August 1, 2012 (Universal Service; Cybersecurity)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2012
INTERNET/TELECOM
Reforms of Lifeline Program Generate $43 Million in Savings Since January - press release
Connect America Fund Kicks Off in Rural California and Nevada with Frontier Communications - press release
AT&T, Verizon Reject FCC Funds To Close Digital Divide
Universal Service Fund Not Designed to Help Consumers: New report shows it is not always clear who benefits from funding - press release
Verizon Wireless To Pay $1.25 Million To Settle Investigation Into Blocking of Consumers' Access To Certain Mobile Broadband Applications - press release
In US broadband, cable is eating the Bells’ lunch
Google Fiber in the real world: Here’s what’s good and what needs work
Answering your questions about Google Fiber [links to web]
California County Tries to Roll Out Wireless Broadband to Farms
Upgrading America: The One-Year Anniversary of Gig.U - research
Senate looks at state sales taxes for online purchases
No Internet Taxation Without Representation - op-ed
CYBERSECURITY
Senate sets up cyber vote for Thursday, lawmakers still working on amendments
Senators vow to push ahead on cybersecurity, even without compromise
Cybersecurity at Risk - editorial
Obama official: Feds need more cybersecurity oversight for electric grid
ENERGY
Rise of the Smart Grid
Obama official: Feds need more cybersecurity oversight for electric grid
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
How to Ignore the Campaign - op-ed
Ted Cruz’s secret: Mastering social media - analysis
Statistical Probability That Mitt Romney's New Twitter Followers Are Just Normal Users: 0%
Romney says press focusing on overseas stumbles to aid Obama
Romney resets media strategy
Romney aide to reporters: 'Shove it!'
Big ad spending, little press scrutiny
Online TV Public File Demonstration Yields New Information; Not-Yet-Effective Rule Already Waived
Nexstar TV Station Gets Political Ad Waiver
How Large and Long-Lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads? [links to web]
Does journalistic ‘balance’ hurt America? [links to web]
FEC should encourage small donations by text message - editorial [links to web]
MEDIA AND THE OLYMPICS
What’s Trending on Twitter? Itself, After an Ill-Thought-Out Suspension
NBC: Twitter alerted us to Guy Adams' tweets
London 2012 Lives Up To 'Social Games' Title, In Unwelcome Ways
Twitter takes the Olympic gold for speed [links to web]
Twitter at a crossroads: Economic value vs information value - analysis [links to web]
Why NBC Doesn't Care That You Want to Watch the Olympics Live on TV - analysis
Chairman Mark Lazarus defends NBC Sports’ decision for tape delay [links to web]
64 Nations Can Watch the Olympics Free and Live on YouTube, and the U.S. Isn't One of Them
London Olympics: To foreign eyes, NBC is all about U-S-A, U-S-A [links to web]
PRIVACY
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board still missing in action
New Rules on Kids' Web Ads
FTC backs $22.5 million Google settlement over Safari
Google Asked For Street View Data By French Privacy Agency [links to web]
Class-action lawsuit settlement forces Netflix privacy changes
CONTENT
American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble to weigh in on Apple e-book case
PokerStars settles for $731 million, buys Full Tilt, pays players
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Implementing Public Safety Broadband Provisions of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012
Apple, Samsung trial opens with no common ground
Wireless Carriers Ask for Extension to 700 MHz Build-Out Deadline
Lead Bid Emerges in T-Mobile Tower Sale [links to web]
Wireless Industry Concerned About Focus on Spectrum Sharing
Small Cells and the Future of Wireless
LABOR
Sen Brown Seeks Update From Apple On Workers' Rights in China
STORIES FROM ABROAD
News Corp. Asks To Keep Allegations In Phone-Hacking Case Secret
Google Asked For Street View Data By French Privacy Agency [links to web]
The Most Important Trade Agreement That We Know Nothing About
MORE ONLINE
FBI Files Go Digital, After Years of Delays [links to web]
INTERNET/TELECOM
REFORMS OF LIFELINE GENERATE $43 MILLION IN SAVINGS SINCE JANUARY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Comprehensive reforms of the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program have saved nearly $43 million so far in 2012 and are on track to save at least $200 million this year, according to a progress report. In January, the FCC completely overhauled and reformed Lifeline for today’s communications marketplace. These reforms included eliminating unnecessary subsidies, cutting off duplicative subscriptions, and requiring better proof of eligibility. Major savings so far this year include:
$26 million from elimination of most of the “Link Up” program. Link Up provided subsidies for initial phone connections. But technology has largely eliminated the cost of initializing service. Instead, some carriers exploited Link Up as a bounty rewarding new subscriptions. Monthly savings from the elimination of Link Up of over $13 million were first realized in June and July, totaling $26 million.
$16.5 million from eliminating duplicative subscriptions. Building on efforts that began last year, the FCC has continued to scour subscriber rolls and has de-enrolled duplicative subscriptions in 16 states, producing substantial savings in 2012. The process continues and will generate further savings this year and beyond.
$250,000 from phasing out “toll limitation” service. This program – intended originally to protect consumers from disconnection due to non-payment of toll charges – was found to be unnecessary and subject to abuse. It will be completely eliminated in 2014.
