1. Monthly archive
  2. December 2015

December 2015

FCC Releases Fifth 'Measuring Broadband America' Report

The Federal Communications Commission released the results of its ongoing nationwide performance study of consumers’ fixed broadband Internet access service in its fifth “Measuring Broadband America” report. The report furthers the FCC’s efforts to provide greater transparency about network performance to help consumers make more informed choices about broadband services. The report shows that broadband speed offerings to the average consumer continue to increase at a rapid pace, and broadband service providers generally are delivering actual speeds that meet or exceed advertised speeds. However, results are not uniform across technologies. The report finds a growing disparity in advertised download speeds between many DSL-based broadband services and most cable- and fiber-based broadband services. This year’s report highlights the following findings:

  • Significant growth in advertised broadband speeds available to consumers, though the results are not uniform across technologies.
  • Actual speeds experienced by most Internet service providers’ subscribers are close to or exceed advertised speeds.
  • Consumers with access to faster services continue to migrate to higher service tiers.
  • Latency and packet loss vary by technologies.

FTC Announces Agenda for PrivacyCon

The Federal Trade Commission announced its agenda for PrivacyCon, a first-of-its-kind FTC event featuring 19 presentations of original research regarding important consumer privacy and security issues by leading academics from universities and think tanks from around the world. The conference, which will take place in Washington (DC) on Jan. 14, 2016, will also include discussion sessions about the policy implications of the research being conducted with thought leaders from academia, research, consumer advocacy, and industry.

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will provide opening remarks, and Commissioner Julie Brill and newly appointed Chief Technologist Lorrie Cranor will also speak at the event. The day will be divided into five major topic areas: the current state of online privacy, consumers’ privacy expectations, big data and algorithms, the economics of privacy and security, and security and usability. Within each topic area, researchers will present new research on the topic, which will be followed by a short discussion session addressing the issues more broadly.

FTC Issues Biennial Report to Congress on the National Do Not Call Registry

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its biennial report to Congress on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses over the past two years. As of September 30, 2015, the National Do Not Call Registry had more than 222 million active registrations, an increase of more than 4.9 million registrations from the previous fiscal year. In FY 2015, 2,504 businesses and other entities paid Registry access fees totaling more than $13.3 million. Another 20,596 entities accessed the Registry without paying a fee because they access five or fewer area codes or are a charity. Similar numbers of entities utilized the Registry in FY 2014 and paid access fees of more than $13.5 million.

The report addresses: 1) the impact of the five-year re-registration requirement which was eliminated in 2007; 2) how the FTC is responding to new technologies that have increased the number of illegal telemarketing calls made to numbers on the Registry; 3) issues regarding number portability and abandoned telephone numbers; and 4) the impact of the established business relationship exception on consumers and businesses. The report notes that the DNC Registry exists to provide consumers with a choice regarding whether or not to receive telemarketing calls. Accordingly, the FTC works to keep it accessible and effective for both consumers and telemarketers.

The Authors Guild files to take Google to the Supreme Court

The Authors Guild has officially asked the Supreme Court to hear its case against Google -- a long-running dispute over whether copyright law allows for Google to scan and post excerpts from books for its Google Books service. The group filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court Dec 31.

Google's free service allows users to search for particular lines or quotes in books through the company's main search engine, and also displays parts of scanned pages of books. The Authors Guild and Google have fought for 10 years over whether that qualifies as "fair use." The Authors Guild first complained in 2005 that this violates copyright and undermines the value of authors' work by providing their books online and for free. The group has argued that Google Books, essentially, gives people access to their work without having to pay for it. It also objected to Google's partnerships with libraries to provide this online material. The Authors Guild does not want to shut Google Books down, but it does want Google to pay copyright fees, said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors Guild and a copyright attorney.

Confronting the Software-ization of Media

[Commentary] Welcome to “the software-ization of media.” Over the last 20 years, media has transformed from a brush stroke into a sort of software. We sketch structure with CSS today, code functionality with JavaScript and transcode content into binary. Then we merge it all together into a big package of computer code.

Fact is, media is a code-based medium now -- and the time has come to face it. As a creative art, media is defined by the tools that produce it. For instance, we use big presses to create broadsheet newspapers, and sophisticated transmission systems to create 24-hour news networks. Digital media is no different. It’s defined by the tools that produce it. The better the tools, the more we can do, and the more easily we can do it. The question is, as Internet publishers, what kind of tools do we want at our disposal?

[James Abels is the founder of Three Minute Media]

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