June 9, 2014 (AT&T: No Plans To Create Internet Fast, Slow Lanes)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014
MIT Technology Review Digital Summit and M-Enabling Summit and Policy Briefing http://benton.org/calendar/2014-06-09/
NETWORK NEUTRALITY/NET MANAGEMENT
"Our Top Story Tonight Concerns The Internet" - analysis
AT&T: No Plans To Create Internet Fast, Slow Lanes [links to web]
Sen Schumer to FCC: Pay attention to public comments on net neutrality
Cable companies bankroll fake consumer groups to end net neutrality
Goodbye, Net Neutrality; Hello, Net Discrimination - op-ed
Verizon takes the Netflix bait - op-ed
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Vodafone reveals existence of secret wires that allow state surveillance
NSA reform heats up in the Senate [links to web]
Hope Fades for Aggressive NSA Reform in Congress - analysis [links to web]
Internet Giants Erect Barriers to Spy Agencies
Mathematicians Urge Colleagues To Refuse To Work For The NSA
How the NSA can 'turn on' your phone remotely
Edward Snowden took less than previously thought, says James Clapper [links to web]
US technology companies beef up security to thwart mass spying [links to web]
Voice of America needs to keep its objective voice WashPost editorial [links to web]
CIA Launches New Social Media Accounts [links to web]
MORE PRIVACY/SECURITY
Few Consumers Trust Companies to Keep Online Info Safe - research
IT is bracing -- but not preparing -- for the Internet of things [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
Ready For Media Merger Mania? An Analyst Examines Some Possibilities
In Wake of Telecom Consolidation, Few Deals Are Left
49% OF US Households Have A TV Connected To The Internet - press release [links to web]
Guess what: Some people are on Amazon’s side in Amazon vs. Hachette [links to web]
T-Mobile’s Legere Said Likely CEO After Sprint Merger [links to web]
Time spinoff reflects a troubled magazine business [links to web]
TELECOM
Senators voice concerns over telephone tech switch
EDUCATION
Closing the Wi-Fi Gap in America’s Schools and Libraries - editorial
SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
Potential Sprint, T-Mobile marriage threatens consumer gains
T-Mobile’s Legere Said Likely CEO After Sprint Merger [links to web]
TELEVISION
‘A soup of misery’: Over half of people say they’d abandon their cable company, if only they could
PBS claims FCC wants to shrink its reach
Station Revenue Status: Spot OK, Retransmission Crucial - analysis [links to web]
Videology Breaks Down How Millennials Consume TV [links to web]
CONTENT
AT&T Raises Possibility of Offering NFL Sunday Ticket to Wireless Customers
Free Music, at Least While It Lasts - David Carr analysis
7 things the most-highlighted Kindle passages tell us about American readers [links to web]
Should you have a right to sell your e-books and digital music?
Google unseats Microsoft as the US browser powerhouse [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Musicians, Advertisers Strike New Music Deal [links to web]
The Well-Followed on Social Media Cash In on Their Influence [links to web]
HEALTH
Administration Overhauls Federal Health-Care Website [links to web]
Wanted: a watchdog for the mobile medical app explosion [links to web]
GOV PERFORMANCE
Federal Agencies and the Opportunities and Challenges of Big Data - press release [links to web]
AGENDA
FCC To Hold Open Commission Meeting June 13 - public notice
STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU says firms like Google and Facebook must meet privacy rules
Airbrushing the European Web - L Gordon Crovitz editorial
Pakistan Suspends License of Leading News Channel [links to web]
Facebook Under Fire for Temporarily Blocking Pages in Pakistan [links to web]
US Quietly Backs Nigerian TV Channel to Counter Terror Group [links to web]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY/NET MANAGEMENT
"OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT CONCERNS THE INTERNET"
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
“Our top story tonight concerns the Internet.” That may sound like us, but, in fact, it is the first line in a 12 minute sketch by comedian John Oliver during the June 1 edition of his new HBO show, Last Week Tonight. And in those 12 minutes, Oliver did what even he said was impossible -- he made the network neutrality debate accessible and interesting. Oliver, a long time “correspondent” on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, used nearly half his program to highlight the dangers of the Federal Communications Commission proposal to allow broadband service providers to charge content providers “more money for service that isn't entirely awful,” as Jordan Zakarin wrote in The Wrap. Oh, funnyman, you might be able to get people to laugh at the arcane workings of government