April 17, 2014 (Net neutrality ruling complicates US transition to IP networks)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

NETWORK NEUTRALITY RULING COMPLICATES US TRANSITION TO IP NETWORKS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The transition from copper-based telephone systems to IP networks in the US could become swept up in political fallout as the Federal Communications Commission figures out how to regulate such networks in ways that will appease the courts. A switch to IP-based networks has been progressing for years in the US, but a January ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit calls into doubt the FCC's authority in several areas, such as prohibiting voice-over-IP providers from degrading service or blocking calls from competing carriers, and requiring them to offer service to all customers who want it. And the technological changes are rekindling the debate over whether the FCC as an entity should continue to exist at all, or at the least whether it needs a major transition itself. The IP transition, combined with the network neutrality ruling, puts several features of the traditional telephone network, long taken for granted by customers, in doubt, said Harold Feld, senior vice president at digital rights group Public Knowledge. After the net neutrality ruling, "the FCC can no longer require VoIP providers to complete phone calls [and] can no longer prohibit VoIP carriers from blocking calls," Feld wrote in a January blog post. The copper-to-IP "revolution necessitates an equally fundamental transformation of the legacy regulatory framework," AT&T's lawyers wrote in a later FCC filing. "Today's rules were designed for a voice-centric world in which [incumbent carrier] ILECs owned 99 percent of access lines, and there is no rational basis for sustaining them in a world where ILECs have rapidly declining minority market shares and voice is becoming just one applications among many riding over converged, data-centric networks."
benton.org/node/180599 | IDG News Service
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RECRAFTING OPEN INTERNET RULES
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Amina Fazlullah]
On April 11, the Benton Foundation responded to the Federal Communications Commission’s request for public comment on how to preserve an Open Internet in the wake of the ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit which struck down some of the FCC’s Open Internet (or “network neutrality”) rules. Benton strongly believes that Open Internet rules are necessary for the Internet to continue to be a boon to commerce and our democracy, and they remain an important policy goal of the FCC. It is particularly important to enact strong Open Internet rules because of the disproportionate impact of an ISP’s discriminatory behavior on vulnerable populations, such as people of color, low-income populations, seniors, people with disabilities, and rural communities. In the current proceeding, the FCC indicated its preference to enact Open Internet standards under Sec 706 authority and to enforce those standards on a case-by-case basis. In our comments, Benton encourages the FCC to take a close look at the issues surrounding use of Sec 706, and consider a pathway to achieve meaningful protections through reclassification of the provision of broadband as a telecommunications service. This may be a politically difficult choice, but it is an inevitable choice if the FCC is to ensure the continued value and viability of the Internet. In addition, reclassifying broadband delivery services would further solidify the FCC’s authority to make necessary updates to vital universal service programs including E-Rate, Lifeline, and Link-up which ensure that telecommunications services are available and affordable throughout the country.
http://benton.org/node/180524
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VERIZON LED MASSIVE ASTROTURF CAMPAIGN TO END NJ BROADBAND OBLIGATION
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
Verizon doesn't want to deploy high-speed wired broadband service to all New Jersey residents, despite receiving financial perks from the state for the past 20 years in exchange for building a statewide network. To make sure it doesn't have to complete the buildout to all of New Jersey's 8.9 million residents, Verizon led an astroturf campaign that flooded the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) with hundreds of identical e-mails purporting to support Verizon's case. One person who is listed as having written one of these e-mails said that he didn't submit anything, and if he did, "I would've slammed them." A report in Stop the Cap found several other Verizon "supporters" who had no idea e-mails were submitted under their names. LinkedIn searches show that some of the people sending the aforementioned e-mails are Verizon employees, with titles such as "field tech" or "sourcing process leader." Three hundred twenty-seven people sent e-mails with that text in a six-day span, with 315 of them coming on March 19 and 20.
benton.org/node/180574 | Ars Technica
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SPECTRUM/WIRELESS

