September 12, 2014 (US threatened Yahoo)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2014
Regulating the evolving broadband ecosystem and TPRC http://benton.org/calendar/2014-09-12/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data
Privacy advocates, tech companies nudge Congress to protect ‘abandoned’ e-mails [links to web]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
What’s really driving cyberattacks against retailers
Sens Rockefeller and McCaskill: Apple, Home Depot hacks should prompt new laws [links to web]
Rep Cummings wants hearing on Home Depot hack [links to web]
Apple's new products ratchet up need for privacy protections - San Jose Mercury News editorial [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Net Slowdowners Say Protest Generated 722,364 FCC Comments
An Additional Option for Filing Open Internet Comments - press release
Freedom Against Internet Restrictions: A new name for net neutrality?
BitTorrent to ISPs: Pay us and our users to stay in the “slow lane”
CTIA chief lashes back at FCC chair on network neutrality
AT&T, SoftBank, T-Mobile execs push for wireless carve-out in network neutrality guidelines [links to web]
The Art of the Possible - speech
NTIA Brings a Comprehensive Approach to Community Broadband - press release [links to web]
The Senate Still Wants to Tax the Net - WSJ editorial [links to web]
UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Members of Congress seek flexibility in FCC's rural broadband requirements
Proposed Fourth Quarter 2014 Universal Service Contribution Factor (16.1%) - public notice [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Wi-Fi Should Scare the Hell out of Verizon and AT&T
The internet is getting too big for just one kind of Wi-Fi [links to web]
Comcast, Liberty Global Forge A Wi-Fi Connection [links to web]
C Spire's Meena: Collapse of Sprint/T-Mobile deal set back US wireless competition [links to web]
Scientists used smartphones to test morality in the real world [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
AT&T’s DirecTV Deal Draws Antitrust Probe by States
TELEVISION
How 'A La Carte' TV Legislation Died in the Senate
Study: Intent to Cut Cable Cord Rises [links to web]
CONTENT
California law says companies can’t punish customers who post negative reviews [links to web]
Pandora Signs Music Rights Deal With BMG [links to web]
MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
Sen Cruz: 'SNL' Threatened by Campaign Finance Amendment
Republicans Biggest Spenders on Primary Electioneering Ads [links to web]
How politicians change voters' minds [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
Senate Confirms Three Nominees to the CPB Board of Directors - press release [links to web]
Comcast Hires TWC Exec to Oversee Transaction Compliance [links to web]
COMPANY NEWS
Verizon's McAdam: We set a high bar for further FiOS expansions [links to web]
Verizon CEO Says Its Internet TV Service Will Be Up By Mid-2015 And Will Include “Custom Channels” [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
House passes 'E-labeling' bill [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US THREATENED YAHOO
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Craig Timberg]
The US government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user data that the company believed was unconstitutional, according to court documents that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency’s controversial PRISM program. The documents, roughly 1,500 pages worth, outline a secret and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle by Yahoo to resist the government’s demands. The company’s loss required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a program that gave the National Security Agency extensive access to records of online communications by users of Yahoo and other US-based technology firms. The ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review became a key -- but almost entirely secret -- moment in the development of PRISM, helping government officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been tested in the courts and found constitutionally sound.
benton.org/headlines/us-threatened-massive-fine-force-yahoo-release-data | Washington Post | The Hill
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
RETAIL CYBERATTACKS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
Security researchers say they've uncovered links to commentary that accuses the United States of fomenting unrest around the world in the code of the malware believed to have been used in a string of data breaches at US retail stores over the past year, including a potentially massive breach at Home Depot. One of the linked images that cybersecurity firm Trend Micro discovered among the latest versions of the BlackPOS malware shows a matchbox with the American flag on it next to Molotov cocktails emblazoned with the flags of Syria, Libya, Egypt and Ukraine. Krebs on Security's Brian Krebs, who first broke the Home Depot breach story, has reported that BlackPOS infected at least some of the registers involved in the Home Depot hack. But experts say those links don't necessarily mean that ideology was the driving force behind the hacks. Instead, the key motivator was likely cold, hard cash.
