February 7, 2012 (Groups urge Congress to take it slow on piracy)

SUPER BOWL WRAP-UP

HALFTIME SHOW
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Melissa Bell]
Madonna may have made it through her Super Bowl halftime show with no wardrobe malfunctions. But one of her fellow performers still managed to sneak in a gesture that may not please the Federal Communications Commission. As confirmed by a screengrab that circulated on Twitter, M.I.A. — who joined Madonna and Nicki Minaj for the track “Give Me All Your Luvin’ ” — raised her middle finger toward the camera during her performance. M.I.A.’s simultaneous use of the s-word appeared to have been bleeped out; moments after the incident, the screen went black a beat longer than usual for a television transition, especially in so orchestrated a show. NBC and the NFL issued apologies for the incident, with an NBC spokesman characterizing the finger-flipping episode as “a spontaneous gesture that our delay system caught late.”
benton.org/node/112482 | Washington Post | NPR | The Hill
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TWEETING THE GAME
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Tyler Gray]
Twitter connected last night on its hashtag Hail Mary. The social service set a new record for gameday activity during Super Bowl XLVI--12,233 tweets per second at the end of the game. The second highest rate came during Madonna's Caligula-inspired halftime extravaganza: 10,245. Compare that with past spikes. The Bin Laden raid topped out at 5,106 tweets per second and held steady at 4,000 sustained tweets.
Google reports that around 41% of searches related to Super Bowl ads that were made during the game came from mobile devices, up from 25% for the same time the day prior. Overall, the top trending searches on Google during the game were:
Madonna
Halftime show
Patriots
Tom Brady
Giants
benton.org/node/112485 | Fast Company | GigaOm | ReadWriteWeb |
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ADVERTISERS COWED BY NFL
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
Every year in late January or early February, two teams take to the field to play a football game that's watched by tens of millions of Americans. And every year, businesses launch ad campaigns to sell a variety of products—televisions, pizzas, soda—in conjunction with the game. And the overwhelming majority of these businesses avoid calling it the "Super Bowl." Why? They're afraid of getting sued by the National Football League, which holds the trademark for the term and polices it aggressively. The NFL takes the position that no one is allowed to use the phrase "Super Bowl" in an advertisement without writing the NFL a big check first. Every year, the league sends cease-and-desist letters to businesses that stray too close to the line.
benton.org/node/112484 | Ars Technica
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HALFTIME IN AMERICA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters, Jim Rutenberg]
The most talked-about advertisement of the Super Bowl was a cinematic two-minute commercial featuring Clint Eastwood, an icon of American brawn, likening Chrysler’s comeback to the country’s own economic revival. And within 12 hours of running, it became one of the loudest flashpoints yet in the early re-election campaign of President Obama, providing a reminder, as if one were needed, that in today’s polarized political climate even a tradition as routine as a football championship can be thrust into a partisan light. Some conservative critics saw the ad as political payback and accused the automaker of handing the president a prime-time megaphone in front of one of the largest television audiences of the year. Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who served as President George W. Bush’s top political adviser, said Chrysler was trying to settle a debt to the Obama administration for rescuing Detroit carmakers with billions of dollars in loans. The White House cast the ad, which was accompanied by similar full-page newspaper advertisements on Monday, as an affirmation of the president’s economic policies. Asked by a joking reporter whether the commercial counted as an “in-kind contribution” from Eastwood, Jay Carney, President Obama’s press secretary, said it merely laid out the facts, and indeed the ad resembled a main theme of the president’s State of the Union address last month.
benton.org/node/112580 | New York Times | FT | SF Chronicle editorial
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TELEVISION

VERIZON-REDBOX
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Verizon Communications will challenge Netflix and start a video streaming service this year with Redbox and its DVD rental kiosks. Verizon and Coinstar, Redbox's parent, say the service will be national and available to non-Verizon customers as well. It adds another leg to Verizon's quest to become a force in home entertainment, and it looks set to compete to some extent with the cable-TV services it already sells. Verizon has its own cable-TV service, called FiOS, in some areas. Its Verizon Wireless subsidiary has also signed a deal to sell service from Comcast and other cable companies in its stores. With the Redbox venture, Verizon is breaking ranks with the cable and satellite industry, which makes its own video streaming services available only to people who also subscribe to its traditional TV feeds. They don't want households switching to Internet-only services, which are cheaper — Netflix charges $8 per month for its video streaming plan. Verizon Communications will own 65 percent of the unnamed venture, with Coinstar owning the rest. Redbox is contributing an initial $14 million to the venture
benton.org/node/112515 | Associated Press | Multichannel News
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CONTENT

