August 29, 2012 (Media and Elections)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2012
Privacy on today’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2012-08-26--P1W/
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Groups Want Two Major US Parties to Support Internet 'freedom'
GOP platform adopts Internet freedom plank
GOP platform slams Obama administration on cybersecurity
Republican Party Platform Advocates More TV Obscenity Prosecutions
Social media 'staged' at conventions?
How the Media Adapt When News Is Scarce
Voters still tuned in to traditional news media, poll finds
Convention coverage is a no-win situation for broadcasters
Google: Making it easier to cast your ballot [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Is the FCC serious about broadband deployment? - op-ed
Torching California’s Broadband Future: Why Your State Is Next - op-ed
Google Fiber could widen the digital divide
Sen Feinstein urges President Obama to issue cybersecurity executive order [links to web]
Does High Speed Broadband Increase Economic Growth? - op-ed [links to web]
How one man is bringing VoIP, Internet access where telecoms fear to tread [links to web]
Time Warner Cable invests $25M to build 1Gbps fiber network [links to web]
The Internet: Command and control - analysis
PATENTS
Judge Koh Sets Dec. 6 Hearing on Apple’s Request to Ban Several Samsung Phones
Apple vs. Samsung: Infringing by design - editorial [links to web]
Case demonstrates why 'patent' has become a dirty word - analysis [links to web]
Pity Google? Patent case loss to Apple could spell relief in antitrust probe, analyst says - analysis
Google girds for battle in wake of Apple's legal victory
Blame a dysfunctional patent system for Apple vs. Samsung verdict - analysis
3 reasons juries have no place in the patent system - analysis
Could Nokia be the surprise winner of Samsung v Apple? [links to web]
What does Apple's win over Samsung mean for Motorola Mobility? [links to web]
Google-rola agrees to license 3G-related patents to Apple in Germany
JOURNALISM
Newspapers in Syracuse and Harrisburg to End Daily Distribution
Why newspapers need to get to know their readers better - analysis [links to web]
Evening Edition, an afternoon paper for a mobile world [links to web]
New York Times reporter leaked advance copy of Maureen Dowd column to CIA
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Half of All Mobile Phones Will Be Smartphones by 2013, Two Years Earlier Than Forecast [links to web]
Apple, Google gear up for mobile-wallet war [links to web]
Why Verizon Was Allowed to Buy Wireless Spectrum and AT&T Wasn't - op-ed [links to web]
Isis Mobile-Payment System To Debut In September After Delays [links to web]
GPS technology finding its way into court [links to web]
TELEVISION
ESPN shells out $5.6 billion to keep Major League Baseball [links to web]
Will Drones Take Flight for TV Stations? [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC prepares for communications outages from storm [links to web]
CONTENT
More Than Half of Online Ads Fail Viewability Standard [links to web]
Kindle-Exclusive Books Have Been Downloaded Over 100 Million Times - press release [links to web]
Hey Hollywood, forget SOPA, ACTA and TPP. Embrace Netflix Instead - analysis [links to web]
When Chief Executives Share Company News on Facebook [links to web]
PRIVACY
The Privacy Multistakeholder Process Turns to Substance - press release
Netflix users object to video privacy settlement
Google To Beef Up Privacy Team [links to web]
The Uncanny Valley of Internet Advertising - analysis
POLICYMAKERS
Who’s on the inside track for a Romney Cabinet [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Meaningful Use Stage 2: A Giant Leap in Data Exchange - press release [links to web]
Schools urge dropouts: Text to connect [links to web]
Court denies challenge in Tribune Company case [links to web]
Prisoners urge FCC to cap phone rates [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
INTERNET FREEDOM PLATFORMS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. should take a stand for Internet "freedom" during their upcoming national conventions, a group of Internet activists urged. More than 36,000 people have signed a petition, started by Internet activist group Demand Progress in mid-August, calling on the two major parties to add Internet freedom language to their party platforms. Demand Progress reiterated its call for Internet freedom language in the platforms. "The next two weeks will determine which party is the party of the 'Net," David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, said. "Internet start-ups, civil liberties groups, and Internet users generally will be paying close attention to who really represents us." US residents are becoming more concerned about threats to Internet freedom as their dependence on the Internet grows, Segal added. "It behooves both parties to demonstrate their support for that cause -- in their platforms, and in their legislative undertakings," he said. "If they fail to do so, the swelling number of Internet-savvy voters will start to look elsewhere."
