April 2014

Gov Brown Getting the Message on California's Film, TV Tax Credit Troubles

California Gov Jerry Brown has yet to declare where he stands on new legislation that would extend and expand the state's TV and film production incentives, but he sent an encouraging signal.

Kish Rajan, director of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, was the featured speaker at the ninth California Film Commission Locations Breakfast.

“The governor will make the final decision, but I know that he understands the toll taken in jobs and on our economy,” Rajan said in brief remarks to the roughly 300 assembled location managers, film officials, studio and network executives, union leaders and small business representatives gathered at the W Hotel in Hollywood.

“California is a brand and we have an image, and few sectors define that as much as our film and TV industry, so I will be recommending that we do everything we can to support it,” he said.

The new legislation, introduced by Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) and Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), would make the credits available to blockbuster movies with budgets of more than $75 million and one-hour network TV shows and pilots -- all of which are currently excluded -- in an effort to keep more productions in the state. It also would put the program on a five-year footing to run from 2016 to 2021 as opposed to its current two-year extensions settings.

Oregon's Health Care Website Is Worse Than Healthcare.Gov

Oregon is set to become the first state to switch over to the federal Obamacare exchange.

The state exchange, Cover Oregon, has been such a failure that moving to the once broken HealthCare.gov seems preferable to trying to salvage its system.

An advisory panel just recommended the decision. An exchange official said that repairing the existing system would cost about $78 million and take a long time to implement. He estimated that switching to HealthCare.gov would cost between $4 million and $6 million, according to the Associated Press.

The full board that oversees the state exchange will vote on the decision, but officials say state and federal representatives have already agreed that shifting the system to the federal marketplace in 2015 is the best approach, The Washington Post reports, Oregon being the most extreme example.

Cover Oregon has yet to sign up a single resident through the website since the exchange launched at the beginning of October. The state has instead relied on paper applications and in-person assistors. About 64,000 residents have enrolled in private coverage through the exchange thus far.

Rural Hospitals Weigh Independence Against Need For Computer Help

One of the biggest challenges American hospitals face right now is moving to electronic medical records from old-fashioned paper files.

The switch is costing tens of billions of dollars, eating up tons of staff time, and it's especially tough for the country's 2,000 rural and small-town hospitals. Rural hospitals are typically short on cash and people with information technology skills. So a lot of small hospitals are turning to bigger hospitals for help, and giving up some independence in exchange.

The 10-bed Beartooth Billings Clinic in Red Lodge (MO), a historic mining town just outside Yellowstone National Park and 60 miles west of Billing is one hospital that did. Sharing electronic records sounds simple. But for a lot of little hospitals doing that while meeting new federal digital standards means coming up with $1 million or more up front.

That's a tall order, when the average rural hospital runs at a financial loss of 8 percent a year. So the Red Lodge hospital became part of the bigger Billings Clinic system, in part to get help with IT.

Russia's Bloggers To Face Stifling Restrictions Under New Law

Russia's parliament approved measures to tighten control over bloggers, drawing accusations that lawmakers are stifling a final bastion of free speech in the country.

The Russian lower house passed a bill that requires all blogs with more than 3,000 daily visitors to register with Roskomnadzor, the state's agency for media oversight, semi-state-owned network RT reported. The new restrictions were approved as an amendment to an anti-terror bill and will obligate bloggers with a significant following to sign posts with their real name.

Blogs will face restrictions similar to those applying to mass media outlets, including bans on extremism, pornography, electoral propaganda, and even "obscene language." The measures will take effect in August and will also apply to social network sites and personal websites. The bill effectively bans anonymous blogging on popular sites.

In addition, bloggers will be held responsible for verifying the accuracy of all information posted on their sites, including comments posted by others, according to Reporters Without Borders. Blogging services and social networks will also be required to keep user data for six months, raising fears that authorities will use this information to track down Internet users.

California Senate Rejects Smartphone ‘Kill Switch’ Law

The California Senate voted down a state measure that would require smarter antitheft security on smartphones.

The bill, introduced by State Senator Mark Leno and sponsored by George Gascón, San Francisco’s district attorney, would have required a so-called kill switch -- which would render a smartphone useless after it was stolen -- on all smartphones sold in California. The proposal needed 21 votes to pass in the 40-member chamber.

After debate at the Capitol, in Sacramento, it fell two votes short of passing, with a final count of 19 to 17 in favor.

One concern raised by some senators who opposed the bill was that businesses might feel that California was being overly strict about regulating technology, which could discourage tech companies from doing business there. The measure could be brought up for reconsideration again before the end of May.

