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October 2010

Legal Issues Murky When Government, Marketers Mine Data From Social Sites

The legal issues of scraping data are extremely murky -- though not necessarily for privacy reasons.

When companies allege that scraping is unlawful, they tend to argue that scraping infringes sites' copyrights, or constitutes a trespass, or violates terms of service clauses that forbid accessing the sites through automated means. Those allegations are central to a pending lawsuit about scraping by Facebook against Power.com. The latter company aggregates information from a variety of social networking sites, enabling users with accounts at services like Orkut, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter to access their information from one portal. To do so, Power asks users to provide log-in information for their social networking sites and then imports their information. Facebook objects to the practice, arguing that Power is violating a federal computer fraud law by scraping.

It's not clear whether courts would enforce this provision against, say, a company that's monitoring the site in order to gather intelligence about job applicants. As a practical matter, however, it's probably impossible to prevent people from manually collecting information that users have themselves made available in a public forum.

Clinton to Tech Innovators and Entrepreneurs: "We Want You"

Public officials swinging by Silicon Valley usually are on the prowl for precious campaign dollars. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a point of stopping by the Bay Area to ask for something completely different: the tech world's energy and expertise.

"The new communication tools that you and I use as a matter of course are helping to connect and empower civil society leaders, democracy activists, and everyday citizens," Sec Clinton said in a speech at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. "We need your help."You might have heard how, over the past couple of years, the State Department has been reaching out to the tech world for help with their diplomatic and development goals, particularly through delegations of tech innovators and entrepreneurs to places like Iraq, Russia, and Mexico, where they've explored how the Internet, mobile phones, and other tech tools can be used to build democracy and combat violence. The initiatives have apparently been working so well that Clinton carved time out of her globe-trotting schedule to make a public speech—only her third since becoming the country's top diplomat—to implore the Bay Area's innovators to join the State Department's efforts. "Whether you care about Haiti ... violence in Mexico from the drug cartels ... national treasures in Iraq," Sec Clinton said, "we want you to know there's a place for you."

Broadcast Retransmission Negotiations and Free Markets

In recent years, rising broadcast retransmission fees have been the source of increasing friction between broadcasters and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) negotiating over rights to retransmit broadcast signals. Just witness this past weekend's loss of Fox TV's network television programs by Cablevision's subscribers in New York, Philadelphia, and the surrounding areas. Not surprisingly, in light of the increasing number of blackouts and threatened blackouts of network television programming by broadcasters, there is now an important debate emerging concerning whether the FCC should adopt a set of negotiation and dispute resolution rules to address "must-carry" and retransmission consent rights.

There is a fundamental issue, however, that needs to be addressed before considering whether, or what kind, of new rules should be adopted governing the negotiations between the broadcasters and the multichannel video distributors. This is the issue concerning whether, as the broadcasters often claim, the government ought to take a completely "hands off" policy towards the negotiations because they take place in a "free market" context, or whether, instead, there are conditions that exist that make the context of the bargaining a rather "un-free" market. Current negotiations occur in the context of a federal law and regulation overlay that mixes elements of private bargaining with forced-access and protectionist elements. This creates artificial constraints that make the negotiations anything but a free market situation. Indeed, the statutory and regulatory constraints have the effect of conferring certain advantages that may work to the negotiating advantage of broadcasters and against cable and satellite operators.

Hearing Aid Compatibility Proceeding

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau requests that the comments in the pending Hearing Aid Compatibility proceeding address the effects of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, if any, on the proposed rules.

A Library to Shout About

In just a few weeks, the newly restored Morgan Library & Museum originally built by Pierpont Morgan in 1906 will be reopened. The restoration means that one of his ultimate goals for the facility will be met. The new spaces will allow for rotating exhibits of what had long been tucked away in storage -- namely the original manuscripts in which some of most important ideas in human history were recorded.

