January 24, 2013 (How to Get America Online)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Today: Media Ownership and the Public Interest AND Communications and Technology Policy in the 113th Congress http://benton.org/calendar/2013-01-24/
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Transparency Report: What it takes for governments to access personal information - press release
Keeping the Internet Safe From Governments
Rep Scalise: Regulating Web companies threatens Internet freedom
Joint hearing planned on international Internet regulation
Sec Clinton: Government Has Left Media Message Void That Jihadists Filled
An Entire Senate on Twitter. Really
More Than 20 Million Viewers Watched Coverage of Inauguration [links to web]
MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
State of the Internet: The broadband future is faster, but still unevenly distributed
Democrats: Cybersecurity legislation a priority in new Congress
Time for Congress to offer help against cyber attacks - editorial
Chairman Walden: FCC Title II Move Would Disrupt Relationship With Congress
How to Get America Online - op-ed
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Google Vision Opposes AT&T as U.S. Looks to Sell Spectrum
Spectrum Coalition Pushes FCC To Reclaim At Least 120 Mhz
Google Creating Wireless Network, But For What?
Better late than never, as bidding begins in UK 4G spectrum auction [links to web]
CONTENT
Facebook Vaults Ahead of Google Maps to Finish 2012 as #1 U.S. Mobile App - research [links to web]
Information wants to be free, but the world isn't ready - op-ed [links to web]
Tweeting the news: Andy Carvin test-pilots Twitter journalism [links to web]
PATENTS
US ITC to review Apple patent complaint against Samsung [links to web]
LOBBYING
The New Power Class Who Will Profit From Obama's Second Term [links to web]
Google spent $16.5 million on lobbying as it fended off antitrust probe [links to web]
Facebook pours $4M into lobbying efforts [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
YouTube’s quiet evolution into the heart of Google [links to web]
Google removes obstacle for Netflix (and more) on Samsung Chromebooks [links to web]
Does Apple Need a Cheaper iPhone? [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Kansas funding for public broadcasting scrutinized [links to web]
Court: Sex Offender Facebook Ban Unconstitutional [links to web]
Junk Mail Gets Personal [links to web]
GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
GOOGLE REPORT
[SOURCE: Google, AUTHOR: Richard Salgado]
Google released new data for the Transparency Report, showing that the steady increase in government requests for our users’ data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow. We’ve shared figures like this since 2010 because it’s important for people to understand how government actions affect them. We’re always looking for ways to make the report even more informative. So for the first time we’re now including a breakdown of the kinds of legal process that government entities in the U.S. use when compelling communications and technology companies to hand over user data. From July through December 2012:
68 percent of the requests Google received from government entities in the U.S. were through subpoenas. These are requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), and are the easiest to get because they typically don’t involve judges.
22 percent were through ECPA search warrants. These are, generally speaking, orders issued by judges under ECPA, based on a demonstration of “probable cause” to believe that certain information related to a crime is presently in the place to be searched.
The remaining 10 percent were mostly court orders issued under ECPA by judges or other processes that are difficult to categorize.
benton.org/node/143945 | Google | Washington Post | The Hill | LA Times
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KEEPING THE INTERNET SAFE FROM GOVERNMENTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Streitfeld]
Even before the World Conference on International Telecommunications took place last month in Dubai, Internet activists anticipated trouble. So did Congress, which issued a resolution calling it “essential” that the Internet remain “stable, secure and free from governmental control.” The worries proved prescient. The conference, which supposedly was going to modernize some ancient regulations, instead offered a treaty that in the eyes of some critics would have given repressive states permission to crack down on dissent. The United States delegate refused to sign it. Fifty-four other countries, including Canada, Peru, Japan and most of Western Europe, voted no as well. The OpenNet Initiative estimates that about a third of Internet users live in countries that engage in “substantive” or “pervasive” blocking of Internet content. They tended to be among the 89 countries that signed the treaty, including Russia, Cambodia, Iran, China, Cuba, Egypt and Angola. Those in favor of a free and open Internet have long had a problem with the International Telecommunication Union, the affiliate of the United Nations that ran the conference. They see the I.T.U., which dates back to 1865, as longing for the pre-Internet era, when its influence and fortunes were greater. As a result, activists think, the I.T.U. has become aligned with, and a tool of, countries that desire more governmental control over public speech. In the wake of the Dubai meeting, there are renewed calls to scale back United States financing of the I.T.U. drastically. The logic is, why are taxpayers supporting an organization whose motives they oppose?
