July 10, 2013 (Could the Supreme Court stop the NSA?)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013
Another busy day in wonkville http://benton.org/calendar/2013-07-10/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Could the Supreme Court stop the NSA?
Note to all Internet users: Trust no one
New questions raised about Silicon Valley's ties to terrorist regimes
Judge throws out “state secrets” defense in light of NSA leaks
Snowden maintains the NSA has direct access to company servers, which means someone is lying
Snowden leaks unlikely to sway cyber theft negotiations with China, expert says
The price of surveillance: Government pays to snoop
Nation Will Gain by Discussing Surveillance, Expert Tells Privacy Board
Controls Over NSA Spying Considered by U.S. Privacy Board
Five things Snowden leaks revealed about NSA’s original warrantless wiretaps
Live From the Oval Office: A Backdrop of History Fades From TV
US-China cybersecurity talks inching along [links to web]
The State Department Isn't Great at the Internet
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Sprint Completes Acquisition of Clearwire - press release
Majority of Sprint Nextel Shares Opt to Receive Cash in SoftBank Deal
SoftBank CEO outlines $16B capital spending at Sprint, plans for Silicon Valley research center
Sprint, T-Mobile to Spend Big (in advertising) in Pursuit of Verizon, AT&T [links to web]
NAB Asks FCC to Hold Auction Hearings
Cybercriminals Increasing Attacks on Mobile Devices [links to web]
White space Internet may finally spread through US
West Virginia University is Air.U’s First TV White Spaces Network
The hidden 17% tax: Your cell phone bill
No more landlines on Fire Island? Verizon seeks to go wireless. [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Pilot Programs for the Phone Network Transition Must Protect Customers First - press release
Open Internet Advisory Group Talks Broadband Labeling
A city with two gigabit Internet ISPs, and neither one is Google Fiber [links to web]
Comcast Expands Prepaid Internet Trial [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Tribune to spin off LA Times, other papers into separate company
Book Publishing’s Big Gamble - op-ed
Conflicted Hulu owners face tough choices
Get Ready for More Tech Acquisitions This Year, Just Not Big Ones [links to web]
Apple, Amazon stop fighting over who gets to use “App Store” name [links to web]
JOURNALISM
MMTC Wants Broadcasters to 'Afflict the Comfortable'
Newsroom Diversity: A Casualty of Journalism's Financial Crisis
New Jersey Senate Hopeful Wants FCC to Revoke WWOR’s License (updated)
UK lawmakers ask Murdoch to reappear for questions [links to web]
ADVERTISING
If Publishers Fail to Self-Regulate Native Ads, FTC May Step In
TELEVISION
Sexual Exploitation of Underage Girls Rampant on Primetime, Parents Television Council Says
Netflix Is Making Both Cable and Internet Television Better - analysis [links to web]
Conflicted Hulu owners face tough choices
EDUCATION
Fifty National Organizations Rally Behind E-Rate Overhaul - op-ed
FCC REFORM
Reps Walden, Kinzinger Prep FCC Reform Bill
POLICYMAKERS
Conservative Groups Urge Senate to Block Wheeler Over Broadcast Indecency
STORIES FROM ABROAD
UK lawmakers ask Murdoch to reappear for questions [links to web]
Salons or Not, Cyberspace Is Still a Distant Place for Most Cubans [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
Internet inventor Vint Cerf: No technological cure for privacy ills [links to web]
You Never Give Me Your Money: Songwriters Push Back Against Pandora [links to web]
Fork in the Road for Barnes & Noble [links to web]
Why public libraries should follow Chicago’s lead and build maker labs [links to web]
Will New .LA Internet Addresses Boost Los Angeles Entertainment Companies? [links to web]
Businesses are loaded with customer data, but unable to act upon it [links to web]
Fail Cheaper, Fail Better [links to web]
Skype makes monsters of us all - op-ed [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
COULD SCOTUS STOP NSA?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
Ordinarily, it takes years of litigation in lower courts before an issue can reach the nation’s highest court. But the Electronic Privacy Information Center has gone straight to the top, arguing in a court filing that the unusual structure of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court gives victims of the National Security Agency’s program no other choice than to ask the Supreme Court to step in. The Supreme Court has the power to issue an order called a “writ of mandamus” to deal with lower courts that overstep their legal authority. This type of order is only supposed to be used in “exceptional circumstances.” But EPIC argues that the NSA’s phone records program is exactly the kind of situation that merits the Supreme Court’s intervention. The phone records program is based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is supposed to be used to obtain business records related to a terrorist investigation. The government argues that Verizon’s entire phone records database is relevant to counterterrorism efforts and can therefore be obtained with a single court order. EPIC says such a broad order is inconsistent with Congress’s intent. Much of EPIC’s request is focused on persuading the Supreme Court that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s call records order is exceptional.
