October 2010

French Three Strikes Roars To Life

France was one of the first countries to impose laws that require ISPs terminate the service of users who repeatedly engage in copyright infringement. In September French anti-piracy outfit Trident Media Guard began tracking offenders and submitting infringement claims to ISPs, who must then provide account details and forward warning letters to users. Trident's infringement claims process has already ramped up to 25,000 requests per day, a daily total that could reach 150,000.

South African ISPs Welcome Radio Spectrum Proposals

South Africa's Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) has welcomed the publication of new draft radio frequency spectrum regulations by the regulator, ICASA that propose to introduce, amongst other things, radio spectrum trading and the sub-leasing of spectrum on a non-profit basis in South Africa.

However, ISPA has appealed to ICASA not to allow these draft regulations to delay the initiation of a fresh spectrum assignment process following its cancellation of an intended auction of spectrum allocations in the 2.6GHz and 3.5 GHz bands earlier this year. ISPA says that spectrum assignment in the above bands are one of the most urgent issues that the regulator needs to address in order to promote competition in the telecom market and improve broadband access across the country.

Broadband stimulus brings WiMAX to rural US

Broadband fans living in some rural areas of the country won't have to wait for Clearwire, Verizon or AT&T to deploy 4G services in their areas. That's because the Department of Agriculture has awarded broadband stimulus grants of more than $500 million to 40 companies to deploy WiMAX services in 22 states.

The grants, recently awarded by the Rural Utility Service Fund's second round of grants, will go toward building high-speed networks in areas that so far have had to rely on dial-up connections to log onto the Web. Two prominent companies to win major grants include EcliptixNet Broadband, a rural-focused ISP in Washington state, and DigitalBridge Communications, an ISP in Virginia that delivers wireless Internet services to Virginia, Mississippi, Indiana, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. EcliptixNet received the larger grant, getting a total of $20.4 million to build out a mobile WiMAX network in rural Washington that will cover 46,000 rural homes, while DigitalBridge has received $7.5 million in grants to build out WiMAX networks in Idaho, Indiana and Mississippi.

Why Haven't We Reinvested Spectrum Proceeds In Broadband?

[Commentary] Why haven't we been reinvesting the proceeds from our previous spectrum auctions into building up our nation's broadband infrastructure?

The Federal Communications Commission has raised about $50 billion over the last decade selling off our country's spectrum assets. So where does that money go? Back into the federal treasury, never to be heard from again.

But why are we doing that? The most common refrain in debates around how to overcome our country's broadband limitations is the lack of federal dollars to make a real difference. We've been told that we've got the $7 billion a year in Universal Service Fund to reform and rededicate to broadband, and the one-time $7 billion of the stimulus and that's about it. But everyone knows reforming USF is going to be a mess that'll likely take years to resolve before those funds are being invested in broadband. The sad reality is that we've spent $70 billion over the last decade largely subsidizing non-broadband communications, which is really pretty silly given that this represented the first ten years of the 21st century. And at the same time, everyone acknowledges that the broadband stimulus is but a drop in the bucket relative to what our country's needs are.

Imagine if instead of just dumping that money back into the treasury we'd instead had an ongoing comprehensive plan to build up an open fiber network connecting every school in the country. We probably could have that built by now for $50 billion. That'd mean that today all students would have access to robust Internet in the classroom, instead of the reality we're in where a huge percentage of schools are stuck paying too much for not enough bandwidth.

Sen Rockefeller Voices Concerns With Facebook, MySpace Privacy Protections

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller sent letters to Facebook and MySpace requesting more information about privacy breaches.

Users of Facebook and MySpace have had their personal information transferred to third-party companies without their knowledge. "These reports raise serious questions about social networking sites' commitment to enforcing their own privacy policies on behalf of consumers," Chairman Rockefeller (D-WV) said. "I intend to find out whether today's social networking sites are adequately protecting their users' personal information."

In his letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman Rockefeller expressed concern that if the Journal repot is accurate, "the privacy of tens of millions of Facebook users could be seriously compromised in violation of the company's stated policy." Among the information Chairman Rockefeller is seeking includes the number of personnel Facebook dedicates to monitoring and enforcing its third-party application providers' compliance with Facebook's privacy policy and whether the social networking site imposes penalties on application operators and websites that violate Facebook's privacy policy.

