1. Monthly archive
  2. March 2014

March 2014

Dish’s Ergen Said to Approach DirecTV CEO White About Merger

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen recently contacted DirecTV Chief Executive Officer Mike White to discuss a merger of the two satellite television companies, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

Shares of both companies rose. Ergen made the approach in response to Comcast’s $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable announced in mid-February, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. White is reluctant to push forward with formal talks out of concern regulators may block the deal because the two companies directly compete with each other, another person said. Even if regulators allow Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, DirecTV management doesn’t see the cable deal as a proxy for an approval of deal with Dish, said another person familiar with the matter. DirecTV and Dish’s 2002 attempt to merge was blocked by regulators.

Oversight key for phone technology; it's up to Kentucky House to protect reliable service

[Commentary] How will Kentucky decide whether cell or Internet telephone service is sufficiently reliable and affordable to relieve major carriers of the obligation to provide basic land-line service?

If the Kentucky House follows the Senate and passes Senate Bill 99 virtually as AT&T wrote it, then policymakers will have outsourced that decision to AT&T and its competitors. If the House takes a more public-spirited approach and passes the bill with the amendments attached by Rep. Larry Clark (D-Louisville), it will maintain some protections for consumers. Those protections would include limited oversight by the Public Service Commission, a requirement to tell consumers any limitations of the new service being offered, and an extended period for consumers to switch back to a basic service if they are not happy with their new service. A third choice -- one we endorse -- is for the House to again reject this bill, choosing to wait until trials by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory groups determine how best to provide carriers more flexibility while protecting those who rely on basic phone service as a literal lifeline.

Why President Obama and His NSA Defenders Changed Their Minds

It was only months ago that President Barack Obama, with bipartisan backing from the heads of Congress's Intelligence committees, was insisting that the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program was key to keeping Americans safe from the next major terrorist attack. But now, the President and the NSA's top supporters in Congress are all pushing proposals to end the NSA's bulk collection of phone records. So what changed?

With a critical section of the Patriot Act set to expire next year, they realized they had no choice but to negotiate. If Congress fails to reauthorize that provision -- Section 215 -- by June 1, 2015, then the NSA's collection of US records would have to end entirely. And the growing outrage prompted by the Snowden leaks means that the NSA's supporters would almost certainly lose an up-or-down vote on the program. President Obama and the House Intelligence Committee leaders believe their proposals are now the NSA's best bet to retain some power to mine U.S. phone records for possible terror plots.

Majority Of Americans Not Happy About Possible Comcast-Time Warner Merger

A majority of Americans are skeptical about the proposed merger of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc, and they are not convinced the US government is doing enough to prevent monopolies generally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll.

The poll found that 52 percent of those surveyed believed that mergers such as the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal result in less competition and are bad for consumers, while 22 percent believe they allow cable and internet providers to be more efficient and provide better service to consumers. Skepticism of the mergers varied significantly based on education level, according to the poll. For Comcast-Time Warner Cable, 62 percent of people with a college degree or more took a negative view of the deal, but that number fell to 57 percent among people with some college experience and 42 percent among those with none.

Democratic governors oppose online gambling ban

A group of Democratic governors are opposing a Republican bill that would prohibit online gambling. "This bill has a severe and disastrous impact on state governments and ... is unworkable and it must be defeated," the Democratic Governors Association wrote in a letter to Congressional leadership. The bill -- with ties to an anti-online gambling push from GOP megadonor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson -- from Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) would reverse a 2011 Department of Justice ruling that said the federal Wire Act prohibits only online sports betting. Since that ruling, three states -- Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware -- have legalized online gambling within their borders, and a handful more are considering following suit. In its letter, the Democratic Governors Association said the bill would intrude on states' rights. "Some states have chosen not to allow and regulate gaming; and for the many states that do allow it, gaming and lotteries are critical to producing the revenue needed to fund important state and local governmental services, such as public education," the group wrote.

David Gossett Named Acting Deputy General Counsel For Litigation, Office of General Counsel

The Federal Communications Commission’s Office of General Counsel named David M. Gossett as Acting Deputy General Counsel for Litigation. Gossett will have day-to-day responsibility for directing the FCC’s advocacy in the nation’s courts.

