March 2013

Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes

Large and small companies are vying for control of an array of new Internet domain names, but Amazon’s plans are coming under particular scrutiny. Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, are objecting to the online retailer's request for ownership of new top-level domain names that are part of a long-awaited expansion of the Web's addressing scheme.

They argue that giving Amazon control over such addresses—which include ".book," ".author" and ".read"—would be a threat to competition and shouldn't be allowed. "Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive," wrote Scott Turow, Authors Guild president, to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the nonprofit that oversees the world's Internet domain names. "The potential for abuse seems limitless." Rival book retailer Barnes & Noble also opposes Amazon's request, arguing in an objection filed with ICANN that the Seattle-based company could use control of the new Internet names "to stifle competition in the bookselling and publishing industries, which are critical to the future of copyrighted expression in the U.S."

Drooping Cable Ratings Pressure NBCU's Cash Cow

As Comcast nears completion of its $16.7 billion buyout of General Electric Co.'s stake in media giant NBCUniversal, it faces a slowdown in what has long been the engine of the business: NBCU's cable channels.

Ratings at several of the channels dropped last year and, in some cases, the declines have continued this year. Most notably, the total prime-time audience of USA Network, which accounts for about a quarter of NBCU's profit, shrank around 9% in 2012, according to Nielsen. Total prime-time viewership at sister networks E! Entertainment and Syfy fell 10% and 4%, respectively. This year's performance has been mixed. USA's ratings have been flat, compared with a year earlier, but Syfy and E! have fallen further. One bright spot: Bravo, which has boosted its ratings in both periods. The erosion comes as NBCU has been working to lift its namesake NBC broadcast network out of the doldrums, with mixed results. But the performance of the cable channels is more important for the bottom line of both NBCU and Comcast, which is due to acquire 100% of NBCU by the end of this month under its deal with GE. The cable channels made nine times as much profit, as measured by operating cash flow, in 2012 as NBCU's broadcast-television unit, which includes Spanish-language network Telemundo as well as NBC. Cable channels account for 80% of NBCU's overall operating cash flow, with the rest coming from movies and theme parks.

How Big Data Is Changing the Whole Equation for Business

A special report of the Wall Street Journal.

There's a ton of information out there. And businesses are figuring out how to put it to work. The experts call this state of affairs big data. The definition is squishy, but it usually boils down to this: Companies have access to vastly more information than they used to, it comes from many more different sources than before, and they can get it almost as soon as it's generated. Big data often gets linked to companies that already deal in information, like Google, Facebook and Amazon. But businesses in a slew of industries are putting it front and center in more and more parts of their operations. They're gathering huge amounts of information, often meshing traditional measures like sales with things like comments on social-media sites and location information from mobile devices. And they're scrutinizing it to figure out how to improve their products, cut costs and keep customers coming back.

Restore the ability to unlock cellphones

[Commentary] Fed up with your mobile phone service? Think you’ll change wireless providers at some point? If you bought your phone after January, it’s criminal for you to “unlock” it, so that it’ll work on a different network, without your current provider’s permission. Not just illegal — criminal.

If you think that isn’t right, the White House has announced that it agrees with you — but, as the National Journal reports, only to a point. What about those who want to pay an early-termination fee to break their service agreements? Or those who want to use their phones on different networks while abroad without asking for permission? We can’t think of a good reason why they should be subject to the threat of criminal sanction for unlocking their devices. Neither, we trust, will Congress as it examines the issue.

Should the U.S. Adopt European-Style Data-Privacy Protections?

Companies are watching you. They want to know where you go on the Web, what you buy and what causes you support -- with the hope of sending you targeted offers based on your preferences and lifestyle choices. But who is watching over these businesses? Who is making sure they aren't misusing personal data or breaking privacy promises they make to customers?

In Europe, there are strict rules about what companies can and can't do in terms of collecting, using, disclosing and storing personal information, and governments are pushing to make the regulations even stronger. That has prompted renewed debate about whether it is time for the U.S. to toughen its relatively lax privacy regulations. In one camp are those who believe the U.S. government should refrain from meddling. They say the lack of privacy restrictions in the U.S. has encouraged innovation in the online-marketing industry, which is still evolving, and they question whether a Congress that isn't capable of passing a budget can be trusted with crafting complex privacy legislation. The U.S.'s experiment with self-regulation has been a failure, say those who believe Europe's approach to privacy is superior. By trusting industry to police itself, the U.S. has created a situation where consumers have little control over personal data and few remedies when they find their privacy has been invaded.

