April 2012

Verizon and Cable Cos Keep Playing Games

Verizon and the cable companies filed an objection to try to stop Netflix's outside counsel from reading the companies' license transfer, agency, resale, and Joint Operating Entity agreements. Why? Because Netflix has not filed a petition to deny opposing the deals.

Verizon and SpectrumCo are making a pretty technical procedural argument here. They say that only "parties" can sign confidentiality acknowledgements to view confidential information and that Netflix can't be considered a party because it did not file a petition to deny the transactions. So by Verizon and SpectrumCo's logic, companies or organizations only have a right to read the agreements after they've submitted formal filings opposing the agreements. That is ridiculous. As a general rule of thumb, if your interpretation of Federal Communications Commission rules leads you to the conclusion that the FCC is encouraging or requiring entities to oppose a deal before they know what's actually in that deal, you probably went off track. This is also, interestingly, the first time Verizon and SpectrumCo have brought up this argument, even though every single entity that has read the agreements in this proceeding did so before filing a petition to deny. Some never filed petitions to deny at all: for example, the organization TechFreedom obtained access to the agreements only after the petitions to deny had been filed, so it could file reply comments.

Google's wacky stock split gives founders more clout

Google is pulling one of the stranger technical maneuvers the stock market has seen for quite some time. The company effectively wants to split its stock, giving current shareholders two shares for every share they own. Here's the twist: The new shares will hold no voting powers, essentially giving the company's founders -- CEO Larry Page, Chairman Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin -- more say over time in the company's management decisions.

The company already has a dual-class share system, with the founders' stock holding 10 votes per share. That currently gives Google's power trio 66% of the voting power over the company's shares, according to a recent regulatory filing. In a letter to shareholders released April 12, the company's co-founders said they're concerned that day-to-day dilution from stock grants and acquisitions will undermine that structure.

Facebook Offers More Disclosure to Users

Facebook, seeking to address concerns about the personal information it collects on its users, said that it would provide any user with more about the data it tracks and stores. Facebook said the expanded archive feature would be introduced gradually to its 845 million monthly active users. It goes beyond the first archive made available in 2010, which has been criticized as incomplete by privacy advocates and regulators in Europe. The archive Facebook published two years ago gave users a copy of their photos, posts, messages, list of friends and chat conversations. The new version, Facebook said, includes previous user names, friend requests and the Internet protocol addresses of the computers that users have logged in from. More categories of information will be made available in the future, Facebook said.

“We welcome that Facebook users are now getting more access to their data, but Facebook is still not in line with the European Data Protection Law,” said Max Schrems, a student at the University of Vienna. “With the changes, Facebook will only offer access to 39 data categories, while it is holding at least 84 such data categories about every user.”

Canada Seeks to Turn Coins Into Digital Currency

Last month, Canada announced that it would eliminate its penny. Now the Royal Canadian Mint is using one of the oldest forms of currency, gold, to attract software developers to its project, the MintChip Challenge, to transform the country’s remaining coins into digital currency. The creators of the best digital payment application entered in the contest will receive a gold wafer currently worth about $17,000. Unlike some digital payment systems, the MintChip has low aspirations. It is only intended to pay for low-value items, physically or online. Since Canada long ago replaced $1 and $2 banknotes with coins, that effectively means anything worth less than $5 to $10.

Cellphone Unit Sales in First Quarter Were “Weakest in Years”

With no new iPhone model to boost sales, major U.S. carriers saw little if any gain in traditional contract customers during the first quarter, according to a new report.

Indeed, Jefferies & Co. said that the first quarter could mark the first time ever that the number of postpaid customers actually declined. “A Jefferies proprietary handset survey suggests volume expectations for [the first quarter] are the weakest in years, in line with our view that net adds are significantly lower in the quarter after an iPhone launch,” analyst Thomas Seitz said in a research note. Jefferies sees “modest” growth in traditional customers for AT&T and Verizon, but declines at both T-Mobile and Sprint, which saw a big jump last quarter — its first with an iPhone.

ICANN delays vanity Web domain deadline

If you were scrambling to get your application in to meet the April 12 deadline to get what amounts to an online vanity plate to replace ".com" in your business' Web address, you can relax a little.

A system glitch has granted you an extension. 839 participants were to have their applications in to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, but ICANN discovered a technical issue with its top-level domain application system, or TAS. "ICANN is taking the most conservative approach possible to protect all applicants and allow adequate time to resolve the issue. Therefore, TAS will be shut down until Tuesday at 23:59 UTC -- unless otherwise notified before that time." The group has extended the application deadline until April 20. No word on whether ICANN will push back from April 29 the announcement of who applied for what names.

Dodd backtracks, says anti-piracy bill SOPA is 'dead' and 'gone'

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) might be dead after all. Former senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, backtracked after suggesting the legislation could be reworked for another go-round in Congress. "It's gone. In my view, it's dead," Dodd said in an interview for Bloomberg's "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" that is set to air this weekend. Dodd had sparked talk of a SOPA revival last week when he told the Hollywood Reporter he was "confident" that talks were underway to revive the anti-piracy bill.

Former Rep. Boucher: FCC made ‘wrong decision’ on AT&T merger

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made a mistake in blocking the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, according to the former chairman of an influential House subcommittee. Former Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) said the FCC and the Justice Department were wrong to conclude that the merger of two companies would threaten competition. "It seems to me … that the wireless side is the most competitive" in the telecommunications industry, Boucher said. "I think it was the wrong decision." Boucher said he’s baffled that regulators would block the AT&T deal after allowing the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal — which he said met the same “severe resistance” from public interest groups. Allowing the Comcast deal while blocking AT&T’s was “a mistake,” Boucher said.

Firms ask FEC to approve anonymous political giving via text message

Two political consulting groups and an “aggregator” have asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to approve anonymous political contributions through text messages.

Arent Fox submitted an advisory opinion request on the text donations to the FEC for clients Red Blue T and ArmourMedia. The “merchant billing aggregator” m-Qube, which would be “party to these transactions,” was also included on the request. The Democratic and Republican firms said their clients want to “engag[e] in, and advertis[e] for, the solicitation of political contributions by text messaging,” according to the documents. “The mobile communications industry is advancing rapidly,” counsels Craig Engle and Brett Kappel wrote. “And with all due respect for the Commission's 38-year-old statute: the [Federal Election Campaign Act] should be interpreted to keep pace with modem telecommunications technology, rather than trying to fit the digital mobile wireless industry into the time of rotary phones.”

Conservative group makes $1 Million high-tech investment to help Tea Party

American Majority Action, a rising force among the conservative grass roots, has made a nearly $1 million investment in technology to put Tea Party activists on even footing with President Obama’s election campaign.

Conservative strategists behind the effort want to identify issues that drive independents who vote frequently. The goal is to be able to craft campaign messages that will get independents out the door and voting for conservative candidates on Election Day. Survey data by Gallup shows that about 20 percent of voters identify themselves as solidly liberal while about 40 percent self-identify as solidly conservative. This has left some conservatives perplexed over why their favored candidates fail to win more often.

Benton

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