May 18, 2010 (Freedom Of Press Act Signed)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MAY 18, 2010
The Great Spectrum Debate and a Clean Tech showcase at the FCC today http://bit.ly/b0XtV0
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Freedom Of Press Act Signed: Obama Enacts Law To Provide More Protections To Journalists
See also: In Russia, Journalists Face Blatant Attacks
Bush White House failed to archive most e-mails for 21 days
White House official reprimanded for consulting with Google colleagues
BROADBAND/INTERNET
An Internet Struggle with Bandwidth Aplenty
Help the FCC Launch the Accessibility and Innovation Forum
AT&T & Verizon's Future Is in Your Fridge
Glenn Beck's war on the FCC
BROADCASTING/CABLE
Phoenix Mayor Blames Immigration Law Partly On Absence Of Fairness Doctrine
Supreme Court Upholds Cable TV 'Must-Carry' Rule
Filmmakers Tread Softly on Early Release to Cable
ADVERTISING
New Report Raises Concerns About Online Alcohol Marketing and Youth
PRIVACY
How your Web browser rats you out online
Google set for probes on data harvesting
Facebook needs to break its cycle of backlash
A Modest Proposal on Privacy
Online Privacy: Check Yourself (Before You Wreck Yourself)
Does Facebook Traffic Data Show Any Fallout from Privacy Issues?
Delete Your Facebook Account: 'Quit Facebook Day' Wants Users To Leave
OWNERSHIP
Public Interest Groups Request Reversal of Rules That Encourage Media Cross-Ownership
Broadcasters Weigh In on FCC's 2007 Media Ownership Rule Revision
NBC, Affiliates Work Toward Long-Term Commitment
NBC Teams With MMTC To Identify Buyer for KWHY
India Seeks Chinese Firms' Ownership Data
Tech leaps back into M&A biz
Google buys Norwegian audio-video tech provider
NEWS FROM THE FCC
FCC Sets Comment Period for Set-Top Box Proceedings
Snowe and Genachowski on Open Spectrum proceedings at the FCC
Members of Congress Call on FCC to Reject Comcast-NBC
NEWS FROM THE HILL
Senate votes on bill to preserve FTC powers
HEALTH
In Search of ... Health Information Exchange
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Report Highlights Tech's Growing Role In Europe
In Russia, Journalists Face Blatant Attacks
Israel Roiled After Chomsky Barred From West Bank
MORE ONLINE
FCC to review retransmission debate
Cyber Challenge: 10,000 security warriors wanted
Women Seek Online Communities To Validate Purchases
Motorola eyes growth from public safety broadband
Oil Spill Tops the Kagan Nomination
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Freedom Of Press Act Signed: Obama Enacts Law To Provide More Protections To Journalists
PRESIDENT SIGNS LAW FOR JOURNALISTS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
President Barack Obama has signed a law intended to provide more protections for a free press around the world. The law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, expands efforts to identify countries where press freedom is being violated. The law is named after Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was beheaded by militants in Pakistan in 2002. The law expands an annual report on human rights practices to include information about media treatment, and identify countries where the media is being repressed.
benton.org/node/35814 | Associated Press | The White House
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BUSH'S LOST E-MAILS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Aliya Sternstein]
The George W. Bush administration failed to archive 83 percent of e-mails for 21 days during a two-year period, according to watchdog groups that retrieved the information in lawsuit settlements. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive filed a lawsuit against the Bush White House in 2007 after discovering the administration could not account for millions of e-mails. In 2009, the Obama White House settled the case, agreeing to audit archived messages and those restored from backup tapes for 21 separate days between 2003 and 2005. Those days were identified as having a suspiciously low amount of e-mail traffic. The comparison revealed that 83 percent of the e-mails on the backup tapes were not included in the archived collection and would have been lost if not for the lawsuits.
benton.org/node/35825 | nextgov
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BROADBAND/INTERNET
BROADBAND DEBATE AND LOBBYING
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Paul Barrett, Todd Shields and Jonathan Salant]
The fight over regulating the Internet has become the engine for a perpetual Washington fund-raising machine. By definition, this means the battle won't end anytime soon. Victor E. Schwartz, who chairs the Washington policy group at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, has seen this drill before. "You have a Washington game with certain perennial issues important to business," he says. "They come back again and again. Why? They're fund-raising gushers." Members of Congress see little reason to resolve the clash quickly, so long as conflicting interests fill their campaign coffers. Schwartz served as an industry field general in a 20-year war against the plaintiffs' bar over product liability restrictions. That scorched-earth exercise in the courts and Congress finally burned out in 2005. Business interests won selected litigation curbs, including limits on state court class actions and securities suits. Total victory -- broad federal "tort reform" -- eluded Schwartz and his allies. Net regulation could be the new product liability. The FCC announcement "is likely to set off a politically charged conflagration and deep-pocketed lobbying war," pitting the digital service providers against Google, Amazon, and others that want their content disseminated free of special charges or limitations, says Jeffrey Silva, a Washington-based analyst with Medley Global Advisors.
