The Wireline Competition Bureau will now receive executed Acknowledgements of Confidentiality pursuant to the protective order governing the data collection in the special access proceeding. We encourage parties to file their Acknowledgements by July 2, 2015 to help ensure timely access to the data.
[Commentary] It’s with great disappointment that we let you know that Circa News has been put on indefinite hiatus. Producing high-quality news can be a costly endeavor and without the capital necessary to support further production we are unable to continue. Our mission was always to create a news company where factual, unbiased, and succinct information could be found. In doing so we recognized that building a revenue stream for such a mission would take some time and chose to rely on venture capital to sustain.
We have now reached a point where we’re no longer able to continue news production as-is. Our ongoing plan was to monetize Circa News through the building of a strategy we had spent a long time developing but unfortunately we were unable to close a significant investment prior to becoming resource constrained. We could have compromised and included off-the-shelf advertisements or charged a subscription for the product but we never felt like any of the simplest solutions would pair well with the high-quality experience we wished to achieve, or even bring in enough to make a difference.
[Matt Galligan is CEO & Co-founder of Circa]
Often the "future of news" debates revolves around the news industry. In New Jersey, a new effort will leverage community organizing strategies on behalf of quality local journalism -- so communities can join forces with journalists to advocate for better local news, and better access to local information. NJ News Voices was announced at the recent Engage Local conference in Newark (NJ). In this 18-month project, Free Press will foster closer relationships between NJ communities and their local newsrooms. The goal: to create a constituency to advocate effectively for local journalism. NJ News Voices is supported with funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Democracy Fund.
Free Press will develop tools to help newsrooms and communities collaborate on newsgathering -- Resources and strategies that newsrooms and communities can use together to foster this kind of constituency and make it self sustaining. They'll also publish at least two research reports -- on challenges facing NJ journalists, and proposing policy recommendations to support open government and quality newsgathering in that state. If the strategies of this initial project prove successful, Free Press hopes to roll out similar initiatiatives around the US.
The House overwhelmingly passed the DOTCOM Act, 378-25, giving Congress the right to review the move away from an American-controlled Internet domain name system to one overseen by the international community. "By advancing the DOTCOM Act, we are ensuring that the Internet‚ the world’s greatest platform of ideas, commerce, and social connection‚ continues to thrive to the benefit of folks in Michigan and every corner of the country,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).
The White House-backed transition plan would see the Department of Commerce end its longstanding contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for managing the domain name system through the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Authority over the system would be taken up by a group of international stakeholders. The bill gives lawmakers 30 days to review the proposed plan for the transition to determine whether it aligns with a variety of principles and requirements. The legislation moves to the Senate -- where the Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark up its version of the bill on June 25. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) called the House bill the “right approach” and said lawmakers in the upper chamber would “try to get floor action on it as soon as we can."
Apparently, Obama Administration officials avoided immediately disclosing the severity of the government employee data hack by defining it as two distinct breaches, in an incident that underscores the tensions within the government over what officials have described as one of the worst breaches of US data. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation suspect China was behind the hack of Office of Personnel Management databases, and those hackers accessed not only personnel files but security clearance forms, which contain information that foreign intelligence agencies could use to target espionage operations, according to officials. Chinese officials have said they weren’t involved.
The administration disclosed the breach of personnel files on June 4 but not the security clearance theft. The security theft was disclosed a week later, but investigators probing the theft already knew about it. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta on June 24 said her agency is investigating whether up to 18 million unique Social Security numbers were stolen as part of the cyberattack, though she cautioned that the numbers were unverified and preliminary. Her statement was made during testimony to the House Oversight Committee. Lawmakers have accused OPM of not providing enough information about a breach -- or perhaps series of breaches -- hitting OPM in recent months and stealing troves of personnel records. Director Archuleta said she believes 4.2 million personnel records of current and former government employees were stolen as part of one breach, but she said the estimates were much less precise on the hack of background check investigations that took place over a number of years.
Sending a message intended to deter cybercrime, US District Court Judge Kevin Castel sentenced the co-creator of the Blackshades malware program to nearly five years in prison for running an operation that infected more than a half-million computers worldwide. Swedish citizen Alex Yücel, 25, asked for leniency and said he felt contrition for marketing the malware to hackers bent on secretly controlling computers so they could steal passwords, owners' identities and more.
Judge Castel didn't give Yücel the minimum 70-month prison term sought by federal prosecutors. But, saying "the message must go forth that this is a serious crime," Judge Castel sentenced him to 57 months behind bars, well over the 30-month punishment urged by Yücel's attorney. "We rely on our computers as an extension of how we live our lives," said Judge Castel. "This is spreading misery to the lives of thousands. That's what this is."
