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October 2014

Pressing Fwd.us: How Silicon Valley’s $50 Million Bet on Immigration Stalled

When President Barack Obama decided in early September to postpone immigration reform, it marked the beginning of the end of Joe Green’s tenure as the head of one of Silicon Valley’s most ambitious political groups, playing into a stereotype that often surrounds the tech industry’s efforts at Beltway dealmaking: They’re amateurs.

NAB General Counsel and EVP of Legal Affairs Jane Mago Announces Retirement

Jane Mago, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the National Association of Broadcasters Legal Department, informed the NAB Board of Directors of her intention to retire from the broadcast trade association following a 10-year career. NAB President Gordon Smith announced that Rick Kaplan, NAB Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning, will succeed Mago as head of the NAB Legal Department.

Mago, who came to NAB in 2004 after a 26-year career at the Federal Communications Commission, told the NAB Board she is "calling it a decade" and that she intends to move fulltime from the Washington area and become a resident of Naples, Florida. Mago's NAB career has included numerous highlights, including several appearances as a witness on behalf of NAB before Congressional committees. She helped shepherd the transition from analog to digital television through the FCC, oversaw NAB legal strategies related to the successful Aereo copyright infringement case at the US Supreme Court, spearheaded legal efforts on performance royalty issues, worked collaboratively with the FCC to revitalize AM radio through the use of FM translators, and worked with the Commission to update broadcast emergency alerting.

Mago has been retained as a consultant to NAB through the end of 2015 to assist Kaplan in his transition. She will also help oversee music licensing litigation before the Copyright Royalty Board on behalf of local radio stations. Prior to joining NAB, Mago held many high-level positions at the FCC, including general counsel, chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, deputy chief of the Enforcement Bureau and legal advisor to three commissioners.

Aereo registers lobbyist as it seeks new classification

Aereo registered an in-house lobbyist, as it makes a push to relaunch and be classified like other cable and satellite providers. Virginia Lam, who has handled communications for the company, registered to lobby on "issues pertaining to antennas, broadcast television and television access online." She is senior vice president for communications and government affairs for the company.

Searching for balance: An afternoon with Google’s European privacy roadshow

Should Google simply automate all privacy-related de-linking requests in the EU? Should it err toward not granting them? Should it ultimately be down to national courts to decide, or should data protection authorities have the final say? These are the kinds of questions Google’s European roadshow is dealing with. In each city, Eric Schmidt and his advisory council are taking evidence from half a dozen or so local experts, to help them figure it all out.

October 15, 2014 (What happens in tech policy if Republicans take the Senate?)

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BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014


INTERNET/BROADBAND
   Google is sitting out the net neutrality fight. Here are 4 possible reasons - analysis
   MMTC Panelists Push Sec. 706
   Bright House Takes Advantage Of Netflix/TWC Agreement
   AT&T Gigabit Markets to Include Chicago and Atlanta [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   The Right Way to Fix the Internet
   Sprint Offers $360 Credit for Gullible Existing Customers [links to web]

LABOR
   New rules would protect cell tower workers
   Countering Tech’s Damaging Effect on Jobs - William Galston op-ed
   Tech workers ask appeals court to reject Apple, Google bid

OWNERSHIP
   FCC Chairman Wheeler -- What Data-Driven Decisions Are Important? - op-ed
   Netflix’s Albatross of Content Costs - analysis [links to web]

RESEARCH
   Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries - press release
   One paper by Nobel Prize winner Jean Tirole that every internet user should know - analysis [links to web]
   What Nobel to Tirole means for FCC net neutrality rulemaking: Heed the wisdom and experience of two-sided markets - op-ed [links to web]
   Russian Hackers Used Bug in Microsoft Windows for Spying, Report Says [links to web]

TELEVISION/RADIO
   Native Americans add to Redskins file at FCC [links to web]
   The Future of LPTV/TV Translator Service Taking Shape? - analysis [links to web]
   Our TV shows need political diversity too. Jane the Virgin is helping to fix that [links to web]
   Finally, Some Actual Netflix Viewer Data [links to web]
   TV Still The King Of The Screens: comScore [links to web]
   TV Companies Selling More Spots As Ratings Drop [links to web]

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   What happens in tech policy if Republicans take the Senate? - analysis
   Media coverage of the 2016 presidential race heats up - research [links to web]

ACCESSIBILITY
   Stevie Wonder visits FCC [links to web]

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
   First Responders Left in the Dark on Public Safety Network - analysis [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   Michael Dimock Named President of Pew Research Center - press release [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Ireland to Phase Out Tax Break Used by Technology Firms

