May 2012

House Subcommittee Discusses the Dangers of International Regulation of the Internet

The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing to examine International Proposals to Regulate the Internet. The hearing was one of the most bipartisan in memory, with everybody in agreement that government oversight of the Internet is a bad idea.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the ranking member of the full House Commerce Committee, said there is "no daylight" between House Democrats, House Republicans and the Obama Administration on the issue. Republican and Democrat alike said a top-down, government-controlled approach, rather than the current multistakeholder model, would be a threat to the Internet economy and political speech and a mechanism for those regimes to restrict content they believed was a threat to their political control or cultural norms.

“The Internet is the single largest engine of global change since the printing press. Non-governmental institutions now manage the Internet’s core functions with input from private- and public-sector participants. Weakening the multi-stakeholder model weakens the Internet, harming its ability to spread prosperity and freedom,” said Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). “As the U.S. delegation to the WCIT takes shape, I urge the administration to continue the United States’ commitment to the Internet’s collaborative governance structure and to reject international efforts to bring the Internet under government control."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Philip Verveer warned that proposals to give the United Nations more control over the Internet could lead to international censorship. He testified that the measures would "slow the pace of innovation, hamper global economic development and potentially lead to an era of unprecedented control over what people can say and do online."

“If there’s one thing that we should not do,” said Vint Cerf, “it is to centralize decision-making power. The greatest strength of the current system of Internet governance is its meritocratic democracy. Anyone who cares can voice ideas and opinions, but the ultimate decisions are governed by broad consensus. It might not always be the most convenient of systems, but it’s the fairest, safest, and historically most effective way to ensure that good ideas win out and bad ideas die.”

Robert McDowell, a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, said if the ITU does try to regulate the Internet, the United States could opt out of many provisions, but that the changes could create a "balkanized" and "bifurcated" Internet instead of the global one that exists today. Commissioner McDowell also testified that foreign government officials have talked to him about plans to create an international fund allowing state-owned telecom companies to charge for access to certain websites on a per-click basis to fund the build out of Internet networks. He identified Google, iTunes, Facebook and Netflix as possible targets for the extra fees.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) accused the Obama Administration of hypocrisy for opposing the UN effort on Internet control but supporting network neutrality regulations that bar Internet providers from slowing down or speeding up access to websites in order to preserve competition and protect consumer choice. Rep Blackburn also questioned why the FCC hasn't officially closed its inquiry into whether the Internet should be reclassified as a "Title II" utility, which would give the agency more authority over it.

Google wins crucial API ruling, Oracle's case decimated

Federal Judge William Alsup, who recently finished presiding over the six-week Oracle v. Google trial, ruled that the structure of the Java APIs that Oracle was trying to assert can't be copyrighted at all. It's only the code itself—not the "how-to" instructions represented by APIs—that can be the subject of a copyright claim, ruled Judge Alsup. "So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API," wrote the judge. The ruling is the cornerstone of what now looks like a complete win for Google in its legal struggle with Oracle, which began more than two years ago. The order follows an inconclusive copyright trial and a patent trial that Oracle also lost.

Google Points Finger at Microsoft, Nokia

Google filed an antitrust complaint in Europe arguing that Microsoft and Nokia are using proxy companies to brandish patents and hurt the prospects of Google's Android mobile-phone software to the advantage of Microsoft's technology. Google also plans to share its complaint about patent "trolls" with U.S. competition regulators. Google alleges that Microsoft and Nokia have entered into agreements that enable entities such as Canada-based Mosaid Technologies Inc. to legally enforce their patent rights and share the resulting revenue. Google, which hasn't been sued by Mosaid or related firms, described its filing with European regulators as a pre-emptive measure against a developing legal hazard for Android partners. The threat is that if phone makers perceive a significant legal risk in using Android, they may opt instead for Microsoft's Windows Phone software.

Judge gives OK to authors, photographers to sue Google over book scanning

In a major development in the long-running case over Google’s unauthorized book-scanning, a federal judge ruled that groups representing authors and photographers could go forward with a class action.

