November 2010

"All of us benefit from having a free and open Internet, and maintaining that is a legitimate government concern. The only question is 'how.'"
-- David Cohen, Comcast http://www.benton.org/node/45036

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010

Today's fun telecom-related activities http://benton.org/calendar/2010-11-16

SPECTRUM
   NTIA Plan for Unleashing Spectrum for Wireless Broadband
   NTIA Releases New Spectrum Report: Concludes Finding New Spectrum Is Hard
   From AM radio to satellite TV: seven decades of FCC regulation

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Upton: FCC regulatory compass must be broken
   Comcast Executives Press Federal Officials to Decide on NBC Deal, Move Past Network Neutrality
   Commerce Extends Deadline for Input on Global Free Flow of Information on the Internet
   Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information
   Open Internet Needed for All
   Our Innovation Infrastructure: Opportunities and Challenges
   If your ISP throttling you, just switch -- if you live in the EU
   In US, Demand for Broadband Is Back
   In the Grip of the New Monopolists
   How good is your town's broadband?

TELEVISION
   Fix broken broadcast retransmission consent system
   National Taxpayers Union Seeks Broad Retransmission Reform
   Internet Or TV: Americans Are Watching Mega-TV
   Deal Critics Call Comcast/NBCU Pre-Merger Staff Moves Premature
   Google's Eric Schmidt tries to quell television network backlash against Google TV

CONTENT
   Image Rights vs. Free Speech in Video Game Suit
   With 'Messages,' Facebook tries to run the switchboard

PRIVACY
   Privacy and the Web
   Searching Your Laptop

EDUCATION
   Can Twitter Make You Smarter?

CYBERSECURITY
   Cyber Experts Have Proof That China Has Hijacked U.S.-Based Internet Traffic
   Forecast for cybersecurity bills looks cloudy in reconvened Congress
   Northrop joins other companies in teaming up with universities on cybersecurity research

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: Information Technologies Key to Growth
   How good is your town's broadband?

MORE ONLINE
   Sorting Through the Government Data Explosion
   FCC's McDowell at Capitalization Strategies Workshop
   Economy Returns as Top Story
   Sam Zell to Bow Out of Tribune

back to top

SPECTRUM

NTIA PLAN FOR UNLEASHING SPECTRUM FOR WIRELESS BROADBAND
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration]
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced it is recommending that 115 MHz of spectrum be reallocated for wireless broadband service within the next five years -- an important step towards achieving President Barack Obama's goal to nearly double the amount of commercial spectrum available over the next decade. NTIA released two complementary reports detailing the effort to nearly double commercial wireless spectrum: a Ten-Year Plan and Timetable, as well as a Fast Track Evaluation identifying the 115 megahertz of spectrum to be made available within five years. NTIA developed the Ten-Year Plan and Timetable in response to the June 28, 2010 Presidential Memorandum that directed the Secretary of Commerce, working through NTIA, to collaborate with the Federal Communications Commission to make available a total of 500 megahertz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum over the next 10 years for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use. The report, developed with input from other Federal agencies and the FCC, identifies 2,200 megahertz of spectrum for evaluation, the process for evaluating these candidate bands, and the steps necessary to make the selected spectrum available for wireless broadband services. Of the 2,200 megahertz of candidate spectrum that the Ten-Year Plan and Timetable identify, 28 percent is allocated exclusively for Federal use at present, 35 percent is allocated exclusively for commercial use, and 37 percent is shared by Federal and commercial users. The 2,200 megahertz includes 280 megahertz of commercial spectrum that the FCC recommended in its National Broadband Plan be made available for mobile broadband use within five years. In the Fast Track Evaluation report, NTIA examined four spectrum bands for potential reallocation within five years: 1) 1675-1710 MHz, 2) 1755-1780 MHz, 3) 3500-3650 MHz, and 4) 4200-4220 MHz and 4380-4400 MHz. The report recommends that various portions of these bands totaling 115 megahertz be made available for wireless broadband use within five years, contingent upon the allocation of resources for necessary reallocation activities. Specifically, NTIA recommends reallocating 1695-1710 MHz, currently used for dissemination of severe weather information and alerts via satellites operated by Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and 3550-3650 MHz, which would be shared with Department of Defense radar systems mainly on ships. NTIA recommends some geographic limitations on the availability of these bands to prevent harmful interference to government facilities in the 1695-1710 MHz band and to the proposed commercial services in the 3550-3650 MHz band.
benton.org/node/45021 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | NTIA Fast Track Evaluation | NTIA 10-yr plan | fact sheet | The Hill | Connected Planet | Broadcasting&Cable | National Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