Gossett joins the FCC from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he was Assistant General Counsel for Litigation. Prior to that, he was a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, and was a visiting professor at the Riga, Latvia Graduate School of Law in the fall semesters of 1999 and 2000. He served as an Honors Program attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Frauds Group, and clerked for the Hon. Diane P. Wood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. His extensive volunteer work includes co-founding a non-profit called The Green Bag, which is dedicated to publishing short, well-written works of legal scholarship -- and also helped design bobble-head dolls of the Supreme Court Justices. He received his law degree with High Honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of Chicago Law School. He earned a B.A in psychology from Reed College and an M.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

New software lets teachers control student devices

The lines are blurring between mobile device management (MDM) and classroom management software, as both now offer some classroom-level control over students’ mobile devices. That’s good news for educators who are looking for more control over what students can access on their iPads, Chromebooks, and Android tablets during class -- an ability that will be particularly useful for online testing.

Brazilian lawmakers approve bill of online rights, minus local storage requirements

The lower house of Brazil’s Congress has approved the country’s first bill of online rights, the Marco Civil da Internet. If passed by the Senate and signed off by the president, the bill would entrench network neutrality in Brazilian law and limit the liability of web platforms if users upload certain types of unlawful content. However, while the bill would force international web firms to adhere to Brazilian privacy law in legal disputes regarding local citizens, it would not require companies such as Google and Facebook to store data on Brazilians within Brazil’s borders.

Government-subsidized fiber: Careful what you wish for

[Commentary] The bold policies of the Australian and New Zealand governments to fund nationwide national fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband networks have drawn attention of late for all the wrong reasons. So far, Australia has spent around $28,000 for each of its 260,000 residential connections, whilst New Zealand’s uptake rate after two years stands at just a little over 5% of premises passed. The inability of such ‘grand policies’ to deliver upon the aspirations held for them is in large part due to some of the well-established reasons why politics and the telecommunications industry have historically made such uneasy bedfellows.

[Howell is general manager for the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation]

March 26, 2014 (NSA Consensus Nears; What good is a gig?)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014

More Satellite TV, kids & screen time, and data breaches on today’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2014-03-26/


GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Consensus Nears to Overhaul NSA Phone Surveillance
   House Intelligence Committee leaders unveil surveillance reforms
   President Obama ‘Confident’ NSA Proposal Will Address Privacy Concerns [links to web]
   Obama’s Limits on Phone Records - NYTimes editorial
   President Obama gives ground on NSA snooping - editorial
   Cities reluctant to reveal whether they’re using fake cell tower devices [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Silicon Valley is fed up with slow Internet speeds
   AT&T complains it needs more money for infrastructure upgrades. No, it doesn’t. - analysis
   AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega thinks Netflix, not customers, should pay for capacity upgrades [links to web]
   Why an Apple-Comcast Deal Stirs Network Neutrality Concerns - analysis
   Fiber boost for local journalism?
   Google Fiber Sets More Service Sign-Up Deadlines In Provo [links to web]
   What good is a gig? - op-ed

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Has T-Mobile really kicked off a mobile price war, or is it all just an illusion? [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   State of the News Media 2014 - research
   Fiber boost for local journalism?

TELEVISION
   House Communications Subcommittee Passes Draft Bill to Reauthorize Nation’s Satellite Television Law - press release
   NAB’s Smith Lobbies for JSA Reevaluation [links to web]
   Comcast Joins Time Warner Cable in Consumer Reports Doghouse

CONTENT
   IRS moves to tax bitcoins
   States Scramble to Stop Illegal Gambling at Internet Sweepstakes Cafes [links to web]
   Gov Rick Perry pushes ‘time-out' for online gambling [links to web]
   E-book price fixing settlements land in Amazon customers’ inboxes [links to web]
   Music Piracy Goes Mobile [links to web]
   How Amazon and Netflix can take on Apple in the TV streaming biz - analysis [links to web]
   Doing nothing is not an option to stop online piracy - op-ed [links to web]