The ruling is a setback for Google which asked Judge Denny Chin earlier this month to remove The Authors Guild and a photographers’ group from the lawsuit. Google had also argued that a class action was not appropriate because many authors were in favor of having their works appear in the company’s search results. Chin’s ruling means the stage is now set for a trial on whether Google’s decision to scan millions of books amounted to fair use under copyright law. This fair use question has triggered passionate debate among lawyers and scholars, and reflects Google’s position at the time it was sued by the Authors’ Guild and a consortium of publishers in 2005.

Google spends more than $9 million on top-level domains

Google has applied for more than 50 top-level domains that include obvious choices like .google and .youtube while also including other, more interesting choices such as a .lol domain.

Google applied for TLDs in four general categories that include its trademarks, words related to its business, like .doc, domains that will improve user experience, and others that it thinks have interesting and creative potential, which is where the .lol came in. With Google applying for more than 50 TLDs, according to Ad Age, and each application costing $185,000, that means the company spent more than $9 million on domains.

ACLU backs Twitter's bid to hide user information

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a brief in a New York state court supporting Twitter's effort to avoid handing over the personal information of one of its users to the police.

Aden Fine, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU said in a statement that the case "is important because law enforcement around the country is becoming increasingly aggressive in its attempts to obtain information about what people are doing and saying on the Internet." "People rely on the Internet to express themselves and to live their lives, and the government shouldn’t be able to get this constitutionally protected information without a warrant and without complying with the First Amendment," Fine said. In its filing, the ACLU argued the subpoena infringes Harris's First Amendment right to free speech and that he has the legal standing to challenge it on his own.

Report claims harsh conditions persist at Apple’s China factories

A labor advocacy group claims Apple has done little to alleviate harsh working conditions at its manufacturing facilities in China.

Apple contracts Foxconn Technology Group to run the massive plants, which employs more than 1 million workers who produce the company’s iPhones, iPods and other gadgets. Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), an independent nonprofit labor advocacy organization, released a report that claims to document continuing worker abuses at the plants despite commitments from Apple and Foxconn executives to address them. SACOM said it interviewed 170 workers at several different research sites for the investigation and found that workers were warned during their employee orientation not to speak to journalists or researchers without permission from management. The workers were also ordered to join a company-controlled union, according to SACOM.

Ambassador Verveer: State Still Working on Broadcast Border Issues

Ambassador Philip Verveer, the State Department's coordinator for international communications and information policy, suggested the State Department is still trying to resolve spectrum coordination issues with Canada and Mexico related to the planned reclamation of spectrum from broadcasters and repacking of the band to make room for wireless broadband, but he suggests no broadcasters will be hurt in the process. Ambassador Verveer said that treaty obligations with Canada and Mexico, combined with the incentive auction legislative mandate "that no one be disadvantaged if they continue to broadcast" creates an engineering challenge.

AT&T Mulls Upgrading Rural Lines Instead Of Selling Them

AT&T, the largest US telephone company, is considering a plan to upgrade its rural phone lines to handle higher-speed Internet service, potentially putting off an effort to sell off the underperforming assets.

AT&T would rely on new copper-line technology to offer faster broadband in areas without access to AT&T’s U-verse fiber-optic network, Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson told investors last week on a conference call hosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The idea is to provide an enhanced version of digital subscriber line, or DSL, technology on existing lines. The move would mark a shift for AT&T, which had identified its rural lines and its Yellow Pages directory service as “underperforming assets” that were dragging down the growth of the company. AT&T sold a majority stake of the Yellow Pages business to Cerberus Capital Management LP for $950 million last month. Rural lines had been next on the block.

Liberty Tells Regulators It Wants Control Of Sirius

John Malone’s Liberty Media -- the holder of interests in businesses ranging from cable programmer Starz LLC to the Atlanta Braves baseball team -- told US regulators it wants to take over Sirius XM Radio.

Liberty plans to assert control of the largest US satellite radio provider after receiving approval from the Federal Communications Commission. Liberty’s move has fueled speculation Malone wants to spin off his stake in Sirius, led by Chief Executive Officer Mel Karmazin. Liberty will probably execute a so-called Reverse Morris Trust, which involves splitting off its Sirius stake as a separate entity and giving its stockholders the option to hold or sell their Sirius shares.

Benton

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