July 2014

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

SENATOR 'WITHIN INCHES' OF NSA REFORM DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kate Tummarello]
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is close to an agreement with Obama Administration on how to rein in government surveillance. Sen Leahy said that he is “impressed” with the Administration’s efforts to work towards a compromise. “A whole lot of people are coming together, from the intelligence agencies, law enforcement, the administration,” he said. According to an aide to Sen Leahy, the senator and the Administration are “within inches” of an agreement on legislation. If a deal is reached, the bill could head straight to the Senate floor, the aide said.
benton.org/node/195915 | Hill, The
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SECURITY/PRIVACY

WHAT THE INTERNET CAN SEE FROM YOUR CAT PICTURES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Derek Willis]
Using cat pictures -- that essential building block of the Internet -- and a supercomputer, Owen Mundy, an assistant professor of art at Florida State University, built a site that shows the locations of the cats (at least at some point in time, given their nature) and, presumably, of their owners. His site displays random images from a sample of one million of what Mundy estimates are at least 15 million pictures tagged with the word “cat” online. The images are displayed on a map using satellite imagery, with nearby cat photos also visible. Specific street addresses are not displayed, but the geographic information can leave few details to the imagination in rural areas. The lesson for people who share pictures online, whether it’s kittens or your children, is this: If you include more metadata than you have to with your photos, don’t be surprised if it’s used online in ways you didn’t expect and can’t fully control.
benton.org/node/195523 | New York Times
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VERIZON'S OFFER: LET US TRACK YOU, GET FREE STUFF
[SOURCE: CNNMoney, AUTHOR: James O'Toole]
Verizon just announced a new program called "Smart Rewards" that offers customers credit card-style perks like discounts for shopping, travel and dining. You accrue points through the program by doing things like signing onto the Verizon website, paying your bill online and participating in the company's trade-in program. The catch? Smart Rewards participants have to sign up for Verizon Selects, a program through which Verizon collects data on your location, Web browsing and mobile app usage for marketing purposes. That data is used in Verizon's "Precision Market Insights" business, which combines information on phone activity with demographic data to generate reports for marketers.
benton.org/node/195889 | CNNMoney
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GOOGLE MUST FACE PRIVACY SUIT OVER COMMINGLED USER DATA
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jonathan Stempel]
US District Judge Paul Grewal rejected Google’s bid to dismiss a privacy lawsuit claiming it commingled user data across different products and disclosed that data to advertisers without permission. Saying his decision was a close call, Judge Grewal ruled that Google must face breach of contract and fraud claims by users of Android-powered devices who had downloaded at least one Android application through Google Play. Other parts of the lawsuit were dismissed, including claims brought on behalf of account users who switched to non-Android devices from Android devices after Google changed its privacy policy in 2012 to allow the commingling.
benton.org/node/195527 | Reuters
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PROSECUTORS READING E-MAILS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
Jailhouse conversations have been many a defendant’s downfall through incriminating words spoken to inmates or visitors, or in phone calls to friends or relatives. Inmates’ calls to or from lawyers, however, are generally exempt from such monitoring. But across the country, federal prosecutors have begun reading prisoners’ e-mails to lawyers. The issue has spurred court battles over whether inmates have a right to confidential e-mail communications with their lawyers -- a question on which federal judges have been divided.
benton.org/node/195985 | New York Times
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