REACTION TO NTIA
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] I can summarize the national Telecommunications and Information Administration's basic conclusions as follows: "getting 500 MHz of spectrum for broadband over the next ten years is going to be really hard." On the plus side, the NTIA report actually does the brave thing of discussing in a realistic way what it will take to get 500 MHz available for broadband -- although in a nod to political realities NTIA does not actually venture an opinion on how to prioritize these steps or how to proceed forward. While none of the recommendations should come as a surprise to anyone who follows spectrum policy, it rather dashes the hope of anyone who thinks that we can rely on a single method -- such as auctions -- to get there. Why? Well, turns out the federal government is not sitting on a boatload of unused spectrum. At best, there are federal users that — with investment of money and significant planning — could migrate over time to more efficient technologies and/or uses. What federal spectrum that is available in the short term will require geographic "exclusion zones" to protect existing federal operations and, by and large, is not in particularly "good" spectrum for delivering mobile broadband in ways that existing wireless carriers could easily (relatively speaking) integrate into their operations. So even if we have an auction, it won't raise squindoodles of money.
benton.org/node/45023 | Public Knowledge | PK press release
Recommend this Headline
back to top

HISTORY OF BROADCAST REGULATION
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
It was 1926. Broadcast radio was all the rage. But most stations barely resembled the kind of outlets we listen to today. The majority were run by colleges, civic organizations, and in some instances, labor unions. Only 4.3 percent could be classified as "commercial broadcasters." Less than a decade later, the situation had more than reversed itself. By 1934, nonprofit broadcasting added up to a mere two percent of all air time. Although in the early 1920s most prominent voices agreed that commercial broadcasting would be the worst possible way to fund radio, the Federal Radio Commission (the precursor to the Federal Communications Commission) now concluded that advertising was the only way to support the big range "clear channel" licenses that the agency had given to forty signals across the country. Was this the right call? Eighty years later, the FCC still isn't sure. "Although commercial radio produced a Golden Age of programming in the late 1930s, the question remains whether the FRC's decision to favor corporate-sponsored networks—rather than the multiplicity of diverse non-commercial stations—best served the public interest," the agency concludes in its newly published essay, Transformative Choices: A Review of 70 years of FCC Decisions, written by FCC senior attorney Sherille Ismail.
benton.org/node/45031 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top

INTERNET/BROADBAND

UPTON: FCC REGULATORY COMPASS MUST BE BROKEN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Seeking the chairmanship of the House Commerce Committee, Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) is circulating a memo illustrating his conservative credentials with a pledge to crush the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) network neutrality ambitions by "breaking" its "regulatory compass." The memo includes:
"The FCC's regulatory compass must be broken as they continue in their unrelenting pursuit to impose so-called network neutrality regulations, regardless of whether the agency has the legal authority for such a blind power grab, and whether such regulations will actually undermine the FCC's ability to achieve the goals of the National Broadband plan."
"The FCC must stand down from pursuing a course unauthorized and opposed by Congress."
benton.org/node/45041 | Hill, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top

COMCAST PRESSES FOR MERGER DECISION
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Comcast executives are pressing the Federal Communications Commission to conclude the review of the company's proposed merger with NBC Universal. Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen met with FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus on November 11 to say the companies' "applications are now ripe for consideration." That was one of at least four meetings between FCC staff and Comcast-NBC executives in the last week. On Nov 15, Cohen, speaking at the Brookings Institute, said that when it comes to Internet regulation, self-governance should trump federal mandates. Cohen pointed to engineering-led groups such as the Internet Engineering Task Force and Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG) as alternative and ultimately more efficient options for regulating Internet content. BITAG's role would be advisory for federal agencies on the technological aspects of Internet policy issues. For support, Cohen called attention to News Corp's decision last month to temporarily block access of the online video website Hulu.com -- which it co-owns with other networks -- from Cablevision customers. News Corp was angry that Cablevision was balking at the fees it was demanding for carriage of its Fox broadcast and cable channels. "It happened on a Saturday afternoon," Cohen said. "It happened for three hours and as blogs lit up and customers started to complain, News Corp reversed its decision. If you were going to rely on government, it wouldn't have happened in three hours on a Saturday afternoon." But Cohen was quick to say that he doesn't advocate that federal regulators be completely hands-off. "By no means am I suggesting a libertarian approach to Internet policy in America," he said. "All of us benefit from having a free and open Internet, and maintaining that is a legitimate government concern. The only question is 'how.'"
benton.org/node/45027 | Bloomberg | National Journal | WashPost
Recommend this Headline
back to top

