May 3, 2012 (Ensuring an Open Internet)

INTERNET/BROADBAND

ENSURING AN OPEN INTERNET
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Lawrence Strickling, Philip Verveer, Daniel Weitzner]
Central to the Internet’s value as a platform for innovation, democracy, access to information and scientific progress are the technical standards on which it is built and the open manner in which it is governed. Yet, there are governments that seek to alter the fundamental way the Internet functions. Several governments recently called for new treaty provisions to assert centralized control over the Internet’s operations instead of relying on the voluntary, consensus-based processes that gave us the Internet we enjoy today. Internet institutions such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the World Wide Web Consortium have been essential to the Internet’s growth. These organizations operate on a multi-stakeholder basis, assuring that all who have an interest in the Internet can have a voice in its operation. They reflect the collaborative and enterprising spirit of the Internet, which President Obama referred to in the International Strategy for Cyberspace as “one of the finest examples of a community self-organizing." Their transparency and flexibility have enabled the Internet to scale up from a small academic network to a growing global infrastructure. The United States is actively engaged with our global partners in a variety of international settings and remains committed to working with all Internet stakeholders to defend and strengthen the open, interoperable, and innovative Internet.
benton.org/node/122146 | White House, The | WH
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MORE AFRICAN-AMERICAN HOMES USING BROADBAND
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
A new report says a narrowing broadband adoption gap between African-Americans and whites can be further closed by focusing on a new Federal Communications Commission initiative connecting broadband with jobs. The report released by the National Urban League policy institute shows the overall broadband adoption gap narrowing. While the home broadband adoption gap between black and white Americans formerly stood at 19 percent in 2009, it had dropped to 8 percent by 2010, according to the report. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called the report "a good sign that we can continue to make progress together" on the broadband adoption gap. Nonetheless, he noted that one-third of Americans still don't have broadband service at home. "Having this many on the wrong side of the digital divide is not good for our country, our economy or our ability to compete," Chairman Genachowski said.
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell also praised the report, though he admitted "more needs to be done" and promised that "more will be done." Citing a Pew Center study, Commissioner McDowell noted that more and more Americans are choosing to "cut the cord" from traditional broadband services — and minorities in particular are more likely to rely on mobile devices. "The Internet is going mobile, and minorities are leading the way. "This is promising," Commissioner McDowell said.
benton.org/node/122134 | Hill, The | Chairman Genachowski | Commissioner McDowell | Multichannel News
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SONY, INTERNET VIDEO AND COMCAST DATA CAPS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Timothy Lee]
An executive from Sony said that concerns about Comcast's discriminatory data cap are giving the firm second thoughts about launching an Internet video service that would compete with cable and satellite TV services. In March, Comcast announced that video streamed to the Xbox from Comcast's own video service would be exempted from the cable giant's 250 GB monthly bandwidth cap. Sony's Michael Aragon was speaking at the Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit. Aragon reportedly said Sony was "waiting on clarity" about whether regulators would allow Comcast to exempt its own video services from the broadband cap. "These guys have the pipe and the bandwidth," he said. "If they start capping things, it gets difficult."
benton.org/node/122061 | Ars Technica | Multichannel News | The Hill
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MAIN GIGABIT NETWORK
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
Orono, Maine – home of the University of Maine – is set to get a gigabit network. The network, announced today, will be built by competitive carrier GWI and will bring broadband at speeds up to 1 Gbps to homes and businesses in the community. The project, known as Gigabit Main Street, came about, in part, through the efforts of Gig U, a group of 37 research universities organized with the goal of spurring the construction of ultra-high-speed networks in university communities. The thinking was that by aggregating demand and identifying best practices, the universities would be in a better position to obtain network construction commitments from network operators.
benton.org/node/122098 | telecompetitor
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