GROUPS ASKS CONGRESS TO DROP PIRACY FOR NOW
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A coalition of about 70 advocacy groups and companies sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to take their time in drafting anti-piracy legislation. "Now is the time for Congress to take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective," the groups wrote. "The concerns are too fundamental and too numerous to be fully addressed through hasty revisions to these bills. Nor can they be addressed by closed door negotiations among a small set of inside the-beltway stakeholders." The letter was signed by advocacy groups including Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Free Press, Amnesty International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Companies such as Mozilla, reddit and Twitpic also signed the letter. The groups argued that Congress paid too much attention to the interests of the entertainment industry and not enough to the interests of the Web community when drafting SOPA and PIPA. "The Internet’s value to the public makes it necessary that any legislative debate in this area be open, transparent, and sufficiently deliberative to allow the full range of interested parties to offer input and to evaluate specific proposals," the groups wrote. "To avoid doing so would be to repeat the mistakes of SOPA and PIPA."
benton.org/node/112553 | Hill, The | read the letter | MediaPost | Broadcasting&Cable
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FACEBOOK CONTENT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after Ars first brought attention to the topic. The company admitted that its older systems for storing uploaded content "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," but said it's currently finishing up a newer system that makes the process much quicker. In the meantime, photos that users thought they "deleted" from the social network months or even years ago remain accessible via direct link.
benton.org/node/112508 | Ars Technica
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FACEBOOK AND BREASTFEEDING
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Benny Evangelista, Vivian Ho]
Mothers angry at the way Facebook has taken down photos of women breastfeeding their children staged nurse-in demonstrations at the company's new Menlo Park headquarters and satellite offices around the world. Facebook officials said that breastfeeding photos are taken down only when they are flagged as inappropriate and that sometimes errors happen. But protesters called on the social-networking giant to better train employees to recognize legitimate photos and to institute a better way to contact the company when an error is made, especially one that causes a member's account to be suspended.
benton.org/node/112570 | San Francisco Chronicle
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IS THE OPEN WEB DOOMED?
[SOURCE: TechPresident, AUTHOR: Esther Dyson]
[Commentary] Whether the Web is dead or open or shut is not a question that will be settled once and for all, but rather a situation that will fluctuate in cycles. So what's the difference between paternalism and our duty to save people from tyrants or from companies whose privacy statements are incomprehensible? If people are happy with Facebook, why should we disturb them? If the Iraqis weren't going to topple Saddam Hussein, what right – or obligation - did we outsiders have to do so? In a world where Facebook can go from dorm-room project to $100-billion IPO in seven years, it may seem careless to suggest that we can wait for 5 or 10 years for a backlash if one is necessary, but I think that's the case.
I don't actually think we're facing a world of no choices. In fact, we all have many choices...and it's up to us to make them. Yes, many people make choices I despise, but this is the world of the long tail. Of course, the short, fat front is always more popular; it all gets homogenized and each individual gets either one central broadcast, or something so tailored he never learns anything new, as in Eli Pariser's filter bubble... That's exactly when some fearless entrepreneur will come along with something wild and crazy that will totally dominate everything 10 years later.
benton.org/node/112566 | TechPresident
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

NETWORK SHARING
[SOURCE: ZDNet|News.com, AUTHOR: Chris Jablonski]
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin, have found a way to make it easier for providers to build out 4G LTE infrastructure in the face of growing demand for high-speed mobile access to the Internet. They’ve created a new technology, dubbed LTE spectrum sharing, that allows two or more providers to share frequencies and infrastructure, such as base stations and mobile radio antennas. HHI’s Dr. Volker Jungnickel, explains: “This way, for example, customers of network provider A in Bavaria could use the base stations of network provider B in Brandenburg and vice versa.” Apart from cost savings, say the researchers, the new approach can close coverage gaps and make LTE available more quickly in rural areas.
benton.org/node/112507 | ZDNet|News.com
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LOCALISM

