accidentally dominating our daily lives, it would actively benefit them.
benton.org/node/120833 | Fast Company
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CARRIER TRADE IS STILL IN APPLE’S FAVOR
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Rolfe Winkler]
Carriers may be mad as hell at Apple, but they're going to keep taking it. Verizon finance chief Francis Shammo took a shot at the iPhone-maker last week, saying the telecom carrier wants to promote Microsoft's Windows Phone platform as a third mobile ecosystem alongside Apple's iOS and Google's Android. He also said Verizon would cut more costs to offset the burden of subsidies from selling smartphones. Apple sells a standard iPhone to carriers for around $600, but consumers pay only $200 when they sign a two-year contract. The difference is the carrier subsidy. One option for carriers is to push other devices in stores. An Android device from Samsung, say, or the new Nokia Lumia running Windows, is more profitable for them than selling an iPhone. But don't expect the carriers to hurt Apple's lucrative mobile-phone franchise any time soon. That is because consumers still want iPhones. The best way for carriers to reduce iPhone sales would be to make them noticeably pricier than rival devices. But Apple's device is so popular that the company has significant power to set the price at which carriers sell the phone.
benton.org/node/120924 | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
NEWSPAPERS’ DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Roben Farzad]
US newspapers last year lost $10 in print advertising sales for every dollar gained online, according to the Pew Research Center. That was worse than 2010, when newspapers lost $7 in print advertising for every dollar made from digital. Could the New York Times, which recently cut the number of its newspaper’s free articles people can read on its site to 10 a month from 20, finally be onto something? Is it finally flexing the pricing power it has with loyal readers to get paid for all the journalism it invests in? Although the company has been a case study in financial mismanagement, it is now generating an average of $250 annually for every digital subscriber, according to Barclays Capital. If the Times can continue to add paying readers to its rolls, while squeezing more out of its print subscribers, it just might have what it takes to offset declines in print—and now digital—advertising. Might. This realization might be 19 years too late. And it won’t necessarily apply at less indispensable publications, which have spent a decade gutting their content. But any hint of good news is welcome in the post-apocalyptic business of journalism in 2012.
benton.org/node/120868 | Bloomberg
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ONLINE VIDEO AUDIENCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
Among the 20 most-subscribed-to channels on YouTube, eight feature minorities. Most are Asian American. Many more black and Latino shows populate the top 50. These producers are also finding an audience that has been largely neglected by Hollywood. Nearly 80 percent of minorities regularly watch online videos, compared with less than 70 percent of whites, the Pew Internet & American Life Project says. “A lot of US marketers are leaving minority audiences on the table,” said Seneca Mudd, the director of industry initiatives at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “Advertisers would ignore that trend at their own peril.” Analysts say the trend of minority content on YouTube makes sense. Networks feel pressure to appeal to a broader audience, but Internet video can thrive by just targeting niches because the cost of producing a show is so low, said David Bushman, television curator for the Paley Center for Media.
benton.org/node/120874 | Washington Post
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ONLINE VIDEO ADS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Gavin O'Malley]
Whetting the appetites of marketers, consumers are watching more online video advertising than ever. Breaking all previous records, Americans viewed more than 8.3 billion video ads in March, according to new data from comScore. Delivering another record month, Hulu recorded more than 1.7 billion video ad views in March, while Google Sites, i.e. YouTube, ranked second with more than 1.2 billion video ads. The BrightRoll video network came in third with 953 million, followed by Adap.tv with 892 million, and Specific Media with more than 775 million. Time spent watching video ads totaled 3.5 billion minutes, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 690 million minutes, according to comScore. Video ads reached 51% of the total U.S. population, an average of 53 times during the month, while Hulu delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 51, followed by ESPN, which delivered an average of 26 ads per viewer. Overall, 181 million US Internet users watched nearly 37 billion online content videos in March, while video ads topped 8 billion for the first time on record.