COMMERCE EXTENDS FREE FLOW OF INFO COMMENT PERIOD
[SOURCE: Department of Commerce]
On April 21, 2010, the Department of Commerce announced the formation of a Commerce-wide Internet Policy Task Force to identify leading public policy and operational issues impacting the U.S. private sector's ability to realize the potential for economic growth and job creation through the Internet. On September 29, 2010, the Task Force issued a notice of inquiry on restrictions placed upon the free flow of information on the Internet with a closing date for comments of November 15, 2010. In the interest of affording parties more time to submit comments, the Task Force is reopening the comment period. The Task Force announces that the closing deadline for submission of comments responsive to the September 29, 2010 notice is now extended until 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December 6, 2010. Comments received after the original closing date of November 15, 2010 and before the publication of this notice will be considered timely and given full consideration.
benton.org/node/45020 | Department of Commerce
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOOGLE, ONLINE CENSORSHIP AND TRADE
[SOURCE: Google, AUTHOR: ]
The transformative economic benefits of the Internet are under threat, as increasing numbers of governments move to impose onerous limits on information flow. The international community must take action to ensure the free flow of information online. Governments should honor existing international obligations including under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, prevent trade barriers created by information regulation, and develop new international rules that provide enhanced protection against these trade barriers of the 21st century.
To realize the full potential of the Internet as a global marketplace and platform for innovation, policymakers in the United States, the European Union, and elsewhere should pursue three steps to break down barriers to free trade and Internet commerce:
Focus on and publicly highlight as unfair trade barriers those practices by governments that restrict or disrupt the flow of online information services.
Take appropriate action where government restrictions on the free flow of online information violate international trade rules.
Establish new international trade rules under bilateral, regional, and multilateral agreements that provide further assurances in favor of the free flow of information on the Internet.
This is an ambitious but achievable agenda. It offers opportunities for the U.S. government to better align the nationfs trade priorities with the global economy and, in turn, create new jobs and export opportunities for the U.S. It can also provide concrete incentives for other governments to reduce or stop the restriction and disruption of information on the Internet.
benton.org/node/45019 | Google | ars technica | Fast Company | Reuters
Recommend this Headline
back to top

OPEN INTERNET NEEDED FOR ALL
[SOURCE: Albuquerque Journal, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps]
[Commentary] The Internet was born on openness, has flourished on openness and depends on openness to realize its full potential. And its potential is so great. This incredible technology intersects with just about every great challenge confronting our nation -- whether it's jobs, education, energy, climate change and the environment, news, international competitiveness, health care or equal opportunity. There's no solution for any of these challenges that does not have a broadband component to it. We now have a technology with near limitless potential and are just beginning to truly harness its full ability. But online freedom of Americans is at risk. The conversation about bringing broadband to every corner of the country and protecting consumers and their access to the open Internet is an important one -- one that should not occur just in Washington, D.C. After all, this is about keeping the Internet open for new entrants, small companies and people of all backgrounds across our great nation. This is about people with limited access to capital and about minorities and women, people living on tribal lands or in inner cities, who have waited for too long for real opportunities in the traditional communications space to have equal opportunities on the Internet. So that's why I'm here in Albuquerque: to hear from you.
benton.org/node/45028 | Albuquerque Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

