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June 2014

Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later

Schools and libraries nationwide are routinely filtering Internet content far more than what the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires.

“Over-filtering blocks access to legitimate educational resources, and consequently reduces access to information and learning opportunities for students,” said Barbara Stripling, ALA president. For example, some school districts block access to websites containing information about foreign countries, such as China and Iran, even as those websites are required online reading for the Advanced Placement curriculum. “Today’s over-implementation of internet filtering requirements have not evolved in the past decade to account for the proliferation of online collaborative tools and social networks that allow online students to both consume and produce content,” said Courtney Young, ALA president-elect. “Filtering hurts poor children the most,” said Young. “These children are the most likely to depend on school and library provided internet access. Other children are likely to have unfiltered internet access at home or through their own mobile devices.”

There are 60 million Americans without access to either a home broadband connection or a smartphone. Finally, schools that over-filter restrict students from learning key digital readiness skills that are vital for the rest of their lives. Over-blocking in schools hampers students from developing their online presence and fully understanding the extent and permanence of their digital footprint.

FCC Rejects an Unlicensed Spectrum Etiquette – Again

[Commentary] It has been almost 30 years since the FCC first allowed unlicensed devices to operate at relatively high power in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz “unlicensed bands.” The initiative, although widely opposed at first, proved to be a great success, ultimately giving rise to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, U-NII, ZigBee, and untold millions of devices in other, less-known categories.

Over the decades the FCC has repeatedly tinkered with the rules for these bands, mostly in the direction of affording manufacturers and users greater flexibility. When it proposed one such set of technical adjustments in 2003, the FCC in passing asked if it should consider adopting a “spectrum etiquette” to improve sharing among unlicensed users. The term “etiquette” here is roughly synonymous with “protocol,” and generally addresses how devices would interact with one another to promote fair access to the spectrum. The FCC did not suggest any specifics. The ensuing 2004 Report and Order adopted most of the proposed technical tweaks, but noted opposition to a spectrum etiquette and announced the FCC was dropping the idea. In a recent Order and Second Memorandum Opinion and Order the FCC finally rejected the idea yet again.

Claims That Wireless Service Is Too Expensive Don’t Hold Up

[Commentary] The idea that wireless prices are too high flies in the face of increasing Internet adoption and consumption across all demographic groups.

Not only is there an explosion of mobile-device use, but the price of a wireless megabyte of data has fallen by 99 percent since 2007. Americans and Canadians hold, respectively, the second and third slots in the world for Internet consumption per capita, particularly video. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority notes, "Accessing video online is particularly intensive in Canada, thanks to the country's investment in video-enabling broadband technology.... The trend toward mobile continues to strengthen." With its advantages of relatively low capital and maintenance requirements, mobility, shared capacity, and usability with a mobile device, wireless represents the most cost effective way to close the digital divide, including connecting rural areas, people of color, and the elderly. It's not surprising that wireless broadband has exploded in Canada and the U.S. with some 330 million connections.

[Layton is a Ph.D. fellow at the Center for Communication, Media, and Information Studies at Aalborg University in Denmark and is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy.]

European Firms Turn Privacy Into Sales Pitch

Many European cloud companies are hoping to take advantage of people’s growing appetite for online privacy. These European cloud operators have turned a particular focus on their local roots after the revelations by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, about surveillance activities by American and British intelligence agencies. To lure customers, the companies are pointing out that their data centers are in the European Union, whose privacy laws are more stringent than those in the United States. Large companies like Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s former state telephone monopoly, as well as smaller start-ups, are trying to win market share from American rivals like Amazon that dominate the global cloud market.

Public Knowledge
Thursday, June 12, 2014
12:30pm ET
https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/press-release/public-knowledge...

