July 2013

Hamas cracks down on Gaza media outlets

Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip shut down two Arab media offices, accusing them of spreading falsehoods about the Palestinian territory's increasingly rocky relationship with the new military-led Egyptian government. In a statement, Hamas said it had shuttered the Gaza bureaus of the Dubai-based pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya and the Bethlehem-based Maan News Agency. Hamas officials said the closures were temporary "until the proper legal measures are taken."

The Supreme Court May Be the Best Hope to Stop the NSA

Now that the House of Representatives has voted down an amendment that would have significantly restricted what information the National Security Agency can collect about Americans, the best hope of curtailing the spy agency's powers lies with the courts. And while NSA critics have failed to rein in the eavesdropping agency through legislative action, they may have more luck with the third branch of government -- thanks to a leaked classified document, a rare bit of good fortune for a leading civil liberties group, and a sympathetic justice of the Supreme Court.

The fact that more than 200 lawmakers voted against a key NSA collection program, and one authorized by the long-controversial Patriot Act, represents a victory of sorts for surveillance critics. There has rarely been such a pronounced opposition to surveillance authorities, and the fact that the Obama administration had to mount a full court press to preserve the program, and still only eked out a narrow win, may give opponents some hope that a legislative effort could be mounted again with a different result. But there is no clear next step legislatively. No bill or amendment on the table. Yet there is a path forward on the judicial front.

Rep Justin Amash almost beat the NSA. Next time, he might do it.

[Commentary] The remarkably close House vote on the NSA’s bulk surveillance program can be read one of two ways.

You could say it was a symbolic win for the agency’s critics. Or you could say the House rejected an attempt to weaken the program. Which side you fall on depends mostly on whether you think symbolism carries any weight in this debate. The fact that Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) failed to push through his amendment — one that would have limited the NSA’s ability to gather telephone metadata on Americans — is a defeat for the congressman, of sorts. But even if the language had made it into the House’s defense authorization bill, it would’ve been stripped out in conference with the Senate. It also faced a near-certain presidential veto. In short, there was an upper limit to how far Rep Amash could’ve gone regardless of how the vote turned out. Despite the amendment’s iffy chances from the start, Rep Amash and his co-sponsor, Rep John Conyers (D-MI), were determined to test the waters. The results took most Congress watchers by surprise.

How the Justin Amash NSA amendment got a vote

If there is one episode that defines House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) leadership style, it’s how Rep Justin Amash (R-MI), the most defiant Republican in the House, won the right to offer a controversial amendment to curb the National Security Agency’s ability to collect phone data from Americans.

The amendment — opposed by Speaker Boehner, several key committee chairman and the White House — marked the first test of lawmakers’ support for sweeping NSA data collection programs exposed by Edward Snowden. Rep Amash voted against Rep Boehner for Speaker. He votes against the leadership team nearly every day on the House floor. On July 29, the Speaker’s office told Rep Amash to approach Speaker Boehner in the House chamber to chart a course to offer the amendment to limit the phone data program. After that phone call, before he spoke to Boehner, Rep Amash still took to Twitter to threaten leadership that he would bring the entire bill down. Speaker Boehner opposes the NSA amendment. Leadership doesn’t care much for Rep Amash. But they were listening to complaints from a broad swath of Republicans who wanted to vote against the spying program that Snowden revealed.

NSA snooping is hurting U.S. tech companies’ bottom line

There has been a lot of speculation that the revelations about NSA surveillance program PRISM damaged the credibility of U.S. tech companies, especially with international clients who were the primary targets of the snooping operation. But now it’s starting to look like the snooping is hitting U.S.-based cloud providers where it really hurts: Their pocketbooks.

Computer World UK reports a recent Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) survey found 10 percent of 207 officials at non-U.S. companies canceled contracts with U.S. providers after the leaks, and 56 percent of non-U.S. respondents are now hesitant to work with U.S.-based cloud operators. This is bad news for U.S. tech companies because cloud computing and storage is a huge, expanding market. Research firm Gartner forecasts the public cloud services market will grow 18.5 percent in 2013 to a total of $131 billion worldwide.

