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June 21, 2013
Source 
Wall Street Journal
Author 
Lilly Vitorovich
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

The Information Commissioner's Office, which oversees data privacy in the UK, said that it had served Google with an enforcement notice over the collection of payload data by its Street View cars in the UK.

The data, including email addresses, URLs and passwords relating to thousands of individuals, was collected through wireless networks as part of Google's street-mapping service. Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, said the notice "strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining payload data identified last year within the next 35 days and immediately inform the ICO if any further disks are found." "Failure to abide by the notice will be considered as contempt of court, which is a criminal offense," he said. A Google spokesperson said it "cooperated fully with the ICO throughout its investigation, and having received its order this morning we are proceeding with our plan to delete the data."

UK Orders Google to Delete Data

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Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
House Commerce Committee
Thursday, June 27, 2013
10:30am
http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/equipping-carriers-and-agencies-...

The subcommittee will hear from government and private sector witnesses as members discuss ways to meet the needs of wireless carriers and federal agencies in a time of limited spectrum and financial resources.

Submitted on June 21, 2013

On June 18, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Thomas Wheeler to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Wheeler’s nomination has drawn criticism from public interest advocates. They worry that Wheeler, who headed the main lobbying organizations for both cable operators and wireless carriers, may put consumers on the back burner with his sights set on completing an airwaves auction next year that will help wireless carriers bolster their networks and enrich television broadcasters. Wheeler used the hearing to elaborate on his background, outline his priorities, and to defend his business ties. During the hearing, Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) indicated that Wheeler’s confirmation is likely. Most of the other questions posed to Wheeler were friendly and not very difficult. Several Republican senators expressed confidence that he would be confirmed by inviting him to visit their states once he took office.

In his opening statement, Chairman Rockefeller underscored the importance of the work that lies ahead of Wheeler and the FCC saying, “[Y]ou will lead an agency that has the most challenging and complicated issues pending since the Commission implemented the 1996 Telecommunications Act…. The decisions the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) makes under your leadership will shape the future of the Nation’s telephone network, public safety, the wireless industry, broadcasting, the Internet, and consumer protection for years to come.” Sen. Rockefeller stressed that the FCC is a regulatory agency: “These regulations serve important policy goals. You cannot have universal service without regulation. You cannot ensure competition without regulation. You cannot have consumer protection without regulation.”

“Even as communications networks evolve and technology advances,” Chairman Rockefeller added, “the FCC’s mission does not. The rules and regulations we have in place now may not be the rules we need for the future, but that certainly does not mean we should not have any, as so many in the industry seem to advocate.”

Chairman Rockefeller said the rules the FCC needs to adopt should:

  • create the conditions so that every American no matter where they live has access to broadband.
  • guarantee that every child in America can harness the power of the Internet. And, do it safely.
  • empower consumers with the information they need to make informed choices.
  • continue to create the conditions for job creation, innovation, and investment.

Chairman Rockefeller urged Wheeler to “harness the vast power of the FCC to spur universal deployment of advanced technologies, foster growth and innovation, and protect consumers.”

In contrast, the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Jim Thune (R-SD), highlighted Wheeler’s earlier statement that the Communications Act and its enforcer the FCC are “analog legacies in a digital world.” Sen. Thune had several questions for Wheeler:

  • will you work with Congress and seek to amend the law where it may be inadequate or outdated?
  • will you conduct agency business transparently?
  • will you be visionary and share your ideas regarding statutory and agency modernization?

Addressing concerns about his background as a lobbyist, Wheeler also said that his experience would not prejudice him in regulating the industries he formerly championed. “I was an advocate for specific points of view, and I hope I was a pretty good advocate,” Wheeler said. “If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, my client will be the American public, and I hope I can be as effective an advocate for them as humanly possible.”

In his testimony, Wheeler said his top priorities, if he is confirmed, would be consumer protection, increasing competition and providing sufficient predictability so companies know what rulings to expect. And he identified three challenges the FCC faces: 1) implementing the spectrum incentive auctions and creating a public safety network; 2) the IP transition--overseeing the transition from analog switched-circuit networks to Internet Protocol (IP) delivery; and 3) advancing civil society through communications, including the broadband buildout and promoting diversity.

