October 7, 2013 (Tor network)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013
For one good story a day, see us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bentonfoundation
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users
Clapper defends NSA's attempts to crack Tor network
Why the NSA's attacks on the Internet must be made public - op-ed
Why everyone is left less secure when the NSA doesn’t help fix security flaws
THE SHUTDOWN
The Budget and Communications - analysis
Analysts: Government shutdown could imperil FCC's agenda
Lobbyists question take-down of websites
Shutting down wired DC? Good luck
JOURNALISM
Making Our Democracy Functional - op-ed
Shutdown coverage fails Americans
How The Shutdown Is Playing In Conservative Media
How the Broken Media Helped Break the Government - op-ed
A Jump in C-Span’s Ratings Amid the Government Shutdown
NYT's Jill Abramson: Horse-race media trivializes politics [links to web]
Pew Research surveys of audience habits suggest perilous future for news - research
Kids Won’t Read Investigative Journalism — But Maybe They’ll Play a Videogame With the Same Message [links to web]
INTERNET
New Report: Internet Freedom Deteriorates Worldwide, but Activists Push Back - press release
Why Rural Broadband Means You Can Now Buy a Bull Online
Early Results from Virginia Gigabit Wireless Network Show Promise
TELECOM
What We Mean When We Say "Things Should Still Work" After the PSTN Transition - analysis
TELEVISION
Nielsen to Measure Twitter Chatter About TV Shows
As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow
PRIVACY
White House pursues online privacy bill amid NSA efforts
POLICYMAKERS
Continuance Of Certain Federal Advisory Committees - public notice
LOBBYING
Rep Waxman Seeks TWC Explanation For Obamacare E-Mail [links to web]
COMPANY
Google Search: Regulation Yields to Innovation - editorial
Apple officially appeals in e-book pricing case [links to web]
The 9 Ways That Twitter Could Fail, According to Twitter [links to web]
How Twitter Is Going to Take a Billion Dollars from YouTube - op-ed [links to web]
Using Twitter to Move the Markets - analysis [links to web]
Swarm of Rivals Seeking Share of Social Media Pie [links to web]
Twitter's Data Business Proves Lucrative [links to web]
Dish Again Under Fire Over LightSquared Bid [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
The EU’s broadband challenge, part 3: Barriers to reform - op-ed
Europe Aims to Regulate the Cloud
Europe's Phone Firms Face Profit Hurdles With 4G
Kroes stands firm in roam charges fight
UK mobile operators included in government broadband plans [links to web]
Samsung Seeks US Veto of Import Ban Just Like Apple Got
MORE ONLINE
How the FAA, Finally, Caught Up to an Always-On Society [links to web]
Nielsen Global Survey Finds Believability Is the Key to Advertising Effectiveness [links to web]
The next big frontier for the smart home? Presence. [links to web]
Restoring Free Political Speech - editorial [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
TARGETING TOR NETWORK
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: James Ball, Bruce Schneier, Glenn Greenwald]
The National Security Agency has made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the fact the software is primarily funded and promoted by the US government itself. Tor – which stands for The Onion Router – is an open-source public project that bounces its users' internet traffic through several other computers, which it calls "relays" or "nodes", to keep it anonymous and avoid online censorship tools. Top-secret NSA documents, disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveal that the agency's current successes against Tor rely on identifying users and then attacking vulnerable software on their computers. One technique developed by the agency targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full control over targets' computers, including access to files, all keystrokes and all online activity. But the documents suggest that the fundamental security of the Tor service remains intact. One top-secret presentation, titled 'Tor Stinks', states: "We will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time." It continues: "With manual analysis we can de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users," and says the agency has had "no success de-anonymizing a user in response" to a specific request. Another top-secret presentation calls Tor "the king of high-secure, low-latency internet anonymity."
benton.org/node/161699 | Guardian, The
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CLAPPER DEFENDS CRACK DOWN
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
The US intelligence community works to crack anonymous online communication tools because the country’s adversaries use those tools, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said. News reports about the NSA’s attempts to infiltrate Tor “fail to make clear that the Intelligence Community’s interest in online anonymity services and other online communication and networking tools is based on the undeniable fact that these are the tools our adversaries use to communicate and coordinate attacks against the United States and our allies,” he wrote. “In the modern telecommunications era, our adversaries have the ability to hide their messages and discussions among those of innocent people around the world. They use the very same social networking sites, encryption tools and other security features that protect our daily online activities.”
