BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2012
3rd Annual World's Fair Use Day http://benton.org/calendar/2012-05-04/
AGENDA
3 Items on FCC’s May Agenda - press release
INTERNET/BROADBAND
USDA Invites Applications for Grants to Provide Broadband Service to Remote Rural Communities - press release
Groups alarmed that Verizon is ending standalone DSL
CONTENT
Teens & Online Video - research
It doesn’t matter what e-books cost to make - analysis
Prismatic wants to be the newspaper for a digital age [links to web]
Bloggers Debate the Treatment of Arab Women - research [links to web]
Ad Industry Takes Step to Fight Online Piracy [links to web]
YouTube Commits $200M to Promote Premium 'Channels' [links to web]
Apple hit with national class action over iTunes double-billing [links to web]
PRIVACY
Consumer Reports: Facebook users more wary of sharing information
Europe's more stringent view of online privacy [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
NAB Drops Challenge of FCC's White Space Decision
Verizon fires back at critics of deal
AT&T Chief Says Blocked Deal Will Cost Consumers
With 8.8% market share, Apple has 73% of cell phone profits [links to web]
Verizon promoting LTE as home broadband alternative [links to web]
How smartphones and tablets are fueling commerce [links to web]
TELECOM
Industry Appears Resigned to Latest USF Reforms
Justice Department Returns $44 Million to Victims of Qwest Communications Fraud - press release [links to web]
TELEVISION
Nielsen: TV still king, but Web, mobile video rising [links to web]
FCC Temporarily Stays Enforcement of Tennis Channel Decision [links to web]
Will News Corp’s UK Problem Become Its US Problem? - analysis
Nielsen Reports a Decline in Television Viewing [links to web]
HEALTH
Technology helps drive high cost of US healthcare
Taking E-Mail Vacations Can Reduce Stress, Study Says [links to web]
A Real Girl, 14, Takes a Stand Against the Flawless Faces in Magazines [links to web]
EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
US Study Cites Worries on Readiness for Cyberattacks
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Obama wins in race for digital attention
Presidential Ads 70 Percent Negative in 2012, Up from 9 Percent in 2008 - research
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Obama Administration urges freer access to cellphone records
BART Defends Mobile Service Shutdown to the FCC
How the House Oversight Committee Conquered YouTube
Facebook joins Global Network Initiative as an observer
Free Speech and Digital Rights Groups Call on Department of Justice to Protect Everyone’s Right to Record - press release
Big Data Could Remake Science – and Government [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
After Public Offering, Mark Zuckerberg Will Still Control More Than Half of Facebook
Small Investors May Get to Own a Bit of Facebook [links to web]
Zuckerberg Facebook IPO to Make Him Richer Than Ballmer [links to web]
California to reap windfall from Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook IPO
Why a Successful Hulu was a Problem - analysis
Will News Corp’s UK Problem Become Its US Problem? - analysis
Judge says Google's Android lost money in 2010
Why Oracle vs. Google Matters to You
Google, authors tussle in court
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Will News Corp’s UK Problem Become Its US Problem? - analysis
Carlos Slim Avoids $1 Billion Fine in Antitrust Deal
Tunisian court fines TV boss on morality charges [links to web]
Now Europe wants you to prove how old you are online
Hollywood movies open abroad, then come home [links to web]
Europe's more stringent view of online privacy [links to web]
MORE ONLINE
How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education [links to web]
Cybersecurity is hottest IT skill [links to web]
AGENDA
FCC ANNOUNCES TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR MAY OPEN MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 24, 2012:
Deployable Arial Communications Architecture (DACA) Notice of Inquiry: The FCC will consider a Notice of Inquiry examining the role of deployable aerial communications architecture (DACA) in facilitating emergency response by rapidly restoring communications capabilities in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophic event.
Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: The FCC will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish service rules and an allocation for Medical Body Area Networks and seek comment on the selection of an MBAN coordinator.
