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November 2014

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute
Friday, November 7, 2014
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM

9 a.m.: Real-World Encryption Problems. Leak investigations are at a record high and national security journalists now often work under a shadow of surveillance. By knowing the stakes and how to respond to them, reporters can assess the risks, and still keep their sources relatively safe. This panel will discuss current and future unsolved digital security problems in journalism.
Panelists will include: Dana Priest, investigative reporter, The Washington Post and John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; James Risen, investigative reporter, The New York Times; and Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst, Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, ACLU.

10:15 a.m.: Beyond PGP, Protecting Reporters on an Institutional Level. Beyond encrypting individual email, panelists will look at the importance of utilizing the right systems company-wide to stave off hacking and other cyberattacks, as well as handing subpoenas and safeguarding sources.
Panelists will include: Martin Baron, executive editor, The Washington Post (to be confirmed); Morgan Marquis-Boire, director of security, First Look Media; Jack Gillum, reporter, Associated Press; and Nabiha Syed, associate, Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz.

11:30 a.m.: Breakout Sessions:
Using Off the Record (OTR) chat: Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops for this hands-on session on how to set up OTR encryption to protect sources.
Setting up PGP mail encryption: Attendees should bring their laptops for this tutorial on how PGP works and how to set it up for secure electronic communications.
Demonstration of SecureDrop: This demonstration of the system for enabling secure communications between journalists and sources, managed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, will also focus on how to install and use it in your newsroom.
Breakout sessions will be conducted by Runa Sandvik, technologist, Freedom of the Press Foundation; Garrett Robinson, SecureDrop lead developer, Freedom of the Press Foundation; Erinn Clark, technologist, First Look Media; Mike Tigas, reporter, Pro Publica; and Oktavia Jonsdottir, director of the Securing Access to Free Expression (S.A.F.E.) initiative, IREX.
12:30 p.m.: Lunch at the Knight Conference Center

1:30 p.m.: Security Lessons from the Snowden Files. Journalists involved in reporting on the NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden will talk about what they learned from the experience and how it might be handled better in the future.
Panelists will be: Spencer Ackerman, national security editor, The Guardian US; Siobhan Gorman, intelligence correspondent, The Wall Street Journal; Micah Lee, technologist, The Intercept; and Lynn Oberlander, general counsel, First Look Media.

2:30 p.m.: Keynote (To Be Announced)

3:30 p.m.: Screening, “Citizenfour.” A special screening of filmmaker Laura Poitras’ film about Snowden and government surveillance will be held at the Knight Conference Center.


November 3, 2014 (Chilly reception for latest net neutrality proposal)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2014

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INTERNET/BROADBAND
    Reaction to Latest FCC Net Neutrality trial Balloon [links to web]
   Possible 'hybrid' Net neutrality rules get chilly reception - Los Angeles Times editorial
   Network Neutrality and Peering: Could Proposal Give FCC Tighter Control?
   The FCC’s “half-pregnant” plan for network neutrality, and why it won’t work - analysis
   Mozilla, FCC Talk Hybrid Net Neutrality Approach [links to web]
   Title II Reclassification and the Price Regulation of Retail Broadband Services - George Ford analysis
   The basic truth about internet access that cable and phone companies don't want you to know - analysis
   How to Fight Telecom Gameplaying - Susan Crawford op-ed
   The Unpredictable FCC: Politicizing Communications Policy and its Threat to Broadband Investment - op-ed

FCC AGENDA
   FCC Announces Tentative Agenda For November 2014 Open Meeting - press release
   Technology Transitions: Consumers Matter Most - Chairman Wheeler press release
   TDM-to-IP Transition Drives FCC 911 Proposal and Copper Retirement Plans [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   The FBI's Secret House Meeting to Get Access to Your iPhone [links to web]
   When Government is the Hacker, How Do You Protect Yourself [links to web]
   AP, Sen Leahy write to AG Holder over FBI's fake news ploy [links to web]

MEDIA AND ELECTIONS
   A Flood of Late Spending on Midterm Elections, From Murky Sources [links to web]
   Tech tally: What campaigns learned in 2014 [links to web]
   With political ads expected to hit a record, news stations can hardly keep up [links to web]
   Facebook Wants You to Vote on Tuesday. Here's How It Messed With Your Feed in 2012. - op-ed [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   FCC allows 70 companies -- including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Dish -- to bid in AWS-3 auction [links to web]
   Study: T-Mobile paid an average of 30 cents/MB in U.S. data roaming costs in 2013 [links to web]
   AT&T, Verizon boosts caps on their cheaper shared data plans [links to web]
   Google’s Android Begins to Top Out [links to web]
   Internet of Things will transform life, but experts fear for privacy and personal data - San Jose Mercury News analysis [links to web]