benton.org/node/133237 | IDG News Service
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INTERNET FREEDOM IN GOP PLATFORM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Republicans vowed to fight against efforts that would give international or intergovernmental organizations more control over the Internet in their party platform, approved on August 28. "We will resist any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations," the platform reads. The GOP platform makes clear that Republicans would reject any proposal that gives the United Nations "unprecedented control" over the Internet, stating that "international regulatory control over the open and free Internet would have disastrous consequences for the United States and the world." The Republicans also plan to combat domestic regulations that would threaten new innovation and protect the survival of outdated technologies. "The Internet offers a communications system uniquely free from government intervention. We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new and disruptive technologies such as mobile delivery of voice video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem," the platform says. It also commits to protecting people's privacy online and personal data.
benton.org/node/133302 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY IN GOP PLATFORM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Republicans slammed the Obama administration's cybersecurity policies in its official party platform, claiming they prevent industry and government from effectively combating cyberattacks. The GOP platform alleged that Obama's cybersecurity policies are too regulatory and "overly reliant" on developing defensive capabilities to protect against cyberattacks. "The current administration’s cyber security policies have failed to curb malicious actions by our adversaries, and no wonder, for there is no active deterrence protocol," the platform reads. Republicans argued that the best way to boost the nation's cybersecurity is to make it easier for the government and industry to share information about cyberthreats with one another. A GOP-backed cybersecurity bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) this spring took a similar approach. "The government collects valuable information about potential threats that can and should be shared with private entities without compromising national security," the platform states. "We believe that companies should be free from legal and regulatory barriers that prevent or deter them from voluntarily sharing cyberthreat information with their government partners."
benton.org/node/133300 | Hill, The
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TV OBSCENITY IN GOP PLATFORM
[SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter, AUTHOR: Eriq Gardner]
Would a Mitt Romney administration mean more fines for cable and satellite companies and even TV executives being jailed for distributing obscene and pornographic material? As the Republican National Convention kicks off in Tampa, Morality in Media is crowing over convincing the GOP to adopt platform language calling for a crackdown on pornography. Although the official text of the platform hasn't been released, Morality in Media says in a press release that the previous platform only targeted child pornography but will now read, “Current laws on all forms of pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.” Morality in Media CEO Patrick Trueman says this means that prosecutors should be targeting obscene material distributed on the Internet, on hotel TV, on cable and satellite TV and in retail shops.
benton.org/node/133299 | Hollywood Reporter
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STAGED SOCIAL MEDIA?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
The omnipresence of Facebook, Google, FourSquare and other social media at the GOP convention is billed as a way Americans can interact with pols from afar — but some say it’s now just part of the political theater. Paul Ryan’s Facebook campaign page featured a posting of a video titled “The Cheesehead Revolution has hit Tampa!” And at nearly the same time Mitt Romney was being nominated from the floor, the GOP presidential and vice presidential candidates both tweeted, “If you have a business and you started it, you did build it. And you deserve credit for that.” Even the purveyors of the major social media outlets acknowledge that the seemingly altruistic goal — to use social media to connect the public to its leaders — can be manipulated just like many of the other tools of modern politics, from TV debates to attack ads. “More and more politicians are getting more used to being careful in terms of what they say and what their post is to make sure they think through it just like anybody has to think through what they say when they’re in a public setting representing their company,” said Katie Harbath, who leads Facebook’s Republican outreach.
benton.org/node/133298 | Politico
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WHEN NEWS IS SCARCE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
Media organizations have turned the political parties’ quadrennial gatherings this year into laboratories of innovation and experimentation, straying from their traditional areas of expertise as they search for new ways to engage readers and audiences. So far, it seems, the new media has decided that it wants to be the old media, and the old media has decided that it wants to be the new media. Convention coverage has come a long way from the days when the “boys on the bus” — the pack of A-list print reporters like R. W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times, David S. Broder of The Washington Post and Walter R. Mears of The Associated Press — set the pace for political reporting more than a generation ago armed with little more than a pen, a pad and a wicked hangover. Back then, conventions were less scripted and generated more surprises, while today’s media labor to enliven coverage of what typically are endless hours of preordained events.
