April 2013

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013 (Happy Jackie Robinson Day)

To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism http://benton.org/calendar/2013-04-15/

CYBERSECURITY
   House to take up key cybersecurity bills next week
   Cybersecurity: New version of old fight - analysis [links to web]
   Cyber security bill pits tech giants against privacy activists
   CBO Scores CISPA - research [links to web]
   House Intelligence Committee Dems push for privacy changes in CISPA
   Local police grapple with response to cybercrimes [links to web]

INTERNET/TELECOM
   When public infrastructure goes private - analysis
   Copper Wire -- A technology whose time has passed - op-ed
   Enough about data caps: They’re a terrible idea - op-ed
   Westminster, county examining benefits of fiber optic network [links to web]
   When answering a cry for help requires a phone call - op-ed
   Legacy Cable Operators in Austin Are Terrified of Google Fiber [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   Justice Department: FCC should help Sprint, T-Mobile buy frequencies
   Dish Launches $25.5 Billion Bid for Sprint
   Dish Is Said to Approach Deutsche Telekom About T-Mobile Bid [links to web]
   Clearwire Board Reviews Unsolicited Offer for Airwave Licenses [links to web]
   FCC Grants B-Block Build-Out Extension but Not for Everyone [links to web]
   Verizon kills early upgrade program, even for some current customers [links to web]
   Following the Money With Apple's Apps [links to web]
   When answering a cry for help requires a phone call - op-ed

TELEVISION/RADIO
   Strengthening the Emergency Alert System: Lessons Learned from the Nationwide EAS Test - research
   More Cracks Undermine the Citadel of TV Profits
   Broadcasters may turn to Congress for help in bid to kill Web TV service [links to web]
   How Stations Can Kill Aero and AutoHop - op-ed [links to web]
   FCC and State Department Discussion Incentive Auction Boarder Issues - press release [links to web]

CONTENT
   Congress debates update of aging cybercrime law
   US still pressing allies for tougher anti-piracy laws [links to web]
   The Antisocial Network - op-ed [links to web]

CHILDREN AND MEDIA
   Loads of Companies Are Violating Children's Privacy

POLICYMAKERS
   Is Tom Wheeler the Frontrunner for FCC Chief?
   Armstrong Nominated for Broadcasting Board of Governors - press release [links to web]

AGENDA
   A Rising Chorus - op-ed

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Europeans Reach Deal With Google on Searches
   Google’s EU battles far from over
   US still pressing allies for tougher anti-piracy laws [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Tech Firms Push to Hire More Workers From Abroad [links to web]
   Department of Justice Clears Arris/Motorola Home Deal [links to web]
   Digital Government Has a Way to Go - op-ed [links to web]
   Translating public health into media [links to web]

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CYBERSECURITY

CYBERSECURITY ON AGENDA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Pete Kasperowicz]
The House is preparing to work on a cybersecurity bill next week that is similar to a version the Obama administration threatened to veto last year. Republicans will call up the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA H.R. 624), a bill sponsored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI). The bill is meant to improve information-sharing about cyber threats between companies and the government, with the goal of helping to thwart cyberattacks. It would let the government share classified information with companies to that end, and also provide liability protection for companies so they are not subject to lawsuits for sharing data about cyber threats. This week, the White House signaled it cannot fully support the bill, but stopped short of threatening a veto. The House Rules Committee set a deadline of next Tuesday for members to file amendments to the bill. The committee will also meet Tuesday to approve rule for the bill; once a rule is approved, the House will be able to consider the bill on the floor as early as the next day.
The House will take up other bills next week on cyber issues, although these will be suspension bills that will get less debate and will need to be approved by a two-thirds majority vote. Those bills, which will not require a rule, are:
H.R. 756, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, from Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), to boost cyber security research.
H.R. 967, the Advancing America's Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act, from Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). This bill is aimed at aiding information technology research.
H.R. 1163, the Federal Information Security Amendments Act, from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). This bill is aimed at creating an updated cyber security framework for systems that support the federal government.
benton.org/node/149621 | Hill, The
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TECH GIANTS VS PRIVACY ACTIVISTS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
The escalating cyberattacks on corporate and government computers have provided a rare opportunity for bipartisan legislation to address the problem. But rather than sailing through Congress, the latest cyber security legislation is exposing a fault line in the tech industry. On one side stand some of tech's biggest companies, such as Intel, Oracle and IBM, which are pressing for more government action. On the other side are thousands of smaller tech firms and privacy activists who have launched online protests to raise the alarm over a bill they say harms privacy and civil liberties.
benton.org/node/149620 | Los Angeles Times
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HOUSE DEMOCRATS AND CISPA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
A group of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee are disappointed that a pair of privacy-focused amendments were not adopted into a controversial cybersecurity bill this week. In an addendum filed to the committee report on the measure, four Democratic committee members said they support the aim of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). But they expressed concern it provides broad liability protection to businesses and believe it should require them to remove personal information from cyber threat data prior to sharing it with the government and other companies. Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) and Jim Himes (D-CT) signed the document. "We support the intent of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, but we are disappointed in some aspects of it and believe that it can be improved to better protect privacy and civil liberties, while still working effectively to enhance cybersecurity," the four lawmakers write.
benton.org/node/149617 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/TELECOM