MORE ONLINE
   Bitcoin firm fights back against FTC [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

GOOGLE AND THE NETWORK NEUTRALITY DEBATE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
[Commentary] Network neutrality’s one-time corporate champion, Google, is twiddling its thumbs while a group of relative lightweights like Netflix and Etsy publicly take up the fight. While Google (like everyone else) has paid lip service to an “open internet,” and called for wireless companies to be included in the new rules, it has not come out in favor of using “Title II,” which is the Federal Communications Commission’s only legal option to impose net neutrality. Google’s silence is causing chatter in Washington, where insiders offer competing, and sometimes conflicting, explanations for Google’s behavior. Here are four popular theories:
Google is hedging because of its fiber ambitions.
A Republican faction in Google sidelined the pro-net neutrality majority
Google got burned by its last net neutrality fight
Google is all grown up, a mature, diversified company that sits on both sides of many policy issues.
benton.org/headlines/google-sitting-out-net-neutrality-fight-here-are-4-possible-reasons | GigaOm
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MMTC PANEL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council forum on network neutrality rules on Capitol Hill Tuesday might as easily have been a meeting of the "Friends of Sec. 706" club. Not a discouraging word was heard about that option for restoring Open Internet rules thrown out by the court, though a Title II reclassification option came in for plenty of criticism. That outcome was not a surprise given that the participants were all card-carrying fans of a light regulatory touch that they say is what has created innovation and investment in the broadband space. The focus was advertised as ""Title II Versus Section 706: Identifying the Regulatory Framework that Furthers the Goals of Broadband Adoption, Competition, and Deployment." Their conclusion, arguably foregone, was that it was Sec. 706 that best did the job.
benton.org/headlines/mmtc-panelists-push-sec-706 | Multichannel News
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BRIGHT HOUSE AND NETFLIX
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Jeff Baumgartner]
Bright House Networks is taking advantage of a paid interconnection agreement between Time Warner Cable and Netflix that is boosting the quality of Netflix streams delivered to consumers over Bright House's network. According to Netflix, the company has not inked a direct deal with Bright House Networks, but noted that Bright House is benefiting from the interconnection deal originally signed between Netflix and Time Warner Cable. This story originally said that Bright House and Netflix had inked a separate paid interconnection agreement. The results of that work were clearly apparent following the release of Netflix’s ISP Speed Index for the month of September. Among the 16 major U.S. ISPs tracked by Netflix, Bright House jumped five spots in September to number four overall -- delivering an average Netflix stream of 2.99 Mbps for the month, versus 2.58 Mbps in August.
benton.org/headlines/bright-house-takes-advantage-netflixtwc-agreement | Multichannel News
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

THE RIGHT WAY TO FIX THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Technology Review, AUTHOR: George Anders]
Mung Chiang, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton, believed he could give wireless customers more control. Chiang’s plan called for the wireless industry to offer its customers the same types of variable pricing that have brought new efficiencies to transportation and utilities. Rates increase during peak periods, when congestion is at its worst; they decrease during slack periods. In the pre-smartphone era, it would have been impossible to advise users ahead of time about a zig or zag in their connectivity charges. Now, it would be straightforward to vary the price of online access depending on congestion and build an app that let bargain hunters shift their activities to cheaper periods, even on a minute-by-minute basis. When prices were high, consumers could put off non-urgent tasks like downloading Facebook posts to read later. Careful users could save a lot of money. But politics got in the way. A huge debate has erupted about the degree to which Internet carriers should be subject to a concept known as net neutrality.
benton.org/headlines/right-way-fix-internet | Technology Review
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LABOR