benton.org/node/35813 | BusinessWeek
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ACCESSIBILITY AND INNOVATION FORUM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Karen Peltz Strauss]
To address the barriers that people with disabilities face in accessing technology, the National Broadband Plan ("NBP") recommends, among other things, that the Federal Communications Commission establish an ongoing Accessibility and Innovation Forum ("A&I Forum" or "Forum"). At the March 10 event rolling out the NBP's accessibility recommendations, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin announced that the Commission would launch the A&I Forum in July. The Forum will be an ongoing collaborative problem-solving effort with diverse stakeholders to promote innovative solutions to broadband and other communications technology barriers. The Forum will allow the Commission to use new tools and tap into new sources of ideas and innovation to address accessibility problems, using ongoing online efforts, workshops, field events, and facilitated dialogues. In July, we plan to 1) launch a clearinghouse; 2) announce guidelines for the Chairman's Award for Accessibility and Innovation; (3) expand blog coverage of ongoing accessibility efforts in the public and private sector; and (4) announce future workshops and field events. Over the next 12-18 months, we will expand these efforts and add new initiatives. We will be seeking input on each of these aspects of the new A&I Forum in a series of blog posts over the next two weeks. This post seeks input on an online clearinghouse.
benton.org/node/35833 | Federal Communications Commission
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WIRELESS DATA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Carriers' data revenue rose 22 percent to $12.5 billion in the first quarter of 2010 over the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from Chetan Sharma, a wireless analyst. However, while data now contributes slightly more than 30 percent to the total average revenue per user (ARPU), it also uses 70 percent of network capacity. Sharma estimates that by the end of 2010, data will contribute more than 35 percent to ARPU and devour 85 percent of network capacity. So even as data revenue and traffic rises, carriers face two key challenges: One, the handset market is saturated; and two, users on smartphones are boosting their consumption of data at a far faster rate than carriers are boosting their data revenue. The answer to these challenges is selling data plans for your car. Your kitchen. And even your electric meter.
benton.org/node/35829 | GigaOm
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BECK'S WAR ON FCC
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Glenn Beck took to his Fox News TV program last Monday night to deliver a rant about how President Obama has compiled something "almost like an enemies list" and how President Obama is into "silencing opponents." The president's tool of choice for this censorship? Network neutrality -- the principle that ISPs cannot interfere with content. "We are dealing with people who think they should rebel until they get their little kingdom like Satan did," said Beck. "You know what? Thanks, Mr. President, but I think we're going to keep the Internet the way it is right now. You know -- or at least until people who are worshipping Satan, you know, aren't in office." The mechanism by which net neutrality will silence Beck and those like him remains murky, but the matter is clearly of great concern. "The FCC also says they are marching forward, marching with a boot on your throat to -- announcing plans to make Internet companies a public utility," he said. "Net neutrality—the court shot that one down, but they are going to make it a public utility now." Or again: "So now, the president wants to regulate the Internet, to help control all the misinformation out there. He is going to do it with net neutrality. Well, the court said no... So, now what they're doing is the FCC is just going to—they're going to make it a public utility. The Internet. Where are you, America, without the Internet?" The entire segment was driven by a recent Obama speech to graduates in which the president described the challenges of "coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kind of content and exposes us to all kind of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter."
benton.org/node/35812 | Ars Technica
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BROADCASTING/CABLE
IMMIGRATION AND THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who opposes his state's controversial new immigration law, blames the Regan-era Federal Communications Commission, at least in part, for the law's passage. In a Center For American Progress forum May 14, Mayor Gordon said, "I think it goes back to the Reagan era when the Fairness Doctrine was dropped and instead of requiring both sides of a debate to be aired, only one side was given the chance depending on who was providing that." He said that even more important was the change in tone stemming from that decision. "Language that was never acceptable became mainstream," he said. "Those that were deemed to be in disagreement with those on television or radio were demonized as traitors and extremists and hateful and language that we have never heard seen." The result, he said, was that such demonization became "acceptable in the mainstream media and acceptable in debates."
