On July 6 we erroneously credited a New York Times op-ed, "Brandeis's Seat, Kagan's Responsibility," (http://www.benton.org/node/37512) to Jay Rosen -- the piece was written by Jeffrey Rosen. We apologize for the error.
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010
See today's events http://benton.org/calendar/2010-07-07
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Google May Face Scrutiny as EU Regulator Examines Search-Engine Antitrust
EU's Digital Agenda Could Mean Headaches For Apple
Canada: Yes, same traffic-shaping rules apply to mobile data
Russian Media's Subdued Approach to Spy Case Contrasts With Splash in U.S. and Europe
Digital radio switchover on track for 2015
POLICYMAKERS
Kaplan to Succeed Gottlieb as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairman Genachowski
Kronenberg Named Clyburn's Chief of Staff
43 top agency jobs remain unfilled
CONTENT
YouTube is my network
Tech experts reflect on social media boom
Apple Studies iTunes User Downloads to Hone Mobile Ads
Facebook, Twitter Battle For Billions In TV Ads
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC, NYPD chiefs square off on public safety network
Phone giants' proposal to drop some 911 lines strongly backed by California lawmakers
TELEVISION
No Help from the FCC for PEG Access Television Anytime Soon
Fox to FCC: 'American Dad' Inquiry is Unconstitutional
Rep Eshoo: If DISH can carry porn, it can carry PBS
Big Ten Network defies early skeptics as audience, profits rise
Growing multicast channels may be big factor in PBS ratings mystery
OWNERSHIP
NBCU Resubmits Info to FCC
Regulators Prepare to Dig Into Google-ITA Deal
'Millionaire' may cost Disney
Google, Netflix & The Power of Focus
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Nevada Senate Candidates Spar Over Old Website
CYBERSECURITY
Key Cybersecurity Challenges Need to Be Addressed to Improve Research and Development
Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity
JOURNALISM
At Yahoo, Using Searches to Steer News Coverage
MORE NEWS FROM FCC
Busy body: FCC looks at Google TV set-top, VoIP outage reporting requirements
FCC Consumer Advisory Group Discusses Spectrum, Bill Shock and More
MORE ONLINE
Is AT&T Slowing Mobile Upload Speeds?
Additional $900 Million in E-rate Funds Available
Verizon Completes Landline Spinoff To Frontier
STORIES FROM ABROAD
GOOGLE ANTITRUST PROBE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Stephanie Bodoni]
Google may face closer scrutiny as European Union regulators take a careful look at allegations of antitrust breaches in relation to Internet searches. The European Commission, the antitrust agency for the 27- nation bloc, is "examining some allegations of anti-competitive conduct," Joaquin Almunia, the region's competition commissioner, said without specifically mentioning Google. "The work is at an early stage, but given the importance of search to a competitive online marketplace, I am looking at the allegations very carefully." The comments come five months after U.K. price-comparison site called Foundem, French legal search engine Ejustice.fr and Microsoft Corp. service Ciao from Bing filed an EU antitrust complaint against Google. The commission hasn't yet opened a formal probe on the matter.
benton.org/node/37556 | Bloomberg
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THE DIGITAL AGENDA AND APPLE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
The European Union's new Digital Agenda, an ambitious program of incentives and legislation designed to improve access to technology across the EU, could force companies such as Apple to open up their businesses by requiring them to offer more interoperability and use open standards. It could force more openness even if those companies are not the dominant player in a specific market, because the language in the EU Agenda says that such measures could apply merely to "significant" players in a market -- broadening the scope of previous antitrust rules substantially.
benton.org/node/37545 | GigaOm
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CANADA WIRELESS TRAFFIC-SHAPING RULES
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
If your Internet service provider can't block some low-bandwidth application like VoIP simply because it competes with one of their own offerings, why should mobile operators have the right to do so? In Canada, they no longer do. Last week, Canadian regulators decided that ISPs all have to play by the same traffic management rules, regardless of the technology they use to deliver the bits. This makes tremendous sense, as opposed to the technology-centric approach taken previous by Canada (and still used in the US). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) laid down the rules for wireline ISPs last year, but at the time did not address whether they applied to mobile operators. On June 30 2010, CRTC at last decided to apply the same traffic management framework to mobile Internet access in order to address "potential issues regarding unjust discrimination or undue preference in the provisioning of mobile wireless data services." The country's Internet traffic management rules don't amount to strict "net neutrality," and management practices like P2P delay are still allowed. But Canadian ISPs do operate under a set of useful rules. Internet traffic management must not be "unjustly discriminatory nor unduly preferential." Management must "be designed to address a defined need, and nothing more." Outright blocking of content is prohibited, and so is any "delay" technique in which content is "slowed down to such an extent that it amounts to blocking."
