BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011
Techonomy and NARUC kick off the week http://benton.org/calendar/2011-11-13--P1W/
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Senate rejects attempt to overturn FCC's network neutrality rules
About That Senate Vote On Net Neutrality - analysis
What next for network neutrality? - analysis
Traffic jams, ISPs and network neutrality - op-ed
MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
Limits to broadband diffusion? - analysis
Appeal denied for $80 Million BTOP Grant
Remember the "borderless" Internet? It's officially dead - analysis
Coalition To Fight ICANN's New Domain Name Plan
You’ve got a gigabit network, so now what? - op-ed [links to web]
Putting the Brakes on Web-Surfing Speeds
Internet Architects Warn of Risks in Ultrafast Networks
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
AT&T, US argue over witnesses in antitrust trial
AT&T/T-Mobile Merger Job Claims Fuel Bitter Debate Over Antitrust Suits
T-Mobile USA Boosts Customers as Takeover by AT&T Drags On
FCC Seeks Comment on Spectrum Bridge’s Spectrum Database System - public notice
GPS companies clash with LightSquared, each other at public meeting
Why the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet are Wi-Fi-only - analysis
The 10 Most Popular Mobile Purchases
Cars to Come Equipped with Embedded Wireless [links to web]
San Francisco, CTIA to appeal trimmed cellular law [links to web]
How Apple put the hurt on carriers’ subscriber growth [links to web]
Apple Takes iTunes to Other Kinds of Payments [links to web]
TELEVISION
Former FCC Chairs Slam Commission's 'Victorian Crusade'
Extreme violence cuts bloody path through noteworthy TV dramas [links to web]
Fans Petition FCC to Lift Sports Blackout Rule
No End In Sight To Escalating Sports Rights: Financial Analysts
USDA Rural Public TV Grants - press release
About 27% of Pay-TV Customers Also Subscribe To Netflix: Study [links to web]
CBSi Chief: Staying off Hulu was the right strategic decision [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Debates take toll on Republican field
GOP Debate's Clear Loser: CBS
A Taste for Reality TV Seen in Popularity of Presidential Debates
PRIVACY
Facebook Retreats on Privacy
Privacy by default: a look at Facebook’s settings [links to web]
Reps Markey and Barton concerned Facebook patent application means they're tracking users
ACLU urges wireless carriers to stop tracking customers' location
Mobile users want privacy, but they do little to protect it
Sen Coburn: Computerized patient records will bring on hackers
When Sites Drag the Unwitting Across the Web [links to web]
Technology Rewrites the Fourth Amendment - editorial [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Utah Mayor Used Alias To Write Upbeat News Stories
Social media for emergency managers can't start when the emergency does [links to web]
IT Spending: Elections and Electronics [links to web]
AT&T Government Solutions Awarded Connections II Contract from GSA - press release [links to web]
FCC REFORM
Republicans Pitch FCC Reforms as Codifying Obama Regulation Review Principles
ADVERTISING/MARKETING
Ad Spending Loses Steam
Big 4 TV Nets Wane As Google, Facebook Command Ad Dollars [links to web]
Marketing Misfires Trigger More ‘Text Spam’ Lawsuits [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
And Then There Were Three: Universal Will Buy EMI
Disruptions: The 3-D Printing Free-for-All
DIVERSITY
Tech industry's diversity problem starts in college -- and earlier
RESEARCH
Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams
MORE ONLINE
The book is great technology, but it’s not good for everything [links to web]
Why we need to take computers out of computing [links to web]
As China PC sales grow, more plan to buy Apple [links to web]
Bloggers Debate Cain and Kardashian - research [links to web]
Software developers offered new round of scholarships to study journalism - press release [links to web]
Newspapers’ Digital Apostle [links to web]
Amazon 'Primes' Pump for Loyalty [links to web]
Young Workers Like Facebook, Apple and Google [links to web]
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
SENATE REJECTS ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN FCC
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
The Senate voted to keep in place the Federal Communications Commission's controversial rules aimed at preserving open Internet access. Actually, the Senate voted 52-46 along party lines not to bring the resolution to a floor vote. That means that, at least theoretically, Republican backers of the resolution could reintroduce it. A source close to one of those Republicans speaking on background said they would get together with resolution co-sponsor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on how to proceed, but would not rule out another attempt.
Republicans had pushed to overturn the rules, and a resolution to do so failed 52-46 in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The White House this week had threatened to veto the action if the Senate approved it. The vote ends a months-long attempt by opponents of the rules to get them wiped out. In April, the Republican-controlled House voted 240-179 in favor of a similar resolution of disapproval. Nearly all Republicans oppose the new rules, arguing the FCC overstepped its authority and that regulation of the Internet will stifle its growth. Most Democrats, including President Barack Obama, argue that the regulations are needed to preserve an open Internet as the telecommunications industry becomes more consolidated.
