June 2010

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for JUNE 11, 2010

NEWS FROM THE FCC
   FCC Confirms Broadband Reclassification on June Agenda
   See also: Another Democrat comes out against reclassification plan
   FCC's Baker sees Title II as back door for network neutrality
   Also see:FCC's "Third Way" Lacks Credibility with Financial Markets
   Edward Lazarus Compares Electricity Expansion to Broadband
   FCC looks for valley support of broadband plan
   Key Initiatives for the Future of Community Broadcasters
   FCC Set To Brainstorm Spectrum Ideas

NEWS FROM THE HILL
   Hearing on Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility
   New Cybersecurity Bill Unveiled
   See also: Groups Wary Of Scope Of Latest Cybersecurity Bill
   Boucher Wants Bipartisan Privacy Bill

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   OECD Broadband Stats -- USA ranks 15th in Penetration
   The iPhone, Net Neutrality and the FCC
   Industry Advisory Group Isn't Substitute for the FCC
   The Anti-Web Movement Is Gathering Pace

KIDS & MEDIA
   The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In
   Study: Kids Influence Family's Use Of Media
   Some educators question if whiteboards, other high-tech tools raise achievement

MORE ON PRIVACY
   FBI to Probe iPad Breach
   Web Watchdogs Dig for Flaws
   Google letter to lawmakers says "sorry" for Wi-Fi breach, downplays harms

OWNERSHIP
   FTC Said to Prepare Antitrust Review of Apple Tactics in Mobile Ad Market
   Apple likely to avoid antitrust battles
   Is the new Apple ruthless at its core?

TELEVISION
   Google TV Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

JOURNALISM
   Nobody Wants to Pay Taxes to Save Newspapers, and Why Should They?
   Gaza Flotilla Fight Tops News Online

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Google Seeks Beijing License

COMMUNITY MEDIA
Thes headlines presented in partnership with:

   On the Media: Las Vegas Review-Journal bares its claws
   Online literary magazine Rumpus sows community
   New local health site combines journalism, social media
   Film project gives homeless and vulnerable a voice in Leeds
   Libraries prepare for cuts as the state tightens its belt

MORE ONLINE
   Huawei's Brave New World
   Proposed Third Quarter 2010 Universal Service Contribution Factor
   States roll out ONC-approved IT plans
   Mind Over Mass Media

Recent Comments on:
European Countries Leave U.S. Trailing in Race for Universal Broadband

