December 2014

Complaint Says Ring Pop Campaign Violated Children’s Privacy

Ten advocacy groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the Topps Company, the maker of Ring Pops, accusing the company of violating a federal children’s privacy protection law. That law, called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or Coppa, requires operators of sites directed at children to notify parents and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information -- including photos and screen names that could be used to directly contact users online -- from children under 13.

Topps ran a contest called #RockThatRock. It invited users to post photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of “how they ‘rock’ their edible bling,” as one fan site put it, and to use the #RockThatRock hashtag. The winning photos were featured in a music video by R5, a pop-rock band popular with teenage and pre-teenage girls. Some of the #RockThatRock photos were posted on the brand’s Facebook and Twitter pages, along with contestants’ social media user names. Some of those photos depicted teenaged girls -- and a few who looked even younger -- in provocative poses, with their lips puckered around Ring Pop candies.

Wireless price war drives down costs for consumers, sales for carriers

Verizon Wireless once promised customers an unrivaled network with clear calls and fast downloads in exchange for expensive cellphone service. But no longer. With network improvements industrywide, a price war is breaking out.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. warned separately this week that their fourth-quarter profits probably would take a hit because they had to keep up with discount pricing in an increasingly competitive market. For the first time in recent years, industry analysts said, many customers have strong options. Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest carrier by customers, is feeling the heat because of revamped networks at Sprint and AT&T and an expanding list of unlimited packages at T-Mobile.

Chancellor Merkel Party Backs Digital Push Saying Set Fears Aside

Germany’s governing Christian Democratic Union backed seizing the digital economy’s “big opportunities” after Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the country can’t afford to fall behind.

Europe’s biggest economy needs nationwide broadband coverage by 2018, free wireless Internet in public spaces and the security of European data-privacy rules that “take people’s concerns seriously,” according to a CDU policy platform approved by delegates at a national convention in Cologne, Germany. The platform, which sets the CDU’s economic agenda for the years ahead, includes a pledge by Merkel’s governing coalition to link every corner of Germany to the Internet with at least 50 megabytes per second by 2018, a plan that studies say will cost at least 20 billion euros ($24.7 billion).

A Book for Now

[Commentary] It's decision time regarding the Internet. Will the dynamic and opportunity-creating technology of the Internet be put on the same downhill road of radio, TV, and cable? Or will we learn from the mistakes of our past, and choose a higher road? There is a great new book, just published, that I hope Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and his colleagues will read before they vote on “network neutrality” early in 2015. The book is America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform. Victor Pickard, one of the brightest young media scholars in the communications firmament, is its author. Compelling as history and timely as pending FCC decisions, this book shines a bright light onto both our communications past and its future. Do yourself a favor: put America’s Battle for Media Democracy on your holiday gift and reading lists.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner at the FCC from May 2001 to December 2011]

FirstNet Must Strengthen Management of Financial Disclosures and Monitoring of Contracts

On December 5, 2014, the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General released a final report on its review of First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) ethics and procurement-related matters in response to concerns raised by a FirstNet Board member in April 2013.

The report finds that FirstNet must strengthen management of financial disclosures and monitoring of contracts. In particular, the report found the Department of Commerce’s confidential and public disclosure monitoring procedures were inadequate, board members did not file timely public financial disclosure reports, the FirstNet Board operational procedures for monitoring potential conflicts of interest needs improvement, and FirstNet contracting practices lacked transparent award competition, sufficient oversight of hiring, adequate monitoring, and procedures to prevent payment of erroneous costs.

Cities team up to figure out broadband

There is a club of US mayors fixated on improving the way broadband Internet works in their cities. And, while it's new, it's growing.

Called Next Century Cities, the group added Medina County (OH) and now numbers 50 cities (and the occasional county). That makes 50 municipalities now turning their attention to understanding how to best bring broadband to their citizens, whether that's figuring out how to build out Internet connections to historic buildings or passing bonds to pay for new fiber networks. Though the group is in its infancy, its early expansion is a signal of what seems to be a shift in the way Americans are thinking about high-speed Internet access: the idea that cities will the battlegrounds for the playing out of the broadband debates. The group has a handful of priorities, including framing broadband as a nonpartisan issue and emphasizing that communities deserve more than one or two choices of Internet providers. But perhaps chief among its ambitions is convincing the public that broadband is "necessary infrastructure," in the same way roads and bridges and the water supply are.

Net neutrality's cost to consumers pegged at $17B -- or zero

[Commentary] How much (if at all) will the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reclassify broadband under Title II cost consumers? Depending on who you ask, the answer is that Title II will be ruinously expensive -- or will have little financial impact at all.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai warned that consumers' monthly Internet bills are set to soar, and cost $17 billion in new fees. [Not each bill – that would be some sort of record.] But, like so much else in the pitched debate over network neutrality, the $17 billion number may have been ginned up for political purposes. According to Free Press, the figure represents a misleading worst-case scenario that will never come to pass. As the group points out, reclassification does not appear to require any new consumer fees. Such fees, it they do appear, will instead be the result of a separate set of decisions by the FCC and various governments. The bottom line is that broadband users could see new fees and taxes on their Internet bills in coming years, but that’s hardly a sure thing -- and, more importantly, the outcome will have little to do with whether or not we have net neutrality.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met privately with Jesse Jackson

Apple CEO Tim Cook met privately with Rev. Jesse Jackson recently. "I am impressed with him and the conversation," Rev Jackson said. "He has a real vision for Apple and he sees the value in inclusiveness."

Execs Share AT&T Vs. Verizon Mobile Video Strategies

AT&T seems to view mobile video primarily as an extension to traditional linear video programming, while Verizon appears more interested in developing totally new offerings that are independent of traditional video subscriptions.

AT&T sees an opportunity to differentiate its mobile video offerings based on its planned merger with DirecTV and a unique combination of network assets. The carrier is building a “video-centric” network and will move to multicast wireless distribution “as the ecosystem develops.” Verizon downplayed the idea of extending linear video subscriptions to mobile devices, instead pointing to their deal with the National Football League as an example of “the kind of content deal we’re looking for.”

How political campaigns use Twitter to shape media coverage

[Commentary] Communications staffers’ goals are shifting away from winning individual 24-hour news cycles, and toward domination of shorter windows of time on social media, especially Twitter. Staffers interviewed described how well-timed and contextually appropriate tweets could manipulate “how journalists saw and understood the political context and the frames they used in their coverage.”

Benton

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