NETWORK NEUTRALITY IN EU
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
[Commentary] Europe doesn't have a net neutrality problem. If you don't believe it, just ask the Internet providers.
"There appears to be consensus among network operators, Internet service providers (ISPs) and infrastructure manufacturers that there are currently no problems with the openness of the Internet and net neutrality in the EU," is how the European Commission sums up a recent round of comments (PDF) on net neutrality. "Indeed, some contend that traffic management actually enables the development of services at lower cost. They maintain that there is no evidence that operators are engaging in unfair discrimination in a way that harms consumers or competition."
Regulators and consumer groups don't see it that way. A group of regulators found instances of:
i) throttling of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing or video streaming in France, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom; and ii) blocking, or charging extra for, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services in mobile networks by certain mobile operators in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania. BEREC's analysis is supported by VoIP providers which allege blocking of VoIP and P2P applications or their being subjected to unjustified tariffs.
Sounds like a problem! Fortunately, the EU has an answer: just switch to another ISP or carrier. But can you?
benton.org/node/45033 | Ars Technica
Recommend this Headline
back to top

OUR INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
Speaking at the annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said the focus of his agency is the economy and jobs. He said, "Notwithstanding the tall wall of challenges in front of our country, our sector - the information technologies and communications sector - can play a big role in driving economic success for the U.S., in the near-term and the long-term." Broadband, in particular, is a key part of a successful economic engine for the 21st century. The FCC's 2011 agenda prioritizes making more spectrum available for broadband and reforming and modernizing the universal service fund and intercarrier compensation rules.
benton.org/node/45034 | Federal Communications Commission
Recommend this Headline
back to top

BROADBAND BACK IN DEMAND
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Om Malik]
The demand for broadband connections was on an upswing during the third quarter of 2010 according to research firm the Leichtman Group. Top U.S. cable and phone companies added about 818,000 new connections, up sharply from a mere 350,000 connections added during the second quarter of 2010. From 2008 through the early part of the year, the demand for new broadband connections softened, in tandem with the softening economy, job losses and the housing crisis. While the overall economy remains in dire straits, there's an upswing in demand for broadband. So far this year, top broadband providers in the U.S. have added over 2.55 million broadband connections, bringing the total U.S. broadband subscribers to about 25 million. In comparison, nearly 3.2 million broadband subscribers were added during the first three quarters of 2009. The top cable companies added over 525,000 subscribers, representing 64 percent of the net broadband additions for the quarter versus the top telephone companies. The top cable broadband providers have a 55-percent share of the overall market, with a 7.8 million subscriber advantage over the top telephone companies - compared to 6.6 million a year ago.
benton.org/node/45024 | GigaOm
Recommend this Headline
back to top

THE NEW MONOPOLISTS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] How hard would it be to go a week without Google? Or, to up the ante, without Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, eBay and Google? It wouldn't be impossible, but for even a moderate Internet user, it would be a real pain. Forgoing Google and Amazon is just inconvenient; forgoing Facebook or Twitter means giving up whole categories of activity. For most of us, avoiding the Internet's dominant firms would be a lot harder than bypassing Starbucks, Wal-Mart or other companies that dominate some corner of what was once called the real world. The Internet has long been held up as a model for what the free market is supposed to look like -- competition in its purest form. So why does it look increasingly like a Monopoly board? Most of the major sectors today are controlled by one dominant company or an oligopoly. Google "owns" search; Facebook, social networking; eBay rules auctions; Apple dominates online content delivery; Amazon, retail; and so on. There are digital Kashmirs, disputed territories that remain anyone's game, like digital publishing. But the dominions of major firms have enjoyed surprisingly secure borders over the last five years, their core markets secure. The rise of the app (a dedicated program that runs on a mobile device or Facebook) may seem to challenge the neat sorting of functions among a handful of firms, but even this development is part of the larger trend. To stay alive, all apps must secure a place on a monopolist's platform, thus strengthening the monopolist's market dominance.
benton.org/node/45018 | Wall Street Journal
Recommend this Headline
back to top