CELL TOWER WORKERS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Tim Devaney]
So far this year, the telecommunications industry has seen 11 tower workers die -- a dramatic uptick in workplace deaths from 2012 when only two tower workers lost their lives. The Labor Department and Federal Communications Commission announced they are teaming up to combat a recent rise in workplace deaths. The two agencies announced they are forming a joint working group to develop regulations that would protect cell tower workers.
benton.org/headlines/new-rules-would-protect-cell-tower-workers | Hill, The | FCC Commissioner Clyburn
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TECH AND JOBS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: William Galston]
[Commentary] We need to understand the roots of wage stagnation -- and act boldly to counteract them. Advances in information and communications technology are destroying more jobs in advanced economies than the advances are creating. The digital revolution is opening up a great divide between a skilled and wealthy few and the rest of society. What can we do? For the next decade or two, governments will have to act directly to boost take-home pay. Carefully calibrated minimum-wage increases, expanded wage subsidies and work-sharing programs should be regarded as essential parts of the public tool kit. It is not an easy balance to strike, even in well-functioning political systems. Against the backdrop of our polarized, paralyzed national institutions, it will take leadership of exceptional clarity and skill to do what we must do.
[Galston holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution]
benton.org/headlines/countering-techs-damaging-effect-jobs | Wall Street Journal
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TECH WORKERS REJECT DEAL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Dan Levine]
Employees suing Apple, Google and two other tech companies over hiring practices said an appeals court should not approve a $324.5 million settlement in the case. The workers said that although they believed the $324.5 million deal originally warranted approval, US District Judge Lucy Koh had the proper authority to reject it and they would "defer to (Koh's) sound judgment about how best to oversee this litigation." In rejecting the proposed settlement, Judge Koh repeatedly referred to a related deal last year involving Disney and Intuit. Apple and Google workers got proportionally less in the latest agreement compared with the one involving Disney, Judge Koh wrote. To match the earlier settlement, the latest deal "would need to total at least $380 million," Judge Koh wrote. In the filing on Oct 14, the plaintiffs argued that the $324.5 million deal "ceased to exist" the moment Koh rejected it, by virtue of the settlement terms negotiated by both sides. The companies "should not complain about this state of affairs, given that it is their own doing," attorneys for the employees wrote.
benton.org/headlines/tech-workers-ask-appeals-court-reject-apple-google-bid | Reuters
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OWNERSHIP

DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Robert Kenny]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission appears adrift from its traditional moorings of fact-based, data-driven decision-making. In the FCC’s newly adopted "leap-without-looking" approach, it rammed through new rules that place limits on the joint advertising sales of local TV broadcasters without seeking any current data on the media and entertainment market, or the rapidly changing advertising marketplace to support the need for the new requirements. The FCC instead relied on an outdated joint sales rule designed for FM radio stations in the days before XM-Sirius and the iPod and applied it to local TV broadcasters.
[Kenny is director of Public Affairs for TVfreedom.org, advocating for preserving the retransmission consent regime.]
benton.org/headlines/fcc-chairman-wheeler-what-data-driven-decisions-are-important | Broadcasting&Cable
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RESEARCH

NEW REPORT RESPONDS TO URGENT NEED FOR US PUBLIC LIBRARY TRANSFORMATION
[SOURCE: Aspen Institute, AUTHOR: Press release]
A new report released today from the Aspen Institute looks at how -- in an age of instant and abundant information -- US public libraries can drive community advancements unlike any other public institution. The report explores how public libraries can respond as the digital age increases the demand for high-speed information access, changes in our education systems, innovative job training models and additional community services to help people and communities compete in the new economy. The report is part of the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The multiyear dialogue brings library professionals, policymakers, technology experts, philanthropists, educators and civic leaders together to explore the future of public libraries. The report highlights a number of examples of groundbreaking work and new ways public libraries are meeting the needs of their communities. It also includes 15 action steps that the Dialogue recommends for each of its stakeholder groups: library leaders, policymakers and the community.
benton.org/headlines/rising-challenge-re-envisioning-public-libraries | Aspen Institute | read the report
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

WHAT HAPPENS IF REPUBLICANS TAKE THE SENATE?
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Nancy Scola]
[Commentary] Technology policy is that rarest of things in American politics: a subject that isn't on its face partisan. Party lines are generally no more than a rough guide to how votes on tech issues will turn out. That said, if Republicans indeed -- as is looking increasingly likely -- win back the Senate come Election Day, that change in power would shake up the landscape in all sorts of interesting and non-obvious ways. When it comes to tech policy it may well be a lively 114th Congress.
Patents: A Republican majority, say many observers, could mean near-instant movement on legislation aimed at so-called patent trolls who hold patents solely so they can sue potential infringers.
Net Neutrality: A Republican Congress could move to invalidate any aggressive net neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission passes.
Copyright: Those who track the issue says that nothing much is likely to happen on copyright law in the next Congress -- no matter who controls the Senate.
Surveillance and digital privacy: A Republican Congress could turn its gaze to Executive Order 1233. That tool empowers intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance at the direction of the President; though the order was first signed by President Ronald Reagan, Republicans might be eager to remove the power from Obama's hands.
benton.org/headlines/what-happens-tech-policy-if-republicans-take-senate | Washington Post
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

IRELAND TO PHASE OUT TAX BREAK
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephen Castle, Mark Scott]
After years of debate over tax breaks that have helped lure big multinational corporations to Ireland, the Irish government said that it would phase out a measure used by technology companies including Google to reduce their bills. The tax provision, which has attracted the scrutiny of European Union regulators and is known as “double Irish,” will end next year, although companies already using it will be able to do so until the end of 2020. Despite the long phase-out period, the move reflects the growing pressure from regulators, international organizations and consumers to get more tax revenue from multinationals adept at exploiting different nations’ tax laws.
benton.org/headlines/ireland-phase-out-tax-break-used-technology-firms | New York Times | WSJ | recode
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What happens in tech policy if Republicans take the Senate?