Additional changes – tougher proof-of-eligibility requirements, certification and recertification of continued eligibility – became effective June 1 and are expected to reap additional savings this year.
benton.org/node/131164 | Federal Communications Commission | Lifeline progress report
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CONNECT AMERICA FUND KICK OFF
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
The Federal Communications Commission kicked off the first announcement of Connect America fund deployment in the nation with events in rural California and Nevada. At ribbon-cutting events, I was joined by Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter and met local residents, tribal, and business leaders that will benefit from the opportunities high-speed Internet will deliver to these areas. In these areas, broadband build-out will happen thanks to Frontier Communications, the first carrier to accept Connect America funding.
benton.org/node/131159 | Federal Communications Commission
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AT&T AND VERIZON REJECT USF FUNDS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Gerry Smith]
To help close the digital divide, the Federal Communications Commission is offering phone companies millions of dollars to expand high-speed Internet service to rural Americans. But the nation’s two largest phone companies -- AT&T and Verizon -- have told the FCC to keep the money. One expert said AT&T and Verizon likely declined the funds for this reason: They did not think it was enough. Phone companies have avoided delivering broadband to rural areas because their profit margins are higher in cities. It would likely take a much larger government subsidy to change their minds, said Benjamin Lennett, a policy director at the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute. "It underscores how flawed it is to rely on private companies to serve these rural areas where their margins are not going to be that high," Lennett said.
benton.org/node/131157 | Huffington Post, The
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HIGH COST, LITTLE BENEFIT
[SOURCE: American Consumers Institute, AUTHOR: Press release]
While the Universal Service Fund (USF) was originally developed to provide all Americans with ubiquitous access to telephone services at reasonable prices, there have been questions about the extent to which this funding actually helps consumers. According to a new report authored by Steve Pociask, the president of the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research, , the old USF mechanism should not be used as a model for future broadband funding. “This federal program totals $4 billion and is financed by consumers through a fee on their telephone bills. But the funding is not distributed in proportion to consumer needs; it is dispersed to help telephone companies,” writes Pociask.
Key report findings include:
The biggest recipients of USF are small telephone companies, who (collectively) are the most profitable in the industry.
If the USF high-cost fund were entirely eliminated, small rural telephone companies would (collectively) still be more profitable than their larger counterparts.
Contrary to common beliefs, small telephone companies are not most affected by high capital costs; they are most burdened by administrative expenses.
USF subsidizes smallness, and works to discourage lower cost production and attainment of optimal scale.
benton.org/node/131156 | American Consumers Institute | read the report
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VERIZON WIRELESS TO PAY $1.25 MILLION TO SETTLE INVESTIGATION INTO BLOCKING OF CONSUMERS’ ACCESS TO CERTAIN MOBILE BROADBAND APPLICATIONS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau released a $1.25 million consent decree with Verizon Wireless that resolves an investigation into whether the company had fully complied with the FCC’s “C Block rules,” requiring licensees of C Block spectrum to allow customers to freely use the devices and applications of their choosing. Verizon Wireless offers customers its 4G LTE service on C Block spectrum. Verizon Wireless bid at auction to acquire that spectrum, understanding that it was accompanied by open device and application obligations. Specifically, licensees offering service on C Block spectrum “shall not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of their customers to use the devices and applications of their choice on the licensee’s C Block network,” subject to narrow exceptions. Under the terms of today’s settlement, Verizon Wireless will make a voluntary payment to the Treasury in the amount of $1.25 million, and has committed to notifying the application store operator that it no longer objects to the availability of the tethering applications to C-Block network customers in the operator’s online market. Verizon Wireless has also agreed to implement a compliance plan, requiring that:
employees will receive training on compliance with the C Block rules;
future communications with application store operators regarding the availability of applications to Verizon Wireless customers will be reviewed in advance by legal counsel; and
Verizon will report any instances of noncompliance with the rule at issue that might occur during the two-year term of the plan.
benton.org/node/131154 | Federal Communications Commission | GigaOm
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CABLE VS BELLS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
Cable companies, thanks to their faster broadband offerings, are zooming ahead of their phone company rivals. Phone companies are losing DSL customers faster than they are gaining subscribers for their faster broadband offerings, a problem that continues to get worse with every passing quarter. During the second quarter of 2012, cable companies took a 140 percent share of broadband flow during the quarter, according to UBS Research telecom analyst John Hodulik. In the April-to-June 2012 time period, AT&T and Verizon lost 94,000 broadband subscribers in total. In addition to the broadband losses, the two phone giants lost 720,000 residential voice lines during the quarter, down from 839,000 voice subscribers they lost during the same three months of 2011. On the upside, they added 275,000 video subscribers, though that is less than 368,000 subscribers they added during the same three months last year.
benton.org/node/131182 | GigaOm
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GOOGLE FIBER IN THE REAL WORLD
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Dave Greenbaum]
Although Google Fiber is not yet available to residential customers, select Retail Partners in Kansas City went live on Saturday, July 28th. One of these places was Mud Pie Vegan Bakery. I talked with co-owner Michael Valverde and checked out the system at his space in order to see how fast it was in the “real world.” Ultimately, Google Fiber looks to be an outstanding service for Kansas City. I’m delighted they have bucked the trend against slow speeds and obnoxious bandwidth caps. I realize that in order to control the experience, you’ll have to use their hardware but Google has everything to gain by making their system as configurable as possible. As the service becomes more popular, content systems will be forced to upgrade their networks to keep up, although that means that bandwidth could slow down for some customers in theory.