Christopher J. Lewis
Vice President of Government Affairs
Public Knowledge

Corynne McSherry
Intellectual Property Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Blake Reid
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of Colorado Law School

Kyle Weins
CEO
iFixit


June 12, 2014 (Warrantless cellphone location tracking is illegal)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014

FCC Open meeting tomorrow http://benton.org/calendar/2014-06-13/

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   Warrantless cellphone location tracking is illegal, US circuit court rules
   Microsoft Fights Government Demand for Customer Data Stored Outside US
   Apple praised for plan to undermine extensive system that secretly tracks customers [links to web]
   Poll: Many want email privacy overhaul [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Making Rights Real - op-ed
   House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Discusses Media Ownership in the 21st Century - press release
   Rep Walden: Old Regs Could Be Death Sentence For Local Outlets [links to web]
   Rep Rush Reams FCC Over Diversity [links to web]
   Newspaper Ownership, Unions Divided Over Crossownership Ban [links to web]
   Rep Walden: No hearings for Comcast, AT&T mergers [links to web]
   Commission Opens Docket For Proposed Transfer Of Control Of DirecTV To AT&T - public notice
   AT&T, DirecTV merger could make it harder to cut the cord
   Comcast hits back on tech group’s merger opposition

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   The Promise of a New Internet - analysis

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Mobile banking could help low-income people, feds say
   Worldwide Smartphone Usage to Grow 25% in 2014 [links to web]
   FCC ORBIT Act Report To Congress - public notice [links to web]

CONTENT
   Amazon Blocking Warner Movies Pre-Orders in Latest Feud

ADVERTISING
   Facebook makes some big changes to its advertisements [links to web]
   Multiplatform TV: Comcast/TWC ‘Tipping Point’ For Advanced Ads

TELEVISION
   There is No Freedom in 'Free' TV - op-ed
   Conference Of Mayors Backs FCC Sports Blackout Rule [links to web]

EDUCATION
   Common Core, battered by midterm politics, gets higher-ed support. Too late? [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Method Journalism - analysis [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Eric Cantor was a friend of the NSA. The guy who beat him hates it. [links to web]
   Glenn Britt Dead at 65 [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Trans-Atlantic war over Google [links to web]
   EU Probes Tax Affairs of Apple, Starbucks [links to web]
   Intel loses appeal against $1.44 billion European antitrust fine
   France to Push Telecoms Mergers to Stop Bouygues Job Cuts [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Your Personality Type, Defined by the Internet [links to web]
   How to Use Tech Like a Teenager - analysis [links to web]

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PRIVACY/SECURITY

WARRANTLESS CELLPHONE LOCATION TRACKING IS ILLEGAL, US CIRCUIT COURT RULES
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Jacob Kastrenakes]
A US Appellate Court has ruled that police must obtain a warrant before collecting cellphone location data, finding that acquiring records of what cell towers a phone connected to and when it was connected to them constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. This ruling, from the 11th Circuit, is in opposition to a ruling made nearly a year ago by a separate appellate court. While this ruling won't overturn that one because of their separate jurisdictions, it adds critical precedent to a privacy question that's still far from decided across the country. In its reasoning, the court notes that while the Fourth Amendment has traditionally been applied to property rights, it's gradually expanded to protect much more, including communications. "In the 20th century, a second view gradually developed," the court writes, "that is, that the Fourth Amendment guarantee protects the privacy rights of the people without respect to whether the alleged 'search' constituted a trespass against property rights." In particular, the court cites a Supreme Court ruling that found that tracking a person using a GPS unit installed in their car requires a warrant. Even though the location data of a cell site can only place the person holding the phone within a certain range, the court feels that that range is still quite detailed. In the case at hand, cell site data was used to place the defendant near the location of several robberies.
benton.org/node/186026 | Verge, The | GigaOm
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MICROSOFT FIGHTS GOVERNMENT DEMAND FOR CUSTOMER DATA STORED OUTSIDE US
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shira Ovide]
Microsoft is opposing a US government demand for a user’s emails stored on company computers outside the country, in the latest example of tech companies’ willingness to challenge government information requests in the post-Snowden era. Microsoft in a court filing dated June 6 said it opposed a search warrant for information on a user’s online emails stored in Microsoft’s Ireland data center. “Congress has not authorized the issuance of warrants that reach outside US territory,” Microsoft wrote in the filing with US District Court in Manhattan. Some legal experts said as a US company, Microsoft would have to comply with US court orders for emails or other customer information, whether data was stored in Seattle or Dubai. But Microsoft seems willing to test the patchwork of international laws on control of computerized information.
benton.org/node/185983 | Wall Street Journal | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP

