June 2014

Email privacy bill gets a boost

Tech companies and privacy groups are pushing Congress to move ahead with email privacy reform now that a majority of the House supports a bill that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing stored emails.

The Email Privacy Act -- from Reps Kevin Yoder (R-KS) and Jared Polis (D-CO) -- got its 218th cosponsor, meaning a majority of the House now supports the bill, which would reform a 1986 law that allows law enforcement officials to access, without a warrant, emails that have been stored more than 180 days.

The companies and privacy groups that have long lobbied for email privacy reform hailed the milestone. Among others, Google and Digital 4th -- a pro-ECPA reform coalition that includes the ACLU, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform -- hailed the bill and called for Congressional action.

T-Mobile Offers iPhone Tests and Unlimited Music Streaming

T-Mobile US, the fourth-largest American phone carrier, has spent the last year and a half introducing aggressive new offerings to lure customers. Most recently, the company said it would add to those offerings with unlimited streaming music and the ability to test-drive an iPhone.

The company’s moves have helped attract millions of people to T-Mobile. And they have also impressed federal antitrust regulators, who have publicly patted themselves on the back for resisting a potential merger between T-Mobile and AT&T in 2011.

Now, T-Mobile is in talks with Sprint, the third-largest carrier, for a $32 billion merger. A deal could be announced this summer.

William Baer, the chief of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, noted that the effect of regulators blocking the AT&T and T-Mobile merger was “driving enormous benefits in the direction of the American consumer.”

But John Legere, T-Mobile’s chief executive, said that innovation and competition would only intensify with a merger.

T-Mobile said that it had teamed up with popular streaming music services including Pandora, Slacker Radio, Spotify, Rhapsody and Apple’s iTunes Radio. Music streamed from those services will not be counted against a user’s data plan.

All T-Mobile customers subscribed to its current plans, called Simple Choice, will be eligible for the free streaming.

T-Mobile also said that it would introduce UnRadio, a new online radio service with Rhapsody. Unlike many traditional Internet radio services, UnRadio will be an ad-free service that allows people to listen to specific songs and skip others as much as they want. It will be free for customers subscribed to T-Mobile’s unlimited data plans and $4 a month for other T-Mobile customers.

Why Did Amazon Make a Phone? A Conversation With Jeff Bezos

A Q&A with with Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, about their new Fire phone and Amazon’s goals in the smartphone business.

Asked why he arrived late into the phone market, Bezos answered: “I think in the whole evolution of this, we’re still pretty early. I don’t want to judge before all the facts are in, but I think this wireless thing is going to be big.”

He added: “If we go back in time just five, six, seven years, we’re talking about different players -- Nokia, Blackberry and others. Things change very rapidly in this area.”

Remarks of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Federal Communications Commission Workshop On Prevention Of Mobile Device Theft

The thought of losing or misplacing our devices is scary. More frightening, still, is having them stolen.

But theft of mobile phones is surging. One in three robberies now includes the theft of a mobile device. When you add in the cost of lost personal and financial data and identity theft, it can cost American consumers as much as $30 billion a year.

By introducing legislation and speaking up they are shining a light on this problem -- and pressing for solutions.

As a result, we have a commitment from manufacturers and wireless providers to support anti-theft solutions in new phones. These solutions should be available at no cost to consumers. They should help wipe sensitive data from devices remotely and render them inoperable by bad actors.

This one Supreme Court decision could upend the future of TV. Here’s what you need to know.

[Commentary] With June ticking away, the Supreme Court still has a handful of tech-related cases to decide. One is a case about software patents that could change the way businesses protect their intellectual property.

Another pair of cases asks whether police can legally search the contents of your cell phone without a warrant.

But the last such case of the summer promises to be far more important to our day-to-day lives. It could forever change the future of television.

At the center of this lawsuit is a little company called Aereo. New York-based Aereo is controversial because the company takes over-the-air broadcast programming, like shows on PBS, ABC or NBC, and streams them over the Internet to its customers. It does this without paying the networks that produce the content.

Should Aereo have to pay these guys for transmitting their stuff? That's the question facing the Supreme Court. A decision could come very soon.

