March 2013

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2013

15 Year Retrospective of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (in Santa Clara, CA) http://benton.org/calendar/2013-03-15/

CYBERSECURITY
   Pressure Builds for Congressional Action on Cybersecurity - analysis
   Who’s Going to Blink First on Cyber – Obama, or the House?
   Hey Internet, where’s the outrage? - op-ed
   President Obama presses new Chinese leader on hacking [links to web]
   Is All The Talk About Cyberwarfare Just Hype? - analysis
   Fighting back against cyber-attacks - editorial [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Today, Kansas City. Tomorrow, Oklahoma City! - analysis

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   House Panel Examines Status of FirstNet and Emergency Communications
   911 tech pinpoints people in buildings—but could disrupt wireless ISPs
   House Judiciary Members Introduce Legislation to Restore Consumers’ Ability to Unlock Cell Phones - press release
   No One's "Signed Away" the Right to Unlock Cell Phones - analysis
   AT&T Considers Selling Assets Such as Cell Towers to Raise Cash [links to web]

CONTENT
   Why Did Google Reader Die? - analysis
   Web Video: Bigger and Less Profitable [links to web]
   Streaming Video Could Water Down TV Profits [links to web]
   How Search Is Evolving — Finally! — Beyond Caveman Queries [links to web]
   Knowing the score: How Facebook’s Graph Search knows what you want [links to web]
   Ad Blasts Nickelodeon for Airing Junk Food Ads [links to web]
   Facebook helps job hunters, but causes stress too, survey finds [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Web browsers consider limiting how much they track users

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Wiretapping Firm Says Telecom Providers Could Be Handing Over More Data Than Authorized

   White House 'We the People' Site, Explained [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Beyond Fox News [links to web]
   Belo’s Decherd: New Media Must Be Guided By Old Media Values [links to web]
   Feds charge Reuters employee with hacking [links to web]

AGENDA
   President Obama meets again with tech bigwigs

LOBBYING
   DHS cybersecurity chief to head to The Chertoff Group [links to web]
   NAB Names Director of Government Relations [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Africa takes lead in mobile revolution
   Technology drives Africa transformation [links to web]
   UK’s rural broadband plans descends into farce
   UK mobile operators face bartering over 4G [links to web]
   Prime Minister Cameron calls vote on press regulation
   Trinity Mirror journalists arrested over hacking [links to web]
   Google's Schmidt to Visit Myanmar [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Toward a Complex, Realistic, and Moral Tech Criticism - analysis [links to web]