benton.org/node/161698 | Hill, The
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WHY THE NSA'S ATTACKS ON THE INTERNET MUST BE MADE PUBLIC
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Bruce Schneier]
[Commentary] The National Security Agency's actions are making us all less safe, because its eavesdropping mission is degrading its ability to protect the US. Among IT security professionals, it has been long understood that the public disclosure of vulnerabilities is the only consistent way to improve security. That's why researchers publish information about vulnerabilities in computer software and operating systems, cryptographic algorithms, and consumer products like implantable medical devices, cars, and CCTV cameras. Without public disclosure, you'd be much less secure against cybercriminals, hacktivists, and state-sponsored cyberattackers. The NSA has two conflicting missions. Its eavesdropping mission has been getting all the headlines, but it also has a mission to protect US military and critical infrastructure communications from foreign attack. But with the rise of mass-market computing and the Internet, the two missions have become interwoven. It becomes increasingly difficult to attack their systems and defend our systems, because everything is using the same systems: Microsoft Windows, Cisco routers, HTML, TCP/IP, iPhones, Intel chips, and so on. Finding a vulnerability – or creating one – and keeping it secret to attack the bad guys necessarily leaves the good guys more vulnerable.
benton.org/node/161697 | Guardian, The
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WHY EVERYONE IS LEFT LESS SECURE WHEN THE NSA DOESN’T HELP FIX SECURITY FLAWS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
In a frank discussion about the government's approach to vulnerabilities in cyber-infrastructure, former National Security Agency chief Michael Hayden said the agency is not always "ethically or legally compelled" to help fix flaws it knows about. If the agency thinks that no one else will be able to exploit vulnerability, it leaves the problem unfixed to aid in its own spying efforts. That approach might be convenient for the NSA, but it benton.org/node/161696 | Washington Post
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THE SHUTDOWN
THE BUDGET AND COMMUNICATIONS
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] It’s Friday, October 4, so we’re not the first to inform you of the federal government shutdown. But we take a moment today to examine the impact the shutdown is having on telecommunications. Last week, the FCC released its plan in case of a shutdown. Suspended activities mean: consumer complaint and inquiry phone lines cannot be answered; consumer protection and local competition enforcement are halted; licensing services, including broadcast, wireless, and wireline, cease; management of radio spectrum and the creation of new opportunities for competitive technologies and services for the American public are stopped; and equipment authorizations, including those bringing new electronic devices to American consumers, cannot be provided. Industry analyst Jeffrey Silva said a brief shutdown probably won't cause many problems. But he added that a prolonged shutdown "could very well lead to a backlog and delays in the equipment approval process, a far more troublesome scenario for manufacturers and other stakeholders.”
http://benton.org/node/161670
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ANALYSTS: GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN COULD IMPERIL FCC'S AGENDA
[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Phil Goldstein]
As the shutdown of the federal government grinds into its fourth day, analysts say that a prolonged shuttering of government operations could impact the Federal Communications Commission and other agencies' agendas on technology policy, especially for wireless spectrum and auctions. A long-term casualty could be the FCC's agenda for the PCS H Block spectrum auction, currently scheduled for January, and the incentive auctions of broadcast TV spectrum. The longer the shutdown goes on, analysts said, the more of a backlog the FCC staff will have to deal with when the government does reopen, though at this point there is no telling exactly when that might be. In terms of the H Block, Medley Global Advisors analyst Jeffrey Silva noted that the Jan 14 auction date was likely set based on historical precedents for how long auctions take to get set up. Even when the government reopens, staffers might be distracted with dealing with the backlog of meetings and filings that have been pending. That could put a strain on resources inside the agency, he said. Also, the longer the shutdown persists, the longer will be until the Senate can vote on Tom Wheeler as the next chairman of the FCC and Michael O'Rielly as its second Republican commissioner. As things stand, the Senate Commerce Committee canceled a session in which it was supposed to vote on O'Rielly's nomination.
benton.org/node/161680 | Fierce
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SHUTDOWN AND WEBSITES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello, Brendan Sasso]
Lawyers and lobbyists are accusing regulatory agencies of unnecessarily blocking access to websites during the government shutdown. "I can't help wondering whether this is a political call," a Republican telecom lawyer said. "Is it really necessary to completely cut off Internet access?" Agencies including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have entirely shut down their websites, preventing the public from accessing regulations, filings and other documents. Congressional Republicans have accused the Obama Administration of “maximizing the pain” of the shutdown to increase Democrats’ leverage in negotiations.
