April 2015

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for APRIL 30th, 2015

Find Information About Today's House Communications Subcommittee Hearing "FCC Reauthorization: Improving Commission Transparency" In Our Calendar: https://www.benton.org/calendar/2015-04-30

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Connect America Fund Offers Carriers Nearly $1.7 Billion to Expand Broadband to Rural Americans - FCC press release
   ALEC-based restrictions on city-run Internet at risk after FCC ruling
   Does getting Internet access make people better citizens? Maybe not. - WaPo op-ed

NETWORK NEUTRALITY
   Sen Paul seeks to block Internet rules
   FCC Still Mulling Best Title II Challenge Venue [links to web]
   The Net Vitality Index and the Wide Open Internet - analysis [links to web]

PRIVACY/SECURITY
   The good, bad, and the ugly of pending congressional surveillance bills - analysis
   Lawmakers skeptical of FBI's encryption warnings [links to web]

PATENT/COPYRIGHT
   Patent reform revived in Senate
   Copyright Director: Time For Full Public Performance Right [links to web]
   NAB, Google, Amazon Join In Music Coalition [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   FCC Announces that Applications for AWS-3 Licenses in Certain Bands are Accepted for Filing - public notice [links to web]

LIFELINE
   AT&T and SNET to Pay $10.9 Million for Overbilling Federal Lifeline Program - FCC press release

OWNERSHIP
   Healthier Time Warner Cable Emerges From Quashed Deal With Far More Options - analysis
   Comcast's next act - analysis [links to web]
   Back to the future by blocking the Comcast/TWC merger: How the government is killing competition - AEI op-ed [links to web]
   FCC Rebuffs at Least One Lobbying Effort - letter to the editor [links to web]

TELEVISION
   EOBC: TV Spectrum Opening Price Regime Is Unlawful [links to web]
   MMTC: FCC Can't Keep Punting On Eligible Entity [links to web]
   How Cable Lost the Remote - Andy Kessler op-ed [links to web]

CONTENT
   Hollywood studios win landmark victory against Popcorn Time [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Rep Eshoo Slams FCC Reform Bills [links to web]
   Report: Government agencies don’t like ‘bring your own device’ policy [links to web]
   GOP Reps Seek More Info on FCC Office Closures [links to web]
   GOP Hammers FCC Process Under FCC Chairman Wheeler [links to web]

ELECTIONS & MEDIA
   High court: States may ban judicial candidates from personal fundraising [links to web]

CHILDREN & MEDIA
   Legislators Introduce Student Digital Privacy Bill [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   State of the News Media 2015 - Pew research
   Freedom of the Press 2015: Harsh Laws and Violence Drive Global Decline - Freedom House press release
   Google Is Buying Media Friends - analysis [links to web]

HEALTH
   Apple makes ethics board approval mandatory for all medical research apps [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   AT&T Fires U-Verse President Amid Racial Discrimination Suit [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   EU to probe popular US sites over data use and search
   US Tech Firms Increase EU Lobbying Efforts [links to web]
   Google Tripled Spending on Lobbying in Brussels In 2014 [links to web]
   Google Is Buying Media Friends - analysis [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CONNECT AMERICA FUND OFFERS CARRIERS NEARLY $1.7 BILLION TO EXPAND BROADBAND TO RURAL AMERICANS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Taking a major step to close the rural broadband gap, the Connect America Fund offered carriers nearly $1.7 billion to expand and support broadband services in rural areas where market forces alone cannot support deployment. The offer to rural operations of the largest telecommunications providers -- known as price cap carriers -- would provide ongoing support for networks that can deliver broadband at speed of at least 10 MBps for downloads and 1 Mbps uploads to nearly nine million rural residents nationwide. The funding represents a 71 percent increase from current funding for these areas, but is accomplished without increasing the size of the Universal Service Fund -- or increasing ratepayer fees. "Today's offer of $1.67 billion for rural broadband deployment will connect millions of rural Americans who lack access to modern high-speed Internet service," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "The Connect America Fund is tackling the rural digital divide so that all Americans can have access to the jobs, education and opportunities provided by broadband, no matter where they live." Carriers now have 120 days to determine whether or not to accept the funding on a state-by-state basis. In states where carriers decline the offer, the subsidies will be offered to providers on a competitive basis.
   Connect America Fund Offers Carriers Nearly $1.7 Billion to Expand Broadband to Rural Americans - press release

