BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2012
Five Years of the America COMPETES Act: Progress, Challenges, and Next Steps http://benton.org/calendar/2012-09-19/
INTERNET/BROADBAND
AT&T will be slapped with network neutrality complaint over FaceTime blocking
Holding AT&T to Account for Blocking FaceTime on iPhones and iPads - press release [links to web]
Senator Rockefeller Presses On Cybersecurity
Comcast launches uncapped 305 Mbps service in Northeast, but caps Tuscon
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
T-Mobile, US Cellular, 43 Smaller Carriers Vie for 3G/4G Rural Funding
Verizon’s 4G network is about to get a lot more rural
Microsoft, Research in Motion sign licensing deal [links to web]
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Federal Court Reverses Ruling on Campaign Finance Disclosure
Maddow: Fox a Romney camp 'subsidiary'
'47 percent' recording may be illegal
CHILDREN AND MEDIA
FTC Shines Light On Food Ads, Kids
TELEVISION
Public Knowledge Puts Support for Dish in Legal Hopper [links to web]
CONTENT
Google Maps Gets All Up In Your Business [links to web]
The serious business of Kindle Serials [links to web]
Why It's Time Your Brand Invested in a Creative Newsroom [links to web]
Why Books Are The Ultimate New Business Card [links to web]
Betaworks’ Findings shifts to web clipping, as Amazon bans Kindle clips [links to web]
Media Chiefs Form Venture to E-Publish [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
ITC to investigate Motorola patent complaint against Apple [links to web]
Yahoo Returning $3.65 Billion to Shareholders, but in Buybacks or Dividends? [links to web]
Report: Microsoft faces EU antitrust complaint [links to web]
Media Chiefs Form Venture to E-Publish [links to web]
EVALUATING OBAMA’S TECH INITIATIVES
Cybersecurity fails to live up to expectations, reflect reality - analysis
See also:Senators Coons and Blumenthal call on White House to issue cyber order [links to web]
Ambitious IT reform plan viewed as effective - analysis
Agencies embrace information-sharing efforts, make effective progress - analysis
Open, transparent government efforts merit more progress needed - analysis
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Undercover Police Used Smartphones to Keep Tabs on Protests in Tampa
ACLU: Public-Safety Network Raises Police-Surveillance Concerns
Human-rights group slams White House for asking Google to review anti-Islam video [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Never Wrong for Long - analysis
French Court Rules Against Magazine on Royal Photos [links to web]
LABOR
Don’t Tell Anyone, but the Stimulus Worked - op-ed
Rep Smith unveils tech-friendly STEM visa bill [links to web]
TELECOM
AT&T's Stephens: Hope to have decision on rural wireline assets by end of the year [links to web]
LOBBYING
Facebook, Google, Amazon join forces in D.C. lobby [links to web]
Twitter hires GOP congressional staffer [links to web]
STORIES FROM ABROAD
As Google Fills in Blank, a German Cries Foul [links to web]
French Court Rules Against Magazine on Royal Photos [links to web]
INTERNET/BROADBAND
NETWORK NEUTRALITY COMPLAINT
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Free Press, Public Knowledge, and the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute have informed AT&T that they intend to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against the wireless carrier for violating network neutrality rules. The complaint will address AT&T’s plan to keep certain subscribers from using Apple’s FaceTime video calling on the AT&T cellular network. The move was expected, but the timing on when the FCC responds is unclear. AT&T justified this move in two ways: first it said by being open and transparent about the move it was following the rules that the FCC had implemented with regard to network neutrality on wireless networks. Two, it made a complicated argument around preloaded apps that basically boiled down to, “you can use anything you want on AT&T’s handsets over Wi-Fi, thus we aren’t blocking anything.” AT&T said it was not violating the Open Internet rules that forbid a carrier from blocking services that compete with its own services. This move is designed to do two things for AT&T. One, it pushes users to the newer shared data plans that help AT&T offset the loss in revenue from users deciding to dump texting and even voice plans. Two, it seeks to conflate Wi-Fi networks with cellular networks for purposes of abiding by the network neutrality rules.