benton.org/node/155399 | Washington Post
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TRUST NO ONE
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Ted Samson]
Customers should assume that American multinational telecom companies are providing the U.S. government access to their personal data, according to whistleblower Edward Snowden. In an interview with Der Spiegel conducted before he went public about the NSA's surveillance programs, the former NSA contractor also said that punishing companies who collaborate with the agency should be "the highest priority of all computer users who believe in the freedom of thought." In the interview, Snowden also said the NSA and Israel co-wrote the Stuxnet worm, which knocked out Iran's nuclear program in 2011, and he asserted that U.S. allies like Britain are engaging in surveillance programs similar in scope to those of the United States.
benton.org/node/155435 | InfoWorld
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TECH INDUSTRY AND REPRESSION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
A report from a Canadian research organization has again raised the uncomfortable question of whether Silicon Valley's technology is being used by so-called terrorist states to repress their citizens. The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab released a report that focused on Blue Coat Systems and how its technology apparently is still part of Syria's state-sponsored telecommunications networks and is being used in Sudan and Iran. Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria have been labeled by the State Department as state sponsors of terrorism, and are subject to U.S. economic sanctions and export controls. Trade is restricted to these countries, but not completely illegal. Companies can get limited import-export exemptions. The Citizen Lab report put the spotlight on Blue Coat, but the issue has spread throughout Silicon Valley. With the fastest growing markets overseas, tech companies have turned to a wide variety of local information technology vendors to sell their products. But keeping close tabs on where and how all those vendors sell their products has become difficult. As a result, various federal agencies have been stepping up enforcement in recent years.
benton.org/node/155433 | Los Angeles Times
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STATE SECRETS DEFENSE THROWN OUT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
Judge Jeffrey White has allowed a five-year-old case on government surveillance to proceed -- rejecting the government’s argument from December 2012 to invoke the state secrets privilege and dismiss the case. However, in the ruling, the judge also allowed the government to dismiss some of the counts of alleged violations, citing the principle of sovereign immunity. In the case known as Jewel v. NSA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has charged that a number of AT&T customers’ constitutional rights were violated under the domestic surveillance program authorized during the days of the Bush Administration. The EFF initially filed the case on behalf of Carolyn Jewel and other plaintiffs back in 2008, so it long predates the recent disclosures by former NSA employee Edward Snowden. Jewel, the lead plaintiff, is a romance novelist who lives in Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco.
benton.org/node/155431 | Ars Technica
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SNOWDEN AND NSA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
Ever since The Guardian and the Washington Post first revealed the existence of a top-secret NSA surveillance program known as PRISM in June, there has been a glaring question mark at the center of the documents leaked by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden: namely, how much access the spy agency has to the servers and systems of companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. All of these companies have strenuously denied that they provide any access at all, direct or indirect — but in the second half of an interview with the Guardian, released by the newspaper on Monday, Snowden maintains that PRISM gives the NSA “direct access” to company servers. In the interview, which he did in early June with Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald and independent documentary film-maker Laura Poitras from his hideout in Hong Kong, the former CIA staffer repeats the allegations contained in the PRISM slides about tech companies willingly providing direct access to their servers — and doing so in an automated way so that they can deny any involvement.
benton.org/node/155386 | GigaOm
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THE PRICE OF SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anne Flaherty]
How much are your private conversations worth to the government? Turns out, it can be a lot, depending on the technology. In the era of intense government surveillance and secret court orders, a murky multimillion-dollar market has emerged. Paid for by U.S. tax dollars, but with little public scrutiny, surveillance fees charged in secret by technology and phone companies can vary wildly. AT&T, for example, imposes a $325 "activation fee" for each wiretap and $10 a day to maintain it. Smaller carriers Cricket and U.S. Cellular charge only about $250 per wiretap. But snoop on a Verizon customer? That costs the government $775 for the first month and $500 each month after that, according to industry disclosures made last year to then-Rep Edward Markey (D-MA). Meanwhile, email records like those amassed by the National Security Agency through a program revealed by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden probably were collected for free or very cheaply. Facebook says it doesn't charge the government for access. And while Microsoft, Yahoo and Google won't say how much they charge, the American Civil Liberties Union found that email records can be turned over for as little as $25. Industry says it doesn't profit from the hundreds of thousands of government eavesdropping requests it receives each year, and civil liberties groups want businesses to charge.
