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  2. January 2014

January 2014

Car Makers at Consumer Electronics Show Tout Ways to Plug Autos Into the Web

Auto makers aim to make 2014 the year that cars connect to the Web in a big way, and they are stepping up their land rush with Silicon Valley to compete for customers who go online on the road.

General Motors and Audi said they plan to use this week's International Consumer Electronics Show here to roll out strategies for equipping cars with built-in 4G high-speed broadband -- the mobile technology now common on smartphones and tablets. The car makers said these data pipelines will let them provide a variety of services, ranging from streaming video to remote troubleshooting of auto systems. GM, for example, plans to offer a Weather Channel app that drivers can see on in-dash screens, GM executives said. Ford said it will add 3.4 million vehicles to the one million that already use its Ford Sync AppLink product, which lets drivers and passengers control smartphone apps using voice commands through onboard software and systems. The flurry of activity at CES highlights intensified efforts by auto makers and Silicon Valley companies to overcome long-standing cultural, technical and safety obstacles to mine profit from the hours that consumers spend behind the wheel.

Liberty Media Unveils Plans for Sirius

Liberty Media unveiled a proposal to make satellite-radio provider Sirius XM a wholly owned subsidiary, a move that would give the media-investment company access to a new source of capital as it pursues a big cable merger.

The transaction would convert Sirius's common stock into new Liberty Series C nonvoting shares. Liberty currently owns about 52% of Sirius. Taking 100% ownership of the company would "eliminate ambiguity in the long-term relationship between Sirius and Liberty," Greg Maffei, Liberty Media's president and chief executive said during a conference call with analysts Friday. The deal would allow Sirius shareholders to convert from a noncontrolling stake in a subsidiary into a direct equity position in Liberty, he said.

Smartphones set to become even smarter

The revolution in smartphones is over. This year’s focus will instead be on step changes in technology that will help the devices play an even greater role in people’s lives.

Better processors and integrated applications will mean even smarter phones, not just in terms of sheer processing power but also in analyzing and making use of the masses of data collected by the devices. Kicking off the fight for supremacy in the smartphone market this year will be the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the following technologies and trends in mobiles will be on display. 1) Sensors. 2) Wearables and watches. 3) New materials and screens.

Selling social media clicks becomes big business

Celebrities, businesses and even the US State Department have bought bogus Facebook likes, Twitter followers or YouTube viewers from offshore "click farms," where workers tap, tap, tap the thumbs up button, view videos or retweet comments to inflate social media numbers.

Since Facebook launched almost 10 years ago, users have sought to expand their social networks for financial gain, winning friends, bragging rights and professional clout. And social media companies cite the levels of engagement to tout their value. But an Associated Press examination has found a growing global marketplace for fake clicks, which tech companies struggle to police. Online records, industry studies and interviews show companies are capitalizing on the opportunity to make millions of dollars by duping social media. For as little as a half cent each click, websites hawk everything from LinkedIn connections to make members appear more employable to Soundcloud plays to influence record label interest.

Print Starts to Settle Into Its Niches

[Commentary] Publishers who turned out under-designed and under-edited books and magazines in the Internet age have learned the hard way that consumers expect excellence in print. Print is not dead, it simply has some very specific attributes that need to be leveraged. Good printed work includes a mix of elements in which juxtaposition and tempo tell their own story, the kind of story best told with ink and paper. Print continues to be a remarkable technology, if not as lucrative as it used to be, with its own durable glories.

Congress Returns to Spar, Set Up Midterm Elections

Members of Congress returning to work this week are plunging immediately into policy battles that will shape their campaigns for the November elections.

The Senate is poised to debate a plan to revive expanded benefits for the long-term unemployed, which lapsed in December. In the House, Republican leaders are spotlighting what they say are more problems with the Affordable Care Act, starting the year with a vote on legislation intended to safeguard against potential security breaches in the health law's insurance marketplace. Political strategists on both sides expect the debates to position their parties for November, even if the legislation fails. Democrats want to enter the campaign season with a slate of proposals aimed at income inequality, which will include the jobless-benefits extension, a bill to boost the federal minimum wage and other measures. They believe Republicans would pay a political price if they stand in the way of policies that polls show are popular among voters of both parties.

China’s wrongheaded crackdown on the media

[Commentary] Training Material for News Reporters and Editors, Beijing, China, 2013: The news media “must be loyal to the party, adhere to the party’s leadership and make the principle of loyalty to the party the principle of journalistic profession.”