Public interest groups and Internet advocates have worried for years that providers of Internet service, such as Verizon, Time Warner Cable Inc., and AT&T Inc. might try to slow down access to online services, such as Netflix or Skype, that compete with their own offerings, or charge premiums to some sites for faster delivery of their content.
benton.org/node/105319 | Los Angeles Times | Associated Press | WashPost | B&C | The Hill | Politico | B&C – reaction | Sen Rockefeller | Public Knowledge | Free Press
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ABOUT THAT VOTE
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] One could almost say that the Nov 10 network neutrality vote was a telecom-free vote. It was more about partisanship and gamesmanship than about policy. That’s because the shadow of real Open Internet rules that the Federal Communications Commission approved were the result of a deal that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski cut with AT&T to keep wireless access to the Internet largely out of any Open Internet scheme. While AT&T and Verizon, which is challenging the rules in court, probably wouldn’t object if the Senate voted to overturn the rules, they weren’t making an overt campaign of it in Congress as the vote neared. Those companies also are smart enough to know that whatever vote total occurred wouldn’t be enough to sustain a Presidential veto. In the end, the fight for an Open Internet, on Nov 10, came down to another misleading attack on Big Government, and overwhelming regulation done by unelected bureaucrats and all sorts of other rhetoric that bore only a faint resemblance to reality. What is undeniably real is that an Open Internet, a truly Open Internet, benefits everyone, from Google to the single-person blog. It’s a shame that posturing politicians who make use of the online medium every day won’t recognize that reality and strive to make certain that it would be a good use of governmental authority to make sure the Internet remains controlled by consumers, not by those who provide the on-ramps and set the tolls.
benton.org/node/105318 | Public Knowledge
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WHAT’S NEXT?
[SOURCE: Fortune, AUTHOR: Dan Mitchell]
Verizon and MetroPCS are pursuing lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission, claiming the agency doesn't have the legal authority to issue network neutrality/open Internet rules. Meanwhile, on the other side of the question, the group Free Press has also sued the FCC because the rules don't apply to mobile services. The question could remain open for years. In the meantime, people connecting to the Internet from terrestrial networks are protected from having their online experiences interfered with by Internet service providers, but mobile broadband users -- who are, of course, growing in number -- aren't. The idea behind net neutrality is to prevent ISPs from slowing down or speeding up traffic (or even blocking it) to favor one source or type of data over another. It comes down to this: data flows on the Internet must be regulated. The question is whether to put that control in the hands of government (which would protect the status quo) or in the hands of corporations (which could potentially decide which kinds of content people can easily access.) It increasingly looks like the ultimate decision will be made by the federal courts.
benton.org/node/105317 | Fortune
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ISPs AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Hsing Cheng, Shubho Bandyopadhyay, Hong Guo]
[Commentary] In the network neutrality debate, Internet Service Providers like AT&T and Verizon, have said they need to charge content providers for prioritization so they can invest in improving infrastructure: faster internet service for all, they say. But placing a price on prioritizing content creates an inherent disincentive to expand infrastructure. Internet service providers would profit from a congested Internet in which some content providers will be more than willing to pay an additional fee for faster delivery to users. Content providers like the New York Times and Google would have little choice but to fork it over to get their information to end users. But end users would be unlikely to see the promised upgrades in speed. Those are some of the results of research we conducted on the Internet market. Despite the fierce back-and-forth on net neutrality, there is a surprising lack of rigorous economic analysis on the topic. To change that, we built a game-theoretic economic model to address this question: Do ISPs have more incentive to expand their infrastructure capacity when network neutrality is abolished? Our analysis shows that if net neutrality were abolished, ISPs actually have less incentive to expand infrastructure.
benton.org/node/105336 | GigaOm | Information Systems Research
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MORE ON INTERNET/BROADBAND
LIMITS TO BROADBAND DIFFUSION
[SOURCE: Digitopoly, AUTHOR: Shane Greenstein]
The National Telecommunications Information Administration just published the findings from its latest survey about Internet use within US households. In case you missed it, here is a summary: broadband adoption among US households went up, but not by much. Actually, that is not entirely fair. Viewed at short intervals, broadband adoption will appear to be a slow moving process. However, a little stepping back from the short run headlines reveals good news and bad news in this report. That is the point of this post.
For dial-up Internet users, the two biggest reasons for not using broadband are expense and availability. Both of those should get better over time, albeit slowly. There is still hope for more converts. For people who don’t currently use the Net at all, the first and third biggest reasons for non-use are “don’t need it, not interested” and “No computer/computer inadequate.” Why is that bad news? Simply stated, this is the population that will fuel most of the future growth. Yet, neither of those reasons for not adopting will go away easily. Both issues defy resolution, either through good marketing campaigns from private providers, or with any reasonable policy intervention. Finally, the second most common reason for non-adoption — too expensive — will eventually be overcome, but it too is likely to be slowly overcome, as already noted. In short, new adopters will be hard to come by.
