May 2012

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012

Today, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing on “International Proposals to Regulate the Internet.” (see preview below) http://benton.org/calendar/2012-05-31/

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Where's the outcry on the UN push to regulate the Internet?
   US Firms Challenge Web-Oversight Proposals
   Lawmakers introduce measure to fight UN regulation of the Net
   FCC’s McDowell: ITU Net Governance Is Clear & Present Danger
   ICANN to Reveal Proposed Domain Names June 13 [links to web]
   Amazon May End Up Sharing California Tax
   Broadband availability inches up again in Minnesota [links to web]
   Internet Video To Keep Eating More Bandwidth: Cisco Study
   Here’s what our web addiction looks like in 2016
   Maybe it’s time to rethink how we fund broadband - op-ed

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Wireless Industry Likes Spectrum Sharing, but Still Wants More
   The Great Bandwidth Brawl
   Profits may elude mobile challengers
   Everyone has a mobile problem: not just Facebook
   Scary times ahead for smartphone vendors, says analyst [links to web]

CYBERSECURITY
   With Plan X, Pentagon seeks to spread U.S. military might to cyberspace
   White House fights back against hackers
   White House’s Schmidt leaving government in a much different cyber place [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Seven Behavioral Ad Companies Called Out

CONTENT
   Apple digs in on e-book lawsuit, says Jobs’ quotes will ‘speak for themselves’
   2 Publishers Deny Claim of E-Book Price Fixing
   Google: Search Activity Rising Following Revamp
   Some Clear Facts About Google's "Transparency" Report - editorial

OWNERSHIP
   Facebook IPO Review Finds No Listing Violations
   Google’s Schmidt Said To Be Set For Questioning By FTC [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   How political ads can elect a president - op-ed
   Internet punishes Romney for believing in 'Amercia'
   Fox releases 4-minute attack on Obama
   Silicon Valley donations to Obama reach record levels
   New Award to Honor Political Ad Reporting [links to web]

TELEVISION
   FCC Issues Cable Pricing Survey

FCC REFORM
   House Approves FCC Reform Bill

POLICYMAKERS
   Rick Kaplan, FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief, To Step Down; Ruth Milkman To Return As Bureau Chief - press release
   White House’s Schmidt leaving government in a much different cyber place [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Is Philanthropy Print Journalism's Last Hope? - op-ed
   New Award to Honor Political Ad Reporting [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   FCC Warned About Cellphone Interruption Guidance
   Bill banning warrantless cellphone tracking clears California Senate [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
These headlines presented in partnership with:

   Conviction in Thailand Worries Web Users
   Next steps on Network Neutrality - press release
   Search for a solution among the subplots
   Hunt aide told News Corp of license fee deal
   Canada slowly abandoning efforts to digitally archive its national history [links to web]
   Korea Fair Trade Commission Raids Google. Again.
   Germany in trouble with EC over lack of ISP, telecom data retention
   French Court Sides With Google in YouTube Case