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CYBERSECURITY

PRESSURE BUILDS FOR CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Just a month ago, we focused on a new executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. cyber defenses, increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect national security, jobs, and privacy. Before the ink was dry on President Barack Obama’s signature, the White House was calling on Congress to act as well to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks. In the past week or so, we’ve seen a great deal of discussion in Washington about cybersecurity -- most aimed at getting Congress to act on the issue.
http://benton.org/node/147875
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WHO'S GOING TO BLINK FIRST ON CYBER — OBAMA, OR THE HOUSE?
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
The Obama Administration will now have to weigh in sooner rather than later on a highly contentious cybersecurity bill moving through the House. A We The People petition for President Barack Obama to stop the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has crossed the 100,000-signature threshold required for an official response. Critics of the bill -- which is meant to facilitate the sharing of cyber information between the public and private sectors -- believe its definitions are far too broad. Vast amounts of user information could fall into the category of “cyber threat information” and wind up in the wrong hands, the legislation’s opponents have argued. Last year, the White House threatened to veto CISPA. Sponsors reintroduced CISPA this year with no changes in the language, so the White House likely still has objections to it. That puts the House on a collision course with President Obama. Either he will have to give up the veto threat, or the bill will have to be modified somehow before it reaches his desk.
benton.org/node/147882 | National Journal | see the petition
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WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Gregory Ferenstein]
[Commentary] Compare, for a moment, the Internet industry’s outrage against potential government censorship, as they see it, with the seeming indifference to government surveillance. In 2012, major Web sites staged a massive global protest against a law that would have given the government new powers to shut down sites associated with piracy. Yet, as Congress considers sweeping new surveillance procedures over popular Internet companies, those same digital activists are largely silent. It begs the question, does this younger, tech-savvy generation care more about innovation than civil liberties? The “Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” would give the government broad new powers to collect personal data from telecommunication and social network companies, often without warrant. Provisions in CISPA give legal immunity to companies, including those in social media and search, for sharing information with authorities and also helps them combat malicious hackers. So, unlike the power to shut down Web sites, intrusive surveillance doesn’t represent an existential threat to the Web. Civil liberty groups, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), are predictably outraged over both the law and industry’s acquiescence. Given CISPA’s legal benefits to private companies such as Google and Facebook, it’s easier to see why the corporate pillars of the Internet haven’t jumped on the outrage bandwagon. However, it’s not as clear why other major Internet players, such as Craigslist or Wikipedia, who participated in SOPA protests aren’t being as vocal now. The Internet community will only rise up when they feel threatened. Their inaction is sending the message, whether intended or not, that privacy is not a priority.
benton.org/node/147905 | Washington Post
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CYBERWARFARE HYPE?
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Tom Gjelten]
The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, and the head of the U.S. military's Cyber Command, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, delivered mixed messages this week while testifying on Capitol Hill. They agreed that the prospect of a computer attack on the nation's critical infrastructure is now the top security threat facing the country. But Clapper, in an assessment representing the views of the entire U.S. intelligence community, characterized the chance of a major cyberattack against U.S. infrastructure in the next two years as "remote." "The level of technical expertise and operational sophistication required for such an attack will be out of reach for most actors during this time frame," the assessment stated. "Advanced cyber actors — such as Russia and China — are unlikely to launch such a devastating attack against the United States outside of a military conflict or crisis that they believe threatens their vital interests." Alexander was similarly reassuring in his written testimony.
benton.org/node/147938 | National Public Radio
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE FIBER
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
The main question we’ve got to ask about Google Fiber: How does Google expect its relatively small Kansas City installation to spark a big shift in American broadband? And the answer is: It won’t say. A week after I returned from Kansas City, I drove to Google’s headquarters to chat with Kevin Lo, general manager for Google Access, the division that houses Fiber. Lo spoke at length about why, out of more than a thousand contending cities, Google chose Kansas City for Fiber and why it settled on gigabit speeds for the launch. He was also happy to speculate about what people will do with Fiber lines once they’re up and running all over the Kansas and Missouri sides of Kansas City. (Google says it will complete its initial rollout by the fall.) But Lo was cagey about the big question: How will Google turn Fiber into a big deal?
But it’s easy to speculate about Google’s potential path from Kansas City to the rest of the country. The first approach is direct -- if gigabit lines turn out to be popular and profitable for Google in Kansas City, it could move to launch them in other American cities. Because it had loads of applicant cities the first time -- many of which promised to cut through local bureaucracies and give Google the green light to install its own infrastructure -- the company would have an easy time setting up shop in a second city, and then on and on. Then there’s a second, indirect approach. Call it the Chrome model. When Google launched its lightning-fast Web browser in 2008, it did so with two goals. The first was to turn people on to Chrome. The second was to inspire competitors to develop and release speedier browsers. Chrome sparked a new round of innovation in browsers, and today all browser makers gush about their speed.
benton.org/node/147898 | Slate
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