benton.org/node/131133 | GigaOm
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BROADBAND FOR FARMS
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Wayne Hanson]
Though connecting all rural areas with broadband is a national priority, why would anyone get fired up about blanketing California’s Fresno County with wireless broadband? For Fresno CIO Carolyn Hogg, the answer has to do with olive trees as wireless subscribers, tracking tomatoes from vine to dinner plate, self-driving tractors, and agricultural research and education that could boost the state’s economy and help feed the world. Hogg, along with a coalition of federal, state, private-sector and local interests, are working to secure high-speed wireless broadband to take the region’s agriculture to the next level. Although farmers have grown food and fodder for thousands of years without wireless broadband, times have changed. The world’s population is expected to grow from 7 billion today to 9.3 billion in 2050, according to Robert Tse, a community planning and development specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But the Earth has only 12 percent more arable land available for crop production. And, as millions of people in Asia enter the middle class, diet staples like rice are being replaced with fruits, vegetables and meat.
benton.org/node/131130 | Government Technology
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UPGRADING AMERICA
[SOURCE: Gig.U, AUTHOR: Blair Levin]
One year ago, 37 research university communities from all across the United States, came together for the mission of accelerating the deployment of next generation networks and services. A project of the Aspen Institute’s Communication and Society Program, Gig.U has its roots in the National Broadband Plan. The Plan recommended that in order for the nation to retain technological leadership, our country should create a critical mass of communities with world-leading—not just world class—broadband networks. Over the last year, we have dedicated ourselves to the hope that we can provide the United States a strategic bandwidth advantage. By combining that advantage with the minds that occupy and surround America’s greatest asset for the 21st Century Information Economy—our world-leading research universities—America can lead the world in answering one of the great questions of our time – what happens if we eliminate bandwidth as a constraint on innovation? We have a long way to go, but in the last year, we have come a long way in making the map for a country, and indeed a world, unconstrained by bandwidth.
benton.org/node/131115 | Gig.U
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MARKETPLACE FAIRNESS ACT
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Hadley Malcolm]
The Senate Commerce Committee holds a hearing August 1 on the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), which would allow states to collect sales tax on all remote purchases and make it easier for merchants to determine each state's tax rate. If passed, it would reverse the effects of a 1992 Supreme Court decision exempting many online retailers from collecting state sales taxes unless they had a physical presence in the state, such as a warehouse. The decision argued it was too tough for remote sellers to comply with different state tax rules, says David French, senior vice president of government relations for National Retail Federation, which supports the Senate bill and the House's Marketplace Equity Act (MEA). But as e-commerce has boomed and states continue to suffer from recession-era budget cuts, proponents of collecting a tax say it's unfair that brick-and-mortar and online retailers are competing on an "uneven playing field." Now technology makes it easier for merchants to follow the thousands of local tax codes.
benton.org/node/131208 | USAToday
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TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC)]
[Commentary] Our nation was born from the idea of "no taxation without representation"—that citizens should not be taxed by governments in which they have no political voice. Yet now lawmakers in Washington want to overturn that bedrock principle in order to extract more revenues from American consumers. The Marketplace Fairness Act recently introduced in the Senate would require online retailers to collect and pay sales taxes to states where they have no physical presence or democratic recourse. Overstock.com, eBay and the like could have to pay sales taxes to any state from which an Internet user placed an order, even if the company's headquarters, warehouses and sales staff are located entirely in other states. Such online sales tax proposals are taxation without representation. The proposed federal law tells businesses that there is no escape from the clutches of tax-hungry politicians. That concept is antithetical to our federalist system, which promotes competition among our states for the best economic policies.
benton.org/node/131213 | Wall Street Journal
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CYBERSECURITY
CYBERSECURITY BILL VOTE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Ramsey Cox, Jennifer Martinez]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a motion to end debate and proceed to the cybersecurity bill. The move sets up a key vote August 2, but it looks like Sen Reid won't have the 60 votes necessary to move forward because of a fight with Republicans over amendments to the bill. The two sides have been trying to reach a deal on what amendments will be considered, and Sen Reid said he was disappointed that an agreement wasn’t reached. “To say I’m disappointed is a tremendous understatement,” said Reid. “I thought we’d all put national security above partisan politics.” He put blame on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “I’m terribly disappointed with the Chamber of Commerce,” Sen Reid said. “The Chamber of Commerce has sucked in most Republicans on this bill.”
With time running out for the legislation, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that he is growing pessimistic about the bill's chances. "I hope I’m wrong, normally I'm an optimistic person, but right now I’m a pessimist," Sen Lieberman said in a floor speech. He said he's worried the Senate is "headed in the wrong direction," and urged his colleagues to make the hard decisions necessary to protect national security.
benton.org/node/131203 | Hill, The | The Hill – Lieberman
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SENATORS VOW TO PUSH AHEAD ON CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Supporters of cybersecurity legislation said that if lawmakers are unable to reach a deal, they are prepared to push the bill through over critics' objections. "Obviously it would be better if we could come up with a compromise, but if we can't, I see no reason why we shouldn't just proceed to work through the amendments in normal order," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), another supporter of the Cybersecurity Act, also said she is prepared to bring the bill to a vote. "I'm for taking it to the floor and taking it to the American people, and you have to decide, do you want to protect the people or you're making the perfect the enemy of the good," Sen Mikulski said. Collins emphasized that the bill's supporters are still meeting with critics, led by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who have put forward their own proposal, the SECURE IT Act.