DIVERSITY
   Amazon, Unclear on Diversity

CONTENT
   Pianist asks The Washington Post to remove a concert review under the EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling [links to web]
   The Internet Archive, Trying to Encompass All Creation [links to web]
   E-Book Mingles Love and Product Placement [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Chicago Tribune buys 38 Chicago Sun-Times suburban papers [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   The Conservative Alienation from Journalism - Steve Waldman op-ed [links to web]
   Journalism, Independent and Not - David Carr analysis [links to web]

TELEVISION
   MVPD Status for OVDs Could Benefit TV Stations - Harry Jessell editorial [links to web]
   Analyst Blames SVOD For Falling TV Ratings [links to web]
   Five Predictions for How Data Will Change TV This Season - op-ed [links to web]

POLICYMAKERS
   American Enterprise Institute’s Aron Nominated for Broadcasting Board of Governors - press release [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Europe Shifts on Priorities for Telecoms
   Egyptian Journalists Protest Editors’ Pledge Not to Criticize State [links to web]
   In China, Internet Czar Is Taking a Blunt Tone [links to web]
   Consumers of Online Digital Content Need New Legal, Privacy Protections, OECD Says [links to web]

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INTERNET/BROADBAND

CHILLY RECEPTION
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
[Commentary] Internet service providers, Web-based entrepreneurs and consumer groups are sharply divided over whether and how the Federal Communications Commission should try to preserve the Net's status as an open, neutral platform for innovation. Now, in trying to find a middle ground, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler may be moving onto a more treacherous political and legal minefield. The maneuvering is yet another signal that Congress should craft neutrality rules specifically for broadband, rather than leaving the FCC to search for a way to do so under a law written before the first broadband lines reached consumers. Granted, the likelihood of a Republican Congress giving a federal agency explicit authority to regulate the Internet is slim. But the alternative is to watch the FCC keep applying its authority over dial tones and communications infrastructure to the neutrality puzzle until it finds a set of rules that the courts will approve. That thought should motivate lawmakers in both parties to act. And if it doesn't, the millions of people who bombarded the FCC with demands for strong Net neutrality rules should apply that same pressure to their elected representatives.
benton.org/headlines/possible-hybrid-net-neutrality-rules-get-chilly-reception | Los Angeles Times
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NETWORK NEUTRALITY AND PEERING
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission’s latest network neutrality plan raises important questions about Internet traffic exchange, which has been a hot topic over the last couple of years. The quality of the end user experience depends not only on bandwidth and packet priority but also on the quality of the connection between the broadband provider serving the end user and the broadband provider serving the content provider. These interconnection agreements have been largely out of FCC control and there have been numerous disputes over the last couple of years between the two different types of providers. Some of the providers serving consumers -- including large telcos like Verizon and large cable companies like Comcast -- have required providers serving content companies to pay interconnection fees because they send more traffic to the consumers than they receive from the consumers. The providers serving the content companies say they shouldn’t have to pay interconnection fees if they deliver traffic to a point close to the end consumer, requiring the consumer broadband provider to carry traffic only for a relatively short distance. It’s whether the proposal would give the FCC oversight over Internet interconnection agreements.
benton.org/headlines/network-neutrality-and-peering-could-proposal-give-fcc-tighter-control | telecompetitor
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WHY FCC PLAN WON’T WORK
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is considering separating broadband into two distinct services: a retail one, in which consumers would pay broadband providers for Internet access; and a back-end one, in which broadband providers serve as the conduit for websites to distribute content. The FCC would then classify the back-end service as a common carrier, giving the agency the ability to police any deals between content companies and broadband providers. This approach echoes a scheme floated by the Mozilla Foundation. The Mozilla trick is based on a legal slight-of-hand that redefines just who net neutrality involves in the first place. Rather than treating consumers as the beneficiaries of net neutrality obligations (as the idea has always be understood), the Mozilla definition would instead treat websites (or, “edge providers”) as the customers. This would have the effect of applying the public utility provision to a different set of actors at a deeper layer of the internet, rather than to the “last mile” at which the ISPs come into people’s living rooms. If that sounds complicated and hard to follow, that’s because it is. It also won’t work. As Stanford professor Barbara Van Schewick explains, ideas like Mozilla’s “were put forward in good faith and with great creativity” but obvious legal deficiencies “would sink sender-side proposals in court.”
benton.org/headlines/fccs-half-pregnant-plan-network-neutrality-and-why-it-wont-work | GigaOm
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TITLE II AND PRICE REGULATION
[SOURCE: Phoenix Center, AUTHOR: George Ford]