PRIVATE INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Consider some of the things that have bound our nation together: Universal postal service at a flat rate, whether you live in Santa Monica or Sitka, Alaska. Interstate highways, built with taxpayer funds and free of tolls. Regulated phone and electric service, with lifeline rates for the economically disadvantaged. These were all based on a social contract honoring the notion that essential infrastructure should be available to all — indeed, that those normally left by the side of the economic road might be most in need. But you can kiss that notion goodbye, because today's model of building public infrastructure is to let private companies do it. Americans are becoming more dependent on privately operated toll roads to get where we're going, and on private delivery services like FedEx and UPS to carry our parcels. But the greatest shift has occurred in the sector that is most crucial in the information age: communications and data networks.
benton.org/node/149624 | Los Angeles Times
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POTS-TO-IP
[SOURCE: Fox News, AUTHOR: Steve Forbes]
[Commentary] In the last century, we have seen many technologies come and go. Before the car, came the horse and buggy; before computers, there were typewriters; and before wireless and fiber broadband networks, there was copper wire. There aren’t many horse and buggies on the road and most of us don’t have typewriters sitting on our desks. So why are copper networks still so widely used although they have been rendered obsolete by next-generation technologies? The simple answer is that federal, state and local regulations are stuck in the past. The legacy copper Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) provided the backbone of national telephone networks for more than 100 years. But today, IP-based networks deliver connection speeds and new products and services unequaled by anything delivered via copper. Recognizing this, consumers are abandoning outdated copper services at a rapid pace, instead opting for more reliable wireless and wired IP-based networks. Traditional copper networks are no longer applicable to the needs and benefits of today’s technologies. It doesn't make economic or practical sense to continue requiring telecommunications companies to preserve obsolete copper wire technologies when wireless and fiber networks can offer better connections more efficiently. Regulations should not favor a century-old technology over the most cutting-edge of today’s services.
benton.org/node/149623 | Fox News
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DATA CAPS ARE A TERRIBLE IDEA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Maura Corbett]
[Commentary] In a recently published piece, Prof. Daniel Lyons of the Boston College Law School argued that broadband data caps are a reasonable form of price discrimination. Lyons believes that data caps allow ISPs to more equitably distribute network costs among users based on how much they value internet access. He then goes on to suggest the best model of price discrimination comes from the airline industry, and that ISPs would be wise to learn from them. This seems to me to be just awful advice. One of the primary reasons consumers hate the airline industry as a whole is precisely because of standards of pricing that make no sense, are unnecessarily opaque and completely unpredictable. Certainly, there are other issues consumers gripe about, like on-time arrival (something they also share with cablecos, who sometimes, maybe show up between 8 and never), but at best, their pricing model simply makes no sense to the consumer, and at worst seems suspect and predatory. There are plenty of ways to address pricing that fairly charges customers without requiring them to pursue an engineering degree or a private investigator to figure it out. [Corbett is the president and founder of the Glen Echo Group which has a number clients involved in the broadband field representing a spectrum of interests]
benton.org/node/149641 | GigaOm
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LIFELINE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Tiffany Craig]
[Commentary] If I had never worked as a mental health therapist in the Baltimore schools, I likely would have been baffled by the Lifeline phone program, wondering when a cellphone had become a constitutional right. What I would have failed to have understood is that when people cannot be reached by phone, the consequences can be severe. I will never forget the day when one of my third-grade clients attempted suicide at school. His mother had no phone, so we had to call a neighbor to get her so that the child could be taken to the hospital without us filing an emergency petition, which would have meant having him removed from school in handcuffs by uniformed police. We reached her after about an hour of trying. The next time he had a psychiatric emergency at school, we were unable to explain the urgency of the situation to the neighbor without violating the family’s privacy, and she wasn’t willing to let the mother use her phone. The mother was not reached until after the police removed the boy from the school. Had Lifeline cellphones existed then, the child could have received the care he needed in a much more timely fashion, without undue added trauma.
benton.org/node/149646 | Washington Post
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

