May 2015

Let Patriot Act Provisions Expire

[Commentary] Barring a last-minute compromise, congressional authorization for the program the government uses to sweep up Americans’ phone records in bulk will lapse on June 1. That would be perfectly fine.

The looming expiration of a handful of provisions of the Patriot Act, which gave federal authorities vast surveillance powers, has stirred a long-overdue debate over the proper balance between investigative tactics in national security cases and civil liberties. That debate should be allowed to continue, with the goal of reaching a compromise that ensures that surveillance programs are subject to substantive judicial oversight and that Americans have a clear understanding of the data the government is allowed to collect. It’s important that intelligence agencies have the ability to investigate threats nimbly, but not at the expense of meaningful judicial review. Balancing both aims may require weeks or months of further debate and a deeper examination of the values and priorities of the United States. It is a conversation well worth having.

China’s Publishers Court America as Its Authors Scorn Censorship

A handful of writers gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library to protest the limits on free speech and expression in China. The gathering, organized by the PEN American Center, was prompted by the presence of a large delegation of Chinese publishers at BookExpo America, a major publishing trade event taking place in Manhattan.

The juxtaposition was striking. Thousands of booksellers, librarians, publishers and authors mingled at BookExpo, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where Chinese publishers were being feted as international guests of honor. To mark the event, the Chinese government sent a 500-person delegation from 100 publishing houses, and 26 of its top authors. Chinese publishers claimed close to 25,000 square feet of floor space at the hall and planned 50 events around the city, including poetry readings, film screenings, author panels and presentations from its largest publishers. Blocks away Chinese writer Murong Xuecun stood on the library steps and read aloud from an open letter he had written to Chinese censors in 2013, after his social media account was blocked and its contents deleted.

How Netflix Keeps Finding Itself on the Same Side as Regulators

[Commentary] Whatever the outcome of the latest proposed mergers and acquisitions in the media industry, a clear winner has already emerged, and it’s not even a party to any of the deals: Netflix, the streaming television pioneer. To many in the cable and broadband businesses, the invisible hand of Netflix has been apparent in the failed Comcast-Time Warner Cable combination; in likely restrictions on the merger between AT&T and DirecTV; and in the Obama administration’s embrace of net neutrality, to cite just three prominent examples.

Indeed, the corporate philosophy of Netflix, which was once thought to be outgunned in Washington by the East Coast media conglomerates and their vast lobbying forces, now seems so pervasive that the Federal Communications Commission is being referred to by some media executives — half-jokingly and half-enviously — as the “NCC.”

But Netflix is hardly the only corporate beneficiary. To varying degrees, an array of Silicon Valley powerhouses — including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple — gain from an open Internet and net neutrality, the notion that broadband service providers should treat all data equally, no matter its content, source or volume. That these views have prevailed over long-entrenched telecommunication and cable interests is yet further evidence of the technology industry’s growing political clout inside the White House and on Capitol Hill.

How the FCC Will Wreck the Internet

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission injected a considerable amount of uncertainty into the high-tech sector in February when it reclassified Internet service providers (ISPs) as public utilities. If it is upheld by the courts, the Open Internet Order—which inserts the government directly into private dealings between ISPs and firms that generate or aggregate Internet content—will drag down investments in new networks and infrastructure and slow down innovation.

I estimate that ISP capital expenditures will fall between 5% and 12% per year relative to 2014 levels—based on experience in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the last time telecommunications companies were subject to public-utility rules. This may not sound like much, but ISPs invested nearly $77 billion in 2014. A 5% drop means billions in network upgrades forgone. Thousands of jobs would also be lost—20 jobs for every million dollars of fiber investment, according to a paper I co-wrote with Jeffrey West in 2010. The losses won’t be limited to ISPs. Investment in new networks propels innovation everywhere, thanks to faster connections and greater capabilities. Everyone who cares about investment and growth in the high-tech sector, as well as net-neutrality protections, should refuse to accept the FCC’s flawed order as a fait accompli and demand that Congress find a better way.

[Singer is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute and a principal at Economists Incorporated]

Michael King, Builder of a TV Empire

Michael King, who with his brother transformed King World Productions, a modest company they inherited from their father, into a syndicator of television megahits like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 67.