[Commentary] While I am not aware of any call for the Federal Communications Commission to regulate retail broadband prices, the legal requirements of Title II do not simply bend to the agency’s or advocates’ desires. If paid prioritization is to be regulated, then price is to be regulated, and under Title II the price regulation of a carrier-to-consumer service is executed via tariffs. Forbearance of price regulation via tariff might be a sensible strategy if not for (at least) two hurdles: (1) forbearance is the surrendering of the agency’s control of price to the market and network neutrality appears now to be about the regulatory control of price (i.e., a ban on paid prioritization); and (2) the FCC’s precedent on forbearance and its claims about industry structure interfere with a straightforward forbearance determination. If the agency believes net neutrality rules are required, then the path set forth in its 2014 Open Internet NPRM seems to be the most sensible approach, especially since, as Rep Henry Waxman (D-CA) recently conceded, Title II cannot be used to prohibit paid prioritization. As such, Title II reclassification is not just messy, costly and legally risky, but it’s also an impotent strategy for achieving the ostensible goals net neutrality.
benton.org/headlines/title-ii-reclassification-and-price-regulation-retail-broadband-services | Phoenix Center
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TRUTH ABOUT INTERNET SERVICE
[SOURCE: Vox, AUTHOR: Matthew Yglesias]
The American cities that are delivering best-in-the-world broadband speeds at bargain prices are precisely the cities that aren't relying on Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time-Warner, etc. to run their infrastructure. In Kansas City, Google built a state-of-the-art fiber optic network largely just to prove a point. In Chattanooga and Lafayette, the government did it. At the moment, the US federal government could issue 5-year bonds at a 1.58 percent interest rate and make grants to cities interested in following Chattanooga and Lafayette down that path. But it doesn't happen, because while broadband incumbents don't want to spend the money it would take to build state-of-the-art fiber networks, they are happy to spend money on lobbying. So even though we have the technical ability to deliver cheap, super-fast internet and we have the financial ability to finance the construction, we don't actually have the network. In fact, we're so in hock to the interests of the broadband incumbents that we don't even use all the fiber networks we've already built.
benton.org/headlines/basic-truth-about-internet-access-cable-and-phone-companies-dont-want-you-know | Vox
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TELECOM GAMEPLAYING
[SOURCE: Medium, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] The interconnection battle has been framed as one between Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and others on one side and Netflix on the other. A better way to think of it might be to put the eyeball networks on one side and the future on the other. What about the next Netflix (or any other business that Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, AT&T or CenturyLink view as competitive with their own)? What about all the other businesses that will be affected when Comcast finds the next network connection it wants to squeeze? Here’s what the Federal Communications Commission needs to do: first, it needs to examine how packets are actually being treated at interconnection junctures with the terminating monopoly eyeball networks. Without this close look, the FCC will have no insight into how discrimination is being implemented by the eyeball networks. Then the FCC needs to create rules for interconnection deals between the terminating monopolies and everyone else. These rules could require, for example, that the eyeball networks not be allowed to charge more for interconnection than it actually costs to set up the equipment needed to interconnect. Unless such rules are in place, other businesses and American consumers will continue to be squeezed.
[Crawford is the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property, Harvard Law School]
benton.org/headlines/how-fight-telecom-gameplaying | Medium
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THE UNPREDICTABLE FCC
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: George Ford, Lawrence Spiwak]
[Commentary] Under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act, the Federal Communications Commission is charged with encouraging “the deployment of advanced telecommunications services to all Americans.” To support the private investment required to fulfill this mandate, all five of the FCC's Commissioners have professed a desire to provide investors with “regulatory certainty.” Building, maintaining, and upgrading telecommunications networks requires massive and sustained, long-term investments, and uncertainty about regulatory policy that could threaten returns makes firms reluctant to invest. Despite the FCC acknowledging the importance of regulatory certainty to the deployment of modern broadband infrastructure, the reality remains that over the last few years the FCC has become entirely unpredictable, largely, we believe, because of the increased politicization of the agency's deliberative process. Indeed, over the past five years the FCC either has reversed, or is threatening to reverse, some of the most significant bi-partisan deregulatory achievements of the past two decades. This dramatic reversal of FCC policy is a catalyst of uncertainty.
[Ford is the chief economist and Spiwak is the president of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies]
benton.org/headlines/unpredictable-fcc-politicizing-communications-policy-and-its-threat-broadband-investment | Bloomberg
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FCC AGENDA