DOES NTIA NEED HELP?
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Technology industry officials urged members of Congress to back the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration as it works to persuade federal agencies to give up some spectrum to the wireless industry. “If Congress wants to see more happen, it needs to be a reliable partner in pushing [NTIA] for progress and backing them up” when they are challenged by federal agencies, Bruce Mehlman, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, said during a Capitol Hill briefing. Association for Competitive Technology Executive Director Morgan Reed said Congress "can do more to help NTIA.”
benton.org/node/122117 | National Journal
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FCC LAUNCHES FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND ‘MOBILITY FUND’ AUCTION TO ACCELERATE DELIVERY OF 3G & 4G TO CLOSE GAPS IN MOBILE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Communications Commission announced the competitive bidding procedures for Phase I of the Mobility Fund, the first-ever reverse auction for Universal Service support, which will accelerate delivery of advanced mobile services to tens of thousands of road miles that currently lack 3G or 4G service. Winning bidders must deploy either 3G service within two years or 4G service within three years of the award. The Mobility Fund will award up to $300 million that was reserved out of savings from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) reforms. The auction is a market-based, fiscally responsible policy innovation to generate the greatest impact for every universal service dollar.
In this reverse auction, bidders will indicate the amount of one-time support they need to deploy service meeting rigorous performance standards in unserved areas within the required timeframe. Bidders will compete not only against other carriers that may be seeking support in the same areas, but also against carriers bidding for support in other areas nationwide. Support will be awarded based on the lowest bid amounts submitted, but will not be awarded to more than one provider per area. Successful bidders will be awarded support for an area at the price they bid.
The FCC’s Wireline and Wireless Bureaus released a Public Notice, which details the procedures for the Mobility Fund Phase I auction, designated as Auction 901, including pre-auction and post-auction requirements, determining the census blocks eligible for support, and establishing the window for parties to file applications to participate. After considering filings made by parties in response to the Auction 901 Comment Public Notice, this public notice:
Establishes a window for the filing of short form applications that opens June 27, 2012, and closes at 6 p.m. July 11, 2012;
Identifies the final list of census blocks eligible for Mobility Fund Phase I support;
Makes support possible for 98 percent or more of the total road miles in eligible census blocks in
every state and territory;
Provides that Auction 901 will be a single round, sealed bid auction;
Provides for bidding on a census tract basis, except in Alaska, where bidding will be permitted on individual eligible census blocks; and
Requires that each winning bidder provide coverage, consistent with the performance requirements of the rules adopted in the USF/ICC Transformation Order, to a minimum of 75 percent of the road miles in each census tract for which it wins support, calculated as the total of the road miles in the eligible census blocks in the tract.
benton.org/node/122126 | Federal Communications Commission | see the Public Notice | Summary of Eligible Census Blocks | Top 100 CMAs by Population
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WIRELESS CARRIERS WHO AID POLICE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) is demanding information from the country’s biggest cellphone companies about their role in helping local police departments conduct surveillance and tracking of suspects and others in criminal investigations. Rep Markey, the co-chairman of the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, said in a letter sent to eight major wireless carriers that he was “deeply concerned” that routine tracking of cellphone use by law enforcement officials in many departments “may violate the privacy rights of Americans.” In his letter, Rep Markey sought data from the cellphone carriers on the number of requests for help they have received from law enforcement officials in cell tracking and surveillance operations, their policies on whether they require the authorities to secure court warrants, the use of cellphone surveillance in nonemergencies, the fees they charge the police and other information. His letter was prompted by an April 1 article in The New York Times on the routine use of cellphone surveillance by local police departments, even in nonemergency situations.
benton.org/node/122155 | New York Times
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THE STATE OF MOBILE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
People generally talk less on the phone and send fewer text messages now because there are so many ways to communicate over an Internet connection. Though this may seem obvious to anyone who owns a smartphone, a new study confirms the trend. Chetan Sharma, an independent mobile analyst, released a study on the state of the global mobile industry. It found that overall text-messaging use is growing, but more slowly, and in some parts of the world, texting is in steep decline. American cellphone users are still sending more texts than before — about 680 messages a month in 2011 compared to about 640 a month in 2010 — but this growth is much slower than in previous years. Mr. Sharma said text messaging here could start to shrink this year. He said he combined the results from carriers’ financial reports around the world with some private data to come up with the estimates in his study. What’s causing the shrinkage? Messaging services that you can use over the data connection of a smartphone, as opposed to the carrier’s standard text messages. Apple’s iMessage, Google Voice and Skype provide this service.
benton.org/node/122154 | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP

ROCKEFELLER REQUESTS HACKING INFO
[SOURCE: US Senate Commerce Committee]
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) sent a letter to Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who is currently leading a special judicial investigation into phone hacking and other alleged illegal activities by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. The letter asks Lord Leveson if his inquiry has uncovered any new information suggesting that News International’s conduct involved US citizens or violated US laws. As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen Rockefeller has jurisdiction over media and communications issues in the United States. Chairman Rockefeller raised questions about the extent of News Corp’s phone hacking last July when the allegations were broadly reported in the US. The new request for information comes as the Leveson Inquiry and other British investigations are disclosing large volumes of new information and documents about News International’s widespread misconduct.
benton.org/node/122123 | US Senate Commerce Committee | National Journal
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COVERUP CULTURE AT NEWS CORP
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Ryan Chittum]
[Commentary] One of the most interesting aspects of the British Parliament’s select committee’s report is how it finds Rupert Murdoch’s conduct to be, at best, “willful blindness”—a phrase that looks like a message to US prosecutors. Willful blindness is a US legal term for what you might calls implausible deniability, like when a CEO or, say, a mafia boss has underlings do all the dirty work to keep his own hands clean. You can operate like that and still have plausible deniability, of course. It becomes implausible when it was clear long ago that there were serious problems that Murdoch, if he had wanted to, would have cleaned up. Instead, Murdoch cultivated a culture of obfuscation and coverup—one that hubristically, but not unrealistically, assumed that his power would be enough to ride out the turbulence. The scary thing is how close their bet on coverup came to winning. News Corp.’s extensive corruption of the British police system would have buried the scandal but for the heroic work of a small handful of folks like The Guardian’s Nick Davies, MP Tom Watson, and victims’ attorney Mark Lewis.
benton.org/node/122042 | Columbia Journalism Review
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NEWS CORP BACKS MURDOCH
[SOURCE: News Corporation, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Board of Directors of News Corporation met [May 2] and announced its full confidence in Rupert Murdoch's fitness and support for his continuing to lead News Corporation into the future as its Chairman and CEO. The Board based its vote of confidence on Rupert Murdoch's vision and leadership in building News Corporation, his ongoing performance as Chairman and CEO, and his demonstrated resolve to address the mistakes of the Company identified in the Select Committee's report.
benton.org/node/122118 | News Corporation | Broadcasting&Cable
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MURDOCH AND US REGULATORS
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Timothy Karr]
[Commentary] A scathing report in Britain that Rupert Murdoch and other News Corp. executives engaged in a cover-up of "rampant law breaking" may have ramifications for the media mogul in the United States. How far-reaching those consequences are depends on U.S. politicians' willingness to face down one of the most powerful media figures of our generation. But chinks in Murdoch's armor have deepened since Tuesday, when a U.K. government investigation found that News Corp. executives hacked private phone messages, bribed government officials and then sought to conceal this wrongdoing, in part by giving misleading testimony to British law enforcement and Parliament. Congressional hearings in the U.S. could bring to light even more misdeeds by a company that thinks itself too big to fail -- or be held accountable before the law.
benton.org/node/122059 | Huffington Post, The
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SIRIUS-LIBERTY
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Liana Baker]
Sirius XM Radio Inc CEO Mel Karmazin said it was unlikely that John Malone's Liberty Media Corp, the company's biggest shareholder, would get permission from regulators to take control of Sirius XM with its current 40 percent stake. Liberty acquired its stake in 2009 as part of deal in which it loaned the satellite radio provider $530 million to help it stave off bankruptcy. Since then, Sirius XM has turned its business around. It reported higher first-quarter profit and revenue, boosted by its first ever price increase. During an earnings conference call, analysts brought up the matter of Malone's intentions. Sirius XM faces a potential battle with Liberty, which last month requested approval from federal regulators to take de facto control of Sirius XM now that restrictions on its stake have expired.
benton.org/node/122064 | Reuters
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NEWSPAPER BUYING SPREE
[SOURCE: American Journalism Review, AUTHOR: John Morton]
[Commentary] In the not so distant past, the more valuable newspapers became, the more eager sellers and buyers became to do deals. Today newspapers are far less valuable — by half or more — yet sellers and buyers are once again finding each other in great numbers. What worries me about some of the recent acquisitions is that if newspapers fail to hold their own and their margins continue to decline, these nontraditional owners could start slashing costs in a misguided attempt to make their investments pay off. That's a truly bad idea. The principal reason the new owners bought the papers is the lingering value of their strong newsgathering franchises, still the most dominant in every market despite rampant layoffs and downsizing, and still the most crucial asset when it comes to seeking customers online and on mobile devices.
Lose that and there's nothing left.
benton.org/node/122103 | American Journalism Review
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TELEVISION