benton.org/node/133296 | New York Times
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VOTERS TUNED INTO TRADITIONAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Rainey]
Facebook and Internet portals such as Google and Yahoo increasingly provide Americans their gateway for news, but the bulk of voters who catch up on current events daily turn to traditional sources, particularly local television stations, according to a nationwide poll. Traditional news sources on TV and in print also remain more trusted than the burgeoning alternative ecosystem of blogs, late-night comedy shows and social media outlets, the USC Annenberg/Los Angeles Times Poll on Politics and the Press found. The survey confirms a few widely suspected divides: Democrats and the young tend to be more trusting of a variety of media, while Republicans and older news consumers are more skeptical. Despite mixed feelings, though, the voters surveyed said by more than 2 to 1 that they got useful and important information from the media. The USC/Times poll found that with a welter of new media alternatives available, there was only one source that a majority of registered voters turned to at least daily: local television news. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said they watched their local TV news that often. That gives local stations considerably more reach than the second-most-common news source: local newspapers, in both their print and online versions. About 39% of those surveyed said they routinely turned to the local paper.
benton.org/node/133225 | Los Angeles Times | Greenberg Quinlan Rosner
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CONVENTION COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
There was a time when the broadcast networks provided nonstop prime-time coverage of the conventions. Now, an hour a night is about all the networks can stomach. There was also a time when the conventions provided a lot of excitement and real news. Now the conventions are little more than infomercials for their own parties and vicious attacks on the rival party. There is a lot of preaching to the converted and few surprises. Ironically, it was television coverage from the broadcast networks that played a key role in turning the conventions into snooze fests. Battles on the convention floor, real debates over platforms and the choice of a running mate were fine when there were only print and radio reporters around. Video changed everything. Both parties soon recognized it wasn't in their interest to let anyone see how the sausage got made. For the networks, that lack of action meant fewer viewers, which made the millions of dollars needed to cover conventions harder to justify. It is not as if the fact that the broadcast networks are mailing in their coverage means that there is nowhere else to turn for viewers. Cable channels -- CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Bloomberg and even little Current TV -- will be providing heavy-duty coverage. There is also no shortage of convention coverage on the Web for all those cord-cutters out there. Broadcasters could use their digital channels to carry more convention coverage so those few people who don't have a pay-TV service are not shut out. That would be a money-loser, but it would also remove some of the criticism about their blase attitude toward the conventions.
benton.org/node/133269 | Los Angeles Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
IS FCC SERIOUS ABOUT BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Anna-Maria Kovacs]
[Commentary] Rarely has an agency exhibited a greater degree of schizophrenia than the Federal Communications Commission did last week, when it issued its Eighth Broadband Progress Report (Broadband Report) and its Special Access Report and Order. One decries the lack of broadband access for the 6 percent of the US population that lives in the most sparsely populated areas. The other encourages America’s largest enterprises to perpetuate their use of non-broadband networks throughout the US. On the one hand, in its Broadband Report, the FCC refuses to tell Congress that our country’s broadband deployment is reasonable and timely, despite access by 94 percent of Americans to high-speed broadband, defined as download at 4 megabit per second (Mbps) and upload at 1 Mbps (4/1) over wired networks. On the other hand, in its Special Access Order, the FCC suspends its rules governing pricing flexibility in the special-access market. This is a market that the FCC sizes at $12 billion, providing mostly 1.5 Mbps connections, mostly to large enterprises and government but also to some small businesses. How can America expect to deploy broadband at gigabit speeds throughout its vast expanse, if its largest businesses insist on using 1.5 megabit lines as the building blocks for their networks? The FCC is making heroic efforts to encourage the least educated, poorest, oldest American citizens to adopt broadband. Does it want to encourage our largest corporations to do so much less?
[Kovacs is a Visiting Senior Policy Scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy.]
benton.org/node/133253 | Hill, The
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TORCHING CALIFORNIA’S BROADBAND FUTURE
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) recently declared a state of emergency in three northern California counties ravaged by wildfires. There’s another state of emergency for Californians: It’s called SB 1161, and it leaves Californians without a protector to keep watch on the cost, service quality, safety, and availability of access to information, data, and entertainment – everything on which modern life depends. Because just a few giant companies control the wires, they’ll be picking the economic and social winners and losers in America. Burning trees, burning up the state’s future – it’s all cataclysmic. Few in the California Legislature likely understood the ramifications of the bill they just agreed to. It seemed to be all about deregulating “VoIP.” But the problem is that the bill covers all “IP-enabled services.” Pursuant to some current Federal regulatory gymnastics, “IP-enabled services” includes not only content and functions that use wires and airwaves but also the physical wires and towers themselves. Everything these days, from thick pipes in the ground to Wired.com, is an “IP-enabled service.” All communications are using the internet protocol, and the FCC has re-labeled all of them “IP-enabled services.” It’s like calling a highway an “electric-car serving conduit” and then making it available for only rich people because electric cars are really cool.