benton.org/node/105282 | Digitopoly
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LOUSIANA BTOP GRANT DENIED
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Despite pleas from state leaders, Louisiana won't regain an $80 million federal grant to expand broadband Internet connections, and the money instead will be returned to the federal treasury, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department rescinded the grant last month, questioning whether Louisiana could accomplish its plan in the time allowed and whether changes made to the plans met the goals of the grant. "We have worked closely with the state throughout the last several months to rescue this project but have now concluded that we have to move on," said Commerce Department Assistant Secretary Lawrence Strickling. "The Louisiana project, as originally submitted, promised great benefits to unserved and underserved areas of the state. However, after the state determined it was unable to implement the original project plan and fell significantly behind schedule, it proposed major modifications to its original proposal without adequate technical and financial details and a viable schedule for completing the project," Strickling said.
benton.org/node/105277 | Associated Press
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BORDERLESS INTERNET
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
From the perspective of the recently introduced Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would set up US website blacklisting, require search engine censorship, and divide the Internet into "domestic" and "foreign" sites, the sorts of Internet arguments being made in the late 1990s don't sound like something from a foreign country so much as something from a foreign planet. An important strain of thought in the mid-1990s was "cyberlibertarianism," a view that saw the Internet as something truly novel in world history. This exceptionalist position led to arguments that governments should leave the 'Net alone; existing law stopped at the modem jack, and beyond was a new realm called cyberspace that would solve its own problems. "You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve," wrote rancher, EFF co-founder, and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow in a 1996 manifesto to governments. "You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means." The conflicts would be worked out based on the Golden rule -- the only one recognized by "all our constituent cultures." The Internet was its own place, and needed its own government. As for all the horrific stuff that humans get up to in every place they have so far lived, Barlow downplayed it. "All the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits,” Barlow wrote. It simply wasn’t possible to “separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.” Incredible sentiments when considered 15 years later -- but perhaps understandable when coming from someone like Barlow. What was more surprising was that the most famous Internet case of the era went even further.
benton.org/node/105296 | Ars Technica
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COALITION VS ICANN
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Nearly 90 industry groups and companies announced Thursday they have formed a new coalition to try to block a plan, to allow for the introduction of an unlimited number of new Internet addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group that manages the Internet's "top level" domain name system, plans to vastly expand the domain name space from the 22 groups of names such as .com now available to Internet users to almost any name such as .bank or .angrybirds. The Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight says that ICANN's domain name plan will have costly implications for trademark owners, who could be forced to register their names in every new domain name launched or offer their own Internet address. The coalition also argues that ICANN has not taken their concerns seriously enough and failed to follow the consensus-driven process ICANN is supposed to use when enacting such new proposals. ICANN is currently slated to begin accepting applications under the new domain name program in January.
benton.org/node/105293 | National Journal | The Hill
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THROTTLING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
State-of-the-art Web surfing, for all of its breathtaking speed, can be baffling. A favorite page gets hung up. A data-intensive application, like playing a video or downloading large files, stutters or stops. Is it the telecommunications operator? Is it the Web site? Is it the smartphone or the computer? Or just a sign of Internet thrombosis? Krishna Gummadi, the head of the Networked Systems Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, in Saarbrücken, Germany, says the blame often lies with the telecom operator, which is selectively slowing broadband speeds to keep traffic flowing on its network, using a sorting technique called throttling. In 2008, Gummadi and a graduate student, Marcel Dischinger, developed a free software gauge that detected whether broadband service was being throttled by a network operator. The software, called Glasnost after the Russian word for “openness,” has been downloaded and used by 1.5 million people around the world since then. The latest results, based on 121,247 tests run from January through October, suggest that throttling is being done everywhere in the world. In the United States, throttling was detected in 23 percent of tests on telecom and cable-television broadband networks, less than the global average of 32 percent. The U.S. operators with higher levels of detected throttling included Insight Communications, a cable-television operator in New York, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, where throttling was detected in 38 percent of tests; and Clearwire Communications, where throttling was detected in 35 percent of the tests.
benton.org/node/105335 | New York Times
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RISKS IN FAST NETWORKS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Quentin Hardy]
If nothing else, Arista Networks proves that two people can make more than $1 billion each building the Internet and still be worried about its reliability. David Cheriton, a computer science professor at Stanford known for his skills in software design, and Andreas Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, have committed $100 million of their money, and spent half that, to shake up the business of connecting computers in the Internet’s big computing centers. As the Arista founders say, the promise of having access to mammoth amounts of data instantly, anywhere, is matched by the threat of catastrophe. People are creating more data and moving it ever faster on computer networks. The fast networks allow people to pour much more of civilization online, including not just Facebook posts and every book ever written, but all music, live video calls, and most of the information technology behind modern business, into a worldwide “cloud” of data centers. The networks are designed so it will always be available, via phone, tablet, personal computer or an increasing array of connected devices. Statistics dictate that the vastly greater number of transactions among computers in a world 100 times faster than today will lead to a greater number of unpredictable accidents, with less time in between them.
