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  2. April 2016

April 2016

Comcast rejects accusation that it hasn't met FCC diversity guidelines

Comcast continues to vigorously defend its diversity record with the Federal Communications Commission, calling accusations that it launched figurehead channels to satisfy mandates associated with the 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal "rank speculation." Through his National Association of African American-Owned Media and Entertainment Studios, Inc., media mogul complained to the FCC in March that channels including Aspire and Revolt have prominent African-Americans attached to them, but are really run by the established paradigm of white TV executives. "Comcast, Aspire, and Revolt have rebutted petitioners' false allegations, and petitioners offer no contrary evidence," Comcast said in its latest FCC filing. "Yet, they nonetheless make the offensive claim that 'the information generally available strongly indicates' that Comcast's African American partners 'make mere cameo appearances as necessary to maintain the illusion and pick up the occasional check.' "Petitioners' reply makes no serious effort to rebut Comcast's showing that Revolt and Aspire are entirely independent from Comcast," the company added. Further, Comcast said the FCC shouldn't consider Allen's petition, since filing rules were violated.

Encryption Fight: How Many Times Can The Government Cry Wolf?

In two high-profile cases now, the government has gone to court to force Apple to help break into a criminal's iPhone—only to abandon its legal effort at the eleventh hour before a crucial hearing or filing deadline. In the much-publicized San Bernardino (CA) case, the FBI announced it would abandon its cause because an unnamed third party had come forward with a way to crack the iPhone of gunman Syed Farook without Apple’s help. Then in a Brooklyn (NY) case, the Justice Department abandoned its request for a court order after Jun Feng, a convicted drug trafficker, provided his passcode when the feds asked him for it. Emily Pierce, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the DOJ had asked Feng for the passcode much earlier and that he claimed to have forgotten it. The question is, now that the government has thrown in the towel in two cases, will it will try again in a new case in some other court? And if it does, will the judge believe that it has truly exhausted all other means and needs Apple’s assistance?

In both the San Bernardino and Brooklyn cases, the government insisted that Apple's help was the only way, and that turned out not to be true. Some believe we've seen the last of the government's All Writs Act tactic. "My best guess is that after yet another eleventh-hour reversal, DOJ won't bring another of these All Writs Act cases," says Andrew Crocker, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Instead, I think we should expect to see even stronger efforts to pass some sort of anti-security bill in Congress—the sort of government access mandate we've seen in the Burr-Feinstein proposal."

Verizon Network Function Virtualization Plan

Network function virtualization (NFV) is most commonly viewed as a way to reduce network equipment costs by replacing traditional purpose-built devices with software controlled general purpose hardware. But as Verizon NFV plans illustrate, the technology could have other benefits as well.

Verizon anticipates NFV providing savings in three areas – capex, opex and time to market, said Chris Emmons, Verizon director of network infrastructure planning. Verizon recently announced that it had deployed NFV across five of its US data centers. But as Emmons explained, the data center deployments are just the beginning of Verizon’s NFV plans. The company also plans to deploy NFV in its aggregation and edge networks beginning 2016. “What we announced today [was the] underlying foundation,” Emmons said. “It’s a network that...op to bottom will be programmable at every layer.” As the company deploys “similar hardware” in data centers and aggregation and edge networks, the company expects to see capex savings and efficiencies because “the same type of hardware will be deployed over and over again,” said Emmons.

Campaign Legal Center Pushes FCC for Enhanced Ad Disclosure

The Campaign Legal Center says the Federal Communications Commission is failing to do its job, and in the process failing the American people, by not launching a rulemaking to tighten disclosure requirements for TV and radio political ads. In the wake of the Citizens United decision allowing corporations and unions to fund campaign electioneering ads (for or against a candidate) the center has been pushing the FCC to require broadcasters to identify the actual funders of SuperPACs, rather than PAC officials, when they air the ads. The rules as the FCC has interpreted them do not require such enhanced disclosures. CLC has filed complaints over allegedly insufficient disclosures, but the FCC's Media Bureau has not seen it CLC's way.

In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, CLC policy director Meredith McGehee says TV viewers are ill-served and misinformed by political ads, and lays the blame "squarely" on the FCC. "First, the FCC has refused to move forward on updating the regulations implementing the sponsorship identification requirements in Section 3171 of the Communications Act, which spells out the on-air disclosure requirements for sponsorship identification. Second, the Commission has allowed its Media Bureau’s misinterpretation of existing sponsorship identification requirements to stand. As a result, television viewers across the country are not accurately informed of the true identities of those sponsoring political advertisements."

Top business leaders, 27 governors, urge Congress to boost computer science education

Leaders of dozens of the nation’s top businesses — from Apple and Facebook to Target, Walmart and AT&T — are calling on Congress to help provide computer science education in all K-12 schools, arguing that the United States needs far more students who are literate in the technologies that are transforming nearly every industry. They worry that the United States could lose its competitive edge without significant efforts to boost computer science among the nation’s youth.

A bipartisan coalition of 27 Govs has joined the effort, saying they see teaching coding and programming as a way to draw middle-class jobs to their states, and dozens of school system superintendents and nonprofit leaders say they see computer science courses as essential for giving children the skills they’ll need to be successful in the modern economy. “Our schools should give all students the opportunity to understand how this technology works, to learn how to be creators, coders, and makers — not just consumers,” they wrote in an open letter to lawmakers. “Instead, what is increasingly a basic skill is only available to the lucky few, leaving most students behind, particularly students of color and girls.” An estimated 500,000 unfilled US jobs require some level of computer-science understanding, yet three-quarters of the nation’s public schools do not offer any computer science courses, often sending companies turning to foreign workers for specialized skills. The federal government isn’t doing much to help: Virtually no federal funding is dedicated to enhancing computer science offerings in K-12 schools.

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