benton.org/node/161695 | Hill, The
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SHUTTING DOWN WIRED DC
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Jessica Meyers]
Try finding Washington’s off switch. Today’s technological dependency presents fresh challenges to a decades-old law that bars furloughed federal employees from doing any work, including with government-issued cellphones or work e-mails. So if you’re still checking your BlackBerry, you’re not the only one. The last time the government shut down nearly two decades ago, managers communicated through memos and phones belonged on desks. Employees now work just as much outside the office and can access critical information in the grocery checkout line. Government staff — facing an unknown amount of unpaid free time — are finding it difficult to disconnect. Some admit to peeking at messages, directing colleagues to a personal email account or using their time off from work as a chance to catch up on it. Those without the luxury of multiple phones or a home laptop worry simply about reaching others. The complications raise the question: Is it a ban that no longer makes sense or just not in hyperwired Washington?
benton.org/node/161694 | Politico
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JOURNALISM
MAKING OUR DEMOCRACY FUNCTIONAL
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Michael Copps]
[Commentary] Former President Jimmy Carter told Der Spiegel in July that “America has no functioning democracy.” He was speaking in the context of national security surveillance, but I think his statement should get us all thinking about the state of the union in light of the soap-opera Congressional antics that have shut down huge parts of our government. A country beset by serious challenges to our economy, our competitiveness, our growing gap of income inequality, our embarrassing slippage in the global rankings on everything from infant mortality to life expectancy, educational attainment, and healthcare, and our deteriorating physical infrastructure, responds by doing . . . what? By shutting down the government! But it is more than personalities or the daily ups-and-downs of politics that brings us to the brink. Our problems run deeper: the outrageous role of money that has poisoned the political bloodstream, gerrymandering, the senate filibuster, and the decline of media and the civic dialogue. Huge media conglomerates have gobbled up hundreds of independent newspaper and broadcast outlets, more often than not cutting the newsroom staffs in order to finance the heavy costs of the merger or purchase transaction. Wall Street’s bottom line has displaced the community’s public interest as local media disappears. Diversity opinions, indeed whole diversity populations, go uncovered. Public affairs are pushed aside by an “If it bleeds, it leads” mentality. To make a bad situation worse, years of wrong-headed decisions by government—especially by the Federal Communications Commission -- blessed this merger-mania and went on from there to eliminate most of the public interest obligations that broadcasters were expected to carry out in return for their free use of the public airwaves.
http://benton.org/node/161671
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COVERAGE FAILS AMERICA
[SOURCE: Aljazeera, AUTHOR: Dan Froomkin]
[Commentary] US news reports are largely blaming the government shutdown on the inability of both political parties to come to terms. It is supposedly the result of a "bitterly divided" Congress that "failed to reach agreement" (Washington Post) or "a bitter budget standoff" left unresolved by "rapid-fire back and forth legislative maneuvers" (New York Times). This sort of false equivalence is not just a failure of journalism. It is also a failure of democracy. When the political leadership of this country is incapable of even keeping the government open, a political course correction is in order. But how can democracy self-correct if the public does not understand where the problem lies? And where will the pressure for change come from if journalists do not hold the responsible parties accountable? The truth of what happened, as almost all political reporters know full well, is that "Republicans staged a series of last-ditch efforts to use a once-routine budget procedure to force Democrats to abandon their efforts to extend U.S. health insurance." (Thank you, Guardian.) And holding the entire government hostage while demanding the de facto repeal of a president's signature legislation and not even bothering to negotiate is by any reasonable standard an extreme political act. It is an attempt to make an end run around the normal legislative process. There is no historical precedent for it. The last shutdowns, in 1995 and 1996, were not the product of unilateral demands to scrap existing law; they took place during a period of give-and-take budget negotiations. But the political media's aversion to doing anything that might be seen as taking sides — combined with its obsession with process — led them to actively obscure the truth in their coverage of the votes. If you did not already know what this was all about, reading the news would not help you understand.
