May 2014

INTERNET/BROADBAND

THE FCC CHAIRMAN’S EXCUSES
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Marvin Ammori]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has been defending his latest network neutrality proposal, but t’s get one thing straight: He is not backing off his plan to hand the keys to the Internet over to the cable and phone industries. The chairman told the cable industry to “put away the party hats” because he’s not actually going to kill network neutrality. But his proposal is the same plan offered by the largest cable and phone companies, which have tried to kill network neutrality for almost a decade. Since 2006, the phone and cable industries have proposed a world where they won’t “block” any websites, but they will simply create a lane for all websites and then charge anyone who wants better service for a fast lane. They have fought a nondiscrimination rule for at least eight years, using tens of millions of dollars. The tolls for the fast lane may be tied to bandwidth or a company’s revenue. Finally, the cable and phone giants want this world to have no clear rules -- just vague principles about what might be “commercially reasonable,” which is an invitation for small companies to sue the giants if they’re unhappy. Since the cable and telephone companies have more FCC lawyers than most companies have employees, they will scare off most potential companies suing and then beat the rest in “FCC court.” That’s basically what the chairman is backing -- the often proposed AT&T/Verizon plan.
[Ammori is a Future Tense fellow at New America, a practicing lawyer, and a visiting scholar at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet Society]
benton.org/node/182732 | Slate
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

NETFLIX BRINGS NET NEUTRALITY CONCERNS TO US REGULATORS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alina Selyukh]
After weeks of public outcry, Netflix brought its concerns about Internet neutrality directly to US regulators in meetings with Federal Communications Commission staff, according to sources familiar with the matter. Netflix recently agreed to pay such fees to Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications to ensure smooth delivery of its videos, but it argues they weaken the principle of net neutrality, which says all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Netflix's representatives brought that message to the FCC commissioners' offices in meeting with advisers over the course of several days, the sources said, as the agency prepares to rewrite so-called Open Internet rules that regulate net neutrality by setting limits to how Internet providers treat web traffic crossing their networks.
benton.org/node/182714 | Reuters
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

PRESERVING NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wants to know: "What is the FCC thinking?" So should every Internet user who values net neutrality, the core principle that holds that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Hastings posed the question on his Facebook page in response to Federal Communication Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to let Internet service providers charge content companies higher fees for faster access for their users. The FCC will take a preliminary vote May 15 on Wheeler's proposal. If it passes, it's the death of the Internet as we know it. Silicon Valley and consumers everywhere need to rise up and demand that net neutrality be preserved.
benton.org/node/182742 | San Jose Mercury News
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

THE END OF THE PERMISSIONLESS WEB
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] The first generation of the Internet did not go well for regulators. Despite early proposals to register websites and require government approval for business practices, the Internet in the U.S. developed largely without bureaucratic control and became an unstoppable engine of innovation and economic growth. Regulators don't plan to make the same mistake with the next generation of innovations. Bureaucrats and prosecutors are moving in to undermine services that use the Internet in new ways to offer everything from getting a taxi to using self-driving cars to finding a place to stay. What has made the Internet revolutionary is that it's permissionless. No one had to get approval from Washington or city hall to offer Google searches, Facebook profiles or Apple apps, as Adam Thierer of George Mason University notes in his new book, "Permissionless Innovation." A bipartisan consensus in the 1990s led Washington to allow commercial development of the Internet without onerous regulations. Unlike the earlier telecommunications and broadcasting industries, Internet entrepreneurs didn't need licenses to proceed, just good ideas. The hardest thing for government regulators to do is to regulate less, which is why the development of the open-innovation Internet was a rare achievement. The regulation the digital economy needs most now is for permissionless innovation to become the default law of the land, not the exception.
benton.org/node/182741 | Wall Street Journal
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

EDUCATION

WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU ANNOUNCES CARRY-FORWARD OF UNUSED SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUNDS FOR FUNDING YEAR 2014
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted projections of demand and administrative expenses for the federal universal service fund for the second quarter of 2014. According to USAC’s projections, $600 million in unused funds from previous funding years is available to carry forward to increase disbursements to schools and libraries via the E-rate program, more formally known as the schools and libraries universal service program. On April 17, 2014, USAC submitted an estimate of demand for the E-rate program for Funding Year 2014 (July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015) of $4.825 billion, which includes estimated demand for priority one services (telecommunications, telecommunications services and Internet access) of $2.630 billion. The Wireline Competition Bureau announces that $200 million in unused funds will be carried forward to ensure funding is available for all eligible priority one funding requests received from schools and libraries in Funding Year 2014 in excess of the annual cap.
benton.org/node/182720 | Federal Communications Commission
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