Privacy audits required of Internet firms

For the next 20 years - or until Mark Zuckerberg turns 48 and Larry Page is nearly 60 - Facebook, Google and MySpace must open their doors to auditors looking for privacy missteps. What kind of data are the companies collecting about their users? Are they living up to their privacy policies? The stakes aren't low: Significant failures could mean fines, further scrutiny and public embarrassment.

The audits are the product of settlements with the Federal Trade Commission over accusations the companies violated user privacy. As part of their settlements, Google, Facebook, MySpace and Path all committed to creating "comprehensive" privacy programs, which includes putting employees in charge of privacy, identifying risks and establishing safeguards against violations. To prove they are keeping their promises, the companies must hire independent auditors to examine their efforts. Biennial reports on the auditors' findings - including whether the programs met or fell short of expectations - must be made available to the FTC for the next two decades.

A Guide to Facebook's Privacy Options

Facebook offers many privacy options to its users. The trick is knowing how to use them. It isn't always easy to figure out, or to keep up with the changes the company makes over time.

Because of that, many users think that they're sharing information and photos on Facebook with close friends or family—only to find out that they have pretty much opened their lives to the world. In addition to giving you control over who sees your posts, Facebook offers settings that will help prevent your account from being broken into, keep your name and picture from showing up in ads for products you've liked, and prevent apps from posting on your timeline. Again, these are all valuable tools, but only if you can make sense of them.

Station Coalition Warns FCC Against Lowballing Spectrum

Broadcast television stations willing to consider giving up spectrum for a government payout in the incentive auctions are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission is trying to manage the auction so as to reduce payments to broadcasters.

That's according to comments filed by the Expanding Opportunities For Broadcasters Coalition -- a group of 40-plus stations, mostly in major markets, represented by coalition executive director Preston Padden, former head of the Association of Independent Television Stations and a top exec at News Corp. and ABC/Disney. "[T]he participation of willing broadcasters is the linchpin of a successful incentive auction," the coalition said. "As such, the FCC's primary focus should be convincing broadcasters that their price expectations are likely to be met in the reverse auction." But according to Padden, who filed the comments, "[t]hrough meetings and attendance at Commission related events, Coalition members have received the impression that some FCC staff and some FCC consultants are spending considerable time developing strategies to "manage" the auction results to reduce payments to broadcasters. This is not the statutory scheme and is not the way to attract broadcasters to the auction. It is a prescription for a failed auction."

The hypocrisy in Silicon Valley's big talk on innovation

[Commentary] Silicon Valley loves to talk big about innovation; it's just not as good at following through. In fact, "innovation" is something of a magic word around here, shape-shifting to fit the speaker's immediate needs. So long as semiconductors and coding are involved, people will staple it to anything from flying cars to the iFart app. Other times it's just code for "jobs," used to justify asking for government favors one day and scolding them for meddling in the free market the next. "Lower our payroll taxes because ... innovation." "Drop that antitrust inquiry because ... innovation." But for all the funding announcements, product launches, media attention and wealth creation, most of Silicon Valley doesn't concern itself with aiming "almost ridiculously high." It concerns itself primarily with getting people to click on ads or buy slightly better gadgets than the ones they got last year. That's fine, that's capitalism - and these incremental improvements lead to slow productivity gains that at least quicken the pulse of economists. But maybe let's drop the pretense that we're curing cancer unless, you know, we're curing cancer.

Algorithms Get a Human Hand in Steering Web

Trading stocks, targeting ads, steering political campaigns, arranging dates, besting people on “Jeopardy” and even choosing bra sizes: computer algorithms are doing all this work and more. But increasingly, behind the curtain there is a decidedly retro helper — a human being.

Although algorithms are growing ever more powerful, fast and precise, the computers themselves are literal-minded, and context and nuance often elude them. Capable as these machines are, they are not always up to deciphering the ambiguity of human language and the mystery of reasoning. Yet these days they are being asked to be more humanlike in what they figure out. “For all their brilliance, computers can be thick as a brick,” said Tom M. Mitchell, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. And so, while programming experts still write the step-by-step instructions of computer code, additional people are needed to make more subtle contributions as the work the computers do has become more involved. People evaluate, edit or correct an algorithm’s work. Or they assemble online databases of knowledge and check and verify them — creating, essentially, a crib sheet the computer can call on for a quick answer. Humans can interpret and tweak information in ways that are understandable to both computers and other humans.

Benton

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