What’s striking is not the fact of party control over the Chinese news media, which is a day-to-day reality, but how the party is demanding journalists absorb a backwards and outdated study guide based on failed concepts of the last century. The new leader of China, President Xi Jinping, has been championing slogans and ideology from Mao’s day and the pursuit of a Marxist Utopia, a pursuit that led to great suffering for hundreds of millions of people. Remarkably, Chinese journalists are being presented with this at a moment when communications have achieved a fluidity unknown in human history. Foreign investors shouldn’t fool themselves that China’s economic prowess can be separated from its heavy-handed restrictions on journalism.

Analysis

Principles for a Successful IP Transition: Ubiquity

Every American needs to have affordable access to high-speed fixed and mobile broadband networks. Last month, the Benton Foundation released The New Network Compact: Making the IP Transition Work for Vulnerable Communities. The report, written by Ted Gotsch, includes 10 interrelated principles to help policymakers guide the transition from traditional telephone service to emerging broadband networks.

Winter Break Special Edition

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for DECEMBER 24, 2013 – JANUARY 3, 2014 (Happy New Year!)

We found so many stories during our break that you’ll find below just the headlines – with links to our summaries online. We’ll be back Monday, January 6 in our regular format.


GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   NSA Phone Surveillance Is Lawful, Federal Judge Rules [links to web]
   The most Kafkaesque paragraph from today’s NSA ruling - analysis [links to web]
   Analysis: Is NSA Surveillance Constitutional? - analysis [links to web]
   Costs of NSA phone records collection program outweigh the benefits [links to web]
   A secret court just let the NSA keep spying on your phone records. Again. [links to web]
   DOJ appeals federal judge's NSA ruling [links to web]
   Sen Sanders: Does NSA spy on Congress? [links to web]
   Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit [links to web]
   Shopping for Spy Gear: Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox [links to web]
   DOJ ready to publish phone surveillance approval [links to web]
   NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption [links to web]
   NSA Struggles to Make Sense of Flood of Surveillance Data [links to web]
   If not the NSA, who should store the phone data? - analysis [links to web]
   Apple Says It Is Unaware of NSA’s iPhone Backdoor [links to web]
   ACLU sues to get info on NSA surveillance [links to web]
   Researchers: It Is Trivially Easy To Match Metadata To Real People [links to web]
   Snowden: No concept of privacy in future [links to web]
   President Obama can’t point to a single time the NSA call records program prevented a terrorist attack - editorial [links to web]
   The NSA seems to really enjoy exploiting high profile tech companies - analysis [links to web]
   Correcting the record on the NSA review - op-ed [links to web]
   NSA Panel Member Recommends Increased Data Collection [links to web]
   The NSA and Silicon Valley - op-ed [links to web]
   NSA intelligence-gathering programs keep us safe - op-ed [links to web]
   Reckless Reforms - analysis [links to web]
   The Panopticon Paradox [links to web]
   Obama’s NSA Phone Spying Reforms Might Make Things Worse - analysis [links to web]
   Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower - editorial [links to web]
   Talk of an RSA Boycott Grows After Reports It Colluded With the NSA [links to web]
   The One Big Question About RSA and Its Relationship With the NSA - analysis [links to web]
   Snowden: No concept of privacy in future [links to web]
   Edward Snowden is wrong: His mission has not been accomplished. [links to web]
   NSA Scandal May Help Build Cyber-Barriers - op-ed [links to web]
   Court upholds laptop searches at border [links to web]
   New Law All but Bars Russian GPS Sites in US [links to web]
   Pentagon’s cyber arm poised to expand role [links to web]
   A New Twist in International Relations: The Corporate Keep-My-Data-Out-of-the-US Clause [links to web]

PRIVACY
   Here’s how AT&T could get in hot water for sharing customer data with the CIA - analysis [links to web]
   Facebook faces suit over data allegations [links to web]
   Google Loses Bid for Wiretap Suit Appeals Court Rehearing [links to web]
   Beware a Public Debate About Data Privacy - op-ed [links to web]
   Brazil's Social Media Boom Sparks Calls For New Privacy Laws [links to web]
   Tech catches holiday shoppers in their tracks [links to web]
   Hulu Loses Round In Privacy Case, Data Shared With comScore [links to web]
   How a failed Supreme Court bid is still causing headaches for Hulu and Netflix - analysis [links to web]
   COPPA crowdsourcing. Yeah, really. - press release [links to web]
   MIT Engineers Invent A Cameraless Tracking System That Sees Through Walls [links to web]
   A New Twist in International Relations: The Corporate Keep-My-Data-Out-of-the-US Clause [links to web]
   Study: Consumers Will Pay $5 For An App That Respects Their Privacy [links to web]

