August 2014

"I personally, the position of my Administration, as well as a lot of the companies here, is that you don’t want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the Internet is to different users. "
- President Barack Obama

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2014

ACM & NAMAC Joint National Conference and Expo http://benton.org/calendar/2014-08-06/

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   President Obama strikes a populist tone on net neutrality
   Tenth Broadband Progress Notice of Inquiry - public notice
   FCC Sec. 706 NOI Draws Advocacy Group Praise [links to web]
   FCC Makes Open Internet Comments More Accessible to Public - press release
   US Map Shows More Community Owned Broadband Networks Than Expected
   The competition for high-speed fiber optic Internet is escalating in 13 cities [links to web]
   Illinois Completes 55-County Broadband Project

OWNERSHIP
   New Strategy as Tech Giants Transform Into Conglomerates
   Sprint Abandoning Pursuit of T-Mobile [links to web]
   SoftBank’s Son has his work cut out after rare defeat with Sprint - analysis [links to web]
   T-Mobile US Rejects Iliad's Request For Information [links to web]
   Deutsche Telekom Shunning US Offers Tests T-Mobile’s Viability [links to web]
   Murdoch’s Fox Withdraws Time Warner Takeover Offer
   Newspapers Press On, On Their Own
   Gannett to Spin Off Its Publishing Business
   Gannett Split Indicative Of New Media Order [links to web]
   LIN, Media General Prep For Station Spinoffs [links to web]
   Communications Workers of America calls for broadcaster sharing disclosures [links to web]
   Apple, Samsung Call Patent Truce Outside US
   Facebook’s Gateway Drug - op-ed

TELEVISION
   Dish Gets Closer to a Web TV Launch With A&E Deal [links to web]
   Why TV Still Looks Pretty Good to Big Media - analysis [links to web]
   Surprise: TV networks are already unbundling from cable [links to web]
   Millennial’s Continue To Defect From Summer Broadcast TV -- To the Tune of 20% [links to web]

EDUCATION
   What’s in the E-rate Order? A Request for More Input and Data - Kevin Taglang analysis

DIVERSITY
   The forces that lie behind the Silicon Valley workforce numbers - analysis
   Even In A “Good Year,” Film Diversity Stays Stable - press release
   FCC's Friends and Family Plan - editorial

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   Russian Gang Amasses Over a Billion Internet Passwords
   How to Keep Data Out of Hackers’ Hands [links to web]
   Privacy groups call for ‘strong and resonant’ data law [links to web]
   Public Knowledge, Privacy Groups Urge Obama Administration To Preserve Existing Telecommunications - press release [links to web]
   White House Privacy Reports Challenge Privacy Bill of Rights - Tech Policy Institute press release [links to web]
   What You Can Do About Facebook Tracking [links to web]

ADVERTISING
   TV Stations to Generate $3B in Digital Ad [links to web]
   Quantcast Links Web and Mobile App Data for Ad Targeting [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   How the Smartphone Ushered In a Golden Age of Journalism [links to web]

HEALTH
   Online medical records may soon become a reality in California [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Wikipedia’s first transparency report shows it doesn’t give up much to the government [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Wikipedia link to be hidden in Google under 'right to be forgotten' law [links to web]
   UK judge says ‘freedom of information’ means choice of digital file format [links to web]
   Australian government reveals mandatory data retention plans [links to web]
   Russia: Siberian autonomy web page shut down [links to web]
   Xiaomi Tops Chinese Smartphone Market [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