It could break probably one of four ways. If Aereo wins, it potentially upends the entire TV business. Suddenly, broadcasters would have to worry about a flood of customers starting to watch live TV over the Internet. As we've seen in the publishing industry, the minute content moves online, advertising rates start to fall. And as TV networks' ad revenue craters, they wouldn't be able to make up the shortfall by charging Aereo retransmission fees. That's a double whammy.

Finally, a ruling for Aereo could prompt calls by the content industry to revise the Copyright Act.

STELA Markup Held Over

The Senate's markup of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act will have to wait for another day. It was scheduled to be marked up on June 19, but was held over at the request of a Republican, according to a committee spokesperson.

Dish Says It’s Interested in NFL Sunday Ticket

Dish Network’s head of product management said the satellite-TV company would be interested in bidding on the rights to broadcast the National Football League’s Sunday games if rival DirecTV fails to renew its deal.

“It’s the only exclusive still left for TV content,” Vivek Khemka, Dish’s senior vice president of product management, said. “I’d be an idiot to say I didn’t want it.” “NFL Sunday Ticket” has been offered only on DirecTV since 1994, and the two sides are negotiating exclusively to renew the $4 billion agreement, which expires at the end of 2014.

The deal is so critical that AT&T, in its agreement to acquire DirecTV, retained the right to back out of the deal if the contract with the NFL isn’t renewed. In the event talks with DirecTV fail, the league could separate the rights to offer “Sunday Ticket” over the Web from the traditional TV contract, Khemka said.

Poll: Most oppose Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger

More than half the country opposes the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, according to a new poll by Consumer Reports.

The survey found that 56 percent of the public was against the $45 billion deal, while just 11 percent supported it. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of respondents predicted it would lead to higher cable and Internet prices and would also leave consumers with fewer choices.

“Comcast and Time Warner Cable have consistently scored poorly when it comes to customer satisfaction so it’s no surprise that Americans are skeptical of this proposed deal,” Consumers Union policy counsel Delara Derakhshani said. “Most consumers expect the merger will turn things from bad to worse.”

Saving Community Access Television

[Commentary] While most of us are aware of community access television -- those cable channels that are reserved for local government and public access programming -- few people recognize what an important resource this is for communities throughout the nation.

More than 3,000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) cable channels are operating around the country, offering information about everything from local city council hearings to community events, and featuring community-generated programs from cooking shows to local musical talent. Particularly in underserved urban, suburban and rural communities, the PEG channels offer a vital community connection.

But these community channels are facing serious threats -- not simply from the funding crisis faced by all municipalities, but also because of a loophole in a 40-year-old federal law that could easily be closed. Fortunately, there is a growing movement afoot to save community access by closing this loophole.

"Many organizations including the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Administrators (NATOA), the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) and FreePress to name a few, have devoted time and effort to advocate for the continued support of community media," said Keri Stokstad, Alliance for Community Media Board Chair and Executive Director of Pasadena Media in Pasadena, California. "It is imperative that we honor the intention of the Cable Act to ensure resources are allocated to support local content creation."

Can Cities Wait Until 2084 for Google Fiber?

Technology is becoming the new religion, and the dogma is just as impenetrable. Issues of personal privacy, social equality, and economic policy are each day bound tighter to outcomes in the digital world.

As technology becomes a progressively more integral part of daily life, the stakes are raised in equal measure.

The broadband market is changing quickly, and America’s emotional investment in tomorrow’s winners and losers grows ever more entrenched. Google is disrupting the increasingly concentrated broadband market with Fiber, a brand of gigabit networks being built in Kansas City; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah.

Being an innovative tech giant, flush with cash, and also a newcomer to the broadband market is allowing Google to play by a different set of rules, and the existing providers are paying close attention. Fiber offers customers connection speeds sometimes 150 times faster than what they were getting, and at just $70 a month. The idea of being freed from the incumbent providers has captured the attention of the public at large, as thousands beg for Google to build in their cities.

In February, Google announced 34 cities where Fiber may build next, but experts are unsure of Google’s commitment to becoming a force that does more than just agitate the market. In the few areas Google does operate, though, they are forcing competition where previously there was none, and that was probably Google’s intention from the start, Mastrangelo said.

“That’s why Google excites people -- it gives them a choice and a really fantastic service,” she said. “It’s something that isn’t available from the competition, so they have a tremendous competitive advantage in the markets that they’ve entered.”

Benton

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