policymaking, but you can’t expect to get them to do anything about it. But Oliver tried anyway. He asked the Internet's worst “trolls” to take the "badly spelled vile" they normally pump into YouTube comments and send it the FCC's way -- all in the name of net neutrality. He asked commenters to channel their anger for the greater good by taking advantage of the FCC's open comment period. "This is the moment you were made for," Oliver said. "We need you to get out there and for once in your lives focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction. Seize your moment, my lovely trolls. Turn on caps lock and fly, my pretties." Ha ha, funny, funny. No way this impact’s Washington policymaking, right? Well, um… by 3:45 on June 2, the FCC tweeted out: “We’ve been experiencing technical difficulties with our comment system due to heavy traffic. We’re working to resolve these issues quickly.” Welcome to the latest lesson in the public’s ongoing education of the Beltway, a course titled “Don’t Mess With the Internet.” But net neutrality isn’t the only nerve Oliver hit in his sketch. Oliver highlighted a recording of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts pointing out that Comcast and Time Warner Cable do not compete in any US markets. We’ve already heard a lot about cable companies/ISPs having too much control over how content is delivered to their customers. And so it was quite a week in the ongoing debate over the Open Internet.
http://benton.org/node/185636
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SEN SCHUMER TO FCC: PAY ATTENTION TO PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) wants to make sure the tens of thousands of people voicing concerns about a new net neutrality proposal get heard. “While they may not be the businesses from whom you are accustomed to hearing, the fact that ordinary citizens would take time out of their days to weigh in on a complicated regulatory issue is a clear indicator of its significance,” Sen Schumer said. Sen Schumer sent a letter to Chairman Wheeler encouraging the FCC leader to take into account the tens of thousands of public comments the FCC has received since its vote in May. Chairman Wheeler should “give significant weight to the public input,” he said. Sen Schumer pointed to the “nearly 50,000 comments from concerned citizens who share my belief that it is the Commission’s responsibility to protect and preserve an open Internet.” He compared the public interest in the net neutrality process to less highly watched proceedings at the agency. "While the Commission is accustomed to hearing from businesses who are concerned with proposed changes to telecommunications law, I cannot recall a time when ordinary Americans have been so engaged in a regulatory issue," he said.
benton.org/node/185698 | Hill, The
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CABLE COMPANIES BANKROLL FAKE CONSUMER GROUPS TO END NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Joe Silver]
Cable companies that stand to benefit the most from an end to net neutrality have been bankrolling so-called “consumer advocacy” groups that aim to kill it. Such non-profits like Broadband for America and the American Consumer Institute (ACI), both of which claim to be “independent consumer advocacy groups” and have been fighting against classifying Internet service providers (ISPs) as a utility (a move that would make it easier to enact net neutrality rules in the future), have been shown to be heavily funded by the cable industry. According to a disclosure obtained by Vice from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), an ISP-supported trade group, most of Broadband for America’s recent $3.5 million budget comes from a $2 million donation from NCTA. Vice further uncovered that, based on its tax return filings, Broadband for America has retained the DCI Group, an "infamous lobbying firm," that Vice argues specializes in building fake consumer interest groups that actually serve corporate interests. What's more, Vice found that the American Consumer Institute, which similarly opposes reclassification of ISPs, has been bankrolled by an ISP lobby group called Mywireless.com that has been a consistent financial contributor to ACI since 2010. "This kind of funding has been very common since the beginning of the net neutrality debate," Tim Karr, director of strategy at the advocacy organization Free Press, said. What's more, according to Todd O’Boyle, media and democracy program director at Common Cause, such industry-funded groups can be quite effective if not called out for their conflicts of interest. "The problem that we see is that the media will quote these people without identifying those conflicts," O'Boyle said. "They have been very good at infiltrating grassroots causes without properly disclosing sources of funding."