WHO GOVERNS THE INTERNET?
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Shane Tews]
During a discussion on “Who governs the Internet”, Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda noted that “The Internet is a platform for the creation and distribution of wealth.” If anyone knows this, it is Ambassador Sepulveda, who through his role as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy actively engages with government officials from all over the world -- all of whom seem to have a keen understanding that the Internet brings innovation and creativity that benefit individuals, civil society, and local economies. This universal understanding of the benefits of the Internet is good news seeing as we’ve heard quite a bit lately about challenges the Internet has brought to the diplomatic table; countries pushing for data localization, raising privacy concerns, blocking social networks, and trying to keep up in the fight against cybercrime. The Internet governance landscape has entered a period of transformation. As pointed out by ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker, technological change is continuously testing the boundaries of organizational and political assumptions, and the policy framework must adjust. But even in this period of upheaval, it is not completely clear why Internet governance -- a relatively technical and bureaucratic issue -- should be receiving as much attention as it has recently. American University Professor and author Laura DeNardis said it best: “Arrangements of technical architecture are always arrangements of power.” Perhaps the public is realizing that there is an awful lot of power in those Internet connections?
benton.org/node/195993 | American Enterprise Institute
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY ASSISTANT SECRETARY STRICKLING AT THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
[SOURCE: National Telecommunications and Information Administration, AUTHOR: Lawrence Strickling]
I want to focus on what has been happening in response to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) announcement in March that we intend to transition our stewardship role with respect to the Internet domain name system (DNS). What is NTIA’s role today with respect to the domain name system? And what is changing? This transition is the last step in a process that started 16 years ago when the US government committed to allowing the private sector to take leadership for domain name system management. In 1998, the Department of Commerce designated the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to perform what are known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). First, as ICANN has performed the IANA functions over the years, it has matured as an organization and has taken important steps to improve its accountability and transparency as well as its technical competence. Second, as witnessed so strongly in the past several months, international support has continued to grow for the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. And as a result, many of the Internet’s key stakeholders support this transition. NTIA's contract with ICANN simply designates it to perform the IANA functions. Neither ICANN nor the United States pays anything to each other under this contract. Now that ICANN has demonstrated its ability to perform these functions with the support of the community, there is no longer a need for the United States to designate ICANN to perform these functions and we are not obligated to maintain a contract when it is no longer needed.
benton.org/node/195907 | National Telecommunications and Information Administration
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DEAF ADVOCACY GROUPS TO VERIZON: DON’T KILL NET NEUTRALITY ON OUR BEHALF
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jon Brodkin]
The absence of network neutrality rules isn't just good for Verizon -- it's also good for the blind, deaf, and disabled, Verizon claims. Now, advocacy groups for deaf people have filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission saying they don't agree with Verizon's position. "While we strongly believe that Internet-based services and applications must be made accessible, we also believe that doing so is possible on an open network and without the need for broadband providers to specifically identify traffic from accessibility applications and separate it out for special treatment,” the filing said. The comments were filed by Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; the National Association of the Deaf; the Hearing Loss Association of America; Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network; and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access.
benton.org/node/195515 | Ars Technica
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AVOID A TIERED INTERNET
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Thea Selby]
[Commentary] I am sitting at an airport writing [Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler] this letter because I feel it is so important both to innovation and to freedom of speech that we do not have a tiered system for our Internet, where the poorer people and the smaller companies and startups get one slow speed and the wealthy get another. This world is getting ever more tiered…. That's the problem with tiering things. You no longer have a group of people who will work together for something that has created an enormous amount of good for the world - the Internet - but instead you break the world up into haves and have-nots, give the haves a tremendous advantage over the have-nots, and wonder why gaps of income, education, innovation levels and standards of living are growing ever wider. [Selby is a mom of two kids and a small-business owner in San Francisco]
benton.org/node/195998 | San Francisco Chronicle
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ACA TO FCC: NET RULES FAIL UNLESS APPLIED TO EDGE PROVIDERS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The American Cable Association (ACA), representing small cable operators, told the Federal Communications Commission that its proposed new network neutrality rules will not protect Internet openness unless they extend to content (edge) providers like search engines and not just ISPs. It is the first time ACA has asked the FCC to regulate edge providers, including online programmers.
benton.org/node/195513 | Broadcasting&Cable
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COMCAST’S WORST NIGHTMARE: HOW TENNESSEE COULD SAVE AMERICA’S INTERNET
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: David Sirota]
[Commentary] With Census figures showing more than 1 in 5 Tennessee residents having no Internet connection, Chattanooga (TN) public electric utility EPB is now proposing to offer its ultra-fast services to new communities. But it needs the Federal Communications Commission to preempt the Tennessee statute prohibiting the utility from competing with private telecom companies outside its current market. For EPB, the good news is that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has repeatedly pledged that in the name of competition and broadband access, he will support preempting state laws like Tennessee’s. However, in a capital run by money, EPB may still be politically overpowered. After all, as a community-owned utility in a midsized city, EPB does not have the lobbyists and campaign cash to match those of behemoths like Comcast and AT&T. What the utility does have is a solid track record and a pro-consumer, pro-competition argument. The question is: Will that be enough to prevent Wheeler from backing down or being blocked by Congress? The future of the Internet may be at stake in the answer.
benton.org/node/195511 | Salon
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TELEVISION/RADIO

