July 2013

Senate panel votes to study video game violence

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously advanced legislation to study the impact of violent video games and other media on children. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced the bill last year after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown (CT).

He argued that studying violent media can be a first step toward more aggressive regulation. The bill would require the National Academy of Sciences to examine whether violent video games and programming cause children to act aggressively or otherwise hurt their well-being. The academy would look at whether the interactive nature of video games has a unique impact on children. In a joint statement, the lobbying groups for the movie and cable TV industries said they "welcome further academic examination of the reasons behind societal violence." "Our industries have a longstanding commitment to providing parents with the resources, education and tools they need to make appropriate family viewing and entertainment decisions," the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Motion Picture Association of America said.

Senate Commerce panel approves cybersecurity bill

The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously advanced an industry-backed bill aimed at boosting the nation's cybersecurity, paving the way for a full Senate vote on the measure before the end of the year.

The bill -- authored by Senate Commerce leaders Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Thune (R-SD) -- would codify a section of President Obama's cybersecurity order that tasks the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) to work with businesses to craft a framework of cybersecurity best practices and standards. NIST has already held a set of workshops with industry groups across the country to start drafting the framework, which is due in October. The bill stays away from the thornier issues in the cybersecurity debate, such as setting security standards for companies that operate critical infrastructure and improving information-sharing about cyber threats, because they lay outside the Commerce panel's jurisdiction. Specifically, the measure does not require companies to adopt the best practices and standards that are included in NIST's final framework. The bill has received backing from a wide range of industry groups, including USTelecom and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for its non-regulatory approach. The bill would also boost cybersecurity research and development, education and public awareness about cyber threats.

Senate Commerce Approves Wheeler Nomination

The Senate Commerce Committee approved the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, but not without some drama with one senator threatening to delay Wheeler's final confirmation.

Senate Republicans would have preferred that the committee delay a vote on Wheeler until the White House had nominated a Republican to replace Robert McDowell, a point ranking member John Thune (R-SD) made at the hearing. Thune said he would support Wheeler's nomination, but would prefer that the committee have delayed its vote and was "better served" by pairing Wheeler with the other nominees, whom he said he expected the White House to name "soon." He said that any delay in the committee vote could be offset by swift floor action. He pointed out that while former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's nomination came two and a half months before McDowell’s renomination, they were voted on in committee as a pair on the same day and got full-Senate confirmation just a week later. It has become custom, though not a rule, that the committee pair votes on FCC nominees, but Chairman Jay Rockefeller said that was not happening on his committee.

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he had not gotten a sufficient answer from Wheeler on the issue of whether the FCC could use its authority to what he and other Republicans would consider an end-run around Congress by boosting political ad disclosures, something Congress has failed to do with the yet-to-pass DISCLOSE Act. Sen Cruz did not use the H word (“hold”), but did mention Wheeler had failed to answer the question three times. "If he continues to refuse to answer that question, I may well support using procedural means to delay this nomination until he answers the very reasonable question that has been posed," Sen Cruz said.

NAB Says CES Survey On OTA TV Isn’t Credible

The National Association of Broadcasters says a recent Consumer Electronics Association survey that showed only 7% of U.S. TV homes rely solely on over-the-air signals for TV programming isn’t credible:

“CEA’s findings strain the bounds of credibility, beginning with the fact that its alleged ‘research’ was conducted by CEA staff members rather than an independent firm. Contrast that with the recent independent study by GfK, a world-recognized consumer research firm, that found that 19.3 percent of homes rely exclusively on over-the-air television. Moreover, CEA surveyed barely 1,000 people, compared to the more than 3,000 homes that participated in the GfK study. We’re confident that GfK’s research is far more credible than that of a trade association with a track record of anti-broadcasting bias.”

John Verdi, director of privacy initiatives, Office of Policy Analysis and Development

When the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) was tasked last year with helping to launch a new multistakeholder process aimed at developing privacy codes of conduct for various business sectors, the agency turned to someone who understood how technology, law and privacy intersect. With a background as both a computer programmer and lawyer, John Verdi fit the bill.