FCC SIDES WITH BLOOMBERG
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission granted in part a complaint filed by Bloomberg claiming that its 24-hour business news channel, Bloomberg Television, is an “independent news
channel” covered by the “news neighborhooding” condition adopted in the Comcast-NBCU Order. The FCC construes the terms of that condition and directs Comcast to carry Bloomberg consistent with the requirements of this order.
benton.org/node/122128 | Federal Communications Commission
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TWC AND HULU
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
Hulu should require viewers to have a cable subscription, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested in an investor call following the company’s Q1 2012 earnings report. “We think Hulu authenticating makes sense,” he added. “We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now and it might continue to be viable.” Bewkes was responding to a question on rumors that Hulu will start requiring users to prove that they have a cable TV subscription before using its service. HBO Go is having “a significant positive impact” on Time Warner’s business and 93 percent of users say Go makes them more loyal to HBO, Bewkes said. Consumers using HBO Go are watching HBO more than they used to, Bewkes said, and HBO Go will launch on more platforms soon — it will “become widely accessible on connected TVs.” Microsoft’s Xbox Live added HBO Go in March.
benton.org/node/122050 | paidContent.org
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CABLE, BROADBAND AND NETFLIX
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Daniel Frankel]
With initiatives like TV Everywhere and broadband usage caps, is the cable industry biting the hands of the streaming video companies that are driving its most vibrant prospect for growth? Now that Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon have kicked off the latest round of quarterly earnings reports by multi-channel operators late last month — a series that continues Wednesday when Comcast releases its first-quarter numbers — a case can be made that the cable industry has a better future in providing broadband services rather than TV/video bundles. And they have Netflix and YouTube to thank for that.
benton.org/node/122054 | paidContent.org
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BROADCASTERS ANTICOMPETITIVE PRACTICES
[SOURCE: American Cable Association, AUTHOR: Press release]
The American Cable Association is urging the Federal Communications Commission to consider two separately owned TV stations from the same market as a single, commonly owned entity under the agency's ownership attribution rules if the two stations opt to coordinate their retransmission consent negotiations with multichannel video programming providers (MVPDs).
"ACA has put evidence in the record showing that scores of local TV stations are coordinating retransmission consent negotiations and the effect is to lessen competition in local broadcasting markets," ACA President and CEO Matthew M. Polka said. "To shield the public from harm arising from reductions in broadcast competition, the FCC should rule that separately owned TV stations in the same market will be considered a single entity if the stations coordinate their retransmission consent negotiations, effectively prohibiting combinations of top four rated stations that are directly forbidden under the existing local television duopoly rule."
In reply comments filed on April 17, ACA stressed the need and appropriateness for the FCC to address ACA's well-documented concerns about coordinated retransmission consent negotiations in connection with the FCC's ongoing quadrennial review of its media ownership rules and policies. Further, ACA noted that the FCC -- charged by law with promoting competition in local broadcast markets -- should not be distracted by broadcasters' perpetual claims that anticompetitive broadcast practices are a matter solely for the antitrust authorities, even though the stations are FCC licensees.
benton.org/node/122105 | American Cable Association
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TV CONTENT COSTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: John Jannarone, Shalini Ramachandran]
Earnings at Time Warner and Comcast highlight the challenges facing traditional television networks grappling with rising programming costs and intensifying online competition. Both companies reported slightly lower first-quarter earnings from their cable-channel businesses as higher advertising revenues were offset by increased programming expenses, among other factors. And Comcast's broadcast-TV unit, which includes the NBC network, swung to a small loss before depreciation and amortization charges, even though its broadcast of the Super Bowl sent ad revenue sharply higher. Comcast blamed higher programming and marketing costs. Overall TV viewing has weakened in recent months as online viewing has soared. The years-old strategy of relying on reruns for earnings also is losing traction for cable channels as many reruns are now available online through services like Netflix. As a result, cable channels are investing more in new programming to lure viewers. That's hurting profits. Time Warner, which owns such channels as HBO, TNT and CNN, said its TV networks' operating profit fell 1.6%. While revenue rose 3% from higher subscription and ad sales, programming costs rose 6%, primarily because of pricier original programming and sports-broadcast rights.
benton.org/node/122151 | Wall Street Journal
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TV AND SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jefferson Graham]
In the heyday of television, networks and advertisers craved the hottest TV shows, those capable of producing "water cooler" conversation the next morning. My, how times have changed in the digital era. "The water cooler used to be the next day, now it's while the show is going on," says Greg Kahn, executive vice president of ad-buying firm Optimedia. For a small but very influential segment of the TV audience, the notion of passive viewing has changed dramatically. Now, as the networks prepare to unveil their fall lineups and make ad deals for the coming season, "social" TV viewing is a key component of what they will be touting.
benton.org/node/122150 | USAToday
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PRIVACY