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NEWS FROM THE FCC

FCC JUNE MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
On June 17, the Federal Communications Commission will consider a Notice of Inquiry to begin an open, public process to consider possible legal frameworks for broadband Internet services in order to promote innovation and investment, protect and empower consumers, and bring the benefits of broadband to all Americans. This is the only item on the agenda for the FCC's June open meeting.
benton.org/node/36765 | Federal Communications Commission
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BAKER CRITICAL OF TITLE II PLAN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Federal Communications Commission member Meredith Baker says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski may be attempting to slip network neutrality rules through a back door, using his proposal to change how broadband is regulated. "I have concerns that this Title II debate is really about putting potential net neutrality rules on firmer ground," she said in a speech on June 10. "It would be a disservice to consumers and the entire Internet ecosystem for us to allow this Title II debate to devolve into a take-it-or-leave-it reclassification fight," Commissioner Baker said. Reiterating her view that government-issued open Internet rules are not necessary at all, she pointed to the announcement Wednesday that major companies have decided to form a technical advisory group as evidence the Federal Communications Commission does not need to intervene to create net neutrality regulations. She called the group "a significant first step towards a viable self-governance model" to address net neutrality.
benton.org/node/36761 | Hill, The | Commissioner Baker | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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ELECTRICITY AND BROADBAND
[SOURCE: BroadbandBreakfast.com, AUTHOR: David Cup]
Edward Lazarus, Chief of Staff for the Federal Communications Commission, delivered a keynote at the Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit. Using electricity as an analogous system to broadband, he spoke about the need for government action to expand adoption and availability. Lazarus invoked the creation of the Rural Electrification Agency as a possible model for the expansion of broadband. Broadband like electricity requires large amounts of investment and large scale adoption prior to becoming a useful service. Lazarus compared the initial hesitancy of the farmers to use electricity to today's hesitancy to accept rural broadband. Farmers who initially had electricity, did not use it to its full potential, and thus because they saw the cost of it without realizing the benefits, they were unwilling to support it. The successful fusion of the private sector and government is what caused the spread of electricity. Many applications for electricity invented by the private sector not only made life easier for farmers, but also fostered the invention of new technology like the assembly line.
benton.org/node/36746 | BroadbandBreakfast.com
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FCC LOOKS TO SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Mike Swift]
Hoping to enlist Silicon Valley in the upcoming battle in Washington over whether the Federal Communications Commission can spark the creation of a national broadband system, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said Wednesday at Stanford University that the future health of the nation's democracy is at stake if a few "gatekeepers" control access to the Internet. In a strongly worded talk preceding meetings with executives at Google and Apple, Commissioner Copps told members of the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley business and technology forum, that the building of a national broadband system is like the canals, railroads, interstate highways and telephone and electrical systems built by earlier generations. "Increasingly, our national conversation — our news and information, our knowledge of one another — will depend on the Internet," said Commissioner Copps, who called a national high-speed Internet system linking most homes and businesses "America's great enabler" of job creation, education and solutions to problems like global warming. In other remarks, Commissioner Copps said the FCC has a growing interest in the quality of journalism, hinting that he would support some sort of public subsidy for the beleaguered news business. Citing statistics showing a 50 percent decline in the newsgathering capacity of broadcast television, and a 30 percent decline in the newsgathering capacity of newspapers, Copps said, "new media has not found a model to replicate online what has been lost offline." "We don't have a model to support the level and the kind of journalism our democracy requires," he said, citing data that 95 percent of original newsgathering is done by newspapers or broadcast television, including much of the content available online. "This is one of the biggest problems the country faces right now."
benton.org/node/36749 | San Jose Mercury News | Commissioner Copps
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CLYBURN AT COMMUNITY RADIO CONFERENCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
Speaking at the 35th Annual Community Radio Conference, Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn talked about community radio as an essential piece of the American experience. She noted, "In an age where the Internet has done an incredible job of bringing the world to our doorsteps, it has not yet done the same - nor are there indications of if and when it will - for local news and information. Most of us know where to find national or international news on the Web... But if you really want to know what is going on in your local community, where do you turn? For most of us, it certainly is not the Internet. Sure, there are so-called "hyper-local" Web sites here and there that provide important neighborhood information. But this is the exception, and not the rule. And while someday, the Internet may be able to reliably link us all to our local communities, today is not that day."
benton.org/node/36753 | Federal Communications Commission
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BROADCAST ENGINEERING FORUM
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
On June 25, the Federal Communications Commission will convene a discussion on possibly freeing up spectrum currently reserved for television broadcasts for wireless broadband. "We are looking to gather information that will help us make better use of the frequencies now allocated for television, both for provision of television service to consumers and as we look at the possibility of recovering some of those frequencies," said Alan Stillwell, deputy chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, who is organizing the forum along with Rebecca Hanson of the Media Bureau. In the National Broadband Plan released in March, the FCC proposed shifting 120 MHz from broadcast to broadband by repacking stations more closely together and by coaxing some stations to share channels. The 120 MHz accounts for about a third of the broadcast TV band. Stations that agreed to share channels would be rewarded with some of the proceeds from the eventual auction of the freed-up broadcast spectrum to wireless broadband operators. Although leading TV engineers have accepted the FCC invitations to the forum, they may be more interested in instructing the FCC on why they want to keep their spectrum than in helping the agency devise ways of reallocating it.
benton.org/node/36747 | TVNewsCheck
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NEWS FROM THE HILL

