December 2014

FCC Seeks More Input On Responsibility For Closed Captioning

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking additional comment on how it should proceed if it decides to extend some of the responsibility for complying with closed captioning beyond broadcasters and TV stations to the programming's producers.

On December 15, the FCC issued a second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking asking that, if it does shift some of the burden for compliance to programmers, should the FCC require video programmers to provide contact information for purposes of captioning complaints, as VPD's (video program distributors) and stations must do? And if the FCC requires that, would VPD's still be required to file independent certifications of caption quality.

Survey: Most support encrypted cellphones

The majority of voters in a new survey believe companies like Apple and Google are right to encrypt their devices, preventing the government from gaining access to data stored on them.

According to a new poll of 993 likely presidential voters, 56 percent said people have a right to privacy and oppose a "backdoor" for government to collect information. Another 44 percent said the companies are wrong, asserting the encryption takes away an essential tool for law enforcement. Two research firms -- SKD Knickerbocker and Benenson Strategy Group -- conducted the survey as a joint project, the Beyond the Beltway Insight Initiative.

Rep Waxman's parting words: 'We need government'

Outgoing Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) said that his decades in office should be remembered as proof that government can make a difference. “My message is government can make a difference,” he said. “We need government...we need government to act in the interest of the public.” Rep Waxman, who is stepping down from Congress after serving since 1974, urged the Federal Communications Commission to enact tough rules on network neutrality that would prevent Internet providers from slowing or blocking people’s access to websites.

Rep Waxman: Web fight doesn't have to kill telecom law update

Concerns over network neutrality don’t need to torpedo Congress’s work on updating the nation’s telecommunications laws, Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) said. He added that that new Web rules “would be a real sticking point” for Congress but won’t necessarily prevent action on other areas. “There are other issues, and there can be a rewrite of the act without that being resolved,” Rep Waxman said, “but perhaps, even then, it could be resolved, given the fact that we start with the status quo of whatever the Federal Communications Commission will resolve on a majority basis.”

New FTC Tech Chief Wants to Get His Hands Dirty with Code

[Commentary] Ashkan Soltani is about a month into his latest and perhaps most high-profile role in a long line of data privacy and technology consulting gigs: Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Trade Commission.

"I plan to work on expanding the agency's tech capacity, or in other words, bringing on more geeks and better tools," he said. In addition to data security issues as they relate to the consumer protection oversight that the FTC is known for, a key focus he expects to emphasize is what he calls "algorithmic transparency." The idea is for the FTC to have better insight into how companies such as ecommerce, travel and financial services firms feed web behavior, location, demographic and other data into algorithms that determine variable prices, something the FTC and consumer advocates worry could result in discrimination.

Aaron Sorkin is right. Women don't get as many opportunities in Hollywood

[Commentary] What screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is talking about in his leaked correspondence to the New York Times' Maureen Dowd -- albeit clumsily -- isn't that women don't have acting ability. He's saying they don't have the opportunities men have in Hollywood. Which is true! Roles for women in Hollywood often are less impressive than roles for men, largely because studio executives continue to believe people won't go to see movies where women are the sole leads, all evidence to the contrary.

Teachers' needs drive a growing online marketplace

[Commentary] Yes, schools and school districts buy the bulk of K-12 educational materials, an estimated $8.3 billion a year. A growing slice of that pie, currently worth about $900 million, is the "supplementary digital materials market," which consists of all types of online or downloadable handouts, curricula, educational games and worksheets. And in 2014, 10 percent of that spending will happen on a single website: Teachers Pay Teachers. And most of that will come from teachers, themselves. Unlike publishing behemoths like Scholastic and Pearson Education, Teachers Pay Teachers doesn’t actually make anything. Instead, it’s an online marketplace for teachers hawking their own wares, kind of like a pedagogical Etsy. “It’s teachers who don’t make a lot of money reaching into their own pocket and saying, ‘For this great thing that another teacher made, I’m happy to spend my coffee money,’” says Teachers Pay Teachers CEO Adam Freed. “And, in aggregate, there’s a lot of coffee money out there.” And it’s growing fast -- thanks, in part, to increasing pressures on the teaching profession.

T-Mobile Allows Subscribers to Hold on to Unused Mobile Data

T-Mobile USA will allow customers to roll their unused mobile Internet data into the next month’s billing.

Or, as John Legere, the company’s chief executive, put it in a video broadcast: “What you don’t use, you won’t lose.” T-Mobile customers will receive 10 gigabytes in their stash of data for free. You will lose unused data, however, if you roll it over and don’t use it after a year. Customers also have to first use up their 10 gigabytes before over the use of rollover data begins.

The announcement is the first of its kind for the American wireless industry.

T-Mobile pushes LTE to the outskirts of 4 cities

T-Mobile revealed that its new LTE network on the 700 MHz band is now live in and outside of Cleveland (OH), Colorado Springs (CO), Minneapolis (MN) and Washington (DC).

T-Mobile has offered LTE services in those cities since 2013, but by tapping into new 700 MHz frequencies it bought from Verizon, it’s been able to create a higher-coverage, better-performing network. T-Mobile’s main LTE network is up in the 1700 MHz/2100 MHz band, but lower bands can propagate further, letting signals punch through walls and travel further in suburban and rural areas.

Apple Wins iPod Antitrust Trial

A jury ruled in favor of Apple in a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of violating antitrust laws by suppressing competition for its iPod music players. After deliberating for only about three hours, an eight-person jury in US District Court in Oakland (CA) found that Apple’s iTunes 7.0 was a genuine product improvement, and therefore didn't violate antitrust laws. The decision was unanimous.

Benton

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