benton.org/node/131188 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY AT RISK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Relentless assaults on America’s computer networks by China and other foreign governments, hackers and criminals have created an urgent need for safeguards to protect these vital systems. The question now is whether the Senate will provide them. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and the Chamber of Commerce have already exacted compromises from sponsors of a reasonably strong bill, and are asking for more. Their demands should be resisted and the original bill approved by the Senate. Not all companies share that aversion to the bill. Microsoft and Symantec, among others, have supported the original Lieberman-Collins legislation. And civil liberties groups say their earlier privacy concerns have been addressed. It’s time for the endless talk of cyberthreats to be met by action. The Lieberman-Collins bill should be voted by the Senate this week and then merged with the House version so a law can be enacted this year. If not, and a catastrophic cyberattack occurs, Americans will be justified in asking why their lawmakers, mired in election-year partisanship, failed to protect them.
benton.org/node/131216 | New York Times
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ELECTRIC GRID SECURITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Zack Colman]
The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that cybersecurity legislation being considered by Congress must give a federal entity more authority over the nation's electric grid to ensure its protection from malicious attacks. FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff said he had not seen all the specifics of the Cybersecurity Act. He noted, however, that a cybersecurity bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) would accomplish much of what Wellinghoff believes is needed to secure the electric grid. “My intent is to simply have somebody be put in charge,” Chairman Wellinghoff said in response to a question from The Hill at the Platts Energy Podium in Washington, D.C. “And the person who’s put in charge has the authority to tell those entities that are responsible for the infrastructure of the immediate threat and vulnerability, and to order them to do something if necessary to mitigate that threat or vulnerability. That’s my really, bottom-line message. It doesn’t have to be FERC.”
benton.org/node/131187 | Hill, The
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ENERGY
RISE OF THE SMART GRID
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: Michael Grunwald]
Washington, America’s power center, recently experienced life without power—the kind that gets generated, not the kind that gets wielded. After a nasty storm knocked out the Beltway’s electricity for days during a heat wave, power brokers of the political type complained: Didn’t President Obama promise a smarter, more reliable grid? Yes, he did. And the blackout notwithstanding, the grid is slowly improving. In fact, its story is a nice parable about change in the Obama era. On the trail in 2008, Obama had big dreams for a digital smart grid that would self-monitor and self-heal, minimizing costly outages by diagnosing problems electronically and rerouting power around them. He envisioned a national network of high-voltage transmission lines that would connect windy and sunny areas to cities, as well as smart meters and other high-tech gizmos that would give us real-time feedback and control over our energy use. He basically wanted to merge the grid with the Internet so we could adjust our air conditioners with our iPhones when we were out of the house, program our appliances to save us energy and money and sell power from solar panels and electric cars back to our utilities. Obama’s billions are gradually upgrading the grid. Utilities now receive updates on transmission lines 30 times a second instead of every two seconds. They are also expanding transmission, even though electricity use has yet to recover to prerecession levels.
benton.org/node/131126 | Time
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
HOW TO IGNORE THE CAMPAIGN
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Marty Kaplan]
[Commentary] Imagine what democracy would be like if elections were more than cash cows for local TV stations selling ads, if they were more than profit centers for conglomerates whose business model is monetizing the attention of -- that is, entertaining -- audiences. Imagine if campaigns really were what we deserve: great national conversations about issues and choices. What a tribute to our founders and fallen patriots it would be if a free press and an educated public had more to do with this election than the voter suppression laws passed in 16 states and the couple of dozen billionaires determined to buy its outcome.
benton.org/node/131179 | Huffington Post, The
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TED CRUZ AND SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Steve Friess]
Ted Cruz announced his Senate run 18 months ago in an unconventional way emblematic of the campaign to come: on a conference call with Texas’s conservative bloggers. Then he tweeted it. Since then, Cruz climbed from obscurity to the brink of the year’s biggest upset and, in the process, became Exhibit A of how to effectively use social media to grow a movement. He currently holds a big polling lead over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in Tuesday's run-off for the GOP nomination. “Ted Cruz is the Barack Obama of 2012,” said Sean Theriault, a University of Texas at Austin political scientist. “It is a great case study of using these tools in politics.” For all the hype surrounding social media in campaigns, Cruz is among the first American examples of a dark horse candidate who rode to victory by tapping into the vast power of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and email. Whether he wins or loses Tuesday, the fact that he emerged as a serious contender — thanks largely to a foundation poured online — has even his opponents in awe.
benton.org/node/131177 | Politico
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ROMNEY’S FOLLOWERS
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Alexander Furnas]
Last week Zach Green of 140Elect, noticed some strange goings-on with Mitt Romney's Twitter account (@MittRomney). Romney's account, which had been averaging around 2,000 to 5,000 new followers a day, gained 141,000 followers in two days. This observation prompted speculation - from Green, Slate, The Huffington Post, CNN, and many others - that the Romney Campaign was buying robot followers, or perhaps (conspiratorially) someone else was buying them to make Romney look bad. But actual analysis of these new followers has been limited to manual observation; many do, indeed, look fake. However, high-profile users can be targets for the algorithms that run bot accounts, and some amount of bogus followers is to be expected. We decided to dig into the data of these new followers to see if they differ statistically from the new followers of other accounts similar in size to Romney. We subjected Barack Obama's account, @BarackObama, to the same analysis. We developed a simple methodology for testing whether a set of followers is likely to be the product of natural user following behavior or bot networks. This test revealed a significant difference between the distribution of followers among the accounts in Mitt Romney's recent spike and that of similar users in our comparison. It strongly indicates that non-organic processes induced Romney's recent surge in followers. We did not find a similar pattern in Barack Obama's recent followers.