Removing Barriers to Broadband Deployment in the 800 MHz Band Report and Order: The FCC will consider a Report and Order that will provide EA-based 800 MHz licensees with the flexibility to better utilize spectrum to transition networks from legacy 2G technologies to advanced wireless technologies.
benton.org/node/122246 | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
RUS GRANTS
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA is accepting applications through the Community Connect Broadband program for grants to provide broadband service to residents of remote, rural communities. Community Connect grants are made available to the most rural, unserved and economically challenged areas. The funds are used to build broadband infrastructure. Awardees are also required to establish community centers that offer free public access to broadband. Applications must be received by June 18, 2012.
benton.org/node/122206 | Department of Agriculture | read the Notice
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VERIZON ENDING STANDALONE DSL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
A number of small telecommunications companies and consumer groups sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski expressing alarm at Verizon's recent announcement that it will discontinue installing so-called "naked," or standalone, DSL Internet service as of May 6, 2012. Existing Verizon "naked DSL" customers who make changes to their service plans will lose their DSL service as a result. Customers will not be able to move their service to a new location. The letter is signed by representatives from small telcos like Access Humboldt and consumer groups like Public Knowledge and Consumers Union. The letter implores Chairman Genachowski to see "that the commission work with Verizon to explore its planned discontinuance of standalone DSL and, if possible, to delay the implementation of a policy that would further reduce the affordability and availability of broadband services to consumers." One reason for delay is that there already is an open FCC proceeding investigating the effects of bundling on prices and competition for telecom services. While the docket has been inactive since 2005, it remains open for public comment.
benton.org/node/122255 | Hill, The
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CONTENT
TEENS AND ONLINE VIDEO
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Amanda Lenhart]
In a survey of 799 teens conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project between April 19 and July 14, 2011, the teens were asked about a number of online behaviors. Among the findings:
37% of internet users ages 12-17 participate in video chats with others using applications such as Skype, Googletalk or iChat. Girls are more likely than boys to have such chats.
27% of internet-using teens 12-17 record and upload video to the internet. One major difference between now and 2006 is that online girls are just as likely these days to upload video as online boys.
13% of internet-using teens stream video live to the internet for other people to watch.
Social media users are much more likely than those who do not use social media to engage in all three video behaviors studied.
benton.org/node/122203 | Pew Internet & American Life Project
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WHAT DOES IT COST TO MAKE AN E-BOOK
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Mathew Ingram]
Book publishers are trying hard to defend the pricing of e-books — perhaps in part because they’ve been accused by the Justice Department of rigging prices to keep them artificially high — by arguing that it costs a lot more than most people think to produce the electronic version of a book. But as author Chuck Wendig notes, what e-books cost to manufacture or distribute is irrelevant to everyone but the publishers themselves. All that matters is what book consumers are willing to pay for an e-book — and the same principle applies for any form of digital content. Hearing the complaints of book buyers must be frustrating for publishers, because they actually have a pretty good case for why e-books cost what they do. Although many see the price of old-fashioned things like paper and printing presses and trucks to ship them as a big cost for printed books, publishers like Penguin point out that the main costs involve advance payments to authors, marketing and other support expenses — things that also apply to e-books.
benton.org/node/122216 | GigaOm
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PRIVACY
CONSUMER REPORTS, FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Facebook is about to share a whole lot of information about itself as it pitches potential investors on its initial public stock offering coming in May. But users of the popular website are becoming more wary about how much information they share with Facebook, says a new study from Consumer Reports that asked Facebook users in the United States what steps they took to protect their privacy on the world's largest social network. About a quarter of the users surveyed admitted they made up information about themselves. Consumer Reports said that’s double the number who said they did that two years ago, a finding that it says signals that users have become more guarded. Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, is using the June issue of the magazine to push for a national privacy law that would give consumers control over companies tracking them online. Facebook has more than 150 million users in the US. Consumer Reports says it's urging Facebook to make it clearer to users how to protect their information. But the study also found that the majority of U.S. Facebook users have adjusted their privacy settings, only about 13 million have not, which would seem to indicate that Facebook users are taking control of their privacy on the site. Facebook insists that it offers users extensive tools to control their privacy.
benton.org/node/122230 | Los Angeles Times
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
NAB DROPS WHITE SPACE CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters has dropped its court challenge of the Federal Communications Commission's 2008 decision on allowing the use of unlicensed devices in the so-called "white spaces" between TV channels. "NAB has reviewed the FCC's Third Opinion and Order and determined that it is no longer necessary for it to pursue this petition for review," said NAB in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to dismiss the challenge.
