Net Neutrality: A Historic Decision [Benton’s weekly round-up]
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2016
Today's Events --
AGENDA
FCC Confirms June 24 Open Meeting Agenda [links to Federal Communications Commission]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Net Neutrality Ruling Finally Rights a Terrible Wrong - Michael Copps op-ed
FCC's Wheeler confident Supreme Court will back net neutrality [links to Benton summary]
Limbaugh Conspiracy: Obama Will Use Situations Like Orlando To "Take Control Of The Internet" [links to Benton summary]
Gordon Crovitz: The FCC’s net neutrality rules will stifle the internet and discourage investing in broadband. [links to Wall Street Journal]
Telecom, Utility Partnership Pursues Arkansas Gigabit [links to Benton summary]
AT&T North Carolina Gigabit Spreads Fast [links to telecompetitor]
Like Comcast, Google Fiber now forces customers into arbitration [links to Benton summary]
Top Takeaways from Appeals Court Upholding FCC Title II Internet Order [links to Scott Cleland]
AT&T North Carolina Gigabit Spreads Fast [links to telecompetitor]
CONTENT
Open access: All human knowledge is there—so why can’t everybody access it? [links to Benton summary]
The death of apps has been greatly exaggerated [links to Revere Digital]
Orlando gunman exchanged text messages with wife, searched Facebook during standoff [links to Washington Post]
The Internet of Estranged Families [links to Vice]
TELEVISION
This cable industry proposal would let you ditch your cable box forever [links to Washington Post]
INCOMPAS: Cable Has Made Set-Top Ditching Pledges Before [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
TV Everywhere Trends Report: 100% Growth in One Year [links to telecompetitor]
FCC Approves Gray Purchase of KYES Anchorage [links to Broadcasting&Cable]
LABOR
Verizon workers sign off on new contract after strike [links to Benton summary]
TELECOM
ILECs: Cable Lowballing Compromises Business Data [links to Benton summary]
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Google chairman: We're not going to touch Trump vs. Clinton [links to Benton summary]
Is Trump’s penchant for press bans trickling down to local politicians? - CJR analysis [links to Benton summary]
This week, Trump media coverage took an important turn [links to Columbia Journalism Review]
IRS complaint: American Democracy Legal Fund alleges that Trump’s foundation, political campaign are entwined [links to Washington Post]
Media winners and losers of the 2016 primaries [links to Benton summary]
SECURITY/PRIVACY
The DNC hack and dump is what cyberwar looks like - ars technica op-ed [links to Benton summary]
This is what Apple’s differential privacy means for iOS 10 [links to Verge, The]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Opportunity To Enter Into a Joint Venture With the National Technical Information Service for Data Innovation Support - public notice [links to Benton summary]
Sen Wyden warns against push to expand feds' access to e-mail records [links to Hill, The]
JOURNALISM
In Brands We Trust? - CJR analysis [links to Benton summary]
ADVERTISING
How the Association of National Advertisers Will Push for More Accurate Portrayals of Women in Ads [links to AdWeek]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Beijing: Apple iPhone Violated Chinese Patent
China increases its harassment of Apple [links to Wall Street Journal editorial]
A Canadian Telecom Is Limiting a Free WiFi Program For Low-Income Families
Anonymous hacker hijacks ISIS Twitter account, posts gay pride messages [links to Hill, The]
China eclipses US to become undisputed king of supercomputers [links to CNNMoney]
MORE ONLINE
Apple wants to kill a bill that could make it easier for you to fix your iPhone [links to Washington Post]
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
RULING RIGHTS A TERRIBLE WRONG
[SOURCE: Moyers and Company, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] “For the reasons set forth is this opinion, we deny the petitions for review.” Those were the sweetest words I’ve heard in a long while, as the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit turned down the ridiculous efforts of the big telecom companies to derail the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet — or “net neutrality” — rules. The decision capped years of struggle between open-internet advocates and the cable and telecom conglomerates. Without strong net-neutrality rules, broadband providers could exercise intolerable levels of gatekeeper control over what users can do, see and say online. The FCC rules just affirmed by the court prevent them from playing favorites by slowing down or even blocking particular websites and applications. This victory is a testament to the indefatigable work of millions of advocates across the nation who set out to correct a heinous mistake the FCC made 14 years ago. The facts and law were always on the public’s side, and now the court has upheld every word of the FCC’s new soundly based rules. The ruling affirms, for all to see, that the FCC does indeed have the legal authority it needs to protect the people’s interest in an open internet.
[Copps is a former commissioner and acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, where he served from 2001–11]
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-ruling-finally-rights-terrible-wrong | Moyers and Company
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
BEIJING: APPLE IPHONE VIOLATED CHINESE PATENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Eva Dou, Daisuke Wakabayashi]
In Dec 2014, a small Chinese startup posted a letter online accusing Apple of infringing its patent for smartphone exterior design. In a sign of an increasingly challenging landscape for Western companies, the Chinese company—the little-known Shenzhen Baili, founded by a former Huawei Technologies Co. executive—won a surprise injunction against sales of Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Beijing, although Apple said the order had been stayed pending appeal and sales remain unaffected. The patent win is a hint of the growing challenges that Western companies are likely to face in China in coming years on multiple fronts. Chinese companies are becoming stronger competitors in their own right, and Chinese regulators are increasingly insistent that foreign firms play by Beijing’s rules. As a company geared to consumers and one of China’s favorite brands, Apple has long seemed to get a pass from regulators on the strict scrutiny that has fallen on makers of more sensitive equipment like servers and routers. Industry watchers mused over why Apple was able to sell mobile content while other foreign companies couldn’t. Many chalked it up to Chinese officials’ love for iPhones. But under President Xi Jinping, China has taken a stricter view of technologies and content that it previously gave wider berth.
benton.org/headlines/beijing-apple-iphone-violated-chinese-patent | Wall Street Journal | The Guardian
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LIMITING FREE WIFI
[SOURCE: Vice, AUTHOR: Jordan Pearson]
Canadian telecoms are refusing to offer more data for a program that gives digitally disenfranchised people a lifeline when they need it. “Unlimited data plans aren’t really available in Canada,” said Sara Tavakolian, the project lead on the Toronto Public Libraries’ WiFi program. “Our goal was to get an unlimited data plan, but we weren’t given any option.” “Hopefully the publicity about this, and the support from the city and Google, will allow us to negotiate a more affordable and flexible data plan going forward,” said Tavakolian. Library patrons may borrow devices for up to six months, but if they go over the allotted 10 gigabytes, the device automatically shuts off until the first of the next month. To give you an idea of how little data per month that is, even Bell's most basic home internet plan offers 75 gigabytes of usage.
benton.org/headlines/canadian-telecom-limiting-free-wifi-program-low-income-families | Vice
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