AT&T THREATENS TO BOYCOTT AIRWAVE AUCTION
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
AT&T is threatening to sit out the Federal Communications Commission’s highly anticipated spectrum auction in 2015, which will sell billions of dollars’ worth of airwaves. As the FCC plans the auction, it is considering "complicated and unnecessary" restrictions on large companies, AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said. “Such restrictions would put AT&T in an untenable position, forcing AT&T to reevaluate its potential participation in the auction,” Marsh wrote. AT&T’s filing pointed to the auction’s x-factors, including where the FCC sets the revenue benchmark. The proposal in front of the agency -- which will be voted on at the FCC’s May meeting -- “does not define the threshold for initiation of the restrictions, instead deferring this determination to a subsequent order,” Marsh wrote. She urged the FCC to set the benchmark “at a significant and material level” to keep the small wireless carriers from getting the airwaves “at a discount that the FCC cannot afford to give in this auction.” Marsh also noted the uncertainty around how much of their airwaves broadcasters will be willing to sell back. If they’re only willing to sell back 60 MHz or less, AT&T and Verizon will be forced to split the available three 10-MHz blocks. “The restrictions would thus put AT&T in an untenable and unacceptable position,” the filing said. “AT&T could either participate in the auction, accepting that it will likely obtain only a fragmented and inefficient 600 MHz footprint, or it can choose to withhold its capital for other investments and sit out of the auction entirely.”
benton.org/node/180578 | Hill, The | Recode
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CONTENT

LAWMAKERS CALL FOR EXAMINATION OF HATE SPEECH IN MEDIA
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Reacting to the recent hate crime at two Jewish centers in Kansas City, Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) introduced a bill to update the government's 20-year-old report on hate speech in the media. The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 would examine the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, and would provide recommendations to address such crimes. Congress defines a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."
benton.org/node/180597 | AdWeek | B&C
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LIKING A BRAND
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Strom]
General Mills, the maker of cereals like Cheerios and Chex as well as brands like Bisquick and Betty Crocker, has quietly added language to its website to alert consumers that they give up their right to sue the company if they download coupons, “join” it in online communities like Facebook, enter a company-sponsored sweepstakes or contest or interact with it in a variety of other ways. Instead, anyone who has received anything that could be construed as a benefit and who then has a dispute with the company over its products will have to use informal negotiation via email or go through arbitration to seek relief, according to the new terms posted on its site. In language added on April 15 after The New York Times contacted it about the changes, General Mills seemed to go even further, suggesting that buying its products would bind consumers to those terms. The change in legal terms, which occurred shortly after a judge refused to dismiss a case brought against the company by consumers in California, made General Mills one of the first, if not the first, major food companies to seek to impose what legal experts call “forced arbitration” on consumers.
benton.org/node/180621 | New York Times
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TELEVISION/RADIO

