May 2012

Internet punishes Romney for believing in 'Amercia'

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."

White House fights back against hackers

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.

New Award to Honor Political Ad Reporting

As part of its campaign to raise the level of political discourse, the Annenberg Public Policy Center is inaugurating the Cronkite/Jackson Prize to recognize the best local and network reporting on the accuracy of political advertising.

"We hope the industry will submit its best examples so we can praise what is good...," said APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson in announcing the award. Two Cronkite/Jackson Awards will be given — one to a TV station or group and one to a broadcast or cable network. The award is named for CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite and Brooks Jackson, who pioneered the broadcast “adwatch” and “factcheck” form of stories debunking false and misleading political statements while at CNN and founded APPC’s award-winning FactCheck.org in 2003.

Google’s Schmidt Said To Be Set For Questioning By FTC

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is set for questioning by the Federal Trade Commission as the agency speeds up its antitrust probe of the world’s most popular search engine, according to three people familiar with the situation. Schmidt’s deposition is slated to take place as soon as next week, one of the people said. FTC investigators are also interviewing two lower level Google officials this week, another of the people said. The three people declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

House Approves FCC Reform Bill

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.

FCC Warned About Cellphone Interruption Guidance

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."

FCC Issues Cable Pricing Survey

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.

Lawmakers introduce measure to fight UN regulation of the Net

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).

FCC’s McDowell: ITU Net Governance Is Clear & Present Danger

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."

ICANN to Reveal Proposed Domain Names June 13

Those anxiously waiting to find out what new names may be introduced to the Internet's domain name system will finally find out on June 13. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group that manages the domain name system, unveiled a new timeline related to its controversial new domain name program.

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