benton.org/node/120837 | MediaPost
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YOUTUBE LOSES COURT BATTLE
[SOURCE: BBC, AUTHOR: ]
A court in Hamburg ruled that YouTube is responsible for the content that users post to the video sharing site. It wants the video site to install filters that spot when users try to post music clips whose rights are held by royalty collection group, Gema. The German industry group said in court that YouTube had not done enough to stop copyrighted clips being posted. YouTube said it took no responsibility for what users did, but responded when told of copyright violations. "Today's ruling confirms that YouTube as a hosting platform cannot be obliged to control the content of all videos uploaded to the site," said a spokesperson for the video site. "We remain committed to finding a solution to the music licensing issue in Germany that will benefit artists, composers, authors, publishers and record labels, as well as the wider YouTube community," they added.
benton.org/node/120825 | BBC
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CRITICS MISS THE MARK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Thomas Catan]
The Justice Department has come under criticism since filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five publishers, accusing them of colluding to fix e-book prices. But many experts say that under antitrust law, the department didn't have much choice. And even if it did, antitrust experts say, it is far from clear that doing nothing would have been wise. So did the Antitrust Division get the law backward? Antitrust scholars say no and that some of the criticism is based on basic misperceptions of the law. US antitrust law doesn't seek to protect little companies against big ones, or even struggling ones against successful ones. Companies can grow as large as they want, as long as they do it through lower prices, better service or niftier innovations. Companies can even become monopolies, as long as they don't get there illegally or try to extend their power by unlawfully stifling competition. Companies under pressure from a more successful rival can't band together to protect themselves, whatever their size. "Price fixing is kind of the first-degree murder of antitrust violations," says Herbert Hovenkamp, law professor at the University of Iowa. "They don't have discretion to just walk away from what appears to be a strong set of facts that, if true, are one of the most central of antitrust violations."
benton.org/node/120927 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION/RADIO
DEFINING MVPD
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] The regulatory issue that was talked about privately and extensively by broadcasters and their lawyers at National Association of Broadcasters convention and that will have great, long-term implications for the industry was the Federal Communications Commission's request for comments on the definition of multichannel video program distributor (MVPD). That doesn't sound like such a big deal. But it is. Multichannel video program distributor is a term cooked by the authors of the 1992 Cable Act to mean basically "cable system or satellite operator," but the 42-word definition leaves room for others the FCC may want to include. Being defined as an MVPD brings with it all kind of rights and obligations under the law. That's why this is important.
Broadcasters desperately need to get their signals on the Internet so that they can be accessed on every desktop, netbook, laptop, tablet and smartphone. It's the key to ubiquity, one of the qualities that has brought the medium this far. If the networks and other copyright holders loosen their grip and give stations permission to put their programming online, the stations may not need the compulsory license. And there has been increasing talk that that is happening. And if stations go online, it should be a safe environment where there are rules for handling TV signals and everybody has to play by them. And the way to create that environment is to make sure that Internet distributors are deemed MVPDs with all rights, privileges and responsibilities thereunto pertaining.
benton.org/node/120870 | TVNewsCheck
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REVISION OF PROGRAM ACCESS RULES
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission seeks comment on whether to retain, sunset, or relax one of the several protections afforded to multichannel video programming distributors by the program access rules -- the prohibition on exclusive contracts involving satellite-delivered, cable-affiliated programming. The current exclusive contract prohibition is scheduled to expire on October 5, 2012. The FCC also seeks comment on potential revisions to its program access rules to better address alleged violations, including potentially discriminatory volume discounts and uniform price increases.
Comments are due on or before June 22, 2012; reply comments are due on or before July 23, 2012. Written PRA comments on the proposed information collection requirements contained herein must be submitted by the public, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and other interested parties on or before June 22, 2012.
benton.org/node/120871 | Federal Communications Commission
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TV CORRECTIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] After broadcasting an audio clip on the “Today” show about George Zimmerman last month that hit the trifecta of being misleading, incendiary and dead-bang wrong, NBC News management took serious action: it fired the producer in charge and issued a statement apologizing for making it appear as if Zimmerman had made overtly racist statements. The only thing NBC didn’t do was correct the report on the “Today” show. What is it with television news and corrections? When the rest of the journalism world gets something wrong, they generally correct themselves. But network news acts as if an on-air admission of error might cause a meteor to land on the noggin of one of its precious talking heads. NBC used all of the powers at its disposal to amend the mistake, except the high-visibility airtime where the bad clip ran in the first place.