HOUSE APPROVES BIPARTISAN SATELLITE TELEVISION REAUTHORIZATION
[SOURCE: House of Representatives Commerce Committee, AUTHOR: Press release]
The House of Representatives approved bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the nation’s satellite television law to ensure that millions of satellite subscribers continue to receive broadcast programming. H.R. 4572, the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014, which was approved by voice vote, reauthorizes the communications and copyright provisions of existing law for five years and makes a number of narrow reforms to better meet the needs of today’s video marketplace. The legislation is a joint product of the House Energy and Commerce and Judiciary Committees. Authored by Upton, Walden, full committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo (D-CA), H.R. 4572 makes the following targeted reforms to the video marketplace:
Prohibits joint retransmission consent negotiations;
Provides broadcasters additional time to unwind business arrangements deemed no longer in the public interest by the FCC through its recent changes in how it calculates ownership interests under the media ownership rules;
Eliminates the “sweeps” week prohibition on signal change; and
Eliminates the set-top box integration ban.
benton.org/node/195905 | House of Representatives Commerce Committee | Reuters | The Hill | Multichannel News
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HERE’S HOW MANY SUBSCRIBERS AEREO HAD LAST YEAR
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Peter Kafka]
While Aereo generated lots of attention from the media world in the run-up to its Supreme Court case, consumers may have been less interested. Paperwork filed with the US Copyright Office indicates that the startup ended 2013 with 77,596 subscribers, spread out among 10 cities. About 27,000 of those subscribers lived in the New York City area, which was Aereo’s first market, and launched in the spring of 2012. Boston, which launched in the spring of 2013, had 12,000 subscribers. The Atlanta area, which also launched in 2013, accounted for 10,000 subscribers.
benton.org/node/195521 | Revere Digital | ars technica | GigaOm
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OWNERSHIP

ANTITRUST FOR A NEW GILDED AGE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steven Davidoff Solomon]
[Commentary] In the past few months, it seems gigantic, industry-consolidating acquisitions are all the rage. Are these the new trusts? The answer may be yes, unfortunately. Today’s trusts are eerily similar to those of the Gilded Age, except they seek not quite to eliminate the competition but merely to dominate the market with a few competitors at most. Those differences are important for the antitrust laws. The century-old antitrust laws do not seem up to the task. Perhaps it is time to create laws for a new Gilded Age and provide regulators the power to determine if megadeals are truly good for America. These megacompanies have good reason to rush to grow to enormous size. Today’s economy requires grand scale in many areas. Size gives these companies the ability to negotiate more ably with each other and meet looming technology threats. The potential round of mergers in the cable and media industry is about obtaining the leverage needed to negotiate cable access fees and deal with new broadcast technology on the Internet. These new combinations are also not monopolies.
[Steven Davidoff Solomon, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley]
benton.org/node/195990 | New York Times
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ANALYST: SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Michael Farrell]
The rising number of media mergers expected to fall on the Federal Communications Commission’s doorstep could force the regulatory agency to consider blocking at least one of the mega-deals before it, influential media analyst Craig Moffett wrote. In his report, Moffett noted that all of those deals -- and probably several more that haven’t been announced yet -- trace their reason for being to the enormous scale and power that Comcast/TWC will have over the television and broadband industry. And that, Moffett wrote, is why at least one of them could be blocked by the agency. But which one will get the boot? Moffett isn’t speculating -- he added that the anti-trust case against Comcast/TWC is weak, the companies’ footprints don’t overlap and no competitor would be eliminated. But he noted the combined company would control about 40% of the broadband customers in the country, a figure that could raise eyebrows.
benton.org/node/195899 | Multichannel News
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HOLD COMCAST ACCOUNTABLE
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Joe Garofoli]
As part of its takeover of NBC-Universal in 2010, Comcast promised Federal Communications regulators that it would help give low-income residents better access to broadband, offering a bridge across the digital divide. But a coalition of California activists said that the cable giant has fallen far short of building that bridge. And now, with Comcast coming back to the FCC to bless its $45 billion takeover of Time-Warner Cable, the activists want the federal agency to start demanding that Comcast do more to help low-income folks get access to broadband.
benton.org/node/195997 | San Francisco Chronicle
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COMCAST BROADBAND GAINS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Miriam Gottfried]
[Commentary] For Comcast, broadband strength could prove a weakness. In the second quarter, Comcast added broadband subscribers at a faster pace than the rest of the broadband industry. Regulators are in the midst of reviewing Comcast's proposed buy of Time Warner Cable. While the two don't compete against each other in any markets, one concern among critics of the deal is that the two together will control too much of the nation's high-speed broadband services, roughly 40%. Netflix said that at the very least the government should impose a condition preventing Comcast from charging fees to Internet companies to guarantee faster content delivery. Building such a condition into any approval of the deal might also help Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler appease critics of his latest proposal to regulate net neutrality, which would allow broadband providers to charge such fees.
benton.org/node/195995 | Wall Street Journal
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HOLLYWOOD FRETS OVER FOX-TIME WARNER
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Garrahan]
The anxiety level in Hollywood ticked up several notches when news broke of an unsolicited $73bn bid by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox group for Time Warner. The deal would combine two of Hollywood’s largest film studios – 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers -- and create a film company responsible for about a third of all US box-office sales and blockbuster franchises. 21st Century Fox has said it would maintain the independence of the fierce rivals 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. But behind the scenes the proposed 21st Century Fox purchase has caused alarm in the creative community that is Hollywood’s engine. “We are adamantly opposed to the idea,” says David Young, executive director of the Writers Guild of America West. “We think it’s a disaster for talent in Hollywood and bad social policy,” he adds. “Markets are efficient when there are a lot of people in them buying and selling. If markets get consolidated and there’s a concentration of power what we will see is writers being paid less to create and consumers having to pay more.”
benton.org/node/195988 | Financial Times
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JOURNALISM

