July 1, 2011 (Network Neutrality)
Headlines will return TUESDAY, JULY 5. Have a happy and safe 4th of July.
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011 (Stay cool this weekend!)
Find your favorite editions of Headlines online http://benton.org/headlines/newsletter
Next week's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2011-07-03--P1W/
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
Ready, set, sue! Network Neutrality rules almost official
FCC's McDowell: Better Than Average Chance Net Neutrality Rules Will Be Stayed
Guidance on Open Internet Transparency Rule - public notice
FCC Seeks Nominations for Open Internet Advisory Committee
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Civil Society Walks Away From OECD Internet Policy Principles
Over $118 Million in Broadband Stimulus Awards Have Been Returned
FCC's Clyburn Addresses USF, ICC Reform at Rural Assembly - speech
Cheap Wireless Network Pays Off for Asheville (NC) [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
LightSquared interferes with GPS: Report (updated)
Judge to Google: sniffing even open WiFi networks may be wiretapping
Synchronica purchase of Nokia assets includes deals with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile [links to web]
In US, Smartphones Now Majority of New Cellphone Purchases - research [links to web]
LOBBYING
AT&T insiders may offer edge with outside groups
Obama raises more than $1.2 million in Philadelphia
JOURNALISM
Roger Ailes’ Secret Nixon-Era Blueprint for Fox News
MSNBC suspends journalist for using foul language about Obama [links to web]
White House press pool losing scoops to Twitter
CONTENT
New America Foundation and Creative Commons Hold Copyright Talk [links to web]
200 million Tweets per day - press release
Antitrust Regulator Makes Twitter Inquiries
Internet DVR Software Maker: We're Totally Legal [links to web]
ADVERTISING
Interactive Marketing Exposed [links to web]
Blogger's Oppose Obama's Afghanistan Plan - research [links to web]
CYBERSECURITY
White House aims to disrupt al Qaeda online [links to web]
Secret Service Reveals How It Stalks Cybercriminals [links to web]
HEALTH
Errors Occur in 12% of Electronic Drug Prescriptions Matching Handwritten [links to web]
IPAs can help docs with HIT adoption, study says [links to web]
TELEVISION/RADIO
Rep. King Seeks Retransmission Action [links to web]
Seeking to Unplug the Voice of Doomsday
STORIES FROM ABROAD
UK Backs News Corp.'s BSkyB Deal
Minister Hunt sets no limits on Sky - editorial
NETWORK NEUTRALITY
PROGRESS ON NETWORK NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
The Federal Communications Commission sent its network neutrality rules on their final steps to becoming reality on June 30. The agency sent the rules to the Office of Management and Budget to ensure they comply with arcane paper reduction rules -- and then the rules are on their way to printing in the Federal Register. Once that happens, anyone can file a lawsuit and get the ball rolling on testing these things in court. The rules, based on a set of principles adopted in 2005, are an attempt to provide regulations that will keep ISPs from discriminating against traffic on their networks, so a broadband provider couldn't block content from Yahoo, for instance, or play favorites with certain web sites or services. The FCC had started this process in September 2009. Now, it could be as soon as 35 days before these rules hit the Federal Register or a bit longer, but for bureaucracy watchers (and those who care how the net neutrality fight plays out) this is a significant move.
benton.org/node/80284 | GigaOm | Broadcasting&Cable
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MCDOWELL PREDICTS STAY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell says he thinks that there is a "better than average chance" that a court, likely the DC circuit, will stay the FCC's network neutrality rules. Commissioner McDowell dissented from the rules, which passed in a party line vote Dec. 21, 2010, but won't go into effect even if they are not stayed, until October or November. Commissioner McDowell pointed out that they had been "gummed up" in the Paperwork Reduction Act vetting process. Commissioner McDowell said there are "a lot" of potential appellants.
benton.org/node/80293 | Broadcasting&Cable
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TRANSPARENCY COMPLIANCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau and Office of General Counsel offer initial guidance regarding specific methods of disclosure that will be considered to comply with the transparency rule adopted in the FCC’s Open Internet Order. This guidance is intended for broadband providers seeking additional clarification about disclosure practices that will satisfy the rule when it becomes effective. The FCC emphasizes that the alternatives described here are examples of approaches to disclosure that would satisfy the transparency rule; broadband providers may implement alternative approaches that disclose information sufficient to adequately inform consumers and relevant third parties. And as noted in the Open Internet Order, the FCC or the Bureau may provide additional guidance in the future. The FCC adopted the following transparency rule:
"A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access service shall publicly disclose accurate information regarding the network management practices, performance, and commercial terms of its broadband Internet access services sufficient for consumers to make informed choices regarding use of such services and for content, application, service, and device providers to develop, market, and maintain Internet offerings."