SPECTRUM AND WIRELESS COMPETITION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should ensure that Sprint and T-Mobile are able to buy the rights to wireless frequencies, the Justice Department argued. The department's Antitrust Division argued that ensuring smaller carriers have access to spectrum — the airwaves that carry all mobile data traffic — is critical for promoting competition and keeping cellphone service prices down. Sprint and T-Mobile operate nationwide networks but are much smaller than industry leaders Verizon and AT&T. The Justice Department warned that AT&T and Verizon might buy up the spectrum not to use for their customers, but to choke off their competitors' access to the vital resource. There are only a limited number of frequencies capable of carrying cellular signals. "A large incumbent may benefit from acquiring spectrum even if its uses of the spectrum are not the most efficient if that acquisition helps preserve high prices," the department wrote in the document, which was signed by division chief William Baer. The Justice Department argued that unless there is compelling evidence that one of the large carriers is already using all of its existing spectrum efficiently, the public would benefit the most from allowing one of the smaller carriers to buy the rights to the frequencies.
benton.org/node/149628 | Hill, The | Dept of Justice | Reuters | ars technica | WSJ | Broadcasting&Cable
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DISH-SPRINT?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shalini Ramachandran, Anton Troianovski]
Satellite-TV provider Dish Network is making a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, an effort to derail the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier's acquisition by Softbank of Japan. Dish is offering to pay $4.76 in cash and about $2.24 in Dish stock, based on Friday's closing price, for every share of Sprint. Sprint shares closed at $6.22 on Friday. Dish argues that the deal represents a 13% premium to Softbank's complicated proposal to buy 70% of Sprint for $20.1 billion. Combining his company with Sprint would allow Dish to offer video, high-speed Internet and voice service across the country in one package whether people are at home or out and about. People who don't have access to broadband from a cable company would be able to sign up for Internet service delivered wirelessly from Sprint cellphone towers to an antenna installed on their roof. Taking over Sprint would be a big bite. The wireless carrier booked $35.3 billion in revenue last year, compared with $14.3 billion for Dish. The combined company would carry more than $36 billion in debt, according to CapitalIQ, even before loading on the $9 billion Dish indicated it would borrow to do the deal.
benton.org/node/149651 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION/RADIO