benton.org/node/120934 | New York Times
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SHIFTING TV HABITS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
It is the police procedural that has network executives scratching their heads this season: The Case of the Disappearing Viewers. Across the television landscape, network and cable, public television and pay cable, English-language and Spanish, viewing for all sorts of prime-time programming is down this spring — chiefly among the most important audience for the business, younger adults. In the four television weeks starting March 19, NBC lost an average of 59,000 viewers (about 3 percent) in that 18-to-49 age category compared with the same period last year, CBS lost 239,000 (8 percent), ABC lost 681,000 (21 percent) and Fox lost 709,000 (20 percent). The losses could not have come at a worse time for the networks, which are about to enter the television upfronts, the traditional season when advertising dollars are committed for the fall season. Though there seems to be no one reason for the decline, many executives say they are concerned that long-term changes in watching habits are taking a significant toll on viewership. The broadest explanation is the time of year. Each spring, viewership tends to decline because of factors like daylight saving time, which hurts the 8 p.m. shows especially because outdoor light discourages indoor viewing. And many television research executives said “nice weather” this spring may be encouraging people to spend more time outdoors.
benton.org/node/120933 | New York Times
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ONLINE VIDEO TURNS UP HEAT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne Vranica, Sam Schechner]
Though television may be losing viewers to online video, it has been holding on to advertisers. But with online-video outlets this week making their most organized push yet for ad dollars, that may be starting to change. Early expectations are that TV networks will win an increase in total ad commitments for the fall season in the coming weeks of negotiations with advertisers known as the upfront. Yet, some big marketers, including General Motors Co. and Samsung Electronic Co.'s mobile arm, say they are planning to shift some of their TV budgets to the Web. "Online-video sites are becoming a legitimate alternative to cable and network TV options for reaching consumers," said Craig Atkinson, chief digital officer of PHD, a media-buying unit of Omnicom Group Inc. Even so, TV is expected to attract a little more money from advertisers than last year.
benton.org/node/120925 | Wall Street Journal
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INTERNET
NET IS TOO-BIG-TO-FAIL
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Dawn Lim]
The growth of electronic health record systems and the push to integrate digital technology into electrical grids is adding security threats and "new failure modes to the world we live in," Dan Geer, chief information security officer at CIA venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, warned. The ways that our day-to-day operations have become tied with the Web is creating an Internet ecosystem that is "too big to fail," Geer argued. Geer was famously dismissed from his position as chief technology officer at the boutique security firm @stake, after authoring a 2003 study on the security implications of Microsoft's monopoly in the software industry. "Remember that the Internet was built by academics, researchers, and hackers -- meaning that it embodies the liberal cum libertarian cultural interpretation of American values, namely that it is open, non-hierarchical, self-organizing, and leaves essentially no opportunities for governance beyond protocol definition," Geer said. "Anywhere the Internet appears, it brings those values with it." In this landscape, over-complex IT systems pose a problem: they prevent people from seeing how closely connected different parts of a system are, and that a fault in one part could bring the rest of it down, he said. It is important then, that backup processes are instituted, in the event of system failures.
benton.org/node/120861 | nextgov
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PAYING FOR INEFFICIENCY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: David Lazarus]
[Commentary] Is it any wonder the United States lags behind the rest of the world in broadband Internet cost and service? We're home to Google, Apple and other tech trendsetters, but when it comes to wiring people for Net access, we're the tortoise to Europe's and Asia's hare. The Federal Communications Commission issued a report last year showing that the U.S. ranks 12th for broadband service such as cable and DSL connections, outpaced by South Korea, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Britain, Canada and Germany. Meanwhile, a 2010 report by the Technology Policy Institute found that while broadband prices had dropped overseas as much as 40% in recent years, prices in the United States were barely budging. Pretty sad for the country that invented the Internet. So why are we such slowpokes? A 2010 report by Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society came up with a ready answer: government regulation, or a lack thereof.
benton.org/node/120854 | Los Angeles Times
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NET ACCESS AT RISK
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Lolita Baldor]
For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer. Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down. The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, dcwg DOT org, that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet.