benton.org/node/37526 | Ars Technica
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POLICYMAKERS
NEW COUNSEL FOR GENACHOWSKI
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
On July 6, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Rick Kaplan as Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor. He will succeed Bruce Gottlieb, the Chairman's current Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor, who will be leaving the FCC at the end of July, after four and a half years of service. Kaplan will manage the Commission's overall agenda and will be responsible for policy coordination among the Bureaus and Offices. In addition, he will have particular responsibility for wireless, engineering and technology, and public safety issues. Kaplan has served as the Chief of Staff for Commissioner Mignon Clyburn since her appointment in August 2009. He first joined the Commission in early 2009 as deputy coordinator of the DTV task force, where he oversaw a number of aspects of the Commission's role in the nation's successful transition to digital television. Prior to his service at the Commission, Mr. Kaplan worked as an associate at Sidley Austin LLP, where he focused on appellate litigation and regulatory matters. Mr. Kaplan also served in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was primarily responsible for litigating and advising Members of Congress on separation of powers issues.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said, "One of my great pleasures as a Commissioner has been working with Bruce Gottlieb, both when he was my Wireless and International Advisor and in his more recent capacity as Chairman Genachowski's Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor. Bruce brought brilliance and deep commitment to public service to the FCC. His research and analytical abilities were among the very best I have seen in my 40 years in Washington. His oral and writing skills were similarly top-drawer. I developed a high degree of confidence in his judgment and in his creative approach to problem-solving, and I knew that no matter what issue he was working on, he always searched for the outcome that best served the public interest."
benton.org/node/37547 | Federal Communications Commission | Commissioner Copps | The Hill | Public Knowledge
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NEW STAFF FOR CLYBURN
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn announced July 6 that Angela ("Angie") Kronenberg will assume the responsibility of Chief of Staff, and that Eloise Gore will be on detail from the Media Bureau to advise the Commissioner on media and consumer issues. Kronenberg succeeds Rick Kaplan, who will serve as Chief Counsel and Senior legal Advisor to FCC Chairman Genachowski. Kronenberg has been serving as the Commissioner's Wireline Legal Advisor since December 2009 and provides advice on a wide variety of wireline, broadband, and universal service matters. Prior to joining the Commissioner, she served as Special Counsel in the Spectrum & Competition Policy Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Before coming to the FCC, she practiced telecommunications and media law for over a decade in the Washington, D.C. office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Gore has been Associate Bureau Chief in the Media Bureau since 2008 and oversaw the Digital Television transition, which was completed last year. She has also been responsible for cable and satellite carriage issues, including implementation of the new Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. Gore has been at the FCC for nearly 14 years, beginning in the Cable Services Bureau.
benton.org/node/37546 | Federal Communications Commission
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CONTENT
YOUTUBE AND CREATIVITY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Penna]
[Commentary] YouTube is a place where artists make a living, build a fan base and get inspired. That's why so many of us celebrated the recent ruling that validated YouTube as a responsible and legitimate outlet for creativity. Viacom, a major media company, sued YouTube for $1 billion, claiming that the site should be responsible for people who posted copyright infringing content to YouTube. The court recently granted summary judgment for Google, which owns YouTube, stating it was protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against claims of infringement. I'm not saying that copyright infringement doesn't happen on the Internet, but to suggest that YouTube is all about pirated content is just plain ludicrous. In fact, anyone who has ever spent some time on YouTube knows that they have technology that identifies and flags copyrighted material. What many people might not know is that when a copyrighted work is found, YouTube gives the copyright owner the option to take it down or run ads against their content to make money. It's an elegant solution. [enna is a Los Angeles musician and filmmaker]
benton.org/node/37560 | Los Angeles Times
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PEW INTERNET SURVEY
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Press release]
Nearly 900 Internet experts and technologists expressed provocative thoughts on the impact that rapidly expanding social media systems are having on individual lives and overall society in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University. While most respondents noted that the Internet has both positive and negative effects, 85 percent of the people participating in the survey said it has improved their own social relations and will continue to do so through 2020.