"We commend NAB for filing to dismiss its court challenge to the FCC's white spaces order," said unlicensed device fans Public Knowledge. "Assuming the court grants the motion, the last potential legal obstacle to the use of this valuable unlicensed spectrum will be removed and the innovations that are just beginning can continue to proceed with new confidence."
benton.org/node/122223 | Broadcasting&Cable | The Hill
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VERIZON FIRES BACK
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
Verizon rebutted several main criticisms of its proposed deal with a coalition of cable companies in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Verizon noted that the cable companies were not using their spectrum, but Verizon will be able to use it to meet the needs of its millions of customers. Verizon argued that the FCC is barred from considering alternative possibilities for how the spectrum could be used, for example, if the cable companies sold it to T-Mobile instead. Verizon rejected arguments that it is "warehousing" the spectrum it already owns, saying the accusation is "demonstrably false." Verizon called itself a "good steward of spectrum," and said that it needs the spectrum to meet its customers' "skyrocketing" demand for 4G LTE service. Verizon also rejected arguments that regulators should impose conditions on the deal, such as capping roaming rates or imposing interoperability requirements.
benton.org/node/122226 | Hill, The
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AT&T SAYS FAILED ACQUISITION WILL COST CONSUMERS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ethan Smith]
The government's decision to block AT&T's takeover of Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA unit will result in higher prices to consumers, AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Randall Stephenson contended. Speaking at the Milken Institute's annual global conference, Stephenson said that the U.S. wireless-telecommunications market can't sustain the current number of competitors because there isn't enough wireless spectrum for all of them. Based on current patterns, wireless data usage will increase 75% a year for at least five years, Stephenson said. "We're running out of the airwaves that this traffic rides on," he added. "There is a shortage of this spectrum." With or without a deal like the one his company unsuccessfully pursued, he said, competitors will be forced to drop out if they can't find enough wireless capacity to offer more modern data services to growing numbers of customers.
benton.org/node/122232 | Wall Street Journal | GigaOm
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TELECOM
RESIGNED TO USF REFORM?
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The telecommunications industry has been surprisingly silent in response to actions taken by the Federal Communications Commission involving the Universal Service Fund. Does this mean the reforms have met with broad approval? Not exactly. But there does seem to be a sense of resignation. Some of the changes made are not to everyone’s liking. On the other hand, most people seem to agree that they’re better than what might have been. Among those weighing in with Telecompetitor on this topic were representatives of the National Exchange Carrier Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and Windstream, which helped shape many of the USF reforms related to price cap carriers.
benton.org/node/122234 | telecompetitor
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HEALTH
TECH DRIVES UP HEALTHCARE COSTS
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Bernie Monegain]
Higher prices and greater use of technology appear to be the main factors driving the high rates of US spending on healthcare, rather than greater use of physician and hospital services, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund. The study found the U.S. spends more on healthcare than 12 other industrialized countries, yet does not provide “notably superior” care. The US spent nearly $8,000 per person in 2009 on healthcare services, while other countries in the study spent between one-third (Japan and New Zealand) and two-thirds (Norway and Switzerland) as much. While the US performs well on breast and colorectal cancer survival rates, it has among the highest rates of potentially preventable deaths from asthma and amputations due to diabetes, and rates that are no better than average for in-hospital deaths from heart attack and stroke. US healthcare spending amounted to more than 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, compared with 12 percent or less in other study countries. Japan’s spending, which was the lowest, amounted to less than 9 percent of GDP, according to study author David Squires, senior research associate at The Commonwealth Fund.
