1. Monthly archive
  2. July 2011

July 2011

Judge tosses Oracle's $6.1 billion damage estimate in claim against Google

A federal judge rejected an Oracle expert's report estimating damages of up to $6.1 billion in a closely watched lawsuit over Oracle's claim that Google infringed on its patents. But in his ruling, U.S. District Judge William Alsup gave Oracle a chance to revise its estimate.

He also sided with Oracle on several other points in the high-stakes case, which is set for trial this fall. Oracle contends that Google's popular Android operating system was created by infringing patents for the Java programming tools that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems last year. The lawsuit is one of several disputes that have arisen recently between tech companies battling over their share of profits from the growing market for smartphones, tablets and other mobile computing gadgets. Judge Alsup said in a written opinion that Oracle's expert, Boston University professor Iain Cockburn, "overreached in many ways" by using a broad estimate of Android's value, rather than the portion of Android that may be tied to the patents in question, to produce an estimate of what Google potentially owes in the case.

FCC's Copps calls for news education in schools

Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps called for schools to teach K-12 students news literacy during a speech to the National Newspaper Association. "If we expect there to be a demand for quality news, then we need to teach the lessons on how to determine quality," Commissioner Copps said, stressing that the programs would be voluntary for local schools. "Who knows? Maybe we could actually move from the Information Age to the Comprehension Age."

He argued the decline of local and print journalism has helped degrade the discourse, while the Web has given rise to a host of new information sources that require greater scrutiny to parse what is credible and what isn't. "We need to be a news literate people. Our goal should be that every American possesses the skills to discern news from infotainment, fact from opinion, and trustworthy information sources from untrustworthy," Commissioner Copps said.

MMTC Hosts Spectrum Auction Debate

It was billed as an Entrepreneurship and Innovation panel on telecom policy, but as happens frequently in Washington, the topic of a Minority Media & Telecommunications Council panel session played host to the continuing debate over spectrum and incentive auctions.

That was to be expected since the panel included both Chris Guttman of CTIA and Jane Mago EVP and general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters, who are on opposite sides of the issue. Mago pointed out that the Hispanic community was still a major and important consumer of over-the-air TV -- an audience member from LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens) broke in to suggest that was because cable was too expensive and if Comcast would just lower its rates. Guttman said his organization was not out to deep six broadcasting and wanted to dispel the notion that Congress wanted to get rid of free over-the-air TV in favor of pay.

Industry Consensus Plan on USF Reform in Offing

At the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council conference, Verizon's Tom Tauke indicated that some major telecom firms may soon jointly file a universal service reform plan with the Federal Communications Commission. That plan is on how to transition the fund from phone service to broadband, which is a major goal in the FCC's push for USF reform.

McDowell: Time for FCC to Re-Start Diversity Committee

At the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council conference, Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell pushed the FCC to reconstitute its diversity advisory committee, and get moving on its review of media ownership rules which includes reviewing some diversity initiatives rejected in a recent court decision.

"I hope the diversity committee will be reconstituted soon," said McDowell, pointing out that it had been rechartered in January, his nominee has been in since February, he said. "It is 102 degrees outside and it has been a long time since February," he added, turning to the moderator of his discussion, MMTC Chair and Wiley Rein partner Henry Rivera, who also happens to be chair of the as-yet reconstituted committee. "You are a general without an army right now," he told Rivera, "and we need to populate the committee as soon as possible."

Verizon’s New CEO Brings ‘Entrepreneurial Culture’ From Wireless

Verizon Communications, the second-largest U.S. phone company, must adopt a more “entrepreneurial culture” in its shrinking land-line business, incoming Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam said.

A former chief of Verizon Wireless and current president of Verizon, McAdam takes over next month for CEO Ivan Seidenberg, who remains chairman, Verizon said. The company posted a second-quarter profit of $1.61 billion as customers snapped up the iPhone, helping make up for a fixed-line revenue decline. McAdam, 57, will aim to keep New York-based Verizon’s wireless-customer gains ahead of those of rival AT&T, which is set to become the dominant mobile carrier after acquiring T-Mobile USA. He also needs to manage a loss of traditional phone users, while challenging cable-TV companies with the FiOS fiber-optic TV and Internet service.

FCC Releases Three Studies on Media Ownership (Updated)

The Federal Communications Commission released three additional research studies on media ownership. The three studies are intended to inform the FCC’s quadrennial review of its media ownership rules pursuant to rulemaking docket MB Docket No. 09-182. On June 15, 2011, the Media Bureau released the Protective Order that established the procedures for public review of the proprietary portions of data sets created by the authors of the studies. The FCC will seek formal comment on all eleven studies within the context of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding and requests that all comments on the studies be submitted to the FCC for consideration at that time. The FCC released the studies earlier, in order to provide parties additional time to review the results and the underlying data.

Critics: FCC not policing kids' TV

TV watchdog groups say the Federal Communications Commission needs to better target kids’ programs that have too many commercials, and they want the commission and Congress to strengthen oversight of the Children’s Television Act.

Fueling the drive is a Government Accountability Office report issued last week that highlights FCC shortcomings in enforcing the landmark 1990 law intended to raise the quality and educational value of children’s programming while also limiting advertising. The report said the FCC has been lax in ensuring compliance from cable and satellite providers and questioned the commission’s guidelines for determining the educational value of children’s shows. “It’s another example of FCC priorities being out of whack and the entire commission not taking its responsibility to uphold the law seriously,” said Dan Isett, director of public policy for the Parents Television Council, a nonprofit group dedicated to responsible entertainment. “When you look at the sort of selective enforcement on this issue … it’s an indictment of the entire agency.” Aside from parent and child advocacy groups, the FCC is also drawing criticism from one of the original authors of the law, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). He called the FCC’s enforcement of the law in some areas “weak.”

News Corp Scandal Leads Twitter

The intensifying phone hacking scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch's media empire was the top story on Twitter for the second week in a row, with Twitter users once again aiming sharp criticism at the media mogul's company. For the week of July 11-15, 19% of the news links on Twitter were about the scandal, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

While still the top story, that is down considerably from the previous week when the subject accounted for 53% of news links-more attention than any topic has generated in the NMI in the past 10 months. Twitter users commenting on the scandal showed little sympathy for Murdoch or his employees. "My condolences to the #NOTW workers who've lost their jobs. I'm off to hack their relatives' phones to see how they're coping," wrote Fort Knox. The phone hacking furor generated significant headlines in the mainstream news as the No. 2 story from July 11-17, filling up 12% of the newshole. And a discussion of the scandal on a BBC talk show proved to be the second most popular news video last week.

Enabling China

[Commentary] American technology companies are eager to do business in China, sometimes too eager. Cisco Systems and others are working on a government project in the city of Chongqing, for example, that includes creating the biggest police surveillance system in the world. A year and a half after Google pulled its search engine out of China to avoid censorship, Microsoft’s Bing still censors searches in China. Earlier this month, it agreed to provide search results in English for Baidu, China’s leading — and heavily censored — engine. The United States needs enforceable standards of ethical behavior when American companies work with authoritarian governments. Internet companies should not keep user data inside countries where courts convict people for what they write, speak or think. They should warn users about their risks, and they should never censor content.

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