October 2014

DIVERSITY

PARKER LECTURE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
In 2014, opportunity for all requires broadband for all. So what should we be doing to advance the public interest and ensure that all Americans are enjoying the benefits of high-speed broadband? Let me answer that question of what we should do by telling you some of the things I believe, and how the [Federal Communications] Commission is acting on those beliefs.
First, I believe that advancing the public interest starts with facilitating dynamic technological change to ensure the US has world-class communications networks. We need to facilitate change by promoting the world’s best innovation infrastructure. We need faster, affordable networks in more places…. facilities ownership is less critical to diverse voices than ever before. Yes, we will continue to push for diversity in ownership. But, just as important in the Internet Age, we need to exploit our new networks for ownership diversity and content diversity. So I believe we need to embrace and facilitate the changes made possible by broadband revolution.
While network technologies have changed, the principles that define the relationship between those who build and own our communications networks and those who use them have not. Advancing the public interest requires ensuring that our networks reflect our civic values…. While our principles remain constant in the face of change, our policies to protect those principles cannot. I believe that to serve the public interest government oversight must evolve to reflect changes in technology. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we must transition [Everett Parker’s] fight to the new communications technology. The fight for the diversity of viewpoints and the protection of fundamental democratic values has leapt to the Internet. The opportunity the Internet offers for making everyone a publisher with their own outlet to the world -- literally the world -- is the greatest advance in democratic values in history. But it only works if the Internet remains open.
benton.org/headlines/remarks-fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-32nd-annual-everett-parker-ethics-telecommunications | Federal Communications Commission
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PATENT PROTECTION AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Harry Alford]
[Commentary] One of the untold stories about minority entrepreneurship is the paucity of black business owners in the high-tech sector. African-Americans today own only 5.5 percent of all US businesses, and an even smaller percentage -- 4 percent -- own high-tech enterprises. While we as a nation need to work much harder to craft new and creative policies that reduce barriers to start and develop businesses to ameliorate this troubling reality, we also must support the minority-owned tech businesses operating today so they and their employees can compete fairly, grow their operations and flourish in the digital economy. That is why the field of intellectual property (IP), specifically patent law, is so important to the National Black Chamber of Commerce and our members. Many of the 100,000 African-American owned businesses that our organization represents hold patents and compete against other firms that do as well. Those who work to advance minority business have a strong interest in maintaining the proper balance between protecting patent-holders and their intellectual property while preventing abuses of this very same protection.
[Alford is the president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce.]
benton.org/headlines/responsible-patent-protection-can-help-bridge-digital-divide | Hill, The
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