benton.org/node/131176 | Atlantic, The
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ROMNEY RESETS MEDIA STRATEGY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Amie Parnes, Justin Sink]
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is promising to become more media-friendly after headlines during the Republican candidate's weeklong foreign trip highlighted an increasingly fractious relationship with the press. Fewer than 100 days out from the election, the campaign is expected to provide more press briefings and heightened access to the candidate in the coming days, and to make changes to the travel pool that will make it more media friendly. The changes would represent a major shift for the Romney campaign, which so far has offered only extremely limited access to the presumptive Republican nominee, and usually only to favored outlets like Fox News. A senior Romney aide said the campaign would work to find a balance between respecting the role of the press and telling the story it wants the public to hear about Romney.
benton.org/node/131201 | Hill, The
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ROMNEY BLAMES PRESS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Justin Sink]
Mitt Romney accused the media of looking to protect President Barack Obama by focusing on the GOP candidate’s high-profile gaffes during his week-long foreign tour rather than more substantive policy issues he discussed. "I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or in whichever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geo-politics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran," Romney told Fox News. "They'll instead try to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country." Romney told Fox News his comments had been mischaracterized.
benton.org/node/131141 | Hill, The
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ROMNEY AIDE AND REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jonathan Martin]
A Mitt Romney aide told reporters to “shove it” after the American press corps here shouted questions at the presidential candidate. As Romney was walking away from Pilsudski Square toward his vehicle, reporters asked him about his string of gaffes and whether he had any comment for Palestinians, some of whom took offense at the Republican’s suggestion in Jerusalem that Israel’s economy is superior because of cultural advantages Israelis enjoy. Romney ignored the questions and got in his car. But his traveling press secretary was furious. “Kiss my ass; this is a holy site for the Polish people,” said aide Rick Gorka. “Show some respect.” Gorka then told a reporter to “shove it.” Gorka subsequently called a pair of reporters to apologize, saying he lost his cool. “It was inappropriate,” Gorka said.
benton.org/node/131140 | Politico
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AD SPENDING
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Andria Krewson]
It’s hotter than usual in North Carolina this summer. And much of the heat is coming from the high-intensity air war being waged here, with presidential campaign ad spending surpassing $20 million as of July 22 in a state that has traditionally been a bystander in presidential contests (until 2008). The ad spending numbers at the Washington Post’s Campaign Ad Tracker say presidential candidates, PACs and interest groups have to date spent $14.5 million in Charlotte (and $5.6 million in Raleigh). Those figures (which tally ads that have actually hit the airwaves, not total buys announced) put Charlotte in the same category as key markets in other swing states—like Tampa ($15.2 million), Cleveland ($13.6), and Las Vegas ($12.6). Local media here have the opportunity—indeed, the obligation, given the ad saturation—to stay on the story of this spending spree, including shedding light for North Carolinians on who’s spending (whose money) and when and how the ads mislead. So far, this sort of coverage has been spotty—with some bright spots.
benton.org/node/131118 | Columbia Journalism Review
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ONLINE TV PUBLIC FILE DEMONSTRATION
[SOURCE: CommLawBlog, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission presented another demonstration of its online television public file system. Peter Tannenwald, who attended the July 17 demonstration at the FCC, sat in on this one, too. Good thing he did, since the show provided more details about the operation of the public file system than had previously been made generally available. Below you’ll find a list of some of the more salient take-home points Peter took home. Also, even though the revised public file rule still hasn’t technically taken effect, the FCC has already waived the political posting requirement (probably the most time-consuming part) for one station. Read on for details about that development.
benton.org/node/131117 | CommLawBlog
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NEXSTAR WAIVER
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: David Goetzl]
Nexstar has received a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission that allows one of its stations to avoid making political ad-spending information available online starting August 2. The FCC agreed with Nexstar’s plea that while a Maryland station it owns is considered part of the Washington market, the NBC affiliate should be considered a small-market station for purposes of a new FCC rule. The waiver exempts WHAG of Hagerstown, Maryland until 2014. The rule requires stations affiliated with the Big Four networks in the country’s top-50 markets to make their political files accessible online at the FCC Web site.
benton.org/node/131128 | MediaPost
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MEDIA AND THE OLYMPICS
TWITTER TRENDING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Christine Haughney]
Twitter has become the default forum for people when they have a complaint. Even when that complaint is about Twitter. The company found itself at the center of a firestorm when on July 29 it suspended the account of Guy Adams, a British newspaper reporter for The Independent, after he posted complaints about NBC’s tape-delayed Olympics coverage. His posts included the e-mail address of Gary Zenkel, the head of NBC Olympics. On July 31, both Twitter and NBC backpedaled. While Twitter officials stress that the company generally does not monitor content, Alexander Macgillivray, Twitter’s general counsel, said in a statement on Tuesday that Twitter “did proactively identify a Tweet that was in violation of the Twitter rules and encouraged them” — NBC — “to file a support ticket with our Trust and Safety team to report the violation.” But the initial suspension already put both companies out of favor with many Twitter faithful. Out of solidarity for Mr. Adams, supporters also started posting the e-mail address of Mr. Zenkel, the NBC executive. They paired the hashtags #guyadams with #NBCFail, which has become an all-purpose tag for criticisms of NBC’s coverage. Some posters called the incident a “watershed moment” for social media and accused Twitter executives of censoring Mr. Adams’s account “to cater to corporate whim.” Others threatened to boycott NBC’s Olympics coverage.
benton.org/node/131215 | New York Times | FT
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NBC, TWITTER AND GUY ADAMS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Salvador Rodriguez]
Twitter has been thrown under the bus by NBC, which said Twitter first alerted the network to the tweets of a journalist, who was then suspended from Twitter.