POINT TOPIC UK BROADBAND RESEARCH
[SOURCE: Point Topic, AUTHOR: Tim Johnson]
The availability of broadband has been a significant issue for many UK districts and regions ever since it started to roll out. But although there are important differences between areas the picture has been fairly static for the last few years. Now the promise of £530m in UK government funding over the period of the October 2010 Spending Review provides an opportunity for anyone who wants to improve local broadband infrastructure. The money is much less than the £2 billion foreseen under the previous government's scheme. It will not be nearly enough to achieve the objective of 2Mbps broadband for virtually everyone. But it is still a lot of money. Public and private sector players need to grasp the opportunity and make the best of it where they can. Here, as a first step towards understanding what is needed, Point Topic compares the coverage and quality of broadband access infrastructure across the local authorities of the UK. We look at different measures of access network infrastructure and combine them in a single "broadband infrastructure index" which provides a simple way of comparing the overall situation in different areas. The data is all drawn from Point Topic's "BroadBand Layer" database of availability and take-up estimates for every postcode in the UK, using the new V12 edition of the BroadBand Layer.
benton.org/node/45029 | Point Topic
Recommend this Headline
back to top

TELEVISION

FIX THE RETRANSMISSION SYSTEM
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jack Fields]
[Commentary] Few things are more frustrating to a former Congressman than to see a law he sponsored twisted in a way that undermines its intended purposes. Unfortunately, this is precisely what has happened during the last few years with the 1992 Cable Act, and in particular, with the provisions I sponsored dealing with "retransmission consent." Our goal was to ensure that the public would retain access to local broadcast programming as cable television gained in power and influence. But today, more than ever, broadcasters are using these provisions to claim that the Act gives them license to pull their signals from video providers and their subscribers unless these providers agree to pay rapidly rising fees. In essence, broadcasters are exploiting a law designed to prevent consumers from experiencing service disruptions to justify blackouts. The system is broken, but it isn't beyond repair. I urge policymakers at the FCC to take action, and soon, to ensure that the retransmission consent system promotes the goals it was intended to serve. [Fields represented the 8th Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1980 to 1997 and was Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance during part of that tenure, from 1995-1997. He is a consultant to the pay TV industry and lobbies on retransmission consent.]
benton.org/node/45042 | Hill, The
Recommend this Headline
back to top

TAXPAYERS' SUGGESTIONS FOR RETRANS REFORM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has advised the Senate Communications Subcommittee not to focus on "rearranging the regulatory deck chairs" in its hearing this week on retransmission consent, but instead to look at more comprehensive reform. Rather than put the Federal Communications Commission's thumb more heavily on the scale, the group argued in a release Nov. 12, Congress should look at creating a system that "allows both television service providers and content providers to operate in a truly free and open negotiation environment." Rearranging the deck chairs is a reference to suggestions by some cable operators and Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) that the FCC get involved in arbitration, either itself or by mandating outside arbitration, and impose standstill agreements that prevent TV station signals from being pulled from cable systems.
benton.org/node/45035 | Broadcasting&Cable
Recommend this Headline
back to top

AMERICANS WATCHING MEGA-TV
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman]
Big watchers of Internet content on their traditional TV sets are also watching plenty of regularly scheduled TV programming. A new study by The Nielsen Company and commissioned by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing says that 84% of watchers who have Internet-connected TV sets or other devices are still watching a heavy dose of network TV shows the old-fashioned way. More importantly to broadcast and cable networks: these watchers are not "cord-cutters" -- those consumers looking to abandon cable system operator monthly programming packages. Of those surveyed, 92% have regular cable systems video packages. The study says 3% plan to transition from their cable subscription models.
benton.org/node/45014 | MediaPost
Recommend this Headline
back to top

COMCAST-NBC STAFF MOVES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Some groups critical of the proposed Comcast/NBC Universal joint venture are also criticizing pre-merger personnel moves by the two companies in anticipation that the deal will be approved by regulators. "It seems a bit hasty for Comcast to start measuring the drapes given that it has not yet won approval to acquire NBCU from either the DOJ or the FCC," said Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright. "It is especially premature given that, by all accounts, both those agencies appear to have significant concerns about the deal, including the combined-company's ability to squash emerging competition in the online video market." "Our view is that merger applicants make personnel changes like this at their peril," said Public Knowledge spokesman Art Brodsky, "and these changes shouldn't be used to try to force the Commission to alter its review process.... We wouldn't want the commission to speed up its processes, for example, based on the idea that personnel changes are being made." A source familiar with Comcast's moves said it was pretty common to announce a leadership team before a deal closes so it would be ready to go, adding that was particularly the case in creative industries so that people outside the company will know who they need to be dealing with when contracts come up for renewal or pilots need to be greenlighted.
benton.org/node/45040 | Broadcasting&Cable
Recommend this Headline
back to top