He touted his business experience saying his decades of heading lobbying groups will bring important business sensibilities to the oversight of a communications industry undergoing a massive technological transition. He was chief executive of what is now the National Cable and Telecommunications Association in the 1980s. “I fought against the FCC’s rules limiting cable’s ability to compete with new video services,” Wheeler said. “I worked for the ability of competitors to bring services into the home.” Similarly, Wheeler said that his tenure in the 1990s as head of the cellular phone trade group now known as CTIA-The Wireless Association, was one in which start-up and rapidly growing cellphone competitors were at the forefront of wholesale changes in communications. “During my tenure, that competition was expanded by the auctions of 1994, wireless was increasingly used in place of wire line, and wireless data turned the phone into a pocket computer,” Wheeler said. “All of these developments brought with them new policy challenges,” he added, challenges that are no smaller now as wireless becomes the primary method of broadband and voice communication for millions of Americans.

His experience, he said, has taught him that competition is a basic value that must be encouraged. He said the FCC needs to promote competition over regulation. “Competition is a power unto itself that must be encouraged,” he said. “Competitive markets produce better outcomes than regulated or uncompetitive markets.” Telecom policy has helped create competition, he said, but he cautioned that the FCC’s rules could also put “a brake on innovation.” However, he also noted that competition is not always sufficient to protect other basic values, like universal service and the use of technology to enhance public safety and services.

Nomination hearings, in general, offer senators a chance to express what their priorities are through pointed questions while nominees do their best to answer the questions without offering any specifics. Here’s a look at some of the major issues raised by the committee’s members.

Incentive Auctions
In his opening statement, Chairman Rockefeller raised two pending issues before the FCC that he believes should be top priorities. The first is what is called the incentive auction proceeding, aimed at creating the revenues to fund a nationwide interoperable public safety network. Chairman Rockefeller asked Wheeler whether he felt the incentive auctions should be held ASAP because Rockefeller is concerned about the auctions raising enough money to pay for FirstNet, a first responder public safety network he has been championing since 9/11.

"I think it is absolutely crucial that the incentive auction move on an expedited schedule," Wheeler said emphatically. He also said that he understood the need for incentive auction rules that provide enough funding for FirstNet.

Wheeler compared the complexity of the incentive auction to that of a Rubik's cube. "On the one side of the cube, you have got to provide an incentive for broadcasters to want to auction their spectrum," he said, holding an imaginary cube before him and twisting its right side. "On the other side of the cube, you have got to provide a product that is structured in such a way that it incentivizes...the wireless carriers ...to want to bid for the spectrum," he said, twisting with his left hand. "And then in the middle of this, on an almost real-time basis, you have a band plan that is constantly changing to reflect the variables that are going on [on the sides]. That's why this has never been tried before. This is a monumental undertaking."

Modernizing the E-Rate
Another top priority for Chairman Rockefeller is an update of the FCC’s E-Rate program which Rockefeller helped to create with provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The E-Rate provides subsidies for Internet connections at schools and libraries, but Rockefeller, President Obama and others want to modernize the program to provide both high-speed, broadband connections to schools and libraries as well as wireless connections to the Internet.

Wheeler said he supports expanding the E-Rate: "It is not good enough for us to have 1996 textbooks in the classroom. I don't think it's good enough to have 1996 connectivity in the classroom." He added "When 80 percent of the E-Rate schools say they're not getting the proper bandwidth for their instructional needs, something needs to be done.”

Merger Reviews
Both Sens. Thune and Roy Blunt (R-MO) questioned Wheeler about FCC reviews of proposed mergers. Perhaps the biggest reservation Republicans seem to have is that a Wheeler-led FCC might capitalize on telecom mergers as a way to force industry changes it can’t cause by other means. Many have pointed to Wheeler’s own writings about the importance of merger conditions and his suggestion that the FCC could have put conditions on the AT&T/T-Mobile merger that could then be more generally applied. But Wheeler pledged to conduct merger reviews according to the specific facts and legal precedents of those mergers. Asked by Sen. Blunt whether the FCC would "continue" to apply merger conditions "that don't directly deal with competitive issues," Wheeler echoed an earlier response to Sen. Thune. "I believe that the merger review process deals with a specific case, the facts in that situation and is guided by the law and precedent. And that ought to be the defining four corners of any consideration."