benton.org/headlines/connect-america-fund-offers-carriers-nearly-17-billion-expand-broadband-rural-americans | Federal Communications Commission | Wireline Competition Bureau Public Notice | Broadcasting & Cable
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ALEC-BASED RESTRICTIONS ON CITY-RUN INTERNET AT RISK AFTER FCC RULING
[SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, AUTHOR: Allan Holmes]
States that restrict municipalities from offering Internet service to residents could see their laws overturned if they based the bills on a model offered by a conservative legislative group. Many of the provisions in the model legislation promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) were incorporated into a North Carolina law that was knocked down by the Federal Communications Commission in February. ALEC, a self-described free-market think tank made up of mostly Republican state lawmakers and funded by corporations and trade groups, created a model municipal broadband law in 2002 that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for cities to build their own networks. The goal of the legislation is to keep cities from what the group views as unfairly competing with large Internet providers such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon and AT&T. All four companies have donated to ALEC and some executives have served in leadership positions on committees and boards. About 20 states have passed laws that either outright ban cities from building networks or places requirements that make it almost financially impossible to develop one. Many of the laws have provisions that are similar to ALEC’s model bill. Now they risk the same fate as North Carolina. In February, the FCC voted to preempt that state’s law and another in Tennessee that restrict cities from building or expanding broadband networks. The Tennessee attorney general is suing the FCC to overturn the decision. By citing those six provisions, the FCC has by extension struck down much of ALEC’s model law, said Jim Baller, an attorney who represented Chattanooga (TN) and Wilson (NC) when they asked the FCC to preempt their states’ broadband laws. “Because the North Carolina law uses similar language to that found in the ALEC model legislation, it would seem to follow that any other state that has relied heavily on the ALEC model has also effectively banned municipal broadband investments,” Baller said. ALEC has cited the North Carolina law as a good prototype for other states.
benton.org/headlines/alec-based-restrictions-city-run-internet-risk-after-fcc-ruling | Center for Public Integrity
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DOES GETTING INTERNET ACCESS MAKE PEOPLE BETTER CITIZENS? MAYBE NOT.
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Sean Richey, Junyan Zhu]
[Commentary] What would happen if someone who did not have Internet access suddenly got it? Would they become more interested in politics, learn more about it and even feel more able to influence the political world? It’s certainly plausible that the answer is yes. The Internet would seem to put lots of information about politics at your fingertips. And some academic research suggests that the Internet can make us better “digital citizens” -- despite the possibility that people might simply bypass online political content in favor of entertainment like sports. In our new study, we come to a less optimistic conclusion. We based this study on a rare opportunity: to observe directly what happens when people are given Internet access for the first time. We compared two groups of people who received Internet access, and found that, as of September 2008, the group that had had Internet access for nine months was not more interested in or knowledgeable about politics, compared to the group that had not yet received access. We also followed both groups all the way to June 2010. Again, very little changed. Neither group became more interested in or knowledgeable about politics. Neither group came to feel more capable of influencing politics. Why do these findings differ from some previous research? One possibility is just that typical survey data makes it difficult to tell whether any correlation between Internet usage and political attitudes suggests actual causation. Perhaps people who are already interested in politics tend to look for political information online. Another possibility is that Internet usage may simply substitute for offline sources of political information. The third possibility is information overload. The complexity and volume of content on the Internet make actually learning difficult -- at least about politics. This isn’t to suggest that the Internet could never make us better citizens. But we would argue for very qualified expectations about how much the Internet can increase how much we care or know about politics.
[Sean Richey is an associate professor of political science and Junyan Zhu is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science at Georgia State University]
benton.org/headlines/does-getting-internet-access-make-people-better-citizens-maybe-not | Washington Post
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NET NEUTRALITY

SEN PAUL SEEKS TO BLOCK INTERNET RULES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a resolution to block net neutrality rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in February. Sen Paul, a recently announced GOP presidential candidate, said he does not want to see the government regulating the Internet. “This regulation by the FCC is a textbook example of Washington’s desire to regulate anything and everything, and will do nothing more than wrap the Internet in red-tape,” he said. More than a dozen House lawmakers have already sponsored a nearly identical resolution to block the FCC’s new order, which would reclassify broadband Internet access under authority governing traditional telephones. The seven-line resolution said “Congress disapproves” of the new rules and that they “shall have no force or effect.” The resolution under the Congressional Review Act would provide for an up-or-down vote in the Senate, allowing it to avoid a filibuster. But the resolution has little chance of getting past a Presidential veto.
benton.org/headlines/sen-paul-seeks-block-internet-rules | Hill, The
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PRIVACY/SECURITY