REQUEST FOR QUOTATION FOR STUDY EXAMINING THE CRITICAL INFORMATION NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO) and the Media Bureau (Bureau) issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for a study to examine the critical information needs of the American public so that the FCC can more effectively meet its statutory and judicially mandated obligations. OCBO and the Bureau are now commissioning a study to examine:
how Americans meet their critical information needs;
how the media ecosystem operates to address critical information needs; and
what barriers exist in providing content and services to address critical information needs.
The report, to be delivered at the conclusion of the study, will be a literature review, summarizing and discussing the published research, analysis, and information on how Americans meet their critical information needs. It will also examine how the media ecosystem operates to address critical information needs and what barriers exist in providing content and services to address those needs. Finally, the study will provide an analysis of the relevant published materials and will include recommendations for definitions and performance metrics, including an explicit definition for “critical information needs.”
Separately, OCBO and the Bureau also are soliciting suggestions for additional studies, such suggestions to be submitted not later than February 27, 2012. The FCC invites parties to submit specific descriptions of proposed studies, including well-defined performance metrics that relate to one or more of the following: (1) how Americans meet their critical information needs; (2) how the media ecosystem operates to address critical information needs; and (3) what barriers exist in providing content and services to address critical information needs.
benton.org/node/112546 | Federal Communications Commission | Commissioner Clyburn
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RURAL BROADAND VIA NONPROFITS
[SOURCE: Charlotte News and Observor, AUTHOR: Wally Bowen]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address that he wants to upgrade the nation's "critical infrastructure," including our "incomplete high-speed broadband network that prevents a small business owner in rural America from selling her products all over the world." The National Broadband Plan omits nonprofit networks as part of a universal broadband strategy. Blair Levin, a former FCC official and Raleigh attorney, is the Plan's lead author. According to Thomas Friedman in a Jan. 3 column in The New York Times, Levin now believes that "America is focused too much on getting 'average' bandwidth to the last 5 percent of the country in rural areas, rather than getting 'ultra-high-speed' bandwidth to the top 5 percent in university towns, who will invent the future." Levin leads Gig.U, a consortium of major research universities - including UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke and N.C. State - promoting "ultra-high-speed" Internet access. He has every right to advocate for Gig.U, but doing so at the expense of under-served rural communities raises concerns about his work with the National Broadband Plan. The State of the Union theme was "An America Built To Last." Rural networks are "built to last" because they are owned and maintained by the people they serve. Absentee-owned networks, by contrast, may be minimally maintained and the last to be upgraded. It's a history that telecom lobbyists would have us forget.
benton.org/node/112530 | Charlotte News and Observor
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

ONSLAUGHT OF ADS
[SOURCE: Minneapolis Star Tribune, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] If Minnesotans flip on their TVs right now, they're likely to see at least one -- a political ad slinging mud at a presidential candidate. As the statewide caucuses approach, they're more likely to see many more. Viewers in Florida reported seeing as many as 12 political ads an hour in the run-up to that state's Jan. 31 primary. The campaigns and super PACs that bought these ads have now turned their attention from Florida -- where they spent tens of millions of dollars on local media buys -- to Minnesota. These attack ads by their very nature are negative. But they can also be misleading. FactCheck.org, which tracks accuracy in political messaging, found that the "avalanche of negativity" in recent Florida ads also contained a fair share of distortions and outright lies. The problem is that viewers are not receiving enough of the antidote: the kind of hard-hitting reporting and election coverage that would help Minnesotans separate political fact from fiction before they attend caucuses. The Federal Communications Commission has asked broadcasters to consider making the political advertising information in their "public files" available online. That's a start. By doing this, broadcasters can help viewers understand the powerful financial interests that dominate the political landscape in 2012. But voters would also benefit from more television news stories on election-year issues and campaigns. By investing some of their election-year profits in comprehensive coverage, stations can return to the community the information many need to better engage with democracy.
benton.org/node/112489 | Minneapolis Star Tribune
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BROADCASTERS AND POLITICAL ADS
[SOURCE: MapLight, AUTHOR: Chris Gorin]
Interest groups representing TV and radio stations that benefit financially from political ads have also contributed millions to the campaigns of members of Congress. MapLight has conducted an analysis of campaign contributions to members of Congress by interest groups representing Commercial TV & radio stations.
Members of the U.S. Senate received a total of $2,043,666 from interest groups representing Commercial TV & Radio Stations, with $383,423 coming from the National Association of Broadcasters and its employees (July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2011).
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives received a total of $1,495,325 from interest groups representing Commercial TV & Radio Stations, with $549,450 coming from the National Association of Broadcasters and its employees (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2011).
benton.org/node/112487 | MapLight
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CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