benton.org/node/122212 | HealthcareITNews
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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS REPORT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Schmidt]
A study commissioned by President Obama to assess the nation’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks and man-made and natural disasters has found that state and local officials have the most confidence in their public health and medical services but are the most concerned about whether agencies can respond to cyberattacks. Called the National Preparedness Report, the assessment is the first of its kind released by the federal agency and was intended to serve as a baseline for preparedness. The report’s findings about cybersecurity that appeared to be the most troubling, and they continued a drumbeat from the Obama administration about the need for Congress to pass legislation giving the Department of Homeland Security the authority to regulate computer security for the country’s infrastructure. The report said that cybersecurity “was the single core capability where states had made the least amount of overall progress” and that only 42 percent of state and local officials believed that theirs was adequate.
benton.org/node/122281 | New York Times
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
DIGITAL ATTENTION
[SOURCE: VentureBeat, AUTHOR: Jennifer Van Grove]
The Obama campaign is employing a digital strategy like no other, betting more aggressively on Facebook, display ads, and paid search than Republican candidates seeking the nomination, according to new data from analytics firm comScore. In fact, the Obama for America campaign delivered 835 million display ads in February, representing 86 percent share of voice for all presidential candidate display ads in that month, according to comScore. “The Obama campaign outnumbered the combined effort of the four leading Republican campaigns with any notable online ad presence by a ratio of 10 to 1 in the past six months, reflecting a significant difference in advertising strategy between Obama and the rest of the candidates,” comScore said in a report entitled, “5 Ways Digital Media is Shaping the 2012 Presidential Election.”
benton.org/node/122196 | VentureBeat
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PRESIDENTIAL ADS 2012
[SOURCE: Wesleyan Media Project, AUTHOR: ]
The 2012 presidential race is shaping up to be an overwhelmingly negative one, much more negative than the 2008 contest to date. 7 out of 10 of the ads aired in this year’s presidential contests have been negative -- that is, they mentioned an opponent. This compares to fewer than 1 in 10 ads aired during the 2008 presidential race up to this point that were negative. Over 200,000 ads have aired so far. Candidate-sponsored ads, which made up 96.6 percent of the total airings in 2008, declined to just over a third (35.8 percent) of the total this year. Making up for most of the difference are outside groups (including Super PACs) who have sponsored almost 60 percent of the ads aired this year, compared to just 3 percent of ad airings in 2008. An estimated $112M has been spent to date on 207,000 ads compared to $190M spent on just under 300,000 ads in 2008. Much of this decline in spending and ad volume is due to the lack of a nomination contest on the Democratic side this year.
benton.org/node/122195 | Wesleyan Media Project
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
JUSTICE SUGGESTS FREER ACCESS TO CELLPHONE RECORDS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
Congress should pass a law to give investigators freer access to certain cellphone records, an Obama Administration official said in remarks that raised concern among advocates of civil liberties and privacy. Jason Weinstein, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division, argued that requirements for warrants at early stages of investigations would "cripple" prosecutors and law enforcement. While prosecutors have been told to get warrants to put a tracking device on a vehicle or to track the precise GPS location of a person via their cellphone, they should not be needed to obtain data from the towers, Weinstein said. "There really is no fairness and no justice when the law applies differently to different people depending on which courthouse you're sitting in," he said at the "State of the Mobile Net" conference sponsored by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. "For that reason alone, we think Congress should clarify the legal standard," he said.
benton.org/node/122251 | Reuters
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BART DEFENDS MOBILE SERVICE SHUTDOWN
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
Disrupting mobile phone service is a legitimate tool for law enforcement authorities working against terrorism or other dangerous situations, a mass transit agency has said in defending its own mobile shutdown last August. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District, serving the San Francisco area, has an obligation to protect its riders, wrote Grace Crunican, BART's general manager, in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC has been investigating BART's three-hour shutdown of mobile-phone base stations in some of its San Francisco stations last August in an attempt to disrupt a planned protest. Mobile devices can be used to detonate explosives, Crunican wrote. "BART is concerned ... that it must have the tools at its disposal to protect that public from wrongful use of wireless devices, as they can be used as an instrument for doing harm to passengers and BART employees," she wrote. "A temporary disruption of cell phone service, under extreme circumstances where harm and destruction are imminent, is a necessary tool to protect passengers."
