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  2. April 2012

April 2012

E-books price fixing? Book 'em

[Commentary] When word leaked that the Justice Department was threatening to sue Apple and five major book publishers for allegedly fixing the price of e-books, the opposition from some tech advocates was swift and sharp. The feds were looking at the wrong problem, these critics said. The new pricing model adopted by Apple and the publishers promoted competition in the markets for e-books, e-book readers and hard-copy books that Amazon had come to dominate. Attacking that model might lower the price for some e-books, but it would hurt the rest of the book industry and give Amazon an inside track to a publishing monopoly. That's an interesting argument, but it's irrelevant.

The Supreme Court ruled long ago that companies can't fix prices just because they're worried they can't survive otherwise. If the Justice Department has evidence that Apple and the five publishers — Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette and Pearson — colluded on a plan to raise the price of e-books, it's right to seek a remedy.

JK Rowling reveals price of next novel

A day after her publisher reached a settlement with the Department of Justice that is expected to cut the price of bestselling e-books in the US to $9.99, JK Rowling announced that the electronic edition of her next novel would be priced at twice that sum.

The author of seven Harry Potter books that sold 450 million copies said her first novel for adults would be called The Casual Vacancy. Little Brown, an imprint of Hachette with worldwide English-language rights to the book, will publish it on September 27. With strong demand expected for her first full-length novel in five years, her pricing strategy could be a test of a confused new market for e-books following the DoJ’s lawsuit. The title will sell for $35 in hardback and $19.99 in e-book format in the US, and for £20 in hardback and £11.99 in the UK, according to Little Brown. But the publisher did not say whether it would make the title available through leading e-book retailers.

Smartphone Patents: The Never-Ending War

As competition in the more than $200 billion global smartphone industry becomes more cutthroat, Apple and its competitors argue that even the most minor unique features are crucial to getting an edge. They are engaged in a lawsuit-filing frenzy, asserting their rights to dozens of patents to block rival products. Their goal: to find a patent that sticks, and to force competitors to work around it or strike a licensing deal.

About five years ago, the computer and mobile-phone industries collided. Technological advances turned phones into minicomputers, complete with email, Web access and other features. Companies from different corners of industry saw opportunity—and pounced. Among them: phone makers like Nokia and Motorola; computer-hardware makers like Apple; software giants such as Google and Microsoft; and others, including South Korean electronics giant Samsung. From the get-go, companies fought fiercely for consumer dollars with huge marketing blitzes. Behind the scenes, another battle was brewing over intellectual property. Almost overnight, every player had developed a gripe. The traditional phone makers claimed, for instance, that Apple was abusing their long-held rights to data-transmission designs. Apple complained others were ripping off its designs.

News Corp faces hacking lawsuits in US

News Corp could be exposed to further legal action in the US after Mark Lewis, the lawyer representing dozens of public figures in the UK phone-hacking scandal, said he was planning to file three civil lawsuits in American courts.

The move marks the first legal actions in the US in the affair which has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media company. News Corp is being investigated by the FBI and the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Lewis said the legal actions would be launched by two sports figures and a US citizen. All three individuals allege their voicemails were illegally intercepted when they were on US soil. “I will be having a series of meetings regarding matters relating to phone-hacking claims against the News of the World, which has issues in American jurisdictions,” he said. Lewis is set to meet Norman Siegel, his American partner and former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, to discuss US law and how it applies to phone hacking.

License Renewal Quiz Gets a bit Tougher

[Commentary] For many years the Federal Communications Commission’s television license renewal application has required mainly yes-or-no answers about compliance throughout the license term with various FCC requirements. For the upcoming renewal cycle, the FCC has added a new certification question about non-discriminatory television advertising sales agreements.

Gingrich Accuses Fox News of Bias

The fight for the Republican nomination is no longer just candidate versus candidate. It’s candidate versus Fox News.

Newt Gingrich became the latest Republican candidate to lash out at the cable news network, accusing it of dooming his flagging campaign by slanting its political coverage to Mitt Romney‘s benefit. “I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich was quoted as saying. “And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches Fox.” He went on to add: “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than Fox this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of Fox, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of Fox. That’s just a fact.”

Gingrich quickly found that Fox News’s tenacity is a match for his own. The network shot back, calling the former House speaker bitter. Fox News said that Gingrich appeared to have other motives: “This is nothing more than Newt auditioning for a windfall of a gig at CNN. That’s the kind of man he is. Not to mention, he’s still bitter over the termination of his contributor contract.”

SpongeBob SquarePants' Last Stand

[Commentary] Child obesity is a big and growing problem that's gaining increasing government attention. Unfortunately, the feds are poised to adopt ill-conceived regulations that won't help but might make the problem worse.

Get ready for severe new guidelines on food advertising to children. Last year, an interagency government task force proposed new "voluntary" guidelines on food marketing aimed at kids under 17 that defines prohibited foods so broadly that it would curtail advertising not only of Froot Loops and soda but also of Cheerios and yogurt. The task force acknowledges that "a large percentage of food products currently in the marketplace"—88 of the 100 most-advertised foods and drinks, according to the Association of National Advertisers—"would not meet the [guidelines]." Those guidelines are currently at the White House, where the administration faces heavy pressure from do-gooder types and the public-health lobby to approve them.

Restricting food advertising is a flawed approach to childhood obesity. The underlying causes of weight gain in children are the same as in their parents—eating too much and exercising too little. And academic research confirms what we sense from personal experience: Kids eat what their parents eat. If you sit down at the dinner table with a two-liter bottle of Coke, Jimmy won't ask for milk instead.

