October 2010

Shield Law: Mr. Smith Came to Washington

Society of Professional Journalists President Kevin Smith was in the nation's capital last week to push legislators to allow a final vote on a federal shield law in this Congress.

In letters delivered to key senators, according to SPJ, he says that after concessions and compromises on the definition of journalist and national security carve-outs, the bill (Senate bill 448, the Free Flow of information Act) now has the backing of "the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, the House and we know the majority of the Senate. It is ready to go to the Senate floor." If so, it will have to be in a lame duck session after the election.

The Pentagon's new cyber warriors

Guarding water wells and granaries from enemy raids is as old as war itself. In the Middle Ages, vital resources were hoarded behind castle walls, protected by moats, drawbridges and knights with double-edged swords. Today, U.S. national security planners are proposing that the 21st century's critical infrastructure -- power grids, communications, water utilities, financial networks -- be similarly shielded from cyber marauders and other foes. The ramparts would be virtual, their perimeters policed by the Pentagon and backed by digital weapons capable of circling the globe in milliseconds to knock out targets. The U.S. military is preparing for digital combat even more extensively than has been made public. And how to keep the nation's lifeblood industries safe is a big, if controversial, aspect of it.

AT&T: no one can stop our "paid prioritization"

The "paid prioritization" train is leaving the station, and not even the Federal Communications Commission's drive to "reclassify" Internet services as limited common carriers can derail it. Network neutrality advocates, incensed when AT&T first suggested the need to charge some Internet companies for "using his pipes free," won't be pleased to hear that AT&T won't let such deals be halted by the FCC. Even if FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski succeeds in bringing Internet service providers under "Title II", AT&T says it will have no effect on its ability to charges companies more for priority Internet access. "Reclassification is not much of a threat to prioritization," said AT&T's Hank Hulquist. "The FCC has decades of precedence of tariffs that were deemed lawful for the provision of prioritization."

MPAA Heart ACTA; European Parliament Not So Much

The motion picture business likes the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). After a few tough years of record-setting box office receipts, the industry welcomes new legal enforcement tools that will "protect the jobs of the millions of men and women working in film and other creative industries." But the European Parliament isn't convinced yet. After all, there's not even a text to view. And despite official statements expressing peace, love, and harmony, it's clear that ACTA hasn't actually been finalized and that some real issues still remain. So the news that negotiators have packed it in and will host no more meetings didn't sit very well with Parliament, which worries that an incomplete deal is being passed off as final and will soon be shoved down its throat. To keep its collective throat clear of ACTA-sized obstructions, key members of Parliament have taken preemptive measures. Some members of the European Parliament are demanding that the European Commission provide the final text - if talks have indeed concluded.

The Uneasy Crown Atop King Content

[Commentary] Over-the-top video has gotten plenty of attention lately, in large part because Apple is trying to correct the mistakes it made with the first version of Apple TV. Part and parcel to the discussion is whether consumers will cut off pay TV services in favor of these Internet-based options.

Yankee Group research shows there indeed was a measurable amount of momentum growing toward video cord cutting. What's now just a trickle certainly could turn into a stream and ultimately a raging river. It's not there yet, though, and that is an important distinction that sometimes gets lost in the reporting. People don't think nearly as much about their pay TV options as we'd like them to. In fact, it's a pretty quick decision, and it's based largely on economics. Consumers will migrate away from pay TV services if and only if the economics dictate and it's exceedingly easy to change. Content owners play the biggest role in making the transition easy. Among those consumers that tell us they'll never cancel pay TV service, which sits at 17% right now, more than 50% said they enjoy the convenience of the service and the variety offered. If content owners were unified on the issue of offering their product through every channel possible, the number of consumers unwilling to let go of pay TV would plummet. Content clearly remains the most important and often missing piece of the consumer shift to new viewing habits. Until owners of that content are incented to move in lockstep, we'll continue to see an uneven movement that is significantly more nuanced than is being reported.

Online tool boosts chronic disease and preventive care

A web-based tool that extracts information from the electronic medical record is helping physicians provide better care for patients with diabetes and heart disease, according to a new Kaiser study.

A separate study showed the technology, called Panel Support Tool, also helped doctors provide better preventive care. The Kaiser Permanente studies are the first to examine the effectiveness of a population care tool in a large, diverse patient population. The Panel Support Tool (PST), devised and implemented by doctors at Kaiser Permanente, is a Web-based tool that helps primary care physicians to manage care for individual patients, groups of patients or their entire panel. It does this by comparing the care the patient is receiving to the care that is recommended by national guidelines. For example, doctors can query the PST in advance of a patient visit to find out if that patient needs a screening test or vaccine. They can ask the PST to display a list of all of their patients who are overdue for a mammogram or colon cancer screening test, or a list of their diabetic patients whose blood sugar levels are too high, or those who need a foot or eye exam.