SENATE SCHEDULES PRIVACY HEARING
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The Senate Commerce Committee will examine the Obama Administration's plan to protect users' online privacy at a hearing on May 9, Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced. “The Obama administration and the FTC have recommended that Congress provide consumers with basic privacy protections,” Chairman Rockefeller said in a statement. “Unfortunately, consumers are often unable to protect their privacy in a digital environment in which their personal information is increasingly collected and monetized for commercial purposes. At this hearing, I hope to have a robust discussion on how the administration and FTC propose to empower Americans so that they can say if, when and how their information is collected and used.”
benton.org/node/122069 | Hill, The
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EU DUPED BY GOOGLE?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Cyrus Farivar]
In light of the recent Federal Communications Commission report on Google outlining the fact that the company had deliberately captured people's Wi-Fi payload data with its roaming Street View cars, European privacy regulators now say that they feel misled by Google. "Well, deceived is a big word—maybe somewhat duped," wrote Ulrich Kühn, a spokesperson for the Hamburg data protection authority, in an e-mail to Ars. The Hamburg DPA has led the investigation in Germany, since Google's German corporate headquarters are located there. "Google always admitted just as much as they were forced to by hard evidence," Kühn added. Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the European privacy panel and the chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, said that many of his colleagues "feel misled by Google," adding that Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, spoke about the incident in the Netherlands back in 2010. "At this hearing, Peter Fleischer made it pretty clear in his oral statement and in writing that it was the mistake of one single guy working at Google who had made a stupid mistake," Mr. Kohnstamm said. "But apparently, it wasn’t a mistake at all."
benton.org/node/122119 | Ars Technica
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GOOGLE SCANDAL BROADENS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn, David Sarno]
A newly unredacted report from federal investigators and fresh information about the engineer behind the data collecting software are casting doubt on Google's assurances that it did not realize that its street-mapping cars were snatching personal data from Wi-Fi networks used by millions of unsuspecting households. In addition to a potential congressional probe, a coalition of more than 40 state attorneys general, led by Connecticut and including California and New York, is pressing ahead with its inquiry. Consumers have also filed nearly a dozen civil lawsuits that they hope to combine into a class action in federal court while privacy watchdogs are hounding Google and accusing the Federal Communications Commission of botching its investigation into the search giant.
benton.org/node/122071 | Los Angeles Times
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HOW TO MUDDY YOUR NET TRACKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kate Murphy]
While it’s probably impossible to cloak your online activities fully, you can take steps to do the technological equivalent of throwing on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt. Some of these measures are quite easy and many are free. Of course, the more effort and money you expend, the more concealed you are. The trick is to find the right balance between cost, convenience and privacy. Before you can thwart the snoopers, you have to know who they are. There are hackers hanging around Wi-Fi hot spots, to be sure. But security experts and privacy advocates said more worrisome were Internet service providers, search engine operators, e-mail suppliers and Web site administrators — particularly if a single entity acts in more than one capacity, like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and AOL. This means they can easily collect and cross-reference your data, that is, match your e-mails with your browsing history, as well as figure out your location and identify all the devices you use to connect to the Internet.
benton.org/node/122153 | New York Times
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CONTENT

