February 2015

Google Goes After Explicit Material on Blogger

Google is giving users of its blogging software a month to clean up sexually explicit content or lose most of their audience. The ban in Blogger on “sexually explicit or graphic nude images” -- basically adult content such as porn -- takes effect March 23, at which point any blogs in violation will be converted to a private status, Google said. That means the blog will be visible only by the administrator and any person given permission to view it. Google said it will still allow nudity on Blogger -- as long as the material has artistic, educational or scientific benefits. Blog owners can proactively set a blog to private status, or shut down the blog and take the content somewhere else. New blogs created after March 23 could be taken down if Google finds the content in violation of its policies. Those policies say Blogger bases itself on freedom of expression, but within boundaries that are legal or intended to “enhance the service as a whole.”

How to get the best of cable TV without the cost

[Commentary] In my continued quest to save you time and money, I will show you how to cut cable, get live TV (and sports) and also get a Free Amazon Fire TV stick. Below you'll find my three easy steps to cut cable and still enjoy many of your favorite shows and networks for free. Sling TV or a service like Hulu is obviously not perfect for everyone but if you'd like to pay less for live television, Sling TV is the first product of its kind that makes a new wave of cord-cutting possible for the masses. There is no contract and you can cancel at any time.

Get a great HD Antenna, so you can still watch this TV station.
Cut your cable. Consider a service like Sling TV. You can try a 7 week trial or pre-pay three months and GET A FREE FIRE TV STICK so you can watch Sling TV on an HDMI-Equipped TV Set as well as on your Apple and Android Tablets / Smart Phones.
If you would prefer to pay less than $19.99 per month and don't mind watching most major TV shows a day after they air, consider Hulu Plus which is $7.99 per month and can be used on more than one device at a time (unlike Sling TV). Amazon Prime is another good way to go if you're a movie buff and want other perks like free music, books and kindle books for around $8 per month.

Rep. Ted Poe: ISIS shouldn't have access to Twitter

Rep Red Poe (R-TX) suggested that terrorist groups like the Islamic State should be barred from using social media sites like Twitter to spread their message. Rep Poe cited recent examples of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, posting videos of murdered prisoners on Twitter. Rep Poe argued that the American-owned company is essentially giving terrorist groups a free platform to reach millions of people. "Federal law prohibits giving aid or helping a designated foreign terrorist organization. These FTOs use Twitter, an American company, as a tool and no one is stopping them," Rep Poe said in a House floor speech. "Why are American companies and the US government allowing social media platforms to be hijacked by terrorists?"

Rep Poe called on Twitter to institute a new policy of removing accounts affiliated with terrorist groups. "It's time for Twitter to take down terrorist accounts," Rep Poe said. "Terrorists should not have access to an American controlled social media platform so they can kill, rape, pillage and burn." He maintained that any concerns about violating freedom of speech shouldn't apply to groups threatening homeland security. "There are no constitutional protections to those who incite violence. No one supports the Bill of Rights more than I do, but free speech has its limitations," Rep Poe said.

Iowa House committee could make broadband changes

Gov Terry Branstad's (R-IA) broadband expansion bill could undergo major changes as it advances in the Iowa State Legislature, according to the leader of a House committee who says lawmakers have concerns about the measure's long-term funding. Iowa State Rep. Peter Cownie, a Republican from West Des Moines and Chair of the Commerce Committee, said Republican lawmakers are concerned about how a proposed grant program would be funded past its first year.

The program, which has a $5 million appropriation, is partially funded by a bond repayment fund that will not be available the following fiscal year. State Rep Cownie said he is considering an amendment that could remove the program and instead focus on expanding a property tax program. The program as currently written in the bill would give service providers a three-year break on paying higher property taxes for expanding broadband infrastructure. Service providers have expressed support for expanding it to at least 10 years.

Your Kid’s School Is Missing the Tech Revolution, and It’s All Your Fault

For the last couple of decades, entrepreneurs and academics have struggled to find ways bring some of the Internet’s disruptive force to the education system -- only to be stymied by predictably sclerotic bureaucracies and overcautious government agencies. But in recent years, entrepreneurs have started making an end run around administrators and taking their products directly to teachers and parents.

By targeting individual users, the thinking goes, they can get their products into the hands of the people who use it, instead of slogging through arcane procurement processes. It’s reminiscent of the way Apple invaded the workplace by selling so many iPhones to individual employees that IT departments had no choice but to incorporate them. Or to the way that Uber has quickly signed up so many customers that it has forced legislators to rewrite their laws to accommodate them or risk alienating their citizens. Internet companies are used to forcing through changes in attitudes and behavior -- think of how Facebook overturned our sense of personal privacy through sheer force of will. But our emotions around school won’t be so easy to adjust. Go ahead and disrupt my taxi, my hotel -- even my job. But you’d better think really hard before you disrupt my kid.

