June 2015

Australia passes controversial anti-piracy web censorship law

A controversial bill to allow websites to be censored has been passed by both houses of the Australian parliament. The Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 allows companies to go to a Federal Court judge to get overseas sites blocked if their "primary purpose" is facilitating copyright infringement. Dr Matthew Rimmer, an associate professor at the Australian National University College of Law, points out that there is a lack of definitions within the bill: "What is 'primary purpose'? There's no definition. What is 'facilitation'? Again, there's no definition." That's dangerous, he believes, because it could lead to "collateral damage," whereby sites that don't intend to hosting infringing material are blocked because a court might rule they were covered anyway. Moreover, Rimmer said that controversial material of the kind released by WikiLeaks is often under copyright, which means that the new law could be used to censor information that was embarrassing, but in the public interest.

The bill passed easily in both houses thanks to bipartisan support from the Liberal and Labor parties: only the Australian Greens put up any fight against it. Bernard Keane explains in an article on Crikey that the main argument for the new law -- that it would save Australian jobs -- is completely bogus. Claims that film piracy was costing 6100 jobs every year don't stand up to scrutiny: "If piracy were going to destroy 6000 jobs in the arts sector every year, why is employment in the specific sub-sector that according to the copyright industry is the one directly affected by piracy now 31,000, compared to 24,000 in 2011?" Keane asks.

Europol web unit to hunt extremists behind Isis social media propaganda

A new Europe-wide police unit is being set up to scour the Internet for the ring leaders behind Islamic State’s social media propaganda campaign, which it has used to recruit foreign fighters and jihadi brides. The police team will seek to track down the key figures behind the estimated 100,000 tweets a day pumped out from 45,000 to 50,000 accounts linked to the Islamist terror group, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria. Run by the European police agency Europol, it will start work on July 1, with a remit to take down Isis accounts within two hours of them being detected.

Europol’s director, Rob Wainwright, said that the new Internet referral unit would monitor social media output to identify people who might be vulnerable and those preying on them. He said: “Who is it reaching out to young people, in particular, by social media, to get them to come, in the first place? It’s very difficult because of the dynamic nature of social media.” The director added that the police team would be working with social media companies to identify the most important accounts operating in a range of languages that are “underpinning what Isis are doing”. Europol said it would not name the social media firms who have agreed to help the police. It will use network analytics to identify the most active accounts, such as those pumping out the most messages and those part of an established online community.

Privacy group wants FTC to investigate Uber

A privacy rights group plans to file a complaint on June 22 against Uber at the Federal Trade Commission over the ride-hailing service's new policy that gives it the right to track users even if they're not currently using the Uber app. The new privacy policy is scheduled to go into effect on July 15. Uber announced it on May 28.

In the complaint, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington (DC) cites several privacy issues with the new policy it finds troubling. Under the upcoming policy, the Uber app could collect precise location data about a customer's smart phone, even when the app is running in the background or they have turned off their GPS location finder. If the app isn't on, Uber can figure out the user's approximate location from their Internet address. If the user permits it, the Uber app can access the user's address book and use the names and contact information it finds there. EPIC's complaint says "this collection of user's information far exceeds what customers expect from the transportation service. Users would not expect the company to collect location information when customers are not actively using the app."

CTIA: FCC Broadband Use Estimate Was Spot On

CTIA: The Wireless Association says the Federal Communications Commission got it exactly right in 2010 when it predicted the exploding need for wireless spectrum, but fell short in its goal of finding enough to meet that demand. That is according to a new white paper, Mobile Data Demand: Growth Forecasts Met, released June 22. According to the paper, the FCC's broadband demand projections in the 2010 National Broadband Plan of 562 petabytes of data per month (1 petabyte equals one quadrillion bytes) was within a petabyte of the actual total (563 per month). By contrast, that same report called for reallocating 300 MHz for mobile broadband by 2015.

"Despite the FCC’s nearly perfect projections, the government has made 135 MHz spectrum available for mobile broadband since 2010, which is less than half of what the FCC suggested would be required by 2015," said CTIA. And even with the AWS-3 auction -- which freed up 65 MHz -- and the broadcast incentive auction, which could free up over 100 MHz more, projections for 2019 put traffic at six times the current level, with no plans to make enough spectrum available. The target for spectrum clearing by 2020, per the Obama Administration's mobile broadband plan, is 500 MHz. "America lacks a long-term and comprehensive licensed spectrum plan for 2020 and beyond to meet the predicted mobile traffic demands," said CTIA president Meredith Attwell Baker in announcing the paper's release, which comes as the FCC gets down to the short strokes on structuring the broadcast incentive auction, planned for early 2016.

Analysts: Don’t expect big windfall in broadcast incentive auction

[Commentary] As the Federal Communications Commission puts the finishing touches on the rules for the 2016 broadcast incentive auction, media and telecommunications analyst Todd Juenger issued a downbeat report, damping down the hopes of any broadcaster who might be anticipating a big windfall from the sale of spectrum to the FCC. In an analysis of what the Big 4 (NBC, CBS, Fox and Disney) might get in the upcoming auction, Jueneger, senior analyst for AB Bernstein, wrote that “our most optimistic estimate for CBS, Fox, and NBC (Comcast) is $1.3-$1.5 Billion….far below what…some companies have said is possible.” Juenger notes that his top end estimate for CBS of $1.3 Billion is “much lower than the $2 Billion estimates their CFO mentioned” during the Q4 2014 earnings call. Juenger also isn’t counting on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s repeated assurances that the auction will take place in 2016. “…There appears to be little reason why AT&T and Verizon would not try to delay the auction” to delay a big hit to their cash holdings and to slow down any expansion of competitors.