[Froomkin is launching the Center for Accountability Journalism, at FearlessMedia.org]
benton.org/node/161692 | Aljazeera
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THE SHUTDOWN AND CONSERVATIVE MEDIA
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Don Gonyea]
Conservatives have driven the debate and the showdown in Washington. But even as national polls have shown strong public disapproval of the government shutdown, conservative media outlets — on the air, on cable, and on the Internet — have provided a voice of support for Republicans on the Hill and created a like-minded community for their audience.
benton.org/node/161691 | National Public Radio
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HOW THE BROKEN MEDIA HELPED BREAK THE GOVERNMENT
[SOURCE: The Atlantic, AUTHOR: David Rohde]
[Commentary] There's a direct connection between the shutdown and hyperbolic, partisan journalistic outlets driven more by profits than the search for truth. Creating cable television and social media bubbles where one’s political views are affirmed has proven popular and profitable. Angrily declaring one’s opponents imbeciles enriches pundits, corporate executives and stockholders. The result for many Americans, though, is confusion, cynicism and division. There are some reasons for hope. The emergence of non-profit news outlets and the web’s breadth of information and instant accountability are promising. But simplistic, reassuring narratives are more profitable than dispassionate descriptions of complex public policy problems. For a collapsing, digital-age news industry desperate for income, partisanship is an economic lifeline.
[David Rohde is a columnist for Reuters and a former reporter for The New York Times]
benton.org/node/161684 | Atlantic, The
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C-SPAN’S RATINGS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Given the meager approval ratings the public has consistently given Congress, it might seem surprising that anyone watches the unblinking live shots of the Senate and House on television. But government crises apparently have a way of ratcheting up interest in Washington procedural drama. C-Span does not receive ratings from the industry standard-bearer, Nielsen, so Capitol Hill press secretaries and callers to “Washington Journal” have had to guess about how many people watch the suite of noncommercial channels. But C-Span, which televises the House, and C-Span2 have a small, dedicated following, according to Rentrak, a Nielsen competitor. Rentrak’s nationwide audience projections are based on anonymous data from set-top boxes in about 12 million homes served by companies like DirecTV, Dish Network and Charter. A 1.0 rating is approximately 1.15 million households, and C-Span’s average daily rating in September was 0.017, meaning 19,550 households were watching at any given time. C-Span2’s average was 0.012, or 13,000 households. Those averages are undeniably low. But Bruce Goerlich, Rentrak’s chief research officer, observed that the ratings “popped up” toward the end of the month as a government shutdown loomed. And since C-Span is a utility of sorts, its real relevance is measured in its cumulative ratings: the number of households that watch at one time or another. In September, nearly 9 million households tuned in to C-Span at least once, according to Rentrak’s projections, and about 5.3 million households tuned into C-Span2. Unlike most channels, however, C-Span professes not to care about ratings.
benton.org/node/161693 | New York Times
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PEW RESEARCH SURVEYS OF AUDIENCE HABITS SUGGEST PERILOUS FUTURE FOR NEWS
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: Andrew Kohut]
Today’s younger and middle-aged audience seems unlikely to ever match the avid news interest of the generations they will replace, even as they enthusiastically transition to the Internet as their principal source of news. Pew Research longitudinal surveys find that Gen Xers (33-47 years old) and Millennials (18-31 years old), who spent less time than older people following the news at the outset of their adulthood, have so far shown little indication that that they will become heavier news consumers as they age. While much has been made about the potential appeal, especially to younger audiences, of reading newspapers on digital devices such as iPhones, iPads and Kindles, such readership is modest (8 percent and 6 percent respectively) among both Millennials and Xers, and has done little to offset declines in newspaper readership among these groups in recent years. Television news viewership is markedly lower among younger age groups compared to older people, with no sign of it increasing as Xers and Millennials age. Xers and Millennials have increasingly turned to the Internet for news. Finally, social media looms as a potential booster of news consumption among the younger generation, albeit a modest one so far. Pew Research’s 2012 survey found a third of Millennials and 20 percent of Xers saying they regularly see news or news headlines on social-networking sites. However, only about 35 percent of those who get news from social network sites say they follow up and seek out full news stories.