INTERNET/TELECOM
   US Struggles to Keep Pace in Delivering Broadband Service [links to web]
   Internet Access Services: Status as of December 31, 2012 - research [links to web]
   FCC Sees Big Jump in Broadband Connections Above 6 Mbps [links to web]
   End the broadband panic meme - editorial [links to web]
   Not falling behind - op-ed [links to web]
   How US Internet service might get better -- and worse -- in 2014 [links to web]
   Predicting Wheeler: Where will the new FCC chairman fall on net neutrality? - analysis [links to web]
   Viewing Where the Internet Goes [links to web]
   New Web suffixes set to enter market [links to web]
   Can the FCC Handle Phone Service over the Internet? - analysis [links to web]
   AT&T sets TDM-to-IP transition trials to focus on challenges, service impact [links to web]
   MMTC Commends Chairman Wheeler on Leadership to Advance ‘Fourth Network Revolution’; Makes Proposals for IP Transition - press release [links to web]
   A Phone System With Safeguards - editorial [links to web]
   A Lifeline for the Poor, Free Phone Service Faces Legal Battle [links to web]
   Updating the Federal Program That Connects Schools To The Internet - analysis [links to web]
   Bringing Municipal High-Speed Internet Access to Leverett, Massachusetts - research [links to web]
   Lessons from the AT&T breakup, 30 years later - op-ed [links to web]
   FCC delays price cap on prison phone calls [links to web]

SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
   SoftBank eyes purchase of T-Mobile [links to web]
   Preserving Wireless Competition - editorial [links to web]
   Commotion comes out of beta, vying to create a broadband commons [links to web]
   It’s Time to Take Mesh Networks Seriously - op-ed [links to web]
   AT&T wants T-Mobile customers to switch. And it’s offering them hundreds to do it. [links to web]
   Wireless carriers consider ending phone subsidies [links to web]
   Verizon’s LTE Map Is Nearly Complete, but All Four Major Carriers Are Starting to Fill in the Dots [links to web]
   A Lifeline for the Poor, Free Phone Service Faces Legal Battle [links to web]
   Google, Apple Forge Auto Ties [links to web]
   US Mobile Internet Traffic Nearly Doubled This Year [links to web]
   Internet of Things May Strangle Enterprise Bandwidth - op-ed [links to web]
   Survey finds mobile devices overwhelm many consumers [links to web]
   What is the role of phone manufacturers in ensuring mobile coverage? - analysis [links to web]
   US airlines want to stay cell phone free [links to web]
   LightSquared Proposes New Financing as Way to Emerge From Bankruptcy [links to web]
   How would in-flight calling actually work? [links to web]

TELEVISION/RADIO
   The FCC’s plan for TV blackouts: what it means for sports fans - analysis [links to web]
   NFL's blackout rule averts playoff challenge [links to web]
   Senators repeat calls to end sports blackouts [links to web]
   Sen Brown to NFL: Kill blackout policy [links to web]
   Federal Court Won't Review Dual-Carriage/Viewability Rule Sunset [links to web]
   TV blackout wars in a quiet period [links to web]
   Time Warner Cable, Bruised After Its Battle With CBS, Extends Viacom Deal [links to web]
   Cable is holding its own, and then some [links to web]
   Dish and DirecTV hike prices for 2014 [links to web]
   DirecTV issues veiled threat in talks with Weather Channel [links to web]
   Supreme Court May Decide Jan. 10 Whether to Hear Aereo Case [links to web]
   TV Broadcasters Fire Back at Aereo's Supreme Court Claims [links to web]
   FCC Complaints Never Fail to Disappoint [links to web]
   IP-Connected TV Devices Set For A Surge [links to web]
   New York City Losing Its Last Commercial Progressive Talk Radio Station [links to web]
   Deal for 'the Loop' gives radio powerhouse bigger reach in Chicago [links to web]
   For ESPN, Millions to Remain in Connecticut [links to web]

CONTENT
   What is entering the public domain in the United States? Not a single published work. - analysis [links to web]
   Apple’s Cook, Gore Should Face E-Book Queries, U.S. Says [links to web]
   Social Media Update 2013 - research [links to web]
   ABC to Limit New Episodes Online to Paying Subscribers for One Week [links to web]
   CBS to Live-Stream Its NFL Playoff Coverage [links to web]
   Fox to Live-Stream Super Bowl Online for Free, But NFC Playoff Games Will Be Locked Behind Pay-TV Wall [links to web]
   Brian Krzanich on Why He Pulled the Plug on Intel’s TV Dreams [links to web]
   Content, good pricing drove media deals in 2013 - analysis [links to web]
   Q3 2013 Internet Advertising Revenues Climb To Landmark High Of Nearly $10.7 Billion, Marking 15% Year-Over-Year Growth - press release [links to web]
   Sources: FCC in No Rush To Decide Comcast OVD Condition [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Tribune Company Closes $2.73 Billion Acquisition of Local TV [links to web]
   Gannett completes its Belo acquisition [links to web]
   Silicon Valley’s lucky few will pay a price for complacency - editorial [links to web]
   Regulatory Barriers to Time Warner Cable Deal Limited Regardless of Buyer - analysis [links to web]
   In telecom merger mania, skeptical eye from Obama administration - analysis [links to web]