benton.org/node/105334 | New York Times
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
AT&T, US AND WITNESSES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Diane Bartz]
AT&T complained that the Justice Department was too slow in telling who its witnesses would be as the government seeks to block the telecommunications giant's acquisition of rival T-Mobile USA. The government, in a court filing, proposed giving AT&T an initial list of up to 15 witnesses on November 18 and additional lists in December and January. The trial begins on February 13. This did not please AT&T, which noted that the court had initially urged witness lists be exchanged "at the earliest possible time." "More than six weeks after the court's order, defendants are still no closer to receiving a witness list. Yet plaintiffs seek to push the date back still further," AT&T said in its filing. Instead, AT&T suggested Special Master Richard Levie consider giving each side a specific amount of time during the trial to be used as each side wishes. "Plaintiff's (the government) case is likely to focus on the few competitors that plaintiffs claim matter in the market. Defendants' (AT&T) case will broaden that focus to show the much broader array of market participants competing fiercely for customers," AT&T said. The government, for its part, argued that AT&T's desire for a quick trial would be undermined by its failure to cap its witness list.
benton.org/node/105301 | Reuters
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AT&T/T-MOBILE AND JOBS
[SOURCE: eWeek, AUTHOR: Wayne Rush]
The steady drumbeat of advertisements by AT&T claiming huge job growth if the merger with T-Mobile is allowed to go through is impossible to escape in Washington. The ads appear daily in everything from newspapers to bus signs to broadcast commercials. Each time, the claim is the same -- if AT&T is allowed to acquire T-Mobile, it will result in 96,000 new jobs, plus 5,000 jobs brought back to the U.S. from overseas. The ad seems to imply that AT&T will help spur job growth in the struggling U.S. economy to an extent that even the government can’t manage. Of course, if you read the fine print that accompanies these ads, you’ll see that most of those numbers are highly speculative, but the ads trumpet them nonetheless. Now, an economic study, sponsored by mobile competitor Sprint but carried out by David Neumark, professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine, suggests otherwise. The study says that contrary to its claims, AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile will almost certainly result in the loss of thousands of jobs as redundancies are eliminated, staff streamlined and costs reduced. The Neumark study claims that previous AT&T mergers have resulted in significant job losses and that in the period leading up to the merger, AT&T was already shedding U.S. jobs. The study also noted that during the same period T-Mobile was adding jobs, a trend the study indicated would be reversed after the merger.
benton.org/node/105300 | eWeek
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T-MOBILE RESULTS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Cornelius Rahn, Scott Moritz]
T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest US wireless company, added customers for the first time in a year and reported profit that beat estimates as its German owner fights to complete the proposed sale of the unit to AT&T. Losses of contract subscribers slowed, and gains for lower-priced pay-as- you-go plans led to a net addition of 126,000 customers from the previous quarter. Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T are battling a lawsuit over the $39 billion takeover by the U.S. Justice Department, which says it would cut competition. While T-Mobile’s third-quarter results may aid the government’s case by showing the carrier is still a strong rival to AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless, the arrival of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S at the three biggest carriers in October might tilt the playing field this quarter. The carrier reported 33.7 million customers at the end of September, compared with 33.69 million three months earlier. The subscriber total fell from 33.8 million a year earlier.
benton.org/node/105299 | Bloomberg | WSJ | Connected Planet | CNet
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SPECTRUM BRIDGE’S DATABASE SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) is requesting comment on the recently completed 45-day public trial of Spectrum Bridge Inc.’s database system designed to support the operation of unlicensed transmitting devices in broadcast television spectrum bands (TV bands database system).
In a Public Notice released September 14, 2011, DA 11-1534, the FCC announced that, beginning September 19, 2011, it was conducting a 45-day public trial of Spectrum Bridge Inc.’s TV bands database system. This trial allowed the public to access and test Spectrum Bridge’s database system to ensure that it correctly identifies channels that are available for unlicensed TV bands devices, properly registers facilities entitled to protection, and provides protection to authorized services and registered facilities as specified in the rules. Participants were encouraged to report any inaccuracies or other issues with any aspect of the database system to Spectrum Bridge. Spectrum Bridge has provided a summary report on the trial of its TV bands database system to OET that identifies: (1) problems reported and their disposition; and (2) descriptions of changes made to the channel availability calculator or registration systems. The FCC is requesting that interested parties submit comments on the trial and this report.
benton.org/node/105297 | Federal Communications Commission | CommLawBlog
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GPS VS LIGHTSQUARED
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Andrew Lapin]
Global Positioning System companies remain split on the best way to contend with LightSquared. Representatives from three GPS-based companies spoke alongside LightSquared Executive Vice President Martin Harriman during the two-hour panel discussion, which was part of a National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board meeting in Alexandria (VA). LightSquared wants to develop a nationwide network of 40,000 cell towers that would provide broadband access across rural America, but opponents claim the network would interfere with existing GPS receivers. "We love LightSquared," said Javad Ashjaee, chief executive officer of Javad GNSS, which manufactures GPS receivers. Ashjaee presented his own findings showing that LightSquared's towers could coexist with and even complement high-precision GPS operators. Ashjaee said LightSquared's filtering creates a strong "fence" that separates its signal from his company's receivers. "No signal analyzer can do as good as this," he stated. Javad maintains that interference problems stem from the fact that most manufacturers didn't pay enough attention to other devices operating in frequencies near the GPS bands, or develop adequate protective filters in the antenna section of their devices. To prove his point, Ashjaee brought several dozen boxes of his company's receivers, inviting any interested parties to perform their own tests. But others at the meeting disagreed.