Wheeler backed away, however, from his comments in 2011 on his blog. In the post, he said the FCC might have expanded its authority over wireless companies if it had approved the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile by imposing conditions that could later be applied to all wireless companies.

Wheeler said that any merger review must consider the facts before the commission and not deal with theoretical questions of the sort he raised in the blog post. “In a hypothetical musing, it is possible to do that,” Wheeler said. But in a merger review, he added, “I am guided by precedent, the statute and the facts before me.”

Media Ownership
On June 17, New America Foundation’s Mark Lloyd published a piece urging Senate Commerce Committee members to ask Wheeler to address a recent wave of media ownership consolidation. Lloyd pointed to Gannett’s purchase of 20 Belo television stations, a purchase that will make Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, the owner of 43 stations in total with 21 stations in the nation’s top 25 markets and make the company the No. 3 local station owner in the United States, by revenue. In addition, Media General announced earlier this month that it was merging with Young Broadcasting, creating a broadcast conglomerate of 30 stations. Nexstar signed a letter of intent to purchase 12 stations from the Communications Corporation of America, bringing its total TV station count to about 84. And in June, the Sinclair Broadcast Group announced a deal to buy six television stations owned by the Titan Television Broadcast Group. If approved by the FCC, Sinclair will own roughly 140 TV stations in more than 70 markets. Nexstar President and CEO Perry Sook predicts a wave of mergers, “I would think within two to five years, you'll see the emergence of what I call three or four super-groups, and I think you'll see a couple emerge sooner rather than later."

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) criticized the Gannett deal and, in particular, Gannett’s plan to "use shared services agreements as a way to get around [FCC local ownership] rules" while questioning Wheeler. Wheeler said he understood the seriousness of the issue, and has been a longtime advocate of diversity of voices. But he said the FCC has asked the Government Accountability Office to study the issue and he "looked forward to their opinion." He said the key is for the FCC to look at competition, localism and diversity as the touchstones, not business plans. He declined to comment on whether some broadcasters could abuse shared service agreements to get around the rules. "I am not informed enough to be explicit on that," he said, "but I am going to be."

Sen. Cantwell then asked if consolidation is needed to save newspapers. Wheeler suggested that it is not. "It has been my experience that the way to grow businesses when they are challenged by new technologies is to embrace those new technologies. That's the best way for working your way out of this situation."

Wheeler avoided giving a specific opinion on new media ownership rules: “I am specifically trying not to be specific,” he said.

Retransmission Consent
Sen. Blunt asked Wheeler whether he agreed with former-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that the FCC's power to rewrite retransmission consent rules was "very limited" and changes in the policy would have to come from Congress. "I look forward to looking into that issue and trying to get my arms around it,” answered Wheeler, “particularly in light of some recent court action and a pending Second Circuit action that has been brought on a related kind of issue," he said without identifying the Second Circuit case. "I am not trying to dodge the questions, but I think this ... is a situation that is in flux at the moment."

When Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) later asked what he thought about retransmission consent, Wheeler endorsed it, saying it was a way for broadcasters "to get revenue from subscribers through the intermediary of the cable operator. I believe in that kind of evolutionary market." But Wheeler also expressed concern about the breakdown of retransmission negotiations between broadcasters and cable and satellite operators that sometimes results in the loss of broadcast signals to subscribers. "What does bother me...is when consumers are held hostage over corporate disputes. And if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, that is something I will be looking at."

Indecency Enforcement
This week, the Parents Television Council (PTC) and Morality in Media (MIM) urged senators to press Wheeler on how he would enforce broadcast indecency regulations.