TELEVISION

GOOD TO SEE NAB GETTING TOUGH WITH FCC
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
It's unusual for a trade association to send a cease-and-desist letter to a federal regulatory agency, but that's just what National Association of Broadcasters did. It told the Federal Communications Commission to back off on its transaction-based regulation of shared services agreement by May 8 or else. The NAB didn't specify the or-else, but we can presume that it is a court challenge. Either that or the NAB intends to send a single-combat champion to duke it out with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler right there on 12th Street SW. The NAB contends that even though the FCC acknowledged in its March 31 order banning joint sales agreements that it has yet to build enough of a record to regulate shared service agreements (SSAs), it has already begun to do so in the context of the station sales reviews based on a March 12 public notice. In that notice, the FCC said it would "closely scrutinize" all deals that appear to circumvent local ownership limits through joint sales agreements (JSAs), SSAs, local marketing agreements and financial entanglements. By encompassing SSAs, the notice is "fatally premature," the NAB says in its threatening letter. The notice "cannot be squared with the March 31 decision, reflects unreasoned action and sends conflicting signals to broadcasters as to the rules of the game for sharing arrangements." The NAB's action reflects mounting frustration among broadcasters who are seeking FCC approval of deals that involve the alphabet soup of ownership rule work-arounds. The deals were done in good faith and based on FCC precedent.
benton.org/node/182721 | TVNewsCheck
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

PATENTS

SAMSUNG-APPLE DECISION
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daisuke Wakabayashi, Ian Sherr]
Apple won a small victory in its latest patent dispute with Samsung, but largely failed in its attempt to slow competitors to its landmark iPhone. A federal-court jury ruled that some Samsung devices infringed on two Apple software patents, but didn't infringe on two others; the judge had earlier ruled that Samsung infringed on a fifth patent. The jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $119.6 million in damages, far short of the $2.2 billion Apple had been seeking, and less than the $930 million Apple was awarded in an earlier trial in the same courtroom. The same jury ruled that Apple infringed on one Samsung patent and awarded Samsung $158,400. One legal analyst called the verdict a victory for Samsung. "This amount is less than 10% of the amount Apple requested and probably doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case," said Brian Love, assistant professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "Apple launched this litigation campaign years ago with aspirations of slowing the meteoric rise of Android phone manufacturers. It has so far failed to do so, and this case won't get it any closer."
benton.org/node/182734 | Wall Street Journal | LA Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

WILL T-MOBILE’S GAINS STAND IN THE WAY OF A SPRINT DEAL?
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Ina Fried, Amy Schatz]
[Commentary] Once again, T-Mobile is boasting about how its wireless growth outpaced the rest of the industry combined. And rarely does a week go by without CEO John Legere touting all of the many ways that his un-carrier is shaking things up. But the question now is whether those market share gains -- and all that bluster -- will actually make it harder for T-Mobile and Sprint to complete a merger that many say the companies need to become a long-term competitor to Verizon and AT&T. “The answer is 100 percent yes,” said wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma. “It would have been easier to push through a deal if T-Mobile was weaker than it is today. In an ironic twist of fate, the recent success of T-Mobile has worked against them.”
benton.org/node/182717 | Revere Digital
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

PRIVACY/SECURITY

ADVERTISERS TO WHITE HOUSE: STICK TO SELF-REGULATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Ad agencies have at least one bone to pick with the White House over the Administration's Big Data report. The report proposed, among other things, promoted legislation that would enhance communications privacy laws and put legislative muscle behind the voluntary agreements the Administration is pushing for as part of its privacy bill of rights. The Association of National Advertisers praised the "thoughtful, balanced review" and the report's acknowledgement that "online advertising has been a vital driver of the growth of the Internet." It also said it supported national data breach legislation. But it was not so happy with suggestions for legislating privacy protections. "[W]e do not believe there is a present need for broad new privacy legislation," ANA said. "Rather, consumers can be best protected through a combination of existing privacy laws and regulations, privacy enhancing technologies, effective self-regulation and the ultimate backstop of the powers of the Federal Trade Commission to stop false, deceptive or unfair acts or practices."
benton.org/node/182716 | Broadcasting&Cable
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

SERIOUS SECURITY FLAW IN OAUTH, OPENID DISCOVERED
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Aloysius Low, Seth Rosenblatt]
Following in the steps of the OpenSSL vulnerability Heartbleed, another major flaw has been found in popular open-source security software. This time, the holes have been found in the login tools OAuth and OpenID, used by many websites and tech titans including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, among others. Wang Jing, a Ph.D student at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, discovered that the serious vulnerability "Covert Redirect" flaw can masquerade as a login popup based on an affected site's domain. Facebook isn't the only site affected. Wang says he has reported this to Google, LinkedIn and Microsoft, who gave him various responses on how they would handle the matter. Google (which uses OpenID) told him that the problem was being tracked, while LinkedIn said that the company would publish a blog on the matter soon. Microsoft, on the other hand, said that an investigation had been done and that the vulnerability existed on a the domain of a third-party and not on its own sites.
benton.org/node/182715 | C-Net|News.com | Fast Company
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

IMMUNITY FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Spencer Ackerman]
The White House has asked legislators crafting competing reforms of the National Security Agency to provide legal immunity for telecommunications firms that provide the government with customer data. In a statement of principles privately delivered to lawmakers some weeks ago to guide surveillance reforms, the White House said it wanted legislation protecting “any person who complies in good faith with an order to produce records” from legal liability for complying with court orders for phone records to the government once the NSA no longer collects the data in bulk. The brief request, contained in a four-page document, echoes a highly controversial provision of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which provided retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that allowed the NSA to access calls and call data between Americans and foreigners, voiding lawsuits against them. Barack Obama’s vote for that bill as a senator and presidential candidate disappointed many supporters. A congressional aide said the telecommunications companies were expected to “fight hard” for the provision to survive in any surveillance bill. Those firms, including Verizon and AT&T, have typically kept far more silent in public about NSA surveillance and their role in it than internet giants, like Yahoo and Google, which have pushed for reforms.
benton.org/node/182731 | Guardian, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