How limited access to state officials hurts reporting in Missouri

Under Gov Jay Nixon (D-MO), Missouri keeps a tight leash on information, funneling media inquiries for all agencies through a centralized public information office and regularly blocking department heads and agency experts from talking to reporters. The trend is part of a larger pattern that reporters and scholars have observed in other states and the federal government, of course. But, in the view of some observers, the shifts in Missouri have been especially extreme -- in addition to the routine restrictions, Nixon is one of only two governors to “win” a Golden Padlock award from the nonprofit group Investigative Reporters and Editors, for the secrecy surrounding the state’s death-penalty protocols.

Phil Brooks and Bob Priddy, two of the deans of the state press corps, are probably the two most vocal critics of the state of affairs in the Show-Me State. Priddy said, on the occasion of his retirement after 40 years with the Missourinet radio news service, that “the only problem [with Nixon’s press shop] is that it’s not a communications office at all, it’s a stonewall office. And this is the worst it’s been, ever.” Brooks agrees: “This is completely the opposite of access to the heart of government that I have had from 1970 to the beginning of the Nixon administration six years ago.”

California Public Utilities Commission to Meet Over Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal

The California Public Utilities Commission has called an "all parties" meeting for Feb. 25 to talk about the administrative law judge recommendation that it approve the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, according to one of those interested parties, the California Emerging Technology Fund. The CPUC is looking at broadband and phone issues, rather than video. In a Feb. 13 decision, the ALJ recommended that the state approve the merger with more than a dozen conditions, including improving customer service, providing backup batteries for VOiP service (one of the issues the Federal Communications Commission is mulling as part of the IP transition), extending Comcast's Internet Essentials low-cost broadband program to TWC customers and upgrading K-12 Internet infrastructure. Comcast has signaled some of those conditions might not be acceptable or achievable.

Taxpayer Group Pans Pre-emption of State Broadband Law

David Williams, the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, said if the Federal Communications Commission pre-empts state broadband laws in Chattanooga (TN) and Wilson (NC), it will hurt local taxpayers. A Democratic majority of the FCC is widely expected to vote Feb. 26 to pre-empt those laws after the two cities sought that move, saying the states were blocking their ability to expand their municipal broadband efforts.

Given that the meeting is the same one where the will vote on imposing some Title II regulations on Internet service providers, the municipal broadband vote has not gotten a lot of attention. Williams said that, "for the fiscal wellbeing of taxpayers" and in the interest of protecting states' rights, the FCC should not "override" those laws. "While there is significant legal debate about whether the FCC even has this authority," he said in a statement, "it is clear [FCC Chairman Tom] Wheeler's preferred path would spell almost-certain doom for local taxpayers."

What in the World is Going on with the IANA Transition?

The CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Ambassador David Gross, and the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administration for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are going to be testifying in front of the Senate in a hearing entitled “Preserving the Multistakeholder Model of Internet Governance,” in relation to the IANA transition and ICANN accountability.

This hearing comes in the middle of months of input and deliberation from communities around the world on best proposals for the IANA transition process, which are expected to be finalized in summer 2015. This hearing is important in helping determine the actions the US House and Senate will decide to take (if any) to support or hinder the IANA stewardship transition and process, and thus key in maintaining a smooth transition towards a more inclusive system of global Internet governance. In that vein, it’s a good idea to catch up with what’s been going on in the past couple months leading up to the hearing.

Android and iOS Swell to 96.3 Percent of the Smartphone Operating System Market

Android and iOS inched closer to total domination of the worldwide smartphone market in both the fourth quarter (4Q14) and the calendar year 2014 (CY14). According to data from the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android and iOS accounted for 96.3 percent of all smartphone shipments, up slightly from 95.6 percent in 4Q13 and from 93.8 percent in CY13. In terms of year-over-year shipment growth, Android outpaced the overall smartphone market for CY14 (32.0 percent vs 27.7 percent, respectively) while iOS beat the market in 4Q14 (46.1 percent vs 29.2 percent, respectively).

"Many of the same drivers were in play for Android and iOS to tighten their grip on the market," said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC's Mobile Phone team. "A combination of strong end-user demand, refreshed product portfolios, and the availability of low-cost devices -- particularly for Android -- drove volumes higher." "What will bear close observation is how the two operating systems fare in 2015 and beyond," added Llamas. "Now that Apple has entered the phablet market, there are few new opportunities for the company to address. Meanwhile, Samsung experienced flat growth in 2014, forcing Android to rely more heavily on smaller vendors to drive volumes higher."

Benton

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