European Union reevaluating data sharing agreement with US in wake of NSA leaks

In a two-page written response to formal complaints filed last month by Austrian students, Ireland’s top data protection office said that Apple, Facebook, and other tech companies with Irish offices have met their obligations with respect to European Union (EU) law—despite all the newly disclosed PRISM and National Security Agency (NSA) related surveillance. The Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) cited the 1998 "Safe Harbor" agreement, which essentially provides a means for non-EU companies operating in the 28-member bloc to come to a middle ground concerning the EU's more stringent data protection laws versus the more lax laws on the other side of the Atlantic. At the same time, data protection officials in Germany are fuming (Google Translate), and wrote a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel (who is up for reelection at the end of September 2013), calling for the entire Safe Harbor program to be suspended. The German Federal Minister for Special Affairs, Ronald Pofalla, also appeared before a parliamentary committee in Berlin to address cooperation between German intelligence and the NSA.

Glenn Britt to Retire as Time Warner Cable Chief

Time Warner Cable, the country’s second-biggest cable company after Comcast, said that Glenn Britt, its chief executive since 2001, will retire at the end of the year, capping several years of succession discussions and months of public talk about his expected departure. Britt, 64, will be replaced by Rob Marcus, who at 48 represents generational change both for the company and the broader industry.

Marcus has been in line for the top job since 2010, when he was named president and chief operating officer. Marcus will take over a company that has been transformed in the 12 years Britt has been in charge. Once known just for piping cable television into homes, Time Warner Cable now considers its main product to be broadband, and it is trying hard to sign up businesses to offset the residences that have switched to DirecTV or Verizon FiOS. Marcus said in an interview that his priorities would include residential subscriptions (“We can do better,” he said, after a first quarter of the year that showed a continued decline in television subscribers and a slowdown in growth in broadband subscribers), corporate culture and overall customer service.

House subcommittee hearing on copyright goes 3-D

More than a decade after the file-sharing service Napster went offline, filmmakers, photographers, musicians and other artists are telling lawmakers that compensation and fair use of copyrighted content are still their main challenges.

"My company wouldn't exist if studios didn't make big films," William Sherak, whose company converted the hit film “Avatar” from 2-D to 3-D, told members of a House Judiciary subcommittee. Sherak had all the members of the subcommittee put on 3-D glasses to watch how a segment of a “Star Trek” film gets put together. Sherak told lawmakers that small companies, such as his, that make up the multi-million dollar 3-D industry could be "severely impacted" by online piracy.

NAB Expresses Support for Rockefeller Violence Research Bill

On the news that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D- WV) planned next week to mark up his Violent Content Research Act of 2013 -- it was referred to committee July 24 and is scheduled for a July 30 markup -- National Association of Broadcasters president Gordon Smith, himself a former senator, said his members support the inquiry.

"Given the conflicting scientific data, NAB supports chairman Rockefeller's bill requiring more research to determine whether a link exists between violent content and real-life violence. Broadcasters support community decency standards attendant to our broadcast licenses," Smith said. "In response to horrific acts of violence, NAB has worked with the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to produce public service announcements focused on youth mental health issues. We have done so in hopes that greater civility can be restored to society and that incidences of societal violence can be reduced."

What's In A Domain Name? A Lot, Countries Say

India doesn't want .ram. France objects to .vin. Brazil opposes .amazon; and China, .shangrila. Those are the proposed top-level domain names that some companies want. But several countries have complained, according to the world body that assigns them.

In 2008, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers opening up the types of top-level domain names available. So you could, in theory, have .anythingyouwant at the end of your address. Several countries objected, though the reasons may surprise you in some cases. Take .ram. Automaker Chrysler wants it for its Ram truck. The problem: Ram (pronounced Raam) is the name of the Hindu deity.

Benton

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