benton.org/node/105287 | nextgov
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WI-FI ONLY TABLETS
[SOURCE: ComputerWorld, AUTHOR: Matt Hamblen]
The low-cost computer tablets coming next week from Amazon and Barnes & Noble connect only over Wi-Fi networks, which reduces costs and also cuts the nation's 3G/4G cellular carriers out of the equation. Other tablets, such as the iPad 2 and several Galaxy Tab versions, however, connect to 3G/4G cellular as well as Wi-Fi, but also have Wi-Fi-only models. So what's behind the decision to support Wi-Fi-only in Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's $249 Nook Tablet? Part of the answer stems from the way Amazon and Barnes & Noble see their tablets being used. Both see their devices primarily for consuming massive amounts of video, games, e-books and other media, which is best served over a low-cost Wi-Fi connection. "Amazon and Barnes & Noble want people to spend money on their content, not on [carrier] data plans to keep the tablets connected," said Tom Mainelli, an analyst at IDC. "So I don't think they have much interest in offering 3G/4G-enabled media tablets." Neither company has said whether it will eventually offer a cellular connection for their tablets, but there is little financial motivation to do so. Carriers might decide to offer cellular connections and service plans if the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet become popular, but they might find customers balk over data pricing, data caps and overage charges.
benton.org/node/105278 | ComputerWorld
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MOBILE COMMERCE
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Ki Mae Heussner]
Tablets may be good for watching movies or reading books, but it looks like consumers are increasingly using it for something else, too: shopping.
According to a study from mobile ad network Jumptap and comScore, 63 percent of tablet owners have made a purchase with their device, as opposed to just 31 percent of mobile owners. That compares to 83 percent of PC owners who have completed a purchase on their laptop or desk computer.
Among consumers aged 18 to 34, the gap between PC and tablet shopping is even narrower with 79 percent saying that they’ve made tablet purchases and 89 percent indicating that they’ve used their PC for shopping.
Mobile purchasing also skews male. Jumptap’s study also found that consumers appear to be more willing to use their mobile devices for banking.
Jumptap’s study looked at the most popular mobile purchases:
Event tickets; daily deals: 38 percent of mobile device owners have made these purchases (tie)
Apparel or accessories: 36 percent
Travel; physical copies of books, video games or movies: 33 percent (tie)
Consumer electronics (TVs, etc., but excluding mobile phones): 32 percent
Flowers and gifts; toys: 30 percent (tie)
General services (photo printing, shipping services, etc.): 26 percent
Consumer packaged goods; sports and fitness: 25 percent (tie)
benton.org/node/105298 | AdWeek | MediaPost
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TELEVISION
VICTORIAN CRUSADE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Former Federal Communications Commission Chairmen Mark Fowler (Reagan) and Newt Minow (Kennedy) are voicing their opposition to the FCC’s indecency enforcement regime. In an amicus brief to the Supreme Court they argue that recent FCC indecency decisions were unconstitutionally vague and chilling. "[T]he Commission's arbitrary and excessive enforcement policies have exceeded anything contemplated by the Court in Pacifica and should be struck down," the former chairmen wrote, joined by other former commissioners and FCC officials. "In pursuit of a policy of protecting children against exposure to offensive language," they said, "the Commission has embarked on an enforcement program that has all the earmarks of a Victorian crusade. To effectuate its new clean-up-the airwaves policy, the Commission has radically expanded the definition of indecency beyond its original conception; magnified the penalties for even minor, ephemeral images or objectionable language; and targeted respected television programs, movies, and even non-commercial documentaries."
In a separate brief, the National Association of Broadcasters says the FCC's indecency policy is void for vagueness, chills protected speech and that the commission's authority to regulate content is limited, but it is not taking aim at the underpinnings of indecency regulations or broader content regulations.
benton.org/node/105302 | Broadcasting&Cable | B&C
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SPORTS BLACKOUT RULE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Media Access Project (MAP) and Public Knowledge have joined the Sports Fan Coalition in petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to lift its sports blackout rule. "We promote access to the media and the rule stifles access," said MAP's Andrew Schwartzman. The rule prevents cable or satellite providers from carrying an NFL game when the over-the-air broadcast is blacked out due to lack of attendance at the game. "This is the biggest organized effort in decades to put an end to the federal government's support for anti-consumer blackouts," Sports Fans Coalition executive director Brian Frederick said. "It is ridiculous that the leagues continue to black out games from their own fans after taking in massive public subsidies, during such difficult economic times, and even more ridiculous that the federal government props up this practice through the Sports Blackout Rule." "Eliminating the Sports Blackout Rule would be a pro-fan, pro-consumer, deregulatory action serving the public interest by expanding the availability of sports to the public without adding any regulatory compliance costs to the private sector," said the groups in their petition for rulemaking. "Without a regulatory subsidy from the federal government in the form of the Sports Blackout Rule, sports leagues would be forced to confront the obsolescence of their blackout policies and could voluntarily curtail blackouts."