BROADCASTING ANEW
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
[Commentary] It is always special to be in attendance at the annual National Association of Broadcasters Show, and 2014 was no exception. what I took away from our discussion was the realization that today's media universe can no longer be viewed through myopic lenses and historic silos, and that the demarcation between over-the-air, cable, Internet and satellite broadcasting makes erstwhile legacy distinctions much harder to maintain. Secondly, I always appreciate the chance to walk the show floor to see, firsthand, the innovative developments in broadcast technology. Finally, the NAB provides a unique opportunity for regulators to talk to the industry professionals and operators who do not typically make it to Washington to lobby on policy issues. These real-world workers provide us with a perspective that is both realistic and refreshing, and I always learn more than I leave behind.
benton.org/node/180576 | Federal Communications Commission
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FCC MAKES IT TOUGH TO GET JSA WAIVERS
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: ]
In its March 31 ruling giving broadcasters two years to unwind joint sales agreements used to get around the long-standing ban against owning two stations in small and medium markets, the Federal Communications Commission said it would consider requests for waivers. But the text of the ruling erects a high bar for broadcasters seeking such waivers. Broadcasters must show that the JSA and any "related agreements or interests" do not provide them "with the opportunity, ability and incentive to exert significant influence over the programming or operations of the brokered station," the FCC says. The FCC says that it "will take into account the totality of the circumstances in order to assess whether strict compliance with the rule is inconsistent with the public interest." The FCC also says that it will consider waiver requests on "an expedited basis," recognizing that some requests will come in the context of larger station deals that are time sensitive.
benton.org/node/180577 | TVNewsCheck
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BROADCASTERS DON’T OWN AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Barry Diller]
[Commentary] On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could alter the way Americans have used and benefited from broadcast airwaves since the dawn of radio and television. The case, American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, aims to shut down the startup Aereo's two-year-old video streaming service and claim ownership of the airwaves as the sole right of broadcasters. This, quite simply, goes against everything the broadcast industry has agreed to over the past 100 years. When radio and television entered American life in the 1920s, the government made a bargain with the nation's broadcasters: They would receive free use of the nation's airwaves in exchange for providing free, advertising-supported programming in return. The deal has paid off handsomely for both broadcasters and citizens. Then, two years ago, a little company I've invested in called Aereo came up with an idea: Why not harness the power of modern technology and the Internet to build a smarter, more versatile antenna that would make programming accessible to consumers on the device of their choice. It has done just that. An "antenna in the cloud" records broadcast signals and sends them to users over the Web for viewing then or later on various devices. This has made an old analog technology relevant again, available to customers for only $8 a month. It's not a piracy trick, as broadcasters have alleged, but a genuine innovation that consumers should be able to choose. Yet broadcasters claim Aereo is "stealing" their content. Why is the industry pushing to punish those who wish to receive their television through airwaves, which are not owned by broadcasters? The answer is obvious: Broadcasters make more money when consumers are steered away from over-the-air program delivery and toward cable and satellite systems that pay the broadcasters retransmission fees. It is unfortunate that the broadcasters and the Administration have aligned themselves against competition, choice and the consumer. The Supreme Court should set them straight. [Diller is chairman of IAC and Expedia-IAC. IAC has a minority interest in Aereo.]
benton.org/node/180623 | Wall Street Journal
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JUSTICE ALITO TO HEAR AEREO
[SOURCE: SCOTUSblog, AUTHOR: Lyle Denniston]
The Supreme Court disclosed, in routine entries on its docket, that Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., will now be taking part in two cases from which he had held himself out earlier -- both set for argument next week. In earlier orders in the cases of POM Wonderful v. The Coca-Cola Company, a case about truthful labeling on fruit juices, and American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, a case about Internet “streaming” of free TV programs -- for a fee, Justice Alito had not taken part when the Court issued preliminary orders. No explanation was given, but it was assumed that he had financial investments that made his recusal necessary. On entries in each case on April 16, the Court informed the lawyers and the public that “Justice Alito is no longer recused in this case.” No explanation was given, but presumably he has cleared up a conflict that had induced his recusal. Justice Alito’s move will mean there will be a full bench for the Aereo case.
benton.org/node/180622 | SCOTUSblog
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OWNERSHIP

SEN FRANKEN ASKS NETFLIX TO JOIN FIGHT AGAINST COMCAST DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Sen Al Franken (D-MN) is asking Netflix to weigh in on the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. In a letter, Sen Franken asked Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who recently took to his company's blog to slam Comcast, to "gauge the risks posed by this deal." Sen Franken has been one of Congress's most vocal opponents of a deal to combine the country's top two cable companies, which is currently being evaluated by the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and television appearances, Sen Franken pushed back on the companies' claims that a merger would help them compete against telecoms like AT&T and Verizon and Internet media companies like Netflix. Instead, Sen Franken said the merger would add to Comcast's market share, giving it too much leverage over customers and Internet content providers. In his letter, Franken noted the "extensive programming portfolio" -- which Comcast acquired when it purchased NBC Universal in 2011 -- that makes it a competitor to Netflix. A Netflix spokesman said the company has "received senator Franken's letter and plan[s] to respond to his inquiry."
benton.org/node/180601 | Hill, The | read the letter
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GUARDINO BACKS COMCAST-TWC
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: troy Wolverton]
The proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger has at least one high-profile backer here in Silicon Valley. Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and an ever-present present figure in regional public policy discussions, wrote in a Forbes piece that he supports the deal. It would be good for consumers and would encourage competition rather than thwarting it, he said. “There seems to be nothing but upside in this deal,” Guardino wrote. While somewhat surprising, given the seemingly wary relationship between many folks in Silicon Valley and the big telecommunications companies, Guardino’s sentiments aren’t new. In fact, his Forbes piece is merely an extended version of a letter to the editor he sent to the Mercury News in February soon after the announcement of the deal.
benton.org/node/180624 | San Jose Mercury News | Forbes | letter to SJ Merc | Revere Digital
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HEALTH