PRESIDENT OBAMA ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
“One of the issues around net neutrality is whether you are creating different rates or charges for different content providers. That's the big controversy here. So you have big, wealthy media companies who might be willing to pay more and also charge more for spectrum, more bandwidth on the Internet so they can stream movies faster. I personally, the position of my administration, as well as a lot of the companies here, is that you don’t want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the Internet is to different users. You want to leave it open so the next Google and the next Facebook can succeed,” said President Barack Obama. What President Obama seems to be opposing is the idea of paid prioritization, or the notion that companies should be able to pay for better, smoother access to consumers. The remarks also seem to contrast with the Federal Communications Commission's current proposal on net neutrality, which would tacitly allow for such commercial deals so long as the agency didn't consider them "commercially unreasonable." On the other hand, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has on occasion come out explicitly against Internet fast lanes, saying that paid prioritization in his view would be commercially unreasonable. While the friction isn't immediately obvious in the response, President Obama may just have let slip some frustration.
benton.org/node/198706 | Washington Post | The Hill | Free Press
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TENTH BROADBAND PROGRESS NOTICE OF INQUIRY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
This Federal Communications Commission inquiry concerns the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all US-Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, and possible steps to accelerate such deployment. The FCC starts anew by analyzing current data and seeking information that will enable the FCC to conduct an updated analysis for purposes of its next report. In particular, the FCC seeks comment on the benchmarks to use to define “advanced telecommunications capability,” to explore whether the agency should establish separate benchmarks for fixed and mobile services, which data is reliable for measuring broadband, whether and how to take into account differences in broadband deployment, particularly between urban areas versus non-urban and Tribal areas, and other issues.
benton.org/node/198662 | Federal Communications Commission | Chairman Wheeler | Commissioner Pai | Commissioner O’Rielly
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FCC MAKES OPEN INTERNET COMMENTS MORE ACCESSIBLE TO PUBLIC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
As of August 4, over 1.1 million comments were filed in the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet docket. Every comment will be reviewed as part of the official record of this proceeding. Because of the sheer number of comments and the great public interest in what they say, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has asked the FCC IT team to make the comments available to the public in a series of six XML files, totaling over 1.4 GB of data -- approximately two and half times the amount of plain-text data embodied in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The release of the comments as Open Data in this machine-readable format will allow researchers, journalists and others to analyze and create visualizations of the data so that the public and the FCC can discuss and learn from the comments we’ve received.
benton.org/node/198645 | Federal Communications Commission | The Hill | B&C
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US MAP SHOWS MORE COMMUNITY OWNED BROADBAND NETWORKS THAN EXPECTED
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Sarah Rich]
In the United States, more than 100 cities have publicly-owned broadband networks, according to a comprehensive map that plots US cities with publicly owned citywide wired networks. Developed by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit economic and community development consultancy that advocates for community broadband, the map is the first of its kind to track community owned broadband access nationwide. The map shows communities that offer fiber-to-the-home networks on a citywide basis to residents and businesses and locally owned government cable networks.
benton.org/node/198644 | Government Technology | see the map
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ILLINOIS COMPLETES 55-COUNTY BROADBAND PROJECT
[SOURCE: McClatchy News Service, AUTHOR: Lenore Sobota]
A nearly $100 million, four-year project to connect 55 counties to a high-speed broadband network has been a boon to education, public safety and the economy, Gov Pat Quinn (D-IL) said. “This is a little like building the interstate highway system when I was growing up,” Gov Quinn said. “Now we have to have an information superhighway system.” Overall, more than 1,000 new miles of high-speed fiber-optic broadband infrastructure was installed as part of the project, which was financed by $62 million in federal broadband stimulus funds, $24 million from the state's Illinois Jobs Now! capital program and nearly $10 million in other university, local government and private resources.
benton.org/node/198642 | McClatchy News Service | press release
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OWNERSHIP

TECH GIANTS INTO CONGLOMERATES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steven Davidoff Solomon]
Facebook, Google and other Internet titans have been busy transforming themselves into web conglomerates, making fortunes for the venture capital industry. But is it good for everyone else? The deep pockets and willing buyers among Google and the like have changed the venture capital strategy. Now, the idea is to move into a hot space -- social media! -- and develop a product that the web conglomerates will buy at prices never before seen in private deals. The goal is no longer building a business but to be in the orbit of these tech giants. Or to put it another way, to win the lottery.
benton.org/node/198698 | New York Times
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MURDOCH’S FOX WITHDRAWS TIME WARNER TAKEOVER OFFER
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jeffrey McCracken, Anousha Sakoui]
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox withdrew its unsolicited takeover offer of $75 billion for Time Warner, giving up after the attempt to reshape the media industry sent Fox shares tumbling and Time Warner’s board refused to engage in talks.
benton.org/node/198657 | Bloomberg | AdWeek
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NEWSPAPERS ON THEIR OWN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Keach Hagey, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg]
The TV-and-publishing conglomerate is an endangered species. A number of companies have either separated or agreed to separate their faster-growing television and entertainment businesses from their slower-growing publishing businesses. The advantages for the broadcast sides of these splits are obvious. Freed from the slower growth and regulatory constraints of the newspaper business -- including the ban against owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market -- broadcasters can fetch a higher price for their stock and use the increased cash flow to fund more station acquisitions. Broadcasters need scale as they have become increasingly reliant on the fees they extract from pay-TV distributors. The wave of spin-offs will create a group of new pure play newspaper companies, raising the possibility of a consolidation in the newspaper industry. But it is less clear that newspapers' consolidation can enjoy the same benefits as broadcasters'.
benton.org/node/198696 | Wall Street Journal
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GANNETT TO SPIN OFF ITS PUBLISHING BUSINESS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Mae Anderson, Michelle Chapman]
Gannett is splitting its broadcast and publishing business in two, joining other major media players in allowing fast growing TV and digital operations to operate more freely and not be weighed down by the declining newspaper business. Gannett also announced that it would take full ownership of Cars.com for $1.8 billion. The publishing company will house USA Today as well as 81 local US daily publications and Newsquest, a regional community news provider in the UK.
benton.org/node/198618 | Associated Press | Read Gannett press release | Politico | USAToday | B&C | NPR | The Wrap
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APPLE, SAMSUNG TRUCE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daisuke Wakabayashi]
Samsung and Apple agreed to dismiss all patent disputes between them in courts outside the US, marking an easing of tensions between the bitter rivals of the smartphone wars. The agreement affects disputes in eight countries. "Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States," the companies said in a joint statement. "This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in US courts."
benton.org/node/198687 | Wall Street Journal | NY Times | FT
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FACEBOOK’S GATEWAY DRUG
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Evgeny Morozov]
[Commentary] Silicon Valley was once content to dominate the tech world. But recently, its leading companies have ventured deep into areas well outside its traditional bailiwick, most notably international development -- promising to transform a field once dominated by national governments and international institutions into a permanent playground of hackathons and app-fueled disruption. The goal of providing universal, affordable Internet access is a laudatory one. But there’s more to the nonprofit-tinged “dot.org” agenda than meets the eye, and its subtext is indicative of a bigger problem with Silicon Valley “solutionism” -- the belief that the tech industry could and should solve all of life’s problems. [Morozov is the author of “To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism.”]
benton.org/node/198684 | New York Times
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EDUCATION