benton.org/node/120915 | Associated Press
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PRIVACY
WATCHING EVERY CLICK YOU MAKE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Henry Alford]
The robots are watching us. They’re announcing to the world that we just looked at Eames chairs on Pinterest and that we’ve listened to Taylor Swift and Conway Twitty on Spotify. They’re sending us ads labeled “Being Conservative in South Carolina” simply because we checked our e-mail in Charleston. They’re broadcasting the fact that we just read an article called “How to Satisfy Your Partner in Bed.” They’re trumpeting — with an undue amount of enthusiasm — that we just scored 6 points on Words With Friends for making the word “cat.” When Facebook bought Instagram, the social photo app for iPhone and Android devices, on April 9, a chorus of concern emanated from the Twittersphere: Facebook would have access to Instagram users’ uploaded photos. Would that photo of Aunt Letty in her bathing suit suddenly show up in an ad for embolism stockings? Granted, some of these invasions of privacy are the result of our not having correctly wrangled an app’s privacy control settings. But when did privacy become a choice rather than a given? And why does slogging through a new app’s voluminous terms of service or figuring out how to activate a site’s privacy control settings sometimes feel as if it requires a graduate degree in tiny print? Yes, the Obama administration has rallied for a privacy bill of rights that would give consumers more control over the online data that is collected about them, and many people in the tech industries support a do-not-track mechanism that would let users opt out of having some, but not all, companies keep data about our online activities. But the slightly creepy, Big Brother-like invasions of our privacy continue apace. You can’t sunbathe nude in this backyard without constantly looking over your shoulder.
benton.org/node/120932 | New York Times
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE
LIFELINE COMMENTS SOUGHT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
In this document, Petitions for Reconsideration have been filed in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rulemaking proceeding concerning rules that comprehensively reform and modernize the Lifeline program to strengthen protections against waste, fraud and abuse; improve program administration and accountability; improve enrollment and consumer disclosures; initiate modernization of the program for broadband; and constrain the growth of the program.
Oppositions to the Petitions must be filed by May 7, 2012. Replies to an opposition must be filed May 15, 2012.
benton.org/node/120842 | Federal Communications Commission
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PHASE II MOBILITY FUND
[SOURCE: JSI Capital Advisors, AUTHOR: Cassandra Heyne]
While the FCC is likely hard at work on Mobility Fund Phase I auction rules, mid-sized competitive wireless carriers are already looking ahead to Phase II. Representatives from the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), U.S. Cellular, and Cellular One held ex parte meetings with members of the Federal Communications Commission on April 12, 2012 to discuss various concerns about the Mobility Fund, namely that they believe “the existing support allocated for Phase II of the Mobility Fund will be inadequate to achieve vital universal service goals and that the Commission should use the further rulemaking to make additional funding available to competitive wireless providers.” The competitive wireless carriers further argued that because Mobility Fund Phase I support is nonrecurring, some carriers might be discouraged from participating in the reverse auction without assurance that their ongoing operating expenses will be recoverable. RCA, U.S. Cellular, and Cellular One propose one solution to help ensure that future funding in the Mobility Fund is sufficient—or at least more sufficient than $500m per year: “Support foregone by price cap carriers that decline to exercise their statewide right of first refusal with respect to Connect America Fund support should be reallocated to the Mobility Fund.” Additionally, the FCC “should free up additional funds to support mobile wireless services by eliminating excessive support flowing to rural incumbent LECs, including by lowering the prescribed rate of return and limiting permissible recovery levels for capital and operating expenses.”
benton.org/node/120883 | JSI Capital Advisors
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
USA AND DOD
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Gregory Korte]
A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created in their names, along with a Wikipedia entry and dozens of message board postings and blog comments. Websites were registered in their names. The timeline of the activity tracks USA TODAY's reporting on the military's "information operations" program, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan — campaigns that have been criticized even within the Pentagon as ineffective and poorly monitored.