TELECOM
    FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly -- Telephone Consumer Protection Act: It is Time to Provide Clarity - press release [links to web]

PHILANTHROPY
   Blandin Foundation Continues Commitment to Rural Broadband - press release [links to web]

COMPANY NEWS
   Facebook to Acquire Virtual Reality Company for $2 Billion [links to web]
   Why Facebook just bought a virtual reality firm - WashPost analysis [links to web]
   Sprint, Dish could broaden partnership -- but it would be complicated [links to web]
   Murdoch makes big succession planning step with jobs for sons [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   FCC’s Wheeler is No Shrinking Violet - analysis

BUDGET
   FCC Chairman Wheeler at House Hearing on the FCC’s Fiscal 2015 Budget Request - speech [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   What Turkish Google searches tell us about the Twitter ban

MORE ONLINE
   Fewer Americans Go to the Movies [links to web]

back to top

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

CONSENSUS NEARS TO OVERHAUL NSA PHONE SURVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman, Carol Lee]
The White House and congressional leaders have settled on comparable proposals for ending the government's mass collection of telephone records, signaling the eventual end of a practice that critics said had come to epitomize US surveillance overreach in the post-9/11 era. The proposals signified a rapidly expanding consensus among lawmakers, intelligence agencies and civil-liberties groups on how to overhaul the National Security Agency program. But the developments didn't offer assurance of quick congressional passage, which would require support from lawmakers who favor more limitations on surveillance. Moving any legislation through Congress in an election year will be challenging, particularly highly sensitive bills. Yet, the clock is ticking. If Congress doesn't approve a revamped version of the program, the current one is likely to end when the law that authorizes it expires next year, lawmakers say. The proposals from the White House and House intelligence committee both would replace a system reliant on daily data feeds to the NSA with one that directs phone companies to conduct individual searches of their data on the NSA's behalf. There is one key difference between the proposals: The White House would have a judge approve each search beforehand, while the House panel wants the approval afterward. Civil libertarians prefer the White House approach.
benton.org/node/179047 | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


SURVEILLANCE REFORMS
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) unveiled a plan to curtail the National Security Agency’s ability to collect phone call data in bulk, but the effort differs from proposals from other top lawmakers and the White House. Chairman Rogers and Rep Ruppersberger said their End Bulk Collection Act will ensure the federal government doesn’t retain logs about calls made within the United States. The bill would also ban bulk collection of “electronic communications records” according to Chairman Rogers. “Basically, what we’re doing, is we’re listening to the American people,” rep Ruppersberger said. However, the duo’s plan appears to have some significant differences with the approach advocated by other members of Congress and the Obama administration, which is working on its own proposal.
benton.org/node/179025 | Politico | The Hill | The Guardian
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


LIMITS ON PHONE RECORDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] If President Barack Obama really wants to end the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records, he doesn’t need to ask the permission of Congress, as he said he would do. He can just end it himself, immediately. That’s what Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urged him to do. “The president could end bulk collection once and for all on Friday by not seeking reauthorization of this program,” Chairman Leahy said. Ending bulk collection now wouldn’t undermine Obama’s proposal to Congress. In fact, if his promise is matched by the final details (which are not yet available), it could be an important and positive break from the widespread invasion of privacy secretly practiced by the National Security Agency for years. Getting a law to create strong judicial oversight of data collection would be a check on the ambitions of future presidents. But once the question is tossed into the maelstrom of Congress, where one party routinely opposes anything the president wants, the limits could be delayed, or diluted, or just killed. And while lawmakers wring their hands, the invasion of privacy will continue. Continuing the current surveillance program while lawmakers argue is not the way to begin winning back the country’s trust.
benton.org/node/179046 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