NSA REPORT
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
The National Security Agency released a report attempting to outline the privacy and civil liberty protections that go into the collections of signal intelligence under authority from a decades-old executive order, known as 12333. The report, from the NSA Civil Liberties and Privacy Office, casts little new information, and the NSA admits its protections are limited because of the nature of its work. "Because NSA has a national security mission, the principles of transparency and individual participation are not implemented in the same manner they are in organization with a more public facing mission," the report states.
benton.org/headlines/nsa-report-casts-little-light-civil-liberties | Hill, The | NSA press release | read the report
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FOREIGN-BASED SERVERS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: David Kravets]
The US government may hack into servers outside the country without a warrant, the Justice Department said in a new legal filling in the ongoing prosecution of Ross Ulbricht. The government believes that Ulbricht is the operator of the Silk Road illicit drug website. The filing in New York federal court centers on the legal brouhaha of how the government found the Silk Road servers in Iceland. Ulbricht said that the government's position -- that a leaky CAPTCHA on the site's login led them to the IP address -- was "implausible" and that the government (perhaps the National Security Agency) may have unlawfully hacked into the site to discover its whereabouts.
benton.org/headlines/us-says-it-can-hack-foreign-based-servers-without-warrants | Ars Technica
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TWITTER SUIT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Ellen Nakashima]
Twitter sued the US government, alleging that the Justice Department’s restrictions on what the company can say publicly about the government’s national security requests for user data violate the firm’s First Amendment rights. With its lawsuit, Twitter is seeking to go further than five other technology companies that earlier this year reached a settlement with the government on the permissible scope of disclosure at a time of heightened concern about the scale of government surveillance. “It’s our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users’ concerns and to the statements of US government officials by providing information about the scope of US government surveillance -- including what types of legal process have not been received,” said Ben Lee, a Twitter vice president. “We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges.”
benton.org/headlines/twitter-sues-us-government-over-limits-ability-disclose-surveillance-orders | Washington Post
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC NET NEUTRALITY DISCUSSION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission's final day of network neutrality forums focused on legal options for restoring new rules, so Title II vs. Sec. 706 got a lot of attention, but so did various hybrid models -- proposed by AT&T, Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA), Mozilla and others -- that would replace the "vs." with an ampersand. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler signaled from the outset of the forum that, while he didn't mind debate, he did not want the parties retreating into their corners and shouting their talking points. There was no shouting, though there was some impassioned pleas not to let comedian John Oliver or Netflix define the debate, and a Nebraska public service commissioner who invoking Larry the Cable Guy, sternly dressed down the lawyers and told them to "get 'er done" [rules preventing blocking and prioritizing) for the sake of consumers.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-hosts-legal-debate-over-net-neutrality-authority | Multichannel News
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NET NEUTRALITY LAWSUITS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Edward Wyatt]
After discussion and debate at six Federal Communications Commission roundtables stretching over 24 hours, a consensus has finally emerged on network neutrality: Whatever rules the FCC adopts, someone will take it to court. That was the judgment of the final two panels in the commission’s effort to examine the economic, technological and legal aspects of its net neutrality authority. What the panelists did not agree on was the best way for the FCC to structure its rules for net neutrality, the concept that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, with no type of traffic being favored over another as it makes its way from a provider to a consumer.
benton.org/headlines/net-neutrality-discussion-lawsuits-loom-large | New York Times
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NET NEUTRALITY COMPROMISE?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
The Federal Communications Commission is caught between two controversial proposals as it struggles to write new rules for the internet. One proposal, which would allow paid “fast lanes” for certain websites, is wildly unpopular with the public while the other, which calls for treating internet providers like a public utility, is radioactive to powerful industry groups. Faced with this no-win dilemma, a compromise would be most welcome for the beleaguered agency. And, as it happens, AT&T says it has just the thing in the form of “user driven” fast lanes that, in theory, could preserve the principles of an open internet without leading industry groups to throw a fit over regulations. But not everyone is convinced. “These sort of compromises are always very attractive to policy makers if they can get them,” said Harold Feld of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. “Politically, could it provide enough cover for those who want this issue to go away? It might.” Feld suggested that AT&T has long been shrewd out at staking out what seems to be middle ground, and positioning itself as a reasonable voice on controversial issues. But he is skeptical that the company’s proposal differs significantly from the FCC’s initial fast lane proposal from May, and described them as “just fast lanes with an opt-in.”
benton.org/headlines/will-fcc-be-tempted-atts-suggestion-internet-fast-lanes-run-users | GigaOm
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DOMAIN NAMES
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Erin Mershon]
Google and Amazon are gearing up for battle over a new piece of the Internet: website endings beyond .com.
The tech giants are betting that suffixes like .book, .shop or .cloud will give them new ways to organize their operations online, conduct marketing campaigns and sell products to consumers outside the crowded .com space. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based nonprofit group that manages the domain-name system under a contract with the US Commerce Department, is overseeing the distribution of new extensions to the right of the dot. Some, like .beer and .hiphop, got a relatively easy stamp of approval because only one organization applied for them. Other endings have been more contentious. Under ICANN’s rules, if multiple parties want the same suffix and can’t reach a settlement, it goes to auction.
benton.org/headlines/new-world-domains-anything-goes | Politico
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OWNERSHIP

TYING UP THE CABLE BUSINESS
[SOURCE: The Economist, AUTHOR: ]
When does “big” become “too big”? Regulators in Washington (DC) will have to decide. In February Comcast announced a $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, America’s second-largest cable company. The deal would give more might to a firm that, besides the largest pay-TV and internet business in America has, thanks to its 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal, broadcast networks, cable channels, a film studio and other media assets. Most crucially, it would cede to Comcast more control over America’s high-speed internet, a buoyant business that is set to be the future conduit of content delivery, but one in which Comcast already faces less competition than in pay-TV. Comcast says it will invest more in broadband infrastructure and provide more low-cost internet access to the poor, but it is far from clear that the public will benefit from Kabletown (as Comcast was called in “30 Rock”, an NBC comedy about life inside NBC) turning into Kablecountry. The way this giant deal is progressing reveals a lot about corporate America.
benton.org/headlines/tying-cable-business | Economist, The
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TRANSACTION REVIEWS AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Bill Lake, Jon Sallet, Julie Veach]
In connection with two significant and simultaneous merger reviews, the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau issued an Order establishing unique protections for the Merger Applicants’ programming contracts, retransmission agreements, and other related materials. This new procedure balances three important public-interest obligations: (i) the FCC’s need for access to highly relevant information about the Applicants’ business practices, (ii) other parties’ need to express informed views to the FCC about the transactions, and (iii) the need to ensure that sensitive competitive information is used solely for that purpose.
[Bill Lake, Chief, Media Bureau; Jon Sallet, General Counsel; and Julie Veach, Chief, Wireline Competition Bureau]
benton.org/headlines/transaction-reviews-and-public-interest | Federal Communications Commission
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA

AMAZON VS THE FTC
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
Amazon is doubling down in an unusual lawsuit with the federal government, which is suing the retail giant for allowing kids to make one-touch purchases from apps on the Kindle Fire device. The lawsuit is unusual because Apple and Google have already settled with the Federal Trade Commissions over similar allegations, and agreed to pay $32 million and $19 million in refunds to parents, respectively. The FTC says all three companies conducted unfair trade practices by selling so-called “bait app” game that are typically free, but invite the player to purchase “acorns” or some other type of digital good. In its complaints against Amazon, the FTC says “thousands” of parents complained after their kids ran up bills, sometimes worth hundreds of dollars, in app expenses on their Kindles. Amazon filed a renewed dismissal request that suggests the government’s complaint is misguided and over-zealous.
benton.org/headlines/amazon-will-battle-ftc-over-kids-app-purchases-rejecting-google-style-settlement | GigaOm
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LIBRARIES

WHY LIBRARIES MATTER
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Jonathan Zittrain]
[Commentary] Libraries remain crucial to free and open societies, and not simply because their traditional services within academia, from curation to preservation to research, remain in high demand by scholars. More broadly, they crucially complement the Web in its highest aspirations: to provide unfettered access to knowledge, and to link authors and readers in new ways. Here’s why. First, information may be easy to copy, but it’s also easy to poison and destroy. Second, libraries are natural places to help keep the markets for information honest, and they can even participate in them themselves. In a world suffused with so much transient information as to inspire epistemic paralysis, we acutely need libraries’ power, independence, and ethos: institutions conceived to fight on behalf of their patrons, which is to say for the public and for the preservation and intelligibility of the public record. [Zittrain is the George Bemis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Director of the Harvard Law School Library]
benton.org/headlines/why-libraries-still-matter | Medium
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LABOR

PLAYING COLLEGE PLAYERS
[SOURCE: Deadline Hollywood, AUTHOR: Dominic Patten, David Lieberman]
Ten college football and basketball players filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Tennessee seeking a big piece of the television money pie from ESPN, ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC as well as WME and IMG and more. The networks and others “have profited from the broadcast and use of Student Athletes’ names, likenesses and images without the Student Athletes’ permission,” says the 40-page filing of October 3. The plaintiffs want a jury trial -- and a potential judgment requiring the defendants to “disgorge all profits” from the arrangements, which could reach billions of dollars. Although the student athletes sign releases, they are “forced to sign as a condition of playing football or basketball in college” and should be voided “as a matter of public policy” and because they are “vague, and therefore void and/or unenforceable.” The arrangements between the broadcasters and NCAA as well as others that license the programming have “created a marketplace resembling a plantation type arrangement where Defendants financially benefit in the collective amount of billions of dollars, while Student Athletes, the driving force of college sports, receive nothing more than their cost of attendance,” the suit says. It charges that the current system violates the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Lanham (Trademark) Act, and Tennessee laws.
benton.org/headlines/wme-espn-networks-hit-class-action-lawsuit-college-football-and-basketball-players | Deadline Hollywood
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Analysis

October 2014

Internet of fails: What's wrong with connected devices

The greatest myth about phones is that you are in control

US investigates West Virginia fiber cable project

Marc Andreessen gives $500,000 to diversify high tech

October 8, 2014 (Diversity; NSA; Privacy)

In Net Neutrality Discussion, Lawsuits Loom Large

In new world of domains, .anything goes

Ed-Tech Industry Weighs Impact of New Data-Privacy Laws

Microsoft and Other Firms Pledge to Protect Student Data