benton.org/node/155469 | Associated Press
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NATION WILL GAIN FROM NSA DEBATE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Charlie Savage]
A retired federal judge, who formerly served on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, praised the growing public discussion about government surveillance fostered by the leaks of classified information by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor whom the Obama administration has charged with espionage and who remains a fugitive. “The brouhaha after the Snowden leaks and this meeting indeed establishes what I think is true — that we need to have a more wide-open debate about this in our society, and thankfully we’re beginning to have the debate and this meeting is part of it,” said James Robertson, formerly of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia. He made his remarks during an all-day “workshop” by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency that is trying to scrutinize surveillance in light of Snowden’s revelations. The workshop doubled as something of a coming out for the full five-member privacy board, whose creation was recommended by the Sept. 11 commission. Although some of its members held a public organizational meeting last year, the Senate did not confirm its full-time chairman, David Medine, until May, shortly before Snowden’s revelations began spilling out. The board has an annual budget of $800,000 and by law has access to classified information. It plans eventually to issue a report and recommendations about whether the surveillance programs properly balance security and privacy, along with recommendations.
benton.org/node/155467 | New York Times
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CONTROLS OVER NSA SPYING
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Chris Strohm]
A citizen’s privacy board will consider whether opponents of U.S. spying programs should be represented before a secret court overseeing government surveillance -- as recommended by a former judge on that court.
Altering how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court operates is one of several suggestions that deserve “serious” consideration, said David Medine, chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The five-member board held its first public meeting in Washington to hear from former government officials and legal and civil-rights experts on U.S. programs exposed by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to spy on Americans’ phone records and e-mails. The secret court is “one-sided” because it only hears from the government, James Robertson, a former federal judge based in Washington who served on the court from 2002 to 2005, told the panel. He told the Associated Press that he left the court over concerns about the surveillance. “We had a range of recommendations on all sides that have given us a lot of things to think about,” Medine said after the seven-hour meeting. “We are going to continue to review the FISA court opinions and we’re going to continue to get briefings from the government so that we can better understand the details of these programs.”
benton.org/node/155465 | Bloomberg
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NSA’S ORIGINAL WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Julian Sanchez]
As stories based on Edward Snowden’s trove of leaked National Security Agency (NSA) documents continue to trickle out, most reporters have focused on what they can tell us about the spy agency’s current or recent surveillance activities. Yet one of the most interesting documents from Snowden’s cache sheds new light on the granddaddy of them all: President Bush’s original warrantless wiretap program.
The program was broader than originally reported
Vice President Cheney’s office wanted domestic communications
The phone companies suggested using call records
The scale of the snooping
Secrecy impeded effective oversight
benton.org/node/155463 | Ars Technica
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OVAL OFFICE ADDRESS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jackie Calmes]
At historic moments in the television age, past American presidents turned to the Oval Office as their stage. The current president? It was three years ago this summer that President Barack Obama gave his only two prime-time addresses from the Oval Office — the first on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the second on ending combat operations in Iraq. That ties the number for George W. Bush at a similar point in his presidency. After President Bush’s first Oval Office address, on Sept. 11, 2001, he gave just five more in eight years. The statistics come from the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “I wouldn’t say the Oval Office address is a thing of the past,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidency scholar at Towson University in Maryland. “It’s just going to be reserved for those presidents and those occasions where they feel they have to use it.” That is a sign of the times. In the second half of the 20th century, word that the president would address the nation made Americans stop and listen. For many baby boomers in particular, the speeches define the historical timeline of their lives. But in this century, the Internet revolution and advances in television technology have changed presidents, citizens and the broadcasters who traditionally connected the two. Instead of just three TV networks, Americans have myriad choices for entertainment and information, and viewership numbers for prime-time presidential addresses have fallen, to about 25 million. Faced with new competition, broadcasters resist giving airtime to presidents, so presidents give fewer addresses (and evening news conferences). When they do want to speak, they increasingly choose arrangements more comfortable to them than sitting at a desk staring at a lens — a setup that President Obama, known for his oratorical skills, likes no more than President Bush did.