benton.org/node/143950 | New York Times
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REGULATING WEB COMPANIES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the chairman of the influential Republican Study Committee, argued that regulation of up and coming Web companies should be viewed as "attacks on Internet freedom at large." Speaking at the State of the Net conference in Washington, Rep Scalise encouraged lawmakers and federal agencies to use a light touch on governing the Internet, saying that it has flourished on its own over the years. "When there isn't market failure, the government should just stay away," Rep Scalise said. "These efforts to regulate important stakeholders across the entire Internet ecosystem should be viewed as attacks on Internet freedom at large." "Even if the government picks winners and losers in the fiscal market ... we should hold the Internet to a higher standard," he added. "The Internet is just too important to go down that slippery slope."
benton.org/node/143983 | Hill, The
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INTERNET REGULATION HEARING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Two House subcommittees will hold a joint hearing next month to examine international efforts to regulate the Internet. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), chairman of the House subcommittee on Communications and Technology, told reporters that his panel will hold the hearing on Feb. 5 with the House Foreign Affairs Committee's subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade. Chairman Walden said he is "very concerned" about the outcome of the International Telecommunications Union conference in Dubai last month. He said the hearing will examine "what the American policy should be going forward to make sure the Internet is free from legacy regulation and from countries that have a different view about democracy and freedom."
benton.org/node/143947 | Hill, The | AdWeek
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MEDIA MESSAGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
At a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she created a new unit at the State Department to counter jihadist propaganda in social media. When Al Qaeda puts up a video saying how terrible the U.S. is, she said, State puts up one about how terrible they are. While CNN and Fox are out there in the world, the U.S. government had abdicated its radio and TV presence, leaving a void that jihadist propaganda had filled. The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees U.S. broadcasts internationally, including to the Middle East. But like everything thing else in Washington, it has been hit by budget cuts. Sec Clinton said BBG was "nearly defunct."
benton.org/node/143982 | Broadcasting&Cable
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AN ENTIRE SENATE ON TWITTER. REALLY.
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
All 100 senators in the 113th Congress will be tweeting. That’s a huge increase from the opening of the 112th Congress in 2011 when only 44 senators were tweeting. Twitter also boasts 398 House members with accounts. All of the senators -- or usually their staffs, of course -- are tweeting at least several times a week but, more importantly, a solid proportion of those tweets include content that would actually be valuable to people following the senators’ activities, such as links to legislation the lawmaker introduced, notes on committee work and alerts about media appearances.
benton.org/node/143959 | nextgov
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MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
STATE OF THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The latest data from Akamai shows that the number of broadband connections over 10 Mbps -- what Akamai dubs “high broadband” -- has grown by 73 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012. The country has also see a 20 percent overall increase in average speed to 7.2 Mbps over the past year, but the number of people who have adopted broadband (measured at anything above 4 Mbps) was 62 percent, which puts the U.S. at No. 12 in the worldwide rankings when it comes to adoption and No. 9 when it comes to average speeds. The rest of the world is faring well, too, in terms of boosting speeds. The fastest countries in the world when measured by average speeds are South Korea and Japan. And as you can see from the chart below, South Korea has managed to get over half of its population buying speeds of 10 Mbps or more. The U.S. is more in line with the global average, but has seen a significant boost in high broadband adoption. What the latest version of the Akamai report shows is how much difference there can be in broadband quality even within countries.
benton.org/node/143951 | GigaOm
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CYBERSECURITY LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A coalition of leading Senate Democrats said that enacting legislation to better protect the nation's critical computer systems from hackers will be a priority in 2013. Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the president's preferred cybersecurity bill in 2012, warning that it would burden businesses and do little to improve security. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill stating that gaps in cybersecurity "pose one of the most serious and rapidly growing threats to both the national security and the economy of the United States." The resolution is co-sponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chris Coons (D-DE).
benton.org/node/143963 | Hill, The | read the bill | Chairman Rockefeller
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CYBERSECURITY AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Banks have turned to the National Security Agency (NSA) for help in protecting their systems. The super-secret electronic surveillance agency has been at the forefront of defending U.S. government networks from intrusion; its director, Gen. Keith Alexander, also serves as chief of U.S. Cyber Command. What’s happening now is something that Gen. Alexander and other cyberexperts have warned about for a long time: attacks aimed at the soft underbelly of American society, our wired but vulnerable private sector. Congress would be well advised to focus early on this topic. The private sector remains unprepared for the kind of massive botnet assaults being aimed at the banks. The U.S. government can offer an important line of defense. Congress ought to lay down a foundation for this cooperation in new legislation, and without delay.