benton.org/node/161676 | Pew Research Center | Poyntner
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INTERNET
NEW REPORT: INTERNET FREEDOM DETERIORATES WORLDWIDE, BUT ACTIVISTS PUSH BACK
[SOURCE: Freedom House, AUTHOR: Press release]
Broad surveillance, new laws controlling web content, and growing arrests of social-media users drove a worldwide decline in Internet freedom in the past year, according to a new study released by Freedom House. Nonetheless, Freedom on the Net 2013 also found that activists are becoming more effective at raising awareness of emerging threats and, in several cases, have helped forestall new repressive measures. Freedom on the Net 2013, which identifies key trends in Internet freedom in 60 countries, evaluates each country based on obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. Overall, 34 out of 60 countries assessed in the report experienced a decline in Internet freedom. Notably, Vietnam and Ethiopia continued on a worsening cycle of repression; Venezuela stepped up censorship during presidential elections; and three democracies—India, the United States, and Brazil—saw troubling declines. Iceland and Estonia topped the list of countries with the greatest degree of Internet freedom. While the overall score for the United States declined by 5 points on a 100-point scale, in large part due to the recently revealed surveillance activities, it still earned a spot among the top five countries examined. China, Cuba, and Iran were found to be the most repressive countries in terms of Internet freedom for the second consecutive year. Ten most commonly used types of Internet control, according to the Freedom of the Net 2013 study, were assessed in 60 countries:
Blocking and filtering
Cyberattacks against regime critics
New laws and arrests
Paid pro-government commentators
Physical attacks and murder
Surveillance
Takedown and deletion requests
Blocking social media and communications apps
Intermediary liability: In 22 countries, intermediaries—such as Internet service providers, hosting services, webmasters, or forum moderators—are held legally liable for content posted by others, giving them a powerful incentive to censor their customers. Companies in China hire whole divisions to monitor and delete tens of millions of messages a year.
Throttling or shutting down service
benton.org/node/161679 | Freedom House
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WHY RURAL BROADBAND MEANS YOU CAN NOW BUY A BULL ONLINE
[SOURCE: Modern Farmer, AUTHOR: Christopher Weber]
There is a new generation who is using high-speed broadband to improve farming practices, from auctions to smart irrigation systems to political organizing. However, rural broadband is a revolution unfolding slowly and unevenly. Many farmers complain that their Internet is still too slow, and they have a point. As a rule, rural areas have slower Internet service than cities, according to a report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The government is trying to accelerate Internet speeds throughout the country. The 2009 economic stimulus put $7 billion toward broadband grants, and the Obama Administration is now pushing for more. Broadband comes in especially handy during harvest time, when poor weather can ravage ripened crops. When storm clouds loom, farmers like Mike Haley in West Salem, Ohio, depend upon über-local, up-to-the-minute forecasts. For farmers without a smart phone or a 4G network, or working in a distant field beyond the network’s reach, a broadband connection at the farmhouse can help preserve the harvest the same way. Social media classes have sprouted all over the country for farmers, who, like every other sentient being these days, need to build their brands. For the farmers of today, a fast Internet connection is just as important as the railroad was a century ago, connecting to farmers in the far reaches of the heartland to the rest of the world. “Higher speed Internet makes it easier for farmers to shoot and upload a picture from the pasture or field to share with the 98.5% of the population that’s not on a farm,” Michele Payn-Knoper, an Indiana farmer and ag-communications guru, explains.
benton.org/node/161682 | Modern Farmer
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EARLY RESULTS FROM VIRGINIA GIGABIT WIRELESS NETWORK SHOW PROMISE
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
It didn’t get much publicity outside its local area, but the recent launch of a gigabit wireless network in Blacksburg, Virginia, is an important one. The network, launched by local technology incubator TechPad, will provide 802.11ac connectivity supporting individual connection rates as high as 1 Gbps. Blacksburg (population 42,600) is the home of Virginia Tech. “There are now three key nodes to the wireless network which are active and have coverage over about 40% of the downtown,” explained TechPad President Bob Summers. “The ultimate goal is for the majority of the citizens of this community to have access to gigabit networking high capacity and low latency.” Currently only a few end user devices support the new 802.11ac standard, including the Macbook Air and Samsung Galaxy S4, Summers said. Nevertheless he said the network already has “several users” of gigabit Wi-Fi. Others can connect to the network using traditional WiFi. Although the network has not been operational for very long, Summers shared some early results. “The Wi-Fi space is very noisy so managing a quality outdoor public Wi-Fi system is no easy task,” he noted. “We have started to ask people to turn off their access points and use the free system which is higher performance. The more we can get to turn off the better the service for all.”