A ROBUST HEALTH DATA INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: HealthITBuzz, AUTHOR: Karen DeSalvo]
The Department of Health and Human Services posted a report by JASON, an independent group of scientists that advises the Federal government on matters of science and technology, called “A Robust Health Data Infrastructure.” this report is consistent with our intent to support nationwide interoperability in a way that supports care, health and is flexible enough to meet the challenges of the future. The ONC and the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) have already begun to work on many of the recommendations cited in the report–although this represents the beginning, not the end of our efforts. The JASON recommendations continue to challenge us to stay focused on the path ahead. As we move forward over the next few years, we will be focusing much of our efforts on supporting advanced care models and completing electronic health record adoption across the spectrum of health care. We will use the policy levers available to support the electronic exchange of health information and support consumer engagement in health-care, while trying to reduce health disparities. Finally, we will strive to improve our EHR certification program -- while we continue our strong support of the standards and technical infrastructure to reach our goals. The JASON report builds upon our understanding of the technical, broad policy and privacy and security issues that are both opportunities and challenges as we advance an agenda of meaningful exchange and interoperability.
benton.org/node/180582 | HealthITBuzz
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

FCC REQUESTS COMMENTS ON PROPOSAL TO REQUIRE MULTILINGUAL EAS ALERTS
[SOURCE: Broadcast Law Blog, AUTHOR: David Oxenford]
[Commentary] There is one interesting and important proceeding that the Federal Communications Commission has recently resuscitated and is worthy of mention -- the proposal to mandate multilingual emergency alerts by broadcast stations -- even when the station broadcasting in a language other than English is knocked off the air by some local emergency. The proposal would require that all primary EAS stations broadcast national alerts in both English and Spanish, and that state EAS plans should designate stations to provide emergency information in other languages where there are significant populations that have a primary language other than English or Spanish. Not only that, but English language stations in these areas are proposed to have to play a back-up role, ready to step in and provide emergency information in one of these languages should the primary station serving a particular non-English speaking population be forced off the air. Comments on this proposal are due on April 28, and replies by May 12. [Oxenford is partner at Wilkinson, Barker and Knauer]
benton.org/node/180570 | Broadcast Law Blog
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ADVERTISING

AGENCIES MODEL NEWSROOMS FOR REAL-TIME MARKETING
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Nathalie Tadena]
Madison Avenue has long been home to creative gurus who had months to produce an advertising campaign. But an explosion of social media has pushed ad firms to work at faster paces and to even hire folks who are used to working on tight deadlines: reporters. Take Caitlin Francke, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer. After a stint in marketing at Conde Nast and work at various agencies, she’s now senior vice president and director of social strategy at Publicis Kaplan Thaler. “We know as journalists that we can teach to the advertising agencies the need to move that much faster,” Francke said. Her job includes running Publicis’s so called “Newsdesk” operations, a department of 50 people that includes social strategists, creative staffers and others. The newsdesk, formed two years ago, monitors social media for eight clients and looks for opportunities for a marketer to jump in on a conversation in real-time. A morning meeting for the newsdesk may include a rundown of the important news of the day, a discussion of what major events to prepare for and a review of the conversations that are unfolding on social media. For big events, like the Olympics, Publicis will set up a pop-up 24/7 newsdesk for its client. If they spot an opportunity, they post something quickly on social media channels like Facebook or Twitter that links the brand to what’s going on. Finding the right opportunity isn’t easy – a brand doesn’t want to tie itself to bad news.
benton.org/node/180580 | Wall Street Journal
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JOURNALISM

