November 2010

Privacy and the Web

[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.

Fix broken broadcast retransmission consent system

[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.]

Upton: FCC regulatory compass must be broken

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."

Deal Critics Call Comcast/NBCU Pre-Merger Staff Moves Premature

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.

Economy Returns as Top Story

Driven by the ideas from President Obama's bipartisan debt commission, and the vocal reaction to it, the U.S. economy supplanted the midterm elections atop the mainstream news agenda last week for the first time in two months.

From November 8-14, the economy accounted for 15% of the newshole according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. About half that coverage focused on the draft proposal from the National Commission for Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which -- in calling for some tax increases and spending cuts -- generated criticism from the left and the right. The No. 2 story, at 12%, was the continuing fallout from the Nov. 2 congressional elections -- which produced major Republican gains -- with the narrative reinforcing a moment interpreted as a stinging rebuke for the president.

Cyber Experts Have Proof That China Has Hijacked U.S.-Based Internet Traffic

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."

Sam Zell to Bow Out of Tribune

Tribune Company Chairman Sam Zell said that he doesn't see himself having an operating role in the media company after it exits bankruptcy. "I think when we're done with the bankruptcy process I will turn it over to whoever the creditors decide they want to run it, and wish them a lot of good luck," said Zell. Among the candidates floated to replace Zell as chairman are former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin and former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner.

Today's Quote 11.15.10

"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

National Taxpayers Union Seeks Broad Retransmission Reform

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.

Our Innovation Infrastructure: Opportunities and Challenges

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

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