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

WHERE’S THE OUTCRY?
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Nina Easton]
The bureaucrats at the United Nations, prodded by developing countries and exemplars of democracy like Russia and China, have hit on an enticing new way to control global communication and commerce: They want to regulate the Internet. It's one of those rare issues in this heated campaign season that is uniting the political left, right, and middle in Washington. Business leaders beyond Silicon Valley would be smart to sit up and take notice, too -- and fast. American opponents are being seriously outpaced by United Nations (UN) plans to tax and regulate that are already grinding forward in advance of a December treaty negotiation in Dubai. "Having the UN or any international community regulate the Internet only means you're going to have the lowest common denominator of 193 countries," notes Richard Grenell, who served as spokesman and adviser to four US ambassadors to the UN between 2001 and 2009. The conduit is a little known UN agency called the International Telecommunication Union, which coordinates cross-border issues such as radio spectrum and satellite orbits. At the December 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai (bureaucratically titled the WCIT-12) the ITU will consider expanding its purview to the Internet. That may be six months away -- but ITU working groups are already laying the groundwork. Behind the effort are efficient censor machines like China, and autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who last year declared his desire to establish "international control" of the Internet. These are "not exactly bastions of Internet freedom," as Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio put it during a hearing last month. "Any place that bans certain terms from search should not be a leader in an international Internet regulatory framework."
benton.org/node/124527 | Fortune
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CHALLENGE TO WEB OVERSIGHT PROPOSALS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: ]
AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Intel and many other companies are backing a US effort to block a United Nations agency from extending its powers to the Internet. They say new regulation could increase costs for US corporations offering online services abroad. The current system of voluntary Internet regulation is dominated by ICANN, a US-based nonprofit that oversees Web addresses, and nonprofit groups that develop network standards. At a conference last year, ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Touré acknowledged that "some countries are wary of excessive regulation" but said a global framework of Internet regulation was necessary because of the convergence of services online. He said the framework would help "avoid any catastrophe" and "help to ensure the continued growth and prosperity of a sector that is a significant contributor to the gross national product of most countries." US Internet and content providers are particularly concerned about proposals that would allow the ITU to set rates for the exchange of Internet data across borders. Currently, Internet providers such as AT&T reach private agreements with other international phone companies for handing off Internet traffic as it goes across the world. US broadband providers are concerned the ITU would set higher rates for such "peering" agreements to allow countries with state-owned telecommunications systems to make back some of the revenue they have been losing over the past few years as phone calls have moved to the Internet. US Internet companies are concerned they could also get hit with new fees for providing services to global audiences.
benton.org/node/124602 | Wall Street Journal
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UN NET REGULATION BILL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee introduced a resolution urging the Obama Administration to oppose efforts to give the United Nations more control over the Internet. Proposals to give the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) more control over the governance of the Internet could come up at a conference in Dubai in December. The move is backed by China, Russia, Brazil, India and other UN members, but is opposed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as the Obama administration. The resolution introduced would encourage the United States delegation “to promote a global Internet free from government control and preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet today.” Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) introduced the resolution with the support of Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and ranking subcommittee member Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
benton.org/node/124566 | Hill, The | National Journal
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MCDOWELL TESTIMONY PREVIEW
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell will tell Congress that there should be no doubt of the bipartisan resolve to resist effort by the International Telecommunications Union to expand its authority over Internet governance, a threat he said is real and "lethal" to Internet freedom. In testimony before the House Communications Subcommittee, Commissioner McDowell will say that the ITU proposal is a threat, and an imminent one given the planned renegotiation next December of the 1988 treaty that insulated the net from economic and technological regulation. "What proponents of Internet freedom do or don't do between now and then will determine the fate of the Net, affect global economic growth and determine whether political liberty can proliferate," he argues. He says the most "lethal" threat may not be a frontal assault but an attack on the foundation via "seemingly innocuous expansions of intergovernmental power." McDowell says that has already begun through a form of double-speak. "While influential ITU Member States have put forth proposals calling for overt legal expansions of United Nations' or ITU authority over the Net, ITU officials have publicly declared that the ITU does not intend to regulate Internet governance while also saying that any regulations should be of the "light-touch" variety," says Commissioner McDowell. "But which is it? It is not possible to insulate the Internet from new rules while also establishing a new 'light touch' regulatory regime."
benton.org/node/124564 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AMAZON SALES TAX
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Letzing]
Amazon is now bringing jobs to a growing number of states. But two California cities are pondering whether they might wind up handing some of the resulting tax windfall right back to the Internet retail giant. The pressures facing San Bernardino and Patterson—which each expect to gain around 1,000 jobs by hosting new Amazon shipping centers—could be shared by other local governments angling to court big companies to help bolster their economies. Amazon representatives asked a number of months ago whether San Bernardino would be open to discussions about sharing sales-tax revenue with the company, said Jim Morris, chief of staff for his father, Patrick Morris, the city's mayor. The parties haven't discussed the matter since, he said.
benton.org/node/124600 | Wall Street Journal
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INTERNET VIDEO AND BANDWIDTH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Internet video consumption will more than quadruple from 2011 to 2016, as billions of users worldwide -- with more devices, on increasingly faster connections -- will drive overall network traffic usage to unprecedented peaks, according to Cisco Systems' latest annual network forecast. By 2016, the amount of annual global Internet-protocol traffic will be 1.3 Zettabytes (equivalent to 1.3 trillion Gigabytes), according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast for 2011-2016. By comparison, the total amount of IP traffic estimated from 1984 at the dawn of the Internet through the end of 2012 was 1.2 Zettabytes. "Even we have to take a step back and be astonished at the volume of traffic," Cisco VNI senior analyst Arielle Sumits said. By 2016, Cisco expects there to be 3.4 billion Internet users -- about 45% of the world's projected population, according to United Nations estimates. The average fixed broadband speed is expected to increase nearly fourfold, from 9 Megabits per second in 2011 to 34 Mbps in 2016. And video is the biggest chunk out of the overall rapidly expanding pie.
benton.org/node/124542 | Multichannel News
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OUR WEB ADDITICTION
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
We’re on pace to generate 1.3 zettabytes of data in 2016, about four times more than we create today, according to the latest data out from Cisco. To put that in perspective, Cisco helpfully tells us that’s more than 38 million DVDs streamed in an hour. Or, you can think of it as a 1 followed by 21 zeros. The telecom gear maker offered up its fifth annual assessment of future broadband growth on fixed, managed and wireless networks around the world. And to no one’s surprise, as individuals, households and countries we’re just going to keep boosting our broadband use. Around the world last year people generated 30.7 exabytes of data per month from a total of 10.3 billion connections. That’s a lot until you compare it to Cisco’s projections of the world generating roughly 110 exabytes per month from 18.9 billion connections. That’s a ton of growth, so what do the stats really tell us? Broadly it tells us the growth comes from existing users doing more online while toting more devices, and also from people around the world without connections today who are joining the World Wide Web. Cisco estimates that on average, individuals generated an average of 11.5 gigabytes of data per month. That’s a lot until you compare it to Cisco’s projections of an individual consuming an average of 32.3 GB per month. And as the chart below shows, we’ll be online and so will our vehicles and homes.
benton.org/node/124541 | GigaOm
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FUNDING BROADBAND
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Last week’s announcement that a $200 million broadband investment fund is in play courtesy of Gigabit Squared is part of a quiet trend of communities searching for new ways to fund broadband. Technologies such as desktop PCs, local area networks and mobile applications moved from their infancy to full-blown industries thanks to venture capitalists, investment firms and angel investors who drop big-to-huge bucks on promising startups. For better or worse, these investors drove industries to maturity. Expect the investment scenario for broadband to be different. Few view broadband networks as startup businesses, but maybe more should. Many communities believe broadband is critical infrastructure, the same as water, electricity and highways. Enlightened communities also know these networks are business operations, even when in pursuit of the common good. The networks must generate revenue, though the financial goal for community-run and muni-run networks is more sustainability for the infrastructure rather than profit.
benton.org/node/124536 | GigaOm
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