benton.org/node/134561 | GigaOm | Free Press | NYTimes | WashPost | The Hill | B&C | ars technica | National Journal | The Wrap
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ROCKEFELLER ON CYBERSECURITY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
Heads of major U.S. companies could be in for some interesting mail Sept 19. Frustrated by congressional failure to pass a cybersecurity bill, a top lawmaker is sending letters to the chief executives of every Fortune 500 company, asking them to describe their company's handling of computer security. Companies won't be required legally to respond to the letters, but it shows how lawmakers continue to press companies to step up cybersecurity measures. "The cyber threats we face are real and immediate, and Congress's failure to pass legislation this year leaves the country increasingly vulnerable to a catastrophic cyber attack," Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), the Senate Commerce Committee chairman, writes. Sen. Rockefeller's inquiry is the latest effort by proponents of the failed bill to take steps outside of the legislative process to push companies to take more steps to protect their computer networks from outside tampering, theft and spying. Sen. Rockefeller last year persuaded the Securities and Exchange Commission to specify that risks of network breaches, as well as damaging events, were among those that need to be reported to investors.
benton.org/node/134603 | Wall Street Journal
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COMCAST LAUNCHES UNCAPPED 305 MBPS SERVICE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
Comcast, the nation’s largest broadband provider, has launched the second of its two planned broadband cap trials in Tucson (AZ). The new caps limit users of its premium tiers at 600 GB per month and economy tiers at 300 GB per month. A day after the trials came to light, Comcast announced that its superfast 305 Mbps service will be available in more cities and a spokesman confirmed that service is and will be uncapped. The Extreme 305 tier will cost $299.95 per month and will be available in most major markets in its Northeast division. Concurrent with those speeds, users will also get Wi-Fi at 155 Mbps throughout the home, and Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesman, says future in-home routers for the Extreme 305 tier will eventually use the new gigabit 802.11ac standard. Current Wi-Fi gear from Comcast uses 802.11n. But even as it pushes ahead with faster tiers, Comcast is still testing variations on its broadband cap that it first launched in 2008. At the time, the cap was a straight 250 GB per month, but as usage grew and more users hit the cap, Comcast raised the limit to 300 GB per month in May and said it would test out new variations of the cap.
benton.org/node/134583 | GigaOm | ars technica
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
RURAL WIRELESS FUNDING
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
The Federal Communications Commission has announced 52 qualifying bidders in the Connect America Fund Mobility Fund reverse auction to be conducted on Sept. 27. Qualified bidders include five units of U.S. Cellular; four units of T-Mobile; Alaska’s GCI Communication; Commnet Wireless, which operates a rural wholesale roaming network, and numerous small rural wireless carriers. A total of $300 million is up for grabs in the auction, which will bring 3G or 4G wireless to rural areas where 3G is not available today. The money for the program was freed up through cost savings in other areas of today’s Universal Service fund and will be the first test of the FCC’s long-expected reverse auction approach. Carriers will bid to deliver service to at least 75% of the service area, and funding will be awarded to the carrier that offers to deliver service at the lowest level of support.
benton.org/node/134552 | telecompetitor
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VERIZON’S RURAL 4G NETWORK
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
Six rural carriers will have launched LTE networks by the end of 2012 thanks to Verizon’s LTE in Rural America program. That will give Verizon customers 4G service in small towns well beyond its 400 market footprint. But the Verizon’s rural partners benefit plenty as well.
They get access to 4G spectrum, which many of these operators failed to win or couldn’t afford to bid on at auction.
They can get their networks up much faster because they only need to build LTE radio infrastructure; Verizon is letting them tap into its core and service delivery networks.
They get reciprocal roaming agreements – not only to Verizon’s customers get to roam into their networks, their subscribers can wander through Verizon’s vast metro LTE footprint covering 235 million people.
