November 2012

Donuts’ Grab for Domains Raises Fears of Cybersquatting

As the Internet adds valuable new domain names that are luring the likes of Google and Amazon, a little-known company called Donuts Inc. is making a grab that opponents say could fuel cybersquatting, the practice of stealing website identities.

Donuts, backed by more than $100 million in venture capital, is spending $56 million to bid for 307 of the 1,400 new so-called generic top-level domain names, or TLDs, that will shape how the Web will soon evolve. Instead of .com, the new names include suffixes such as .book, .app and .law. A lawyer who represents TLD holders is seeking to thwart Donuts’ efforts and is asking the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which authorizes domain name suffixes and is known as ICANN, to investigate Donuts’ links to Demand Media Inc. (DMD) That company’s clients have used domain names to masquerade as other businesses, the lawyer contends. The chief executive officer of Donuts came from Demand Media, and Donuts has an arrangement to sell Demand Media 107 of its TLDs if it chooses to release them.

CBS Signs Deal With Hulu

CBS is taking its older content to streaming service Hulu's premium service Hulu Plus. Hulu is co-owned by all of CBS's major competitors; the content licensed is a mirror image of the shows covered by the deal signed with Netflix not long ago. The streaming service, co-owned by Disney, NBCUniversal, News Corp.

If you think your car is smart and connected now, just wait

Cars are becoming a platform for connecting their occupants to their data, their cloud services, to their auto maker, to other cars. If you think you’re car’s smart and connected now, just wait till you put it on your data plan.

Apple Says California Privacy Law Doesn't Apply To Web Retailers

Apple is asking California's highest court to rule that a state law limiting data collection by merchants who accept credit cards doesn't apply to online retailers.

Imposing the Song-Beverly Act's requirements on Web retailers "threatens to produce unintended and absurd results," Apple argues in its legal papers. The 21-year-old privacy law bans retailers from requesting and storing the street addresses of consumers who pay by credit card. Apple argues that it doesn't make sense to apply the Song-Beverly law to online retailers, given that they can't verify identity by asking for a photo or comparing an in-store signature to the one on a card. California's Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments on November 7. The matter stems from a potential class-action lawsuit against Apple filed last year by David Krescent. He alleges that Apple violated California's law by requiring him to provide his address when he purchased media from the company.

Telework Allows 70 Percent Productivity at PTO During Sandy

Federal agencies were closed for two days as a result of Hurricane Sandy, but employees who hold telework agreements were required to work, provided they had power to do so. That was certainly the case at the Patent and Trademark Office, which is lauded for having a top-notch telework program. PTO Director David Kappos wrote that telework enabled PTO to operate during last week’s government shutdown with an average of more than 70 percent productivity. That percentage is a remarkable achievement, particularly given that many patent examiners could not participate due to widespread power outages, Kappos wrote.

Governments and Companies Band Together to Push Cyber Protections

US and foreign government officials, along with antivirus companies and banks, have formed a coalition to push for the adoption of certain electronic safeguards that could help them all avoid data breach lawsuits. Led by a 34-year veteran of the National Security Agency, the Consortium for Cybersecurity Action is proposing a set of 20 proven security controls for automatically immunizing computer systems.

“This is about priority,” said Tony Sager, who in June retired from NSA, the key Pentagon agency involved in network surveillance and code breaking. The 20 steps are “the most important defenses that every firm should put in place that are of greatest value.” He now works for the SANS Institute, a computer research and training center that helped develop the controls.

Media Diversity: Why No One Cares

[Commentary] How long should we wait for a regulatory or industry-led initiative to improve media diversity? Despite its mandate under Section 257 of the Communications Act, the Federal Communications Commission has failed to collect and aggregate minority ownership data in a form the public can use. With the exception of tiny glimmers of change in newsroom diversity, hiring, retention and promotion diversity at top media companies is dismal.

Among Diversity Inc.’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity 2012, Cox Communications (#25) and Time Warner (#40) were the only media companies listed. Factoring in companies that are more relevant in a converged media industry, AT&T (#4) and Verizon Communications (#39) were also featured. But there is really not much need to look further than the senior management teams of top media companies, which are overwhelmingly white (Disney, Comcast, News Corporation, Viacom) despite the fact that minorities comprise 27.6 percent of the U.S. population, to see the lack of racial, ethnic and gender diversity among those who control so much of what we see and hear. But the most daunting challenge for policymakers is not to confirm whether these disparities exist—everyone knows they do—it is to address the underlying reasons for the lack of a political impetus to address them. Why don’t we care?

AT&T, Communications Workers of America Reach New Tentative Agreement in Southeast Wireline Contract Negotiations

AT&T reached a new tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America District 3 in wireline contract negotiations for AT&T Southeast (BellSouth Telecommunications). The three-year agreement covers more than 22,000 wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and will be submitted to the CWA’s membership for a ratification vote in coming days.

The two sides returned to the bargaining table and reached the new agreement after employees failed to ratify a prior agreement that had been reached in August. The new agreement includes general wage increases in each year of the contract for most employees – 2.25 percent the first year, 2.75 percent the second year, and 3 percent the third year. It includes a 1 percent pension band increase in each year of the contract for most employees. It will upgrade service technicians and outside plant technicians to a new wage scale. It also expands to additional employees a guaranteed job offer provision that provides qualified surplused employees a guaranteed job opportunity with AT&T. It maintains one of the most robust health care plans in the nation, with increases in employee contributions.

EU boosts radio spectrum for superfast mobile services

The European Commission is to release a swathe of radio spectrum to give mobile and internet companies more space for rolling out faster fourth-generation (4G) wireless services. The announcement means an extra 120 MHz of spectrum will be available for 4G from 2014 at the latest to try to accommodate a sharp rise in the use of such services on mobile devices. The radio spectrum, used by all wireless technologies for sending and receiving information, is becoming increasingly crowded as mobile demand adds to TV and radio broadcasting in using a resource also needed by emergency services and military telecommunications.

Apple loses the snark, keeps it simple with new Samsung apology

Apple has rewritten a court-ordered notice on its UK website that makes it clear that Samsung did not copy Apple's patented tablet design. The new notice is shorter than the original notice that Apple put up on the site last week. It is also lacking the subtle snark of the last notice. And that's just what the British court wants. So now, if you go to the British Apple site, you'll find this straightforward mea culpa from Apple at the bottom of the page: "On 25 October 2012, Apple Inc. published a statement on its UK website in relation to Samsung's Galaxy tablet computers. That statement was inaccurate and did not comply with the order of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The correct statement is at Samsung/Apple UK judgement."

Benton

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