GOOGLE TRIES TO QUELL BROADCAST TV BACKLASH
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jessica Guynn]
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt addressed the Hollywood backlash against Google TV, saying that ongoing discussions with the television industry are going well and that Google is sharing data to help persuade broadcasters who are blocking Google TV to reconsider. Broadcasters say they are unsure about how they will make money as more video content floods the Web. Schmidt painted Google TV as a major opportunity for Hollywood. He noted that this is the first time an effort has been made to merge the Internet and television on such a scale. "I'm quite confident we'll get through this one because the technology is so powerful," he said. U.S. consumers pay about $70 billion each year to cable and satellite companies to watch movies and TV. While Schmidt said he understood how much money was at stake for content owners and distributors, he said they were cutting themselves off from greater revenue potential by blocking Google TV. With Google TV, consumers would watch more programming, he argued. "The way to get more revenue is to create more revenue sources, and the way to do that is through things like Google TV," Schmidt said. He added that Google was not interested in driving television revenue to zero, a reference to the music industry's troubles.
benton.org/node/45044 | Los Angeles Times | MediaWeek
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CONTENT

IMAGE RIGHT VS FREE SPEECH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Katie Thomas]
When Sam Keller, a former quarterback at Arizona State, sued the video game publisher Electronic Arts last year, he was seeking compensation for himself and other college athletes whose names were not used but whose images he contended were being illegally used by the company. But to the media conglomerates, athletes, actors, First Amendment advocates and others who have recently weighed in on the case, Keller's lawsuit is about much more than video games. The outcome of a recent appeal filed by Electronic Arts, their lawyers say, could rewrite the rules that dictate how much ownership public figures have over their images -- and the extent to which outside parties, including media and entertainment companies -- can profit from them. The case is drawing attention because it gets to the heart of a highly contested legal question: when should a person's right to control his image trump the free-speech rights of others to use it?
benton.org/node/45047 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

FACEBOOK MESSAGES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Rob Pegoraro]
Facebook introduced a major upgrade to the social network's messaging system, now called "Messages," that's designed to fold in other, older forms of electronic text communication: chat, e-mail and SMS. Yes, you can have a facebook.com e-mail address, based on the user name you choose for your profile on the site. The idea, however, is not just to give you yet another e-mail account but also to unify the ways you can converse with other Facebook users and flatten some perceived hang-ups with e-mail: "Seamless Messaging" (meaning a unified view of your e-mail, Facebook messages and texts), "Conversation History" (allowing you to trace a lifelong conversation across those different channels) and "Social Inbox" (using Facebook's knowledge of who your friends are to filter your incoming traffic). The idea is that Facebook will act as a switchboard, routing incoming and outgoing messages - it already knows your other-mail addresses and your mobile phone number as well as the corresponding contact info for your friends. It's promising access via the IMAP standard, which would let you download your messages in any e-mail program. But for now it's a feature that lives mainly on Facebook's own site and its mobile applications, if you've been invited to try it at the start of what Facebook says will be a slow rollout.
benton.org/node/45045 | Washington Post | WSJ
Recommend this Headline
back to top

PRIVACY

PRIVACY AND THE WEB
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Washington is gearing up to take a more active role in regulating Internet privacy, responding to growing public concern about the amount of personal information being collected and shared without users' knowledge. There may be a role for the federal government in promoting transparency and limiting unwanted disclosures, particularly those made to government agencies. But policymakers should focus on real harms, not imaginary ones, and remember that rapidly changing technology could quickly render their strictures obsolete. Although Washington shouldn't try to micromanage the Net, it should make clear that websites have a duty to help users manage their personal information effectively, giving them the chance to understand the tradeoffs they're making and to choose wisely.
benton.org/node/45043 | Los Angeles Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

