October 2010

Surprise $2,000 Phone Bills Add to Scrutiny of Verizon, AT&T

The Federal Communications Commission may make it mandatory for carriers to warn customers before they get hit with high bills. Next week, the agency will consider requiring companies to alert customers when they approach limits on their contracts.

Carriers including Verizon Wireless have fought against such requirements, saying they already give customers ways to monitor their usage. The CTIA, the wireless industry association, has resisted the idea of legislation, saying it will cause "customer confusion and frustration" and that carriers already offer customers ways to control their usage. Subscribers can check their usage with online monitors or via text message.

ACTA text shows US caved in on Internet provisions

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been three years in the making, and at one point included language advocating "three strikes" regimes, ordering ISPs to develop anti-piracy plans, promoting tough DRM anticircumvention language, setting up a "takedown" notification system, and "secondary liability" for device makers.

Europeans were demanding protection for their geographic marks (Champagne, etc). Other countries wanted patents in the mix. That's all gone in today's release of the "near-final" ACTA text. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, whose office negotiated the US side of the deal, issued a statement this morning about the "tremendous progress in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy," but the real story here is the tremendous climbdown by US negotiators, who have largely failed in their attempts to push the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) onto the rest of the world. Apparently, a face-saving agreement is better than no agreement at all -- but even the neutered ACTA we see today could run into problems. Mexico's Senate yesterday approved a nonbinding resolution asking for the country to suspend participation in ACTA, while key members of the European Parliament have also expressed skepticism about the deal.

Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said, "The final text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) should be seen as a qualified victory for those who want to protect the digital rights of consumers around the world. Some of the most egregious provisions from earlier drafts have been removed on topics ranging from digital protection measures to the liability of intermediaries like Internet Service Providers and search engines. The agreement would give more flexibility to the signatories than did previous versions. We can attribute these changes in part to the willingness of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to open the ACTA discussions to public-interest groups in a way that had not been done before. We appreciate the inclusiveness USTR has shown in the negotiations. However, the way this agreement was produced is still deeply flawed."

Cable TV Subscribers More Annoyed About Prices: J.D. Power

Consumers today are less satisfied with their monthly pay-TV bills compared with last year, according to J.D. Power and Associates' annual TV customer-satisfaction service survey -- and cable subscribers are more likely to feel ripped off than telco or satellite TV customers.

The average satisfaction rating for the cost of pay-TV prices fell 2.5% on the research firm's "2010 U.S. Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study," from 555 on a 1,000-point scale last year to 541 in 2010. At the same time, overall customer satisfaction with television service providers was essentially unchanged, with an average score of 629 in 2010 (down three points from 632 last year). About 74% of customers who say they "definitely" or "probably" will switch TV providers in the next year cite price as a major factor, the survey found. The takeaway, according to J.D. Power director of telecommunications Frank Perazzini, is that TV providers must "better communicate their price-value proposition, as customers are increasingly voicing irritation with the amount of their monthly bill."

Cable operators were rated much lower on satisfaction with the value of the service, a phenomenon attributable in part to their incumbent status versus competitors. The cable TV average for satisfaction on cost was 22% lower than for telco services -- AT&T U-verse TV and Verizon FiOS TV -- and 18% lower than satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network.

CDT: Meritless Take-Down Notices Could Chill Online Free Speech

The Center for Democracy and Technology argues that "meritless" calls to take down online campaign ads because they allegedly infringe copyrights are stifling online free speech.

CDT examined a dozen cases in which YouTube and other online sites were sent notices demanding that online videos be taken down because they allegedly infringed the senders' copyrighted material. CDT claimed in its report that all 12 cases it examined involved short clips of copyrighted works that are covered under the U.S. doctrine of fair use and therefore should not have been removed. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides protection from liability for Internet service providers, online sites and other intermediaries who take down infringing material when notified of its existence on their networks or Web sites. "We actually think the DMCA notice and take-down process ... is a good and balanced approach," CDT Senior Policy Counsel David Sohn said during a conference call with reporters. "The problem is that the process is being abused." Given the growing importance of online ads in modern campaigns, meritless requests for take-downs under the DMCA sent to sites like YouTube threaten online political speech, Sohn said.