benton.org/node/105312 | Broadcasting&Cable | The Hill
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ESCALATING SPORTS RIGHTS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Mike Reynolds]
In this economic ecosystem, competition means higher prices. That's the world of sports rights, which financial analysts -- David Bank, managing director, Globe Media and Internet Research, David Joyce, media industry analyst, Miller Tabak and Craig Moffett, senior vice president and senior Analyst, US Telecommunications, Cable and Satellite Broadcasting, Sanford Bernstein -- expatiated upon during a panel at the Sports Business Journal-Sports Business Daily's Sports Media & Technology 2011 conference. During "A View from Wall Street, The State of Media Rights," the trio discussed some of the dynamics surrounding how the nation's economic doldrums are compromising consumers' ability to pay their bills, including their monthly video fees, yet the price for the games/sports some love to watch continues to spiral upward. To that end, one of the key takeaways emanated from what Bank called deltas between the national economy, the advertising economy and TV economy. "National television is still the healthiest part of the advertising economy, and sports is even more healthy. You don't get fired for buying that," said Bank, who pointed to broadcasters gaining retransmission-consent and reverse affiliation revenue as other streams helping to secure sports rights.
Moffett, however, believes the upticks can't be sustained for much longer.
benton.org/node/105294 | Multichannel News
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USDA ANNOUNCES FUNDING TO HELP RURAL PUBLIC TELEVISION STATIONS TRANSITION TO DIGITAL BROADCASTING
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Department of Agriculture announced $4.75 million in grants to assist rural public television stations complete the digital transition of their programs. Grant recipients are noncommercial educational television broadcast stations serving rural areas across the country and were selected for awards under the Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program on a competitive basis. Administered through USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, the program is one of several designed to help rural communities expand and modernize their infrastructure and technology. Specifically, the Public Television Digital Transition Grant Program is helping bring the digital age to rural America and ensure the availability of broadcasts for communities still served by analog equipment. Funding under the grant program can be used to acquire, lease, and/or install facilities and software necessary to the digital transition. For instance, Northern Minnesota Public Television (Lakeland Public Television) will be able to complete their digital transition and related tower work to ensure digital service for audiences in northern and central Minnesota, including five Indian reservations.
benton.org/node/105276 | Department of Agriculture
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
DEBATES TAKE TOLL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Niall Stanage]
Televised debates have had an outsize impact on this year’s Republican presidential race. But the demands of the debating schedule is taking its toll on the candidates, who find themselves constantly preparing for primetime. The frequency of the debates cuts back on the time available for retail politicking in Iowa and other early-voting states. Even seasoned campaign veterans are now beginning to ask: How many debates are too many? Political professionals note that debates — the preparation, the logistics, the debate itself and the post-event ‘spinning‘ — take up an enormous amount of time. It is plausible that some of that time could be better spent building up the grassroots in Iowa and New Hampshire.
benton.org/node/105328 | Hill, The
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CBS IS LOSER IN DEBATE
[SOURCE: Newser, AUTHOR: Polly Davis Doig]
If Rick Perry was the big loser in the Nov 9 GOP debate, then the CBS/National Journal debate also has an official whipping boy: CBS. Michele Bachmann is ripping the network for the lack of time she got, and she's got ammunition in the form of an errant e-mail the network's new political director accidentally sent a Bachmann aide saying the Minnesota congresswoman was “not going to be getting many questions” because she was polling “nearly off the charts." John Dickerson was defiant, telling Politico, “Bachmann is at 4% in the polls. Other candidates aren’t. I sent an e-mail based on that." Ron Paul's campaign chair also slammed the network for sidelining his candidate, saying CBS "should be ashamed." Jon Huntsman, the Republican with the deepest foreign policy resume who spoke for all of six minutes, later sighed, "What can you do?" Finally, the network's decision to cut away for the final half-hour of the debate is being dubbed disastrous: The full 90 minutes were to be aired only in South Carolina markets, but all four CBS affiliates cut away, and the live-stream to which viewers were directed became quickly choppy as it was overwhelmed by demand.
benton.org/node/105327 | Newser | The Hill | NYTimes
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DEBATES AS REALITY TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Shear]
More than in previous years, the televised presidential debates have exerted outsize influence on the tone and direction of the campaign, with each one seeming to have more influence over the course of the contest than the last one. Why? There are some expected answers: People are worried in these tough economic times; new technology, like Twitter, draws people into the shows; there is nothing else on television. But there are also cultural explanations. Steve Schmidt, who helped run Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, said the debates have grown in importance as Americans have become attached to reality television shows.
