DRM, Phone Unlocking, and Making Copyright Law Make Sense
[Commentary] There's been a lot of talk about the damage DRM can do. Here's one small way to repair that -- make sure phone unlocking is legal again.
February 2014
H Block Update: $1.3 Billion Bid
After 64 rounds of bidding, the Federal Communications Commission's H Block auction has drawn a total of $1,312,632,000. There were only four new bids this round, down from nine in the round before. One of the 176 licenses up for auction has no bid after its single bid was withdrawn. Not surprisingly, the top market, New York, has drawn the top bid of $216,955,000 but it has appeared to top out at that figure, with no new bids since round 24.
Cheap Words: Amazon is good for customers. But is it good for books?
[Commentary] Amazon remains intimately tangled up in books. Few notice if Amazon prices an electronics store out of business (except its staff); but, in the influential, self-conscious world of people who care about reading, Amazon’s unparalleled power generates endless discussion, along with paranoia, resentment, confusion, and yearning.
For its part, Amazon continues to expend considerable effort both to dominate this small, fragile market and to win the hearts and minds of readers. To many book professionals, Amazon is a ruthless predator. The company claims to want a more literate world -- and it came along when the book world was in distress, offering a vital new source of sales. But then it started asking a lot of personal questions, and it created dependency and harshly exploited its leverage; eventually, the book world realized that Amazon had its house keys and its bank-account number, and wondered if that had been the intention all along. Recently, Amazon even started creating its own “content” -- publishing books. The results have been decidedly mixed. A monopoly is dangerous because it concentrates so much economic power, but in the book business the prospect of a single owner of both the means of production and the modes of distribution is especially worrisome: it would give Amazon more control over the exchange of ideas than any company in US history. Even in the iPhone age, books remain central to American intellectual life, and perhaps to democracy. And so the big question is not just whether Amazon is bad for the book industry; it’s whether Amazon is bad for books.
EU Pushes to Globalize Internet Governance
The European Union's executive body is raising pressure to reduce US influence over the Internet's architecture amid what it called weakened confidence in the network's governance after revelations of US surveillance.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, will propose the adoption of "concrete and actionable steps" to globalize essential Web functions -- including the assignment of so-called top-level domain names, such as ".com" or ".org" -- that remain contractually linked to the US government. The European Commission will also propose establishing a timeline for fully internationalizing the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees key aspects of the Internet's infrastructure to ensure digital traffic is routed properly, the document says. The US Commerce Department has said it is in favor of -- and is participating in -- discussions over the future of Internet governance. But it hasn't weighed in specifically on whether it would cede indirect control of certain elements of Internet architecture that it grants to ICANN under contract.
How President Obama's Plan for Faster Internet Could Raise Your Phone Bill
President Barack Obama has a plan to connect 99 percent of US schools to high-speed Internet within five years without adding "a dime to the deficit" and "without waiting for Congress." It sounds too good to be true, but the Administration has a trick up its sleeve: the E-rate program, a federal program that collects fees on American phone bills and uses the revenue to fund Internet access at schools and libraries in rural and low-income areas.
The program is currently capped at about $2.3 billion per year, but the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that administers the program as part of the Universal Service Fund, has the power to lift the program's cap -- even without congressional approval -- and raise funds for it by bumping up phone fees. For now, the FCC is not considering new revenue for E-rate, instead focusing on reforming the program to better spend its existing budget. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler didn't rule out the possibility of a future cap raise during remarks as part of Digital Learning Day at the Library of Congress, and prominent Senate Democrats are asking the chairman to do just that.
Sen Schumer pushes Administration’s Internet plan
Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) applauded the Obama Administration’s recent commitments to update and expand the E-rate program, a federal program aimed at connecting students to the Internet.
“As the federal government looks to revamp E-Rate, we’re looking to assure there’s greater flexibility in addition to greater funds,” Sen Schumer said. “It’s critical now more than ever that our schools keep up with advancing technology.” Sen Schumer also applauded the Administration’s broader efforts to connect Americans to the Internet, including the FCC’s Connect America Fund, which aims to bring Internet connectivity to rural areas that lack an adequate broadband infrastructure. “To expand broadband access, especially to the more remote parts of the country, federal investment is required,” he said. Connecting Americans to the Internet “is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet, when it comes to improving healthcare, education and growing the economy,” Sen Schumer said.
Senate Dems Call For Swift FCC Action On Network Neutrality
A group of Senate Democrats and longtime fans of the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules are pushing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to come up with new regulations that will pass court muster.
Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) has pledged to introduce legislation to clarify the FCC's authority to regulate Internet access, but along with Sens Al Franken (D-MN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), he wants the FCC to act now with the authority the court said it already has. In a letter to Chairman Wheeler, the senators said the appeals court’s ruling threatened innovation and a "neutral" platform. The senators warned and advised Chairman Wheeler that whatever new rules he comes up with need to stand "on a strong legal footing." Without rules, they said, Internet service providers "are prone" to act as gatekeepers, controlling, blocking and throttling content.
Small companies bemoan barriers to wireless
Government regulations and a scarcity of bandwidth are two of the biggest problems that small businesses run into when trying to take advantage of new technology, executives and analysts told the House Small Business Committee.
Those hurdles can prevent some companies from taking advantage of new and improved tools, they said. “There are tremendous opportunities for small businesses in a number of different areas if we can overcome the obstacles that currently exist,” said Darrell West, head of the Brookings Institution’s center for technology innovation. “Small firms face a number of different problems in the areas of regulation, spectrum availability, infrastructure and access.” Members of the committee heard from executives from companies that use wireless technology on farms, for transportation and to connect solar-powered garbage cans that compact trash and recycling. “The regulatory process is cumbersome for a small company,” said Michael Feldman, the vice president of engineer at BigBelly Solar, which makes “smart” trash cans that communicate with a central database. “Small businesses, entrepreneurs that are trying to get into and use a wirelessly-connected product can really be overwhelmed with not just the paperwork but the certifications and the testing that needs to go into it.”
A bill to ban in-flight calls just cleared a key House committee vote
When the Federal Communications Commission said it was going to relax the rules concerning cellphone technology on airplanes, it touched off a firestorm of public criticism. Nobody likes a chatty seatmate. Some called for the Department of Transportation to ban in-flight calling altogether. The House Transportation Committee took a step in that direction, passing a bill that would require the DOT to impose such a prohibition with exceptions for flight crew, attendants and on-duty law enforcement officials. Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) said his bill would restore balance to airplane cabins everywhere. "My message is simple when it comes to cellphones on planes," said Rep Shuster. "Tap, don’t talk."
Supreme Court will hear Aereo on April 22 with one Justice sitting out
Aereo’s future depends on a controversial interpretation of copyright law that received a green light from a New York appeals court, but that television broadcasters want the Supreme Court to declare illegal. The Court agreed to hear the appeal in January, and now they’ve set a date: the case will be heard on April 22. Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from the case. Recusals typically arise because a judge has a financial or other type of conflict of interest. This means that the decision could end in a 4-4 tie -- in which case, the lower court decision siding with Aereo will be upheld.