WIRELESS WANTS MORE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
Q&A with Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, the trade association for the wireless industry. Recently, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) urged President Obama to adopt computer technologies so that better use is made of radio spectrum for wireless communications. The report says that newer radio technologies could help share spectrum among, say, government agencies and companies, and thereby increase capacity a thousand fold. In other words, the technologies would help carriers serve the exploding number of data-guzzling smartphones and tablets on the market. But the carriers in recent years have claimed they need to acquire additional spectrum, citing a looming “spectrum crisis.” Guttman-McCabe said that CTIA members were excited about the idea of spectrum sharing, but that giving the carriers more spectrum should still remain the government’s top priority.
benton.org/node/124580 | New York Times
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GREAT BANDWIDTH BRAWL
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: Tom Simonite]
Wireless carriers are increasingly looking for creative tactics that will relieve pressure on their networks. "Spectrum is certainly a limiting factor, but carriers are also constrained by a number of other things, too, particularly backhaul," says Bill Moore of RootMetrics, which gathers data on cell-phone network bandwidth and other performance measures that are freely available online. Backhaul refers to the physical connections that link cell-phone towers to the Internet and phone networks. All carriers are working hard to upgrade their backhaul, replacing copper cable with high-capacity optical fiber. Getting the necessary permissions to replace or install underground fiber is a slow process, says Bryan Darr, CEO of Mosaik Solutions, which collects data on wireless network coverage. That explains Verizon's alliance with a consortium of major cable companies to connect their networks, announced late last year. "The cable operators have an awful lot of cable in the ground that's capable of handling a lot of traffic," says Darr. "They also know themselves that they need to be connected to the wireless industry because that's where the future of content like TV is." A way to sidestep bottlenecks caused by constraints on spectrum and backhaul is to have smart phones and tablets make use of Wi-Fi as much as possible, says Darr.
benton.org/node/124523 | Technology Review
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PROFITS ELUDE MOBILE CHALLENGERS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters]
The revolution in consumer electronics touched off by Apple is bringing some unlikely names to the fore in the business of phones and other hardware. But the chance that the newcomers will have any better luck than the old guard that is now in retreat still looks like a long shot. Google’s completion of its Motorola Mobility purchase, and Research In Motion’s disclosure that it has hired bankers to consider its financial options are the latest headlines to underline this change. The names that once led the upper end of the handset business have been eclipsed with remarkable speed in the five years since the arrival of the iPhone. RIM, Motorola and Nokia, which is burning cash fast, have shown how inhospitable the hardware world can be when changing fashions and falling volumes expose the high fixed costs of the incumbents. The new kids on the block bear unlikely names: Google, Amazon and, showing sporadic signs of interest, Microsoft. Facebook is at an earlier stage in its development as it looks to follow its users beyond the PC, but if persistent reports of a “Facebook phone” are anything to go by, it could eventually follow.
benton.org/node/124597 | Financial Times
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EVERYONE HAS A MOBILE PROBLEM
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Tom Krazit]
It’s the question that has dogged Facebook all year and likely contributed to its IPO fiasco: does Facebook have a mobile problem? According to Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins, it does: but then so does every Internet company trying to figure out how to make money in the mobile landgrab. During her latest presentation on the tech landscape at D: All Things Digital, Meeker pointed out that the factors that caused Facebook to warn investors about how increased mobile usage is changing its business model are universal. Mobile traffic now accounts for 10 percent of overall traffic and overall mobile revenue is surging, but companies built around desktop-web economics are scared by the fact that mobile ads are seen as far less valuable: five times less valuable than desktop Internet ads, Meeker said. And even companies that have figured out how to get users to actually pay them for their products–think Tencent and Zynga–are taking in far less revenue per mobile subscriber than per desktop subscriber. That implies that companies born entirely of the mobile era might have an advantage, but not necessarily, as those companies haven’t really figured this out yet either.
benton.org/node/124561 | GigaOm | WSJ | WashPost
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CYBERSECURITY