benton.org/node/185702 | Ars Technica
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GOODBYE, NET NEUTRALITY; HELLO, NET DISCRIMINATION
[SOURCE: Technology Academics Policy, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] If reports in the Wall Street Journal are correct, President Barack Obama’s chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Thomas Wheeler, has proposed a new rule that is an explicit and blatant violation of this promise. In fact, it permits and encourages exactly what Obama warned against: broadband carriers acting as gatekeepers and charging Web sites a payola payment to reach customers through a “fast lane.” FCC Chairman Wheeler released a statement accusing the Wall Street Journal of being “flat-out wrong.” Yet the Washington Post has confirmed that the new rule gives broadband providers “the ability to enter into individual negotiations with content providers … in a commercially reasonable matter.” That’s telecom-speak for payola payments, and a clear violation of President Obama’s promise. This is what one might call a net-discrimination rule, and, if enacted, it will profoundly change the Internet as a platform for free speech and small-scale innovation. It threatens to make the Internet just like everything else in American society: unequal in a way that deeply threatens our long-term prosperity. [Wu is professor at Columbia Law School]
benton.org/node/185696 | Technology Academics Policy
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VERIZON TAKES THE NETFLIX BAIT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Paul Sweeting]
[Commentary] The war of words that erupted between Netflix and Verizon over who was responsible for low quality of service some Netflix subscribers were purportedly experiencing on Verizon FiOS escalated sharply when the telecommunications company sent Netflix a letter threatening legal action if the video company doesn’t cut out the trash-talking. The likelihood that Verizon would actually follow through on its threat of legal action, in truth, is not very high. The discovery process involved in any sort of litigation would inevitably turn up a lot of laundry that Verizon would not want publicly aired concerning its dealings with various peering partners. Netflix, moreover, would likely welcome the lawsuit. It would give the video provider an opening to counter-sue and possibly give it leverage to renegotiate the terms of the interconnection deal the two companies recently signed on more favorable terms as part of any settlement agreement. [Sweeting is Principal, Concurrent Media Strategies]
benton.org/node/185684 | GigaOm
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
VODAFONE REVEALS EXISTENCE OF SECRET WIRES THAT ALLOW STATE SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Juliette Garside]
Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond. The company has broken its silence on government surveillance in order to push back against the increasingly widespread use of phone and broadband networks to spy on citizens, and will publish its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report on June 6, 2014. At 40,000 words, it is the most comprehensive survey yet of how governments monitor the conversations and whereabouts of their people. The company said wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecoms groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer. Privacy campaigners said the revelations were a "nightmare scenario" that confirmed their worst fears on the extent of snooping.
benton.org/node/185642 | Guardian, The | NYTimes | IDG News Service | GigaOm | AP | CNNMoney
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ERECTING BARRIERS TO SPYS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: David Sanger, Nicole Perlroth]
Google engineers are accelerating what has become the newest arms race in modern technology: They are making it far more difficult -- and far more expensive -- for the National Security Agency and the intelligence arms of other governments around the world to pierce their systems. As fast as it can, Google is sealing up cracks in its systems that Edward J. Snowden revealed the NSA had brilliantly exploited. It is encrypting more data as it moves among its servers and helping customers encode their own e-mails. Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo are taking similar steps. After years of cooperating with the government, the immediate goal now is to thwart Washington -- as well as Beijing and Moscow. The strategy is also intended to preserve business overseas in places like Brazil and Germany that have threatened to entrust data only to local providers.
benton.org/node/185721 | Washington Post
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MATHEMATICIANS AND THE NSA
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: Kashmir Hill]
In January, the math community had its big event of the year -- the Joint Mathematics Meeting -- where 3,000 mathematicians and math students gathered to talk about new advances in the field and jostle for jobs. The National Security Agency is said to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the country and so it always has a sizeable presence at the event to recruit new candidates. This year, it was even easier for the agency as the conference took place at the Baltimore Convention Center, just 22 minutes away from NSA headquarters in Fort Meade. Thomas Hales, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who describes himself as a “mathematician who’s upset about what’s going on,” is dismayed at the idea of the brightest minds in his field going to work for the agency. In reaction to the Snowden revelations about NSA’s mass surveillance and compromising of encryption standards, Hales gave a grant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to fly a representative to Baltimore to try to convince mathematicians young and old not to go help the agency with data-mining and encryption-breaking.
