April 18, 2016 (Broadband Rate Regulation; Internet and Prisons)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2061
CURB Your Enthusiasm: House Considers Capping Lifeline Program and Passes Ban on Broadband Rate Regulation [links to Benton summary]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
House votes to undermine network neutrality rules, and ISPs cheer
Will Cheap Broadband Actually Make It to Rural America? Here's How It Might Happen
Unlocking Potential: Internet and Prisons
Wisconsin Broadband Legislation Aims to Cut Through Red Tape [links to Benton summary]
Business Fiber Report: More Than 2 Million Locations Connected [links to Benton summary]
Gordon Crovitz: If Washington continues to abandon its commitment to the open Internet, the dreams of digital innovators around the world will be crushed [links to Wall Street Journal editorial]
TELEVISION/CONTENT
Thinking Outside the Cable Box: How More Competition Gets You a Better Deal - White House press release
‘Unlocking’ Pandora’s Set-Top Box: Devil Is in the Details of FCC Proposal for Pay TV - Revere Digital op-ed [links to Benton summary]
Broadcast TV's Future Is In Chairman Wheeler's Hands - TVNewsCheck editorial [links to Benton summary]
Diversity Advocates Continue Attack on FCC’s ‘Unlock the Box’ Plan [links to Multichannel News]
The ghost of Aereo rises: Local TV streaming coming to Sling TV, apparently [links to Ars Technica]
Facebook Still Controls the Future of Online Media [links to Vice]
Media Websites Battle Faltering Ad Revenue and Traffic [links to New York Times]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Ted Cruz’s TV time shows where he needs to improve [links to Washington Post]
Facebook Employees Asked Mark Zuckerberg If They Should Try to Stop a Donald Trump Presidency [links to Gizmodo]
Facebook denies that it would ever try to influence the election [links to Hill, The]
Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, gets the most negative media coverage [links to Vox]
A $353K Clinton donation gets techies up close with Clooneys, too [links to Revere Digital]
The new Gilded Age: Close to half of all super PAC money comes from 50 donors [links to Washington Post]
The Los Angeles Times makes endorsements out of a conviction that making a choice -- and doing our best to justify that choice in writing -- can help voters make their own decision. [links to Los Angeles Times editorial]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
RNC's Voter Data Provider Teams Up With Google, Facebook and Other Ad Firms [links to Benton summary]
Idea to retire: Technology alone fosters collaboration and networks - Brookings op-ed [links to Benton summary]
The new Gilded Age: Close to half of all super PAC money comes from 50 donors [links to Washington Post]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
Individual Bidders Flock to Auction
Sprint just made its network much faster in New York City [links to Verge, The]
TELECOM
The digital pressures weighing on telecoms - press release [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
The San Bernardino case is already changing Apple’s arguments over another locked iPhone
Defending Ourselves in an Increasingly Connected World [links to Vice]
High-tech police spying rules take shape
OWNERSHIP
The digital Gilded Age: DC faces Silicon Valley's riches – and ever-growing power
Canadian Cable Company Cogeco Still Seeks US Cable Deals [links to Multichannel News]
Disney wants to invest in Major League Baseball’s video streaming company [links to Revere Digital]
POLICYMAKERS
Attorney General Lynch Announces Renata B. Hesse to Serve as Head of Antitrust Division - press release
STORIES FROM ABROAD
How Europe's new privacy rules affect entire digital economy
INTERNET/BROADBAND
NO RATE REGULATION OF BROADBAND ACT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The House of Representatives approved a Republican proposal that limits the Federal Communications Commission's authority to regulate Internet providers. The "No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act" was ostensibly proposed to prevent the FCC from setting the rates charged by Internet providers. But the bill defines "rate regulation" so broadly that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says it could prevent the commission from enforcing network neutrality rules against blocking and throttling. The FCC says it has no plans to impose strict utility rate regulation on Internet providers, but it can review whether specific rates are "unjust" or "unreasonable" under its authority to regulate common carriers. This bill would remove that authority and could also limit the FCC's authority to prevent ISPs from applying data caps in discriminatory ways. The White House has already threatened to veto the bill, so it isn't likely to become law even if it passes the Senate. The House vote was mostly along party lines, with 241 representatives in favor and 173 against.
benton.org/headlines/house-votes-undermine-network-neutrality-rules-and-isps-cheer | Ars Technica
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WILL CHEAP BROADBAND ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO RURAL AMERICA?