benton.org/node/161677 | telecompetitor
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TELECOM
WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY "THINGS SHOULD STILL WORK" AFTER THE PSTN TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: John Bergmayer]
[Commentary] We're in the middle of a debate in this country about the "transitioning" of the PSTN, or "public switched telecommunications network." You know, that thing with the phone numbers. Just as electronics replaced electromechanical switches, which replaced human operators, new kinds of networking technology (packet-switched) are replacing older kinds of networking technology (circuit-switched). The Federal Communications Commission almost certainly has the authority it needs to manage the transition successfully. But even if it doesn't, we'll need to amend the statutes. One of the things that needs to still work -- or maybe even work better -- after the transition is caller ID. We don't think we should keep the PSTN concept around just because we love good old-fashioned telecom regulation for its own sake. Our point is that a lack of coordinated attention to important, but technical issues like caller ID spoofing shouldn't be allowed to erode people's trust in the concept of making a "phone call." A lack of forethought on the issue of interconnection should not lead to "network neuropathy" where the current problems with rural call completion are magnified a thousand-fold. The PSTN transition is happening, and it's important that things don't get screwed up.
benton.org/node/161681 | Public Knowledge
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TELEVISION
TWITTER AND TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Nielsen is now measuring what it calls the “unique audience” for Twitter posts about television, providing a more complete view of the phenomenon known as social TV. The company is introducing Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, a product announced last year that professes to measure all the activity and reach of Twitter conversation about shows, even if it has yet to be embraced by television executives and gain a broad client base. Measures of posts about a TV show are just the tip of Twitter’s iceberg: “The full iceberg is the extent to which people are seeing those tweets,” said Andrew Somosi, the chief executive of SocialGuide, an analytics company that Nielsen acquired last November, in part to create the new product.
benton.org/node/161713 | New York Times | WSJ | LA Times
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TIME-SHIFTED TV VIEWING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
The ratings for live television are just a starting point now. On-demand viewing behaviors, which have been reshaping television since the first TiVo DVR was shipped in 1999, are becoming more pronounced with each passing year, sometimes to the benefit of networks and advertisers and other times to their detriment. What is notable about the start of the new fall TV season, according to network executives, is a surge in not just delayed viewing, but very-delayed viewing. Some people who might have previously time-shifted the new NBC drama “The Blacklist” by one day, for example, are now waiting longer to watch, partly because of the sheer number of shows on their mental to-watch lists. This is simultaneously good and bad for television networks — good because a higher total rating after seven days helps prove that television networks can still spawn hugely popular shows, even in an age of media fragmentation, but bad because advertisers aren’t currently paying for all the viewers who come along later. Changes in viewer behavior continue to outpace changes in the television business model.
benton.org/node/161710 | New York Times
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PRIVACY
ONLINE PRIVACY BILL
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
Even as it defends the National Security Agency’s controversial Internet surveillance programs, the Obama Administration has been working on legislation to boost online privacy safeguards for consumers. The fact that the Administration is trying to advance such a measure -- amid reports that the government can access people’s online communications -- speaks to growing tensions with Europe over privacy. Top European Union officials have called for tighter data rules for US Internet companies, and a base-line privacy bill would strengthen the administration’s hand in negotiating with Europe. The Administration’s proposal builds on the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, a blueprint the White House released last year, sources familiar with the plan said. The bill would define privacy rights and convene Internet companies and consumer advocates to hammer out industry codes of conduct based on the principles. The FTC would have the authority to enforce the codes of conduct generated by those talks. The Administration hasn’t finalized the measure but is trying to build support for it on Capitol Hill, a source with direct knowledge of the effort said. It’s not clear what impact the government shutdown has had on the effort.
benton.org/node/161706 | Politico
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POLICYMAKERS
PRESIDENT’S ADVISORY COMMITTEES
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
President Barack Obama has continued until September 30, 2015 a number of Federal Advisory Committees including:
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee
National Infrastructure Advisory Council
President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
benton.org/node/161672 | White House, The
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COMPANY NEWS
GOOGLE, REGULATION AND INNOVATION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] Early this year, the Federal Trade Commission made the surprise decision not to bring an antitrust case against Google for its globally dominant search engine. Recently, Google announced the biggest change in how search works in more than a decade. The two events are not unconnected. No regulators had to review or bless Google's relaunch of its search engine, which handles two-thirds of all searches. This innovation would not have been possible if Google were in the middle of a massive antitrust case -- as it almost was. There are winners in the new Google approach to search, but there are losers too, and they would have leaned on regulators to block change. Companies and marketing consultants that perfected search-engine optimization by focusing on which keywords to buy, for example, now must broaden their work to cover the context as well as the content of a search. Other companies suffer from Google's semantic search when it delivers results that answer searches directly, cutting out links to other sites.