benton.org/node/155461 | New York Times
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NSA AND CYBERSECURITY TALKS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Amrita Khalid]
Cybersecurity expert James Lewis told a House panel that recent leaks about American surveillance activities were unlikely to prevent the United States from confronting China over billions of dollars in intellectual property (IP) theft during this week’s dialogue between the two nations. Lewis, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the oversight arm of the House Commerce Committee that Chinese officials will test how much advantage over the U.S. they can get from former government contractor Edward Snowden's revelations. "They are unlikely to get much negotiating benefit from his revelation because the U.S. has always told China that military espionage is a two-way street and that it is China’s commercial espionage that creates problems,” he said.
benton.org/node/155429 | Hill, The
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THE STATE DEPARTMENT ISN'T GREAT AT THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Philip Bump]
Corny, inexplicable YouTube videos featuring low-rent animations. Expensive, unhelpful efforts to get attention on social media. The web marketing efforts of a mid-range Toyota dealership in Fort Worth? No. This is apparently the outreach strategy employed by our very own Department of State. The latter tactic came to light last week with the release of an inspector general's report outlining the department's Bureau of International Information Programs' spending on trying to get Facebook likes. Over two years, the group spent $630,000 on advertising campaigns that generated millions of likes on Facebook.
benton.org/node/155382 | Atlantic, The
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
SPRINT-CLEARWIRE
[SOURCE: Sprint, AUTHOR: Press release]
Sprint announced the successful completion of its transaction to acquire 100 percent ownership of Clearwire. The merger agreement was first announced on December 17, 2012 and Clearwire shareholders approved the transaction at a special meeting of stockholders held on July 8, 2013. The transaction closed and became effective July 9. At the effective time, each share of Class A common stock of Clearwire automatically converted into the right to receive $5.00 per share in cash. As a result of the completion of the transaction, the common stock of Clearwire will no longer be listed for trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange and Clearwire expects no further trading after the close of business on July 9, 2013. Also, under the terms of the Indenture, dated as of December 8, 2010, by and among Clearwire Communications LLC, Clearwire Finance, Inc., the guarantors named therein and Wilmington Trust, National Association, as trustee (the “8.25% Notes Indenture”), the transaction constitutes a Fundamental Change for the purposes of the 8.25% Notes Indenture with an Effective Date of July 9, 2013.
benton.org/node/155407 | Sprint
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SPRINT-SOFTBANK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Tess Stynes]
Sprint Nextel said holders of more than half of its shares outstanding opted to receive cash in SoftBank’s effort to become the telecommunications company's majority holder. Last week SoftBank's three-way merger with Sprint and Clearwire won final approval from U.S. regulators, clearing the final hurdles before the transaction closes. Clearwire said about 82% of shares not affiliated with Sprint or SoftBank were voted in favor of Sprint's effort to acquire the portion of Clearwire that it doesn't own, exceeding a required majority of more than 75%. Including Sprint's 50% stake, about 95% of Clearwire's shares outstanding were voted in favor of the deal. The transaction is expected to close soon.
benton.org/node/155405 | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
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SOFTBANK’S PLANS FOR SPRINT
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Matt Hamblen]
SoftBank plans to invest $16 billion in capital improvements at Sprint in the next two years, CEO Masayoshi Son said. That $16 billion investment will more than double the pace of current capital growth, and most will go to base stations for Sprint's LTE network, Son said. After the next two years, the pace of investment will slow to about $6 billion a year. Sprint has about 90 cities on LTE today, well behind AT&T and LTE market leader Verizon. Son also said that SoftBank and Sprint will open a joint hardware and software research center in Silicon Valley, employing up to 1,000 workers. Son will be the chairman of Sprint's new board of directors, while Ronald Fisher, head of U.S. Softbank operations, will be deputy chairman. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and three other Sprint directors will stay on and will be joined by Michael Mullen, former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Son said he's seen "considerable possibility for cutting costs" at Sprint, with up to $3 billion in annual savings by combining SoftBank's Japan purchases of base stations and smartphones with those of Sprint in the US.
benton.org/node/155403 | ComputerWorld
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AUCTION HEARINGS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
On July 5, Rick Kaplan of the National Association of Broadcasters met with Federal Communications Commission Chief of Staff Michele Ellison to offer the association’s views on the challenges and opportunities in broadcaster repacking and the 600 MHz post-auction band plan proposed in the FCC’s incentive auction proceeding. NAB also reiterated two specific requests it has made in the past. First, NAB encouraged the commission to hold — even perhaps as part of its monthly open agenda meetings — hearings on various aspects of the incentive auction proceeding. NAB also discussed what it called “the unfortunate and unnecessary consequences of the indeterminate and now three-month-old freeze on broadcast TV station modification applications.” In the meeting, NAB recommended that, if the Media Bureau did not lift this freeze, the commission should move forward immediately with an order resolving the questions surrounding which full-power and Class A broadcasters will be protected — and to what extent.