FIRSTNET HEARING
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), held a hearing entitled “Oversight of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and Emergency Communications.” Created by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, FirstNet is tasked with building and maintaining a nationwide, interoperable broadband public safety network. Members heard from FirstNet, states, and private sector entities that want to partner to explore ways to improve the connectivity, reliability, and security of this nationwide public safety network. Sam Ginn, Chairman of First Responder Network Authority, explained the challenges the FirstNet Board is currently facing in establishing this first-of-its-kind nationwide interoperable public safety network. He said, “Deploying a public safety grade wireless broadband network with the scale of U.S. nationwide geographic coverage is an international first. The FirstNet network will be distinctive from all other networks in two critical ways. First, it will be the only network that is ever built entirely to public safety-level specifications for security and reliability. Second, it will be the only network to cover an entire nation of our size geographically, as opposed to coverage by population centers. Combine these two features and you begin to see just how groundbreaking – and challenging – our task is.” Chris McIntosh, Virginia’s Statewide Interoperability Coordinator, and Ray Lehr, Director of Maryland’s Statewide Communications Interoperability Program, both explained the hurdles some states are facing with FirstNet and ways the states can be better involved to improve the nationwide network on a more local level.
benton.org/node/147913 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | B&C
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911 TECH
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Cell phones replacing landlines are making it difficult to accurately locate people who call 911 from inside buildings. If a person having a heart attack on the 30th floor of a giant building can call for help but is unable to speak their location, actually finding that person from cell phone and GPS location data is a challenge for emergency responders. Thus, new technologies are being built to accurately locate people inside buildings. But a system that is perhaps the leading candidate for enhanced 911 geolocation is also controversial because it uses the same wireless frequencies as wireless Internet Service Providers, smart meters, toll readers like EZ-Pass, baby monitors, and various other devices. NextNav, the company that makes the technology, is seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission to start commercial operations. More than a dozen businesses and industry groups oppose NextNav (which holds FCC licenses through a subsidiary called Progeny), saying the 911 technology will wipe out devices and services used by millions of Americans. While the Progeny proceeding has flown under the radar, the FCC may be inching toward a decision.
benton.org/node/147893 | Ars Technica
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UNLOCKING CONSUMER CHOICE AND WIRELESS COMPETITION ACT
[SOURCE: House Judiciary Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) -- along with Rep Howard Coble (R-NC), Chairman of the Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Subcommittee and Rep Mel Watt (D-NC), Ranking Member of the Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Subcommittee -- introduced legislation to restore consumers’ ability to unlock their mobile phones, in order to switch from one wireless carrier to another. This bill also directs the Copyright Office to determine whether similar treatment should be given to other wireless devices. The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (H.R. 1123) restores the exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that permits consumers, once they have fulfilled their contractual obligation, to unlock their cell phones without the approval of their wireless provider. The DMCA rulemaking was announced in October and continued the exemption for cell phones purchased on or before January 26, 2013. The exemption was allowed to expire for cell phones purchased after that date.
benton.org/node/147879 | House Judiciary Committee
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TREATIES AND UNLOCKING CELL PHONES
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Sherwin Siy]
[Commentary] Several people have raised the specter of trade agreements standing in the way of cell phone unlocking. The basic idea is that, in a broad trade negotiation between the US and South Korea (and in a number of others), the two countries agreed to make sure their copyright laws had certain similar features. Among those were requirements that they have laws against breaking digital locks to access copyrighted works, and that they only have certain kinds of exemptions to them. Cell phone unlocking is not one of the specific exemptions. First of all, trade agreements don't dictate what laws Congress can and can't pass. If they're executive agreements, they can't override any laws passed by Congress in the past, and even if they're executed as treaties, they can be superseded by later acts of Congress. Just like Congress can pass a law that overrides an earlier law, it can pass a law that overrides an earlier treaty. The only consideration here is whether Korea deeply cares about the fact that anticircumvention provisions not have any new exceptions added to them. Given that the biggest controversies surrounding the Korea-US free trade agreement centered on beef imports and not any sort of IP, much less this odd little backwater of copyright law, that seems highly unlikely. In fact, there's pretty clear evidence that Korea would welcome new exemptions. Besides that, the telecommunications chapter of the very same free trade agreement states that service providers (like smaller phone companies) should be able to attach equipment (like phones) to the phone network. It also says that governments can prevent phone companies from using certain technologies in order to achieve legitimate public policy purposes.
benton.org/node/147892 | Public Knowledge
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CONTENT

WHY?
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
Google Reader’s death illustrates a terrible downside of cloud software—sometimes your favorite, most indispensable thing just goes away. That’s why we should all consider Reader’s death a wake-up call—a reminder that any time you choose to get involved with a new app, you should think about the long haul. It’s not a good idea to hook up with every great app that comes along, even if it’s terrifically innovative and mind-bogglingly cheap or even free. Indeed, you should be especially wary if something seems too cheap. That’s because software is expensive. To build and maintain the best software requires engineering and design talent that will only stick around when a company has an obvious way to make money. If you want to use programs that last, it’s not enough to consider how well they work. You’ve also got to be sure that there’s a solid business model attached to the code. And if a particular tool is indispensable to you—your project management software, for instance—you might want to think about choosing one of those incredibly old-fashioned software companies that will allow you to pay for its stuff.
benton.org/node/147926 | Slate
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PRIVACY

WEB BROWSERS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
It’s often hard to tell which is the Web’s priority: helping you learn about the world or helping the world — and especially advertisers — learn about you. But that balance is beginning to shift, to the delight of consumer advocates and the horror of industry groups. Browser makers increasingly are embracing privacy controls that could limit the ability of advertisers to track ­users, threatening to undermine business models that now support many popular online services. The development is driven more by market forces than governmental action, as highlighted by the recent announcement that the maker of one of the world’s most popular browsers, Firefox, is experimenting with new restrictions on the use of cookies — bits of computer code that allow companies to monitor users as they move among Web sites. The news has sparked a fervent debate about the economic value of online tracking and the importance of cookies to the smooth functioning of the digital world. On the day of Firefox’s announcement last month, an official from the Interactive Advertising Bureau tweeted that the browser’s maker had launched “a nuclear first strike” against the industry. That prompted fears that Internet companies could respond with more sophisticated tools that would allow tracking to continue or even expand.
benton.org/node/147933 | Washington Post
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SUBSENTIO
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Ryan Gallagher]
Wiretapping e-mails and phone calls has always been a contentious law enforcement tactic. But now surveillance is becoming more of a legal minefield than ever in the United States, thanks to a clash between European and American eavesdropping regulations—and some telecom firms could be handing over data on suspects without court authorization. That’s according to a company that plays a significant but little-known role monitoring communications for agencies like the FBI, the DEA, and the Department of Homeland Security. Subsentio, based out of Centennial (CO), provides telecommunication companies with an outsourced wiretap service—fitting surveillance “probe” equipment into their network infrastructure and then handling spy requests on their behalf. Subsentio won’t say who its customers are, but it claims it deals with major national and international communication firms in the United States and is responsible for “millions of subscribers” across mobile and broadband networks. Subsentio’s surveillance equipment was tailored for U.S. laws, so it provides only the data requested by the applicable court order. But Subsentio President Steve Bock said that some of the surveillance technology used by carriers in the United States to pass communications data to the authorities was built instead to European standards. This means it can’t properly differentiate between pen register metadata requests and so-called “Title III” content surveillance orders. Consequently, “service providers could be delivering content that has not been authorized by the court,” said Bock.
benton.org/node/147935 | Slate
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AGENDA