The Notice offers guidance in five specific areas: 1) Point-of-Sale Disclosures, 2) Service Description (Fixed and Mobile Broadband), 3) Extent of Required Disclosures, 4) Content, Applications, Service, and Device Providers, and 5) Security Measures.
benton.org/node/80254 | Federal Communications Commission
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OPEN INTERNET ADVISORY COMMITTEE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission seeks nominations for membership on its Open Internet Advisory Committee (OIAC) from the following types of
groups and individuals:
Consumers, consumer advocates, and/or organizations representing consumer interests;
Internet engineering experts;
Providers and developers of online content, applications, or services;
Network equipment providers, developers, manufacturers, and suppliers;
End-user device developers, manufacturers, and suppliers;
Investors in Internet-related technologies, services, and products, including investors in broadband providers and/or online content, application, and services providers;
Broadband Internet access service providers; and
Other individuals with appropriate expertise.
Nominations are due before September 2, 2011.
The OIAC will aid in tracking and evaluating the effects of the Commission’s Open Internet rules. Specifically, it is anticipated that “[t]he Committee will observe market developments regarding the freedom and openness of the Internet and will focus in particular on issues addressed in the FCC’s Open Internet rules, such as transparency, reasonable network management practices, differences in treatment of fixed and mobile broadband services, specialized services, technical standards, and the state of competition.”
benton.org/node/80252 | Federal Communications Commission
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
CIVIL SOCIETY WALKS AWAY FROM OECD PRINCIPLES
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Rashmi Rangnath]
[Commentary] It was an unfortunate end to a long and laborious process when a coalition of more than 80 civil society organizations, including Public Knowledge, refused to endorse the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Communiqué on Principles for Internet-Policy Making. While this may seem like an obscure process, it has large implications for Internet policy in the U.S. and abroad. he non-governmental organizations appreciated the OECD’s efforts to reach consensus on a document with many controversial issues, they (and that includes Public Knowledge) at the end of the day could not. The document’s emphasis on protecting intellectual property and the policies recommended to achieve that aim, required basic principles, such as due process rights and free expression rights, to be discarded. No matter what positive principles the document contains, allowing industry participants to make “private law” enforced by governments without some sort of public accountability and due process is so contrary to the fundamental principles of democracy that the civil society groups could not endorse the final draft.
benton.org/node/80236 | Public Knowledge | Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council | Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council2
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BROADBAND STIMULUS FUNDS RETURNED
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
As more and more broadband stimulus winners begin to break ground on their projects, at least a dozen stimulus winners have opted not to join them.
Unused awards represent a small fraction of roughly $7.2 billion in awards made in the broadband stimulus program—and the money involved, which Telecompetitor estimates at approximately $118.2 million—will be returned to the general treasury.
Two awards made by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will not be used by the winners. The value of those two awards is approximately $37.3 million. Ten awards totaling $80.9 million made by the Rural Utilities Service opted not to take awards made by the RUS, including one company that returned two awards. There was no single over-riding reason why stimulus winners opted not to use their awards, but all of the reasons fit into one of five categories. The biggest single reason stimulus winners didn't use their awards—cited by four organizationswas that they found the terms of the award too daunting. Another three winners ran into problems with the project itself. Two more winners said that in the time between when they applied for funding and received it, broadband became available in parts of their project where it had not been available previously, minimizing the need for the project. And one project was scrapped because the company that proposed it was acquired by another company that didn't want to use the technology proposed in the project.