MAKING RIGHTS REAL
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] There was a revealing and “need to have” discussion about voting rights, civil rights, and media rights at the Council on Foundations conference here in Washington this week. The program, envisioned by public interest champion Charles Benton, brought home for all to understand that these rights are inextricably linked and march forward together -- or not at all. A distinguished list of speakers, including incoming NAACP President Cornell Brooks and Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland told moving stories about how the denial of fundamental rights is hobbling our democracy. It’s really no longer possible to deny the connectivity among these issues: making voting a guaranteed and enforceable right, opening the doors of equal opportunity to every American, and having a media that informs citizens about the obstacles that are holding them and their country back.
http://benton.org/node/186028
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COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE DISCUSSES MEDIA OWNERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Communications and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Rep Greg Walden (R-OR), held a hearing to assess the state of media ownership, and the rules that govern it, in the digital age. Members discussed the Federal Communications Commission’s inaction on the statutorily required 2010 quadrennial review of the media ownership rules, and the commission’s decision to forge ahead with new rules on joint sales agreements (JSAs) and other media ownership changes without the completed quadrennial review. “Our laws need to reflect the reality of the world we live in today, not the world of the Ford administration,” said Chairman Walden. “As Americans’ habits have changed, so too should the way we look at local media. We live in a competitive landscape where increasingly we cherry-pick articles; we scroll through feeds and aggregators; we have multiple national news programming options, and we DVR almost everything to time-shift the programming we love. It’s a different world, why don’t our media laws reflect these changes?” David Bank, Managing Director of Global Media Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets, added, “Much is made of the fact that the current regulatory framework for media ownership dates back to 1975. The current regulatory framework was constructed in a media ecosystem that basically didn’t include the Internet. While it may have contemplated a broad PC based Internet consumption environment, it certainly didn’t contemplate a mobile application based ecosystem.”
benton.org/node/186024 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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COMMISSION OPENS DOCKET FOR PROPOSED TRANSFER OF CONTROL OF DIRECTV TO AT&T INC.
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
On May 18, 2014, AT&T and DIRECTV announced an agreement pursuant to which AT&T seeks to acquire DIRECTV in a stock-and-cash transaction. As part of the transaction, AT&T also plans to divest its interest in América Móvil, a telecommunications company headquartered in Mexico. Applications seeking Commission consent to the assignment or transfer of control of the licenses and authorizations held by DIRECTV are expected. The purpose of this public notice is to announce the opening of a docket, MB Docket No. 14-90, and to establish the ex parte status of discussions related to the proposed transaction. When the applications have been accepted for filing, we will issue a separate public notice announcing that fact and setting forth a pleading schedule.
benton.org/node/186016 | Federal Communications Commission | FCC
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AT&T MAKES CASE FOR DIRECTV ACQUISITION
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
AT&T and DirecTV said in a federal application that their combined companies would be able to offer lower prices for bundles of satellite television and high-speed Internet, putting pressure on cable companies to also cut fees. The companies say that's great for consumers and should be a key reason to approve their $49 billion deal. But that's only true for consumers who want to keep on paying for television services like satellite and cable. And many polls show consumers are moving in the opposite direction. Cable subscriptions have been flat or declining for decades, and consumers say they would cut the cord if there was more content -- particularly live sports -- available online. If anything, the major telecom and cable mergers under federal review highlight those industries' long-term commitment to the very model of bundling that consumers say they want to leave. And if approved, those bundles will be harder for customers to abandon, analysts say. "For many many consumers, the decision whether to become or remain a pay-tv subscriber indeed may largely turn on high-value sports programming," said Jeffrey Silva, a telecom and media analyst. "It's gold, just huge."
benton.org/node/186035 | Washington Post | WSJ | Recode
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COMCAST HITS BACK ON TECH GROUP’S MERGER OPPOSITION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Comcast is pushing back on the tech industry’s opposition to the cable giant’s merger with Time Warner Cable. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) -- which includes Google, Facebook, Aereo and T-Mobile -- is wrong to say that the merger will harm competition and consumers, Comcast Vice President of Government Communications Sena Fitzmaurice said. "Every market Comcast operates in is highly competitive, and we compete actively every day against some of CCIA's members,” she said. Fitzmaurice criticized CCIA for its “inaccurate figures” about Comcast’s market share if the proposed merger goes through.
benton.org/node/186010 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE PROMISE OF A NEW INTERNET
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Adrienne Lafrance]
[Commentary] People tend to talk about the Internet the way they talk about democracy -- optimistically, and in terms that describe how it ought to be rather than how it actually is. This idealism is what buoys much of the network neutrality debate, and yet many of what are considered to be the core issues at stake -- like payment for tiered access, for instance -- have already been decided. Internet advocates have been asking what regulatory measures might help save the open, innovation-friendly Internet. But increasingly, another question comes up: What if there were a technical solution instead of a regulatory one? What if the core architecture of how people connect could make an end run on the centralization of services that has come to define the modern net? It's a question that reflects some of the Internet's deepest cultural values, and the idea that this network -- this place where you are right now -- should distribute power to people. In the post-NSA, post-Internet-access-oligopoly world, more and more people are thinking this way, and many of them are actually doing something about it. Among them, there is a technology that's become a kind of shorthand code for a whole set of beliefs about the future of the Internet: "mesh networking." These words have become a way to say that you believe in a different, freer Internet.
benton.org/node/185970 | Atlantic, The
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