Newest Google Android Cell Phone Contains Unexpected 'Feature' -- A Malicious Root Kit.

Android-based smart phone G2 truly is representative of the next generation of mobile devices. The hardware capabilities surpass the abilities of most available netbook computers, including the ability to play High Definition video seamlessly. Unfortunately, the G2 also comes with built-in hardware that restricts what software a device owner might wish to install. Specifically, one of the microchips embedded into the G2 prevents device owners from making permanent changes that allow custom modifications to the Android operating system.

This is the same Android that purposefully opened up its source code under the Apache License, allowing anyone to use, modify, and redistribute the operating system code even if they choose not to contribute back to the development community. Even among other Android computing devices and phones, the G2 is touted as an open platform. Unfortunately, the hardware in this device completely undermines this license by allowing mobile network providers to override end-user changes to the source code. Wireless network operators have deployed a hardware rootkit that restricts modifications to a device owned by the user. This would be akin to a computer sold with Microsoft Windows containing chip that prevented users from installing Linux or another operating system of their choice.

Qwest, CenturyLink to spend $50M for state broadband

To win approval for Century-Link's $10.5 billion takeover of Qwest Communications International, the two companies have agreed with state regulators to spend $50 million over five years to expand broadband infrastructure in Minnesota.

The two phone companies also agreed in a filing to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that for two years after the deal closes, they will make no changes to how Qwest handles lines leased to competing phone companies. Qwest spokeswoman Joanna Hjelmeland called the broadband commitment "significant," but some broadband advocates and competing telephone providers expressed disappointment with the agreement forged with the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

New DOE Reports on Smart Grid Technologies Seek to Promote Innovation, Privacy and Access

In order to implement recommendations made in the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan, the Department of Energy released two reports on important policy issues raised by Smart Grid technologies that can promote innovation, cut costs for consumers and modernize our electrical grid.

Each report completes a public-information-gathering process begun earlier this year by the Department. DOE General Counsel Scott Blake Harris said, "These reports will allow the Department to better inform a dialogue with state and federal officials as they implement and deploy Smart Grid technologies that will help create good-paying jobs, save consumers money and encourage rapid growth in renewable energies like wind and solar."

The first, Data Access and Privacy Issues Related to Smart Grid Technologies focuses on how legal and regulatory regimes are evolving to protect consumer privacy and choice while promoting the growth of innovative energy-management services and technologies that rely on detailed energy-usage data. It found there is considerable consensus that flexibility and consumer education will be critical to the successful adoption and deployment of Smart Grid technologies like advanced metering. In addition, it found that to protect privacy, consumers should be able to choose whether to affirmatively opt in to any non-utility, third-party use of their energy-usage data through a secure and trustworthy process. Flexibility and education were also found to be critical to making Smart Grid widely successful. It is important for consumers to understand the long-term benefits of these technologies, like lowering energy bills. Finally, there was consensus that no one technology or implementation schedule will serve the needs of all consumers.

The second, Communications Requirements of Smart Grid Technologies examines how the communications needs of utilities and the electrical grid are likely to evolve as Smart Grid technologies become more widely used. This report recommends that to improve overall coordination, utilities and other Smart Grid constituents should be represented on key federal industry committees that address communications- and network-related security and reliability issues.

Driving Innovation and Investment in the Clean Energy Economy

On October 5, Federal Communications Commission staffer Phoebe Yang addressed the 1st Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Smart Grid Communications. She talked about the energy-related aspects of the National Broadband Plan.

She said, "The FCC's efforts to enable and improve Smart Grid communications are just one part of the solution we will need to ensure a smart, cost-effective, and secure electric grid in the 21st century. As you in this hall know better than just about anyone, building the Smart Grid will continue to be a technologically challenging and expensive endeavor. But ultimately, it is an endeavor as worthy of our collective national efforts as the interstate highway system. Reflecting on the creation of the interstate highway system in his memoirs, its champion, President Dwight Eisenhower wrote that 'more than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America . . . Its impact on the American economy -- the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up—was beyond calculation.' These words were undoubtedly true of the interstate highway system. But I believe they will be equally true of our collective efforts to build out broadband and the smart grid across America in the years and decades to come. New construction of the interstate highway system has largely sunsetted in the United States today. But with the Smart Grid, we stand at a remarkable, and promising, dawn."

Benton

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