HOW PUBLIC MEDIA COLLABORATIONS ARE CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOCAL REPORTING
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Gabriel Rosenberg]
There are seven Local Journalism Centers scattered throughout the United States. Supported at launch by two-year grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the LJCs are designed to foster regional journalistic collaborations, and to allow local reporters to become authorities on subjects of national importance. They’re also opportunities for local public stations to figure out how to build something sustainable -- both in content and in finances. After five years of trial and error and almost $16 million of investment from CPB, the projects are beginning to stand on their own. According to the executive director of one such LJC, Inside Energy, Alisa Barba, the goal is to ready the work of local stations for national -- and even international -- exposure.
benton.org/node/195894 | Columbia Journalism Review
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LOBBYING

ONE MILLION NET NEUTRALITY COMMENTS VS. $42 MILLION IN ISP LOBBYING
[SOURCE: Revere Digital, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz]
Newly released lobbying figures show that broadband providers are still far outpacing Internet companies on spending in DC, as federal regulators consider how to write new rules for Internet lines. Collectively, Internet service providers (and their trade associations) have spent $42.4 million so far in 2014 on lobbying lawmakers and regulators, according to federal disclosure forms. In the second quarter, Comcast spent $4.45 million on lobbying, while the cable industry’s trade group, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, spent another $4 million. The discrepancy between the spending by the two industries -- which is nothing new -- continues to be a potential problem for net neutrality advocates who are hoping to convince federal regulators to adopt strong rules on Internet lines to prevent broadband providers from discriminating against some traffic.
benton.org/node/195530 | Revere Digital
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SILICON VALLEY CASH FLOWS TO K STREET
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Julian Hattem]
Google, Microsoft and Amazon all beefed up their lobbying spending, new disclosure forms show. Google was one of the tech set's biggest spenders, dropping $5.03 million between April and June, a $1.21 million hike from earlier in 2014 and an increase of $1.67 million from the same period in 2013. The spending complements a new Washington headquarters that Google opened just steps from the Capitol in recent weeks, and could be a sign of increased focus on the Beltway for the company. Microsoft, meanwhile, spent an extra $260,000 on lobbying, bringing its second quarter totals up to $2.34 million. That’s still a decrease from the $2.96 million it spent during the second quarter in 2013. Amazon cracked $1 million in quarterly spending for the first time in its history, as the company put a new focus on drone regulation and postal reform. And Twitter, which is still a relative newcomer to Washington, jumped from $50,000 during the first three months of 2014 to $90,000.
benton.org/node/195508 | Hill, The
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