The King brothers seized an opening for independently produced and syndicated game shows and talk shows in the 1970s, when federal regulations limited how much programming the three major networks could own. Their eye for talent and salesmanship to local station managers helped make stars of Alex Trebek, Dr. Phil McGraw, Rachael Ray and Roseanne Barr, and transformed Winfrey into the nation’s top-rated daytime talk show host. By the mid-1990s, the proliferation of cable television, satellite networks and home video led the government to relax the ownership restrictions on network television, allowing the Kings to sell their company to CBS in 1999 for $2.5 billion in CBS stock. At the time, Michael King was King World’s vice chairman and Roger King was chairman.

Weekly Digest

FCC Moves to Make Broadband More Affordable

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For June 2015 Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the June Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 18, 2015:

Direct Access to Numbers for Interconnected VoIP Providers: The FCC will consider a Report and Order that will facilitate innovative technologies and services by establishing a process to authorize interconnected VoIP providers to obtain telephone numbers directly from the Numbering Administrators, rather than through intermediaries.

Lifeline Reform and Modernization: In order to comprehensively restructure and modernize the Lifeline program to efficiently and effectively connect low-income Americans to broadband, strengthen program oversight and administration, and take additional measures to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, the Commission will consider a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Order on Reconsideration, Second Report and Order, and Memorandum Opinion and Order.

Protecting Consumers Against Unwanted Robocalls: The Commission will consider a Declaratory Ruling and Order reaffirming the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's protections against unwanted robocalls, encouraging pro-consumer uses of robocall technology, and responding to a number of requests for clarity from businesses and other callers.

Reps Upton and Walden Comment on FCC Chairman Wheeler USF Plan

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) issued the following statement regarding Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plans to include broadband in the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program: “Broadband adoption creates countless opportunities for individuals and small businesses and is a welcome generator of economic growth and jobs. The time is ripe for reforming the Universal Service Fund to meet the communications and technology environment of the 21st century -- unfortunately, this proposal misses the mark on the reforms we need,” said Chairman Upton and Chairman Walden, “We have long called for the need to cap the USF, and each fund within it, to ensure that ratepayer dollars are spent wisely. Simply expanding the program without ensuring its effectiveness or longevity is the wrong approach if we're going to do right by those who pay for the program, and those who depend on it.”

ISPs Say Title II Decision Is Ripe for Stay

Cable and telecommunication company Internet service providers have outlined the ABC's (and D's and E's) of why a federal court should uphold their requests and stay the June 12 enforcement date of the Federal Communications Commission's Title II reclassification of Internet access service. That came in a joint reply to the FCC's opposition to the stay. The lead line read, "The FCC’s reclassification of broadband Internet access as a Title II common carriage service is a seismic departure from the status quo that has prevailed for more than two decades. It will expose Petitioners and their members to a host of new, ill-defined requirements, and it immediately threatens them with class action litigation and enforcement actions." The chorus making that point included trade associations USTelecom, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, American Cable Association and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association; AT&T and CenturyLink. Their response was divided into arguments for why they will prevail in their underlying legal challenges, and why it is in the public's and ISP's interest to grant a stay in the interim.

Universal Service in an All-IP World

For more than 100 years, the United States has used a variety of policy tools to encourage and ensure ubiquitous, affordable basic communications service. Universal and accessible communications services have been the foundation upon which our economy, personal communications, and civic participation depend. The laws and rules used to achieve universal service, however, have evolved with new technologies and markets and now, as the network is in the midst of several new technology transitions, the question of how to achieve and measure universal service arises again. This article examines the basic question of what the “basic service” is in today’s world.

For decades basic voice service provider offer the traditional copper network has been treated as the basic universal service. Voice service certainly continues to be critical to business, personal, and emergency communications, but the time has now come to also acknowledge that broadband Internet access service is itself a basic service. The days of treating broadband access as a luxury are gone, and our policies should reflect that. With that in mind, this article considers a variety of metrics by which policymakers should evaluate broadband and voice services, to determine whether new services being offered are a true step forward for everyone in the technology transitions. Additionally, this article reviews potential tools that policymakers could use to achieve universal, affordable broadband and voice service. In the past, Congress and the FCC have used tools like carrier of last resort policies, Universal Service Fund programs, and voluntary efforts by companies to increase network build-out and access. At this early stage policymakers should seriously consider all available options to determine what approaches work best for new technologies. The development of new voice and broadband access services hold great potential, but they will only live up to that potential if the United States can fulfill its promise to ensure everyone has a meaningful chance to the use the networks we have all contributed to. There are still many details to work out, but policymakers should not delay in updating universal service policies to continue to serve the public throughout and after technology transitions.

Benton

Search