benton.org/node/122207 | IDG News Service
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HOW HOUSE OVERSIGHT CONQUERED YOUTUBE AND WHAT IT MEANS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
So what does it take to rise to the top in federal social media? Well, dedication and tech savvy help, but content is still king. This lesson is borne out by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which recently crossed a milestone: 2 million video views on its YouTube page. That blows away any other dedicated committee page in the House or Senate. Those viewers aren’t flocking to dry hearing videos, though. The most viewed video by far -- responsible for nearly 300,000 of the 2 million views -- is the one that beggars belief of General Services Administration staffer and rising Reggae star Hank Terlaje at the agency’s now infamous Western District conference singing about spending building operations funds “all on fun” and evading inspector general investigations.
benton.org/node/122241 | nextgov
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FACEBOOK JOINS GLOBAL NETWORK INITIATIVE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Facebook has agreed to be an observer at the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an organization that aims to prevent censorship of the Internet by authoritarian governments. The GNI, a non-governmental organization also dedicated to protecting privacy rights, is sponsored by a coalition of corporations, nonprofits and universities. Facebook is the first company to accept the observer designation, which GNI created last December in order to allow corporations considering membership to learn about the organization and participate in policy discussions with members and staff. Facebook can remain an observer for 12 months before it has to make a decision about full membership, GNI said.
benton.org/node/122227 | Hill, The
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FREE PRESS CALLS FOR JUSTICE TO PROTECT RIGHT TO RECORD
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Press release]
Nine leading free speech and digital rights groups called on Attorney General Eric Holder to focus attention on the alarming number of arrests of people documenting Occupy protests. Free Press has chronicled more than 70 such arrests since last September. In a letter being delivered to AG Holder, World Press Freedom Day, Free Press, along with Access, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the National Press Photographers Association, the New America Foundation, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders and Witness, noted that U.S. police have arrested dozens of journalists, activists and bystanders attempting to document protests in public spaces.
benton.org/node/122235 | Free Press | SaveTheNews | B&C
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OWNERSHIP
ZUCKERBERG TO CONTROL FACEBOOK
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Tricia Duryee]
Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will retain control of the social network, even after completing its impending initial public offering. According to documents filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Facebook is seeking to sell 337.4 million shares at between $28 to $35 a share, valuing the company at up to $95 billion. Zuckerberg, who plans to participate in the offering by selling 30.2 million shares, will continue to control 57.3 percent of the company’s voting power once completed. The filing explained that the majority of Zuckerberg’s proceeds from the sale of his shares will be used to pay an enormous tax bill associated with exercising nearly 60 million shares.
benton.org/node/122257 | Wall Street Journal
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ZUCKERBERG TO PAY TAXES
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
California has a friend about to write a hefty personal check that could help ease the state budget crunch. Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook whose initial public stock offering in two weeks could value the company at $96 billion, will cut in the state for an estimated $189 million in cash, according to calculations from PrivCo, which researches private companies. The federal government will be in the money too, collecting an estimated $714 million in federal income tax from Zuckerberg. And that’s just the payout from Zuckerberg. The windfall for California from the rest of the IPO could net California hundreds of millions more.
benton.org/node/122283 | Los Angeles Times
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HULU WAS A PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Ernesto Falcon]
[Commentary] It has been reported that NBCUniversal, News Corporation, and Walt Disney Company will block access to Hulu unless you pay for both a broadband subscription and a paid TV subscription. Such a move will prevent an estimated 3.58 million people from becoming Hulu customers and likely stifle Hulu’s future success. Who else but the executives who brought you the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would actively strangle their own Internet success story? With an annual doubling of revenue and average monthly growth of 100,000 paid subscribers, it must be that Hulu was too successful (and disruptive) for its stakeholders to handle. So rather than embrace the Internet, they have opted to reverse course and try to preserve the increasingly rejected business model of cable and satellite TV.
benton.org/node/122237 | Public Knowledge
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ORACLE-GOOGLE UPDATE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
Google’s Android mobile platform resulted in a net loss for the company in every quarter of 2010, despite generating roughly $97.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of that year, a US judge said in court. The discussion of the finances of what has become the world's leading mobile operating software in just four years came during a damages hearing in high stakes litigation between Oracle and Google over smartphone technology. A jury is deliberating on Oracle's allegation that Google, the top Internet search engine, violated its copyright to parts of the Java programming language. In a hearing outside the jury's presence, US District Judge William Alsup quizzed attorneys for both companies about some of the Android financial information submitted in the case.