PLAN X
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
The Pentagon is turning to the private sector, universities and even computer game companies as part of an ambitious effort to develop technologies to improve its cyberwarfare capabilities, launch effective attacks and withstand the likely retaliation. The previously unreported effort, which its authors have dubbed Plan X, marks a new phase in the nation’s fledgling military operations in cyberspace, which have focused more on protecting the Defense Department’s own computer systems than on disrupting or destroying those of enemies. Plan X is a project of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Pentagon agency that focuses on experimental efforts and has a key role in harnessing computing power to help the military wage war more effectively.
benton.org/node/124579 | Washington Post
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FIGHT AGAINST HACKERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Obama Administration announced a series of steps aimed at combating botnets — networks of computers that hackers take over and use to spread spam or attack websites. Botnets have become a favorite weapon of hacker groups such as Anonymous that use them to overwhelm the servers of government and industry websites. After discussions with government agencies, an industry working group outlined a set of voluntary principles for companies to reduce the impact of botnets, while a financial industry group announced a pilot project for sharing information about the attacks. Several companies, along with the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Trade Commission, unveiled an education campaign called "Keep a Clean Machine" to teach consumers how to prevent their computers from being taken over by hackers.
benton.org/node/124574 | Hill, The | Bloomberg | FCC Chairman Genachowski
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PRIVACY

BEHAVORIAL ADVERTISING
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Melissa Hoffmann]
Seven companies from the online data targeting world were urged to modify the way they inform consumers and enable them to opt-out of behavioral ads in order to conform to best practices outlined by the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. As a result, BlueCava, Turn, DataXu, Oxamedia, Gravity and Rovion have all taken action to address concerns raised by the council based on multiple investigations -- concerns related to consumer disclosures, opting out across devices, and the effectiveness and duration of opt-out mechanisms. That's despite Gravity and Rovion's contention that neither company actually participates in behavioral targeting. Oxamedia was unaware of the ASRC principles, but still agreed to make changes to become compliant, said officials. A seventh company that also claimed it does not engage in online behavioral advertising, Facilitate Digital Holdings, agreed to change its opt-out cookie’s duration to the industry standard of five years, but has not yet done so, according to the ASRC.
benton.org/node/124596 | AdWeek
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CONTENT