THE GOOD, BAD, AND THE UGLY OF PENDING CONGRESSIONAL SURVEILLANCE BILLS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: David Kravets]
[Cpmmentary] On June 1 the legal authority enabling the National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata collection program expires. The expiration date of Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act comes two years after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the spying to the Guardian. Ahead of the deadline, three key bills have emerged. They can best be described as the good, the bad, and the ugly. One proposal scuttles the bulk metadata program altogether. Another bill tinkers with the snooping. Yet another allows it to continue unabated though 2020.
The good: There's a House measure called the Surveillance State Repeal Act that does what its name says. It ends the authority for the bulk telephone metadata collection spying.
The bad: Credo Mobile, Demand Progress, and others immediately blasted the latest version of the USA Freedom Act of 2015, which was proposed April 28 in the House and Senate. They decried it as a "diversion." Instead of the NSA collecting and housing the metadata from every phone call made to and from the United States, the USA Freedom Act's passage would mean that the same data would remain with phone companies. The act requires the NSA to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before demanding that the telecoms hand over metadata based on an NSA search query.
The ugly: A bill, which is unnamed, leaves the metadata snooping program unscathed through the end of 2020. The measure was proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC). It keeps intact the Patriot Act's "business records" language allowing the authorities to acquire, without a probable cause warrant, "business records" on people held by most any institution, including banks and telephone companies.
benton.org/headlines/good-bad-and-ugly-pending-congressional-surveillance-bills | Ars Technica
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PATENT/COPYRIGHT

PATENT REFORM REVIVED IN SENATE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
Senate leaders introduced new legislation that would crack down on “patent trolls,” reviving a push for reform that stalled in the upper chamber in 2014. The legislation is aimed at combating what industry groups say is growing abuse of the legal system, with “trolls” buying up patents solely for the purpose of extracting financial settlements. With Republicans now in control of the House and Senate, advocates are hopeful that the legislation can make it to President Barack Obama, who has urged lawmakers to take action on the issue. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who was involved in negotiations over the new legislation, said the bill “shifts the legal burden back onto those who would abuse the patent system in order to make a quick buck.” "I’m hopeful we can move quickly and in a bipartisan way to get this bill passed in committee and on the Senate floor this summer," he said. A hearing on the bill is already in the works. The negotiations over patent reform date back to 2014. Apparently, while the new Senate legislation contains provisions that are similar to a bill working through the House, it also contains key changes, according to a person familiar with the bill. The proposal would establish clear pleading standards in court and would limit some early discovery, which can be used to run up the cost of litigation. A new way to limit discovery while early motions are resolved was crafted by senators in April, the source said. The bill includes a provision on “fee shifting,” which refers to requiring the losing party in a lawsuit to pay back the winner’s legal fees. While the House version of the bill would require the payback unless a patent lawsuit is proven legitimate, the Senate version removes the fee shifting presumption, and would only award fees if the winner can prove the lawsuit was not “objectively reasonable.” The Senate bill would also change how courts could go after the parent company of shell organizations that sometimes file the frivolous suits and are not able to pay up.
benton.org/headlines/patent-reform-revived-senate | Hill, The | Washington Post | The Hill | Public Knowledge | ars technica
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LIFELINE

AT&T AND SNET TO PAY $10.9 MILLION FOR OVERBILLING FEDERAL LIFELINE PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
To resolve an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau, AT&T and its former subsidiary Southern New England Telephone (SNET) have agreed to pay $10.9 million in penalties for overbilling the FCC's Lifeline program. An FCC investigation showed that AT&T and its affiliates continued to provider service to landline customers in the program without recertifying the eligibility of the customers within the 35 days required by Lifeline program rules. As a result of those failures, the companies overbilled the Lifeline program when they requested reimbursement for participating in the program. The $10.9 million in penalties resulting from these settlements are in addition to the refund payments that the companies have previously made to fully reimburse the Lifeline program for ineligible customers. As part of the settlements, AT&T will pay a civil penalty of $6.9 million, and SNET will pay $4 million. In addition, AT&T and SNET are required to adopt rigorous compliance plans related to their Lifeline activities.
   AT&T and SNET to Pay $10.9 Million for Overbilling Federal Lifeline Program - press release

benton.org/headlines/att-and-snet-pay-109-million-overbilling-federal-lifeline-program | Federal Communications Commission | The Verge
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OWNERSHIP

TWC HAS OPTIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Emily Steel]
Time Warner Cable was bloodied and bruised when it agreed to its now-scuttled $45 billion sale to Comcast. The company was hemorrhaging subscribers after a battle over fees with CBS produced a month-long blackout of the network on its service. Its executives had been sharply criticized for deploying a failed plan for the past half-decade during an ugly war with Charter Communications, which had been pursuing a hostile takeover. And its customer service ratings were at the bottom of the industry. Now, Time Warner Cable is in a stronger position, giving the company greater control over its destiny. There is no doubt that Time Warner Cable is suffering from whiplash after the sudden implosion of the Comcast deal that had been over a year in the making. But it has steadily improved its business since the deal was announced in February of 2014, and analysts forecast continued progress. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable, the country’s second-largest cable operator, after Comcast, can pursue an acquisition of its own, which gives the company more leverage in negotiations with potential suitors.
benton.org/headlines/healthier-time-warner-cable-emerges-quashed-deal-far-more-options | New York Times
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JOURNALISM

STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA 2015
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Amy Mitchell]
Call it a mobile majority. At the start of 2015, 39 of the top 50 digital news websites have more traffic to their sites and associated applications coming from mobile devices than from desktop computers, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis of comScore data. At the same time, though, desktop visitors to these sites tend to spend more time per visit than do mobile visitors. For half of these top 50 news sites -- which include legacy print, cable, network, international and public broadcasting outlets as well as digital-only entities -- visitors from desktops stay longer than those coming through mobile. The reverse is true for only 10 of the sites, while for 15 sites the time spent is roughly equal. In tandem with the growth of mobile has been the further rise of the social Web, where the flow of information embodies a whole new dynamic. Some of our 2014 research revealed that nearly half of Web-using adults report getting news about politics and government in the past week on Facebook alone, a platform where influence is driven to a strong degree by friends and algorithms. Even as mobile and social news habits evolve, legacy platforms have by no means been abandoned, though some are faring better than others. Local TV continues to capture broadcast viewers, with slight increases for evening (3 percent) and morning (2 percent) newscasts and larger ones for early morning and midday in 2014. Network television news saw a second straight year of audience growth (5 percent in evening and 2 percent in morning), for a combined average evening viewership of roughly 24 million. Cable news, on the other hand, had another rough year, with prime-time median viewership down 8 percent across the three channels -- Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. Fox News fared the best, but still saw a 1 percent decline year over year. And newspapers, after an unusual year of small gains in 2013, saw both daily and Sunday circulation fall another 3 percent in 2014, declines that were felt across papers of all sizes. Newspaper weekday circulation has now fallen 19 percent since 2004.
benton.org/headlines/state-news-media-2015 | Pew Research Center | The Hill | Washington Post | Associated Press
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FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 2015: HARSH LAWS AND VIOLENCE DRIVE GLOBAL DECLINE
[SOURCE: Freedom House, AUTHOR: Press release]
Conditions for the media deteriorated sharply in 2014 to reach their lowest point in more than 10 years, as journalists around the world encountered more restrictions from governments, militants, criminals, and media owners, according to Freedom of the Press 2015, released today by Freedom House. The report found that the main factors driving the decline were the passage and use of restrictive laws against the media -- often on national security grounds -- and limits on the ability of local and foreign journalists to report freely within a given country, or even to reach it. In a time of seemingly unlimited access to information and new methods of content delivery, more and more areas of the world are becoming virtually inaccessible to journalists. Key Global Findings:
Global press freedom declined in 2014 to its lowest point in more than 10 years. The rate of decline also accelerated, with the global average score suffering its largest one-year drop in a decade.
Of the 199 countries and territories assessed during 2014, a total of 63 (32 percent) were rated Free, 71 (36 percent) Partly Free, and 65 (32 percent) Not Free.
Only one in seven -- about 14 percent -- of the world’s inhabitants live in countries with a Free press.
All regions except sub-Saharan Africa, whose average score improved slightly, showed declines. Eurasia suffered the largest drop.
Several countries with histories of more democratic practices have experienced serious deterioration over the past five years. Greece has fallen by 21 points on a 100-point scale since 2010, as existing structural problems were exacerbated by the economic crisis and related political pressures. Large five-year drops were also recorded in Thailand (13 points), Ecuador (12), Turkey (11), Hong Kong (9), Honduras (7), Hungary (7), and Serbia (7).
The world’s 10 worst-rated countries and territories were Belarus, Crimea, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The Russian-occupied territory of Crimea was assessed separately for the first time in this edition.
benton.org/headlines/freedom-press-2015-harsh-laws-and-violence-drive-global-decline | Freedom House | Freedom House Full Report | Associated Press
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EU PROBE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Duncan Robinson, Alex Barker]
The European Commission is to take the first step toward tighter European Union regulation of the Internet after coming under pressure from France and Germany to take a tougher line on the likes of Amazon and Google. Widening its battle against US tech giants after its landmark competition case against Google, the European Commission will launch a separate probe into how online platforms list search results and how they use customer data. It is one of the proposals in a draft plan for a “digital single market” encompassing everything from online shopping to telecoms regulation. The draft will go to the commission for approval soon. The plan could also bring in stricter rules for video-on-demand services such as Netflix and messaging apps like WhatsApp and Skype that have become big rivals to traditional European media and telecoms companies.
benton.org/headlines/eu-probe-popular-us-sites-over-data-use-and-search | Financial Times
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