The remaining three projects involved two organizations that did not respond to attempts by Telecompetitor to contact them. Telecompetitor also was unable to uncover any published reports about why these two organizations did not accept their awards.
benton.org/node/80272 | telecompetitor
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CLYBURN AT NATIONAL RURAL ASSEMBLY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]
Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn spoke to the National Rural Assembly in St Paul (MN), focusing her address on broadband and the FCC's efforts to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved areas, including rural and low-income communities. She noted the FCC's efforts to restructure the current Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation (ICC) mechanisms in a way that recognizes the range of diverse issues within rural America. "As we undergo USF and ICC reform, we must hold those companies accountable to serve those areas for which they receive funds. This is where you all have a great opportunity to help us figure out what is working and what isn't so that we can learn from our investments, and from each other, to inform future policy and programmatic decisions. Your efforts in keeping us informed about how companies and various projects are performing at the local level are invaluable to shaping new approaches at the Commission. Organizations such as the ones represented here today can play a critical role in educating us about what is and is not working," Commissioner Clyburn said.
"The challenges before us are not easy, but we all stand to benefit from confronting these hurdles together. Ubiquitous broadband service that every person can use to improve his or her life is a noble goal. I thank you for your commitment to help me in this effort. I believe that once our nation is fully connected to high-speed broadband and with everyone educated to use it, it will be well worth the hard work."
benton.org/node/80266 | Federal Communications Commission
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
LIGHTSQUARED DELIVERS INTERFERENCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
LightSquared’s wireless network interferes with global positioning systems (GPS), according to tests the company and the GPS industry submitted to federal regulators June 30. But that’s where their agreement ends. LightSquared said it still thinks it can figure out a way to get its satellite-based mobile broadband network to work without knocking out GPS receivers. Among other things, the company says filtering technology — for its own devices and for GPS devices — can help reduce interference. But the GPS industry disagrees. “There is no existing technology that solves this interference, only unproven claims of hypothetical future fixes,” said Jim Kirkland, vice president of GPS firm Trimble. The Federal Communications Commission said it won't allow LightSquared to launch its business until the interference issues are resolved. Spokesman Neil Grace said the agency will review the report.
The FCC seeks public input on the report. Comments should be filed no later than July 30, 2011, and reply comments by August 15, 2011.
benton.org/node/80255 | Washington Post | USAToday | IDG news Service | FCC sets Public Comment Deadline
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SNIFFING OPEN WIFI ILLEGAL
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
When a homeowner runs an open, unencrypted wireless network and Google sniffs the packets from that network, has wiretapping taken place? Or did the openness of the network remove the user's reasonable expectation of privacy? Google's Street View project has enmeshed the company in litigation around the world, most notably over the company's data collection from WiFi networks its camera cars passed while doing their work. (Google has claimed that this was a mistake.) In the US, a host of class-action lawsuits over the practice have been consolidated into a single case, and the California federal judge overseeing it has just refused Google's motion to completely dismiss the case. Sniffing even open WiFi packets might indeed be wiretapping, he ruled. The case remains at a preliminary stage, but the ruling grapples with an interesting question: the extent to which one can access an open WiFi network without falling afoul of the Wiretap Act. Judge James Ware drew a distinction in a June 29 ruling between merely accessing an open WiFi network and actually sniffing the individual packets on that network.
benton.org/node/80251 | Ars Technica
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LOBBYING
AT&T LOBBYING
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Some of the leading nonprofits and civil rights organizations that have urged federal regulators to approve AT&T’s mega-deal with T-Mobile have former and current employees — and lobbyists — for the wireless company serving on their boards. Among the groups that have AT&T representatives on their boards of directors and have written to the FCC to back the AT&T/T-Mobile deal are the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the National Puerto Rican Coalition and the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. "Over the past several weeks, we have engaged in intensive discussions with AT&T representatives, and with merger opponents. In those discussions, our focus has been on the key issues of the impact of the merger on adoption and jobs. Based on our due diligence, we have now reached the definitive view that the merger deserves to be approved," the National Urban League wrote to the FCC June 20, in a joint filing with the National Action Network. Rayford Wilkins, AT&T's CEO of diversified businesses, is a trustee on the National Urban League's board. A similar perceived conflict of interest proved toxic last week for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which came under fire from gay bloggers for weighing in on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal while a former AT&T executive and registered lobbyist, Troup Coronado, sat on the board. Amid the backlash, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios and eight board members — including Coronado — resigned. So far, other key minority groups haven't experienced the same type of internal turmoil for backing AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile purchase. But the groups are increasingly becoming targets of criticism over how influential corporations — especially those like AT&T that donate millions of dollars to nonprofit groups each year — should be in the work of advocates for the poor, minorities, gays and lesbians and other groups that have faced disadvantages or discrimination.