APPLE DIGS IN
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
In a new pushback over its role in an ongoing e-book controversy, Apple said that Steve Jobs’ widely reported quotes on Amazon and book publishers “will speak for themselves.” The company also denied once again that it conspired to fix prices. Apple set out the claims in a legal filing this week that responds to a sprawling class action suit. The suit seeks millions on behalf of consumers who allegedly overpaid for e-books after Apple and publishers changed to agency pricing. The new filing is part of a complicated legal two-step in which Apple and two publishers are fighting both Justice Department antitrust claims and a parallel suit in which class action lawyers and state governments seek money. Apple’s latest arguments comes after a colorful filing last week in which it said the Justice Department’s case was “fundamentally flawed” and mischaracterized Steve Jobs’ description of an “akido move” on Amazon.
benton.org/node/124535 | paidContent.org | ars technica
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PUBLISHERS’ RESPONSES ON E-BOOK PRICING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Julie Bosman]
The government’s complaint “piles innuendo on top of innuendo.” It is based “entirely on the little circumstantial evidence it was able to locate.” And it “sides with a monopolist.” These arguments were part of a response by two publishers, Penguin Group USA and Macmillan, to a Justice Department lawsuit filed in April that accused five major publishing houses of conspiring with Apple to fix the price of e-books. Three of the publishers, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and the Hachette Book Group, denied violating antitrust laws but agreed last month to settle with the government. Penguin and Macmillan, which declined to settle, filed responses in United States District Court in New York, not only denying that they had fixed prices but also taking direct aim at Amazon, the online retailer that has emerged as a significant threat to the longstanding business model for publishers.
benton.org/node/124603 | New York Times
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GOOGLE SEARCH ACTIVITY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amir Efrati]
Google said it has seen a noticeable increase in activity on its vaunted Web-search in the two weeks since the company began one of the biggest search transformations in its history. People doing Web searches now see a big box of information and photos related to search queries such as sports teams (try typing “San Francisco Giants”), geography (try “Matterhorn”), attractions (try “Matterhorn Bobsleds”), celebrities (try “Pink”), and science (try “Jupiter” or “Einstein”) located prominently on the right of the search results page. Before the change, Google users might have seen relevant search ads, content boxes with information from Google+, the company’s social network, or nothing at all. The new feature currently draws upon information from sites like Wikipedia, as well as music and movie catalogs that Google has licensed, among other things.
benton.org/node/124546 | Wall Street Journal
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RIAA RESPONDS TO GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Recording Industry Association of America, AUTHOR: Brad Buckles]
Google published a “Transparency Report” showing the number of requests it receives from copyright owners to remove search links to infringing material. In its blog posting, Google acknowledged that fighting piracy is very important and that it doesn’t want search results directing people to materials that violate copyright laws. It is good to see that Google agrees with this fundamental principle and continues to take steps to deter infringement. Transparency is also important -- knowing which infringing sites receive the most notices presents an important red flag regarding those sites. But even more transparency is needed to fully understand the scope of the problem. Knowing the total number of links to infringing material available and the limitations Google imposes on rights owners to search for infringements reveals how meager the number of notices is relative to the vast amount of infringement. After all, as recently highlighted here, search for any major recording artist’s track and the term “mp3,” and you’ll find that most of the very first results offered by Google direct people to infringing material. Unfortunately, one sees similar results when one searches for any popular creative content followed by the words “free download.” On the one hand, Google states that it processes an overwhelming number of notices. On the other hand, Google’s data misleads by calculating that the DMCA notice requests represent a tiny fraction of the pages on even the most recidivist sites. Let’s review some facts.
benton.org/node/124558 | Recording Industry Association of America
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OWNERSHIP