benton.org/node/155423 | TVNewsCheck
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WHITE SPACE INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
White space networks haven't spread in quite the way some of its visionaries envisioned a few years ago, but the method of providing wireless Internet access over unused TV spectrum is slowly gaining a foothold. Companies like Microsoft and Google are using white spaces to bring the Web to underserved parts of the world, and a couple of commercial networks have been launched in the US. Now, white spaces may be about to gain traction in colleges and libraries. West Virginia University announced today that it is going to "use vacant broadcast TV channels to provide the campus and nearby areas with wireless broadband Internet services." The initial rollout will provide free public Wi-Fi—yes, it really exists!—on a public transit tram system. West Virginia is setting its network up in conjunction with AIR.U, a consortium of colleges and universities aiming to deploy white space networks on campuses and surrounding areas. Similarly to AIR.U, there is a new consortium devoted to bringing white space networks to libraries throughout the country. It's called Gigabit Libraries Network, and it will select qualifying libraries to "receive a trial system including a single white space Base Station and three remote library Wi-Fi hotspots, all wirelessly connected to the base station. Each remote would be sited at a convenient public location to provide patrons a basic level of no-fee library Wi-Fi broadband access."
benton.org/node/155392 | Ars Technica | telecompetitor
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AIR.U
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Student and faculty at West Virginia University in Morgantown (WV) now have Wi-Fi connectivity at rapid transit platforms as the result of a recently completed TV white spaces deployment. The deployment is the first to result from the Air.U initiative announced last year with the goal of bringing broadband connectivity using TV white spaces to university communities. TV white spaces equipment operates in vacant TV broadcast spectrum, making it an alternative to landline broadband in non-urban areas. In the WVU deployment, a single TV channel supports speeds of 12 Mbps over distances as great as two miles, according to Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation, an Air.U backer. Calabrese said range is actually greater than two miles, but that WVU only requires a two-mile coverage area.
“Innovative deployment of TV white spaces presents an exciting opportunity for underserved rural and low-income urban communities across the country,” said Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn. “I commend AIR.U and West Virginia University on launching a unique pilot program that provides campus-wide Wi-Fi services using TV white space devices. This pilot will not only demonstrate how TV white space technologies can help bridge the digital divide, but also could offer valuable insights into how best to structure future deployments.”
benton.org/node/155447 | telecompetitor | FCC Chairwoman Clyburn | Broadcasting&Cable
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CELL PHONE TAXES
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: David Goldman]
Local, state and federal governments, 911 systems and even school districts tack on taxes and surcharges to your wireless bill that end up costing American cell phone customers an extra 17.2%, on average, according to the Tax Foundation. That's up from 16.3% fifteen months ago. For consumers accustomed to single-digit sales taxes, these double-digit fees can appear unusually burdensome. But unlike sales, income or property taxes, wireless taxes remain largely hidden -- tacked on to the end of your monthly wireless bill and often ignored. They shouldn't be. A $60 cell phone bill actually costs the average customer $70.32.
benton.org/node/155445 | CNNMoney
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
IP TRANSITION COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Leigh Barnwell]
In May, the Federal Communications Commission solicited comments on a proposal to implement a series of pilot programs relating to ongoing transitions in the phone network. The proposed trials are intended to give the FCC a better understanding of how technological changes to the phone network will affect Americans. On July 8, Public Knowledge gave the FCC our two cents on the proposal: apply PK’s Five Fundamentals in designing the trials in order to ensure that the programs produce meaningful data and include strong protections for consumers – who won’t be able to choose whether or not to participate. Here are the elements that we see as essential to creating a trial program that will provide meaningful information to the Commission while also protecting the needs of customers of the participating carriers:
The pilot programs need to be structured to gather specific data rather than treated than as policy-setting processes in and of themselves. The Commission must not let the trials become a glide path to deregulation; they need to structure the pilot programs so that they provide useful data that can inform the Commission’s policy-making going forward.