LABOR
   Human Behavior Trove Lures Economists to U.S. Tech Titans [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Syria, Iraq, Egypt most deadly nations for journalists - research [links to web]
   Are the US media as transparent as the US government? - analysis [links to web]
   Call me an optimist, but the future of journalism isn't bleak - op-ed [links to web]
   Why long-form journalism is everywhere these days [links to web]
   Happy News Year: 'The News Dissector' Looks Beyond The Top Stories of the Year to Examine the News System - op-ed [links to web]
   Why Is Hard News a Hard Sell for Advertisers? - op-ed [links to web]
   Happy Re/new Year! Launch of Revere Digital - press release [links to web]

EDUCATION
   The Online Education Revolution Drifts Off Course [links to web]

PATENTS
   Samsung, Apple in talks to end patent battle, report says [links to web]
   Apple Renews Request for Sales Ban on Samsung Products [links to web]
   Google asks US court to rule that Android has not infringed Rockstar patents [links to web]

GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE
   Post-Obamacare, more fed tech hurdles ahead [links to web]
   Emergency Alert System May Go Commercial [links to web]

2014
   How US Internet service might get better -- and worse -- in 2014 [links to web]
   Is 2014 the Year of the Connected Home? - analysis [links to web]
   A new digital age Communications Act - op-ed [links to web]
   Restoring Limits on the FCC's Ancillary Authority - analysis [links to web]
   Supreme Court May Decide Jan. 10 Whether to Hear Aereo Case [links to web]
   Five tech issues to watch [links to web]
   Analysis: In telecom merger mania, skeptical eye from Obama administration [links to web]
   Year-End: Will Big Media Companies Hit Their Stride, Or Their Peak, In 2014? - analysis [links to web]
   What to expect from mobile networks in 2014: The 4G car, LTE Broadcast and small cells - analysis [links to web]
   The Year in Communications - analysis [links to web]

LOBBYING
   As critics gain, ALEC gives ground [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Wheeler to Deliver Policy Address While On West Coast [links to web]
   Three cheers for the chairman - op-ed [links to web]
   Predicting Wheeler: Where will the new FCC chairman fall on net neutrality? - analysis [links to web]
   FTC official recuses self from cybersecurity case [links to web]
   Smit Takes Reins as NCTA Chair [links to web]
   Ralph Oakley Named to NAB Television Board [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Behold: The World's First Digitally Signed International Agreement [links to web]
   Egyptian Puppet Called Terrorist Mouthpiece [links to web]
   French Contractors Jump Into Market for Secure Communications [links to web]
   Brazil's Social Media Boom Sparks Calls For New Privacy Laws [links to web]
   Bringing Inexpensive Mobile Access to Researchers in Antarctica [links to web]
   Italy Approves ‘Google Tax’ on Internet Companies [links to web]
   China's Telecom Regulator Awards Virtual Telecom Licenses to 11 Companies [links to web]
   Taiwan Fines Apple for iPhone Price-Plan Meddling [links to web]
   What mobile broadband in Africa can teach America about fiber to the home - op-ed [links to web]

Costs of NSA phone records collection program outweigh the benefits

The National Security Agency has often claimed that its data collection programs have helped thwart dozens of terrorist plots in the US. But an analysis of one such program, the NSA's controversial bulk telephone records collection initiative, suggests that the cost of running and maintaining the effort may far outweigh any benefits.

The analysis, conducted by John Mueller, an adjunct professor in the department of political science at Ohio State University, and Mark Stewart, a professor at the University of Newcastle in Australia, is based on published reports, court records and publicly released government data. It considers the NSA's claimed successes in foiling terrorist plots with the costs that must have been incurred to stop any attacks. The NSA has said that its surveillance efforts helped it disrupt 54 terrorism plots in the US over the past several years. The authors note that the overall number by itself is very small considering the tens of billions of dollars that must have been spent on counterterrorism programs established after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. The number becomes even smaller when only the bulk phone metadata collection program is considered.

[Jan 3]

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