Should Behavioral Targeting Be Opt-In?

Privacy clearly went from a topic ignored by most to a word on many consumers' lips. The industry's self-regulation steps provide a sign online advertisers will eventually have a structure for their privacy efforts.

Advertisers have been asked to implement an Advertising Option Icon near ads where behavioral tracking technology is in use. The program implements practices of Self Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising that address questions of choice, security, and accountability, as well as the Federal Trade Commission's call for more transparent ad-targeting practices. A Web site has been set up to provide more information on why the ad gets served up and gives consumers an opportunity to opt out of future targeted ads. The participating organizations in Monday's announcement include the American Association of National Advertisers, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association, and the Better Business Bureau, and others. Beginning next year, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and Direct Marketing Associate will enforce compliance. The groups plan to promote adoption by businesses through a national education campaign.

Confidence In Mass Media Continues to Falter

According to Gallup's annual Governance poll, conducted Sept. 13-16, 2010, 57% of Americans say they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly, for the fourth straight year... a record high by one percentage point.

The 43% of Americans who express a great deal or fair amount of trust ties the record low, and is far worse than three prior Gallup readings on this measure from the 1970s. Trust in the media is now slightly higher than the record-low trust in the legislative branch but lower than trust in the executive and judicial branches of government, even though trust in all three branches is down sharply this year. These findings also further confirm a separate Gallup poll that found little confidence in newspapers and television specifically. Nearly half of Americans (48%) say the media are too liberal, tying the high end of the narrow 44% to 48% range recorded over the past decade. One-third say the media are just about right while 15% say they are too conservative. Overall, perceptions of bias have remained quite steady over this tumultuous period of change for the media, marked by the growth of cable and Internet news sources. Americans' views now are in fact identical to those in 2004, despite the many changes in the industry since then.

One agency wants Internet wiretaps, another wants privacy protected

A Federal Bureau of Investigation initiative that would make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap the Internet works at crosses purposes with a recently launched cybersecurity public awareness campaign, privacy advocates said.

Bureau officials are pushing Congress to pass a bill that would require manufacturers of Web-based technologies to equip their products with programs that allow the government to intercept messages from suspected criminals, according to media reports published last week. Simultaneously, Obama administration officials are beginning an initiative aimed at teaching Americans how to defend themselves against hackers. The seemingly conflicting policies raise questions about the ability of the government to protect the security of the Internet while at the same time protecting the nation's security. The Homeland Security Department on Monday kicked off its 7th annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month with its Stop. Think. Connect campaign. The department is suppling communities, organizations and individuals with materials that instruct Internet users how to safeguard personal information and online communications.

Schools Urged To Teach Youth Digital Citizenship

In the wake of a Rutgers University student's suicide, researchers who study youth and the Internet say schools need to do a better job of teaching kids the basics of digital citizenship. New Jersey state lawmakers have introduced legislation to make the penalties in cyberbullying cases harsher there. But Pelfrey says more laws on cyberbullying aren't going to change bad behavior. Instead, adults need to reach out to young people in the new world they live in that is both virtual and real.

Where's All the Free Wi-Fi We Were Promised?

Municipal WiFi was the free, ubiquitous mesh of wireless Internet access that was supposed to carpet bomb the digital divide back to the stone age. So what happened? Eric Fraser, author of the superlative new guide to what went wrong with the dream of Municipal WiFi, A Postmortem Look at Citywide WiFi, has the answer. The short version is, no technology happens in a vacuum, and where the laws of the land abut the laws of nature, physics will carve your best-laid plans into a heap of sundered limbs every time.

Motorola files patent suit against Apple

Motorola has filed three complaints against Apple over alleged patent infringements in its popular wireless and mobile devices. The complaints were filed with the International Trade Commission as well as in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida. The complaints allege that Apple's popular iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and some of its computers infringe on Motorola's patents in the areas of antenna design and other smartphone technologies. According to Motorola, Apple has infringed on 18 patents.

Benton

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