PRESIDENT OBAMA GIVES GROUND
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] President Barack Obama wants to throttle back one of this country's most excessive and unwarranted invasions of privacy by limiting the amount of phone data that spy agencies can store and examine. His steps have the potential to ensure national security without the need to peer into everyday lives. Obama's new policy won't happen overnight. He'll need to push it through Congress where other spy-agency overhauls are taking shape. His plan matches up in many respects with one major candidate spawned by House Intelligence Committee leaders. Progress, in other words, hinges on getting consensus in Washington's fractious political atmosphere in an election year. It's time the country repealed its overbroad intelligence practices hatched in the harried days that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. This country and its citizens can be protected without personal intrusions and hidden monitoring that has gone too far.
benton.org/node/179045 | San Francisco Chronicle
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

INTERNET/BROADBAND

SILICON VALLEY IS FED UP WITH SLOW INTERNET SPEEDS
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: James O'Toole]
A battle is brewing between big tech companies and broadband providers over how to deliver your favorite websites and media to your home. Companies like Google and Netflix rely on Internet service providers to transmit bandwidth-intensive YouTube and Netflix videos without all that annoying buffering and pixelation. But many who have tried to watch "House of Cards" during prime time hours know that poor connections have become a fact of life. Google is taking on the Internet service providers at their own game, announcing plans last month to expand its ultra-high-speed Internet network, Google Fiber. Netflix, meanwhile, has invested in its own infrastructure for content delivery and has reluctantly paid for direct connections with ISPs. Other big tech companies, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook, already have paid-connection deals with big ISPs. Apple, for its part, is looking to set up a streaming television service that would "get special treatment on Comcast's cables to ensure it bypasses congestion on the Web."
benton.org/node/179022 | CNNMoney
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


AT&T INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Brian Fung]
[Commentary] AT&T is making a bold promise to consumers: If the Federal Communications Commission drop its attempt to strengthen network neutrality, subscribers will actually pay less for Internet than they would otherwise. The gist of AT&T's argument is that the rise of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming video, puts undue burdens on the company. If content firms like Netflix paid their fair share, broadband providers could reduce the cost to consumers. The implied threat, however, is that your Internet bills could actually go up if content companies refuse to pay a toll. A standoff seems inevitable. But there is a third option: ISPs could accelerate upgrades to the country's broadband infrastructure now. It's not like they can't afford it. In 2013, AT&T turned a profit of $49 billion. To say that regulators must decide between increasing costs on companies like Netflix or raising prices on consumers is to present a false choice. Rising demand is a fact of the industry. Meeting that demand is what network operators are built to do.
benton.org/node/179034 | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


APPLE, COMCAST AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY CONCERNS
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Four years ago, Netflix executives painted a bleak picture for regulators struggling to reach an agreement on new rules for Internet lines. Unless Federal Communications Commission officials closed a loophole sought by Internet service providers that allowed them to create private lanes of Internet traffic, “network operators will use so-called managed services in a way that harms” independent content providers, Netflix warned. Internet providers had barely begun to experiment with the use of such “managed services,” an ambiguous term for services that need guaranteed delivery, but they fought -- and won -- a battle to keep the FCC’s Open Internet, or network neutrality, rules from applying to them. A Wall Street Journal report that said Apple is talking about getting last-mile priority service on Comcast’s network to consumers’ homes for a video service sparked new outrage from net neutrality activists. The deal highlights concerns that the Internet is starting to balkanize, as deep-pocketed companies pay for elite delivery service while everyone else crowds onto the public Internet. Open Internet rules were designed to prohibit Internet providers from discriminating against or blocking legal traffic, but they didn’t prohibit this sort of preferential access.
benton.org/node/179033 | Revere Digital
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


FIBER AND JOURNALISM?
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Deron Lee]
A Q&A with Susan Crawford, Harvard Law School’s John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and a former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation policy. This is a pivotal time for telecommunications policy. The proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger gets a Senate hearing soon, even as these cable behemoths face some nascent competition from Google Fiber in Kansas City and other municipal-fiber networks. The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that it would be taking a critical look at a group of state laws backed by the cable lobby that attempt to block such networks. Crawford is one of the most outspoken advocates in the fight for community fiber networks. She is also passionate about the future of journalism, and she argues that journalism associations should embrace municipal-fiber networks as a means to establish a funding stream for the revival of local, community-spirited reporting. “It’s an exciting time to be a journalist,” she says—but, she warns, local news may be a dying commodity unless journalists demand “a seat at the table” as communities look to establish fiber networks.
benton.org/node/179012 | Columbia Journalism Review
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