benton.org/node/105326 | New York Times
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PRIVACY
FACEBOOK RETREATS ON PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin, Shayndi Raice, Spencer Ante]
Facebook is close to a settlement with the U.S. government over charges that it misled users about its use of their personal information, the latest sign of widening public concern over privacy in the digital age. According to people familiar with the talks, the settlement would require Facebook to obtain users' consent before making "material retroactive changes" to its privacy policies. That means that Facebook must get consent to share data in a way that is different from how the user originally agreed the data could be used. The pact—which awaits only final approval from the Federal Trade Commission—has the potential to reverberate widely. Myriad online services and companies are developing sophisticated tools for observing people's behavior online and profiting from the personal information they provide. In recent months, the FTC has been signaling that privacy is on the top of its enforcement agenda. The settlement stems from changes Facebook made to its privacy settings in December 2009 to make aspects of users' profiles—such as name, picture, city, gender, and friends list—public by default. At the time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described the changes as a "simpler model for privacy control." Users complained and several privacy advocates, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, filed a complaint with the FTC, alleging the changes were unfair and deceptive. Under the terms being discussed, the agreement would require Facebook to submit to independent privacy audits for 20 years
benton.org/node/105306 | Wall Street Journal
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NEW FACEBOOK PRIVACY INQUIRY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Reps Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) wrote to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asking him to explain a February patent application they claim raises concerns about Facebook tracking users on other websites. “Facebook’s patent application raises serious questions about whether the company plans to track users now or in the future,” Rep Markey said. The letter references a report from The Hill last month in which a Facebook spokesman asserted that the firm "does not track people over the Internet." The pair has written to Facebook several times this year over privacy concerns and have suggested the Federal Trade Commission probe the firm. The lawmakers quote experts that claim the patent application contemplates tracking users on websites aside from Facebook and sending them targeted advertisements based on the information gleaned from such tracking.
benton.org/node/105304 | Hill, The
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ACLU URGES CARRIERS TO STOP TRACKING SUBSCRIBERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The American Civil Liberties Union is urging the major wireless carriers to stop storing data about their customers' location. The four national wireless carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile -- all keep records of which cellphone towers a phone uses for at least a year, according to a document released by the ACLU in September. This information could be used to determine a person's location. "But just because your network has access to these sensitive details does not mean that you should be collecting and storing this information," the ACLU wrote in a letter to the heads of the major wireless companies. The document on cellphone data, which the ACLU obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Justice Department, also showed that the carriers retain data on phone calls and text messages. The Justice Department compiled the document to help police officers obtain evidence. "Customers are already paying money for their mobile service; they should not be paying with their personal information too," the ACLU wrote.
benton.org/node/105303 | Hill, The
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MOBILE USERS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: PCWorld, AUTHOR: John Mello Jr]
While large numbers of consumers are angry about security measures taken by custodians of their online data, three out of every four of them don't even take minimal measures to protect themselves from incursions on their privacy, according to AdaptiveMobile, a mobile security firm based in London. 75 percent of mobile users don't bother to read the terms and conditions of mobile applications. Many of those apps, like Angry Birds, access physical location information about their users as a condition of their use. Yet 69 percent of the 1,024 consumers surveyed found collection of such data unacceptable.
benton.org/node/105279 | PCWorld
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COBURN ON HER PRIVACY
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
Sen Tom Coburn (R-OK) -- ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Privacy, Technology and the Law Subcommittee -- is warning that the nation's transition to electronic patient records will lure cyber intruders and should be reconsidered. The federal government is spending nearly $20 billion in economic stimulus funds to move doctors from paper to digital records for storing health information. With privacy and money at stake, a Senate Judiciary Committee panel met Wednesday afternoon to review the current rubric for protecting health information in a wired society. Backers of electronic health records say the technology has the potential to improve treatment, lower costs and advance research. Critics of recent implementations, including Sen Coburn say e-patient records are ripe for hacking. At the hearing, Sen Coburn, a practicing obstetrician, referenced the exploits of Chinese cyber attackers to illustrate the vulnerability of digital versus paper information. "There are always going to be people who will go around" computer security to obtain sensitive information, he said. "Just ask our Defense Department with China right now. Ask our private companies with China right now -- the hacking that's going on. The very sophisticated people, they've got to get into my office to get it, when it's on a piece of paper."
benton.org/node/105285 | nextgov
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UTAH MAYOR’S DOUBLE LIFE AS REPORTER
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Disguising himself with an alias, the mayor of Utah's second-largest city has been writing upbeat freelance articles about his town for area news outlets because he claimed the media spent too much time on crime coverage. He unapologetically revealed himself this week, insisting the balance was needed. "I thought about all the people just reading about crime in our city and nothing better," West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder said. "I'm trying to stand up for us because we do get the short end of the stick negative stories." Mayor Winder had been writing under the name Richard Burwash, an alias he actually swiped from a real man, a one-time professional tennis player from California that he found on the Internet. He said getting stories published by the Deseret News, KSL-TV's website and a community weekly was as easy as setting up a Gmail account and Facebook page. He communicated with editors by email and phone, never showing his face. As an unpaid writer for several months earlier this year, the so-called Burwash even quoted himself as mayor in some stories. In one published piece, he wrote about the opening of a Buddhist Temple in his Salt Lake City suburb, quoting himself as saying, "We applaud any time a group builds a place to celebrate peace and to encourage people to live better lives." "I was an easy source," he quipped.