benton.org/node/161708 | Wall Street Journal
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
THE EU’S BROADBAND CHALLENGE, PART 3: BARRIERS TO REFORM
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Roslyn Layton]
[Commentary] Here are five key challenges the EU Commission faces to realize a digital single market, catalyze the growth of an EU-focused Internet ecosystem, and spark investment in a next generation broadband infrastructure.
Taxation: Each European country has its own telecom tax regime.
Mobile roaming: Imagine if every time one traveled to a new US state, the phone would switch to roaming and the caller would pay a higher fee. This is the case in Europe today. The telecom industry opposes a new roaming regime because it decouples prices from the underlying operating cost structure.
Wireline infrastructure investment: In its failed attempt to promote broadband competition, European regulators forced companies to unbundle their copper networks and sell low priced wholesale access to new entrants.
Capital structure: European Commission Vice President Neelie and the EU Commission would like world-class networks across the EU, similar to the U.S. But they do not want to take the political risk to say the unpopular but inevitable word: consolidation.
Regulation: Each of the EU’s 28 nations has its own telecom regulator. The regulators coordinate through the Body of Europe for Electronic Communications (BEREC), but there is no overall authority. [Roslyn Layton is an American PhD Fellow studying Internet economics at the Center for Communication, Media, and Information Technologies (CMI) at Aalborg University in Copenhagen]
benton.org/node/161673 | American Enterprise Institute
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REGULATING THE CLOUD
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Danny Hakim]
Even before revelations this summer by Edward J. Snowden on the extent of spying by the National Security Agency on electronic communications, the European Parliament busied itself attaching amendments to its data privacy regulation. Several would change the rules of cloud computing, the technology that enables the sharing of software and files among computers on the Internet. And since the news broke of widespread monitoring by the United States spy agency, cloud computing has become one of the regulatory flash points in Brussels as a debate ensued over how to protect data from snooping American eyes. The European Union wants to regulate the cloud even if that makes its use more complicated.
benton.org/node/161703 | New York Times
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EUROPE’S 4G INVESTMENT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sam Schechner, Sven Grundberg]
After years of lagging behind the US and Asia, European telecommunications companies are starting to close the spending gap on so-called fourth-generation telecom networks, which help speed up such data-heavy tasks as Web browsing and video streaming on smartphones and tablets. But with intense competition continuing to push down European phone bills, telecom executives say the big question remains whether all the new investment will pay off.
benton.org/node/161702 | Wall Street Journal
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EU’S FIGHT OVER ROAMING
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan]
Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s telecoms commissioner, is set for a battle with Europe’s former monopolist operators, as she vows to stand by her far-reaching reforms, including cutting mobile roaming fees for consumers. She said roaming charges were outrageous and that mobile operators had to seek new business models to survive. “Telecom companies need to start thinking in an innovative way, outside the box,” Kroes said. “The days of roaming are over, they need to accept that we live in a new digital era.” Kroes will tell the industry that the investor community, including large banks in the City of London, had backed her single telecom market legislation, which aims to boost investment and economic growth by knocking down national barriers across the 28 country bloc.
benton.org/node/161701 | Financial Times
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SAMSUNG SEEKS VETO OF IMPORT BAN
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Susan Decker, Jungah Lee]
Samsung Electronics wants the same favor from President Barack Obama that he gave Apple -- the right to keep importing smartphones and tablets found to infringe the other’s patents. Unless the White House overturns an import ban against Samsung for infringing two Apple patents, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones will see certain older models locked out of the US at midnight Oct. 8 Washington time. The Administration’s been in this position before. On Aug. 3, it overturned an import ban won by Samsung against older versions of Apple’s iPhone 4 and iPad 2 3G. The two companies are the biggest players in the $279.9 billion global smartphone market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung says blocking one competitor’s products while letting another’s remain on the U.S. market could be seen as pro-American bias.
benton.org/node/161704 | Bloomberg
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