August 2012

Presidential campaigns buy up domain names for 'microsites'

There is no website at theapologistinchief.com or agingrockstar2012.com yet, but these are two of dozens of Web addresses Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has purchased and could use to tweak President Obama. Experts in digital media say campaigns and political organizations of all stripes increasingly use the "microsites" as tools to draw attention to an issue, brand an opposing candidate or raise money around specific themes. "It's absolutely a good strategy," said Vincent Harris, a digital consultant who worked with the GOP presidential campaigns of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. "The shorter, the catchier the name the better." The Obama campaign, so far, has primarily launched websites that promote the president or defend attacks against him — such as on Attackwatch.com. However, the purchase of some domain names such as Mittbot.com, indicate the attacks could be on the horizon.

Big tech forced to answer the phone

This year has seen a momentous change in the shape of the global Internet. More people now access the web on mobile phones than PCs in China, home to the world’s largest population of Internet users. North America and Europe are not far behind in making that digital switchover, as are fast-growing Internet markets such as Turkey and Indonesia. This presents a big challenge to today’s Internet leaders – Google and Facebook, as well as Yahoo and Microsoft – that emerged when most of their customers typically used the web while sitting in front of a large, static screen. Some mobile executives liken accelerating growth in the mobile internet to the disruption print newspapers faced from readers’ shift online. That creates opportunities for so-called mobile-first start-ups to potentially unseat the current leaders.

Deutsche Telekom Gets US Relief As Rivals Cut Subsidies

T-Mobile USA has suffered a continuing exodus of subscribers in the past year as it slashed handset subsidies to boost profitability. Now, moves by Verizon Wireless and AT&T to do the same are giving the Deutsche Telekom unit reprieve.

The two market leaders, under pressure to increase profit margins, have started to scale back offers of cheap upgrades to devices such as Apple’s iPhone, bringing their approach in line with T-Mobile’s. That, along with cost reductions following a failed deal with AT&T, helped the fourth-largest U.S. carrier improve earnings in the second quarter. “We seem to be entering a new phase in the U.S. market,” said Leon Cappaert, who manages 400 million euros ($497 million) at KBC Asset Management in Brussels including shares of Bonn- based Deutsche Telekom. “Margin pressure in the sector is diminishing significantly, and that may mean a positive surprise on the margins for T-Mobile.”

Lawmakers Raise New Concerns About New Domain Name Program

Nearly six months after the program was launched, key members of Congress are still raising concerns about a plan to introduce hundreds of new Internet addresses into the domain name systems, saying they want fresh assurances that the new strings will not harm trademark holders and that the public has adequate opportunity to comment.

The latest salvo came from the top leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, who wrote the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers about its program to allow for the introduction of new generic top-level domain names to compete with the 22 existing addresses including .com and .net. ICANN, a California-based nonprofit that manages the Internet's domain name system, is currently in the process of examining more than 1,900 applications for new names, such as .app, .book, and .music, that it received by its May deadline.

"We are in a critical phase as ICANN determines which [generic top-level domains] to authorize and what policies to implement in the new registries," according to the letter the Judiciary leaders sent to ICANN interim CEO and President Akram Atallah. "We therefore ask that you provide us with further details about the steps ICANN is taking to fulfill its commitment to ensure that the New gTLD process will provide 'a secure, stable marketplace' with input from 'the community as a whole.' "

How the right’s challenge to Chairman Upton fizzled

Rep. Fred Upton’s conservative conversion was the key to his easy victory in his tea party primary challenge.

Once a prime target of the right, the powerful House Commerce Committee chairman is now on his way to the November general election after outspending his Republican opponent, former state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, by a nearly 20-to-1 margin. Heading into the August 7 primary, Michigan pollsters and political observers had Upton up by as much as 30 points. And that’s pretty much where he ended up on election night. With 99.7 percent of the precincts counted, Chairman Upton had 66.6 percent of the vote to Hoogendyk’s 33.4 percent. Frequently criticized for being too moderate during his 26-year House career, Chairman Upton courted pivotal business groups under his powerful panel’s jurisdiction this election cycle to amass a $2 million-plus campaign war chest. And by courting conservatives back in his southwestern Michigan district, Chairman Upton was able to avoid an all-out revolt from the right wing of his party. Perhaps most important, Hoogendyk never got the air support he needed from the Club for Growth. After an initial spate of anti-Upton television ads, the anti-tax group didn’t extend its buy beyond the January run.