MOBILE BANKING COULD HELP LOW-INCOME PEOPLE, FEDS SAY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tim Devaney]
The federal consumer watchdog says mobile banking services present enormous potential benefits for low-income people. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said it will take a closer look at how mobile banking and financial services applications can empower unbanked and underbanked people to take better control of their personal finances. "For the economically vulnerable, mobile (banking) can enhance access to safer, more affordable products and services in ways that can improve their economic lives," the agency wrote in the Federal Register. The CFPB issued a request for information as it considers how to regulate mobile banking services. The bureau said 74,000 people each day signed up for mobile banking services in 2013, many of whom are low-income individuals whose only access to the Internet is through their phone, the agency said. According to a Federal Reserve study, 39 percent of underbanked people use mobile banking applications.
benton.org/node/185992 | Hill, The
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CONTENT

AMAZON BLOCKING WARNER MOVIES PRE-ORDERS IN LATEST FEUD
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Edmund Lee]
Amazon.com isn’t accepting pre-orders for Warner Bros movies on its website, the latest of the online retailer’s contract feuds to spill into public view. Customers trying to pre-order films such as “The Lego Movie,” “300: Rise of an Empire” and “Winter’s Tale” are instead asked to sign up to be notified when the item becomes available. Digital downloads of the movies are available for purchase through Amazon Instant Video. The world’s biggest online retailer is seeking concessions from Warner Bros that would give it more of a margin on sales of DVDs and digital versions of its movies, said a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
benton.org/node/186002 | Bloomberg
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ADVERTISING

MULTIPLATFORM TV: COMCAST/TWC ‘TIPPING POINT’ FOR ADVANCED ADS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Farrell]
The pending combination of Comcast and Time Warner Cable could be the final piece of the interactive ad puzzle, spurring other distributors to embrace what has been a market on the verge of a breakout for about a decade, BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research senior media and entertainment analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said. Reif Cohen added that so far, interactive advertising has taken “baby steps.” But with the creation of a 30-million subscriber cable company, the industry will finally have an addressable ad champion with the necessary scale and scope. “The tipping point of addressable advertising will be Comcast/Time Warner Cable,” Reif Cohen said, adding that other components like measurement also will need to fall into place. “There are steps that need to happen, but clearly it will be an area of growth.” Reif Cohen pointed to the impact that Comcast already has had on the video side of the business with its current scale -- 22 million subscribers -- focusing on video on demand, TV Everywhere and its robust user interface platform, the X1. She noted that because of those efforts, Comcast customers watch more TV (more than 7 hours per day vs. 4-5 hours on average for the rest of the country) and more channels (about 40% more than average viewers.)
benton.org/node/185998 | Multichannel News
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TELEVISION

THERE IS NO FREEDOM IN 'FREE' TV
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Brian Frederick]
[Commentary] Broadcasters recently launched a front group with the apparent purpose of attacking pay-TV providers and making enough noise to distract from reforming our broken retransmission consent system that victimizes the public. They named their new group TVFreedom, perhaps to misdirect from the fact that for decades they’ve actually opposed freedom of choice for TV viewers. If the basic tier mandate is so critical to public safety, where is the evidence that the lack of such a mandate for the satellite companies has led to any harms? Broadcasters are currently squatting on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of spectrum that they’re not using other than to provide 8% of the American public with “local” TV -- if and when those users can receive a decent broadcast signal. And local television isn’t even local anymore. Only one out of two TV stations actually shows local news. Further, 50% of the money collected in retransmission consent fees goes back to New York City to pay for expensive network programming, which is the exact opposite of what retransmission was supposed to do. The broadcasters cannot -- and should not be allowed by the media -- to get away with claiming that retransmission consent amounts to the free market at the same time they fight to protect the government requirement that cable and telecom providers carry certain broadcast TV channels. Nor should they be able to claim retransmission consent is the free market when they tie carriage of the expensive cable channels they own to the local TV stations. The basic tier is a relic of a bygone era when broadcasters were the only game in town. New technologies have disrupted this monopoly and now broadcasters are fighting to save a dying business model. Protecting an archaic monopoly is never good public policy. [Frederick, PhD, is spokesman for the American Television Alliance]
benton.org/node/185996 | Broadcasting&Cable
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

