April 2013

US still pressing allies for tougher anti-piracy laws

Despite the fact that Spain enacted an anti-piracy law in 2011 (under pressure from the United States), the country is now working on a new one as a way to keep the Iberian nation off of an American watchlist.

Jose Ignacio Wert, Spain’s education and culture minister, said that his country is currently negotiating a new law aimed at preventing Spain’s return to the United States Trade Representative "notorious markets" list. The International Intellectual Property Alliance has recommended that Spain be added once again to the list, which is due out later this month. "I believe this reform should satisfy those who are worried about Spain's insufficient level of protection for intellectual property," Wert said. The new law would target “linking sites” that provide a means to induce secondary copyright infringement, and if passed as currently drafted would give the Spanish government the power to quickly shut down such sites. Fines would also be increased to up to €300,000 ($392,000).

Armstrong Nominated for Broadcasting Board of Governors

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Matthew Armstrong for the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Armstrong is an author, speaker, and strategist on issues related to public diplomacy. In 2011, he served as Executive Director of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Previously, Mr. Armstrong was an adjunct professor of public diplomacy at the Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California. In 2010, he founded and served as President of the MountainRunner Institute and published a blog on public diplomacy and strategic communication. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Diplomacy Council and a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Mr. Armstrong received a B.A. and an M.P.D. from the University of Southern California.

Westminster, county examining benefits of fiber optic network

While the Carroll County Fiber Network will spur economic development in the county, a Westminster fiber optic network would touch the residents of Westminster directly, creating more competitive and reliable broadband access.

Westminster will complete a feasibility study for adding fiber to its municipality in April, and by August the Carroll County Fiber Network will be completed. The idea is that businesses and public institutions can take advantage of the 112-mile fiber optic network, and which could eventually trickle down the residents, said Mark Ripper, the chief information officer for the county. Its main benefit is saving money at Carroll County Public Schools and the Carroll County Government by using its own fiber as opposed to leasing from a Verizon or Comcast, he said. Internet service providers will be able to lease out the space on the fiber optic network in order to reach other businesses and residents. Robert Wack, a Westminster Common Councilman, said the feasibility study for the possibility of a Westminster fiber optic network will be very different than the Carroll County Fiber Network.

Tech Firms Push to Hire More Workers From Abroad

Silicon Valley is battling in Washington to make the immigration process easier for thousands of people, many of them Indian engineers, while also pushing to hire many more guest workers from abroad.

Rarely has the industry been so single-mindedly focused on a national policy issue, with executives like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and John T. Chambers of Cisco personally involved. Its efforts seem to be paying off, as a group of eight senators negotiate details of a comprehensive immigration deal to be announced early next week. Several lobbyists and advocates who have spoken to Senate staff members say they are optimistic about at least two items high on their wish list: a fast-track green card line for math and science graduates like Mr. Sankhla, no matter which country they come from, and a near doubling of the visas for temporary workers.

Department of Justice Clears Arris/Motorola Home Deal

Arris Group said the U.S. Department of Justice had cleared the company's proposed $2.35 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility's Home unit from Google.

While the acquisition of Motorola will make Arris the nation's largest supplier of set-tops, the companies do have several significant product lines that overlap, including cable modems, cable modem termination systems, edge QAMs and set-top software and user interfaces. Arris has not announced how it intends to integrate Motorola Home's products and people, or revealed what the leadership structure will look like once the deal is closed.

Digital Government Has a Way to Go

[Commentary] President Barack Obama has earned his reputation as the Internet president. From the behavioral analytics used to run his campaign to the Google “fireside hangouts” to his Twitter sessions, Obama has been masterful in using technology to market his message. Now firmly entrenched in his second term, the question is, when will he use his Internet savvy to lead and transform digital government?

[Samuelson is vice president of strategy at Laserfiche, an enterprise content management technology firm.]

Translating public health into media

The Envision conference revealed an ongoing disconnect between policy wonks and storytellers.

Op-ed

A Rising Chorus

I’ve spent a lot of time on the road these past six months, talking with people coast-to-coast, with lots of stops in between. I’ve been to large cities and small towns, colleges and community halls, red states and blue, talking about communications and how our current news and information infrastructure is disserving democracy.

Weekly Digest

Show Me Your Budget, I'll tell You What You Value

US tax hitch puts Vodafone in limbo

The stalemate between Verizon and Vodafone and over the future of Verizon Wireless, their joint US venture has led to increasingly ambitious proposals, but none yet has established a solution for an intractable $40 billion tax problem.

The considerable capital gains tax bill from the sale of the UK group’s 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless has led to talk of various indirect solutions, not least the suggestion that Verizon could instead buy Vodafone outright with US rival AT&T to carve out the business. While current plans have been denied by Verizon, the problem still remains how it can coax Vodafone into a deal for the biggest US wireless operator by subscribers knowing that the UK telecoms group would be saddled with a bill for as much as $40 billion, according to analyst estimates. Moreover the current “cellco structure” gives Vodafone tax-free, dollar denominated cash dividends from Verizon Wireless, that last year amounted to £2.4 billion making it more valuable in its present form than in a sale to Verizon, says Robin Bienenstock, analyst at Bernstein. She describes the tax hurdle as “insurmountable” unless Verizon is willing to pay a “prohibitively expensive 12 times ebitda or higher” price to cover these costs.

Benton

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