FCC ANNOUNCES TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NOVEMBER 2014 OPEN MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that the following items will tentatively be on the agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Friday, November 21, 2014:
Modernizing Contest Rules: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to provide broadcasters greater flexibility in their disclosure of contest terms.
Emerging Wireline Networks and Services: The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Declaratory Ruling, and Order to facilitate the transition to next generation networks by
promoting and preserving the Commission’s public safety, consumer protection, and competition goals.
911 Governance and Accountability: The Commission will consider a Policy Statement and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding its approach to 911 governance and proposing mechanisms to ensure continued accountability for reliable 911 services as technologies evolve.
benton.org/headlines/fcc-announces-tentative-agenda-november-2014-open-meeting | Federal Communications Commission
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CONSUMERS MATTER MOST
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler]
I am circulating to my fellow Commissioners two items that take up the task of encouraging technology transitions while protecting those core values. Tremendous benefits can be realized by the transition of public safety to IP-based networks. For example, IP-based networks will enable 911 call centers to receive a greater range of information -- such as text, video, and data from vehicle crash sensors -- to better support emergency response. But the introduction of new technologies has also introduced new vulnerabilities that cannot be ignored. We have seen a spike in so-called “sunny day” outages, when failure comes from the failure of software or databases and not from natural disasters. As the Public Safety Bureau reported to the Commission earlier this month, a “sunny day” outage this past April left consumers in 7 states without 911 service for up to 6 hours. Some 6,600 911 calls were not completed during that time. This is simply unacceptable.
benton.org/headlines/technology-transitions-consumers-matter-most | Federal Communications Commission
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DIVERSITY

AMAZON DIVERSITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Steitfeld]
Amazon, like most tech companies, is staffed and run mostly by white males. Its global work force is 63 percent male and 37 percent female. Its managers are 75 percent male and 25 percent female. global work force is 63 percent male and 37 percent female. Its managers are 75 percent male and 25 percent female. Rainbow PUSH said Amazon’s numbers were not as good as they appeared, and criticized the company for a lack of candor. “Their general work force data released by Amazon seems intentionally deceptive, as the company did not include the race or gender breakout of their technical work force. The broad assumption is that a high percentage of their black and Latino employees work in their warehouses.” Rainbow PUSH said it was seeking meetings with Amazon to pursue the matter. It noted that the retailer, like many tech companies, had “an all-male management” and no blacks or Latinos on its board.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/31/amazon-unclear-on-diversity/
Late to the party, Amazon finally publishes its diversity numbers (GigaOm)
https://gigaom.com/2014/10/31/late-to-the-party-amazon-finally-publishes...
Amazon diversity report shows it's largely white, male (USAToday)
benton.org/headlines/amazon-unclear-diversity | New York Times | GigaOm | USAToday
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EUROPEAN TELECOMS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Mark Scott]
Poor cellphone and Internet service is a fact of life in many parts of Europe. Less than a quarter of Europeans can connect to high-speed cellphone networks, compared with about 90 percent of Americans. And broadband connections are often painstakingly sluggish. But the prices in Europe for these services are among the lowest in the world. Europeans spend an average of $38 for a monthly cellphone contract, about half of what Americans pay on average, according to the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, an industry group. Now, though, the region’s top policy makers are set to change that, giving investment and costlier services higher priorities than affordability and antitrust worries.
benton.org/headlines/europe-shifts-priorities-telecoms | New York Times
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Possible 'hybrid' Net neutrality rules get chilly reception

[Commentary] Internet service providers, Web-based entrepreneurs and consumer groups are sharply divided over whether and how the Federal Communications Commission should try to preserve the Net's status as an open, neutral platform for innovation. Now, in trying to find a middle ground, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler may be moving onto a more treacherous political and legal minefield. The maneuvering is yet another signal that Congress should craft neutrality rules specifically for broadband, rather than leaving the FCC to search for a way to do so under a law written before the first broadband lines reached consumers.

Granted, the likelihood of a Republican Congress giving a federal agency explicit authority to regulate the Internet is slim. But the alternative is to watch the FCC keep applying its authority over dial tones and communications infrastructure to the neutrality puzzle until it finds a set of rules that the courts will approve. That thought should motivate lawmakers in both parties to act. And if it doesn't, the millions of people who bombarded the FCC with demands for strong Net neutrality rules should apply that same pressure to their elected representatives.