benton.org/node/80286 | Politico
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OBAMA FUNDRAISER
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Perry Bacon Jr, Cecilia Kang]
President Obama raised more than $1.2 million at two campaign fundraisers here Thursday night, the last events of his money-raising blitz in this early stage of the 2012 campaign. Campaign officials said about 800 people, each giving at least $100, attended the first event, at a Hyatt hotel. Later in the evening, Comcast’s executive vice president, David L. Cohen, hosted about 120 people in his home for a dinner, each of the attendees giving at least $10,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign. Among the attendees were Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D). Dinner was arranged by restaurateur Stephen Starr, whose popular eateries include Morimoto and Buddakan. Cohen, a longtime Democratic operative, has successfully sheparded the regulatory review of Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal earlier this year.
benton.org/node/80298 | Washington Post
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JOURNALISM
A PLAN FOR PUTTING THE GOP ON TV
[SOURCE: Gawker, AUTHOR: John Cook]
Republican media strategist Roger Ailes launched Fox News Channel in 1996, ostensibly as a "fair and balanced" counterpoint to what he regarded as the liberal establishment media. But according to a remarkable document buried deep within the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, the intellectual forerunner for Fox News was a nakedly partisan 1970 plot by Ailes and other Nixon aides to circumvent the "prejudices of network news" and deliver "pro-administration" stories to heartland television viewers. The memo -- called, simply enough, "A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News" -- is included in a 318-page cache of documents detailing Ailes' work for both the Nixon and George H.W. Bush administrations obtained from the Nixon and Bush presidential libraries. Through his firms REA Productions and Ailes Communications, Ailes served as paid consultant to both presidents in the 1970s and 1990s, offering detailed and shrewd advice ranging from what ties to wear to how to keep the pressure up on Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the first Gulf War. The documents -- drawn mostly from the papers of Nixon chief of staff and felon H.R. Haldeman and Bush chief of staff John Sununu -- reveal Ailes to be a tireless television producer and joyful propagandist. He was a forceful advocate for the power of television to shape the political narrative, and he reveled in the minutiae constructing political spectacles -- stage-managing, for instance, the lighting of the White House Christmas tree with painstaking care. He frequently floated ideas for creating staged events and strategies for manipulating the mainstream media into favorable coverage, and used his contacts at the networks to sniff out the emergence of threatening narratives and offer advice on how to snuff them out -- warning Bush, for example, to lay off the golf as war in the Middle East approached because journalists were starting to talk. There are also occasional references to dirty political tricks, as well as some positions that seem at odds with the Tea Party politics of present-day Fox News: Ailes supported government regulation of political campaign ads on television, including strict limits on spending. He also advised Nixon to address high school students, a move that caused his network to shriek about "indoctrination" when Obama did it more than 30 years later.
benton.org/node/80274 | Gawker | read the papers
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WH PRESS CORP AND TWITTER
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Amie Parnes]
The temptations of Twitter are clashing with a White House press corps tradition: the pool report. Some reporters in the rotating pool of journalists who chronicle the president’s movements are sending TwitPics, revealing factoids and delivering one-line quips in 140 characters before the pool reports go to all of their colleagues. The pool reporters — usually one representative each from the print, radio, television and wire service press — travel with the president, vice president and sometimes the first lady, recording details about trips and Oval Office events in conversational accounts distributed to other journalists. The conventions dictate that the pool comes first — not the news organization or the individual. Some of the problems have arisen because not all the reports go out at the same time. The main pool report, written mostly by print and online journalists, has to be e-mailed to the White House, which then sends it to an extensive media list. Meanwhile, TV, radio and wire service poolers each email reports directly to their reporter lists without the White House as a go-between. Though the White House doesn't vet the pool reports, sometimes the extra step for print and online journalists delays delivery. As a result, the Twitterverse sometimes learns of the president’s movements before the press corps.