[SOURCE: Inverse, AUTHOR: William Hoffman]
In Marty Newell’s part of eastern Kentucky, the only internet connection available is sluggish: a 12-megabytes-per-second download and a laughable 1 mbps-upload rate. Newell, coordinator of the Rural Broadband Policy Group, an Internet access advocacy organization, says he’s hopeful about the future after the Federal Communications Commission’s expansion of its Lifeline program to require affordable access to the Internet through phones and portable Wi-Fi hotspot devices. “If kids can go home and use a tethered mobile device to connect tablets to school, they are miles ahead,” Newell said. “I think that’s one of the most promising features of this expansion.” The problem is far more pervasive among rural communities, where 53 percent of residents living in these areas lack basic broadband speeds. It’s not necessarily the case that those 22 million people can’t afford broadband — although that is certainly part of the issue — but it’s more so that Internet providers don’t consider the cost of servicing these areas economically profitable. It’s a problem that the FCC knows well: It’s devoted a two-part program called the Connect America Fund and the High Cost program, each of which provide different subsidies to Internet service providers, depending on the carrier. However, Mark Wigfield, deputy director of the FCC’s Office of Media Relations said that since its adoption in 2011, the Connect America Fund is just now starting to pick up steam. But while these two programs address Internet service providers directly, the Lifeline program could have a greater indirect effect.
benton.org/headlines/will-cheap-broadband-actually-make-it-rural-america-heres-how-it-might-happen | Inverse
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UNLOCKING POTENTIAL: INTERNET AND PRISONS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Bianca Reisdorf]
[Commentary] Researchers and policymakers have largely forgotten prisoners when considering universal Internet access and the Digital Divide. These inmates are, by default, digitally excluded during their incarcerations, denying them access to a potentially potent tool for improving rehabilitation and decreasing recidivism. In 2015, Ben Branstetter wrote a compelling article that makes a strong case for Internet access as a basic human right for prisoners. His main argument is connected to the revolving door phenomenon: more than two thirds of released prisoners end up back in prison within three years of their release. Allowing access to the Internet, Branstetter argues, would allow prisoners to gain important skills, increase their chances of finding a paid job after release, and in turn, reduce recidivism. His arguments are similar to those that Eli Lehrer made earlier in 2013. However, what is missing from the debate is actual research data about what prisoners and other interested parties think about Internet access in prisons.
[Dr. Bianca C. Reisdorf is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Quello Center, Michigan State University.]
https://www.benton.org/blog/unlocking-potential-internet-and-prisons
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TELEVISION/CONTENT
THINKING OUTSIDE THE CABLE BOX
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Jason Furman, Jeffrey Zients]
President Barack Obama announced that his Administration is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to open up set-top cable boxes to competition. This will allow for companies to create new, innovative, higher-quality, lower-cost products. Instead of spending nearly $1,000 over four years to lease a set of behind-the-times boxes, American families will have options to own a device for much less money that will integrate everything they want — including their cable or satellite content, as well as online streaming apps — in one, easier-to-use gadget. But we’re not stopping there. The President announced a broader new initiative through an Executive Order that calls on departments and agencies to make further progress through specific, pro-competition executive actions that empower and inform consumers, workers, and entrepreneurs. In 60 days, agencies will report back on specific areas where we can make additional progress. Alongside that announcement, the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) released a new issue brief that describes the many benefits of competition, highlights recent work by the independent antitrust authorities, and argues that consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses would benefit from additional policy actions to promote competition within a variety of industries. These new steps will build on pro-competition progress we’ve made—from cell phone unlocking to network neutrality, from cracking down on conflicts of interest in retirement advice to efforts to free up essential technologies so that big incumbent companies can’t crowd out their competitors.
benton.org/headlines/thinking-outside-cable-box-how-more-competition-gets-you-better-deal | White House, The | NTIA
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
INDIVIDUAL BIDDERS FLOCK TO AUCTION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ryan Knutson, Kate Linebaugh]
A coming government auction of wireless airwaves has attracted an unusually large number of individuals to an affair typically dominated by corporate giants such as AT&T and Verizon Communications. While such auctions usually draw a few outsiders, nearly 30 of the 104 applications submitted by this auction’s potential bidders are from individuals without corporate ties. No other auction in the past decade has drawn more than nine individuals, according to Federal Communications Commission records. The individual bidders in the current auction include an elected official in California, a young Wisconsinite, and a retired school principal in Chicago. They all are asking for a 25% discount, an incentive that Congress encouraged the FCC to create more than two decades ago to attract new entrants to the wireless industry. The unusual number of individuals among 2016’s would-be bidders has raised questions within the FCC.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/individual-bidders-flock-to-auction-14606768...