Avi Lerner Rips the President for Not Fighting Piracy: ‘Obama is Scared of Google’

Avi Lerner wants the US government to be more proactive in its fight against piracy, but does not have much faith in President Barack Obama to act on it.

“We've got a major problem with [President] Obama, who is scared of Google,” Lerner said.

Hollywood continues to fret over the theft of their intellectual property, especially in countries like Spain, Italy, China and Russia. Yet recent legal efforts have failed, and politicians have shifted their focus to persuading the American public that piracy is bad. Many applaud those efforts, including Lerner.

“Most of the people in the world, especially young children, don't think they have to pay to see a movie,” Lerner said. “They don't understand that by doing this, we are losing millions and billions of dollars.”

AT&T, FCC Trying to Work Out Aggregation Item Issues

AT&T has indicated that how the Federal Communications Commission structures the broadcast incentive auction could affect whether or not it participates, but it appears still to be trying to work it out with the commission.

The FCC is expected to circulate a spectrum aggregation item on April 24 that could potentially limit the low-band spectrum available to AT&T, but there are suggestions from recent interactions between AT&T execs and the commission that the item could be on its way to something AT&T could support.

The item would not be voted on until May 15 and other commissioners can still make suggested edits and changes, so it could, and likely is, still a work in progress.

According to ex parte filings, AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson got on the phone with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to talk about "issues" raised by AT&T about the auctions -- as well as to brief him on AT&T's plans to expand fiber deployment.

The Case Against ISP Tolls

[Commentary] As the person at Netflix responsible for content delivery, I spend a lot of time thinking about Netflix’s Open Connect CDN and its interconnection with Internet service providers (ISPs).

Netflix has a mutually beneficial relationship with nearly every ISP in every market where we provide service. But this is less the case for the largest ISP in the US, Comcast, which is trying to become even larger by acquiring Time Warner Cable. For a content company such as Netflix, paying an ISP like Comcast for interconnection is not the same as paying for Internet transit.

Transit networks like Level3, XO, Cogent and Tata perform two important services: (1) they carry traffic over long distances and (2) they provide access to every network on the global Internet. When Netflix connects directly to the Comcast network, Comcast is not providing either of the services typically provided by transit networks. Comcast does not carry Netflix traffic over long distances.

Netflix is itself shouldering the costs and performing the transport function for which it used to pay transit providers. Netflix connects to Comcast in locations all over the US, and has offered to connect in as many locations as Comcast desires. So Netflix is moving Netflix content long distances, not Comcast. Nor does Comcast connect Netflix to other networks.

In fact, Netflix can’t reach other networks via Comcast’s network. For all these reasons, Netflix directly interconnects with many ISPs here in the US and internationally without any exchange of fees.

In sum, Comcast is not charging Netflix for transit service. It is charging Netflix for access to its subscribers. Comcast also charges its subscribers for access to Internet content providers like Netflix. In this way, Comcast is double dipping by getting both its subscribers and Internet content providers to pay for access to each other.

[Florence is vice president of content delivery at Netflix]

Using Technology To Fix The Texting While Driving Problem

A patent from Apple could play a big role in helping teens -- and adults -- avoid accidents.

The proposed feature, which would lock out certain features such as texts and calls, is not the first of its kind. There's DriveAssistT, created in 2008, and TEXTL8R, both developed by Aegis Mobility to block calls and texts. There're other devices that try to make young drivers safer beyond the texting angle, such as by using MyKey, a chip in the car key that you program to limit radio volume or sound a continuous alert if the driver doesn't wear a seatbelt. And Drive Pulse, which tracks the location of the car, as well as things like driving at high speeds or slamming on the breaks.

The Apple patent would lock out certain phone functions in one of three ways: by using a motion sensor that knows when the phone is moving at driving speeds; by using a "scenery analyzer" that can tell whether the phone is in a safe place in the car; and a lock-out mechanism that automatically disables things like texting for a period of time.

Microsoft 'Siri-killer' muzzled by Fed rule

Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant that ups the battle against Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now, is being silenced for kids due to a government regulation.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, tested now by developers and soon to be released by wireless carriers, includes technology that allows users to issue commands by talking to their phone. The system is so unique from rivals’ offerings it’s triggering government rules that limit its use by anyone under the age of 13.

If a user 12 or younger tries to activate Cortana, they’re presented with a screen reading, “I’m sorry, you’ll need to be bit older before I can help you.”

Microsoft’s voice system cannot be used by anyone under the age of 13 since it’s considered an online service, which falls under the coverage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. COPPA governs how much information a person under 13 years of age can share online without parental consent. And since Cortana takes such a personalized approach, it triggers the rule.

Benton

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