Rooms that were previously empty or closed to the public will now be open and lined with treasures. On view in the East Room: Mozart's manuscript of Symphony No. 25 -- complete with the silver box in which it was presented to King Ludwig II of Bavaria -- and Alexander Calder's hand-written instructions on installing his work. And, not to be outdone, a Guttenberg Bible. "We have recently completed a project in which we digitized every page of every music manuscript in our collection," said director William Griswold. "I would like to go through and systematically complete the digitization of the collection of drawings. We have the greatest collection of its kind in this country, and it's still not accessible in its entirety by electronic means."


Technology Policy Institute
October 22, 2010
8:30 am - noon

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Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in
High-Tech Industries

Registration - 8:30, Program - 9:00
October 22, 2010
Polaris Suite
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC
http://www.techpolicyinstitute.org/events/show/92.html

Antitrust enforcement in technology industries is complex, in part because the sector is characterized by more or less continuous innovation. The global nature of the sector, combined with oversight by multiple enforcement agencies, also presents its own unique issues for antitrust policy. Given these complexities, how can antitrust policy be formulated to promote innovation in these dynamic sectors?

The event is part of the TPI project "Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Information and Communications Technology: Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in 'New Economy' Industries." Academic experts will discuss their papers prepared for the project on such topics as recent enforcement actions, vertical integration, and antitrust implications for cloud computing.

8:30 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 AM Panel 1

Thomas Lenard, Technology Policy Institute (moderator)

Robert Crandall, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution and

Charles Jackson, Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering, George Washington University

Antitrust in High-Tech Industries: The Three Major Recent Monopolization Cases

Joshua Wright, Associate Professor of Law, George Mason University Law School

Does Antitrust Enforcement in High Tech Markets Benefit Consumers? Stock Price Evidence from FTC v. Intel

Discussants:

Timothy Brennan, Professor, Public Policy and Economics University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future

Joseph Farrell, Director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission

10:30 AM Panel 2

Scott Wallsten, Technology Policy Institute (moderator)

Bruce Owen, Director, Public Policy Program, Stanford University and Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Antitrust and Vertical Integration in "New Economy" Industries

Christopher Yoo, Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer and Information Science and Director, Center for Technology, Innovation, and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Cloud Computing: Architectural and Policy Implications

Discussants:

Michael Salinger, Professor/Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar, Markets, Public Policy and Law, Boston University School of Management

Carl Shapiro, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics, U.S. Department of Justice

Questions should be directed to Ashley Creel at acreel@techpolicyinstitute.org

Members of the press should contact Amy Smorodin at asmorodin@techpolicyinstitute.org


Confronting the Looming Shortage of Wireless Spectrum:
A Federal Technology Policy Imperative

Brookings
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
2:30 PM to 4:00 PM
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2010/1020_mobile_broadband.aspx

Recent research finds that demand for mobile broadband could outpace the amount of available wireless spectrum in three years. In its national broadband plan, the Federal Communication Commission called for 500 megahertz of new wireless spectrum, 300 megahertz of which, the FCC specified, should be freed up within the next five years. Despite government and industry recognition of the coming spectrum crisis, a number of the reforms needed to increase wireless broadband capacity remain unfinished and unaddressed.

On October 20, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will host a forum on the U.S. wireless spectrum and its role in advancing mobile technology growth and innovation. Moderated by Governance Studies Director Darrell West, a panel of government, industry and academic experts will discuss how to best allocate the wireless spectrum, what the government's role should be in the expansion process and how to balance various stakeholders' interests in their pursuit for additional bandwidth.

Moderator
Darrell M. West
Vice President and Director, Governance Studies

Featured Panelists
Ruth Milkman
Bureau Chief, The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission

Phil Weiser
Senior Advisor to the Director for Technology and Innovation, National Economic Council, The White House

Adele Morris
Fellow, Economic Studies

Steve Sharkey
Chief of Engineering and Technology Policy, T-Mobile USA Inc.