benton.org/headlines/whats-really-driving-cyberattacks-against-retailers | Washington Post
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
SLOWDOWN GENERATED MORE COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Organizers of the symbolic Internet Slowdown campaign claim that its protest and call for action had generated 722,364 network neutrality comments to the Federal Communications Commission. The docket already boasted more than a million comments. The official deadline for comments is Sept. 15, though the FCC actually accepts them after. According to organizers, which included Demand Progress, Engine Advocacy, Fight for the Future and the Free Press Action Fund, the campaign also generated over 2 million e-mails to Congress and almost 300,000 phone calls. More than 10,000 Web sites participated, they said, which generally meant posting a copy of a loading icon endlessly trying to load, with a message about Internet fast and slow lanes and a click through to ways to take action by contacting the FCC or Congress. benton.org/headlines/net-slowdowners-say-protest-generated-722364-fcc-comments | Multichannel News
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OPEN INTERNET COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: David Bray]
The Federal Communications Commission is making available a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file for bulk upload of comments given the exceptional public interest in the Open Internet proceeding. All comments will be received and recorded through the same process we are applying for the openinternet@fcc.gov emails.
benton.org/headlines/additional-option-filing-open-internet-comments | Federal Communications Commission
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FAIR
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Instead of “net neutrality,” Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wants people to refer to “Freedom Against Internet Restrictions (FAIR)” after a contest she launched on Reddit to develop a new name. Of the more than 3,600 different entries and comments, FAIR was the top entrant, with 1,146 votes.
benton.org/headlines/freedom-against-internet-restrictions-new-name-net-neutrality | Hill, The
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BITTORRENT AND NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker doesn't want Internet service providers to charge Web services for prioritized access to consumers -- "fast lanes" as described in the debate over proposed network neutrality regulations. Instead, Klinker is (satirically) suggesting the opposite: that ISPs should pay companies and users to remain in a "slow lane." With fast lanes, money would flow "from your favorite websites to the ISPs, the very same companies you already pay to deliver Internet service to your home," he wrote. "In this model, the ISPs get paid twice, both to provide their service and regulate heavy-use companies, like Netflix." Klinker criticized arguments that ISPs are entitled to collect premiums to make sure that heavy network users "pay their fair share" and don't cause congestion for others. "These are very familiar arguments, as they were used to justify the most notable violation of Network Neutrality in recent memory: the blocking of BitTorrent traffic by Comcast in 2007 and 2008," he wrote.
benton.org/headlines/bittorrent-isps-pay-us-and-our-users-stay-slow-lane | Ars Technica
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BAKER ANSWERS WHEELER
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Stephen Lawson]
CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker sharply disagreed with comments by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler about how the mobile Internet should be regulated. He suggested that wired and wireless networks should be regulated the same way under the next set of Open Internet rules. The growth of mobile networks since 2010 proves that specialized rules are best, Baker said. “The growth of smartphones and LTE -- and the constant change in our ecosystem -- is the clearest evidence we should retain a mobile-specific approach because it has worked so well for consumers,” Baker said. Baker also blamed wireline service providers for pushing a single set of rules. “Now, I understand that rival platforms want the FCC to put its thumb on LTE, because LTE is becoming -- and becoming is the key word -- more robust and more dynamic,” Baker said. “If I were a wired company, I would be nervous about how bright our future is, too, if the FCC keeps the right rules.”
benton.org/headlines/ctia-chief-lashes-back-fcc-chair-network-neutrality | IDG News Service
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THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Gigi Sohn]
For folks like me who have been toiling to open up closed networks to the public for decades, what makes the Internet so earth shattering is that it turns our old system of command and control communications networks on its head. For the first time, rather than begging for scraps of access from the largest media companies, it is possible to put the power of those networks into the hands of ordinary people, so that they can speak and be heard without permission. But notice that I used the word “possible,” which ties nicely into the theme of this meeting -- “The Art of the Possible and the Future of Broadband in America’s Future.” While the Internet makes possible the ability for everyone, and not just the most powerful among us, to speak to millions unfiltered, we are still much too far from that goal.