benton.org/node/37541 | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project | read the report
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IADS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Adam Satariano]
Apple -- with a storehouse of billions of music, movie and software downloads -- is studying the buying habits of many of its 150 million iTunes users to show more appealing mobile ads and fuel competition with Google. Through the iAd program that began last week, Apple started placing ads in iPhone applications for the first time. Early iAd clients include Nissan, Unilever, JC Penney, Best Buy and AT&T. At stake is leadership in mobile ads, forecast by EMarketer Inc. to almost triple to $1.56 billion in 2013. Google, which gained the biggest share of online advertising by placing ads based on PC-Web surfing habits, may use that tack to widen a lead on handheld devices. Examining consumers' entertainment and software purchases may give Apple an advantage, says Rachel Pasqua, director of mobile at marketing firm ICrossing.
benton.org/node/37548 | Bloomberg
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
FCC AND PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Jamie Barnett, the homeland security bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said on Tuesday that the agency's plan to create a nationwide, interoperable broadband network for first responders will be bolstered by the build-out of 4G networks by commercial providers, making the plan more affordable. "To build a totally stand-alone public safety network across the United States would cost tens, maybe hundreds of billions of dollars to do alone," he said. Barnett's arguments ran against the suggestions of Charles Dowd, a deputy chief at the New York City Police Department who wants to cut private operators out of the process, devoting a specific block of spectrum to public safety only. "It's not a matter of [the FCC's plan] not being enough. It's a matter of it not working for us. The plan the FCC is suggesting says that in times of emergency ... that we rely on commercial spectrum. ... That just is not a model that will not work for public safety," he said.
benton.org/node/37558 | Hill, The
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CALIFORNIA 911 BILL
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
With subscribers increasingly dropping their land lines for wireless and Internet calling, California's telephone companies are lobbying the Legislature to let them abandon large portions of the state's 911 emergency calling system. AT&T and Verizon Communications, which account for 90% of California's wired phones, and some smaller companies are backing a bill to change a 1995 law that requires them to keep so-called warm lines -- capable only of calling a 911 center -- for residences even after service has been disconnected. The law applies regardless of whether service is cut for, say, failure to pay bills or is dropped voluntarily in favor of wireless-only phone service. So far, state legislators unanimously support the telephone companies. The Senate passed the measure and, last week, the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee voted for it. Dropping 911 support for warm lines also means that all carriers would save a total of about $100 million a year, according to AT&T estimates. Consumer advocates want at least some of the lines maintained, and many small law enforcement agencies oppose the changes.
benton.org/node/37559 | Los Angeles Times
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TELEVISION
FCC ANSWERS REP SERRANO
[SOURCE: American Community Television, AUTHOR: Press release]
In a letter to House Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Chairman Jose Serrano (D-NY), Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief William Lake expressed "hope" that AT&T would work to resolve the disputes raised in the Petition for Declaratory Ruling filed by the Alliance for Community Media et al, and the City of Lansing, Michigan. The "disputes" raised by the petition concern the delivery of Public, Educational and Government (PEG) access television channels on the AT&T U-Verse system. On its system, AT&T treats PEG channels discriminatorily by lumping PEG channels onto channel 99, where consumers have to surf an onscreen menu to find their city and then find the channel they want. "The petition was filed over eighteen months ago, and now the Chief of the Media Bureau is saying that they are currently developing recommendations on how to proceed." said John Rocco, President of American Community Television (ACT). "I don't think that's what Chairman Serrano was expecting when he pointedly requested an answer on this issue from the FCC." Lake cited the settlement between Comcast and the City of Dearborn as a model. In that situation, Comcast had slammed the PEG channels into the digital tier and required subscribers to rent additional boxes if they wanted to receive them. "This is apples and oranges," said Rocco. "Comcast may have settled because they wanted to go into the NBC Universal merger with a clean slate and all Comcast had to do was move the channels back to the position they had previously occupied. AT&T has never treated PEG channels the way they do every other channel on their system. AT&T needs to create separate PEG channels and obviously the FCC isn't willing to tell them to do it, so they are deliberately letting the petition languish."