Verdi, who began his job as NTIA’s director of privacy initiatives in April 2012, has been in charge of organizing the multistakeholder process aimed at drafting voluntary industry codes of conduct to enhance consumer privacy. In this role, Verdi has the delicate job of trying to help move the process forward without weighing in on the substance. The process reached an important milestone last week when stakeholders involved in the process agreed to begin testing and implementing a privacy code aimed at enhancing the transparency of mobile apps.

Why Overstock decided to start a price war with Amazon

A Q&A with Overstock CEO Patrick M. Byrne.

Founded in 1999, Overstock.com has always been dwarfed by Amazon, which had $61 billion in revenues last year. But Overstock says it’s now ready to take on the goliath. Its first strike? Overstock’s decision this week to undercut Amazon’s prices on some books by 10 percent, which forced the mega-etailer to quietly bring down its prices as well. GigaOm asked Byrne why he thinks he can go toe-to-toe with Amazon.

EU regulator intensifies scrutiny of Google search results

European Union antitrust regulators sharpened their scrutiny of how Google ranks its web search results, asking rivals whether their lower rankings affected the number of visitors to their sites, a European Commission questionnaire showed.

The list of six questions focused on the last two and a half years, as EU regulators sought evidence of any possible link between the complainants' lower rankings in Google search results and lower traffic to their sites. "In the period from January 2011 to June 2013, have you ever noticed a decrease in the number of users reaching your vertical search sites via Google's natural search, which cannot be explained by a change in your web site?" the questionnaire asked. "Did it coincide with a significant change in the ranking of the pages of your web site in Google's natural search results?" Respondents were given until Aug. 16 to reply to the questionnaire.

US to declassify documents on spy programs, surveillance court

US spy agencies plan to declassify documents about the National Security Agency surveillance programs revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden, and also material related to a secret intelligence court, a U.S. intelligence official said.

The declassified documents could be released as early as this week and were intended to provide the public more information about the programs as part of a commitment by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for more transparency. The documents would also include information about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court which operates in secrecy, the official said.

7% of U.S Homes Rely on Over-the-Air TV: CEA Study

About 7% of U.S. TV homes rely solely on over-the-air signals to get TV programming, the Consumer Electronics Association found in a phone survey of 1,009 adults.

That's down 1% from the findings of a 2010 CEA study, the group said. That’s also down a couple notches from a 2012 Nielsen study showing that 9% of all U.S. TV homes are over-the-air only, down from 16% in 2003. “The vast majority of Americans no longer rely on over-the-air TV signals,” said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro, in a statement regarding the new study “Consumers have moved away in droves from traditional broadcast television thanks to a surge in programming alternatives available through wired and wireless broadband connections.” He said this trend means “Congress had it right when they authorized the FCC to hold voluntary broadcast spectrum incentive auctions to reallocate broadcast television spectrum to greater uses, like wireless broadband. This study provides yet another reason why it is time for broadcast spectrum to be reallocated, and quickly.”

More Big FCC Fines for Children's Television Violations

Fines of $20,000 for violations of the obligations to prepare and file Children’s Television Reports have been flowing out from the FCC as it works its way through license renewal applications filed by television stations over the last year.

The cases decided in the last two weeks include a $20,000 proposed fine to a full-power station in Louisiana that did not timely file 18 Form 398 Reports during the license term ($17,000 for the late filings and $3000 for not reporting the late filings in the renewal application). In another case involving a proposed $20,000 fine, a Georgia Class A station had failed to timely file 20 Form 398 Reports, and also did not complete 15 Quarterly Issues Programs Lists and place those reports in its public file on a timely basis. With the online public file, compliance with the Quarterly Issues Programs list requirement can be monitored by the FCC, even though such reports are not filed at the FCC. A third $20,000 fine was given to a Class A station that was late with 25 children's television reports, and failed to identify the failures on the renewal, even though the FCC had inquired about the status of 7 of those reports before the renewal was submitted, and the licensee had admitted its failures to comply with the rules. $10,000 of the fine was attributed to the late-filed public file documents, $7000 to the late-filing of the Form 398s, and $3000 to the failure to admit the violations in the license renewal.

Benton

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