SCOTUSBLOG DENIED SENATE PRESS CREDENTIALS, MAY SUE
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Michael Calderone]
SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein wrote that the Senate Press Galley has denied its application for a press pass and will not renew a previously granted credential to Lyle Denniston, a veteran Supreme Court reporter who writes for the site. In a post on his site, Goldstein wrote that SCOTUSblog plans to appeal the decision, and if denied, will “litigate the issue.” Despite winning major journalism awards and becoming a go-to source for comprehensive coverage of Supreme Court decisions, SCOTUSblog has struggled to obtain press credentials. The Supreme Court has never credentialed SCOTUSblog, although Denniston currently has a credential for his work with Boston public radio station WBUR. For now, SCOTUSblog can request public seats for cases, but cannot send another reporter in Denniston's place. Denniston has covered the Supreme Court for over 50 years, and if he were to retire, SCOTUSBlog would be without anyone with a pass.
benton.org/node/180585 | Huffington Post
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OPEN GOVERNMENT

SENATE POWER PLAYERS QUARREL OVER FATE OF E-FILING
[SOURCE: Center for Public Integrity, AUTHOR: Michael Beckel]
Millions of Americans e-filed their income taxes, but when senators submitted required reports about their campaign fundraising and expenses, most ignored computers in favor of paper. Just 21 lawmakers voluntarily e-filed copies of their first-quarter reports to meet the filing deadline. That’s about a three-fold increase from 2011 -- although it’s far from a majority in the august body that has long cherished its old-school traditions. Neither senators nor Senate candidates are required to e-file their campaign finance reports -- unlike the thousands of political action committees, presidential candidates or their colleagues in the US House of Representatives. Currently, senators must submit their campaign finance reports on paper to the secretary of the Senate, where they are scanned and then forwarded to the FEC. In a process that lasts weeks, the agency subsequently prints the documents and delivers them to a private contractor, which performs the data entry work necessary to make the information searchable and sortable in electronic databases. A bipartisan bill sponsored by Tester, however, would change that. The switch would save taxpayers about $500,000 a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
benton.org/node/180572 | Center for Public Integrity
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RESEARCH

THE INTERNET AND THE ECONOMY
[SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Mark Clayton]
The global economy is entering phase of heightened vulnerability to digital disruption -- a threat likened to the US mortgage crisis, which was largely hidden until its dramatic collapse in 2008, a new report warns. The report suggests larger dangers are lurking beyond headlines of cyber-espionage, crime, and cyber-weapons development. For one, the fast-rising dependence on outsourcing key operations to cloud Internet Service Providers could result in cascading problems that cause a far broader or longer-lasting crash. “The internet is highly interconnected and tightly coupled with society, meaning that (as in other such systems) a small failure or series of them in one place can cascade, producing an outsized impact elsewhere,” according to the study by the Atlantic Council, a national security think tank, and Zurich Insurance Company. “While our society’s reliance on the internet grows exponentially, our control of it only grows linearly.” Other reports have raised similar concerns.
benton.org/node/180617 | Christian Science Monitor
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VIEWS OF TECH’S FUTURE
[SOURCE: Pew Internet and American Life Project, AUTHOR: Aaron Smith]
The American public anticipates that the coming half-century will be a period of profound scientific change, as inventions that were once confined to the realm of science fiction come into common usage. This is among the main findings of a new national survey by The Pew Research Center, which asked Americans about a wide range of potential scientific developments -- from near-term advances like robotics and bioengineering, to more “futuristic” possibilities like teleportation or space colonization. In addition to asking them for their predictions about the long-term future of scientific advancement, we also asked them to share their own feelings and attitudes toward some new developments that might become common features of American life in the relatively near future. Overall, most Americans anticipate that the technological developments of the coming half-century will have a net positive impact on society. Some 59% are optimistic that coming technological and scientific changes will make life in the future better, while 30% think these changes will lead to a future in which people are worse off than they are today.
benton.org/node/180616 | Pew Internet and American Life Project
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AGENDA