[Zywicki is a professor of law at George Mason University School of Law]

Online gambling bill is just another bad bet

[Commentary] Some bad ideas just won't go away. Case in point: a revived law to allow online gambling in California. This time around, all the big players -- casino tribes, cardrooms and racetracks -- want to bring online poker and its devastating social impact to homes and smart phones across the state. It's a wholesale expansion of gambling with a predicted audience of 2 million players. Backers claim the law would regulate what's already going on and could net cash-hungry Sacramento upwards of $100 million per year. Sorry, we've heard this before. The state lottery was pitched as a way to save public schools back in 1984. Then tribal casinos said their measure in 2000 would give an economic lift to distant and deprived reservations. Both forms of wagering have morphed into major industries that are feeding the state's official addiction to an empty and destructive industry. Make no mistake, this measure is all about gambling interests that want to expand their reach and control a new market.

US, China Tout Progress Over IP

US and Chinese officials touted recent progress in intellectual-property protection in China and called for continued efforts, even as US and Chinese companies engage in high-profile battles over famous names such as iPad and Michael Jordan.

US officials continued to complain that high piracy rates in China are cutting into profits for rights owners, despite recent efforts by the Chinese government to crack down on Internet and software piracy. On April 12 the US called for greater cooperation by China with intellectual-property agencies in other countries as well as more consistent enforcement. "China's IP system still makes it difficult for both foreign and Chinese companies to compete on a level playing field," US ambassador to China Gary Locke said at a roundtable in Beijing about intellectual-property protection in China.

Federal Communications Commission and National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
9:30 AM – 4 PM EDT
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0412/DA-1...

The workshop will provide an overview of how collocations can promote the availability of mobile broadband, public safety, and other wireless services in a manner consistent with community priorities. Panelists will discuss the technical, structural, and business considerations underlying collocations on a variety of structure types, including wireless towers, AM radio/broadcast towers, public safety communications towers, utility infrastructure, rooftops, and water tanks. The workshop will explore examples of cooperative solutions that have facilitated wireless deployment while recognizing community interests. We will also discuss the significance of the FCC’s Nationwide Programmatic Agreement for the Collocation of Wireless Antennas.

Collocation Workshop Agenda

9:30 am Opening Remarks
Rick Kaplan, Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC
Jennifer Manner, Deputy Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, FCC
Anthony Perez, President-Elect, NATOA
Joyce Dickerson, Chairman, FCC Intergovernmental Affairs Committee and
Councilwoman, Richland County, GA

10:00 am Presentation: The Legal Framework Governing Collocations
Jeffrey Steinberg, Deputy Chief, Spectrum & Competition Policy Division, Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau, FCC

10:45 am Break

11:00 am Panel #1: Technical, Business and Structural Considerations for Collocations
Brian Kooyman, Manager, Wireless Network/Site Development, Sprint Nextel
Neil Kuplic, Vice President and Director of Structural Engineering Services, FDH
Engineering Inc.
Ed Roach, Associate General Counsel for Regulatory Compliance, SBA Communications
Corporation
Moderators: Dan Abeyta, Assistant Chief, and Don Johnson, Attorney, Spectrum & Competition Policy Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC

12:00 noon Lunch Break
(Attendees are encouraged to bring lunch or to purchase lunch in the
FCC courtyard restaurant and bring back to the FCC Meeting Room)

1:00 pm Remarks and Recognition to Hanover County, VA
Jane Jackson, Associate Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC

1:15 pm Panel #2: Collocations on Non-Traditional Towers and Other Structures
Public Safety Towers: Phil Heins, Former Emergency Director, Hanover County, VA,
and Monica Gambino, Vice President, Crown Castle USA Inc.
Rooftop Collocations: Monica Gambino, Vice President, Crown Castle USA Inc.
AM Radio Towers: Christopher Horne, Chief Technical Officer, LBA Group, Inc., and
John Trent, President, Putbrese Hunsaker & Trent
Utility Infrastructure: Connie Durcsak, President, United Telecom Council
Railroad Towers: Robert Raville, Vice President, Railroad Development, Global
Towers, LLC
Moderators: Dan Abeyta, Assistant Chief, and Don Johnson, Attorney, Spectrum &
Competition Policy Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC

2:15 pm Panel #3: Success Stories – State, Local, and Federal Models
Georgia: Kimberly Adams, Co-Chair of the Regulatory Committee, Georgia Wireless
Association
Cary, NC: Timothy Piccirilli, Area Director, Project Management, American Tower
Corporation
San Clemente and Anaheim, CA: CJ Armstrup, Planning Services Manager, Anaheim, CA, and Tim Brown, Business Development Manager, Towerco, Inc.

FCC Collocation Review: Nancy Schamu, Executive Director, National Association of State Historic Preservation Officers, and William Hackett, Senior Manager of Federal Regulatory Compliance, T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Rural New Mexico and West Texas: Jenna Metznik, Director of Regulatory Compliance, American Tower Corporation, and Greg Whiteaker, Counsel, Plateau Telecommunications, LLC

Moderators: Jeffrey Steinberg, Deputy Chief, Spectrum & Competition Policy
Division, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, FCC, and Anthony Perez, President-Elect, NATOA

3:45 pm Wrap-Up and Adjournment
Attendance. This workshop is open to the public. All attendees are advised to arrive approximately 30 minutes prior to the start of the workshop to allow time to go through our security process. Attendees are not required to pre-register, but may submit their name and company affiliation ahead of time by sending an email to Jim Swartz (james.swartz@fcc.gov) in order to expedite the check-in process.

Webcast. The FCC will webcast the workshop on the FCC webpage. To view the webcast, go to www.fcc.gov/live on the day of the event. Viewers may submit questions by e-mail to livequestions@fcc.gov. Viewers are encouraged but not required to pre-register. Please send an e-mail to james.swartz@fcc.gov to pre-register for the webcast.


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