INTEL LOSES APPEAL
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Jennifer Baker]
Intel lost its appeal against a €1.06 billion ($1.44 billion) antitrust fine when the General Court of the European Union upheld a 2009 ruling by the European Commission that the company had abused its dominant market position. The Commission had found that Intel had abused its dominant position by offering rebates to customers on the condition they buy all their x86 CPUs from the company. The General Court dismissed in its entirety Intel's appeal and ordered the chip giant to implement conditions imposed by the Commission in its original ruling to rectify the market situation. According to the Commission, with 70 percent or more of the worldwide market, Intel was an "unavoidable supplier" of CPUs, an essential component of any computer.
benton.org/node/186032 | IDG News Service
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Making Rights Real

[Commentary] There was a revealing and “need to have” discussion about voting rights, civil rights, and media rights at the Council on Foundations conference here in Washington this week. The program, envisioned by public interest champion Charles Benton, brought home for all to understand that these rights are inextricably linked and march forward together -- or not at all. A distinguished list of speakers, including incoming NAACP President Cornell Brooks and Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland told moving stories about how the denial of fundamental rights is hobbling our democracy. It’s really no longer possible to deny the connectivity among these issues: making voting a guaranteed and enforceable right, opening the doors of equal opportunity to every American, and having a media that informs citizens about the obstacles that are holding them and their country back.

AT&T, DirecTV merger could make it harder to cut the cord

AT&T and DirecTV said in a federal application that their combined companies would be able to offer lower prices for bundles of satellite television and high-speed Internet, putting pressure on cable companies to also cut fees.

The companies say that's great for consumers and should be a key reason to approve their $49 billion deal. But that's only true for consumers who want to keep on paying for television services like satellite and cable. And many polls show consumers are moving in the opposite direction. Cable subscriptions have been flat or declining for decades, and consumers say they would cut the cord if there was more content -- particularly live sports -- available online. If anything, the major telecom and cable mergers under federal review highlight those industries' long-term commitment to the very model of bundling that consumers say they want to leave. And if approved, those bundles will be harder for customers to abandon, analysts say. "For many many consumers, the decision whether to become or remain a pay-tv subscriber indeed may largely turn on high-value sports programming," said Jeffrey Silva, a telecom and media analyst. "It's gold, just huge."

Facebook makes some big changes to its advertisements

Facebook is making significant changes to the advertisements on its network, and will give users more control over which ads they see on its network.

The move comes as the company is also expanding its advertising program to include information that it pulls from sites users visit outside of its own network. Users will begin seeing notifications on their accounts about the changes starting June 11. "Today, we learn about your interests primarily from the things you do on Facebook, such as Pages you like," the company said. "Starting soon in the US, we will also include information from some of the websites and apps you use." Facebook does not currently show ads based on what users look at or buy outside of its own network -- though it does partner with some ad networks that do. This change means that Facebook's advertising system more closely mirrors those of its competitors, such as Google. That change is significant, if not particularly surprising as the 10-year-old service looks for ways to pull in more regular revenue.

Intel loses appeal against $1.44 billion European antitrust fine

Intel lost its appeal against a €1.06 billion ($1.44 billion) antitrust fine when the General Court of the European Union upheld a 2009 ruling by the European Commission that the company had abused its dominant market position.

The Commission had found that Intel had abused its dominant position by offering rebates to customers on the condition they buy all their x86 CPUs from the company. The General Court dismissed in its entirety Intel's appeal and ordered the chip giant to implement conditions imposed by the Commission in its original ruling to rectify the market situation. According to the Commission, with 70 percent or more of the worldwide market, Intel was an "unavoidable supplier" of CPUs, an essential component of any computer.

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