benton.org/node/37553 | American Community Television
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FOX BATTLES FCC ON INDECENCY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Fox has a message for the Federal Communications Commission: We're sick and tired of your indecency enforcement regime and we shouldn't have to take it anymore. That was the gist of the company's response to the FCC July 6 opposing the FCC's $25,000 fine on Fox TV stations over an indecency inquiry into American Dad. "The NAL [Notice of Proposed Liability] is unconstitutional, violates established Commission policy, and exceeds the Bureau's delegated authority," Fox said. Last month, the FCC said it planned to fine the Fox stations for not providing it with all the information it asked for in its inquiry into a Jan. 3 episode of American Dad. The fine is not for airing the show (and its suggestion of pleasuring a horse), but against the group for not supplying a list of all the stations that aired the show and other information the FCC asked for.
benton.org/node/37557 | Broadcasting&Cable
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OWNERSHIP
GOOGLE-ITA DEAL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Google is buying ITA, a company that makes flight information software. The move will give Google a large foothold in the online travel search market, and control over a critical data source used by many of its competitors, including Kayak, Orbitz and Microsoft's Bing. Google says the deal with ITA will make it easier for consumers to find flight information and comparison-shop for fares. It also says it has no plans to sell airline tickets to consumers. But the deal will have to be approved -- either by the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission. Google most likely favors an FTC review of the deal, considering that the agency previously approved two of its previous purchases, of DoubleClick and Admob. But the Justice Department, which opposed Google's settlement in a case involving the scanning of books whose rights holders are unknown, and its proposed search deal with Yahoo, is the more likely candidate, because it typically handles air travel deals. Many antitrust experts say they believe that the deal will eventually be approved, although perhaps with caveats, like a prohibition against discrimination against rivals. Google may have to agree to refrain from cutting off ITA data to other companies, for example, and the company's conduct in the market may fall under supervision for a certain period of time. The Obama Justice Department showed it was willing to consider such strictures in its approval of Ticketmaster's acquisition of LiveNation last month.
benton.org/node/37552 | New York Times
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MILLIONAIRE DISPUTE
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Dawn Chmielewski]
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was a big hit for Walt Disney's ABC television network back in 1999. But as big a hit as "Millionaire" was the one thing the British import didn't do was make a profit for its creator, according to a lawsuit and trial now underway in Riverside County that is seeking up to $395 million in damages. The legal battle over "Millionaire" is the latest case of what is derisively called "Hollywood accounting," in which TV shows that become monster hits, mysteriously, never earn a dime. These disputes became increasingly frequent after a wave of media consolidation that brought buyers and sellers of television programming under the same corporate umbrella. Four weeks of trial included testimony from Disney CEO Robert Iger, former ABC executive turned TV producer Michael Davies and a raft of talent agents that included former NBC program chief Ben Silverman. A jury is scheduled Wednesday to enter its third day of deliberation in what could turn out, if the plaintiff prevails, to be a setback in the raison d'etre behind the media giants: the merger of program production with program distribution.
benton.org/node/37551 | Los Angeles Times
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
NEVADA ELECTION SPAT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Republican nominee Sharron Angle traded jabs over the weekend after Angle's campaign took legal action to prevent her opponent from re-posting an old version of her campaign website on the Internet. Sen Reid's campaign posted a previous version of the website after claims that Angle had scrubbed 75 percent of the content related to her policy positions following her win in the June 8 Republican primary. Within 24 hours, a lawyer from the Angle campaign responded with a cease-and-desist letter accusing Reid's campaign of misappropriating copyrighted materials by re-posting the website and capturing the names and e-mail addresses of Angle supporters under false pretenses. "Make no mistake, the Reid campaign was forced to take this site down because they were breaking several laws and trying to deceive the voters," Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy said. "You're going to see a lot of dirty tricks like that from Reid in this campaign." Reid's campaign responded by replacing the site with another more clearly intended to lampoon Angle and her policy positions. Despite its apparent capitulation, Reid's campaign still mocked the letter as a "threat of a frivolous lawsuit" and took a parting shot of its own.
benton.org/node/37550 | Hill, The
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CYBERSECURITY
GAO CYBERSECURITY REPORT
[SOURCE: Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: David Powner, Gregory Wilshusen]
Computer networks and infrastructures, on which the United States and much of the world rely to communicate and conduct business, contain vulnerabilities that can leave them susceptible to unauthorized access, disruption, or attack. Investing in research and development (R&D) is essential to protect critical systems and to enhance the cybersecurity of both the government and the private sector. Federal law has called for improvements in cybersecurity R&D, and, recently, President Obama has stated that advancing R&D is one of his administration's top priorities for improving cybersecurity.