WHAT’S IN THE E-RATE ORDER? A REQUEST FOR MORE INPUT AND DATA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
Although the Federal Communications Commission adopted many changes to the E-rate program on July 11, 2014, the FCC also launched a new proceeding -- a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking -- seeking public comment on additional issues. Specifically, the FCC seeks input on the future funding needs of the E-rate program; discrete issues that may further simplify the administration of the E-rate program; promoting cost-effective purchasing through multi-year contracts and consortium purchasing; and how best to calculate the amount of funding eligible libraries need in order to purchase Wi-Fi networks and other internal connections.
http://benton.org/node/198629
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

RUSSIAN GANG AMASSES OVER A BILLION INTERNET PASSWORDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicole Perlroth, David Gelles]
A Russian crime ring has amassed the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, including 1.2 billion username and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses, security researchers say. The records, discovered by Hold Security include confidential material gathered from 420,000 websites, ranging from household names to small Internet sites.
benton.org/node/198666 | New York Times | NPR
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DIVERSITY

THE FORCES BEHIND SILICON VALLEY WORKFORCE NUMBERS
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Michelle Quinn]
[Commentary] Do the similar demographic profiles at Silicon Valley firms mean that no one company is actively discriminating against a certain group? Yes, say diversity experts. There's also something to the notion that Silicon Valley is actually one big company with a Google division, a Facebook division, the startup department and so on. That may contribute to the similar workforce demographics. What appears to be at work here is more subtle, but just as damaging as straightforward bias. "People move frequently between companies, and attitudes, bias, etc., transfer easily," said Tracy Chou, a software engineer at Pinterest who has been a leading voice in the effort to push tech firms to disclose their demographics. If overt discrimination isn't happening, is the problem in the talent pipeline? In other words, are companies hiring the workers they do because those are the workers trained for those jobs? While companies don't have a direct role in the education system, they do bear responsibility for hiring and promoting decisions. And what often happens, diversity experts say, is what's called "mirroring" -- companies started by white men tend to hire and promote people who look and act like themselves -- meaning more white men. The bias can begin even at the job referral stage.
benton.org/node/198700 | San Jose Mercury News
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EVEN IN A “GOOD YEAR,” FILM DIVERSITY STAYS STABLE
[SOURCE: University of Southern California, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg released a study demonstrating that diversity on screen falls far below that of the US population. The study found that individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups comprise just over a quarter (26%) of all speaking characters. Individuals from all underrepresented groups face a similar plight in animated films. Across three years examined (2007, 2010, 2013), less than one-eighth of characters in big-screen films were from any underrepresented group. The high occurred in 2013 when 12.4% of characters were from diverse backgrounds, while in 2007, 8.1% of speaking characters were from underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups. 2010 was the worst year, when a mere 1.5% of characters reflected any racial and/or ethnic diversity.
benton.org/node/198659 | University of Southern California | Reuters
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FCC’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY PLAN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins Jr]
[Commentary] Racial spoils are making a comeback at the Federal Communications Commission after being put mostly to rest in an important 2006 reform. The latest sign is a quiet, nonpublic vote by Chairman Tom Wheeler and his two fellow Democrats to approve a waiver for minority entrepreneur David Grain, allowing him a 25% discount in this fall's spectrum auction -- a nice windfall. Grain already owns several spectrum licenses acquired as part of a swap between AT&T and Verizon -- which he leases back to AT&T and Verizon. This alone should have made him ineligible for bidding credits. Credits aren't supposed to be available to those who are looking merely to flip spectrum for easy profits. Grain’s windfall is coming straight from the taxpayer's pocket. The episode also adds a perverse luster to FCC Chairman Wheeler's record of finding new ways to bring unflattering attention to his agency. He came to his job with rare technological and business chops, and knowing his industry's Washington landscape inside-out. Like a lot of appointees who look good on paper, he turns out to be a clumsy politician whose clumsiness now threatens to metastasize into a full-blown scandal.
benton.org/node/198703 | Wall Street Journal
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