Guy Adams, the Los Angeles correspondent for the British publication The Independent, had been criticizing NBC since Friday through both Twitter and articles. He was suspended Sunday after tweeting out the corporate email address of NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel. Initially, NBC said it reported Adams' tweet to Twitter, which began the process that ended in Adams' suspension. Posting a user's private information is a violation of Twitter's terms of service, and Twitter requires that the user who was the target of the violation, or someone on behalf of the user, be the one to report the violation. But The Telegraph is now reporting that NBC says it was Twitter that first noticed Adams' tweets.
benton.org/node/131151 | Los Angeles Times | The Telegraph | The Independent
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SOCIAL GAMES
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Bill Chappell]
The London 2012 Games have been touted as the first Olympics to live fully in the age of social media. After all, the organization's Twitter feed has nearly 1.4 million followers, as it lists on its special portal for Facebook and other social sites. But a rash of scandals and news related to Twitter has put a new mark on the face of these games. And, as they say, it ain't pretty. First came news that athletes were being sent home for posting racist tweets. Now NBC, Twitter, and British newspaper The Independent are in a row over a journalist's Twitter feed, which was disabled after he posted remarks criticizing NBC and its leadership. In London, Twitter has emerged as a platform for Olympians who see deep economic inequities in the current system. The group, which includes many Americans, are also frustrated that current policies forbid them from promoting the sponsors that helped them train for the Summer Games.
benton.org/node/131145 | National Public Radio
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NBC DOESN’T CARE
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Derek Thompson]
The easiest way to understand why NBC wants to force you to watch the Olympics in prime time is to stop thinking about what audiences want and start thinking about advertisers want. NBC paid about $1.2 billion for the rights to broadcast these games. To make back most of that money, NBC needs to sell extremely expensive commercials. The most valuable commercials aren't sold online to be viewed on browser tabs on 12-inch display screens. They're sold on prime time TV. So NBC has a clear interest in funneling our Olympic attention into the prime-time TV slot. The strategy is working, in its own way. Even with the awkward five-hour delay -- too small to swap day for night a la Beijing, but late enough that England is asleep by the time New England finishes dinner -- these Olympics are smashing all-time viewing records.
benton.org/node/131144 | Atlantic, The
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64 NATIONS GET OLYMPICS OVER NET
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Robinson Meyer]
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is freely broadcasting the Olympics to sixty-four Asian and sub-Saharan African countries on YouTube. Ghanaians, or Indians, or Basotho (see the full list below) can tune in, without paying, to watch some 10 different live streams, which run from 9am to 11pm London time. They can also watch the 24-hour Olympic News channel. There are a few caveats. All the broadcasts are in English. Internet availability throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa remains scarce. Why does an East Timorese get to watch the Olympics online, for free, while Americans don't? Because the US (and Canada, and most South American and European countries) have large media companies which will happily bid for the right to show the Games. In most of the territories that receive free YouTube access, there just isn't a big media company which could air the Olympics and turn anything close to a profit (yet). So the IOC steps in.
benton.org/node/131143 | Atlantic, The
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PRIVACY
PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
A federal board tasked in the Senate’s cybersecurity bill with ensuring government agencies and tech companies don’t infringe on consumer privacy has been dormant and understaffed for years — and hasn’t had a nominee confirmed since 2007. As members of Congress consider a new law that would help them exchange data about emerging digital threats, they’ve envisioned that the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board would make sure consumers aren’t harmed and that their data isn’t caught in the fray. But the PCLOB — created by Congress to protect citizens amid the post-Sept. 11 crackdown on terrorists — has long been paralyzed. It’s possible the Senate could confirm its nominees en bloc before the chamber enters the August recess, but the inaction so far has privacy advocates concerned that a cybersecurity bill could reach the President without a watchdog fully in place. If the confirmations continue to be stalled, “We’ll have information sharing but not the oversight,” said Peter Swire, an Ohio State University professor who served as chief counselor for privacy in the Clinton administration. “Depending on the bill, we might repeal privacy protections and have nothing in place to make up for that.”
benton.org/node/131195 | Politico
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KIDS’ WEB ADS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anton Troianovski]
Social networks and Internet advertisers are likely to face new restrictions on how they interact with children online. The Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce August 1 new rules that close loopholes that currently allow companies to gather information despite a 1998 law that was supposed to protect kids' online footprint. The rules could affect popular features such as Facebook "Like" button, as well as new social networks for playing games on smartphones. Websites aimed at children already have to get parental consent before gathering information—such as name and email address—from users under 13 years old. But the original law, known as the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, hasn't adapted to advances in Web technology and marketing. Those advances have allowed so-called third parties to gather data without parents' knowing. For example, some iPhone games popular with kids, include the option to join social networks that collect personal data from users without asking for a parent's permission.
benton.org/node/131212 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE-SAFARI SETTLEMENT?