VIDEO ACCESSIBILITY BILL
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee]
The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing entitled on the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3101) on Thursday, June 10, 2010. The legislation would update the communications laws to help ensure that individuals with vision, hearing, and other disabilities are able to utilize fully broadband services and equipment and better access video programming devices.
Republicans accused Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) of rigging the discussion to favor people with disabilities. Rep Cliff Stearns (R-FL), the ranking member of subcommittee, honed in on a witness lineup that featured Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro and Jesse Acosta, a retired army sergeant major who lost his vision serving in war. "The gentleman from Massachusetts is setting up a war hero against a person who is the CEO of an association," said Rep Stearns. Pressing further on the issue, Rep Stearns said, "You've got to be very careful not to move on an emotional basis. Creating an emotional setup between a CEO and a war hero isn't the way to do it." Echoing the complaint, Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) accused Rep Markey of "intimidation" after he invited Acosta to directly address Shapiro.
Markey's bill updates technology requirements so that consumer electronics are accessible for people with disabilities. For instance, the legislation would ensure the availability of closed captioning on the latest devices and bring captions to online video. Industry heads and advocates for the blind and deaf split over whether the legislation is ready to move ahead, with CTIA executive vice president Bob Franklin and U.S. Telecom President Walt McCormick pushing for changes to it.
benton.org/node/36759 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | The Hill | B&C
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NEW CYBERSECURITY BILL
[SOURCE: US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee]
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-De), introduced comprehensive legislation to modernize, strengthen, and coordinate the security of federal civilian and select private sector critical infrastructure cyber networks. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 would create an Office of Cyber Policy in the White House with a director accountable to the public who would lead all federal cyberspace efforts and devise national cyberspace strategy. A National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications within the Department of Homeland Security, also led by a director accountable to the public, would enforce cybersecurity policies throughout the government and the private sector. The bill would also establish a public/private partnership to set national cyber security priorities and improve national cyber security defenses. The Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation June 15, 2010. [more at the URL below]
benton.org/node/36758 | US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee | Sens Rockefeller and Snowe
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BIPARTISAN PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA) -- chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet -- says while he would still like to finish a privacy bill this year, he is crafting a measure that can attract bipartisan support and addresses the issue "properly." Chairman Boucher gave stakeholders until last Friday to submit comments on his draft privacy legislation. He said that most business groups believe the legislation is "too strict," while privacy advocates and public interest groups say it doesn't go far enough to protect consumer privacy. Given this, Chairman Boucher said he believes he has a "very centrist proposal." Still, he said he would make some modifications to the bill based on the feedback but couldn't say when he might introduce the measure or mark it up. Boucher said he would be including lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in meetings with stakeholders. "It's important to do it well rather than quickly," he said, adding that many complex proposals often take more than one congressional session to complete.
benton.org/node/36756 | CongressDaily
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