WHAT GOOD IS A GIG?
[SOURCE: American Library Association, AUTHOR: Angela Siefer]
[Commentary] Through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, we at the Center for Digital Inclusion, Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois provided continuing education forums and conducted site visits focused on libraries that either have or are about to get a gigabit Internet connection. This blog post is a preliminary peek into our research. The Inclusive Gigabit Libraries project asks “How can libraries, as anchor institutions, leverage high speed networks and applications to benefit communities?” With a high-speed network, libraries create opportunities for 21st century learning, discovery and co-invention. We looked specifically at libraries that are on networks that are part of US Ignite or other gigabit-speed networks. US Ignite is an initiative of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to jumpstart the development and testing of new broadband applications that serve critical public needs. Case study libraries in this blog include Cuyahoga County Public Library (in Ohio), Chattanooga Public Library (in Tennessee), and Kansas City Public Library (in Missouri). Each is providing public access to their high-speed bandwidth and experimenting with how to meet the needs of their communities now and into the future.
[Angela Siefer is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Digital Inclusion]
benton.org/node/179043 | American Library Association
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

JOURNALISM

STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA 2014
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, AUTHOR: ]
A year ago, the State of the News Media report struck a somber note, citing evidence of continued declines in the mainstream media that were impacting both content and audience satisfaction. Many of these issues still exist; some have deepened and new ones have emerged. Still, the level of new activity this past year is creating a perception that something important, perhaps even game-changing, is going on. If the developments in 2013 are at this point only a drop in the bucket, it feels like a heavier drop than most. The momentum behind them is real, if the full impact on citizens and our news system remains unclear. This year’s Annual Report set out to examine these shifts -- in revenue, in jobs, in technology, in content, in consumer behavior. It is structured a bit differently than in the past -- to account for the widening of the industry, the growing influence of technology and new ways of sharing of our data. This year’s report includes four original research reports and two graphical presentations, along with key findings and a searchable database of all the statistics gathered in past years. From these reports, six major trends emerge:
Thirty of the largest digital-only news organizations account for about 3,000 jobs and one area of investment is global coverage.
So far, the impact of new money flowing into the industry may be more about fostering new ways of reporting and reaching audience than about building a new, sustainable revenue structure.
Social and mobile developments are doing more than bringing consumers into the process -- they are also are changing the dynamics of the process itself.
New ways of storytelling bring both promise and challenge.
Local television, which reaches about nine in ten U.S. adults, experienced massive change in 2013, change that stayed under the radar of most. Nearly 300 full-power local TV stations changed hands in 2013 at a price of roughly $8 billion.
Dramatic changes under way in the makeup of the American population will undoubtedly have an impact on news in the US, and in one of the fastest growing demographic groups -- Hispanics -- we are already seeing shifts.
benton.org/node/179044 | Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

TELEVISION

SATELLITE TELEVISION EXTENSION AND LOCALISM ACT
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), advanced draft legislation to reauthorize the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which contains provisions set to expire December 31, 2014. This draft legislation would reauthorize the law for five years and ensure that 1.5 million subscribers in hard-to-reach areas continue to receive broadcast content via their chosen satellite provider. The subcommittee adopted an amendment offered by Chairman Walden and subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA) by voice vote. The subcommittee also approved the draft bill by voice vote. The Republican-led draft initially had a provision preventing the Federal Communications Commission from taking any action on making joint sales agreements attributable unless it was in the context of an overall resolution of the overdue 2010 quadrennial rule review. That provision remains in the bill, but has been put in brackets, which is a way to say that agreement has yet to be reached, but still allow the draft to get subcommittee approval, signaling there will be further discussion of that element in the full committee markup. Chairman Walden said he still believed it should be part of the bill, while Eshoo agreed that the FCC needs to complete its quadrennial review and appreciated the chairman's willingness to continue to talk about how to achieve that. The draft's provision eliminating the FCC's integration ban on set-tops was amended to say that the FCC still has the power to reinstate the ban on any successor to the CableCARD regime. The markup was relatively short and almost remarkably free of contentiousness.
benton.org/node/179037 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | Chairman Walden | B&C | AdWeek | The Hill
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top