benton.org/headlines/individual-bidders-flock-auction | Wall Street Journal
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SECURITY/PRIVACY
APPLE VS JUSTICE II
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
Apple on argued that the government has “utterly failed” to show that the tech giant is the only party that can crack a drug dealer’s locked iPhone in a closely watched legal battle in Brooklyn. In a new filing, Apple invoked the Justice Department’s handling of the high-profile San Bernardino case, in which prosecutors initially insisted that only Apple could help the FBI access a phone used by one of the shooters. Then on the eve of oral arguments last month, prosecutors abruptly announced that an “outside party” had shown the bureau a possible method to unlock the phone. In the Brooklyn case, prosecutors have similarly asserted that Apple is the “only entity” that can pull data from the iPhone, the firm’s lawyers said in their brief. But the tech firm said “the government has failed to demonstrate it has conducted an ‘exhaustive search’ for alternative option.”
benton.org/headlines/san-bernardino-case-already-changing-apples-arguments-over-another-locked-iphone | Washington Post
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SANTA CLARA SURVEILLANCE ORDINANCE
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Eric Kurhi]
Santa Clara County (CA) officials are poised to approve sweeping rules governing police use of cell phone trackers and other spying technology that advocates say will be a model for the nation but that cops worry could hamper investigations. The ordinance mandates that government agencies publicly establish a policy before any new surveillance technology is acquired or used. It also requires annual reports on how the technology is used and what the results have been. What makes it different from other ordinances around the nation is that rather than target named gadgets, the language encompasses any surveillance-related technology, including what can't be foreseen. The proposed Santa Clara County ordinance would apply only to Santa Clara County agencies, and not prohibit the use of surveillance evidence coming from outside jurisdictions.
benton.org/headlines/high-tech-police-spying-rules-take-shape | San Jose Mercury News
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OWNERSHIP
DIGITAL GILDED AGE
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Nellie Bowles]
The late 19th century was a period known as “the Gilded Age” in America. As the railroads, mining industries and factories boomed, millions of workers were inspired to migrate from Europe, yet the wealth became concentrated among a small set of industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate, and the oil baron John D Rockefeller. These men wielded massive power through business, political efforts and philanthropy. Yet even Carnegie, whose ruthlessness earned him a reputation as a “robber baron”, would have been amazed by the power the heads of technology firms wield today, according to the Carnegie biographer David Nasaw. “Carnegie could never have imagined the kind of power Zuckerberg has,” said Nasaw, a history professor at City University of New York. “Politics today is less relevant than it has ever been in our entire history. These CEOs are more powerful than they’ve ever been. The driving force of social change today is no longer government at all.” Tech CEOs have spent 2016 wading into politics when it suits their own ends, and even going head-to-head with the US government.
benton.org/headlines/digital-gilded-age-dc-faces-silicon-valleys-riches-and-ever-growing-power | Guardian, The
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POLICYMAKERS
HESSE ANNOUNCED AS HEAD OF ANTITRUST DIVISION
[SOURCE: Department of Justice, AUTHOR: Press release]
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced that Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse of the Antitrust Division will assume leadership of the Division. Hesse succeeds Bill Baer, who became the Acting Associate Attorney General. Before her selection to run the Antitrust Division, Hesse served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal and Civil Operations in the division for almost four years. During this time, she also served as the division’s Acting Assistant Attorney General immediately prior to Baer’s confirmation. Hesse was a career trial attorney in the division between 1997 and 2006, in the last four years of which she served as the Chief of the Networks and Technology Section. Hesse has also served as a senior counsel to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, where she was responsible for overseeing the FCC’s review of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, and was a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Hesse received her JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and her B.A. from Wellesley College.
benton.org/headlines/attorney-general-lynch-announces-renata-b-hesse-serve-head-antitrust-division | Department of Justice
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
EUROPEAN PRIVACY RULES
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Colette Davidson]
After four years of negotiations, the European Parliament adopted sweeping privacy reforms that will not only change how the European Union handles personal data but will have ripple effects across the entire global digital economy. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides a single set of rules on Internet privacy safeguards, giving individuals vastly greater control over how their information is handled by both European and American tech companies. In fact, the data regulations, which take effect in 2018, extend Europeans' so called "right to be forgotten" – a two-year-old policy that gives Europeans the chance to erase their checkered past or erroneous posts from Google's search results – to any type of international company such as data brokers or retailers that collects digital repositories of Europeans' personal data. And companies that don't comply with the rules will face fines of up to 4 percent of their worldwide annual revenue or 20 million euros, whichever is greater. Within the next two years, businesses must be prepared not only to comply with the new rules but to develop new mechanisms such as transparency reports to show regulators they are abiding by the privacy regime.
benton.org/headlines/how-europes-new-privacy-rules-affect-entire-digital-economy | Christian Science Monitor
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