Ellen Goodman
Professor, Rutgers University Law Schoo

After the program, panelists will take audience questions.




The Role of Public Policy and Browser Certificates

New America Foundation and Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy
Friday, October 22, 2010
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Every day, we rely on our web browsers to keep our communications secure. Whether we are submitting our credit card for purchases, doing online banking, or sending email, the same fundamental security structure is being used. The lock icon displayed by web browsers might give users reason to believe that the prevailing "certificate"-based model is trustworthy, the reality is that many vulnerabilities exist, and the risks are multiplying. Hundreds of different entities located around the world have the ability to issue fraudulent certificates that will nevertheless be trusted by our browsers. Overcoming the shortcomings in the current model and working toward a better model requires cooperation of corporations, the government, developers, and users. Many of the most difficult challenges are not technical in nature but rather social or political.

Welcome Remarks
Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Overview
Edward W. Felten
Director, Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy

Stephen Schultze
Associate Director, Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy

Keynote Speaker
Andrew McLaughlin
White House Deputy Chief Techonology Officer, Internet Policy

Panelists
Adam Langley
Google

Scott Rea
Senior PKI Architect, DigiCert

Paul Vixie
President, Internet Software Consortium

Respondents
Ari Schwartz
Senior Internet Policy Advisor, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Peter Eckersley
Senior Staff Technologist, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hosted by Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and the New America Foundation

To RSVP for the event:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/online_trust

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net


Infrastructure as a Service

EDUCAUSE
Web Seminar
October 22, 2010
1:00 p.m. ET
http://net.educause.edu/live1028

Kyle Johnson
Associate Provost, SUNY Institute of Technology

Many institutions have begun moving application services to the cloud, but what other kinds of services could move to the cloud? What might our institutions look like if desktops, storage, servers, and even the network were delivered as a service? Join Kyle Johnson, associate provost at the SUNY Institute of Technology, for an exploration of the possibilities for infrastructure as a service and a discussion of the decisions facing those embarking on the path toward this goal.

Use the Twitter hashtag #EDULive before and after EDUCAUSE Live! events to ask questions, comment, and discuss hot topics with the EDUCAUSE Live! host, speakers, and attendees.



Arizona State University, New America Foundation and Slate
Monday, October 25, 2010
8:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

It is hard to pick up a major magazine these days without reading about the last days of the Internet, at least the world wide (open) web version of it. Recent cover stories by Wired, The Economist and Newsweek have all fretted about how private, cordoned-off spaces - be they Apple's apps or Facebook - are undermining the ethos and promise of the virtual commons. What gives? Was AOL's initial approach to create a walled-off community ahead of its time? Is the trend towards proprietary online cul-de-sacs reversible? Is the Internet merely succumbing to the same cycles all information technologies have experienced - from their freewheeling pioneer days to their buttoned-down commercialization - as Tim Wu argues in his upcoming book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires?

Premature obits are decidedly uncool, so instead of proclaiming the Web's death, we invite you to join us to mull over the Internet's mid-life crisis.

8:45 am: Registration and Coffee

9:15 am: How the Internet is Losing its Mojo

Tim Wu
Author, The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Knopf, Nov. 2010)
Professor of Law, Columbia University
Future Tense Fellow, New America Foundation
Contributing Editor, Slate

Andres Martinez
Director, Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program
New America Foundation

10:15 am: But aren't Consumers Driving the Internet's Transformation?

Bruce Gottlieb
General Counsel, Atlantic Media Company
Former Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor, Federal Communication Commission

Link Hoewing
Assistant Vice President for Internet and Technology Policy, Verizon

Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

11:30 am: Adjournment

To RSVP for the event:
http://www.newamerica.net/events/2010/the_internets_mid_life_crisis

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net

For media inquiries, contact Kate Brown at (202) 596-3365 or brown@newamerica.net

Future Tense is a partnership of Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate magazine that focuses on emergent technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy.


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