OECD BROADBAND STATS
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: ]
The OECD has released new statistics on broadband penetration in OECD countries as of December 2009. These include the number of broadband subscribers per country, broadband subscriptions by technology and the percentage of fibre connection in total broadband. There were 283 million broadband subscriptions in OECD in December 2009 with the inclusion of Chile as a member of the OECD. The average penetration rate across the OECD has grown to 23.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants up from 22.8 in June 2009. Fiber continues its growth relative to other broadband technologies with fibre accounting for half of all broadband connections in Japan (54%) and Korea (49%). Other leading countries include the Slovak Republic (28%) and Sweden (23%). DSL is still the dominant technology in the OECD, accounting for 60% of all lines. Cable makes up 29% and fibre based connections have grown to 11% of all lines.
benton.org/node/36744 | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development | ComputerWorld
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COMPETITION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Andy Kessler]
[Commentary] Broadband usage caps or pricing tiers are nasty road bumps or even brick walls on the decades-long path of progress and productivity that has driven the U.S. economy since the early 1980s. I think competition fixes all that. But less than 1% of 30,000 cable markets had more than one provider in 2000 and 2005. Any guesses for 2010? In Paris and Tokyo, competition is vibrant, with eight to 10 competitors, speeds higher, and prices much lower than in the U.S. More competition here is the way to keep bandwidth charges reasonable. Thinking a few more chess moves ahead, the Federal Communications Commission can use the threat of regulation to kick-start real competition in wireless data and cable broadband. How? Just threaten local cable companies with common carrier/telecommunications service regulations, unless they can prove that there are viable competitors, municipality by municipality. And not pokey phone-company DSL competition, but real broadband providers offering service at, say, 10 megabits per second. To do this, the FCC would set common-carrier pricing for consumers of now-Title I designated cable-modem Internet service just below the debt-servicing level of the cable companies. Comcast has almost $30 billion in debt, Time Warner Cable $24 billion, and Cablevision $11 billion. With potential negative cash flow, see how fast cable companies will start lobbying for competitors. We would all get fiber to our homes in a heartbeat and network neutrality would happen naturally. Plus, the stock market will gladly fund the new and hopefully less debt-laden competition. The same tactic can work with wireless data. Competition is the only way we can stop talking about allocating scarce resources via regulation and network neutrality and start talking about how we are going to use a future bandwidth bounty of 100 megabits per second. Maybe video calls will finally come of age.
benton.org/node/36775 | Wall Street Journal
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TAG -- YOU'RE IT
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] It only took a couple of months, but the telecom industry, with some other chosen companies, established a technical playpen that could have far-reaching implications for Internet policy. The new Technical Advisory Group (TAG) announced June 9 starts with a core group led by AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Google and DISH Networks are members. But there are no consumer or public interest representatives in the original cast. While having technical experts talk to each other about technical has been a standard way of doing business for decades, the main concern over this TAG is what role it will play in the highly charged world of Internet practices and policy. It depends to whom one speaks. Dale Hatfield, the group's "facilitator," was quoted in the original announcement as saying, "The TAG will function as a neutral, expert technical forum and promote a greater consensus around technical practices within the Internet community." That's fine and as it should be. Others had a different interpretation. Randy May from the Free State Foundation and Tom Lenard from the Technology Policy Institute, each were quoted as saying the TAG is a step toward industry self-regulation, with May going to far as to say the group was a reason for the Federal Communications Commission to "ditch the reclassification" of broadband telecommunications services. The reclassification exercise is built around the need to redirect universal service funds, to allow the FCC to deal with privacy, cybersecurity and other issues they will not be able to deal with absent the proper legal authority. The TAG — You're IT group will deal with none of those and heaven knows they need to be dealt with.
benton.org/node/36745 | Public Knowledge
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THE ANTI-WEB MOVEMENT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Robert Andrews]
It's created billions in sales, gave media companies their first taste of the Internet, encouraged self-expression where there was oppression and caused an explosion in publisher plurality. But, after 15 years as the net's publishing platform of choice, a movement is growing that wants to put the web back in its box. Blame the "app". With little prior culture of mobile web consumption, publishers have barely given their HTML efforts five minutes in the sun before preferring to code snazzy, custom, closed interfaces instead in the likes of Xcode and Objective-C, in iPhone's case. After the desktop OS and browser wars of the late 90s settled down in to uniform web standards, many of us had thought the web, which runs through my veins, would become the mobile platform of choice in the same way. But, the rise of the revenue-making app store sales channel has coincided with publishers' realization that, if there are precious few ways of monetizing content on the desktop web, then little would be different on the handset or tablet flavor. Many publishers now seem frustrated with the lack of profit and the loss of character that comes with formulaic, template-driven pages. It's the first big challenge to the web orthodoxy we have enjoyed for nearly two decades.
benton.org/node/36741 | paidContent.org
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KIDS & MEDIA