The Commission needs to make sure that the trials are transparent – both in the process of designing the programs and in sharing the information gained through the programs after completion. The phone network transition promises to impact network uses across the entire nation, and it is vital that every interested stakeholder have the opportunity to review, comment, on, and use the data collected during the pilot programs.
It’s important that the Commission collaborate with state and local entities in designing and implementing the trials. Partnering with local public interest groups and local government institutions will allow the Commission to determine the best possible methods for informing consumers about the trials and for soliciting their feedback, especially in areas with diverse geographic and socioeconomic characteristics. It will also ensure that any state or local regulations providing protection to consumers continue to operate throughout the trials.
The Commission needs to have a clear plan for winding down the trials and ensuring that consumers can return to their old service if they want. The Commission also needs to be sure the programs include provisions to terminate the trials immediately if problems arise causing serious harm to subscribers.
benton.org/node/155378 | Public Knowledge
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BROADBAND LABELING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The "Transparency" working group of the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet Advisory Committee (OIAC) has recommended that Internet service providers provide broadband speed, service and price labeling, like nutritional labels on foods, on their websites as a way for consumers to get an "apples to apples" comparison of service provision. Those labels would include a notation about data caps or usage-based pricing as well, and pricing would be a 36-month average that included all taxes and fees. The label would be voluntary, with no recommendation of an FCC enforcement mechanism. The FCC was also advised that it would be helpful to provide a clearer definition of the "specialized services" -- including video and data services -- that are not covered by the FCC's Open Internet order.
benton.org/node/155427 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
TRIBUNE SPIN-OFF
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Walter Hamilton]
Tribune Company announced plans to spin off its beleaguered newspaper unit into a separate company, freeing the media conglomerate to focus on its more promising television and Internet properties. The new entity, to be called Tribune Publishing Co., would include the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and six other daily papers. All other assets, including the company’s real estate holdings and stakes in several Internet sites, would remain part of Tribune Co. The spinoff would be tax-free to Tribune shareholders and could take as long as a year to complete. Symbolically, the split would mark a historic break with the newspaper business that has always been at the heart of Tribune. The company was founded in 1847 as the parent of the Chicago Tribune. It acquired Times Mirror Co., the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, in 2000. Despite the woes facing newspapers, the publishing division still accounted for 64% of Tribune’s operating revenue last year. The announcement reflects the forces buffeting the print media industry and the comparatively brighter prospects of the TV business. A key issue for Tribune Publishing would be its financial structure. The newspaper unit is profitable, but advertising has been eroding at a precipitous pace. Ad revenue skidded 9% in the first quarter, after declining 14.5% from 2010 to 2012. The company has slashed 2,200 jobs in the last three years. Among the key questions to be answered: How much debt would the new company carry? And how much capital would it get as a financial underpinning?
benton.org/node/155453 | Los Angeles Times
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CONSOLIDATION IN PUBLISHING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Boris Kachka]
[Commentary] The largest book-publishing merger in history, combining Penguin and Random House, was announced last October and completed on July 1 after regulatory approval. It shrinks the Big Six, which publish about two-thirds of books in the United States, down to the Big Five. HarperCollins has reportedly been flirting with Simon & Schuster, which would take it down to four. (The others are Hachette and Macmillan.) The creation of Penguin Random House (“the world’s first truly global trade book publishing company”) is partly a response to unprecedented pressures on these “legacy” publishers — especially from Amazon, which came out on the winning end of an antitrust lawsuit over the setting of e-book prices. It is also a way to gain leverage and capital in an industry that has been turned upside down. This endgame may be inevitable, but its consequences can’t be ignored. Consolidation carries costs you won’t find on a price sticker. Dozens of formerly independent firms have been folded into this conglomerate: not just Anchor, Doubleday, Dutton, Knopf, Pantheon, G. P. Putnam’s Sons and Viking, which still wield significant resources, but also storied names like Jonathan Cape, Fawcett, Grosset & Dunlap, and Jeremy P. Tarcher. Many of these have been reduced to mere imprints, brands stamped on a book’s title page, though every good imprint bears the faint mark of a bygone firm with its own mission and sensibility. Decades of consolidation have cost writers and consumers alike.
