February 2014

Movie Industry, In a Switch, Is Courting the GOP

Hit by legislative setbacks in Washington, the Motion Picture Association of America is producing a Hollywood-style remake.

The movie industry's main lobbying group has ramped up its budget and donations to political groups in the past few years, and, in a switch for an industry long associated with Democrats, has quietly reached out to Republicans and conservative-leaning organizations in an effort to rebuild its clout. The MPAA replaced its longtime lead lobbying firm, considered to be close with Democrats, with a lobbyist with ties to key GOP lawmakers. Its political action committee now gives more donations to Republicans than Democrats. And it has sent money to a GOP super PAC, a conservative antitax entity and a business lobby helping Republicans in the 2014 elections.

The Web at 25 in the US

This report is the first part of a sustained effort through 2014 by the Pew Research Center to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The report looks back at the rapid change in Internet penetration over the last quarter century, and covers new survey findings about Americans’ generally positive evaluations of the Internet’s impact on their lives and personal relationships. 87% of American adults now use the internet, with near-saturation usage among those living in households earning $75,000 or more (99%), young adults ages 18-29 (97%), and those with college degrees (97%). Fully 68% of adults connect to the internet with mobile devices like smartphones or tablet computers. The adoption of related technologies has also been extraordinary: Over the course of Pew Research Center polling, adult ownership of cell phones has risen from 53% in our first survey in 2000 to 90% now. Ownership of smartphones has grown from 35% when we first asked in 2011 to 58% now.

Asked for their overall judgment about the impact of the internet, toting up all the pluses and minuses of connected life, the public’s verdict is overwhelmingly positive:

90% of internet users say the internet has been a good thing for them personally and only 6% say it has been a bad thing, while 3% volunteer that it has been some of both.
76% of internet users say the internet has been a good thing for society, while 15% say it has been a bad thing and 8% say it has been equally good and bad.

Women missing out on lucrative careers in computer science

The stubbornly low number of female computer science students in the United States has generated a pile of academic studies, ample hand-wringing and a wide-ranging discussion in tech and education circles about what can be done to boost the number of women choosing computing careers. All of which raises a fair question: What difference does it make if women don't join the tech workforce in the same numbers that men do? It turns out it makes a huge difference. The dearth of women in computing has the potential to slow the US economy, which needs more students in the pipeline to feed its need for more programmers. It harms women by excluding them from some of the best jobs in the country. And it damages US companies, which studies show would benefit from more diverse teams.

Now, Nations Mull the Ways to Regulate Bitcoin

Authorities around the world are grappling with how to regulate virtual currency in the wake of the implosion of Mt. Gox, a prominent trading platform for Bitcoin.

In Tokyo, where Mt. Gox is based, Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said that agencies including the Financial Services Agency, the Finance Ministry and the police were collecting information on the Bitcoin trade in Japan, with an eye toward regulatory action. Japan’s new interest in Bitcoin came as authorities elsewhere were taking steps. In the weeks before the collapse of Mt. Gox, federal prosecutors in Manhattan sent a grand jury subpoena to the company. New York State’s top financial regulator, Benjamin M. Lawsky, has also signaled an interest in regulating the virtual currency. And the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining its potential authority over Bitcoin exchanges that have a United States presence, a person briefed on the matter said, as is the FBI in New York.

EU lays out antitrust case against Telefónica’s E-Plus deal

Telefónica’s takeover bid in Germany would raise mobile prices by up to a third for some customers, according to a hard-hitting antitrust objection from Brussels that will raise alarm in Europe’s consolidation-hungry telecoms sector.

The European Union’s top competition authority served a tough complaint against Telefónica’s €8.6bn offer for E-Plus, KPN’s German mobile unit, signalling that the deal would be blocked without big asset sales and concessions. The Spanish group’s bid to become Germany’s top operator is subject to one of the most important regulatory decisions in European telecoms since the privatization of state monopolies in the 1980s. A wave of rumored in-country deals across Europe turn on antitrust boundaries laid down in the case.

Huawei pulls back the curtain on ownership details

Who really owns Huawei?

The company claims employees own almost 99 per cent of the company under an “employee stock option plan.” Huawei was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese military officer, in 1987. It has become one of the world’s biggest telecoms companies, but has faced serious obstacles in the US because of suspicions about its ownership. The company has repeatedly dismissed claims about possible links to the Chinese government as baseless, and the US government has not made public any solid evidence to back up its concerns. But to try to refute such suggestions, Huawei has started gradually pulling back the curtain on its ownership structure.

Statement of FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly on the Commission's Critical Information Needs Study

House and Senate Republicans, along with Commissioner Ajit Pai, have voiced their serious concerns about the Commission’s Critical Information Needs (CIN) study. While I was not at the Commission when the study was authorized, I share those concerns. I appreciate the Chairman’s willingness to make revisions, but I am afraid that tweaking it is just not enough. If any value was ever to come from this particular exercise, that ship has sailed. It is probably time to cancel the CIN study for good.

Why did the FCC want to interview journalists in the first place?

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission publicly backed off part of a controversial research study in the face of mounting criticism that the research included interviewing local journalists about how they choose what to cover. The backlash to the Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs (CIN), which is set for a test run this spring in Columbia (SC) included Republicans in Congress invoking the (defunct) Fairness Doctrine, and one of the FCC’s own commissioners accusing the agency of taking “a first step” toward “newsroom policing.” At the heart of criticism of the CIN is why the FCC-commissioned study would include interviews with local journalists about their “news philosophy.” However, Lewis Friedland, who directs the Center for Democracy and Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that no part of the CIN was ever meant to intrude on the prerogatives of local news managers. Friedland thinks dropping the journalist interviews is probably the right move -- but he says the questions were never intended to be a centerpiece for this study, and “they were never intended to be a form of critical review by the FCC of the output of the content of broadcasters.”

Justice Officials Seek to Hold NSA Phone Records Longer

The Justice Department has asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for approval to hold on to National Security Agency phone records for a longer period -- an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the data-surveillance program.

Under the proposal made to court, the older data would continue to be held, but NSA analysts would not be allowed to search it. "The United States must ensure that all potentially relevant evidence is retained which includes the [business records] metadata obtained in bulk from certain telecommunications service providers pursuant to this court's production orders,'' according to the filing made by senior Justice Department officials.

Sen Joe Manchin calls for a Bitcoin ban as regulators seek ‘accelerated push’

The implosion of a once-popular Bitcoin exchange has some lawmakers calling for a ban on the virtual currency.

Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) wrote a letter to regulatory agencies arguing that Bitcoin is "disruptive to our economy." "The clear ends of Bitcoin for either transacting in illegal goods and services or speculative gambling make me wary of its use," Sen Manchin wrote. "I urge the regulators to work together, act quickly, and prohibit this dangerous currency from harming hard-working Americans."

Benton

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