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Diane Bartz]
Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission will require Google Inc to pay a civil penalty of $22.5 million to settle charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using Apple's Safari browser. An official announcement is expected within days. The probe was prompted by allegations that Google used computer code known as "cookies" to trick Apple's Safari browser so Google could monitor users who had blocked such tracking.
benton.org/node/131186 | Reuters
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NETFLIX SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
Netflix has now changed its privacy policy so that it no longer retains rental history for people who have left the video site. The move comes as the result of a class-action lawsuit filed against the company, alleging that Netflix unlawfully kept and disclosed such information of former customers. “Netflix has agreed to change its data retention practices so that it separates (known as “decoupling”) Entertainment Content Viewing History (that is, movies and TV shows that someone watched) from identification information for those subscribers who have not been a Netflix subscriber for at least 365 days, with some exceptions,” said the organizers of the class-action suit.
benton.org/node/131135 | Ars Technica
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CONTENT
ABA, B&N AND E-BOOKS
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
The American Booksellers Association and Barnes & Noble say the Department of Justice’s proposed settlement with three book publishers is so inaccurate and harmful to booksellers that they are seeking permission to intervene in the case. They have asked the court for permission to file a “friend of the court” brief, a legal tactic to gain publicity and possibly shape the outcome of the case, and presiding Judge Denise L. Cote has said they may do so by August 15. “Giving customers the widest choices at the fairest prices is at the heart of the agency model, and we believe this model should remain intact,” Barnes & Noble general counsel Eugene DeFelice said in a statement. “We want to help the Court fully understand the significant consequences of any action that would erode such a pro-competition, pro-consumer model, and that is the purpose of our filing.”
benton.org/node/131180 | paidContent.org
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POKERSTARS SETTLES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Tiffany Hsu]
The world's largest Internet poker company, PokerStars, is settling with the government to the tune of $731 million more than a year after a crackdown on online gambling. And, in possibly the best part of the deal, the company is also buying former competitor Full Tilt Poker and paying back its customers, who were left locked out of their accounts after the site’s U.S. operations were shut down last April. In the agreement with the Manhattan branch of the Department of Justice, PokerStars will forfeit $547 million to the government over three years. The payment will settle civil charges that the company engaged in fraud to sidestep U.S. regulations on online gambling. Part of that pot will go toward repaying Full Tilt’s American players. PokerStars will also fill a separate bank account with $184 million within 90 days to pay back the balances owed to foreign Full Tilt customers. Unlike Full Tilt, PokerStars’ international site has been steadily operational and the company has already reimbursed customers left in the lurch after its American operations were shut down last year. As part of the government deal, PokerStars did not admit to wrongdoing and will be allowed to apply to once again offer online poker for real money if and when the U.S. makes it legal. The company will also pay the government $225 million for Full Tilt’s assets. PokerStars said it plans to relaunch Full Tilt in most markets as a separate brand operated out of Dublin, Ireland.
benton.org/node/131152 | Los Angeles Times | NPR
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
PUBLIC SAFETY BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
In this Order, the Federal Communications Commission adopts an approach to allow limited deployment of public safety broadband services to first responders in the existing public safety broadband spectrum (763-768/793-798 MHz) pursuant to existing Special Temporary Authority (STA) rules. The FCC expects that this will be the case in very few instances, and only where it can conclude that such deployment clearly serves the public interest and will not be detrimental to the Public Safety Spectrum Act’s goals or likely to jeopardize FirstNet’s mandate to deploy a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network. The FCC believes that the public interest might be strongly served where, among other things, a project is near completion in terms of development and has been the subject of sustained investment over time, where it will address a significant and specific public-safety need, and where it is consistent with the “recommended minimum technical requirements” for nationwide interoperability recently developed by the Interoperability Board.
benton.org/node/131200 | Federal Communications Commission
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APPLE-SAMSUNG TRIAL
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Howard Mintz]
Apple and Samsung delivered one common message to a federal court jury on July 31 — when it comes to their competing claims of patent rights in the world of smartphones and tablets, they agree on absolutely nothing. During nearly a day of opening statements, lawyers for the two warring tech titans offered their conflicting views of what will unfold for the seven-man, two woman jury over the next four weeks. To Apple's lawyer, the case is about Samsung's rampant copying of the iPhone and iPad, which he told jurors has cost the Silicon Valley icon billions of dollars that it will seek in damages. "At its highest corporate levels, Samsung decided to simply copy every element of the iPhone," Apple attorney Harold McElhinny said at one point. "Samsung had two choices -- accept the challenge of the iPhone ... and beat Apple fairly in the marketplace, or it could copy Apple. It is easier to copy than innovate." To Samsung's lawyer, the trial will expose how Apple has overstated its innovation in the hotly competitive smartphone and tablet market. Samsung flatly denies copying Apple, insisting it has merely done what scores of companies have done -- evolve with its own products. "It's not just Samsung," Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven explained about why smartphones exploded into the marketplace. "The entire industry moved this way. Is that copying? No. It's competition."
benton.org/node/131206 | San Jose Mercury News | AP | NYTimes | Wall Street Journal – Samsung | WSJ – Apple
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WIRELESS CARRIERS REQUEST EXTENSION
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The Rural Cellular Association has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a two-year extension to the build-out deadline for Lower 700 MHz A-block licenses – a band in which many small rural wireless carriers own spectrum. To date the manufacturers of 700 MHz handsets and other devices have built products primarily for other 700 MHz spectrum bands, which are largely controlled by AT&T and Verizon. Small rural carriers have had difficulty obtaining devices for operation in the A- and B-blocks, which are in what an international standards group calls “Band 12,” because the volumes they can offer the manufacturers are so much smaller than those of the large carriers. The FCC is considering imposing a requirement for devices operating in Band 17 where AT&T owns a large part of the spectrum to also operate in Band 12. But AT&T has protested that requirement, citing interference concerns. When a notice of proposed rulemaking about 700 MHz interoperability was issued back in March, some FCC commissioners were still hoping for an industry-driven solution, which has not yet materialized.