OECD BROADBAND STATISTICS UPDATE
[SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development , AUTHOR: Press release]
Wireless broadband penetration has grown to 72.4% in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area, according to December 2013 data, meaning there are almost three wireless subscriptions for every four inhabitants. Wireless broadband subscriptions in the 34-country group were up 14.6% from a year earlier to a total of 910 million, driven by continuing strong demand for smartphones and tablets. Seven countries (Finland, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Korea and the United States) now lie above the 100% penetration threshold.
benton.org/node/195528 | Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development | GigaOm
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HOW THE EU'S 'RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN' RULE IS BACKFIRING COMPLETELY
[SOURCE: Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Catherine Taibi]
When the European Union's so called "right to be forgotten" policy was instituted in May, news outlets worried that the ruling could have a negative impact on the media. Some publishers are finding the opposite. Some outlets, like the Oxford Mail, expressed concerns that the ruling might be "misused" by criminals and public figures like celebrities and politicians who "want to hide embarrassing stuff." What actually happened was a little different. The Mail saw the link to its story about a man caught shoplifting removed from Google in July. In response, the website published what happened, republished information about the shoplifter, and attracted tens of thousands of new, curious readers.
benton.org/node/195891 | Huffington Post | Mousetrap Media
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EU PREPARES TO STEP UP GOOGLE INVESTIGATIONS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Tom Fairless]
European Union antitrust regulators are preparing to step up their investigations into Google on several fronts, including revisiting a proposed settlement over its search-engine practices that has met with unprecedented opposition. The European Commission is likely to revise some terms of a settlement announced in February, aimed at dealing with concerns that the company abuses its dominance of online searches in Europe, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The antitrust probes are only one element of a number of challenges faced by Google in Europe, where the company has faced allegations over issues ranging from corporate taxes to copyright issues to data privacy. The commission is also deepening a second line of investigation into Google's business practices relating to its Android operating system for mobile phones. The Android inquiry isn't yet a formal investigation, but it is likely to become one, the person said.
benton.org/node/195525 | Wall Street Journal
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BETTER BROADBAND IN UK
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas]
For Sajid Javid, the pragmatic former banker turned UK culture secretary, improving the UK’s much criticised broadband and mobile networks is his most important goal ahead of the next general election. But the government’s focus on pushing operators to improve mobile services in rural areas of the UK, in particular, faces mounting industry opposition, even as work progresses on other parts of a digital strategy that hopes to create national networks that will rival any in Europe. The Department for Culture, Media & Sport faces a potential quagmire of objections about plans to bridge gaps in mobile coverage using “national roaming”, whereby a customer of any operator would be able to use the network of another.
benton.org/node/195975 | Financial Times
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BRITAIN’S NEED FOR SPEED
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Since coming to office in 2010, David Cameron has striven to be Britain’s prime minister for broadband. A technophile whose admiration for Silicon Valley is well known, he has extolled the virtues of faster connectivity as a means of reviving the UK’s industrial fortunes and bringing more tourists to the country’s shores. Targets have been set to wire up the UK, eliminate so-called “not spots” and increase average download speeds. During the past four years, the coalition has earmarked more than £1.3bn of public money for the construction of broadband networks and mobile infrastructure in digitally excluded areas. Cameron is right to harp on about the importance of “bringing China to Cardiff, Brazil to Bristol and the Emirates to Edinburgh”. Not least, this is an important mission if the coalition is to rebalance the British economy away from its pre-crash bias towards the London and the south east and financial services. But the UK tech revolution is a work in progress. Like the nation’s broadband speeds themselves, it needs to move faster.
benton.org/node/195973 | Financial Times
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July 2014

The PCLOB Report and Eight Questions About Section 702

Comcast IPv6 Milestone Reached

FCC Dismisses Sinclair, Buckeye Complaints

President Obama Campaign Donor Wins FCC Waiver From Auction Rules

Missions and Network-Building: How One Rural District is Making the Edtech Transition

New developments in K-12 technology integration

July 23, 2014 ('Within Inches' of NSA Reform Deal?)

Keep net neutrality - avoid a tiered Internet

Broadband activists to FCC: Hold Comcast accountable before Time-Warner deal

Comcast Broadband Gains Could Cause Deal Strain