They get access to devices. By virtue of using Verizon’s spectrum, these rural carriers will be compatible with any 4G device designed for Verizon’s network. The most obvious example of this is Cellcom, which will land the new iPhone 5 a week after it goes on sale at the big operators.
benton.org/node/134592 | GigaOm | Verizon Wireless
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A federal court has, for now, invalidated a decision that could have taken some of the "dark money" contributions out of a campaign funding system fueling hundreds of millions of dollars in local and national TV campaign ad buys. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit reversed a lower court decision (Van Hollen v. FEC) and upheld a Federal Election Commission interpretation of campaign finance law. That FEC interpretation, of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), was that only contributions by corporations or unions specifically earmarked for electioneering communications -- TV and radio ads, for example -- required disclosure to the FEC of the names and addresses of each person who gave at least $1,000 toward that targeted contribution. That meant those contributing money not specifically earmarked for campaign ads did not have to be disclosed, opening the door for so-called "dark money" contributions.
benton.org/node/134593 | Broadcasting&Cable
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ROMNEY AND FOX
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: MacKenzie Weinger]
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blasted Fox News as a “subsidiary of the Romney campaign” that even right-leaning viewers “might object to.” Maddow highlighted the recent Media Matters report stating four Fox News contributors — John Bolton, Jay Sekulow, Walid Phares and Elaine Chao — also serve as surrogates or advisers to Mitt Romney’s campaign. (Fox News indicated to The Huffington Post that Chao, who serves as a Romney national chair, is no longer a contributor.) “You can object to the idea that a purported news organization is paying people to report on and analyze their own work. They’re working for a campaign and they’re also analyzing that campaign for an organization that at least still has the word ‘news’ in its name — and that can sometimes seem cockamamie,” Maddow said. Maddow also pointed out to viewers that Karl Rove works as a Fox News contributor and is the co-founder of the pro-Romney, anti-Obama super PAC American Crossroads. But it’s not just those on the left that might find the overlap between the Romney campaign and Fox News unacceptable, Maddow said.
benton.org/node/134579 | Politico | Media Matters for America
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IS RECORDING ILLEGAL?
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Tony Romm]
The secretly recorded video of Mitt Romney decrying the “47 percent” of Americans who won't vote for him might run afoul of state law that bars eavesdropping. The rules in Florida — where Romney spoke at a private fundraiser — generally require consent from both the person recording and the person being recorded when one of the parties has a reasonable expectation of privacy. But the question is whether Romney can claim that expectation, partly because fundraising events are about influencing supporters and spreading word about his candidacy. "I think there are good arguments both ways under the statute," said Peter Swire, a professor at Ohio State University who led up privacy work during the Clinton administration. "Both sides can write a good brief now." It may already be too late to worry about the legality of it all: Mother Jones magazine, which first obtained the video, already released the recording. Romney’s words have gone viral, and they may change the dynamics of the 2012 race.
benton.org/node/134580 | Politico
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CHILDREN AND MEDIA
FTC SHINES LIGHT ON FOOD ADS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Anton Troianovski]
Federal officials concerned about childhood obesity say they are closely watching the kinds of food being advertised to children. But there isn't much they can do if they don't like what they see. The Federal Trade Commission plans to release a report by the end of the year detailing how dozens of food companies market their products to children. In an interview, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said the report will "make sure we have sunshine on industry practices." Beyond that, the options are limited for the FTC, which monitors advertising practices. After the FTC attempted to regulate ads on children's television in the 1970s, Congress banned the commission from making broad rules on how food is advertised to kids. And last year, the FTC suffered another rebuke after joining three other agencies in proposing voluntary guidelines to get companies to advertise only healthy food to kids. The food and advertising industries argued those draft guidelines were far too strict and amounted to backdoor regulation. The agencies eventually dropped their effort, and final versions of the guidelines were never released. Chairman Leibowitz says his aim now is to find other ways to encourage the industry to police itself.