PLUGGED IN PARENTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Julie Scelfo]
Much of the concern about cellphones and instant messaging and Twitter has been focused on how children who incessantly use the technology are affected by it. But parents' use of such technology — and its effect on their offspring — is now becoming an equal source of concern to some child-development researchers. Sherry Turkle, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Initiative on Technology and Self, has been studying how parental use of technology affects children and young adults. After five years and 300 interviews, she has found that feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition are widespread. Her findings will be published in "Alone Together" early next year by Basic Books. In her studies, Dr. Turkle said, "Over and over, kids raised the same three examples of feeling hurt and not wanting to show it when their mom or dad would be on their devices instead of paying attention to them: at meals, during pickup after either school or an extracurricular activity, and during sports events." Dr. Turkle said that she recognizes the pressure adults feel to make themselves constantly available for work, but added that she believes there is a greater force compelling them to keep checking the screen. "There's something that's so engrossing about the kind of interactions people do with screens that they wall out the world," she said. "I've talked to children who try to get their parents to stop texting while driving and they get resistance, 'Oh, just one, just one more quick one, honey.' It's like 'one more drink.' "
benton.org/node/36750 | New York Times
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KIDS INFLUENCE FAMILY MEDIA USE
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Karl Greenberg]
A new study from Ipsos OTX MediaCT says humans are getting wired a lot earlier. The study says kids are pretty much digital sophisticates by age 12. Sociological implications aside, marketers ought to pay attention to how the Internet is changing how kids use media and how media affect the ways kids and parents interact. The annual report, called the LMX (Longitudinal Media Experience) Family study, follows some 2,000 kids between the ages of 6 and 12 as well as a parent. It comprises a diary component, wherein kids log past day activities; and a separate component for kids and parents for recording device ownership, usage, and co-entertainment activities. Forty percent of moms in the study say, for instance, that it was their idea to get their child a mobile phone. Donna Sabino, SVP of kids and family insights at Ipsos OTX MediaCT, points out that kids have only known a digital world where content never stops flowing and isn't dependent on platform. "One of the biggest findings is how quickly families are adopting new technology and new ways they are using technology and media," she tells Marketing Daily. "For kids, it's all content; to them, content is king." She says they take accessibility for granted. "Between 8 and 9, something magical happens, an age of enlightenment between fourth and fifth grade when their moms give them a cell phone, and then iPods, mobile phones, and hand-held games. It opens new markets to them." She says that kids, even at that age, are making purchase decisions via digital channels. "You do have a lot of kids making decisions. The apps are so tempting and songs are so numerous."
benton.org/node/36755 | MediaPost
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IS ED TECH HELPING?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Stephanie McCrummen]
Under enormous pressure to reform, the nation's public schools are spending millions of dollars each year on gadgets from text-messaging devices to interactive whiteboards that technology companies promise can raise student performance. Driving the boom is a surge in federal funding for such products, the industry's aggressive marketing and an idea axiomatic in the world of education reform: that to prepare students kids for the 21st century, schools must embrace the technologies that are the media of modern life. Increasingly, though, another view is emerging: that the money schools spend on instructional gizmos isn't necessarily making things better, just different. Many academics question industry-backed studies linking improved test scores to their products. And some go further. They argue that the most ubiquitous device-of-the-future, the whiteboard -- essentially a giant interactive computer screen that is usurping blackboards in classrooms across America -- locks teachers into a 19th-century lecture style of instruction counter to the more collaborative small-group models that many reformers favor.
benton.org/node/36764 | Washington Post
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MORE ON PRIVACY

FBI IPAD PROBE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Spencer Ante, Ben Worthen]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into a possible security breach of AT&T's website that exposed the email addresses of some owners of Apple iPad devices. A small group of computer experts that calls itself Goatse Security said it discovered the flaw, explaining that it was able to find the email addresses by guessing numbers that identify iPads connected to AT&T's mobile network. Escher Auernheimer, a member of the group, said the group hasn't heard from law enforcement and that it didn't do anything illegal. Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act generally prohibits unauthorized access to computers. The question is whether typing information into a public website is unauthorized, she said. Also, prosecutors will consider what individuals do with the data they obtain before deciding whether to bring charges. "If you do something fraudulent with the data then its much more likely that they will charge you," Granick said.
On June 10, the Federal Communications Commission issued a statement noting that such events "violate consumer privacy" and "undermine trust in America's communications infrastructure."
benton.org/node/36774 | Wall Street Journal | The Hill
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DIGGING FOR WEB FLAWS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Ben Worthen]
As Web users entrust their life facts to Facebook and other websites, they are storing valuable personal information online where it could be exposed to marketers, fraudsters or simply people who aren't the intended viewers. That has spawned a subculture of self-appointed watchdogs who monitor Facebook and other sites for privacy and security lapses—most recently, an AT&T Inc. website was breached to obtain the email addresses of some iPad users. The watchdogs tend to be professors, programmers and computer hobbyists who are looking to warn people before they become victims.
benton.org/node/36773 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE IS SORRY ABOUT WI-FI BREACH
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Google is determined to "learn all the lessons we can" from a major privacy breach in which it may have collected users' personal information from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, the company said in a letter to House Commerce Committee leaders on June 8. Google sought to downplay the danger of the breach in response to a list of questions in late May from Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member Joe Barton (R-TX), and Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA). The Internet giant owned up to the error while seeking to ease concerns about any harms it had caused, noting that the breach arose while it was systematically collecting Wi-Fi network information. This practice led it to mistakenly grab data running over those networks, it said. "In retrospect, it is clear there should have been greater transparency about the collection of this data," it said of its Wi-Fi collection program. The company maintained that it did not break the law.
benton.org/node/36770 | Hill, The
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OWNERSHIP