MEETING WITH TECH CEOs
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Daniel Strauss, Jennifer Martinez]
President Barack Obama met with a number of top technology CEOs and senior executives to discuss policy issues that are key for the industry this year. President Obama and senior White House officials sat down with NASDAQ executive vice president Bruce Aust, AOL co-founder Steve Case, who now runs the investment firm Revolution, as well as Cisco CEO John Chambers, venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Marvell Technologies co-founder Weili Dai, TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey and Oracle COO Safra Catz. The discussion included reforming the country's immigration system and the existing immigration rules for highly educated and skilled foreign workers. “[W]e spoke at length about the urgent need to fix our high skilled immigration system, so that the world’s most talented innovators and entrepreneurs can contribute to job creation here in the United States." Case continued. "We noted immigration is not just a problem to solve; it's also an opportunity to seize, to ensure we remain the world's most entrepreneurial nation." Ramsey of TechNet, a trade organization that represents top tech companies, said that the President also talked about the need for tax reform and improvement to education programs in the so-called STEM fields--science, technology, match and engineering.
benton.org/node/147911 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

AFRICA AND THE MOBILE REVOLUTION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Katrina Manson]
Africa’s top banking and mobile phone executives assembled in Nairobi recently to listen to the counsel of one of the world’s leading technology companies. “Software is the manufacturing of the future,” IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty told them. Should this prove to be the case, it might mitigate one of the continent’s chief economic conundrums – how to sustain growth and spread its benefits without the factories that have typically fuelled big leaps in other developing economies. In most African countries the road, rail and port infrastructure is in need of heavy upgrading if their economies are to become more competitive. But the speed with which the continent has built telephony networks and embraced mobile has taught the rest of the world much about Africa’s potential. Mobile phone subscriptions have risen to 475 million from 90 million in sub-Saharan Africa within seven years. Their spread has changed not only the nature of communication but the state of banking, commerce and investment on the continent. The phone has become so essential that people skip meals so as to be able to afford scratch-card credit for it.
benton.org/node/147924 | Financial Times
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UK’S RURAL PLAN
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
Plans to boost superfast broadband in rural areas descended into farce as BT was left as the only bidder for £530 million of state funds. Ministers’ efforts to deliver superfast rural broadband have dragged on for two and a half years, triggered an European Union probe, and cost millions in consultancy fees. The outcome raises questions about the procurement process, designed to encourage competition with BT for the contracts to deliver the government target of providing nationwide Internet access. The Financial Times has learnt that the only other government approved bidder, Fujitsu, no longer intends to bid for contracts in the £530 million tender. The tender has attracted considerable criticism from companies over difficulties that new entrants have in competing with the scale of BT, which already owns a national telecoms network and service infrastructure. BT has won all available funds under the procurement, and is in line to pick up the rest of the £530 million allocated across more than 40 local contracts organized under Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
benton.org/node/147920 | Financial Times
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UK PRESS REGULATION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Elizabeth Rigby, Robert Budden, Ben Fenton]
UK Prime Minister David Cameron set the stage for a bruising showdown on press regulation as he abruptly quit cross-party talks on the Leveson proposals. The premier wrongfooted political opponents by declaring in a hastily convened press conference that there would be a vote in the House of Commons on March 18 on his plan for a royal charter to create a self-regulator for the press. Cameron said his proposal was the “fastest possible way to deliver the strong self-regulation body that Leveson proposed.” He added that there was “no point” producing a system that the press would oppose. Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband said they were “disappointed” by the decision, with both party leaders convinced that a compromise deal had been within reach.
benton.org/node/147917 | Financial Times
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