benton.org/node/133230 | Wired
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GOOGLE FIBER AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: Kansas City Star, AUTHOR: Scott Canon]
Two weeks remain for dozens of neighborhoods to sign up enough potential customers to qualify for Google’s service before a Sept. 9 deadline. But many neighborhoods — chiefly the least prosperous pockets of the metro area — remain far behind the pace needed to hit the Google-established thresholds of customer penetration. That means many of the free connections Google agreed to make to public buildings, library branches and community centers won’t happen. Google insists it’s too early to write off any of what it calls “fiberhoods.” It has begun to fix problems that have complicated apartment dwellers’ efforts to sign up for its service. And, most critically, the company points out that it has every incentive to round up as many customers as possible — and to expand to more neighborhoods rather than fewer. Yet the Google Fiber rollout is driven by very real logistic and economic factors that make it impractical to offer the service where few people show an interest in buying service, even if that means a neighborhood school won’t get wired to tomorrow’s Internet. Meanwhile, community efforts strive to help Google find would-be customers. Some are even paying the $10 fee needed to cast a vote of interest in the service. That in turn creates a problem for Google. Are people who didn’t pay their own registration fee likely to buy the company’s state-of-the-art Internet and TV service for $120 a month for two years? Would they purchase super-fast Internet-only packages for $70 a month for a year? Or pay $25 a month for one year for installation of a 5-megabits-per-second Internet connection that would carry no other cost for seven years? “We’re thrilled that some local organizations want to encourage widespread Internet access by helping with the Google Fiber pre-registration process,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said. “That being said, people should only pre-register if they intend to get Google Fiber service.”
benton.org/node/133204 | Kansas City Star
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THE INTERNET AND THE ITU
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas, Richard Waters, James Fontanella-Khan]
[Commentary] In December, the UN World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai will set out a broad framework of regulations for the Internet – the global network of networks that links more than 2 billion people, is gaining more than 500,000 users daily, and is the platform on which the web was founded. But the meeting’s goals are causing alarm. Technically, the conference focuses on international agreements governing telecommunications, but some proposals stretch further than many want into Internet governance. The battle is already being fought behind meeting room doors at the International Telecommunication Union, an agency of the UN. Western nations – such as the US and the EU – in particular do not want to give the ITU extra authority that could indirectly benefit authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, eastern Europe and Asia. They are accused of seeing an opportunity to enhance their ability to control the web and crack down on political dissidents. Much of the controversy will hinge on the language of the regulations to be mapped out in Dubai. Some proposals published by the ITU and released to member states are seen as creating a benign environment for state intervention in content and access. Because of the vague language, that could mean blocking anything from spam to political material perceived as illegal.
benton.org/node/133291 | Financial Times
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PATENTS
APPLE-SAMSUNG SCHEDULE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ina Fried]
The paperwork continues in the patent dispute between Apple and Samsung. Aiming to put some limits on things, Judge Lucy Koh established a schedule for post-trial filings as well as a pair of hearings in the case. The parties will indeed show up in court on Sep. 20, though that day’s hearing will cover only Samsung’s effort to have an injunction lifted against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 now that the tablet has been found not to infringe on an Apple design patent. Apple’s request for an injunction against at least eight Samsung phones — as well as Samsung’s effort to have the jury’s verdict set aside — will be heard at a Dec. 6 hearing, Judge Koh announced. The December hearing date means that the injunction will likely have even less practical impact. The phones in the case are largely older models already, though the list does include several versions of the Galaxy S II, which is still being sold, as well as Verizon’s Droid Charge.
benton.org/node/133295 | Wall Street Journal
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APPLE-SAMSUNG AND GOOGLE’S ANTITRUST PROBLEMS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Pity Google? One upside for the Android software maker in Apple’s patent victory over partner Samsung is how that decision could spill over to a federal antitrust investigation into Google, according to one analyst. Google is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over broad antitrust claims, including the company’s potential to lock down its search and other applications on smartphones that run its Android operating system. The firm is negotiating with European regulators on ways to change its practices in search to make the market more competitive. Now that a jury determined Apple indeed has exclusive rights to some key technologies on the smartphone, the FTC may rethink its position on Google’s dominance in mobile search — a part of the agency’s investigation.
