November 2010

Tuesday is Spectrum Day at FCC

With all the talk of the Federal Communications Commission's December open meeting, don't lose sight of the Nov 30 meeting. On Nov 23, the FCC confirmed the agenda for the meeting.

The FCC will consider:

A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on rules to facilitate the most efficient use of the UHF and VHF TV bands. These proposals, an important step toward the agency's spectrum goals as outlined in the National Broadband Plan, would take steps to enable mobile broadband use within spectrum currently reserved for use by TV broadcasters, including through innovations such as channel sharing and generating increased value within the VHF band.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on steps to promote innovation and efficiency in spectrum use under Part 5 Experimental Radio Service (ERS).
A Notice of Inquiry seeking comment on promoting more intensive and efficient use of the radio spectrum, thereby potentially enabling more effective spectrum management, through dynamic spectrum use technologies.

The FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau will also present an overview of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (Pub. L. 111-260), the FCC's implementation plans, and demonstrate accessibility technologies.

SAP Ordered to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion

A clash of technology titans and two of the most powerful executives in Silicon Valley ended on Tuesday with a $1.3 billion federal jury award against SAP for stealing software from Oracle to try to woo away customers.

The award, the largest ever for copyright infringement, comes as big technology companies, including Apple, Google and Motorola, have increasingly resorted to the courts to resolve patent and intellectual property disputes instead of quietly working out a deal. Rarely, however, do the lawsuits go to court or attract the attention this dispute did. "This is pretty dramatic," said Robert P. Merges, a technology law professor at University of California, Berkeley. He said it sent a loud message to companies to pay attention to any signs of copyright infringement. "It's a game-ending home run type of result. It will tell people 'Hey, we need to be careful.' "

Shunned Profiling Technology on the Verge of Comeback

One of the most potentially intrusive technologies for profiling and targeting Internet users with ads is on the verge of a comeback, two years after an outcry by privacy advocates in the U.S. and Britain appeared to kill it.

The technology, known as "deep packet inspection," is capable of reading and analyzing the "packets" of data traveling across the Internet. It can be far more powerful than "cookies" and other techniques commonly used to track people online because it can be used to monitor all online activity, not just Web browsing. Spy agencies use the technology for surveillance. Now, two U.S. companies, Kindsight Inc. and Phorm Inc., are pitching deep packet inspection services as a way for Internet service providers to claim a share of the lucrative online ad market.

Kindsight and Phorm say they protect people's privacy with steps that include obtaining their consent. They also say they don't use the full power of the technology, and refrain from reading email and analyzing sensitive online activities. Use of deep packet inspection this way would nonetheless give advertisers the ability to show ads to people based on extremely detailed profiles of their Internet activity. To persuade Internet users to opt in to be profiled, Kindsight will offer a free security service, while Phorm promises to provide customized web content such as news articles tailored to users' interests. Both would share ad revenue with the ISPs.

Government moves to enforce stimulus reporting

Federal agencies are attempting to take back $1.2 million in stimulus grants and contracts because the recipients haven't told the government what they're doing with the money. The actions against seven recipients mark the first time the government has taken action to enforce the reporting requirements. Each has failed to file at least three quarterly reports.

"When we said we'd provide unprecedented transparency of Recovery Act spending, we meant business," said Andrea Mead, Recovery Act press secretary for Vice President Biden. Mead said Tuesday that the repeat offenders represent a fraction of 1% of the $275 billion in Recovery Act money that went to grants and contracts.

The law requires stimulus recipients to submit detailed data every three months about the progress of their projects, the number of jobs funded and their top salaries — a model of transparency the Obama administration wants to extend to all federal spending. The full list of non-reporting recipients will be posted at Recovery.gov today. The sanctions include freezing of funds, demands for repayment, or suspension from doing business with the government in the future.

Apple Patent Case Against Motorola to Get Review by U.S. International Trade Commission

Apple's patent claims against Motorola will be reviewed by the US International Trade Commission, which could issue an order banning Motorola phones from the US. The ITC will determine if Motorola is infringing Apple patents and whether it should rule to block US imports of Motorola phones made overseas that run on Google's Android operating system.

DHS Cybersecurity Center Promotes Information Sharing

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched a new cybersecurity center aimed at communicating more efficiently with state and local governments about potential cybersecurity threats to critical US infrastructure.

The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) Cyber Security Operations Center is a 24-hour watch and warning facility aimed at giving government officials at the state and local levels better situational awareness about cybersecurity incidents. The goal of the new facility is to provide state and local governments with the same critical cyber risk, vulnerability and mitigation data that the federal government is privy to. The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) -- the cyber incident response hub led by the DHS -- will coordinate information for the MS-ISAC Operations Center. The MS-ISAC itself is a way for state and local governments to work together to enhance cyber-threat prevention, protection, and response and recovery.

Use of the Internet in higher-income households

Those in higher-income households are different from other Americans in their tech ownership and use. Analysis of several recent surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Projects find that there are key differences between those who live in households making $75,000 or more relative to those in lower-income households. Some 95% of Americans who live in households earning $75,000 or more a year use the Internet at least occasionally, compared with 70% of those living in households earning less than $75,000. Even among those who use the Internet, the well off are more likely than those with less income to use technology.

Of those 95% of higher-income Internet users:

99% use the Internet at home, compared with 93% of the Internet users in lower brackets.
93% of higher-income home Internet users have some type of broadband connection versus 85% of the Internet users who live in households earning less than $75,000 per year. That translates into 87% of all those in live in those better-off households having broadband at home.
95% of higher-income households own some type of cell phone compared with 83% in households with less income.

Private equity expects media asset boost

Private equity groups expect to boost their level of investment in media assets in 2011, but music, consumer publishing and television are considered the least attractive sectors. The findings, from a report by consultancy Grant Thornton, illustrate the diverse fortunes of different areas in the media, where the structural shift in the way people consume content has forced widespread adaptation, with varying degrees of success. More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they expected an increase in private equity activity in media over the next 12 months, while 90 per cent said they planned to invest in the sector in the same period. Digital media will be the most aggressively targeted segment for investment by private equity, the report found, underlining the sector's growth prospects as publishers, record companies and mobile operators aim to expand their digital products.

Gillard Releases Broadband Details to Gain Support for Telstra Laws

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard released confidential details on the government's planned high-speed Internet plan to try to gain support for a related law to split Telstra Corp.'s businesses.

Gillard released part of NBN Co.'s corporate plan, boosted consumer protection in the planned national network and established a committee to oversee its rollout as part of an agreement with independent Senator Nick Xenophon. This clears the way for a vote on the Telstra law in the Senate. Telstra's retail business needs to be split from its copper-wire network to make way for a national plan to provide Internet services to Australia's remotest corners. The plan is the nation's biggest infrastructure project, with A$35.7 billion ($34.9 billion) in capital expenditure including a A$9 billion deal with Telstra.

Indian village bans cell phones for unwed women

A northern Indian village has banned unmarried women from using cell phones for fear they will arrange forbidden marriages. The Lank village council decided unmarried boys could use mobile phones, but only under parental supervision, council member Satish Tyagi said. Local women's rights group criticized the measure as backward and unfair. Marriages between members of the same clan are forbidden under Hindu custom in some parts of north India, where unions are traditionally arranged by families. In conservative rural areas, families sometimes mete out extreme punishments, including so-called honor killings, for those who violate marriage taboos. In some cases, village councils themselves have ordered the punishments, though police often intervene to stop them. The Lank village council feared young men and women were secretly calling one another to arrange forbidden elopements.

Benton

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