benton.org/node/105314 | Associated Press
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FCC REFORM
FCC REFORM LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
House Republicans on the Commerce Committee are pitching their Federal Communications Commission regulation reform bills (HR 3309 and 3310) as a way to apply President Barack Obama's regulatory reform principles to independent agencies -- in this case the FCC -- not bound by his Executive Order on regulatory review. "Many of the provisions are based on principles contained in the president's January 2011 Executive Order," said committee staffers. "Because that order applies only to executive agencies, it does not bind the Commission. While Chairman Genachowski has made good progress in improving process, only statutory changes can ensure that best practices continue from one administration to the next." The staffers suggested that the FCC's handling of the recently released Universal Service Reform order was not one of those best practices. "The Commission added hundreds of pages of documents into the record at the last minute, giving parties almost no time to respond," they wrote in the memo." And the Commission has still not released the text of the adopted order, preventing stakeholders and the public from knowing what the Commission has done." The bills would require the FCC to justify regulations according to costs and benefits, survey the state of the marketplace periodically, and before initiating any new rulemakings, take other steps to make sure the public is getting bang for its regulatory buck, apply shot clocks to decisions, put a "narrowly tailored" restriction on all merger conditions, and a lot more.
benton.org/node/105313 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ADVERTISING
AD SPENDING LOSES STEAM
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne Vranica, Sam Schechner]
Evidence is mounting that U.S. ad spending, under pressure from a sputtering economy, has begun to slip. Preliminary data for the first two months of the third quarter suggest that decelerating growth in ad spending in the first half of the year could shift to a decline in the third quarter. Spending in July and August combined fell about 1.5%, according to Kantar Media, after rising 2.9% in the second quarter and 4.4% in the first. It was up 6.5% for 2010. There are even signs that national television, which has been one of the most resilient sectors of the ad marketplace, has begun to see slower growth. Executives from several of the major U.S. media companies indicated over the past couple of weeks that they were seeing softer spending on national TV commercials in the fourth quarter of 2011. And most of the big media companies posted slower year-on-year TV ad-sales growth than in the second quarter.
benton.org/node/105329 | Wall Street Journal
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OWNERSHIP
UNIVERSAL TO BUY EMI
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Jacob Ganz]
EMI, until now one of the four remaining major labels, is being broken up and sold off by the megabank Citigroup. After an auction that took almost nine months, French media company Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group, will buy EMI's recorded music division for 1.2 billion pounds (about $1.9 billion) and Sony Corp. will pick up the publishing arm for $2.2 billion. Until the sale, EMI was the oldest extant major, and the last to operate independent of a parent conglomerate. Founded in 1931, its recording catalog includes music by The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Frank Sinatra and its publishing portfolio is one of the most valuable in the world. Capitol, Virgin, Blue Note and Parlophone are a few of the labels under the EMI umbrella. EMI Classics has long been one of the cornerstones of the classical industry.
benton.org/node/105308 | National Public Radio
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3-D PRINTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nick Bilton]
Downloading — quite often stealing, in the eyes of the law — music, movies, books and photos is easier than bobbing for apples in a bucket without water. It has kept legions of lawyers employed fighting copyright violations without a whole lot to show for their efforts in the past decade. You think that was bad? Just wait until we can copy physical things. It won’t be long before people have a 3-D printer sitting at home alongside its old inkjet counterpart. These 3-D printers, some already costing less than a computer did in 1999, can print objects by spraying layers of plastic, metal or ceramics into shapes. People can download plans for an object, hit print, and a few minutes later have it in their hands. Call it the Industrial Revolution 2.0. Not only will it change the nature of manufacturing, but it will further challenge our concept of ownership and copyright.
“Copyright doesn’t necessarily protect useful things,” said Michael Weinberg, a senior staff attorney with Public Knowledge, a Washington digital advocacy group. “If an object is purely aesthetic it will be protected by copyright, but if the object does something, it is not the kind of thing that can be protected.” “If you took that mug and went to a pottery class and remade it, would you be asking me the same questions about breaking a copyright law? No.” Just because new tools arrive, like 3-D printers and digital files that make it easier to recreate an object, he said, it doesn’t mean people break the law when using them.
benton.org/node/105333 | New York Times
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DIVERSITY
TECH INDUSTRY DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: Julianne Pepitone]
"The pipeline problem." That's the catch-all phrase that keeps coming up in discussions of diversity in Silicon Valley. Tech companies say they'd love to hire more women and minorities, but that too few qualified candidates are graduating with technical degrees. That leaves them choosing from an applicant pool that is largely white, male and Asian. According to the Computing Research Association (CRA), the 2010 undergrad class was more than 66% white and nearly 15% Asian, a group which includes those of Indian descent. Hispanics accounted for 5.6% of the year's computer and information science undergrad degrees, and blacks obtained 4.2% of them. Both of those minorities were outnumbered by non-U.S. residents, who made up 7.6% of 2010's undergrad computer scientists from American universities. Perhaps the most surprising figure from last year's undergrad class: Only 13.4% were women.
benton.org/node/105281 | CNNMoney
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RESEARCH
GOOGLE LAB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Claire Cain Miller, Nick Bilton]
In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined. It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space. These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. But none would speak for attribution because Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists. Although most of the ideas on the list are in the conceptual stage, nowhere near reality, two people briefed on the project said one product would be released by the end of the year, although they would not say what it was.
benton.org/node/105325 | New York Times
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