benton.org/node/133267 | Washington Post
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GOOGLE GIRS FOR FIGHT
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Google bought ailing mobile device maker Motorola Mobility this year to stockpile patents for the war that was heating up with rival Apple. But those patents may not be much help in defending challenges to its Android mobile operating system in the wake of Apple's sweeping courtroom victory last week over Samsung. Experts said that Google probably would unsheathe the 17,000 patents it picked up in the $12.5-billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility but that Google still would be outmatched. "In theory, the Motorola patents do matter because they give Google some leverage against Apple," UCLA law professor Douglas Lichtman said. But even so, he said, it's "not an even fight." "Motorola was not Apple's complete peer before its acquisition, and so owning Motorola does not make Google a complete peer today," Lichtman said.
benton.org/node/133266 | Los Angeles Times
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BALAME PATENT SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Whether you think that Apple is already too big for its britches or that Samsung deserved to get slammed for $1 billion by a Silicon Valley jury last week for infringing on the iPhone design, there's no doubt where the blame for this corporate firefight lies. The guilty party is the U.S. Patent Office. Actually, that's a bit unfair. The Patent and Trademark Office, as it's formally known, is understaffed and underfunded and not especially up to the task of judging increasingly complex patent applications. But the real problem is in the law, which utterly has failed to keep up with realities of technology and the marketplace. "Apple v. Samsung is just a proxy for everything else that's wrong with the patent system right now," says Julie Samuels, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is campaigning to reform the system. The system's biggest problem is with software patents of the sort that underlie Apple's lawsuit against Samsung. Apple charged that Samsung infringed its patents on such software-based iPhone features as its tap-to-zoom function, while copying its devices' appearances to "confuse" shoppers.
benton.org/node/133264 | Los Angeles Times
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JURIES AND PATENT LAW
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
The Apple-Samsung decision and award raises questions about the patent system and innovation — but also about why a jury was allowed to decide it in the first place. Judge Richard Posner and others argue that it’s time to end jury trials in patent cases. Here are three reasons Apple v Samsung should not have gone before a jury:
Jurors can be influenced by brand loyalty
Juries are too easily swayed by “he’s a copycat”
Jury trials over patents are a waste of money
benton.org/node/133263 | GigaOm
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MOTOROLA-APPLE PATENT DEAL
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Chris Foresman]
Google may be distancing itself from Motorola Mobility's previous claims that standards-essential 3G wireless patents are lethal "bullets" it can aim in the direction of its competitors. In particular, Motorola Mobility—now a Google-owned subsidiary—has admitted through court filings in US District Court that it has agreed to license its 3G-related patents to Apple in Germany, avoiding antitrust claims in a German Higher Regional Court. Apple and Google (by dint of its ownership of Motorola Mobility) have been locked in an increasingly escalating dispute over the use of standards-essential 3G wireless patents in an attempt to gain injunctions against competitors' products. Companies that participate in setting standards like 3G wireless networking agree to license any patented technology on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory ("FRAND") terms. Apple has accused Motorola of asking for unreasonably high rates, in violation of its FRAND promise. Apple has raised FRAND defenses against many of Motorola's lawsuits, including an ongoing dispute in the US. However, German case law requires certain conditions to be met before a FRAND defense is valid. Namely, a company must have made an offer to license the patents in question on FRAND terms and posted a bond for expected future royalties. Only if a patent holder then refuses the offer and sues can the FRAND defense be used.
benton.org/node/133213 | Ars Technica
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JOURNALISM
TWO MORE DAILIES SCALE BACK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Christine Haughney]
Newhouse Newspapers, which earlier this spring announced that it would stop printing a daily paper at The New Orleans Times-Picayune and its Alabama newspapers, said it would end the daily distribution of two more of its newspapers, The Post-Standard in Syracuse, and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg (PA). The papers will merge their content with local news Web sites and deliver the printed newspaper only three days a week. Starting in January, The Post-Standard will publish on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The Syracuse Media Group, the company formed to oversee The Post-Standard, is still considering whether to publish a newspaper that it would not deliver to homes and businesses on the other four days.