benton.org/node/35831 | Multichannel News
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SUPREME COURT PASSES ON MUST CARRY
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
The Supreme Court has declined to take up a challenge from cable television operators to the 18-year-old requirement that they carry local broadcast stations on their systems. The justices rejected an appeal Monday from Cablevision Systems Corp. The court upheld a federal "must carry" law, enacted in 1992 when cable TV systems faced much less competition than they do today. Cablevision, the nation's fifth-largest cable TV operator, sued the Federal Communications Commission over its ruling that forced Cablevision to carry the signal of a distant home-shopping station on its Long Island cable systems. The federal appeals court in New York upheld the FCC's determination. The Obama administration urged the court to stay out of the case. It noted that being carried on cable systems "remains critical to broadcast stations' financial viability generally."
benton.org/node/35815 | Associated Press | B&C
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FILMMAKERS LEERY OF EARLY CABLE RELEASE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Cieply]
A little over a week ago, the movie business got its eagerly sought permission to activate technology to protect new releases from being copied if they were sold through video-on-demand systems before being issued on DVD. Now comes the hard part: finding a studio brave enough to risk war with theater owners by trying it. What might at first seem an arcane matter — precisely when to put a movie for sale on cable systems and at what price — has been the subject of ferocious debate in a film industry that so far has stopped just short of embracing the digital revolution. Cable operators, whose customers have become increasingly comfortable with systems that let them pay as they go for programming, stand ready to offer first-run films like "Sex in the City 2" or the forthcoming "Wall Street" sequel almost as quickly as studios are ready to offer them. The toughest challenge, Brian L. Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, told an audience at a cable industry event here last week, will be that of "navigation in a 100,000-choice world."
benton.org/node/35843 | New York Times
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ADVERTISING
ONLINE ALCOHOL MARKETING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Trade Commission and the National Association of Attorneys General are being asked to investigate digital marketing of alcoholic beverages, both beer and distilled spirits. The request is coming from the Center For Digital Democracy and the Berkeley Media Studies Group, which plan Tuesday (May 18) to release a report, Alcohol Marketing In the Digital Age, with examples of online alcohol marketing via mobile phones, social networks and more they argue has the potential to attract underage drinkers. The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The beer and distilled spirits industries already have self-regulatory codes that prohibit marketing to youth, but the groups want them to toughen those, including banning the use of psychographic information on underage users from any Web site. That report cites various digital and social marketing campaigns, including Google (YouTube), MySpace, and Facebook that the alcohol industry uses in an effort to track and target their audience. "The alcohol industry's digital and social media marketing tactics are blurring the boundaries between advertising and content with unprecedented sophistication," said report co-author Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center For Digital Democracy. "The FTC and state attorneys-general should launch an investigation into this new threat to young people online."
benton.org/node/35811 | Broadcasting&Cable
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PRIVACY
HOW YOUR WEB BROWSER RATS YOU OUT ONLINE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
You're concerned about your online privacy, and you do all the right things to keep from being tracked around the Web: purge your cookies regularly, clean out Flash "supercookies," even switch to browsers like Browzar, which lets you "search and surf the web without leaving traces on your computer." Doesn't matter—your browser is giving you away. Browsers can offer a window into a computer. The browser's "user-agent string" is visible to websites, for instance. So are "HTTP ACCEPT" headers. And it's simple to infer whether cookies are being blocked. In browsers with Javascript running, it's easy for websites to discover screen resolution, a list of all browser plugins, and the user's timezone. Throw in Flash, and it's possible to grab a complete list of system fonts. Taken together, these bits of data produce a unique "fingerprint" that works even in the absence of cookies or other traditional Web tracking tools. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, concerned about the issue, has just wrapped up its own study (PDF) on browser fingerprinting, and it finds that even the privacy conscious have made themselves simple to track. Of the 470,161 browsers that participated in EFF's Panopticlick project, 83.6 percent had an "instantaneously unique fingerprint." Browsers with Flash or Java installed could be uniquely identified 94.2 percent of the time. When one considers that "privacy conscious users" were over-represented in Panopticlick, these are surprising numbers.
benton.org/node/35818 | Ars Technica
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GOOGLE DATA HARVESTING PROBES EXPECTED
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn, Daniel Schäfer, Tim Bradshaw]
Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic on Monday moved towards investigating Google following the Internet group's disclosure that it had recorded communications sent over unsecured wireless networks in people's homes. Peter Schaar, the German commissioner for data protection, called for a "detailed probe" by independent authorities into the practice by Google. He said the group's explanation of the collection of data as an accident was "highly unusual". "One of the largest companies in the world, the market leader on the Internet, simply disobeyed normal rules in the development and usage of software," he said. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission was expected to launch an inquiry as well, according to people who spoke to agency officials. Privacy advocates said an inquiry could look at whether the collection of data breached rules on unauthorized access to computers and private communications.