"We look forward to addressing any confusion that has resulted from the Wall Street Journal article and we're happy to work with Sen. Rockefeller to answer any questions he may have," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said. "The underlying issue raised in the article isn't at all specific to Facebook and has existed across the Internet for years. The issue is caused by an inherent weakness in how web browsers work, particularly the amount of information about a user that browsers shared with visited websites."

GAO faults disaster recovery plan for critical networks

The Homeland Security Department has not developed an effective way to ensure that critical national infrastructure, such as electrical grids and telecommunications networks, can bounce back from a disaster, government auditors have found.

In response to criticism from lawmakers and private-industry officials, DHS has emphasized the need for critical infrastructure to be resilient, meaning it has the ability to absorb and recover from a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Critical infrastructure generally refers to structures and systems, whether physical or virtual, that are vital to national security, economic security, and public health. The department has conducted surveys and vulnerability assessments of critical infrastructure to identify gaps, but has not developed a way to measure whether owners and operators of that infrastructure adopt measures to reduce risks, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. "DHS's efforts to incorporate resiliency into the programs it uses to work with asset owners and operators is evolving, but program management could be strengthened," GAO wrote.

To that end, GAO recommended that Homeland Security officials "develop performance measures to assess the extent to which asset owners and operators are taking actions to resolve resiliency gaps identified during the various vulnerability assessments."

Univision aiming to become the top broadcast network

As the demographic balance of the nation tilts away from an Anglo majority, the largest TV network in the country will soon be Hispanic.

Univision CEO Joe Uva is confident they're on target to achieve this in as little as three years. But will advertisers follow? With double-digit ratings growth so far this season, Univision is off to a better start than any of the major English-language nets. Uva believes he has the wind at his back in the ratings race. The new Census is expected to show a nearly 45 percent increase in the number of Hispanic Americans since 2000, to a total of 50 million. This couples with continuing audience erosion at the major networks and Univision's recent deal with Mexican programmer Grupo Televisa, which locks up the source of much the network's popular programming for at least another decade. A network researcher ran calculations that concluded Univision could surpass the Anglo networks in seven years, even without the boost provided by growth in the Hispanic population.

Trial and Error at the White House

The White House is taking advantage of social media tools to create platforms for citizens to engage with one another. Facebook really falls into allowing citizens to engage, said Erin Edgerton, senior social media strategist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who is on detail at the White House as a new media analyst. Other new media goals at the White House include amplifying the president's message by producing videos that include "real people [and] real stories," she said. They also look for people to participate by hosting live chats and using Google moderator in its Open for Questions feature where users vote on the question they want answered.

In 'Digital Distraction' Age, Magazines No Longer Information Providers

Living in an age of "digital distraction," magazine-based media companies need to come to terms with what they're becoming, and whether they're doing it by default or design, said Roger Fransecky, CEO of the corporate-consulting firm Apogee Group. The powerful metaphor going forward is "conversation," Fransecky said, and media companies can create a path to the next one.

"You're no longer information providers, you're in the conversation business," he said. James G. Elliott, CEO of an eponymous media sales and consulting firm, noted that the recession has hit all media, not just print media and not just magazines. High unemployment in the upper middle class, he said, has caused a dramatic falloff in subscriptions and newsstand sales. Magazines, Elliott said, are too magazine-centric. "The thinking is isolated and inbred," he said. "We allow folks in other industries to define us or ignore us."

Circulation consultant Baird Davis said publishers were caught flat-footed by the recession. There are, Davis said:

Too many marginal publications
Too many "over-circulated" publications
An over-abundance of "leveraged" companies
Too many "lightly" qualified CEOs
A lopsided concentration on advertising
A fragile newsstand channel and diminished consumer value of subscription files
Diminished circulation staffs with reduced consumer-marketing skills
Companies improperly organized and staffed to meet demands of the new digitally driven consumer-centric market

Google To Give $5 Million To Journalism Non-Profits

Google is giving $5 million in grants to non-profit organizations that are working to develop new approaches to journalism in the digital age. The aim is to benefit news publishers of all sizes. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will receive $2 million: $1 million to support U.S. grant-making and the other $1 million will augment the Knight News Challenge, which is accepting funding proposals from anyone, anywhere in the world, until December 1. The remaining $3 million will be invested in journalism projects in other countries through a similar partnership.

Benton

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