FTC PREPARING APPLE ANTITRUST REVIEW
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Jeff Bliss, Brian Womack]
Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to review allegations that Apple is engaging in anti-competitive tactics to restrict rivals in the mobile- advertising market. The FTC and Justice Department have been discussing which agency should conduct the investigation. Regulators decided earlier this week that the FTC would proceed. Regulators want to know whether moves by Apple will result in less competition in the growing market for ads on handheld computers and phones. Spending on mobile ads in the U.S. is expected to rise to almost $500 million this year from $220 million in 2009, according to IDC.
benton.org/node/36769 | Bloomberg
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APPLE LIKELY TO AVOID ANTITRUST BATTLES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Joseph Menn]
While US antitrust officials have been taking a more assertive approach in the past 18 months toward technology companies in the general and fast-growing Apple in particular, experts said on Friday that the rising Silicon Valley powerhouse is likely to avoid the sort of brutal legal battles that beset Microsoft for a decade. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission lawyers, emboldened by a broader interpretation of the law, have been making inquiries in recent weeks about Apple's conduct in distributing digital music and in barring iPhone applications created with Flash. Those efforts will be a distraction for Apple and could help make sure it continues to step carefully as the technology landscape shifts and it faces off against competitors in new areas. But the worst-case scenario for the company and its investors - litigation against an opponent backed by bottomless tax coffers - remains only a remote possibility, because of the facts and the state of the law.
benton.org/node/36768 | Financial Times
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IS THE NEW APPLE RUTHLESS?
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Although federal antitrust officials are reportedly looking into Apple's effort to bar rival advertising networks, it's hard to see how the company's tactics violate the law. Simply put, the iPhone doesn't dominate the smartphone market. The more important question is how consumers will react to the emerging picture of Apple. They may shrug off all these developments because they don't change how Apple's products perform. Or they may decide that the company revered for thinking different has become just another corporate bully.
benton.org/node/36767 | Los Angeles Times
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TELEVISION

GOOGLE TV
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: James McQuivey]
[Commentary] Why would Google bother with the old TV in our living rooms? Because TV matters in a way that nothing else does. Each year, the TV drives roughly $70 billion in advertising and an equal amount in cable and satellite fees, and another $25 billion in consumer-electronics sales. Plus, viewers spend 4.5 hours a day with it -- which is, mind you, the equivalent of a full-time job in some socialist-leaning countries. Google's goal is to get into that marketplace, eventually appropriating a healthy chunk of the billions in advertising that flow to and through the TV today with such painful inefficiency. The mere combination of content and technology isn't enough to make this work. There has to be a path to market that is likely to succeed, and Google's list of partners is what makes this worthy of consideration.
benton.org/node/36754 | paidContent.org
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JOURNALISM

TAX SUPPORT FOR NEWSPAPERS?
[SOURCE: FastCompany, AUTHOR: Kit Eaton]
The newspaper industry is almost, but not quite, running like a headless chicken in the last throes of life thanks to the digital revolution. Can it be supported by extra taxes? Should it be? Regardless of your answer, a new survey shows that nobody wants to pay the tax anyway. A national telephone survey by Rasmussen Reports has a staggeringly bold statistic to support this fact: Of 1,000 adults surveyed over two days this week, 84% of respondents oppose imposing a 3% tax on cell phone calls to provide a fund to prop up the newspaper business and "traditional" journalism. 76% of people opposed a 5% tax on computers, including devices like iPads and Kindles for the same purpose, and 74% opposed a tax on news Web aggregators to help support the "traditional" news services they draw their stories from. A full 71% of respondees opposed the idea of creating a tax-funded program to hire and support young reporters to work in nationwide newspapers, and only 14% of those surveyed supported the notion. Instead of taxing the public (the news consumers, remember!) to save an old industry, perhaps the FTC's efforts are better spent helping the industry grasp the amazing opportunities the digital revolution offers, taking all the core values and energy of "traditional" journalism into the new medium. Check out this fascinating effort by the Journal Register Company, reported by Niemen Labs, to try to revolutionize its business. Taking a leaf out of uber-high-tech Google's book it's creating a limited-place "ideaLab" program where journalists would have 25% of their time freed up to experiment with new media's hottest tools to try to create ideas for future JRC news publication. As the JRC's CEO John Paton notes, journalists were once famed for being revolutionary, rule-challenging, anarchic, and innovative ... hence the current trend to "support" the status quo by taxation is actually rather shocking.
benton.org/node/36742 | FastCompany
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