PROPAGANDA FEARS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
The House is moving to overhaul the handful of taxpayer-funded media organizations, but critics say the changes would turn the Voice of America into a tool for pro-western propaganda. The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill to make “dramatic reforms” to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees the government-backed outlets. One of the highest profile changes in the new bill is an explicit statement that news at the Voice of America, the US’s flagship foreign broadcaster, “is consistent with and promotes the broad foreign policies of the United States.” Lawmakers said that US organizations operate at a disadvantage and need leeway to promote and explain American policies, as other state-funded broadcasters do. But the legislation has raised concerns the outlet could turn into a propaganda machine.
benton.org/node/182730 | Hill, The
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

DON’T LET FEDS RUMMAGE THROUGH CELL PHONES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] When most human activities involve screens and sensors that automatically save data on remote computers, what legal standards should constrain law enforcement's access to that distant information? It's essential that we get this right, because mobile phones are just plastic boxes that gather and generate data for distant use. What's important about the handset is the link it provides between a person and all that data. Beyond accessing immediate, on-the-spot communications to protect the safety of arresting officers, any further examination of a phone at the time of an arrest should be made by law enforcement only under the supervision of a judicial officer. Law enforcement officials often maintain that the advent of the digital era means they need broad new authority to track and apprehend criminals. They call the digitization of information "going dark." But the reality of mobile-phone technology, and the power we humans allow mobile phones to have over our life patterns, belies this claim. Rather than going dark, these digital times are allowing law enforcement to shed more light on human lives than ever before. We shouldn't let this happen without independent judicial oversight. [Crawford is the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property, Harvard Law School]
benton.org/node/182722 | Bloomberg
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

LOBBYING

CABLE’S TARNISHED REVOLUTION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
If any industry knows it has an image problem, it is the cable business. Just about every consumer has experienced the anxious wait for a technician who might or might not arrive during the dreaded four-hour “window.” Experiences like that, as well as service failures and rising rates, create a bad reputation that is hard to shake. Industry executives understand that. Michael K. Powell, chief executive of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the trade group that held its annual convention last week, thinks he might have a solution. “We’re going to try to eliminate the word ‘cable’ from our name,” he said in an interview on the sprawling exhibition floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Powell was joking, of course, but only by half. “It’s a cynical way to look at it,” he said. “But here we are, a high-tech, multiplatform service industry. And we’ve got this albatross around our neck.” Powell gazed across the convention floor. “Maybe something with the word ‘freedom’ in it...”
benton.org/node/182740 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

JOURNALISM

MEDIA SLANT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: N Gregory Mankiw]
What determines whether a newspaper leans left or right? If a paper serves a liberal community, it is likely to lean left, and if it serves a conservative community, it is likely to lean right. In addition, once its political slant is set, a paper is more likely to be read by households who share its perspective. Religiosity also plays a role in the story. In regions where a high percentage of the population attends church regularly, there are more conservatives, and newspapers have a conservative slant. The bottom line is simple: Media owners generally do not try to mold the population to their own brand of politics. Instead, like other business owners, they maximize profit by giving customers what they want. [Mankiw is a professor of economics at Harvard]
benton.org/node/182736 | New York Times
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

ACCESSIBILITY

FCC ACCUSES PURPLE OF CHEATING DEAF
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
The Federal Communications Commission announced that it will issue a $11.9 million fine against Purple Communications, for allegedly improperly billing a government fund dedicated to providing assistive communication services to the deaf, hearing-impaired and those with speech impairments. Purple is one of several companies authorized by the government to provide government-supported services for those communities, by way of the telecommunications relay fund. Broadly, this fund reimburses companies that provide transcription services and other services to the deaf. Companies that provide these services are reimbursed for every minute that they provide them. They are required to verify that those who use their services have legitimate names and mailing addresses. The FCC has been concerned about abuses within the program. In its statement, the FCC said that Purple was reimbursed for providing some of its services to "customers with names that were so clearly false that they could not have been the actual names of eligible users." These names included “sdfsdf cicwcicw,” “ Myname Yourname,” and “Lot$a Money," according to the release.
benton.org/node/182733 | Washington Post | FCC
Share: Twitter | Facebook
back to top

Benton

Search

Benton

Daily Digest

Analysis

May 2014

Candidates struggling amid outside ad spending

ITU releases 2014 ICT figures

Life in the Slow Lane

May 5, 2014 (Feliz Cinco de Mayo)

FCC chair's top priority should be preserving network neutrality

The End of the Permissionless Web

At Cable Convention, an Industry Tries to Face Up to Its Tarnished Reputation

Ro Khanna offers upgrade in Congress for Silicon Valley