benton.org/node/155455 | New York Times
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HULU’S CHOICE
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Dan Mitchell]
Now that all the bids are in for Hulu, the question is: What will become of the service? And the answer is: Nobody knows for sure, but it's possible that the Hulu as we know it will disappear, or at least be diminished from a viewer's perspective. The reason for that is the odd, conflicted position the current media-company owners find themselves in. Disney, News Corp., and Comcast want to get as much as they can for the service they co-own, but they also want to be able to strike the best possible licensing deals they can with whoever buys the site. Those two considerations are in opposition, and striking a balance won't be easy. Clearly, the owners will take a lot less money for Hulu than it might be worth if they can get favorable licensing deals, which would explain why a company that has grown so fast over the past two years has nevertheless seen its reported value cut in half, from $2 billion in 2011 to the $1 billion that bidder DirecTV has offered.
benton.org/node/155443 | Fortune
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JOURNALISM
MMTC AND VOTING RIGHTS ACT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision they see as severely undercutting the Voting Rights Act, the Minority Media and Telecommunications will call on their friends in broadcasting to keep a spotlight on voting issues. MMTC President David Honig said that his group would be pushing broadcasters to do for voting rights what they did back in 1964 (when the Act was originally passed), which was to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." Honig said that the FCC had historically had "feet of clay" when it came to diversity and entrepreneurship opportunities for women and minorities. He said Acting FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn was wonderful, and clearly understood the importance of the issue -- she is the first African-American woman to chair the commission -- but that there was only so much she could do as acting chair. He also suggested the future could be brighter, saying that the president's nominee for chairman, Tom Wheeler, had a "long and illustrious career in diversity."
benton.org/node/155419 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NEWSROOM DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Riva Gold]
The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) recently released its annual study of newsroom diversity. The results only confirmed what many who have lived through the industry's deep recession have already experienced: a steady decline in minority journalists and stagnation in prior progress. Despite claims by news organizations that they value and promote diversity, the numbers in this year's study show 90 percent of newsroom supervisors from participating news organizations were white. At a time when non-whites make up roughly 37 percent of the U.S. population, the percentage of minorities in the newsroom has fallen to 12.37 percent from its 13.73 percent high in 2006. In last year's 2012 ASNE study, overall newsroom employment was down 2.4 percent, but the picture looked much worse - down 5.7 percent - for minorities. This means that fewer minorities are getting the opportunity to work in news, and news organizations are losing their ability to empower , represent, --and especially in cases where language ability is crucial, even to report on minority populations in their communities. Why have minorities been disproportionately hit by the state of the media industry? Two dozen industry leaders point to a series of mostly cost-saving decisions at papers across the country that had unintended consequences.
benton.org/node/155417 | Atlantic, The
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WWOR AND LOCAL NEWS
[SOURCE: TVSpy, AUTHOR: Kevin Eck]
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who running for Senate, is asking the Federal Communications Commission to revoke the license of WWOR, the state’s only high-powered commercial broadcast television station. FOX, which owns WWOR, announced it was pulling the station’s only newscast and replacing it with “Chasing New Jersey” a 30-minute show focused on “issues driving conversations” in the state. Rep Pallone voiced his thoughts on twitter by saying, “WWOR’s cancellation of nightly news fails New Jerseyans who want & deserve local news coverage. FCC must take action.” In a letter to acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, Rep Pallone wrote, “WWOR has failed for over a decade to live up to its broadcasting obligations to New Jersey. In addition, since purchasing WWOR in 2001, News Corporation, now 21st Century Fox, has done everything they can to avoid any commitment to serve as a truly New Jersey station.”
WWOR Station Manager Dianne Doctor defended the new programming: “Based in Trenton, Chasing New Jersey is a news program immersed in all aspects of the state. Politics. People. Issues. It’s enterprise journalism that no one else is doing.”
benton.org/node/155415 | TVSpy | AdWeek | TVNewsCheck
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ADVERTISING
NATIVE ADS
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Native advertising may be all the rage, but if brands and publishers aren’t careful, it could trigger some regulatory repercussions, analysts say. While ads masquerading as editorial content may be more effective than banners, they have the potential to confuse consumers. In cases where the line between editorial and advertising was blurred, the Federal Trade Commission has pushed TV infomercials and food marketers to adopt guidelines or risk enforcement under its authority to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive ads. “Conventions need to be developed, like they have for newspapers and infomercials on TV,” said C. Lee Peeler, CEO of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council, a group that establishes guidelines for advertisers so they don’t run afoul of regulators.