benton.org/node/185719 | Forbes
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HOW THE NSA CAN 'TURN ON' YOUR PHONE REMOTELY
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Jose Pagliery]
Even if you power off your cell phone, the US government can turn it back on. That's what ex-spy Edward Snowden revealed in a recent interview with NBC's Brian Williams. It sounds like sorcery. Can someone truly bring your phone back to life without touching it? No. But government spies can get your phone to play dead. It's a crafty hack. You press the button. The device buzzes. You see the usual power-off animation. The screen goes black. But it'll secretly stay on -- microphone listening and camera recording. How did they get into your phone in the first place? Here's an explanation by former members of the CIA, Navy SEALs and consultants to the US military's cyber warfare team. They've seen it firsthand. Government spies can set up their own miniature cell network tower. Your phone automatically connects to it. Now, that tower's radio waves send a command to your phone's antennae: the baseband chip. That tells your phone to fake any shutdown and stay on. A smart hack won't keep your phone running at 100%, though. Spies could keep your phone on standby and just use the microphone -- or send pings announcing your location. John Pirc, who did cybersecurity research at the CIA, said these methods -- and others, like physically bugging devices -- let the US hijack and reawaken terrorists' phones. "The only way you can tell is if your phone feels warm when it's turned off. That means the baseband processor is still running," said Pirc, now chief technology officer of the NSS Labs security research firm.
benton.org/node/185640 | CNNMoney
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MORE PRIVACY/SECURITY
FEW CONSUMERS TRUST COMPANIES TO KEEP ONLINE INFO SAFE
[SOURCE: Gallup, AUTHOR: John Fleming, Elizabeth Kampf]
Recent incidents such as Target's security breach, the Heartbleed bug, and eBay's systems hack have called attention to how much consumers trust the businesses they patronize to keep their personal information safe. That trust currently appears to be hard to come by. Just 21% of Americans have "a lot of trust" in the businesses or companies they regularly interact with to keep their personal information secure. In addition to low trust in companies' abilities to keep their data secure, Americans report decreasing trust in companies in general. Thirty-seven percent say their general level of trust in the businesses and companies they regularly do business with has declined either a little or a lot over the past year. Nonetheless, consumers trust banks to protect their personal data at levels considerably higher than their overall confidence in the institutions themselves. The key differentiator here may be the protection of personal information. While, in general, the industry has suffered a negative reputation since the 2008 financial crisis, banks and credit card companies are potentially held to specific legal parameters regarding the protection of personal information. This higher standard could influence the amount of trust consumers say they have in the security of their sensitive data with financial institutions compared with other industries.
benton.org/node/185704 | Gallup | The Hill
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OWNERSHIP
READY FOR MEDIA MERGER MANIA? AN ANALYST EXAMINES SOME POSSIBILITIES
[SOURCE: Deadline, AUTHOR: David Lieberman]
[Commentary] This is the time of year when deal speculation usually percolates: Moguls always have mergers on their minds as they prepare to huddle in early July at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley gathering for the media elite. And content companies have to be thinking more seriously than usual about their options. Their bargaining power could soon diminish if Washington regulators allow Comcast to buy Time Warner Cable, AT&T buy DirecTV, and -- perhaps -- Sprint buy T-Mobile. What deals make sense? Janney Capital Markets’ Tony Wible tiptoed out on a limb today by making a serious attempt to answer the question -- with some potentially surprising conclusions. Here are the ones that seem to offer the greatest strategic and financial benefits: CBS and Viacom; Discovery and Scripps Networks; Disney and Discovery; and, Fox and Time Warner.