SOCIAL MEDIA AND GOVERNING
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Carter Eskew]
[Commentary] The SOPA and Komen protests are further examples of the power social media can exert on organizations and governments. As is the Tea Party movement; its formation and power is also closely linked to social media. The ability of the Web to help campaigns raise money, recruit volunteers and disseminate information on a targeted basis is well documented. Then-Sen Barack Obama mastered this in 2008 and is investing heavily in a new and improved version in 2012. But what interests me more than the use of this medium on campaigns is its potential implications for governing. President Obama tried but failed to convert his social media campaign army into a force to pass his agenda. The next President should pay more attention to this conversion. It is potentially a new way of breaking gridlock and imposing an agenda.
benton.org/node/112512 | Washington Post
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FACEBOOK AND POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Rebecca Rosen]
We all know that people are using Facebook every day for keeping up with their friends -- sharing pictures, statuses, and little finds from across the Internet. But it turns out that for the most hardcore Facebook users, the platform is more than social -- it's political. According to a new report from Pew, the Facebook users who have the most friends, were tagged in the most photos, and received the most wall posts, were more likely than average users to attend political rallies and meetings offline. Additionally, those who used Facebook's "groups" feature were also more likely to try to convince other Facebook friends to vote for certain candidates. (In general Facebook users were more likely than average Americans to vote in an election.)
benton.org/node/112490 | Atlantic, The
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TELECOM

LIFELINE/LINKUP REFORM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission released its Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization report and order – and further notice of proposed rulemaking (FNPRM). “In this Order, we comprehensively reform and begin to modernize the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program (Lifeline or the program). Building on recommendations from the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (Joint Board), proposals in the National Broadband Plan, input from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and comments received in response to the Commission’s March 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,1 the reforms adopted in this Report and Order (Order) substantially strengthen protections against waste, fraud, and abuse; improve program administration and accountability; improve enrollment and consumer disclosures; initiate modernization of the program for broadband; and constrain the growth of the program in order to reduce the burden on all who contribute to the Universal Service Fund.”
In the FNPRM, the FCC seeks comment on the creation of Lifeline eligibility databases at the state level.
benton.org/node/112565 | Federal Communications Commission
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POLICYMAKERS

BILL BAER
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Bill Baer to be Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, Department of Justice. Baer is the chair of the Antitrust Practice Group at Arnold and Porter LLP. He joined Arnold and Porter in 1980, becoming a partner at the firm in 1983. In his practice, Mr. Baer represents a broad range of companies in U.S. and international cartel investigations, mergers and acquisition reviews, and in antitrust litigation. From 1995 to 1999, he served as the Director for the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Mr. Baer began his legal career in 1975 as a trial attorney for the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC. Mr. Baer holds a B.A. from Lawrence University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
benton.org/node/112493 | White House, The | The Hill
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AGENDA

SUBCOMMITTEE PRIORITIES
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) recently outlined a 2012 agenda that focuses on job creation, innovation, good government, and protecting the American people. The agenda includes:
Promoting Good Government: The communications sector is increasingly a driver of our economy, yet poor Federal Communications Commission process can discourage companies from investing and hinder innovation. To bring greater transparency and predictability to the FCC’s operations, and with an emphasis on practices that help the American public and regulated parties interact with the Commission, the committee will finalize its work, begun last year with a series of hearings and a subcommittee vote, on legislation to focus the agency on its core responsibilities and make certain its decision-making processes are consistent and open.
Prioritizing Jobs and Stimulating Innovation: Spectrum auctions have been a promising part of Congress’ latest and highest-profile debates, and as a Conference Committee meets to negotiate a yearlong package of payroll tax relief, spectrum is back on the table. The House-passed spectrum legislation known as the JOBS Act significantly expands the availability of much-needed wireless broadband, generates hundreds of thousands of jobs, helps build a public safety network, and produces nearly $17 billion for taxpayers. The JOBS Act is currently the best deal on the table for taxpayers.
Foiling Threats to Communications Networks: This spring, the subcommittee will resume an aggressive review of cybersecurity to ensure our policies address emerging threats of the 21st Century. Many Americans are familiar by now with the spyware and malware that affect personal computers. But most do not know about the cyberbattles that occur within the networks each day—the supply chain vulnerabilities, the man-in-the-middle attacks, the botnets, and the millions of hacking attempts that our cyberdefenses deflect. The subcommittee will focus on these and other threats to America’s communications networks, and the response of the private sector to combat those threats.
benton.org/node/112544 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee
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HEALTH