House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and the five supporters of his bill, The Small Business Access to Spectrum Act, are sending a letter to the Federal Communications Commission telling it how they would like the commission to modify its Designated Entity rules for auction rules for spectrum auctions to insure access by small businesses. Those cosponsors are Reps Bobby Rush (D-IL), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM). In the letter, the legislators are pushing a two-pronged approach. First, they said, the FCC should curb "gaming" of the DE program by multibillion dollar corporations.
The FCC can do so, they say, by limiting the size of the small business credit that any one DE can receive and take "additional measures" to limit large corporations' use of the program. They say that will give small businesses a fair shot at spectrum without incentivizing large corporations to gain a bidding advantage "under the guise of being a small business." The second prong is to get rid of what they say are outdated requirements, including the attributable material relationship (AMR) rule, and liberalize policies on small businesses leasing opportunities. They also want the FCC to give DEs the ability to forego DE benefits on one license and still be eligible for them on others. "It is time to recognize that there may be other ways to enter and compete in the wireless marketplace," they said.
A bipartisan, bicameral group of Senators and House members has asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to provide live audio from the court's upcoming rulings on cases involving the Affordable Care Act and same sex marriage. In a letter, the Senators praised the court's practice of releasing same-day transcripts and end-of-the week audio, and more recently to release same-day audio in some recent cases. But they said that it would enhance transparency to provide live audio of the "public proceedings" of court sessions, including both the reading of decisions at the beginning of those sessions and the subsequent oral arguments on other cases.
"We continue to believe that the Court should permit live video broadcasts and support bipartisan legislation to make that happen," they added. Given that millions of individuals will be watching closely for the healthcare and same-sex marriage rulings, they said, "the Court should provide the American people the opportunity to hear in real time the arguments and opinions that will shape our society for years to come." The legislators pointed out that the other two branches of government can be accessed thanks to C-SPAN and online streaming, but that the judicial branch remains "almost completely closed from the public eye."
Those who deal with the Copyright Office said its outdated technology and procedures increasingly interfere with their ability to buy, sell and protect copyrighted works. Now, some in Congress are pushing to modernize the Copyright Office, taking it from a 19th century relic that operates out of a cramped, paper-strewn office into a government office that can efficiently address the needs of the trillion-dollar US copyright industry.
Maria Pallante, head of the Copyright Office, has repeatedly testified to Congress and spoken publicly about the need to update IT systems and office policies. In 2015, Pallante launched something of a crusade to separate the office from the library, arguing publicly for the first time that the office needs independence. Without it, former Copyright Office staff say, there's not much she can do to push the office into the 21st century because she has minimal control over IT staff and no independent authority to request money to update the office. Pallante has won admirers and allies in Congress. Two members of the House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the office, announced legislation in June that would make the office independent. According to industry representatives and creators, the system discourages groups from registering their copyrights. Some songwriters and makers of standardized tests delay or avoid registering because they do not trust the office's computer security. Newspapers must be submitted in the form of costly and increasingly redundant microfiche, driving some to avoid registering altogether. Others simply get fed up with the office's clunky registration process.
A week after the National Association of Broadcaster's spring board meeting, NAB President Gordon Smith said that "no decision" has been made to support the implementation of, and transition to, a new broadcast transmission standard. ATSC 3.0, as the standard is called, would provide broadcasters with new capabilities, he said. Smith did not say which members support ATSC 3.0 and which don't. But a split on the TV board over ATSC 3.0 surfaced at the NAB's January board meeting. The Big Four networks opposed it, while network affiliates led by Sinclair and the Pearl group of major station groups supported it, believing it's vital to their future competitiveness. Even with the full support of the industry, Smith said, it would not be easy to roll out ATSC 3.0, which is incompatible with existing TV sets. The transition from analog TV to the current digital standard in the 2000s was successful, he said, but it was "extremely difficult" and expensive and was aided by the availability of extra spectrum. "We will not have that this time." With the extra spectrum, broadcasters simulcast analog and digital signals for years, giving consumers plenty of time to buy new digital sets or acquire government-subsidized digital-to-analog converters.
Just as he is trying to balance the interests of the ATSC 3.0 proponents and opponents, he said, he is trying to balance the interests of broadcasters who are eager to sell their spectrum in the Federal Communications Commission incentive auction in 2016 with those who expect to sit out the auction. The former want the NAB to help them maximize the value of their spectrum in the auction, he said. The latter want the association to make sure that their broadcast service is not degraded in the repacking of the TV band that will follow the auction.
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