benton.org/node/35842 | Financial Times
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FACEBOOK 'LISTENING'
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Chris O'Brien]
[Commentary] The only surprise about the stunning level of vitriol Facebook's recent changes have sparked is that, once again, Facebook is surprised. The latest controversy began last month when the company announced a service known as the "Open Graph," which allows it to share your Facebook profile across a wide range of other Web sites. In an interview Monday, Facebook executive Bret Taylor noted: First, Facebook is listening. He acknowledged it had done a poor job explaining the most recent changes and their value to its 400 million users. Second, the company is digesting the feedback. On the more fundamental point — why does this cycle of backlash keep happening — Taylor said the company knows it has to stop: "That's something we've talked a lot about, given what's happened," Taylor said. "Hopefully, coming out of it, we'll learn a better process for launching these things."
benton.org/node/35841 | San Jose Mercury News
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A MODEST PRIVACY PROPOSAL
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Wireless analyst Chetan Sharma suggests: "If people are really serious about tackling privacy, OEMs and carriers should build a physical/soft privacy button on the device with 3-5 levels (just like for the ringer volume) that allows users to open/close privacy across all applications and services with the touch of a button. All apps and services should adhere to the principle via APIs. The other mistake companies make about privacy is by treating everyone the same. Privacy is about the perception of control and transparency. If it is given back to the consumer, they are likely to engage more and have a more positive impact on revenue streams that are likely to flow."
benton.org/node/35808 | GigaOm
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ONLINE PRIVACY
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Gina Trapani]
Online privacy is at worst an illusion, and at best harder to come by than ever--and it's making headlines every day. Facebook's under fire for everything from its labyrinth of confusing privacy settings to apparently banning users who want to share. Google inadvertently collected data transmitted on open Wi-Fi networks its Street View cars drove by. People search engines like Spokeo make your photo, salary, and home address accessible at the press of a button. Privacy breaches (or just obfuscated settings) are all too common among Web applications of all stripes, so the savvy surfer has to know how to safely navigate. In an online world where personalization rules, there are two main ways to protect your personal data: Be vigilant about what you publish online; and be willing to roll up your sleeves and dig into the settings area of the tools and services you use to do so.
benton.org/node/35807 | Fast Company
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OWNERSHIP
GROUPS ASK FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Media Access Project , AUTHOR: Press release]
Media Access Project (MAP), the Institute for Public Representation (IPR), and a coalition of public interest organizations including Free Press filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today, stating that the Federal Communications Commission's 2008 decision to significantly weaken its media ownership rules was unreasonable and against the law. The brief challenged the 2008 Newspaper-Broadcast Cross Ownership rule (NBCO), under which any entity can own and operate both a newspaper and a broadcast station in a single media market and which was enacted by a 3-2 party line vote under the Bush-era Commission. MAP, IPR and the coalition seek a reversal of that decision. In the brief, the groups argued that NBCO is marred by procedural irregularities, ambiguous provisions, and loopholes, all of which counter the rule's stated purpose to increase diversity in the marketplace of ideas. The FCC also neglected to address whether its modification of broadcast ownership rules would harm minority and female media ownership despite the court's instruction to the FCC to promote such ownership. Further, the FCC put in place a standardless waiver that allows media outlets to merge based on promises that the FCC cannot monitor or enforce.
benton.org/node/35823 | Media Access Project
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BROADCASTERS WEIGH IN ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Broadcasters and media consolidation opponents weighed in Monday (May 17) with an earful for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on the FCC's 2007 media ownership rule revise. Both sides could agree on one thing: the FCC's decision was arbitrary, capricious and essentially unjustifiable. Monday was the deadline for briefs in that court's hearing of challenges to the FCC's 2007 decision, under Chairman Kevin Martin, only to loosen the ban on newspaper-broadcast crossownership rather than adopt any other deregulatory proposals from the 2003 FCC deregulatory ownership rule rewrite under then-Chairman Michael Powell. Broadcasters and newspaper owners challenged the decision as not going far enough to deregulate hurting industries, while media consolidation foes argued that even loosening the ban was one deregulatory step too many in an already consolidated marketplace. "This court cannot uphold the commission's failure to meaningfully review its outdated broadcast ownership restrictions," said the National Association of Broadcasters in summing up its argument for getting rid of the crossownership rule, as well as caps on local radio and TV station ownership.