A Flood of Late Spending on Midterm Elections, From Murky Sources

A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election. Some of the groups are “super PACs” that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races. Others formed earlier in the year but remained dormant until recently, reporting few or no contributions in recent filings with the Federal Election Commission, only to unleash six- and seven-figure advertising campaigns as Election Day draws near. Yet more spending is coming from nonprofit organizations with bland names that have popped up in recent weeks but appear to have no life beyond being a conduit for the ads.

Tech tally: What campaigns learned in 2014

The 2014 midterms are shaping up to be a great political tech equalizer. Both parties head into the final hours of the 2014 campaign bragging about their enhanced ability to keep tabs on who has requested and returned absentee ballots. Democrats and Republicans have the data and are spending millions of dollars targeting last-minute TV and online advertising toward niche audiences like baseball fans and even Gilligan's Island insomniacs. They can also track what’s trending on Twitter from Little Rock to Denver, honing their campaign message to deal with the unexpected.

Typically, great political tech innovations debut during a White House campaign when there’s plenty of money and manpower to spare. But while little truly groundbreaking has been deployed on the election front in 2014, campaign strategists from both sides of the aisle have ripped from President Barack Obama’s old campaign playbooks and pushed out their own scaled-down digital tools in this year’s key House, Senate and gubernatorial races.

Journalism, Independent and Not

[Commentary] Of the many attempts at new approaches to publishing -- native advertising, custom content, sponsored content -- Verizon’s SugarString sets a new low. It was a bad idea with a pratfall of a rollout, a transparent attempt to project brand might into a very controversial conversation. The fact that the name of the corporation bringing you the information is at the bottom of every story, not the top, is an attempt to hide the fundamental intent.

What had been an attempt by Verizon to build engagement and relevance had precisely the opposite effect, coming off as a kind of Astroturfing -- grass roots that are anything but -- rendered in pixels. The broadly skeptical response to the site serves as a reminder that publishing looks easy, but is filled with peril. But if brands are less willing to just slap expensive ads onto sites they have no control over, how is smart, good content going to be underwritten?

Internet of Things will transform life, but experts fear for privacy and personal data

It will help you avoid traffic jams as you travel from work to that hot new spot you've been dying to try out, tell you on the way about the bar's half-price coupons and let you check your home video monitors while knocking back a few to see if your cat is clawing the couch again. But it also might alert your insurer if your car is weaving when you head home and report your frequent drinking to your boss.

"It" is the Internet of Things, which promises to transform daily life, making it easier to work, travel, shop and stay healthy. Thanks to billions of connected devices -- from smart toothbrushes and thermostats to commercial drones and robotic companions for the elderly -- it also will end up gathering vast amounts of data that could provide insights about our sexual habits, religious beliefs, political leanings and other highly personal aspects of our lives. That creates a potentially enormous threat to our privacy -- even within the sanctuary of our homes.

E-Book Mingles Love and Product Placement

Product placement in a novel might strike some as unseemly. But “Find Me, I’m Yours” is not like most novels. It’s an e-book, a series of websites and web TV shows, and a vehicle for content sponsored by companies. And if it succeeds, it could usher in a new business model for publishers, one that blurs the lines between art and commerce in ways that are routine in TV shows and movies but rare in books.

Google’s Android Begins to Top Out

Google’s dominance over the smartphone landscape appears to be topping out, but the company is gaining more control over the devices that run its Android mobile operating system.

Android ran 84% of smartphones shipped globally in the third quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, down slightly from 85% in the second quarter. Even if Android’s market share doesn’t go any higher, there is still good news for Google. For starters, the market overall is still growing. Strategy Analytics forecasts 12% growth in smartphone shipments in 2015. Google also appears to be turning the tide on the growth of so-called Android forks -- versions of the mobile operating software that are developed independently and don’t come with Google’s lucrative mobile apps. Google makes no money on Android itself, since it gives away the operating system free to device makers. It profits from revenue generated by advertisements that appear in apps like Google Search, Google Maps and YouTube, as well as a cut of sales of apps, files, subscriptions, and the like sold through the Google Play Store.

Europe Shifts on Priorities for Telecoms

Poor cellphone and Internet service is a fact of life in many parts of Europe. Less than a quarter of Europeans can connect to high-speed cellphone networks, compared with about 90 percent of Americans. And broadband connections are often painstakingly sluggish. But the prices in Europe for these services are among the lowest in the world. Europeans spend an average of $38 for a monthly cellphone contract, about half of what Americans pay on average, according to the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, an industry group.

Now, though, the region’s top policy makers are set to change that, giving investment and costlier services higher priorities than affordability and antitrust worries.

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