Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
House Commerce Committee
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
2 pm
http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/progress-toward-nationwide-publi...
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will continue its oversight of FirstNet, a nationwide interoperable public safety network for first responders. Members will receive an update on FirstNet’s progress toward building out this public safety network, which was a key recommendation of the 9/11 commission.
Witnesses
T.J. Kennedy
Acting Executive Director
First Responder Network Authority
Stu Davis
State Chief Information Officer
Assistant Director
Ohio Department of Administrative Services
Apparently, despite pushback from noncommercial broadcasters and some phone calls from the Hill, the Federal Communications Commission is still proposing not to guarantee at least one noncommercial channel reservation in each market after the incentive auction. That is part of a number of rejections of petitions to reconsider the incentive auction framework that the FCC plans to vote on at its public meeting June 18.
Multiple sources inside and outside the FCC said, that as far as they knew, the item still denies the request by the Association of Public Television Stations, PBS and CPB for at least one noncommercial channel in each market after the auction -- in case, as expected, some noncoms give up their spectrum for auction. Without that set-aside, they warned, it could adversely impact minority communities and others reliant on over-the-air TV. FCC staffers have been arguing the channel set-asides would complicate the auction, said one source familiar with conversations with those staffers, though it would be hard to make it any more complicated than it already is.
Federal Communications Commission Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Alison Kutler appointed Parul P. Desai to serve as the Open Internet ombudsperson, the public's primary point of contact within the Federal Communications Commission for formal and informal questions and complaints related to the Open Internet rules. Desai serves as Assistant Bureau Chief and Director of Consumer Engagement in the consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB). Prior to that, she was Policy counsel for media, telecommunications and technology policy at Consumers Union and Vice President at Media Access Project.
Belgium’s privacy watchdog has begun legal action against Facebook, accusing the social network site of tracking its users across the web and even monitoring the activities of those without an account. The independent Privacy Commission, which is working with German, Dutch, French and Spanish counterparts, accused Facebook in May of trampling on European privacy laws after trying to find out more about the US social media giant’s practices. “We did not get satisfactory answers so this was the next step,” said a spokeswoman for the Commission for the Protection of Privacy (CPP).
The commission has asked the court, which will convene on June 18, for an immediate order banning Facebook from monitoring non-users in particular, which it may do via plug-ins or cookies. Facebook said it was surprised and disappointed that the CPP had agreed to a meeting and then taken the “theatrical” action of taking Facebook to court the day before. It said it was confident there was no merit in the case, but it would be happy to work to resolve the concerns through a dialogue with its regulator, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. Facebook has previously described cookies as an industry standard and said that Internet users had the right to opt out.
AT&T has launched its fiber-based “GigaPower” service to parts of Charlotte (NC), a move that puts some speed pressure on incumbent cable operator, Time Warner Cable, and comes ahead of Google Fiber’s planned deployment in that market. To qualified homes in Charlotte, AT&T is offering a standalone 1 Gbps service starting at $70 per month (when customers agree to participate in AT&T’s Internet Preferences, the telecommunication company’s targeted Web advertising program), essentially matching up with the price Google Fiber has been selling its standalone 1-Gig service.
AT&T has been selling GigaPower's standalone 1-Gig service for more in other markets. But unlike Google Fiber, AT&T has been applying a monthly data consumption policy to GigaPower that caps usage at 1-terabyte before charging $10 for each additional bucket of 50 Gigabytes, with a maximum monthly overage charge of $30. AT&T is also pairing 1-Gig with TV starting at $120 per month, and a triple-play package starting at $150 per month.
Comcast executive and power-broker David L. Cohen and his wife, Rhonda, are holding a midday "conversation" and fundraiser with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton at their house June 26. Tickets are $2,700 a person, the maximum individual contribution allowed to federal candidates per election.
People who raise $27,000 from others qualify as co-hosts of the event and gain membership in the Clinton campaign's "Hillstarters" program. Bring in $50,000 and you get a private reception with Clinton, and also will become part of the "Hillraisers" program for bundlers. Hillstarters and Hillraisers receive premium benefits, such as regular briefings from top campaign officials.
[Commentary] Clayton Kelly wanted to break through as a blogger and expose some dirt on a politician he disliked. Now, he is headed to prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy. So what exactly did Kelly do? He used his cellphone to shoot a few seconds of video of the politician's wife in her room, and later he posted the video -- very briefly -- on his blog. Kevin Camp, Kelly’s lawyer, had argued that his client’s intent in recording and publishing the video was to engage in protected political speech about the politician's purported relationship with a longtime staffer. “This brings up all sorts of free-speech issues,” Camp said. “There was never any intent to harm.” That argument didn’t carry the day.
In court, the judge declared, “This is not a case about the defendant’s First Amendment rights; it’s about whether or not he did what he’s been charged with.” The prosecutor added, “A reporter can’t break into someone’s home to take a picture of them. You can’t commit a crime under the First Amendment.” It’s true, as I’ve written before, that the speech and press clauses focus on the right to publish, and the protections for gathering information are less clear. The argument that Kelly was free to record the politician's wife -- in her private room, in a nursing home -- is an uphill one to make, especially if he gained access through deceit. It’s also true that if a person faces valid criminal charges, the First Amendment is not very helpful as a defense.
Tom Wheeler’s tenure as Federal Communications Commission Chairman is at the halfway point. This is a good time to assess what he has accomplished and what is to come.
A consumer group, Consumer Watchdog, asked the Federal Communications Commission to force web service providers like Google to honor users’ requests that their information not be collected and sold. The group said in its petition that “edge providers,” or companies that provide services over the Internet, should follow “Do Not Track” requests from users. Currently, a user can tell their browser to send websites they access a Do Not Track request. They are largely symbolic because most websites don’t honor the requests.
The Consumer Watchdog filing comes days after the FCC’s network neutrality order went into effect. Under the new rules, the FCC is allowed to punish Internet providers for privacy violations under Section 222 of the Communications Act -- which the consumer group cited in the filing. Edge providers differ from the broadband providers subject to the net neutrality order. “Consumers’ privacy concerns about the Internet extend far beyond the broadband providers who are impacted by Section 222,” they wrote. “Many consumers are as concerned -- or perhaps even more worried -- about the online tracking and data collection practices of edge providers....A rule requiring that Do Not Track signals be honored would undoubtedly put to rest many consumers’ privacy concerns about the Internet. It would certainly bolster broadband deployment and use,” the group wrote.
On June 11, 2015, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a motion for stay filed by several broadband providers who oppose the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet Order passed earlier this year. The following statement can be attributed to Benton Foundation Director of Policy Amina Fazlullah:
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