benton.org/node/133272 | New York Times
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DOWD COLUMN LEAKED TO CIA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Dylan Byers]
Newly available CIA records obtained by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group, reveal that New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti forwarded an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a CIA spokesperson — a practice that is widely frowned upon within the industry. Mazzetti's correspondence with CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, on Aug. 5, 2011, pertained to the Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal film "Zero Dark Thirty," about the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a Times op-ed column by Dowd set to be published two days later that criticized the White House for having "outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood." According to Judicial Watch, Mazzetti sent Harf an advance copy of Dowd's column, and wrote: “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about!”
benton.org/node/133289 | Politico
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PRIVACY
PRIVACY MEETING
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: John Verdi]
At the second privacy multistakeholder meeting regarding mobile application transparency held August 22, stakeholders made substantial progress on procedural issues to move this process forward. Poll results from the meeting are available. NTIA grouped the poll results into three categories: “general support,” “mixed views,” and “general opposition.” These categories are our rough groupings, and are certainly not binding. However, we think that they are helpful in identifying stakeholders’ initial priorities moving forward. Stakeholders are welcome to propose concrete suggestions on procedural topics from any category. On Aug 29, stakeholders will meet again, with two main goals. First, stakeholders will develop an initial priority list for substantive elements that might be included in a code of conduct for mobile application transparency. Second, stakeholders will propose concrete procedural steps that the group can take to implement the top priority substantive elements. In an effort to support stakeholders, NTIA has organized the substantive elements previously raised by the group into four categories. We hope that these rough categories will assist in stakeholders’ review of their previous work and streamline the discussion of substantive elements at the August 29 meeting. Stakeholders are, of course, encouraged to propose changes to the categories if they believe a different structure would be superior.
benton.org/node/133216 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | Meeting Stakeholder Poll Results
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NETFLIX PRIVACY SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
Dozens of Netflix users are filing objections to a class action settlement that would see Netflix pay $9 million to be released from claims that it illegally retained customers video records. The objectors, who are filing their protest with a California court, complain that subscribers receive none of the money. The settlement is meant to resolve dozens of lawsuits related to Netflix’s decision to retain subscribers’ rental histories for more than one year in violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. The VPPA is a 1988 law that Congress passed to regulate video stores but, in recent years, it has become a headache for companies like Netflix and Facebook. The Netflix settlement, which affects tens of millions of subscribers nationwide, was proposed in February and a federal judge gave it a conditional green light in July. Since then, lawyers have been sending out millions of emails to notify customers. This notification process would normally pave the way for the court to rubber stamp the $9 million deal at a scheduled hearing in December. But that approval may now be at risk given that court records show more than 50 objection letters. The objections vary in length and sophistication but the underlying complaint is the same — that third party privacy groups and lawyers get the money while the subscribers get nothing.
benton.org/node/133241 | GigaOm
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INTERNET ADVERTISING
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
If you ask an Internet ad guy to defend himself—to explain why you, dear Web surfer, should feel comfortable letting him serve you ads based on everything you do online—you’ll likely hear two arguments. First, he’ll tell you that targeted ads are simply the cost of doing business on the Web. It takes billions to build and maintain sites like Google and Facebook, and you don’t pay a dime to use them. Parting with some of your private information—and agreeing to tolerate, if not always click on, some ads—is your end of the bargain. But it’s the ad guy’s second argument that’s supposed to clinch the deal. That argument goes like this: Don’t worry, you’ll like the ads! This is the grand promise of Internet marketing. When they work like they should, ad gurus say, Web ads won’t annoy you with pitches for stuff you’d never buy but instead will delight you by introducing you to products and services that you never knew you really wanted. Over the years I’ve spoken to many marketing and privacy people at big tech companies, and they all tell some version of this story. Before the Internet, advertising was broken. Companies would waste billions to broadcast messages to people who weren’t interested in their wares, and because we all understood that most ads weren’t selling stuff we’d ever buy, we’d ignore most of the pitches sent our way. The Internet promised to change all that, transforming the enormous advertising industry from something that was mostly wasteful into a hyperefficient, hypereffective commercial matchmaker. It’s a great theory. And then you launch your browser, load up any site, and you’re bombarded with the ugly reality. Why are Internet ads so crappy? Why are they so often so creepy? Other than those tiny text ads that show up alongside your search results—which have truly revolutionized the ad business—most commercials you see online don’t seem to know anything at all about you or what you might buy.
benton.org/node/133222 | Slate
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