INTITIAL FINDING ABOUT FACEBOOK IPO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Andrew Ackerman]
Regulators probing Facebook listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market haven't found any evidence of industry rule violations and view the botched offering as a technical failure, according to a person familiar with the matter. Members of Congress, regulators and state officials are looking for foul play nearly two weeks after one of the largest initial public offerings fizzled during its first day on Nasdaq, leading to an estimated $100 million in initial trading losses. Yet so far, federal regulators have found no clear-cut signs that securities laws or industry rules were broken, at least in the actual listing on Nasdaq OMX Group’s exchange, the person said. Even if there are no violations in the technical exchange listing, a large group of investors is disappointed by the trading hiccups and steep stock declines, leading to complaints about other aspects of IPO, including disclosures by the underwriters. When its own review is complete, the Securities and Exchange Commission may recommend adjusting rules for the pricing of IPOs, perhaps temporarily delaying trading of a stock after the initial price is set, the person said.
benton.org/node/124599 | Wall Street Journal
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: CNN, AUTHOR: Julian Zelizer]
[Commentary] Television spots are the medium through which the modern campaign is fought. The success or failure of the candidates at producing effective advertisements could have a huge influence on the outcome in November. Each side of the campaign will spend inordinate amounts of money to pay for 30-second advertisements -- which will also be spread through the Internet -- that seek to define the message of the campaign of 2012 and the terms of the fight.
[Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University]
benton.org/node/124529 | CNN
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WITH MITT IN AMERCIA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Salvador Rodriguez]
The Internet just became Mitt Romney's worst enemy. The Republican presidential nominee released a new iPhone app called "With Mitt," which lets you take pictures with various stencil overlays promoting his presidential campaign. But it seems the Romney campaign didn't give the app enough scrutiny before putting it out into the wilds of the Internet, because among the stencils is one that reads "A Better Amercia." Oh yes, that's right: "Amercia." And though the app gets the word right in three of its other stencils, the Internet is not forgiving. If you search "Amercia" on Facebook, you will find pages for "Amercian Eagle," "Captain Amercia," and "Amercian Idol." Meanwhile on Tumblr, numerous users have begun uploading pictures poking fun at the mistake, including one picture showing "Amercian Pie" and "Bank of Amercia" and another using the stencil overlay on top of a Google search for "Attention to detail."
benton.org/node/124576 | Los Angeles Times
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FOX ATTACKS OBAMA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dylan Byers]
[Commentary] So much for "Fair and Balanced." The Fox News program "Fox & Friends" has produced a four-minute video attacking President Obama. For all its blatantly conservative programming, Fox News does a pretty incredible job of swearing up and down that it's nonpartisan. But it's kind of impossible to see how you walk this one back. Bill Shine, Executive Vice President of Programming, said, “The package that aired on FOX & Friends was created by an associate producer and was not authorized at the senior executive level of the network. This has been addressed with the show’s producers.”
benton.org/node/124560 | Politico
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SILICON VALLEY AND OBAMA
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
Last week, President Barack Obama swung through Silicon Valley, taking in nearly $13 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to Politico. That’s more than at the same point four years ago, when he brought in $9.1 million. However, the political site points out, while there’s more money coming in, it’s coming in from fewer sources. "A Politico analysis of federal campaign finance reports shows that the president received 12,000 contributions of $200 or more from Silicon Valley through this point in 2008 but only 6,400 so far in this election cycle," the site reported. “A small set of e-elites, 36 in all, had given the president $35,800 maximum checks through the end of March. The group includes familiar names such as Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who is one of four executives from his company to max out to Obama." Not surprisingly, the Valley largely swings to the left, but Mitt Romney has attracted some tech superstars, like Marc Andreesen, the venture capitalist and founder of Netscape, who has given the Republican challenger $100,000 this year—Andreesen was an Obama supporter in 2008. According to Politico, Romney has only taken in $1.76 million so far from the California tech community.
benton.org/node/124543 | Ars Technica
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TELEVISION

FCC CABLE SURVEY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A random sampling of cable operators will be receiving survey forms from the Federal Communications Commission and have until July 27 to supply cable service and equipment pricing information. The FCC is required by the 1992 Cable Act to publish an average rate for service and equipment. In addition, the FCC collects data on the number of channels offered in each service, what advanced services, including Internet access, are available, and whether there is a so-called "family tier" offered. The survey actually includes two random samples, one of operators where the FCC has granted effective competition petitions -- meaning basic rates have been deregulated -- and a sample of other communities where such petitions have not been granted. The Cable Act also requires the FCC to compare the rates in each group.
benton.org/node/124567 | Broadcasting&Cable
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FCC REFORM

FCC REFORM BILL MOVES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The House approved by voice vote the Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2012 (HR 3310). That is the broadcaster- and cable-backed bill that would, among other things, require the FCC to conduct a biennial survey of the state of competition in the marketplace that it publishes online and submits to Congress. The FCC already conducts a quadrennial (originally biennial) reg review. But unlike that process, in this review, the FCC would be required to take into account competition from the Internet. The bill, which was backed by Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Communications Subcommittee Chair Greg Walden (R-OR), would consolidate eight separate congressionally mandated reports into that single report. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), who backs the bill, said she supported the bill's effort to reduce reporting burdens and to have the FCC look more comprehensively at the marketplace, particularly with the addition of an amendment that insures the FCC can look at all forms of competition when assessing the marketplace.
benton.org/node/124570 | Broadcasting&Cable
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POLICYMAKERS

RICK KAPLAN, FCC WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUREAU CHIEF, TO STEP DOWN; RUTH MILKMAN TO RETURN AS BUREAU CHIEF
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that Rick Kaplan will step down as Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and that Ruth Milkman, currently Special Counsel to the Chairman for Innovation in Government, will succeed Kaplan as Bureau Chief. The change will be effective mid-June.
Milkman served as Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau from August 2009 to June 2011, and occupied various roles at the Commission between 1986 and 1998, including Deputy Chief of the International and Common Carrier Bureaus, and Senior Legal Advisor to Chairman Reed Hundt. She also was a founding partner of Lawler, Metzger, Milkman & Keeney, LLC, and served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She received her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
benton.org/node/124544
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JOURNALISM