benton.org/node/155449 | AdWeek
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TELEVISION
SEXUAL EXPLOTATION OF UNDERAGE GIRLS
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Brent Lang]
Exploitation of underage girls is rampant on primetime, a new study by the Parents Television Council concludes. The advocacy group's research monitored more than 200 episodes of broadcast television shows during two-week network sweeps periods in 2011 and in 2012 and found that 63 percent of those episodes contained sexual content involving women. The group claims that 33 percent of that content involved sexual exploitation. The PTC said it used the United Nations Security General's definition of "sexual exploitation" to determine what content was objectionable. A 2003 report cites abuses of power and position in which someone profits "monetarily, socially or politically" from sexually exploiting another person. The PTC maintains that scenes of exploitation were more likely to be humorous in nature when they involved underage girls (43 percent) compared to adult women (33 percent). The group said that child molestation, sex trafficking, sexual harassment, pornography and stripping were among the topics that served as fodder for jokes.
benton.org/node/155370 | Wrap, The
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EDUCATION
SUPPORT FOR E-RATE OVERHAUL
[SOURCE: Education Week, AUTHOR: Kevin Connors]
[Commentary] Supporters of revamping the federal E-rate program have a long list of education and policy organizations—in addition to President Barack Obama and Education Sec Arne Duncan—in their corner. Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn proposed significant changes and upgrades to the federal E-rate program, an important piece of President Obama's ConnectED Initiative, which aims to provide high-speed Internet and broadband to 99 percent of the nation's schools within five years. Chairwoman Clyburn not only called for improvements to schools' technology infrastructure, but also for changes in the E-rate program's purchasing power and administrative oversight. Her proposal will have to undergo a review process by FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai, followed by an extensive period of public comment, before any such changes could become final. More than 50 national organizations signed a letter to Commissioners Clyburn, Rosenworcel, and Pai, urging them to act quickly on the chair's proposal. The signatories include a long and diverse list of education and policy groups, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's two largest teachers' unions; the NAACP; advocacy groups like Democrats for Education Reform; and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a pair of consortia of states designing tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Many tech advocates have said administering online exams linked to the common core will place a heavy strain on schools, and that increased E-rate funding could ease that burden.
benton.org/node/155441 | Education Week
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FCC REFORM
FCC REFORM BILL
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Republicans will again try to force the Federal Communications Commission to justify new regulations and speed up its decision making. It would also decentralize power over the FCC agenda. The Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2013, which closely mirrors legislation that failed to pass both Houses in the last session, would require the FCC to provide at least 60 days of comment on any proposed rulemaking. It also would require that the rulemaking 1) be rooted in a prior notice of rulemaking or notice of inquiry, petition for rulemaking, 2) be at the direction of the courts, or 3) provide some reason why an initial inquiry was not necessary or that the new rule or amendment would not impose additional burdens on the industry of the consumer. The bill would also establish deadlines for FCC action and requirements for reporting to Congress. Any new regulation that "may have an economically significant impact" -- at least $100,000,000 -- would have to be justified via an analysis of the market failure, consumer harm, regulatory burden or failure of the public institutions it was meant to redress, as well as a cost-benefit analysis and a determination that the market is not sufficient to resolve the issues without regulation. It would also require FCC commissioners be given sufficient time to review an FCC decision before having to vote on it and the public be given at least 60 days in which to comment on any proposed new regulation. The chairman's office would no longer exercise exclusive control over the agenda by allowing a bipartisan majority of commissioners to enlist FCC bureaus to draft their own rule proposals and put them on the agenda for a vote. The bill would also allow more than two commissioners to meet in private so long as at least one commissioner from each party and an attorney from the Office of General Counsel are present and no vote or any other agency action is taken.
benton.org/node/155395 | Broadcasting&Cable
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POLICYMAKERS
WHEELER AND INDECENCY
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Tom Wheeler, President Obama's nominee for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, may be feeling the heat of the position even before he's confirmed. Led by Morality in Media, a group of more than 70 conservative organizations are urging Senators to block Wheeler's confirmation "unless he agrees to lead a vigorous effort to enforce the federal decency law." Other groups in the coalition include the Parents Television Council and the Media Research Center. Wheeler's position on broadcast indecency is unclear. During his Senate commerce nomination hearing, he was very careful to avoid one of the third rails of the FCC. He acknowledged there is a problem but stopped short of taking a firm position. Wheeler's answer just didn't cut it for the organizations that signed the Senate letter. "The FCC is the guardian of decency on broadcast TV and radio. The next FCC chair needs to show leadership on the issue and enforce the law, which he is free to do after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Fox of last June," the groups wrote in the July 9 letter.
benton.org/node/155393 | AdWeek | B&C | TVNewsCheck
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