benton.org/node/185632 | Deadline
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IN WAKE OF TELECOM CONSOLIDATION, FEW DEALS ARE LEFT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Gelles]
Telecommunications bankers are running out of deals to pitch. Since 2011, a rush of multibillion-dollar acquisitions has reshaped the United States wireless market. Now, with Sprint and T-Mobile zeroing in on an agreement to join forces, one of the last big deals for the industry may be nearing an announcement. Some of the deals that have led up to this moment were foregone conclusions. Verizon always planned to take full control of Verizon Wireless, but waited until the debt markets could support its $130 billion purchase from Vodafone, its partner in the venture. Others had been long rumored and finally came to fruition. After AT&T was blocked by regulators in its attempt to acquire T-Mobile, it was expected that T-Mobile would try to grow on its own. That’s why it merged with MetroPCS. Others were surprise moves that set off a chain reaction that is still playing out. AT&T, unable to buy more wireless customers, has turned its attention to television, agreeing to buy DirecTV. The lines separating telephone, Internet and television companies, meanwhile, continue to blur, as each muscles into the others’ territory. But between these announced deals and the impending announcement by Sprint and T-Mobile, it is hard to see what meaningful assets telecommunications companies can set their sights on next. In the wake of all this consolidation, there are only a few potential targets remaining.
benton.org/node/185655 | New York Times
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TELECOM
SENATORS VOICE CONCERNS OVER TELEPHONE TECH SWITCH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Senators are concerned that an ongoing switch from traditional phone lines to Internet-based phone technology could leave some in the US without reliable phone service. During a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, multiple Democratic senators expressed concerns that the new technologies would be less reliable than the traditional technologies, especially during emergencies. “If there’s one thing that every person is worried about … its public safety,” Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said. “We need to make sure that these new technologies are functional,” especially when callers are trying to reach emergency services, she continued. Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ) pointed to 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which wiped out communications networks in parts of New York and New Jersey that had moved off of the traditional technology. The so-called IP -- or Internet Protocol -- transition to Internet-based phone technology is being overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, which voted earlier to allow telephone companies to propose transition trials for areas where they intend to remove the traditional technology.
benton.org/node/185637 | Hill, The
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EDUCATION
CLOSING THE WI-FI GAP
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
Nearly 60% of schools in America lack sufficient Wi-Fi capability to provide students with 21st Century educational tools. Far too many schools have no Wi-Fi at all. For those that are lucky enough to be connected wirelessly, such networks often don’t meet the capacity needs of students and teachers. Solving this challenge is a national priority. Unfortunately, the present E-rate program does little to advance Wi-Fi connectivity. Luckily, my fellow Commissioners and I are in a position to act to close the Wi-Fi gap. To have an impact in the 2015 school year, the Commission will need to act this summer to adopt new rules modernizing E-Rate, including the program’s mechanism for distributing support. If we don’t move quickly on new rules, we will miss the opportunity for Wi-Fi to have its greatest impact in the coming funding year. The consequences of delay would be huge.
benton.org/node/185717 | Federal Communications Commission
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS
POTENTIAL SPRINT, T-MOBILE MARRIAGE THREATENS CONSUMER GAINS
[SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, AUTHOR: Allan Holmes]
[Commentary] Sprint Corp and T-Mobile USA, which only weeks ago were arguing that the government should increase competition in the wireless market by allocating new airwaves to smaller companies like them, are switching sides and looking to join the giants through a merger. Sprint’s plan to buy T-Mobile for $32 billion is aimed at making the combined company a more formidable competitor to giants Verizon Communications and AT&T, which together claim 68 percent of US wireless subscribers, respectively. The purchase of T-Mobile would almost double Sprint’s market share to about 30 percent. Just recently, T-Mobile and Sprint succeeded in convincing the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that smaller wireless companies had a shot a buying valuable new wireless airwaves by limiting how much Verizon and AT&T can buy at an auction in 2015. Now the rules that Sprint and T-Mobile fought for may come back to hurt them. Adding T-Mobile’s spectrum holdings with Sprint’s may put the combined company over the limit that bars it from bidding on the reserved portion of spectrum, which comprises prime frequencies that can travel long distances and penetrate buildings. The Sprint purchase of T-Mobile “certainly would impact the combined company's ability to bid,” Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, an advocacy group in Washington, DC, that supports the spectrum limits, said. Jeff Silva, an independent telecommunications analyst in Washington, DC, agreed that the merger could make Sprint too big to bid on the reserved frequencies. “That means they won’t get as much spectrum,” he said. The purchase would also eliminate T-Mobile, the one company that has put pressure on carriers to lower prices. In the last year T-Mobile has cut prices, eliminated two-year contracts and roaming charges, and offered to pay early termination fees for customers who switch from a competitor. Since the company began offering the promotions in the second quarter of 2013, the number of its subscribers increased 11 percent to 49 million compared with a 3.2 percent growth to 122 million for Verizon and a 7.5 percent increase to 116 million for AT&T during the same period, according to data compiled by Strategy Analytics, a technology consulting firm.