benton.org/node/131124 | telecompetitor
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SPECTRUM SHARING
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Wireless industry officials are concerned about a new report from a White House advisory group that encourages companies to share spectrum. They argue it might shift the federal government's focus away from finding new chunks of spectrum that can be cleared for exclusive use by commercial wireless providers. At an event sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a wireless industry official and top telecom staffer for the House Commerce Committee voiced concern with the focus on spectrum sharing in a new report issued earlier this month from the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. The report argues that it is too difficult, expensive and time consuming to try to move federal users off of their spectrum and that a better way to address both government and industry's spectrum needs in the short term is to find ways to share spectrum. "The new system for federal spectrum management that this report calls for--a new spectrum architecture and a corresponding shift in the architecture of future radio systems that use it--can multiply the effective capacity of spectrum by a factor of 1,000," according to the PCAST report on Realizing the Full Potential of Government-Held Spectrum to Spur Economic Growth. "The essential element of this new federal spectrum architecture is that the norm for spectrum use should be sharing, not exclusivity."
Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for the wireless industry group CTIA, noted that while the wireless industry agrees that sharing is one solution, it needs to be coupled with other approaches including identifying swaths of spectrum that can be cleared of federal or other users and re-purposed for use by the wireless industry. In addition, he argued that the report doesn't say how the federal government will reach President Obama's goal of freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum over the next decade for wireless broadband users.
This view was echoed by House Commerce Committee counsel David Redl, who said the PCAST report fails to lay out a business case for spectrum sharing. "We're not sure there is economic viability to that model," Redl said.
benton.org/node/131198 | National Journal
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SMALL CELLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
Small cells could play a big part in helping to deal with the demand for wireless spectrum. But what exactly are they? In a report presented this month, a presidential panel laid out a proposal for how the country could get more out of the radio spectrum that carries wireless communications and data. That would help carriers accommodate the surging number of smartphones and tablets on the market. The report proposed that federal agencies share the spectrum they control with commercial entities like AT&T and Verizon, and it endorsed the use of technologies that will help use the radio waves more efficiently. One technology emphasized in the report, presented on July 20, was small cells. These are essentially base stations that blanket smaller areas with wireless coverage; they can be installed in offices and homes, or mounted on the outside of a building for a public event. Instead of guzzling bandwidth from a cell tower, small cells hook up to a local broadband connection, like the cable Internet in a house or the fiber connection inside an office building. If small cells were deployed heavily throughout a city, they would provide the cell coverage for when you’re at home and in the workplace, which is most of the time. That would free the nearby cell tower to cover larger areas where people move around faster, like roads.
benton.org/node/131197 | New York Times
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LABOR
BROWN SEEKS UPDATE FROM APPLE
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Adam Mazmanian]
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, following up on the company's response to a March report from the Fair Labor Association that cited unsafe working conditions and worker rights violations. Apple and its leading Chinese supplier Foxconn then pledged to make improvements including complying with Chinese law with regard to overtime pay, the ability to form independent unions, accident reporting and insurance benefits. Sen Brown wrote that "Chinese workers who make iPads and iPhones have often toiled long hours under dangerous conditions for little pay," and that China's "government does nothing to stop these abuses." Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Brown's letter.
benton.org/node/131184 | National Journal
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
NEWS CORP WANTS ALLEGATIONS KEPT SECRET
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Erik Larson]
News Corp.’s British publishing unit asked a judge to keep secret a series of new claims being made by victims of phone hacking at its News of the World tabloid in preparation for a group trial scheduled for February. The details of the allegations, which could be used to seek punitive damages, should be kept from the public unless they are approved at a Sept. 7 hearing and added to the victims’ so- called generic claims, Judge Geoffrey Vos said in London. The claims outline “generalized activities which we think are unsustainable” if challenged, Michael Silverleaf, the lawyer for the News International unit, said at the hearing. “They may change the approach we are taking” to the case. The amended allegations reveal “a need for a proper debate about the scope of the case,” said Jeremy Reed, a lawyer for at least 50 victims. Reed has said the number of claimants may double before the trial.
benton.org/node/131136 | Bloomberg
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TRADE AGREEMENT
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: David Levine]
Imagine being invited to formally offer input on a huge piece of legislation, a proposed international agreement that could cover everything from intellectual property rights on the Internet to access to medicine to investment rights in the agreement’s signatory countries. For 10 minutes, you’d be able to say whatever you’d like about the proposed law -- good, bad, or indifferent -- to everyone involved in the negotiations. But there’s a caveat: All of your questions, all of your input, on what may be the most controversial part of the package, would have to be based on a version of the proposed international agreement that was 16 months old. And in that 16-month period, there were eight rounds of negotiations that could have changed any and all of the text to which you had access, but no one could tell you if that version was still accurate. Would you still take the deal? This is not a hypothetical question; rather, this is the take-it-or-leave-it offer made to the public in May by the United States Trade Representative regarding the intellectual property rights chapter of the massively important but little-known Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Unfortunately, this modest but sad excuse for public participation was the best offer to ask questions and offer input to TPP negotiators since the public phase of the negotiations began more than two years ago. So civil society groups, academics, experts (“nerds”), and regular Joe concerned citizens said yes.
benton.org/node/131121 | Slate
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