MD tech groups are joining forces to make the state an innovation hub

Two Maryland technology groups are joining forces in a bid to raise the state’s profile as a national hub for innovation. The Technology Council of Maryland, which represents the growing biotech and life sciences corridor in Montgomery County, and Betamore, the Baltimore-based tech incubator, are forming an alliance aimed at strengthening their advocacy efforts in Annapolis, leaders of both associations said. The decision to unite comes against the backdrop of Gov Larry Hogan’s (R-MD) agenda to improve the state’s reputation as a good place to conduct business.

Comcast and NBCUniversal Open Cross-Promotional Ad Strategy

For several years, NBCUniversal and its parent, Comcast, have been giving their own television shows and movies corporate cross-promotion. But in the last 18 months, the media conglomerate has quietly opened the marketing strategy, which it calls Symphony, to outside advertisers like Microsoft. The idea is to give marketers the ability to use Comcast’s broad range of assets -- which include television channels, websites, theme parks and talent -- for ad campaigns. An internal creative agency of sorts, called the Content Innovation Agency, helps marketers create the content for the promotion.

In addition to Microsoft, NBCUniversal has teamed up with 20th Century Fox to market the movie “Night at the Museum 3,” with Disney to promote “Frozen,” and with Chase bank as well. The media company hopes to sign up two marketers in 2015 and plans to promote the cross-promotion strategy at the annual advertising festival in Cannes. Marketers said Symphony allowed them to leverage NBCUniversal’s size to reach the millions of consumers who watch its programming, go on its websites and visit its theme parks. But industry analysts say the real appeal for both the advertiser and NBCUniversal may be much simpler: money. Advertisers may be getting a discount to sign up for the multiplatform strategy.

Taylor Swift Criticism Spurs Apple to Change Royalties Policy

Less than 24 hours after Taylor Swift complained publicly that Apple was not planning to pay royalties during a three-month trial period of its new streaming music service, the company changed course, and confirmed that it will pay its full royalty rates for music during the free trial. “When I woke up this morning and read Taylor’s note, it really solidified that we need to make a change,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services.

In a letter posted on June 21 to her Tumblr page, called “To Apple, Love Taylor,” Swift addressed a situation that had begun to send shock waves through the music industry: Apple, which has announced a subscription streaming service to compete with Spotify, Rhapsody and Deezer, was not going to pay royalties during the trial period. Swift, who in 2014 pulled her music from Spotify in another dispute over royalties, called Apple’s policy “shocking, disappointing and completely unlike this historically progressive company.” “We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” she added. “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”

Here are 4 visions of what journalism might look like in 2025

The future of journalism will come down in one of four ways. At least, that’s what a new report What’s New(s): Scenarios for the Future of Journalism, released by the Dutch Journalism Fund purports. And while the study looks specifically at the future of media in the Netherlands, the visions they describe are easily transferable to wherever you live. The report, which will be presented to the Dutch parliament, identifies four possible futures for 2025.

"The Wisdom of the Crowd": a world where journalistic startups have crushed traditional industry and the sharing economy prevails. Journalistic enterprises are bootstrapped and rely on crowdfunding, while a healthy skepticism by the public of major media interlopers like Apple and Facebook is maintained.

"A Handful of Apples": Giant technology companies -- see the aforementioned Apple and Facebook -- have set the agenda. News is highly personalized, but that’s due to the fact that all the chains and distribution platforms have been tightly contracted into the webs of these huge new powers. In this dystopian future, the traditional news industry has not survived and is now ruled by tech.

"The Shire": Though traditional institutions have still not survived in this scenario, they’ve been replaced by local and regional publications that are civically inclined. On thematically driven community sites, both citizen journalists and professional reporters find an audience.

"Darwin's Game": media organizations must adapt or perish. The narrowing mechanism is, rather unexpectedly, transparency. In “Darwin’s Game,” the news-consuming public has come to have exacting standards for the quality of their journalism, and wants journalists to show their work. To survive in this world, traditional media should expect to evolve in how they see their audience. Those that don’t should not expect to survive.

Brian Williams Scandal Shows Power of Social Media

The soldiers who prompted Brian Williams’s fall from one of the most powerful jobs in the media had first tried to blow the whistle on him in 2003. But that was before the Internet became ubiquitous. And so, like most people who had a problem with the news, the soldiers had few options. A clip of Williams recounting a helicopter attack in Iraq had been broadcast by NBC, then dissipated into the ether. So Joe Summerlin and some of the other soldiers involved in the incident, frustrated by what they viewed as a disingenuous presentation by Williams, did the only things they could easily do: They left futile notes of complaint in the news vans of rival networks, and, in a gesture of silent protest, made sure they switched channels when Williams appeared on their screens again.

Twelve years later, many more options were available, and Summerlin and his fellow soldiers were able to start a new breed of television scandal -- one that began with their Facebook comments, was amplified by Twitter and reached a crescendo as amateur sleuths took to YouTube to fact-check Williams’s reporting. Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism at New York University, who has studied the history of broadcast news, said that Williams fell into “an overall move towards a greater truth standard. It is just harder to get away with dissembling now.” Social media, he said, “is a great device for catching this stuff.”

Benton

Search