benton.org/node/122250 | Reuters
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WHY ORACLE-GOOGLE MATTERS
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR:]
The tech industry is on tenterhooks awaiting the result of the Oracle vs. Google trial. The reason: Oracle is claiming Google should pay it billions of dollars based on the idea that application programming interfaces, the instruction sets for using its Java programming language, are covered by copyright. The judge is inclined to agree, and the question before the jury is what that would be worth. But to open source advocates such as Pamela Jones, founder of Groklaw, all this is nonsense. As she explained, APIs are more like the list of objections one might make during a trial. There is a list of possible objections, which all lawyers know, she wrote Proffitt. "If a lawyer stands up and says, 'Objection, hearsay' everyone in the room knows what it means. It's referring to the list." If someone could copyright the list, the very idea of hearsay, courts would not be able to function. That's how the European Court of Justice sees it as well. Why does this matter? Open source, in short, seemed perfectly legal when the issue was the enforceability of a license. But copyright lives forever -- Mickey Mouse is still subject to copyright -- and if anyone who writes a program or programming tool can assert property claims on it for 100 years, programming as we know it is indeed threatened.
benton.org/node/122278 | San Jose Mercury News
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GOOGLE AND AUTHORS BACK IN COURT
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Larry Neumeister]
Google urged a judge to toss The Authors Guild and an organization representing photographers out of 6-year-old litigation over the future of the world's largest digital library, a move that would force authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant. Google attorney Daralyn Durie told Judge Denny Chin in federal court in Manhattan that authors and photographers would be better off fending for themselves because their circumstances varied so widely. Joanne Zack, a lawyer for The Authors Guild, countered that the judge should certify the authors as a class because millions of them would not have the money to go to court and because the potential financial reward for doing so would not be high enough to make it practical. She said they also might be intimidated fighting a company as large as Google. "A lot of them don't even know their books have been digitized," she said.
benton.org/node/122224 | Associated Press | Bloomberg
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
NEWS CORP’ UK PROBLEM
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] Our big story of the week comes from across the pond, in London Town where, for many months, regulators have been examining the business practices of one of the world’s largest media empires. Last week, Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corporation, testified before a judicial panel about alleged phone hacking and police corruption by News of the World employees. Murdoch’s big news amounted to accusations that at least one former employee presided over a “cover-up” of phone hacking and other dubious practices at The News of the World tabloid.
http://benton.org/node/122176
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SLIM AVOIDS FINE
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Crayton Harrison]
Billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil SAB struck a deal with Mexican regulators to avoid paying a fine of almost $1 billion, in exchange for cutting wireless fees and offering calls to competitors for no extra charge. The agency voted unanimously to overturn the fine it assessed in April 2011, the Federal Competition Commission said. The commission will be able to fine Mexico City-based America Movil, the largest wireless carrier in the Americas, as much as 8 percent of its annual Mexican wireless revenue if it violates the pledges. America Movil has 70 percent of Mexico’s mobile- phone lines and 80 percent of land lines.
benton.org/node/122247 | Bloomberg
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EUROPE AND ONLINE ANNONIMITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
Is the age of online anonymity coming to an end? If you live in the European Union, that might soon be the case. New information came out regarding an EU project called the pan-European framework for electronic identification, authentication and signature (PEFIAS) is out — and it’s had some interesting tweaks. We heard about this plan for the first time late last year, when it was proposed as a good way of making online transactions more secure. But now it seems the scheme will also be used to prove people’s age online. Why? For the kids, of course. The one-size-fits-all nature of the internet is increasingly a headache for regulators who are trying to protect children, and here the EU wants to provide a possible cure. This new mission for PEFIAS was revealed in the European Commission’s Strategy for a better internet for children. It’s a weighty document that’s full of suggestions for keeping kids safe online — not just on the desktop, but also on tablets, mobile phones and game consoles, where the EC wants parental control tech to be built in.
benton.org/node/122215 | GigaOm
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