benton.org/node/185634 | Center for Public Integrity
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TELEVISION
A SOUP OF MISERY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
Cable rage is real, and here's the data to prove it. A survey of subscribers on the nation's biggest cable providers has found that more than half of Americans would abandon their cable provider if they felt they could. Fifty-three percent of respondents to a recent survey said they'd leave their current cable company -- if they had a choice. But as many as 70 percent said their options are too limited, according to the study by consulting group cg42. The list of options may soon narrow even further with several impending mergers, such as the proposed deal between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, as well as the acquisition of DirecTV by AT&T (not a cable merger but one that would eliminate a player in the wider pay-TV market). Consumers pushed back against those agreements, with 72 percent saying that the larger the cable companies become, the worse off consumers will be.
benton.org/node/185716 | Washington Post
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PBS CLAIMS FCC WANTS TO SHRINK ITS REACH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Public broadcasters are warning that some people could lose access to “Sesame Street,” “NewsHour” and other educational shows. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied the broadcasters’ request to ensure that every community has access to the free public TV after it redistributes the nation’s airwaves, according to the broadcasters. “We believe the Commission’s rejection of this long-standing policy is a grievous error that risks breaking faith with the nation’s commitment to universal service for non-commercial educational television,” the heads of PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Association of Public Television Stations said. The chiefs said they had “profound disappointment” in the decision, which rejects “one of public television’s most important policy goals” in the spectrum auction process. Under the Public Broadcasting Act, stations like PBS are supposed to reach every American in the country. For decades, the FCC has reserved chunks of the spectrum for non-commercial educational TV, but the public broadcasters accused it of ending that pattern with its new auction.
benton.org/node/185665 | Hill, The | B&C
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CONTENT
WIRELESS SUNDAY TICKET?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shalini Ramachandran, Thomas Gryta]
AT&T is floating the possibility of offering DirecTV's National Football League Sunday Ticket programming to all its wireless phone customers, as the phone giant seeks to convince Wall Street of the strategic value of its $49 billion planned acquisition of the satellite TV firm. AT&T management highlighted Sunday Ticket as a cornerstone of future product-bundle offerings it can market to its customers. AT&T executives even suggested it could exempt streaming of NFL games from counting toward subscribers' data limits. Any move by AT&T to extend the NFL offering to its customers would put it on a collision course with its biggest rival, Verizon Communications, which already has the exclusive smartphone streaming rights to football games for Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights. Verizon also can show Sunday afternoon games from customers' home markets on Verizon Wireless phones.
benton.org/node/185736 | Wall Street Journal
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STREAMING SERVICES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] The outbreak of free is being felt all over the economy, but music is an industry that has produced the soundtrack of contemporary American life. Artists are singing the blues about the crippling effects of streaming, and no one wants to be part of the day the music died. Music has been free for decades through the miracle of ad-supported radio, but streaming services feel different because I can listen to what I want, whenever I want. The implicit promise of radio has been that consumers will hear a song they love and buy it. But when I love something on Spotify, my response is to listen to it some more on Spotify. I could pay $10 a month for the premium version and have done so in the past, but for now, I’m sticking with the free service and put up with an occasional commercial. With scarcity now gone, songs are in the air, a mist we move through like so much department store perfume. We are no longer collecting music; it is collecting us on various platforms.