benton.org/node/120852 | USAToday
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LOOPHOLE IN GPS RULING
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Kim Zetter]
A federal judge in Iowa has ruled that evidence gathered through the warrantless use of covert GPS vehicle trackers can be used to prosecute a suspected drug trafficker, despite a Supreme Court decision this year that found such tracking unconstitutional without a warrant. US District Judge Mark Bennett in Sioux City ruled that the GPS tracking evidence gathered by federal DEA agents last year against suspected drug trafficker Angel Amaya, prior to the Supreme Court ruling, can be submitted in court because the agents were acting in good faith at the time. The agents, the judge said, were relying on what was then a binding 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent that authorized the use of warrantless GPS trackers for surveillance in Iowa and six other states. It’s the third of such “good faith” rulings by federal court judges in the wake of the recent and historic Supreme Court decision, all of which illustrate that the Supreme Court ruling can be easily skirted by law enforcement agents and prosecutors who work in circuit court regions where it was previously legal to use the devices without a warrant. Legal experts say the “good faith” exception, which comes out of another court ruling last year, has created a mess of the Supreme Court’s GPS decision.
benton.org/node/120823 | Wired
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WIRELESS CARRIERS ENABLE WARRENTLESS CELLPHONE TRACKING
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
While law enforcement organizations across the country may be tracking people using their cellphones, police are finding willing partners in wireless phone companies, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer said. Many cellphone companies have created departments and even online portals to help law enforcement request location data on people, often without a warrant, ACLU attorney Catherine Crump said during a taping of C-Span's "The Communicators." She pointed to an ACLU survey of local police agencies released earlier this month that found that some carriers, such as Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile charge law enforcement for the data. "I think the cell phone companies owe their customers a more clear picture of how the government and potentially others are accessing their data," Crump said. The information collected and stored by wireless carriers are the real privacy problem, John Jay College professor Dennis Kenney said during the show.
benton.org/node/120865 | National Journal
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COMPANY NEWS
DON’T BE EVIL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Quentin Hardy]
Back in 2004, as Google prepared to go public, Larry Page and Sergey Brin celebrated the maxim that was supposed to define their company: “Don’t be evil.” But these days, a lot of people — at least the mere mortals outside the Googleplex — seem to be wondering about that uncorporate motto. How is it that Google, a company chockablock with brainiac engineers, savvy marketing types and flinty legal minds, keeps getting itself in hot water? Google, which stood up to the Death Star of Microsoft? Which changed the world as we know it? The latest brouhaha, of course, involves the strange tale of Street View, Google’s project to photograph the entire world, one street at a time, for its maps feature. It turns out Google was collecting more than just images: federal authorities have dinged the company for lifting personal data off Wi-Fi systems, too, including e-mails and passwords. Evil? Hard to know. But certainly weird — and enough to prompt a small fine of $25,000 from the Federal Communications Commission and, far more damaging, howls from Congress and privacy advocates. A Google spokeswoman called the hack “a mistake” and disagreed with the F.C.C.’s contention that Google “deliberately impeded and delayed” the commission’s investigation. Many people might let this one go, were it not for all those other worrisome things at Google. The company has been accused of flouting copyrights, leveraging other people’s work for its benefit and violating European protections of personal privacy, among other things. “Don’t be evil” no longer has its old ring. And Google, an underdog turned overlord, is no humble giant. It tends to approach any controversy with an air that ranges somewhere between “trust us” and “what’s good for Google is good for the world.” But ascribing what’s going on here solely to the power or arrogance of a single company misses an important dimension of today’s high-technology business, where there are frequent assaults, real or perceived, on various business standards and practices.
benton.org/node/120891 | New York Times | GigaOm
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COMFORTS AND COMPLACENTCY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
[Commentary] Google and Facebook, young and successful companies that they are, risk being left behind as technology shifts from PCs and Web browsers to mobile devices. I have a theory on why they both have been slow to capitalize on the shift to mobile. It’s that employment at these companies is like going to work on an all-inclusive cruise ship. The analogy is apt in terms of the luxury — and the isolation. The employee’s perks could be stultifying. Get hired by one of these businesses, and there is no reason to leave the office. There are on-campus gyms. Day care. Massages. Dry cleaning. Car rentals. Sadly, this isn’t how the rest of the world works. Most people actually have to leave their offices to get coffee. While wandering out into the real world, we unfortunates tend to do a lot with our mobile phones. We look for new restaurants, check in with location-based apps, share short pithy updates about things we’ve seen in this outside world, and take pictures of food and sunsets. I’m betting that the Googlers and Facebookers don’t see as much outside, since all these perks are meant to keep people working as long as possible.
benton.org/node/120889 | New York Times
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