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The first-ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System demonstrated that the national EAS distribution architecture is basically sound. As expected, however, the test uncovered several problems that impeded the ability of some EAS Participants to receive and/or retransmit the EAN. These included:
Widespread poor audio quality nationwide;
Lack of a Primary Entry Point (PEP) in the area to provide a direct connection to FEMA;
Use of alternatives to PEP-based EAN distribution;
The inability of some EAS Participants either to receive or retransmit the EAN;
Short test length; and
Anomalies in EAS equipment programming and operation.
The Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau recommends that another nationwide test be conducted after the Commission takes a number
of steps to strengthen the EAS, including:
1) Commencing a rulemaking proceeding to examine equipment performance issues during activation of an EAN and seek comment on proposed changes, if any, to the EAS equipment rules to ensure that EAS equipment operates in a consistent fashion throughout the EAS architecture.
2) Issuing a Public Notice encouraging states to review and as necessary update their EAS plans to ensure that they contain accurate and up-to-date information regarding monitoring assignments as required by FCC rules.
3) Commencing a rulemaking proceeding to consider possible changes to its EAS plan rules.
4) Working with FEMA to develop and issue best practices and other educational materials for EAS Participants, and, also with FEMA, consider hosting a workshop or other public forum that could provide opportunities to educate EAS Participants about EAS performance and address concerns and questions EAS Participants may have about EAN operations.
Turning to the issue of nationwide EAS testing, the Bureau recommends that the Commission take the following actions:
1) Commencing a rulemaking proceeding to address any operational nationwide EAS test issues left open in previous EAS orders, such as a possible nationwide location code for national EAS activations, use of the National Periodic Test code or other test code that would allow FEMA and the FCC to conduct less disruptive nationwide tests; and future use of the EAS Operation Handbook.
2) Developing a new Nationwide EAS Test Reporting System database to improve electronic filing of test result data by EAS Participants.
3) Encouraging the Executive Office of the President to reconvene the Federal EAS Test Working Group to ensure accountability as Federal partners and other stakeholders work to implement the lessons learned from the first test and to plan for future nationwide tests.
benton.org/node/149600 | Federal Communications Commission
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TV PROFITS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational. Ads go with editorial content in print, commercials go with programming on television and the channels you desire are paired with ones you did not in your cable package. People were free to shop for what they wanted, as long as they were willing to buy a bunch of other stuff they did not. The box score last night for your home team? It was wrapped inside a bundle of paper that included everything from foreign news to ads for lingerie. If you liked a song, you generally had to buy an album full of others to get the goods. As for advertisers, the audience they wanted was bundled inside a much larger audience of people they did not. To get at the milk, both consumers and businesses had to buy the cow. Television has thrived on this kind of systematic stacking, but though bundles may be a handy way of protecting things, they also tend to obscure the weaknesses within. Those flaws are becoming more apparent as the practice of bundling comes under attack.
benton.org/node/149649 | New York Times
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CONTENT

COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Bobby Cervantes]
Thirty years ago, the Macintosh was a new product, and the Internet was the little-known realm of the federal government and academia. That’s when 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — the guiding law that still defines and governs cybercrimes — was born. In dealing with computer-related wrongdoing in 2013, though, there are few who believe the law remains adequate, fair or modern enough to apply. But if there’s broad agreement that the CFAA sorely needs an update, dueling draft bills in the House illustrate dramatic differences among possible directions to go — stricter, looser or a combination. The Justice Department and some in Congress, alarmed by a rise in major cybersecurity crimes, want stiffer penalties for hacking. That effort, though, faces fierce pushback from a coalition of Internet activists and civil rights groups who want to ease or remove certain types of prosecutions and lighten penalties. CFAA reform was already looming, but the suicide of 26-year-old Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz in January helped galvanize groups to change the law so that not all hacking is considered the same and to make penalties less draconian in some cases. Swartz killed himself as he faced up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine after prosecutors alleged he stole more than 4 million documents from the JSTOR database of academic research papers at MIT.
benton.org/node/149636 | Politico
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA

CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Children's privacy is so sensitive that all it took for kids game Mobbles to pre-emptively pull its app last December was a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission by a privacy group. Four months later, the app, which had been accused of collecting e-mail addresses without parental permission, has yet to return. Mobbles' disappearance could have something to do with the FTC’s comprehensive overhaul of privacy rules affecting digital companies targeting kids, which will go into effect July 1. Just what exactly those changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) are is anybody’s guess. The FTC promises to clarify the updates in the form of FAQs "sometime this month," leaving companies with only 10 weeks to get in line. That's why the Interactive Advertising Bureau filed a request with the FTC to delay implementation by six months. "It’s a complete makeover and that will take time," said Mike Zaneis, the IAB’s svp, general counsel. Even if the FTC grants the extra time, the digital kids market undoubtably will be changed. The new regulations could cause some sites and apps to drastically reduce functionality or interactivity, force others behind paywalls or drive some right out of business.
benton.org/node/149643 | AdWeek
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POLICYMAKERS