PHILANTROPY AND JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Peter Osnos]
[Commentary] It was startling to read last week that the Ford Foundation was awarding a two-year grant of $1.04 million to the Los Angeles Times for the hiring of reporters. The money will be used for coverage of immigration issues, including the Korean and Vietnamese communities, the California prison system, and the border region with Mexico, and to staff a bureau in Brazil. Ford has long been a supporter of journalism, with an emphasis on public broadcasting and nonprofit enterprises. But this grant represents a different approach: support for a newspaper currently in bankruptcy that has endured years of cutbacks in its resources and revenues. While still the most formidable news organization in California, the Los Angeles Times carries the stigma of its acquisition by Sam Zell, the real estate magnate whose purchase of the Tribune Co. in 2007 was a disaster that remains unresolved and in litigation. Foundation grants are not generally thought to provide support for institutions in trouble, but rather to give backing to innovation and enterprises solely operating in the public interest. While journalism in all ways aims to perform the traditional accountability function that is the ne plus ultra of news gathering, the Los Angeles Times is a business. And, despite all of its reverses in recent years, it is still measured in the marketplace by an ability to pay its way using revenues from circulation and advertising. So what explains Ford's grant, an unprecedented gesture of largesse to a once-mighty profit maker fallen on hard times?
benton.org/node/124533 | Atlantic, The
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CELLPHONE INTERRUPTION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission is getting an earful from public activist groups on its proposal to provide guidance on the circumstances under which cellphone service can be interrupted. The groups -- which include Public Knowledge, Free Press, The Center for Media Justice and the Benton Foundation -- say the comments filed so far show that there is hardly a consensus about legitimate grounds for interruptions and warn the FCC that it should be wary of efforts to balance "speculative harms" to public safety against fundamental speech rights. They are skeptical that the commission can codify wireless interruption policies without seriously infringing speech rights or inviting increased usage of those interruptions. But they also argue that leaving such interruption decision to multiple state and local authorities will only result in uncertainty. So, they want the FCC to weigh in, but with the message that such interruptions are "extremely disfavored."
benton.org/node/124568 | Broadcasting&Cable | read the filing
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
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THAI CONVICTION WORRIES WEB USERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: James Hookway]
A Thai court convicted a local webmaster for failing to quickly delete posts considered insulting to Thailand's royal family, adding to world-wide concerns over governments adopting increasingly tough tactics to police the Internet. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, 44 years old, escaped a potential 20-year prison term, instead being fined 20,000 baht ($630) and given an eight-month suspended sentence. Still, Internet businesses operating in Thailand, including websites operated by global giants such as Google, will likely be chilled by the ruling, which sets a precedent for prosecuting website owners for what their users say online.
benton.org/node/124591 | Wall Street Journal
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EU STEPS ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: European Commission, AUTHOR: Neelie Kroes]
When it comes to the issue of “net neutrality” I want to ensure that Internet users can always choose full Internet access – that is, access to a robust, best-efforts Internet with all the applications you wish. But I don’t like to intervene in competitive markets unless I am sure this is the only way to help either consumers or companies. Preferably both. In particular because a badly designed remedy may be worse than the disease – producing unforeseen harmful effects long into the future. So I wanted better data before acting on net neutrality. I will prepare recommendations to generate more real choices and end the net neutrality waiting game in Europe.
First, consumers need clear information on actual, real-life broadband speeds. Not just the speed at 3 am, but the speed at peak times. The upload as well as the download speed. The minimum speed, if applicable. And the speed you’ll get when you’re also watching IPTV as part of your triple-play bundle, or downloading a video on demand via a premium “managed” service. Plus, you should know what those advertised speeds typically allow you to do online
Second, consumers also need clear information on the limits of what they are paying for. Clear, quantified data ceilings are much better than vague “fair use” policies that leave too much discretion to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). They allow low-volume users to look for deals that suit them. And they incentivize ISPs to price data volumes in ways that reflect costs, and so support investment in modernizing networks as traditional voice revenues decline.
Third, consumers also need to know if they are getting Champagne or lesser sparkling wine. If it is not full Internet, it shouldn’t be marketed as such; perhaps it shouldn’t be marketed as “Internet” at all, at least not without any upfront qualification. Regulators should have that kind of control over how ISPs market the service.