benton.org/headlines/art-possible | Federal Communications Commission
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UNIVERSAL SERVICE
RURAL BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
Over 40 members of Congress have asked the Federal Communications Commission to give service providers the flexibility they need to deploy high-speed broadband connections to more hard-to-reach communities under the upcoming Connect America Funding II (CAF II) program. The call for action was a bipartisan effort that included members of both the Republican and Democratic parties -- including eight US Senators representing 18 states in rural and urban areas. One of the key issues amongst lawmakers and potential beneficiaries of the CAF II program funds is the FCC's proposal to change the threshold of what is broadband from 4 to 10 Mbps. These groups, while seeing the utility in 10 Mbps and higher speeds, are concerned that they won't have enough time to build network facilities that will support such speeds.
benton.org/headlines/members-congress-seek-flexibility-fccs-rural-broadband-requirements | Fierce
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
WI-FI AND WIRELESS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Joshua Brustein]
A major threat looms over wireless carriers that have invested billions in lightning-fast cellular networks: the humble Wi-Fi router. Well more than half of the online activity produced by smartphone users happens over Wi-Fi, according to newly released data from Adobe Systems. Adobe’s research found that Wi-Fi had already surpassed Web browsing via cellular networks by early 2013. As customers have increased their data consumption, companies like AT&T have been happy to offload some portion of that activity to Wi-Fi networks as a way to clear up the cell networks. “But there’s a flavor of too much of a good thing here, where Wi-Fi offloads start to really impinge on the prospects of monetizing all that additional usage,” says industry analyst Craig Moffett. “All the carriers have put their eggs in the basket of incremental usage as the source of revenue growth. It isn’t going according to plan.”
benton.org/headlines/wi-fi-should-scare-hell-out-verizon-and-att | Bloomberg
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OWNERSHIP
STATES REVIEW AT&T-DIRECTV
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: David McLaughlin, Christie Smythe]
A group of state attorneys general is examining whether AT&T’s proposed takeover of satellite-television provider DirecTV violates antitrust laws, the Florida Attorney General’s Office said. State attorneys general were already working with the US Justice Department’s antitrust division in a review of Comcast’s purchase of Time Warner Cable. Those states included Florida, Connecticut, Maryland and Ohio. The states’ investigation expands regulatory scrutiny of AT&T’s $48.5 billion deal for DirecTV, which would combine the nation’s largest satellite-TV company with AT&T’s existing packages of wireless, phone and high-speed Internet service. The states’ examination is in addition to reviews by the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.
benton.org/headlines/atts-directv-deal-draws-antitrust-probe-states | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION
HOW A LA CARTE LEGISLATION DIED
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Brendon Sasso]
Sens Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and John Thune (R-SD) had planned a committee vote on their "Local Choice" proposal, but they were forced to pull the legislation due to opposition from other committee members. "It probably would've been a tough vote, only because a lot of our guys had not had a lot of time to digest and process it," Sen Thune, the top Republican on the committee, admitted. The proposal wouldn't have affected cable channels like ESPN, but it would have required broadcast networks like Fox, NBC, and CBS to set individual prices for their channels. Consumers could then choose which ones they wanted to pay for in an "a la carte" pricing system instead of the channels being part of larger bundles. Although Sen Thune admitted "this is probably not the time" for his proposal, he argued that the debate over the past few weeks on the issue "sets the stage for a fuller and broader discussion next year."
benton.org/headlines/how-la-carte-tv-legislation-died-senate | National Journal
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MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the Senate floor with photos of Dana Carvey, Tina Fey and others from Saturday Night Live to take issue with the proposed Constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to re-regulate campaign finances in the wake of the Supreme Court Citizens United decision. Sen Cruz said that with all the issues the Senate could be dealing with, it was discussing an amendment that "would repeal the free speech provisions of the First Amendment." He said that was not hyperbole. He came prepared with a copy of the First Amendment with the words "freedom of speech" and "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" parts drawn with a red line. He said the amendment would give the government "a blanket license to abridge political speech and that citizen speech rights were being used for partisan warfare." He called it the most radical proposal being brought up in the time he has served and that if it were to pas s-- which is highly unlikely -- the effects would be breathtaking.
benton.org/headlines/sen-cruz-snl-threatened-campaign-finance-amendment | Broadcasting&Cable | video
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