JUDGE STAYS E-BOOK CLASS ACTION
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
Publishers Hachette and HarperCollins slipped further away from the class action lawyer who wants them to pay over an alleged e-book price-fixing conspiracy. In an order signed in New York federal court, Justice Denise Cote ruled that the class action could be halted on the grounds that the publishers are close to a consumer restitution settlement with state governments. What this means in practice is that the class action lawyers will be frozen out because the state governments’ deal trumps the consumer class action. In a letter to Justice Cote, lead class action lawyer Steve Berman said the court should only suspend part of the proceedings because many states might not take part in the agreement. He also said the two publishers should have to share documents related to the Justice Department’s antitrust investigation, but the judge’s order means that will not happen for now. The two publishers, for their part, have entered a memorandum of understanding with several states, and have suggested a deal with all 50 states is imminent. The publishers would likely have to pay millions under a settlement, but it would allow them to escape the class action proceedings and avoid the risk of a jury award that could be even higher.
benton.org/node/122053 | paidContent.org
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TELECOM

REMEMBER THE TELEPHONE
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: Rebecca Rosen]
If writers, academics, and observers of all stripes are concerned about the effects social media are having on society, they're hardly the first to worry about the changes wrought by a new technology. Pretty much any disruptive technology is met with a now-familiar cycle of dismissal, "grandiose pronouncements," and gradual adoption, explains Tom Vanderbilt, and for a fine telling of what this has looked like historically, turn to his story of the telephone's early life in the new issue of the Wilson Quarterly. Yet despite its "seemingly transformative nature," the telephone, Vanderbilt writes, is rather understudied. There is not a single scholarly publication devoted in its entirety to the phone. The parallels between its early years and our own nascent Internet age go unremarked. "Even the mobile phone, arguably, is more scrutinized for its computer-like texting functions than its influence on our vocal communication."
benton.org/node/122049 | Atlantic, The
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA

ADS AND UNDERAGE DRINKING
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Tanya Irwin]
Minors who are familiar with TV alcohol ads are more likely to have tried alcoholic beverages and binge drink than those who do not recall seeing such ads, according to a study presented earlier this week at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston. The study shows a link between recognition of nationally televised alcohol ads and underage drinking initiation and heavier use patterns, said lead author Susanne E. Tanski, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Previous research by Tanski and her colleagues showed an association between seeing smoking and drinking in movies and adolescents engaging in these risky behaviors. This study expanded on those findings by exploring whether there is an association between exposure to TV alcohol ads and substance use.
benton.org/node/122058 | MediaPost
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JOURNALISM

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 2012
[SOURCE: Freedom House, AUTHOR: Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Jennifer Dunham]
Freedom House released the findings of Freedom of the Press 2012, its annual press freedom survey, at a press conference held in front of the World Press Freedom map at the Newseum. David Kramer, president of Freedom House, and Karin Deutsch Karlekar, project director for the Freedom of the Press survey, highlighted key developments in global press freedom over the last year, including the ramifications of the Arab Spring. Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya all showed significant improvements in terms of press freedom. Other countries, including Bahrain and Syria, cracked down on media in an attempt to quell Arab Spring protest movements. Despite harsh crackdowns in authoritarian states, global media freedom did not experience an overall decline for the first time in eight years. However, due to downgrades in previously “Free” countries, the percentage of the world's population living in countries with a free press has fallen to the lowest level in over a decade.
benton.org/node/122044 | Freedom House
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POLICYMAKERS

FCC VOTE ON MONDAY?
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) says a vote by the full Senate on Federal Communications Commission nominees Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel could come when the Senate gavels back into session on Monday, May 7.
benton.org/node/122148 | Hill, The
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BIPARTISANSHIP OVER AT SENATE COMMERCE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm, Eliza Krigman]
The politics on the Senate Commerce Committee are likely to change tempo after the retirement of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) this year: The grand waltz she’s had with Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) could be replaced by a mosh pit. Committee Democrats — even if they retain control — are expected to face a more conservative bloc of Republicans next January, likely led by firebrand Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). Sen DeMint has seniority and political clout in his favor. And if tapped to lead panel Republicans, his rise would mark a departure from the committee’s more recent affable relations at a time when tech issues, more than ever, are on its radar. “After years of reckless spending and big government intervention from Washington, the Senate commerce committee needs to lead a new freedom agenda to overhaul outdated communications regulations, keep the Internet free from government control and new taxes and shrink the federal bureaucracy,” said Sen DeMint.
benton.org/node/122147 | Politico
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HEALTH