But I do not propose to force each and every operator to provide full Internet: it is for consumers to vote with their feet. If consumers want to obtain discounts because they only plan to use limited online services, why stand in their way? And we don’t want to create obstacles to entrepreneurs who want to provide tailored connected services or service bundles, whether it’s for social networking, music, smart grids, eHealth or whatever. But I want to be sure that these consumers are aware of what they are getting, and what they are missing.
benton.org/node/124526 | European Commission
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LEVESON INQUIRY UPDATE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Fenton]
Like one of the multi-episode Scandinavian crime dramas currently in vogue on British television, the Leveson inquiry has emanated sub-plots, spin-off dramas and red herrings by the bushel. These have often distracted attention from the main purpose of the inquiry: to work out how the scandal over phone-hacking and press ethics can be prevented from happening again. Yet, amid the theatre surrounding Tony Blair’s testimony and the political frenzy ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s, this week has brought some of the most animated exchanges so far on the future shape of press regulation in Britain. Blair, the former prime minister, floated the idea of rules to separate news and comment in newspapers as part of a “change in culture” across the UK press. Michael Gove, the education secretary, in contrast urged caution before the big foot of state intervention came anywhere near press freedoms. Siding with editors who fear statutory intervention, he told Lord Justice Leveson: “I’m unashamedly on the side of those who say that we should think very carefully before legislation and regulation because the cry ‘Something must be done’ often leads to people doing something which isn’t always wise.” Lord Justice Leveson is looking for a simple answer to a question he first asked last July when he received his warrant to inquire: if the press are the guardians of our freedom, who guards the guardians? At the end of the evidence from his scores of witnesses, he asks each to offer their vision of a future regulatory system.
benton.org/node/124593 | Financial Times
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HUNT AIDE GAVE NEWS CORP INFO
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kiran Stacey, Hannah Kuchler, Ben Fenton]
Jeremy Hunt’s closest adviser leaked information to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp about how much the government was going to charge viewers for the television license fee, evidence submitted to the Leveson inquiry shows. As the culture secretary prepares to testify at the inquiry on May 31 about whether he had too close a relationship with the media company, a revealing new set of emails has emerged. They show Adam Smith, Hunt’s former special adviser, telling Frédéric Michel, a lobbyist working for News Corp, that the license fee settlement would be frozen until 2017. The email was sent on October 19 2010, a day before George Osborne, the chancellor, formally announced the decision as part of a spending review. The decision was one of significant commercial interest to News Corp. Murdoch and his company’s executives have repeatedly complained that the license fee-funded BBC is too large and well-financed to allow competitors to flourish.
benton.org/node/124592 | Financial Times
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GOOGLE RAID TWO
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Paczkowski]
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) raided Google’s offices in Seoul on May 28. This is the second time the agency has busted in on Google’s South Korean headquarters, and appears to be a response to the search behemoth’s resistance to the KFTC’s Android-related antitrust investigation. Sources say the agency believes Google impeded its probe by deleting documents and asking employees to telecommute while it was occurring.
benton.org/node/124555 | Wall Street Journal
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GERMANY IN TROUBLE WITH EC OVER LACK OF ISP, TELECOM DATA RETENTION
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
The European Commission is preparing to refer Germany to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, for failing to introduce a new law that would put it in line with the European data retention directive, according to a new report from Reuters. In 2006, the EU passed a directive in the wake of the London and Madrid terrorist attacks that compels ISPs and telecommunications companies to retain all e-mails, phone calls, and related data. These directives, while mandated from Brussels, must be written into the law of each of the 27 member states at the national level. However, since the directive, Germany, Romania, and the Czech Republic have had their national laws overturned by their courts.
benton.org/node/124553 | Ars Technica
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COURT SIDES WITH YOUTUBE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Pfanner]
A French court on May 29 dismissed a copyright lawsuit against Google’s online video-sharing platform, YouTube, in a case that has parallels with the long-running struggle between YouTube and Viacom in the United States. The Tribunal de Grande Instance declared that YouTube, which lets people post videos to the site, had made sufficiently adequate efforts to remove programs like “Heroes” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for which TF1, the biggest television company in France, owned French broadcasting rights. TF1 had sought €141 million, or $176 million, in damages. Instead, it was ordered to pay €80,000 for Google’s legal expenses. The decision “represents a victory for the Internet and for all those who depend on the Web to exchange ideas and information,” said Christophe Mueller, YouTube’s head of partnerships for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
benton.org/node/124547 | New York Times
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