benton.org/node/185735 | New York Times
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SHOULD YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO SELL YOUR EBOOKS AND DIGITAL MUSIC?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff Roberts]
People can be surprised to discover that they don’t actually own the digital books and songs they buy, but that they instead rent them from large companies like Amazon and Apple. In response, Congress is asking whether copyright law should be changed to ensure people can resell or lend out their digital goods. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to heard testimony from publishing and technology executives as well as public interest groups over whether the government needs to update a long-standing rule known as “first sale” that lets people do what they want with works they lawfully purchased. The short answer, based on the upcoming hearing, appears to be no as members of Congress and those testifying appeared skeptical that people should have the same property rights in digital goods as they do in physical ones. But some suggested that it might be time for companies to do a better job of explaining to consumers about what they are allowed to do with the books and music they “buy.” The House Judiciary Committee, which is in the process of reviewing US copyright law, held a field hearing in New York on June 2 to get the views of publisher John Wiley, the New York Public Library, and tech CEO John Ossenmacher among others as to whether Congress should require a digital resale right. For practical purposes, a change in the law could mean giving consumers the right to sell their iTunes library, or to lend e-books bought on Barnes & Noble to a friend. The mood at the committee hearing, chaired by Rep Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), was skeptical, however. Several of the witnesses pointed out that requiring first sale for digital media, which is so easy to exchange and reproduce, would likely bring major harm to the primary market for books and music. Others noted that second hand digital files don’t really become “used” or become deteriorated like books and records.
benton.org/node/185651 | GigaOm
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AGENDA
FCC TO HOLD OPEN COMMISSION MEETING JUNE 13
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on the subjects listed below on June 13, 2014. The FCC will hear:
a presentation with an update on the efforts to transition circuit-switched networks to Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The presentation will include a status report on the voluntary experiments proposed by AT&T designed to assess how the transition to IP networks affects users.
a presentation with an update on the continuing efforts to launch new and diverse voices to the American public via increased access to Low Power FM radio stations.
The FCC will consider:
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by ADX Communications of Escambia and Pensacola seeking review of Media Bureau decisions granting assignment applications.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by The Curators of the University of Missouri seeking review of the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its rulemaking petition to reserve Channel 252C2 in Columbia, Missouri, for noncommercial educational use.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Smile FM seeking review of the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its application for a new noncommercial educational FM station at Yates, Michigan.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by TJN seeking review of a decision by the Media Bureau dismissing its application for a new noncommercial FM station at Gold Beach, Oregon.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Dr. Glenn W. Cherry and Charles W. Cherry, II, seeking review of several decisions by the Media Bureau.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Chicago Public Media seeking review of a decision by the Media Bureau granting a new noncommercial educational FM station in Antioch, Illinois to BVM Helping Hands.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by World Revivals, Inc., seeking review of a several decisions by the Media Bureau.
benton.org/node/185686 | Federal Communications Commission
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EU SAYS FIRMS LIKE GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK MUST MEET PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Julia Fioretti]
Companies based outside the European Union must meet Europe's data protection rules, ministers agreed, although governments remain divided over how to enforce them on companies operating across the bloc. The agreement to force Internet companies such as Google and Facebook to abide by EU-wide rules is a first step in a wider reform package to tighten privacy laws - an issue that has gained prominence following revelations of US spying in Europe. Under the new rules all EU countries will have the same data protection laws, meaning companies will no longer be able to challenge which laws apply to them in court.
benton.org/node/185694 | Reuters
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AIRBRUSHING THE EUROPEAN WEB
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] In reality, the so-called right to be forgotten is a misnomer. The information still exists at the newspaper website or other original source; it just can't be found easily. The good news is that the architecture of the global Internet makes it hard for governments to splinter the World Wide Web. Google will not apply the European court's rules beyond Europe. It will comply by creating censored search results to be displayed in Europe but will continue uncensored search results elsewhere in the world. It's not fashionable these days to note how American exceptionalism is reflected in the underlying architecture of the open Internet. In the US, free speech is second nature, with broad agreement that the more accurate information is available, the more knowledge spreads. The Web, built largely in the U.S., is "permissionless," requiring no licenses or government approvals. Open, uncensored communication is the default. Everyone in the world who uses the open Internet gets a taste of the First Amendment. Many others, including the European judges, instead believe information is for governments to control. The good news for Europeans seeking uncensored search results is that they are one click away from information asylum -- so long as the American Internet remains the land of the free.
benton.org/node/185728 | Wall Street Journal
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