November 2012

Norquist sounds off against Internet royalty bill

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has added his voice to the growing list of opponents speaking out against a music royalty bill backed by Pandora.

In a letter sent to House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, Norquist argued that lawmakers should stay out of the debate between the music industry and Internet radio services over royalty payments. He took issue with the existing rules used to set the royalty rates that Internet radio services pay to artists and recording labels to play songs, saying those rates should be determined by the market. "When the government sets the rate for music, it is enacting price controls, in opposition to what should be the agenda of a Congress that supports the market economy," Norquist wrote. "Government should extract itself from this debate to allow an environment for negotiations to develop among broadcasters, record companies, artists, and other interested parties."

FCC Says First-Year Films Are Covered By Comcast/NBCU OVD Condition

In a partial defeat and partial victory for the company, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that NBC Universal cannot exclude films less than a year old from its Comcast/NBCU Order benchmark condition requiring NBCU to make its content available to competing online video distributors (OVD) if that distributor gets comparable programming from one of NBCU's peers not affiliated with that OVD. But the commission also said that requirement does not extend to such programming or other programing that would breach particular exclusive licensing agreements common to the industry.

NBCU had petitioned the FCC to review an outside arbitration award to Project Concord under that OVD access deal condition. The FCC had to rule by Wednesday, Nov. 14. It originally had a deadline of Sept. 14 to act on the petition per the Comcast/NBCU order, which required it to act within 60 days of filing. But it exercised an option to give itself an additional 60 days. The arbitrator had concluded that the first-year films are subject to the condition, which the FCC upheld.

The Mystery of the Missing E-Books

[Commentary] Holiday shopping season is just around the corner, and e-books and e-book readers will be high on many people's wish lists. But public libraries don't share in the joy, and the people who use libraries will look in vain for e-books that aren't available from any library. They are missing, and here's why.

Think of the world of e-books like this: Imagine if every car that was purchased had to be a new car -- no more lots for used, pardon me, previously owned, cars. Or if every article of clothing had to be purchased new -- no more fancy consignment shops or second-hand stores from charities like Goodwill. On top of that, consider if every "purchase" of a car was really a lease, subject to terms and conditions from the dealer or car manufacturer. That's the way it is with e-books. Has anyone seen a "used" e-book? No. Not a one. Because they don't exist. Every e-book purchased is a new e-book. The reason for that is that book publishers have come to control the market for e-books in a way that other industries envy. Yes, the Justice Dept. may throw a flag about pricing and yes, publishers may lose a court case here and there. But the clear fact is that publishers have succeeded in a way that no other industry has.

12 Year, $430 Million Effort Fails to get DHS Radio Users on the Same Frequency

The Homeland Security Department spent $430 million on a fruitless plan to enable radio users departmentwide to communicate on the same frequency, according to a new audit released by an internal watchdog.

The shift to a single frequency began when the department formed in 2003, but of 479 radio users the DHS inspector general tested, only one knew how to tune into the common channel, the report stated. Personnel either were unaware the channel existed, could not find it, or switched to an outdated channel inherited from the Treasury Department. “Personnel do not have interoperable communications that they can rely on during daily operations, planned events and emergencies,” acting IG Charles K. Edwards wrote in the report. About 123,000 employees use the handheld and mobile radios. Homeland Security this spring shelled out $3 billion for new tactical communications to serve the entire department, along with the White House and the Interior Department. The root of the disconnect, according to the report, is top department leaders have provided little guidance and no enforcement to ensure personnel use the channel.

Cybersecurity Workforce Challenges Defy Easy Answers

The Homeland Security Department is working quickly to address the complex issue of how to effectively develop, recruit and retain a workforce capable of preventing and responding to cybersecurity threats, including the release last month of a report by a special advisory council that put forth 11 recommendations for addressing these challenges going forward. But while that report is a testament to cybersecurity challenges being high on DHS’ radar, many of its recommendations are shortsighted and do not address the core challenges government and industry face in identifying, developing and retaining these highly-skilled workers, said Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)2.

The report, released Oct. 3 by the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Cyber Skills, outlined 11 recommendations, including establishing a department-level infrastructure that oversees the development of the cyber workforce, streamlining the hiring process, establishing a two-year community college program that identifies and trains large numbers of students for cyber jobs and directs the use of department’s direct-hire authority to bring on almost exclusively those with critical cyber skills, until at least 600 of those workers are fully on board. But Tipton noted that those 600 “super sleuth” workers are not readily available, nor can they be trained overnight

Russia loses contact with satellites, space station-RIA

Russia has lost contact with most of its civilian satellites as well as the Russian part of the International Space Station after a communications cable broke in Moscow.

Satellite Providers wage Interference War

More than ever, satellite services suffer interference from human error, the inability to track systems that aren’t performing and intentional jamming by unfriendly governments that don’t want particular content to reach their populations. And the wireless industry’s push to get satellite’s spectrum also is interrupting service, according to panelists at the Content and Communications World conference.

President Obama signs secret directive to help thwart cyberattacks

President Barack Obama has signed a secret directive that effectively enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks on the nation’s web of government and private computer networks.

Presidential Policy Directive 20 establishes a broad and strict set of standards to guide the operations of federal agencies in confronting threats in cyberspace, according to several U.S. officials who have seen the classified document and are not authorized to speak on the record. The president signed it in mid-October. The new directive is the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an “offensive” and a “defensive” action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism, where an attack can be launched in milliseconds by unknown assailants utilizing a circuitous route. For the first time, the directive explicitly makes a distinction between network defense and cyber operations to guide officials charged with making often rapid decisions when confronted with threats. The policy also lays out a process to vet any operations outside government and defense networks and ensure that U.S. citizens’ and foreign allies’ data and privacy are protected and international laws of war are followed.

Cybersecurity Bill’s Outlook Still Bleak

When sweeping cybersecurity legislation failed to advance in the Senate in August, it went down with a barrage of finger-pointing and posturing. And aides from both parties say that nothing really has changed since it was filibustered.

Unlike in August, the lame-duck debate will take place in the shadow of an impending executive order by the Obama Administration that would establish a system of voluntary standards. The White House says that Congress will still need to act to fully address some issues, including information-sharing among businesses and government, as well as federal information-security policies. But White House officials say they’re not holding their breath.

Good news for lobbyists: Cyber dollars

Lobbying activity in Washington on issues relating to cybersecurity is increasing exponentially.

In 2001, only four firms listed cybersecurity as an issue on which they were lobbying, according to a Washington Post computer analysis of congressional lobbyists filings. By 2006, this had risen to 129 and in 2011, the last full year of data available, 1,489 companies listed cybersecurity in disclosure forms required by Congress. The increase reflects the rapidly growing importance overall of cybersecurity to businesses and government. In particular, businesses are concerned about the potential cost of new regulations intended to better secure their computer networks. For many lobbyists this has been a windfall during a difficult economic climate in which their overall spending is flat or falling. How many millions of dollars are being spent cannot be gleaned from official filings, as firms are required to give total amounts spent on lobbying but not a breakdown on individual issues.

Benton

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