A Smarter Approach to Regulation

Since taking office, President Obama has been committed to eliminating red tape and ensuring that when rules are issued to protect safety and health, they are sensitive to the economic situation and attuned to the importance of job creation and economic growth.

As this White House White Board shows, the net benefits, or the benefits minus the costs, of regulations issued through the third fiscal year of the Obama Administration have exceeded $91 billion. This amount, including not only monetary savings but also thousands of lives saved and tens of thousands of illnesses and injuries prevented, is over 25 times the net benefits through the third fiscal year of the previous Administration. What are the ingredients of these benefits? Part of the answer lies in the reduction of regulatory costs. President Obama has created an unprecedented government-wide regulatory “lookback,” designed to revisit rules on the books to see if they really make sense. Government agencies have identified over 580 reform proposals and already acted on over 100 of them. Just a very small fraction of those reforms, already finalized or proposed to the public, will save over $10 billion over the next five years and eliminate tens of millions of hours of paperwork requirements. This is just a beginning. As the reforms continue, we expect to be able to produce far greater savings.

Judge rules GPS tracking rule isn't retroactive

The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing an appeals court decision that says evidence obtained with a GPS tracking device prior to a major Supreme Court decision can be used in court.

The Supreme Court in January ruled that when police use a GPS tracking device, it will be considered a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that decision doesn’t mean evidence police already have obtained with GPS devices must be thrown out. The court ruled that it wouldn’t exclude such evidence from being used at trial because settled law didn’t prohibit it at the time. The case, United States v. Pineda-Moreno, was already in the courts by the time the Supreme Court ruled. And the Ninth Circuit ruled that the decision doesn’t take effect retroactively. “When the agents attached and used the mobile tracking devices that yielded the critical evidence, they did so in objectively reasonable reliance on then-binding precedent,” wrote Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain in the opinion.

Free Wi-Fi catches on with NYC's subway riders

One month in to wireless service being provided in six New York City subway stations, commuters are happy to have chances to connect when their trains head underground and pull into one of the stations with Wi-Fi. The new service is part of a $200 million plan to connect the subway to the outside world.

Transit Wireless, the company in charge of building and designing the network, is working with many carriers to provide cellphone and data connectivity services to all 277 underground stations in New York by 2017. The service, sponsored by Google Offers, is available on train platforms at five stations, all in the Chelsea neighborhood. Customers of T-Mobile and AT&T can also use cellphones in the six stations. Negotiations continue for telecom giants like Verizon and Sprint to join.

Bounce TV Cofounder Tells Senate to Reject DeMint Bill

Add Bounce TV cofounder Martin Luther King III to the list of broadcasters not eager for the Congress to take out the deregulatory broom otherwise known as the Next Generation Television Marketplace Act (S. 2008).

That bill, offered up by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), would sweep away the retrans/must-carry regime as well as the compulsory copyright license and cable and broadcast ownership regulations. In a letter to Sen. Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) dated Aug. 3, King said it was "critical" that Rockefeller's committee reject the bill. Currently the Senate is on August recess, and nothing is likely to happen on that front until the next Congress anyway. But the issue or major FCC regulation reform continues to be on many minds in Washington, including Rockefeller's at a recent hearing on the 1992 Cable Act at which the DeMint bill was a topic of discussion.

Disinformation flies in Syria's growing cyber war

As the situation on the ground becomes ever more bloody, both sides in Syria are also waging what seems to be an intensifying conflict in cyberspace, often attempting to use misinformation and rumor to tilt the war in reality.

"It's not surprising that Syria has attempted to develop a cyber warfare capability. It's in line with their chemical and biological warfare programs and their aspirations as a regional power," said John Bassett, former senior official at British signals intelligence agency GCHQ and now a senior fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute. "But the regime's technical capabilities look pretty basic, and the opposition hacking of the personal emails of Assad and his wife earlier this year show the regime's cyber defenses have serious weaknesses." The opposition too, many suspect, have been doing what they can do to spread rumors about their opponents.

Benton

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