benton.org/node/134602 | Wall Street Journal
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EVALUATING OBAMA’S TECH INITIATIVES
CYBERSECURITY AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Jason Miller]
The Obama administration can check off a long list of accomplishments around cybersecurity. But most of these achievements have only superficially improved the security of agency networks, say industry experts and former government executives. "Most people don't think the administration has lived up to expectations. There was a lot of enthusiasm based on the cyberspace policy review for several different reasons," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, an industry association. "One, the process the cyberspace policy review went through was open, collaborative and a detailed process. I think certainly industry was very enthusiastic. They didn't love everything in the report, but they felt like there was as real understanding at the White House of what we were doing and how we had to do this collaboratively. The wisdom that was in the cyberspace policy review needed to take a new approach to cybersecurity and the realization that a traditional regulatory model just wouldn't work in this space, these were the things that eventually brought down the legislation." Many point to that lack of getting comprehensive legislation passed by the Senate as the Administration's biggest cybersecurity failure.
benton.org/node/134589 | FederalNewsRadio
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IT REFOM
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Jason Miller]
For too long, the government had thrown good money after bad when it came to IT spending, according to former Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. In December 2010, he unveiled a sweeping plan to reform federal IT projects, encompassing 25 focus areas. Among them: Shuttering data centers and transitioning to cloud-computing platforms and implementing more robust metrics and processes to effectively manage large- scale IT projects. With the CIO's office now under the stewardship of Steven VanRoekel and many implementation deadlines now past, Federal News Radio examines whether the initial progress has continued. For analysis, Federal News Radio turned to two federal IT experts: Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners, LLC, and former administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology (IT) at the Office of Management and Budget, and Dan Chenok, executive director of IBM's Center for The Business of Government. When it comes to the IT reform plan, Federal News Radio rates the Obama administrations' efforts as being effective. Both Evans and Chenok said the plan is both an evolution of previous administration's effort to reform technology, as well as an acknowledgement of the quickly changing technological landscape.
benton.org/node/134588 | FederalNewsRadio
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INFO-SHARING EFFORTS
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Jason Miller]
Information sharing — between federal agencies, and across multiple layers of government — became an even more vital endeavor in the post-9/11 age. The Information Sharing Environment, headed by program manager, Kshemendra Paul, has helped to improve the coordination of information sharing. Under his watch, the National Information Exchange Model has worked to break down intelligence and information stovepipes. Agencies embraced the spirit of the idea, made progress toward the administration's stated goals and the results have been apparent. For those reasons, Federal News Radio is rating the Obama administration's information-sharing efforts as effective.
benton.org/node/134587 | FederalNewsRadio
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OPEN, TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT
[SOURCE: FederalNewsRadio, AUTHOR: Darrell West]
[Commentary] The Obama administration promised "an unprecedented level of openness in government." The Open Government Directive, released in late 2009, aimed to lay the cornerstone for new levels of government transparency. It set new requirements for agencies to post government information online to "promote informed participation by the public," to improve the quality of that government data and to inculcate a "culture of open government." As part of the directive, each individual agency was required to publish its own transparency plan. But now, nearly three years later, how much progress has actually been made? For analysis, Federal News Radio turns to Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. West, the founding director of Brookings' Center for Technology Innovation, shares his perspective of where things stand in open gov. When it comes to creating a more open, transparent government, Federal News Radio believes more progress is needed.
Reason #1: White House issued policies for openness and transparency.
Reason #2: However, the quality and usefulness of data has been questioned.
Reason #3: There's been only minimal participation in blogs and forums around data "communities."
benton.org/node/134586 | FederalNewsRadio
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
UNDERCOVER POLICE USED SMARTPHONES TO KEEP TABS ON PROTESTS IN TAMPA
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
A network that allowed undercover police to use smartphones and tablets to monitor and communicate during protests at the Republican National Convention is giving new meaning to having “eyes on the ground.” Police have long maintained an undercover presence at major gatherings, including political protests — not to monitor free speech, they are quick to note, but to make sure everyone is safe.