GAO was asked to determine the key challenges in enhancing national-level cybersecurity R&D efforts among the federal government and private companies. To do this, GAO consulted with officials from relevant federal agencies and experts from private sector companies and academic institutions as well as analyzed key documents, such as agencies' research plans.
GAO is recommending that the Director of OSTP direct NITRD to exercise its leadership responsibilities by taking several actions, including developing a national agenda, and establishing and utilizing a mechanism to keep track of federal cybersecurity R&D funding. OSTP agreed with GAO's recommendation and provided details on planned actions. (GAO-10-466)
benton.org/node/37540 | Government Accountability Office | Highlights
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WEB ANONYMITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
The Obama Administration is trying to fix the Internet's dog problem. The problem, as depicted in Peter Steiner's legendary 1993 New Yorker cartoon, is that on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog. And thus the enduring conundrum over who can be trusted in cyberspace. The Internet affords anonymity to its users -- a boon to privacy and freedom of speech. But that very anonymity is also behind the explosion of cybercrime that has swept across the Web. Can privacy be preserved while bringing a semblance of safety and security to a world that seems increasingly lawless? Last month, Howard Schmidt, the nation's cyberczar, offered the Obama administration's proposal to make the Web a safer place -- a "voluntary trusted identity" system that would be the high-tech equivalent of a physical key, a fingerprint and a photo ID card, all rolled into one. The system might use a smart identity card, or a digital credential linked to a specific computer, and would authenticate users at a range of online services. The idea is to create a federation of private online identity systems. Users could select which system to join, and only registered users whose identities have been authenticated could navigate those systems. The approach contrasts with one that would require a government-issued Internet driver's license. (Civil liberties groups oppose a government system, fearful that it could lead to national identity cards.) Google and Microsoft are among companies that already have these "single sign-on" systems that make it possible for users to log in just once but use many different services. In effect, the approach would create a "walled garden" in cyberspace, with (virtually) safe neighborhoods and bright (cyber) streetlights to establish a sense of a trusted community.
benton.org/node/37528 | New York Times
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JOURNALISM
SEARCHES STEERING NEWS COVERAGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
Welcome to the era of the algorithm as editor. For as long as hot lead has been used to make metal type, the model for generating news has been top-down: editors determined what information was important and then shared it with the masses. But with the advent of technology that allows media companies to identify what kind of content readers want, that model is becoming inverted. The latest and perhaps broadest effort yet in democratizing the news is under way at Yahoo, which on July 6 will introduce a news blog that will rely on search queries to help guide its reporting and writing on national affairs, politics and the media. Search-generated content has been growing on the Internet, linked to the success of companies like Associated Content, which Yahoo recently bought, and Demand Media, which has used freelance writers to create an online library of more than a million instructional articles. But the use of search data has been limited more to the realm of "how to" topics like.
benton.org/node/37527 | New York Times
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MORE NEWS FROM FCC
FCC AGENDA
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Jim Barthold]
Not only is the FCC trying to determine if Comcast should be allowed to spend $30 billion or so to acquire NBC Universal and whether the American public would benefit from a broadband plan that includes more regulation, the agency has also looked at (and apparently approved) the Logitech Revue Google TV set-top and in now in the process of determining whether it should extend its outage reporting rules to broadband services, including VoIP.
benton.org/node/37542 | Fierce | FCC Public Notice
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CAC MEETING
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: Lindsey Sutphin]
The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Advisory Committee met on June 30, discussing white space spectrum usage, National Broadband Plan implementation concerns, and broadband accessibility to tribal lands and people with disabilities. Lawrence Daniels presented the Consumer Protection Working Group's recommendations. He spoke of a potential product or service that will provide consumers with the information they need before they purchase a broadband subscription, computer, phone, or other device that is Internet-connected. He sought input from the CAC on the best way to balance giving basic information to consumers and inundating them with too much data. The Broadband Working Group presented recommendations as well. Group member Lew Craig said the group has focused on shifting Lifeline and Link-up programs from wireline to wireless service. They advocated having discounts that apply to wireless the same way that it applies to wired service. The committee discussed the costs of making the transition, and agreed to seek out possible cost solutions. They also recommended that basic calling service should never be cut off from a consumer, even if the consumer is unable to pay for other mobile applications.
benton.org/node/37525 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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