SEARCHING YOUR LAPTOP
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Federal courts have long agreed that federal agents guarding the borders do not need a warrant or probable cause to search a traveler's belongings. That exception to the Fourth Amendment needs updating and tightening to reflect the realities of the digital age. The government has a sovereign right and responsibility to secure the borders. The recent discovery of two powerful package bombs being shipped to the United States is a reminder of the many dangers out there. There is also a big difference between government agents scanning items for explosives or looking through a suitcase full of clothing, and searching through the hard drive of a laptop computer containing work papers, financial records, e-mail messages and Web site visits. Congress should approve legislation along the lines of the Travelers' Privacy Protection Act proposed two years ago in the Senate. It would have confined border laptop searches involving American citizens and residents to situations where agents have a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity and require a higher standard of probable cause and a warrant or court order when a laptop is held for more than 24 hours. The measure also set strict limits on disclosure and sharing of information from devices seized at the border and requires the Department of Homeland Security to report regularly to Congress and the public on its search policies and practices.
benton.org/node/45046 | New York Times
Recommend this Headline
back to top

EDUCATION

CAN TWITTER MAKE YOU SMARTER?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: David Zax]
Can using Twitter make you smarter? A new semester-long study found that college students who used Twitter for educational purposes earned GPAs a half-point higher than a non-tweeting control group. In a group of 125 students at an anonymous medium-sized public college in the Midwest, 70 students used Twitter to access information and complete class assignments; the remaining 55 students used a more typical Internet-based course-management system and billboard. Not only did the tweeting 70 earn higher GPAs, they also reported much higher levels of engagement. The findings were reported in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. Some early-adopting professors have advocated experimenting with Twitter in the classroom -- "essentially asking students to pass notes during class." This study may vindicate such an approach. But one professor expressed skepticism that Twitter alone could have led to such a remarkable boost. "I think more could be done to understand the range of ways that the Twitter design can work better in class assignments and collaborative note-taking," said Dave Parry, a UT Dallas professor who has experimented with Twitter in his class.
benton.org/node/45032 | Fast Company
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CYBERSECURITY

CHINA HIJACKS INTERNET TRAFFIC
[SOURCE: National Defense Magazine, AUTHOR: Stew Magnuson]
For 18 minutes in April, China's state-controlled telecommunications company hijacked 15 percent of the world's Internet traffic, including data from U.S. military, civilian organizations and those of other U.S. allies. This massive redirection of data has received scant attention in the mainstream media because the mechanics of how the hijacking was carried out and the implications of the incident are difficult for those outside the cybersecurity community to grasp, said a top security expert at McAfee, the world's largest dedicated Internet security company. In short, the Chinese could have carried out eavesdropping on unprotected communications — including emails and instant messaging — manipulated data passing through their country or decrypted messages, Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of threat research at McAfee said. Nobody outside of China can say, at least publicly, what happened to the terrabytes of data after it entered China. The incident may receive more attention when the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional committee, releases its annual report on the bilateral relationship Nov. 17. A commission press release said the 2010 report will address "the increasingly sophisticated nature of malicious computer activity associated with China."
benton.org/node/45038 | National Defense Magazine
Recommend this Headline
back to top

CYBERSTALL
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Dawn Lim]
Passage of bills to better protect computer networks and the nation's electric grid from attacks is uncertain in a reconvened Congress because lawmakers are undecided over how to bring private industry onboard, the leader of a House Homeland Security subpanel said recently. Three key cybersecurity bills -- the Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense; Cybersecurity; and Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset acts -- are likely to stall during Congress' lame-duck session, said Rep Yvette Clarke (D-NY) during the information security convention SC World Congress last week. This means the federal government will continue to lack a clear legislative mandate on which agencies are in charge of safeguarding networks and how much private companies should be regulated, amid heightened rhetoric about information security threats, said Rep Clarke, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology.
benton.org/node/45030 | nextgov
Recommend this Headline
back to top

STORIES FROM ABROAD

APEC, IT AND GROWTH
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Eliza Krigman]
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation outlined a new growth strategy that embraces increased use of information and communications technologies (ICT). Under a five-prong growth strategy, APEC has committed to realizing "smart socioeconomic activity through ICT applications." The growth meme includes promoting digital prosperity through investment in next generation broadband infrastructure; creating conditions ripe for emerging technologies such as cloud computing; and protecting effective privacy protections, among other initiatives. As part of the innovative growth strategy, APEC economies also committed to improving their "intellectual property rights protection and enforcement capabilities" through strengthening efforts to "develop a global IP infrastructure."
benton.org/node/45017 | National Journal | APEC
Recommend this Headline
back to top