benton.org/node/35837 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NBC AND AFFILS THINKING LONG-TERM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Michael Malone]
Some 182 NBC affiliates met with the network in New York Monday (May 17) following NBC's upfront presentation. The meeting covered the long-term viability of the network-affiliate relationship, as both parties work toward a business model that would allow affiliation agreements to go for up to 10 years. While the affiliates board has discussed that possibility with NBC for some time, the group assembled in Manhattan moved closer to ensuring both parties' long-term involvement with the other.
benton.org/node/35838 | Broadcasting&Cable
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NBC STATION SALE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
NBC is looking to sell Spanish-language independent KWHY Los Angeles to a minority or female buyer, according to a copy of a filing at the Federal Communications Commission. Comcast, NBC Universal parent General Electric and NBCU collectively told the Federal Communications Commission Monday they want permission to assign the station's license to a divestiture trust, a move they had already signaled. They have now identified the trust, Bahia Honda LLC, with its sole member Jose Cancela. The companies also told the FCC they have struck a deal with the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council to "use its expertise to identify prospective qualified buyers, particularly minorities and women." The companies promised to either sell the station or put it in a divestiture trust before they closed on their proposed $30 billion joint venture. They would otherwise have had to ask for an extension of NBCU's waiver of station ownership rules since NBCU already owns two other stations in the market.
benton.org/node/35832 | Multichannel News
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M&A HEATS UP
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Jon Swartz]
After a recession-induced lull, the tech industry is back playing a familiar game: Let's Make A Deal. In this season of mergers and acquisitions, there are bargains aplenty. And many start-ups — especially in hot markets such as mobile and cloud computing — love it. Through the first quarter of 2010, the number of tech mergers and acquisitions announced globally swelled to 628, from 405 in the same period a year ago. The average value of deals in which the purchase price was disclosed also mushroomed, to $68 million from $44 million, says Ernst & Young. Acquisitions "really matter to us," Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said in an earnings call in April. Google acquired Picnik, On2 Technologies and Aardvark in the past few months to "build on (Google's) existing focus areas and to bring new talent and new technology." The rise in activity reflects a return to normal after a bruising recession all but killed the appetite of tech companies to make deals. Low interest rates have helped drive up tech shares, fueling the M&A frenzy.
benton.org/node/35840 | USAToday
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GOOGLE ACQUISITION
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
Google is buying Oslo-listed Global IP Solutions for $68 million to build its real-time audio and video Internet capabilities. The friendly all-cash transaction values GIPS shares at 13 Norwegian crowns each, up 27.5 percent from Friday's closing price of 10.20 crowns. Norwegian markets were closed on Monday. GIPS enables service providers, developers and hardware manufacturers to reduce network impairments such as delay, jitter and echo in real-time audio and video applications.
benton.org/node/35839 | Reuters
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NEWS FROM THE HILL
SENATE PRESERVES FTC'S POWER
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Diane Bartz]
The Senate approved an amendment on Monday to preserve power the Federal Trade Commission had been in jeopardy of losing as part of a proposed tightening of federal regulation of the financial industry. Senators approved the amendment without opposition and on a voice vote. Co-sponsored by senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the top ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee, it would retain the FTC power that had been stripped out in the measure to revamp financial regulation. Chairman Rockefeller said that a new bureau created by the bill would likely not focus on "small-time crooks" and that stripping the FTC of its enforcement power would put "dangerous holes in our regulatory safety valve."
benton.org/node/35834 | Reuters | Senate Commerce Committee
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
TECH IS BIG IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
A new report released Monday on Europe's digital economy found that information and communications technologies have driven half of the growth in productivity among the European Union's member states in the last 15 years. The report released by the European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm, found 60 percent of Europeans use the Internet "regularly," with 48 percent reporting daily use. Europe still lags slightly behind the United States where 56 percent said they use the Internet every day. Still, one third of Europeans have never been online, a figure similar to the 32 percent of Americans who have never used the Internet, the report found. Like in the United States, senior citizens, less educated and those with lower incomes were among those most likely to have not used the Internet. Fewer older Americans, 46 percent, have never been online compared with their counterparts in Europe, where 59 percent of those 55 and over have never used the Internet. Nearly a quarter of Europeans reported having a "fixed" broadband subscription, the report found. The EU has set a 10-year goal for all its citizens to have access to high-speed Internet service of 30 Mbps or above. The report, however, showed the EU has a long way to go toward achieving this goal given that only 18 percent of broadband subscribers have service that is above 10 Mbps.
benton.org/node/35830 | CongressDaily | read the report
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