COMCAST, TWC AND CONSUMER REPORTS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Scott Moritz]
Merger partners Comcast and Time Warner Cable are two of America’s least favorite cable companies, according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. The cable giants showed up near the bottom of the magazine’s rankings in a survey of 81,848 users of television, Internet and phone plans, the magazine is reporting. In the survey, whose results aren’t directly comparable with previous versions, subscribers gave the companies low marks for customer support and for value. “Everything else in consumer technology is getting more affordable every year -- everything except communications services,” said Glenn Derene, electronics editor and the lead author of the Consumer Reports story. The Consumer Reports cover story shows just how much the pay-TV industry has infiltrated customers’ wallets. The rate of cable price increases more than doubled the rate of inflation in the 15 years through 2012, Derene said. Providers of bundled phone, Internet and cable packages have been consistently low over the past six years, and among the magazine’s lowest-rated consumer services, he said.
benton.org/node/179021 | Bloomberg
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

CONTENT

IRS MOVES TO TAX BITCOINS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Peter Schroeder]
The Internal Revenue Service took the first step toward taxing bitcoins, declaring it will treat the currency like property. The move could lend more legitimacy to bitcoin and other fledgling online currencies, but at the same time subject investors to new tax obligations. "Hopefully the guidance put out on bitcoins and virtual currency will answer the bulk of the questions people have about how they are going to be treated by the IRS," said IRS Commission John Koskinen. "Our hope is it will remove a lot of uncertainty." Under the guidance released by the IRS, wages paid to employees in bitcoins would be taxable and would have to be reported to the IRS by employers. Independent contractors paid in bitcoins would be required to pay a self-employment tax. Bitcoin “miners,” individuals who use computers to process bitcoin transaction in exchange for transaction fees and extra bitcoins, would also have to pay a self-employment tax. Furthermore, people who use bitcoins to make purchases would have to pay capital gains on however much their bitcoins had increased in value since they were obtained, much as one would a stock. For example, if $5 worth of bitcoin at the time of purchase had appreciated into $10, the bitcoin owner would face a $5 capital gain if those bitcoins were used to purchase an item.
benton.org/node/179031 | Hill, The | Bloomberg
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

POLICYMAKERS

WHEELER NO SHRINKING VIOLET
[SOURCE: Brookings, AUTHOR: Darrell West]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler does not think small. Since he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in November, he has laid out an ambitious agenda to transform telecommunications and move the country fully into the information age. Over the past months since he took office, he has launched several major initiatives on protecting competition, channel sharing, improving access, helping students, ensuring an open Internet, and adapting regulation to 21st century markets.
benton.org/node/179014 | Brookings
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

STORIES FROM ABROAD

TURKISH TWITTER BAN
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Andrea Peterson]
Through the digital wizardly of Google Trends searches, we can take a peek at how the ban on Twitter may have affected Turkish users' online behaviors. Searches for circumvention techniques have increased by an order of magnitude. Local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) appear to have initially implemented the ban by Domain Name System (DNS) rerouting. DNS is sort of like a phone book that translates a URL into the series of numbers that make up an IP address so browsers can navigate the Web. By changing the DNS record, ISPs could redirect Turkish Internet users to a page notifying them of the reasons for the ban. But getting around DNS redirection is as simple as changing the DNS server record on your computer to point to a public server not affected by the blocking order -- which is just what many Turkish Twitter users did. And that's reflected in the Google Trend data: There was a huge spike in searches for DNS at the beginning of the ban. In fact, as the chart shows, searches for DNS far outweighed searches for the most common local spelling of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's name. Searches for DNS start to fall at roughly the same time that a tougher IP level block was rolled out. Once that was in effect, changing the DNS record no longer allowed users to access Twitter. But other methods like using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or the anonymous browsing tool Tor would still allow users to get around the ban.
benton.org/node/179028 | Washington Post
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.