TWEENS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Cassidy]
Maybe we didn't need another study to remind us that the explosion of digital devices and the content that they put at our fingertips have changed the way we relate to each other. And in fairness, the Stanford researchers who recently published work on the way multitasking and media immersion affects tween girls weren't trying to reach conclusions about the way we should live our lives. That's the role of philosophers and preachers, not academics and statisticians. But the study by communication professor Clifford Nass and education and learning science professor Roy Pea has me thinking that we might all learn something from their work. Their big conclusions? Eight- to 12-year-old girls who spend a lot of time multitasking and using media, including television and social networking, tend to report that they feel socially inferior and out of the ordinary. The researchers could not go so far as to say heavy media use and multitasking caused girls to feel bad about their social lives. In fact, it could be that socially awkward tweens turn to technology and media for comfort. But the good news here? The research also found that the more time girls spend in face-to-face conversations, the more likely they are to feel happy with themselves and their social standing. In fact, it appears, face-to-face conversations can inoculate heavy media users from feeling like social flops.
benton.org/node/112573 | San Jose Mercury News
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COMPANY NEWS

FACEBOOK’S MILLIONS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Ross Sorkin]
If it is hard to believe that 483 million people are visiting Facebook every day, that’s because well, they aren’t, exactly. Those eye-popping numbers should have an asterisk next to them. Facebook counts as “active” users who go to its Web site or its mobile site. But it also counts people if he or she “took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party Web site that is integrated with Facebook.” In other words, every time you press the “Like” button on NFL.com, for example, you’re an “active user” of Facebook. Of course, this raises an obvious question: How many users actually are active, using a more traditional definition? In December, Nielsen Company, which tracks usage on the Internet, counted 153 million unique users on the Facebook Web site for the month in the United States, though Facebook says in its filing that it has 161 million monthly active users. Assuming that Facebook’s United States traffic accounts for only about 19 percent of its business, that means the numbers are off by at least 40 million users from the 845 million Facebook defines as “active.”
benton.org/node/112571 | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
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FACING LAWSUIT, GOOGLE DROPS SOME CONTENT IN INDIA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amol Sharma]
Google removed some controversial content from its Indian services to comply with a court order in a civil lawsuit, the latest twist in the legal drama over Web censorship in the world's largest democracy. A person familiar with the matter said Google removed content from its search service, YouTube video site and Blogger after receiving an order to do so from Judge Mukesh Kumar of a New Delhi district court. The material, which includes images of religious figures, has been removed only on Google's localized India Web domain—it is still accessible elsewhere. In a written statement, Google said: "This step is in accordance with Google's longstanding policy of responding to court orders." The company didn't say which specific items it removed.
benton.org/node/112563 | Wall Street Journal | SJ Merc News | Bloomberg
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UK’S ONLINE ECONOMY
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
The UK internet economy has been valued at £82 billion ahead of the publication of the government green paper on communications that will help define regulation of the sector. The digital economy is now worth almost 6 percent of gross domestic product, according to AT Kearney, the consultancy, which it said was significantly higher than the global average. Vodafone, the mobile operator that sponsored the research, said it was a larger section of the economy than mining and utilities combined. The study found that every £1 spent on both fixed and mobile internet access in the UK supported the creation of £5 in revenue for the rest of the digital economy. Greater access to the web supported a wide range of applications from internet shopping to gaming and social media. Some £45 billion is generated by e-commerce and mobile commerce, while connectivity services, online search advertising and device manufacturing generate another £37bn.
benton.org/node/112562 | Financial Times
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February 7, 2012 (Groups urge Congress to take it slow on piracy)