TOM WHEELER
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
President Barack Obama is getting an earful about who he should nominate as the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission, but despite all the noise and Beltway gossip, one name keeps popping to the top: Tom Wheeler. Wheeler "appears to still have the inside track," wrote Stifel analysts Christopher King and David Kaut. It didn't hurt Wheeler that he picked up backing this week from 11 public interest advocates and former government officials. In a letter to the president, they praised the former cable lobbyist and venture capitalist as someone with an "open mind and an intelligent take on the challenges that will confront the new chairman," namely the expansion of broadband, the build-out of a public safety network and the pending auction of TV spectrum to meet the growing demand for wireless services. Wheeler's other big advantage is his fundraising for Obama. According to the Obama campaign, Wheeler raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for the president's re-election. Women are sure to be disappointed if Obama doesn't pick the agency's first women chair. That came through subtly, but clearly, at a Minority Media & Telecom Council luncheon honoring the 15 women commissioners who served on the FCC. Obama could easily name a woman to serve as interim chairwoman, an easy solution since his only two choices are women, commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.
benton.org/node/149626 | AdWeek
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AGENDA

A RISING CHORUS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] People are increasingly fed up with a business-as-usual politics that doesn’t stand a chance at solving the daunting problems confronting our country. And they increasingly understand that the kind of change America needs depends very heavily on the kind of communications and media infrastructure we have. I am hearing people everywhere I go say the same thing: “This isn’t working. We’ve had enough. It’s time to change the way things are.” People are feeling, in their everyday lives, the ills and harms that reformers have been predicting would come our way. It’s more than Washington debates or business model theories that fuel their rising discontent. It’s what they live with every day. It all comes back to that central tenet: democracy reform depends upon media reform. We won’t get the first without the latter. Successful self-government cannot exist apart from a vibrant civic dialogue fueled by digging for facts, holding power accountable, and telling the truth. Our job as reformers is to harness the rising chorus of discontent and turn it into an unstoppable force for progress. Therein is the fuel to drive reform.
http://benton.org/node/149586
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

GOOGLE DEAL WITH EUROPEAN COMMISSION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller]
Google has for the first time agreed to legally binding changes to its search results after an antitrust investigation by European regulators into whether it abuses its dominance of online search. After a two-year inquiry, the European Commission has accepted Google’s proposed settlement, according to two people briefed on the agreement who spoke anonymously because the proposal was not yet public. Google will not have to change the algorithm that produces its search results, the people said. Under the proposal, Google agrees to clearly label search results from its own properties, like Google Plus Local or Google News, and in some cases to show links from rival search engines. The changes will not be widely seen for at least a month, while rivals and others in the industry can weigh in on the plan, in a process called market testing. The biggest change has to do with search results related to topics like shopping and flights, a field known as vertical search. Google has been pushing into these areas, prompting complaints from competitors like Yelp and TripAdvisor who worry that Google will favor its own results over theirs. If the proposal is approved after market testing, the European Commission will have succeeded in demanding far more stringent concessions from Google than did United States regulators.
benton.org/node/149654 | New York Times | WSJ | FT
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GOOGLE’S BATTLES FAR FROM OVER
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Richard Waters, Alex Barker]
Google may have escaped the draconian antitrust penalties called for by its rivals, but the company still faces a bruising fight to put its regulatory battles in Brussels behind it. The company’s rivals, who have submitted about two-dozen complaints against the US search group in Europe alone, expressed dismay at the weekend over the proposed settlement with the European Commission. They are promising to press for more sweeping changes to Google’s search engine. The modifications to Google search results pages for users in Europe will do little to help other companies that have been starved of traffic from the search engine, according to rivals whose complaints led to the three-year investigation in Brussels. “A modified form of labeling is a non-starter or worse and would represent a massive failure on part of the commission after a very long investigation,” said David Wood, legal adviser to the Microsoft-backed Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace. “Some labels would be likely to be ineffective or even affirmatively harmful,” warned Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard University who has been a long-time critic of Google’s practices. Labeling a result as a “Google result” would suggest “that a given link is better or more official than the others”.
benton.org/node/149652 | Financial Times | Bloomberg
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