FCC CONFIRMS AGENDA FOR APRIL 23 OPEN MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an Open Meeting on April 23, 2014. The FCC will consider:
A Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, Order, Memorandum Opinion and Order, and Seventh Order on Reconsideration taking significant steps to continue the implementation of the landmark reforms adopted in the 2011 USF/ICC Transformation Order to modernize universal service for the 21st century. An accompanying Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes measures to update and further implement the framework adopted by the Commission in 2011.
A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would implement an innovative three-tier spectrum sharing approach to make up to 150 megahertz of spectrum available for wireless broadband use in the 3550-3700 MHz band.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Entravision Holdings seeking review of a decision by the Media Bureau granting an application by Able Radio Corporation.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation seeking review of a waiver request dismissal by the Media Bureau.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by William B. Clay seeking review of a minor modification grant by the Media Bureau.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning an Application for Review filed by Galaxy Syracuse Licensee LLC seeking review of a waiver request denial by the Media Bureau.
A Memorandum Opinion and Order concerning a joint Application for Review filed by Clear Creek Radio, Inc., Fraser Valley Community Media, Inc., The North Fork Angling Society, and RV Ministries, Inc., seeking review of a waiver request denial by the Media Bureau.
benton.org/node/180600 | Federal Communications Commission
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

TWITTER IN TURKEY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ceylan Yeginsu, Tim Arango]
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has called Twitter “the worst menace to society” and a tool of foreign conspirators. For good measure, he has also accused it of evading taxes. After ordering the social media site to be blocked in March, he reluctantly turned it back on for Turkey’s millions of Internet users two weeks ago, only because the country’s highest court demanded that he do so. But his office has stopped posting Twitter messages in his name, even though he has 4.2 million followers, almost as many as the White House. That was the atmosphere that a delegation of Twitter officials stepped into when it arrived in Ankara, the capital, this week for a series of meetings with Turkish officials to smooth things over. The Turks came to the table with a list of demands: that Twitter open an office in Turkey, that it reveal the identities of those posting leaks from a continuing corruption investigation, and that it pay taxes on revenue it earns from advertising in Turkey. Twitter agreed to prevent some posts from being seen in Turkey, although they will still be viewable in other parts of the world. It will not, however, open an office in Turkey, although it did appoint a local representative to handle complaints from the Turkish government. The company did not comment on the government’s request for user identifications, but in the past, Twitter has refused to provide Internet data that would allow a government to identify a user. It also said it would pay taxes applicable to an affiliate that sells advertising for Twitter in Turkey.
benton.org/node/180615 | New York Times
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GOOGLE IN GERMANY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alison Smale]
A trans-Atlantic war of words -- and profits -- over the future of the Internet heated up when the head of Germany’s largest publisher admitted that “we are afraid of Google” and suggested that European authorities were colluding with the company to develop a “business model that in less honorable circles would be called extortion.” Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive officer of Axel Springer, lashed out after the Google chairman, Eric E. Schmidt, mounted a spirited defense of Google’s practices and charged that “heavy-handed regulation” in some places “risks creating an innovation desert in Europe” that would ultimately threaten its well-being. Schmidt’s remarks, published in the German media, were themselves a response to an attack by another German Internet entrepreneur, Robert M. Maier, who founded the Berlin start-up Visual Meta in 2008 and sold a majority stake to Springer in 2011, and published a long article titled “Fear of Google” on April 3. “We are afraid of Google,” Döpfner wrote. “I must say this so clearly and honestly since scarcely one of my colleagues dares to do this publicly. And as the biggest of the small fry, we must perhaps be the first to speak plainly in this debate.”
benton.org/node/180614 | New York Times | FT
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JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan, Daniel Thomas]
Europe’s telecom companies could soon be getting what they have long been begging for: looser European Union competition rules that would finally allow them to consolidate and boost profitability. Jean-Claude Juncker, a leading candidate to become the next European Commission president this year, said the EU had to rethink its competition rules for the digital sector to allow dealmaking to occur more freely across the bloc. Speaking during his European-wide campaign trail in Finland, Juncker said: “A first thing we should do is rethink the application of our competition rules in digital markets.” Opening the door to consolidation in the fragmented European telecoms market would be key for the industry, which has repeatedly lobbied the commission for an easing of competition rules.
benton.org/node/180613 | Financial Times
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April 17, 2014 (Net neutrality ruling complicates US transition to IP networks)