benton.org/node/143992 | Washington Post
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CHAIRMAN WALDEN ON TITLE II
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
If the Federal Communications Commission were to try to classify Internet access service under title II common carrier regulations, it would be a "major disruption in the relationship between Congress and the FCC," House Communications Subcommittee Greg Walden (R-OR) warned. "I hope they would not proceed down that path." Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Chairman Walden was responding to a question about what the FCC would do if a federal court overturned the FCC's current open Internet rules. While the FCC did not pursue Title II classification in that compromise order, the docket remains open and Walden, along with a number of other Republicans and industry execs, believe that is so it remains an option if the court rules in favor of Verizon's challenge to the rules. He said for the FCC to classify the Internet as a common carrier would open the door for states to do the same thing. Chairman Walden said no bill to give the FCC power to regulate the Internet would come out "on his watch."
benton.org/node/143948 | Broadcasting&Cable
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HOW TO GET AMERICA ONLINE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama said that during his second term, Americans would act together to “build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores” and that “we cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries — we must claim its promise.” The president is right that digital communication networks — especially high-capacity fiber networks reaching American homes and businesses — can be a powerful economic engine. But we are far away from being able to realize that vision, even as we cede the advantage such technology offers to other countries. Although Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has challenged the country to build additional gigabit fiber networks — about 100 times faster than most residential connections today — his words won’t advance our digital future unless they are backed up with the leadership necessary to enact pro-growth, pro-innovation and competition-enabling rules. At the heart of the problem lie a few powerful companies with enormous influence over policy making.
Congress must act to restore local communities’ right to self-determination by pre-empting unfair and anticompetitive state laws.
We must also create infrastructure banks that provide long-term, low-interest financing to support the initial costs of building these networks.
The FCC must make reasonably priced high-speed access available to everyone.
The FCC must foster more competition by changing the rules that keep the status quo in place.
[Crawford is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law]
benton.org/node/143994 | New York Times
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SPECTRUM AUCTION AND WHITE SPACES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
US regulators preparing to auction airwaves craved by wireless providers to meet demand from data-hungry smartphones are facing a divisive choice: how much to devote instead to mobile service that can be free. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has pushed for broader access to high-speed Internet, backs a vision shared by Google and Microsoft of setting aside spectrum for mobile services not yet invented. He’s accused opponents of waging a “nascent war on Wi-Fi,” the aerial Internet connection found globally in coffee shops and offices. Airwaves withheld from the auction and allocated to new uses would mean fewer frequencies for established carriers. “The largest holders of spectrum have no interest in seeing new competition,” said Cathy Sloan, vice president of government relations with the Computer & Communications Industry Association.
benton.org/node/143943 | Bloomberg
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LOBBYING FOR BROAD SPECTRUM AUCTION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The coalition of television broadcasters willing to sell spectrum rights has grown to 39 large-market stations, according to comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission by the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, and it wants the FCC to make the auction as attractive as possible by not limiting wireless bidders or which stations can share spectrum with. The coalition, whose members don't have to identify themselves publicly because of the obvious competitive and operational issues related to publicizing their willingness to sell, also is pushing the FCC to reclaim "at least" 120 Mhz. The coalition was formed because the principal broadcast trade association, the National Association of Broadcasters, is focusing on making sure the auctions hold harmless broadcasters who are not selling and want to remain in the business.
benton.org/node/143977 | Broadcasting&Cable
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GOOGLE WIRELESS NETWORK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amir Efrati, Anton Troianovski]
Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View (CA) headquarters. Google submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission, asking for an experimental license to create an “experimental radio service” with a two-mile radius covering its headquarters. Google’s small-scale wireless network would use frequencies that wouldn’t be compatible with nearly any of the consumer mobile devices that exist today. The network would only provide coverage for devices built to access certain frequencies, from 2524 to 2625 megahertz. Those frequencies, which could work well in densely populated areas, could be important in the future because mobile operators in China, Brazil and Japan already are building wireless networks using them, meaning that compatible devices eventually will be manufactured. Much of Google’s application is confidential, but it does say that the first “deployment” of the experimental network will occur inside a specific building on Google’s campus. That building houses the Google Fiber team. Google said it would be using wireless frequencies that are controlled by Clearwire.
benton.org/node/143990 | Wall Street Journal
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