benton.org/node/80291 | Politico
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CONTENT
200 MILLION TWEETS PER DAY
[SOURCE: Twitter, AUTHOR: ]
[No, not @benton_fdn -- that would be some sort of record] Halfway through 2011, users on Twitter are now sending 200 million Tweets per day. For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and one year ago they posted 65 million a day. For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world. A billion Tweets are sent every five days.
benton.org/node/80277 | Twitter
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FTC AND TWITTER
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amir Efrati]
The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Internet messaging-service Twitter and its interactions with at least one other company that builds programs using Twitter data. The precise focus of the review isn't clear, but representatives of the FTC's antitrust arm have requested information from a company called UberMedia Inc., which owns applications that let people read and send "tweets," or messages, broadcast by Twitter users. The review is "narrow" in scope and won't impact Twitter's fledgling advertising business. UberMedia's chief marketing officer said that the company was contacted by the agency and "we intend to fully comply with their request for information." Twitter considers UberMedia to be a potential competitor. In February UberMedia, which owns Twidroyd and other applications that let people access and send tweets, said Twitter shut off its access to tweets because it believed UberMedia had violated "several provisions of their terms of service." UberMedia said it worked with Twitter to resolve the issues, and service to those applications was restored. At a recent conference, a Twitter employee noted that "with more people joining Twitter and accessing the service in multiple ways, a consistent user experience is more crucial than ever." The employee asked that app developers create apps that don't mimic Twitter's own mobile-device applications or Twitter DOT com.
benton.org/node/80299 | Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
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TELEVISION/RADIO
SEEKING TO UNPLUG VOICE OF DOOMSDAY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Scott James]
The world did not end on May 21 as Harold Camping, an Oakland (CA) evangelist, predicted. But some would still like to see Armageddon — for Camping’s radio empire. Several people have filed complaints with the Federal Communications Commission demanding that the licenses of dozens of AM and FM radio stations owned by Family Radio, Camping’s broadcast ministry, be revoked. Seven were filed between Jan. 11 and May 25. They originated from across the nation in communities where Family Radio has stations, including California, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin. The complaints said Family Radio had created a public panic and deceived listeners into sending the ministry money; the ministry has said it raised and spent “tens of millions of dollars” promoting the May 21 prediction. At least two grim incidents have been linked to Camping’s doomsday message.
benton.org/node/80303 | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
UK OKs BSKYB DEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Paul Sonne]
News Corp. moved one step closer to final regulatory approval for its bid to take full control of UK pay-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. Jeremy Hunt, the UK minister in charge of the decision, said he is inclined to approve the bid but is holding a final one-week "consultation period," in which the public can voice any last objections to the accommodations News Corp. has reached with the government. Those concessions primarily involve an agreement to hive off the Sky News channel from BSkyB, in the interests of preserving a plurality of voices in the UK media. Once Minister Hunt issues his expected final approval, News Corp. faces the tricky task of negotiating a price with BSkyB's independent directors to buy the 60.9% of the pay-TV giant it doesn't already own. In launching another consultation, Minister Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, said he wants to make sure the public has "every possible opportunity to comment on what is being proposed."
benton.org/node/80243 | Wall Street Journal
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HUNT SETS NO LIMITS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] A year after News Corp made its first approach, the UK government has finally nailed down the regulatory undertakings it requires to allow the media group to acquire BSkyB. The full terms of this deal, flagged in a provisional announcement in March, are scarcely harsh. In return for permitting the creation of a cross-media giant that will control both 37 per cent of UK newspaper distribution and 35 per cent of the television market, the government requires only that News Corp demerge Sky’s loss-making news operation. This small business will continue to provide Sky with news coverage, subject to a thicket of controls designed to bolster its editorial independence. This is supposed to ensure the plurality of media debate in the UK. The undertakings have been strengthened. Rupert Murdoch has agreed to the appointment of a special trustee, reporting to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, whose job will be to ensure the deal is upheld. The Sky News board will not be deemed quorate unless attended by an independent director with editorial experience. The tougher rules are perhaps designed to head off concerns about the durability of the arrangement. Mr Murdoch has in the past accepted constraints to protect the editorial independence of Times Newspapers and the Wall Street Journal after he bought them. Neither was effective.
benton.org/node/80294 | Financial Times
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