At this year’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, police tried out a powerful new tool that can turn officers’ smartphones into multimedia surveillance and communication platforms. Emergency responders around the country think the use of this technology could be the wave of the future and Tampa provided what many see as a successful field test. Tools that are often featured in spy thrillers such as the Bourne Identity movies could eventually become widely available in local police stations. In Tampa, emergency responders used specialized apps and software to turn off-the-shelf smartphones and tablets into tools for sending real-time video, voice, and data. The effort involved an interoperable network that used technology from several private companies. That allowed undercover officers to transmit real-time video, for example, of protesters as they moved about the streets.
benton.org/node/134555 | National Journal
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ACLU RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
The American Civil Liberties Union is questioning whether a long-awaited national public safety broadband network could become a tool for a domestic secret police force. "We shouldn't just accept that undercover police will infiltrate peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights, photograph them, and use face recognition or other techniques to identity them," ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley wrote. The post was a response to a National Journal report that detailed the first test of the potential public-safety network's capabilities during the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Police in the Tampa area say that the broadband network and specialized apps allowed undercover officers to use off-the-shelf smartphones to send real-time video of protesters. "If this network is going to be built, it ups the ante on police surveillance--making it more vital than ever that we enforce strict rules governing how surveillance is carried out," Stanley said.
benton.org/node/134581 | National Journal
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JOURNALISM
NEVER WRONG FOR LONG
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Roger Cohen]
[Commentary] A colleague from a TV news network was telling me the other day that its informal slogan was now “Never wrong for long.” News goes on air as it emerges in a furious competitive scramble, and then if it proves inaccurate it is supplanted rather than corrected. That, I guess, is what is meant by the new “churnalism.” So intense is the churn that nothing has much weight. Accuracy sometimes seems a quaint journalistic concept. As for truth, it belongs to a distinct moral universe. Memes don’t just happen through curious symbiosis. As Evgeny Morozov, the author of “The Net Delusion,” told me, “It’s not necessarily true that memes are born rather than made.” In this case, a ferociously anti-Islamic Copt named Morris Sadek labored hard to interest an Egyptian journalist in the movie; only then did the infernal cascade begin. New media often need the help of mainstream media before viral critical mass is achieved. Once it is, the algorithms kick in. Outfits like YouTube are agnostic intermediaries. They want, as Morozov put it, “more clicks, more traffic, more knowledge about viewers and so more advertising.”
benton.org/node/134597 | New York Times
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LABOR
THE STIMULUS WORKED
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Firestone]
[Commentary] On the most basic level, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is responsible for saving and creating 2.5 million jobs. The majority of economists agree that it helped the economy grow by as much as 3.8 percent, and kept the unemployment rate from reaching 12 percent. The stimulus is the reason, in fact, that most Americans are better off than they were four years ago, when the economy was in serious danger of shutting down. But the stimulus did far more than stimulate: it protected the most vulnerable from the recession’s heavy winds. Of the act’s $840 billion final cost, $1.5 billion went to rent subsidies and emergency housing that kept 1.2 million people under roofs. (That’s why the recession didn’t produce rampant homelessness.) It increased spending on food stamps, unemployment benefits and Medicaid, keeping at least seven million Americans from falling below the poverty line. It made crucial investments in neglected economic sectors that are likely to pay off for decades. It jump-started the switch to electronic medical records, which will largely end the use of paper records by 2015. It poured more than $1 billion into comparative-effectiveness research on pharmaceuticals. It extended broadband Internet to thousands of rural communities. And it spent $90 billion on a huge variety of wind, solar and other clean energy projects that revived the industry. Republicans, of course, only want to talk about Solyndra, but most of the green investments have been quite successful, and renewable power output has doubled.
benton.org/node/134559 | New York Times
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