[Commentary] Technology policy is that rarest of things in American politics: a subject that isn't on its face partisan. Party lines are generally no more than a rough guide to how votes on tech issues will turn out. That said, if Republicans indeed -- as is looking increasingly likely -- win back the Senate come Election Day, that change in power would shake up the landscape in all sorts of interesting and non-obvious ways. When it comes to tech policy it may well be a lively 114th Congress.

  • Patents: A Republican majority, say many observers, could mean near-instant movement on legislation aimed at so-called patent trolls who hold patents solely so they can sue potential infringers.
  • Net Neutrality: A Republican Congress could move to invalidate any aggressive net neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission passes.
  • Copyright: Those who track the issue says that nothing much is likely to happen on copyright law in the next Congress -- no matter who controls the Senate.
  • Surveillance and digital privacy: A Republican Congress could turn its gaze to Executive Order 1233. That tool empowers intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance at the direction of the President; though the order was first signed by President Ronald Reagan, Republicans might be eager to remove the power from Obama's hands.

Countering Tech’s Damaging Effect on Jobs

[Commentary] We need to understand the roots of wage stagnation -- and act boldly to counteract them. Advances in information and communications technology are destroying more jobs in advanced economies than the advances are creating. The digital revolution is opening up a great divide between a skilled and wealthy few and the rest of society. What can we do? For the next decade or two, governments will have to act directly to boost take-home pay. Carefully calibrated minimum-wage increases, expanded wage subsidies and work-sharing programs should be regarded as essential parts of the public tool kit. It is not an easy balance to strike, even in well-functioning political systems. Against the backdrop of our polarized, paralyzed national institutions, it will take leadership of exceptional clarity and skill to do what we must do.

[Galston holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution]

Tech workers ask appeals court to reject Apple, Google bid

Employees suing Apple, Google and two other tech companies over hiring practices said an appeals court should not approve a $324.5 million settlement in the case.

The workers said that although they believed the $324.5 million deal originally warranted approval, US District Judge Lucy Koh had the proper authority to reject it and they would "defer to (Koh's) sound judgment about how best to oversee this litigation." In rejecting the proposed settlement, Judge Koh repeatedly referred to a related deal last year involving Disney and Intuit. Apple and Google workers got proportionally less in the latest agreement compared with the one involving Disney, Judge Koh wrote. To match the earlier settlement, the latest deal "would need to total at least $380 million," Judge Koh wrote. In the filing on Oct 14, the plaintiffs argued that the $324.5 million deal "ceased to exist" the moment Koh rejected it, by virtue of the settlement terms negotiated by both sides. The companies "should not complain about this state of affairs, given that it is their own doing," attorneys for the employees wrote.

MMTC Panelists Push Sec. 706

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council forum on network neutrality rules on Capitol Hill might as easily have been a meeting of the "Friends of Sec. 706" club. Not a discouraging word was heard about that option for restoring Open Internet rules thrown out by the court, though a Title II reclassification option came in for plenty of criticism.

That outcome was not a surprise given that the participants were all card-carrying fans of a light regulatory touch that they say is what has created innovation and investment in the broadband space. The focus was advertised as ""Title II Versus Section 706: Identifying the Regulatory Framework that Furthers the Goals of Broadband Adoption, Competition, and Deployment." Their conclusion, arguably foregone, was that it was Sec. 706 that best did the job.

Stevie Wonder visits FCC

Pop icon Stevie Wonder visited the Federal Communications Commission to promote services for blind people. He met with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai about technology that allows people who are blind or have a sight disability to follow along with their favorite television shows. “Stevie Wonder spoke with the commissioner about the importance to visually impaired people of making video description available for scripted television programming,” an aide to Commissioner Pai said, referring to a service that gives short audio descriptions of onscreen events to help blind people understand what’s happening. “He spoke about the importance of that to visually impaired people and also shared some ideas in terms of how that might be done," the aide added.

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