CIOs SEEK MORE TIME FOR ELECTRONIC RECORDS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: ]
An organization of hospital CIOs and other health IT executives is urging the federal government to give health-care providers more time to prepare for the second stage of electronic health record implementation. The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) suggests that medical providers be given a 90-day period to demonstrate that their EHRs meet upgraded standards for meaningful use. A similar 90-day period was granted as providers worked to meet the first stage of requirements for usage. Providers must demonstrate compliance with meaningful-use standards to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid cash incentives. CHIME sent letters with its recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). “We felt the approach taken in Stage 1 gave providers much-needed time to make sure the correct fields were populating and accurate meaningful use reports were being produced – we think a similar approach is needed for Stage 2 and beyond,” says Pam McNutt, a member of CHIME’s policy steering committee
benton.org/node/122110 | nextgov
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EHR GOALS AREN’T MET BY 80% OF US HOSPITALS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Alex Wayne]
More than 80 percent of hospitals have yet to achieve the requirements for the first stage of a $14.6 billion US program to encourage doctors to adopt electronic medical records, the industry’s largest trade group said. The program is too ambitious and goals may not be met, Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association, said in a 68-page letter to the Health and Human Services Department. He cited “the high bar set and market factors, such as accelerating costs and limited vendor capacity.” The records program, enacted as part of the economic stimulus law in 2009, makes hospitals eligible for payments of as much as $11.5 million if they can demonstrate “meaningful use” of computer systems, according to the Washington-based group. Hospitals and doctors who don’t adopt electronic records by 2015 will be penalized with lower Medicare payments. Meeting goals for the program is also being complicated by a widening “digital divide” between large urban hospitals and small rural ones, with big hospitals adopting the technology faster than small ones, according to Pollack’s letter. Hospitals are “particularly concerned,” he said, about a requirement in the new rules that they let patients view and download their medical records from websites. The requirement “is not feasible as proposed, raises significant security issues and goes well beyond current technical capacity,” Pollack wrote.
benton.org/node/122063 | Bloomberg
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NEWS FROM ABROAD

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES NOT COPYRIGHTABLE
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Jennifer Baker]
Europe's top court ruled that the functionality of a computer program and the programming language it is written in cannot be protected by copyright. The European Court of Justice made the decision in relation to a case brought by SAS Institute against World Programming Limited (WPL). SAS makes data processing and statistical analysis programs. The core component of the SAS system allows users to write and run application programs written in SAS programming language. Through reference to the Learning Edition of the SAS System, which WPL acquired under a lawful license, WPL created a product that emulates much of the functionality of the SAS components, so that customers' application programs can run in the same way on WPL as on the SAS components. The court found that although WPL used and studied SAS programs in order to understand their functioning, there was "nothing to suggest that WPL had access to or copied the source code of the SAS components." It ruled that "The purchaser of a license for a program is entitled, as a rule, to observe, study or test its functioning so as to determine the ideas and principles which underlie that program." If it were accepted that a functionality of a computer program can be protected as such, that would amount to making it possible to monopolize ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development, decided the court, echoing the opinion given last November by the court's Advocate General, Yves Bot.
benton.org/node/122107 | IDG News Service | ars technica
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UK’S BROADBAND SHORTFALL
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw]
Academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) have warned of a billion-pound shortfall in funding for superfast broadband if the government is to meet its aim of providing the “best” Internet infrastructure in Europe. The LSE’s department of media and communications found that funding for broadband from public sources, including the government’s £150 million pledge to help create 20 “super-connected cities”, totaled £1.3 billion, in a report commissioned by Convergys, a customer-management software provider. That left a £1.1bn funding gap to be filled by the private sector, the LSE said, which risked Britain lagging behind other countries and missing the economic benefits. A 10 percent increase in broadband penetration leads to an increase of 0.9-1.5 percent in gross domestic product a head, the report said, citing University of Munich research.
benton.org/node/122142 | Financial Times
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May 3, 2012 (Ensuring an Open Internet)