"I'm old enough that when I see some things to kind of grit my teeth and say, "Is this what I want my grandkids to be seeing?' Whether it be violence or obscenity or indecency or whatever," Wheeler said. But Wheeler said the bully pulpit might have more influence than any regulations the agency could write. “I do believe it is possible to call upon our better angels with some leadership,” Wheeler said. He recalled that the “vast wasteland” speech of Newton N. Minow, the former FCC chairman, “caught people’s attention.” He added: “Maybe it’s time to do the same type of thing today.

Political Advertising
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked Wheeler to submit in writing whether he believes the FCC has the authority to require political TV and radio advertisers to disclose the source of their funding — and then warned Wheeler that he would jeopardize his confirmation if he says that he does. "This is the one issue that has in my opinion the potential to derail your nomination," said Sen. Cruz. Having failed to pass a law requiring disclosure, some congressional Democrats have begun pressing the FCC to do it through rulemaking, insisting that the agency has the authority. Republicans have pushed back, believing, in Cruz's words, disclosure requirements in law or FCC rules are "unconstitutional and bad policy."

Wheeler avoided taking a stand on the issue. "This is an issue that I look forward to learning more about," Wheeler told Sen. Cruz. "But I do not miss the expressions on both sides of this as to the strong feelings. I know this is an issue of tension."

After the hearing, Chairman Rockefeller told POLITICO there's no reason to worry. “I just let it float right by me,” Rockefeller said, noting he's not concerned, before adding this about the process: “These things have a way of working out.”

Conclusion
The main question, especially for public interest advocates, on the Wheeler nomination is how to resolve his background as a lobbyist for the wireless and cable industries. Timothy Lee in the Washington Post writes, “The ideal candidate for FCC chairman would have decades of practical experience with the tricky technical and legal questions the agency grapples with. He or she would also have few ties to the industries he’d be charged with regulating. But those criteria are in tension with each other because one of the best ways to gain experience with telecom issues is to work for a telecom company.” Lee believes that a move from regulator to lobbyist is more troubling than from lobbyist to regulator. Wheeler has had a prosperous career and is nearing retirement age, giving him the luxury of not worrying how his decisions might affect his future employment prospects.

Writing for Fortune, Dan Mitchell said, “Despite in some respects looking like an industry apparatchik, Wheeler actually appears to be more of a wonky nerd than anything else. Given the complexity of many of the issues he'll be facing, he might turn out to have been the perfect choice for the job.”

The Commerce Committee did not vote on Wheeler’s nomination, and panel leaders did not specify when the final OK might come. Chairman Rockefeller, for his part, said he’s “certain” Wheeler would ultimately win the Senate’s final approval. Most likely, the committee won’t formally tee up Wheeler for full Senate approval until the President selects a Republican for the FCC’s other open seat — and Thune told POLITICO both nominees should advance together. He declined to say whether Senate Republicans, who by custom can suggest a name for that open slot, have recommended a potential nominee to the White House.
For now, Chairman Rockefeller emphasized: “There's nothing in the Commerce Committee rules that says we need to have a pairing.”

In any case, the decision on the Wheeler nomination is crucial. “I think the agency is more important than ever,” said Chairman Rockefeller during the hearing. We couldn’t agree more.

June 21, 2013 (NSA; Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013

A look at next week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-06-23--P1W/


GOVERNEMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant
   President Obama to discuss NSA in first meeting with civil liberties board
   Head of Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board pledges open look at U.S. surveillance
   Big Brother and Silicon Valley - analysis
   Why Monopolies Make Spying Easier - op-ed
   NSA spying could mean U.S. tech companies lose international business - analysis
   Justices: Federal Funds Can't Infringe On Nonprofits' Free Speech
   Project Chess: How U.S. Snoops On Your Skype [links to web]
   Booz Allen, the World's Most Profitable Spy Organization [links to web]
   Cameras in High Court Bill Introduced [links to web]

CONTENT
   Intellectual Property: A Key Driver of our Economy - press release
   FTC to launch new investigation of patent trolls
   The White House’s latest copyright and patent plan could be better than you think - analysis
   DOJ compares Apple and publishers to oil cartels; now sit back and wait for the verdict
   Apple trial defense: A guilty verdict would send chills across Internet industry [links to web]

WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
   Sprint and Clearwire Agree to Increased Acquisition Offer - press release
   Pentagon to Wireless Industry: We Need Our Spectrum
   How your cellphone could create an emergency telecom network [links to web]
   Facebook’s Wi-Fi Spreads in the Wild [links to web]
   The Whole Story - Mass Transit And Media [links to web]
   Mobile Data Will Soon Dominate Wireless Service Revenues [links to web]
   Much faster Wi-Fi coming soon [links to web]
   Tech is at a tipping point [links to web]
   Citrix: Data Provides Insight into Mobile Subscriber Behavior and Mobile App Preference - press release [links to web]
    Mobidia: New Research Provides Insight into LTE Usage by Smartphone Users - press release [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   How the U.S. Got Broadband Right - op-ed
   Is cable holding back superfast broadband adoption on purpose?
   Verizon, Netflix Dispute Not Just over Peering; Servers are New Battlefield - analysis
   House Commerce Committee Leaders Continue Inquiry Into $100M Colorado Broadband Stimulus Grant - press release [links to web]
   Americans, Especially the Young, Oppose Internet Sales Tax - research [links to web]

OWNERSHIP
   Yahoo Completes Tumblr Acquisition [links to web]
   Tribune’s Clever Tax Strategy Now Spells Trouble
   DOJ compares Apple and publishers to oil cartels; now sit back and wait for the verdict
   Apple trial defense: A guilty verdict would send chills across Internet industry [links to web]
   Apple Still Has a Giant Advantage in Digital Music, With 75 Percent of the Market [links to web]
   Local TV Bids Expected to Fetch Up to $2.5 Billion [links to web]

BROADCASTING
   FCC at Crossroads on Indecency Rules - Enforce, Ignore or Risk Another 'Nipplegate'?
   ABC to FCC: Revamp Arbitrary, Inconsistent Indecency Policy [links to web]
   CBS: FCC Should Adopt 'Egregious Case' Indecency Enforcement Policy [links to web]
   NBC: FCC Needs to Launch Indecency Enforcement Rulemaking [links to web]
   PTC Slams Fox Indecency Comments [links to web]
   Music Let’s Broadcasters Strike Up the Band [links to web]
   Local TV Bids Expected to Fetch Up to $2.5 Billion [links to web]

TELECOM
   Verizon Remains Committed to Fire Island With Voice Link - press release
   Hitting the Ground Running with the Lifeline Accountability Database - press release

PRIVACY
   Consumers Will Share Personal Data for Perks: Survey [links to web]
   Facebook’s Wi-Fi Spreads in the Wild [links to web]
   Stanford, Mozilla, Opera team up to tackle cookie privacy issues [links to web]
   Five Reasons to Throw Your Data Away - op-ed [links to web]

JOURNALISM
   Broadcasting Board of Governors Calls For End To Harassment And Threats To Press - press release [links to web]

CYBERSECURITY
   Protecting the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure - press release

AGENDA
   FCC To Hold Open Commission Meeting, Thursday, June 27, 2013 - public notice
   President Obama to discuss NSA in first meeting with civil liberties board

POLICYMAKERS
   Twitter’s Nicole Wong joins White House as deputy chief technology officer [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   Telecoms Want 'Net Neutrality' Applied More Widely
   A New Europe for Telecoms? - analysis
   EU data authorities threaten to fine Google
   AT&T chief scours Europe for suitable acquisitions

MORE ONLINE
   Americans Worked Less, Watched More TV in 2012 [links to web]
   At Netroots Nation in San Jose, liberal online activists plot victory [links to web]

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GOVERNEMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

RULES ALLOW NSA TO USE DATA WITHOUT WARRANT
[SOURCE: The Guardian, AUTHOR: Glenn Greenwald, James Ball]
Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant. The documents detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target "non-US persons" under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance. The documents show that even under authorities governing the collection of foreign intelligence from foreign targets, US communications can still be collected, retained and used. The documents detail the circumstances in which data collected on US persons under the foreign intelligence authority must be destroyed, extensive steps analysts must take to try to check targets are outside the US, and reveals how US call records are used to help remove US citizens and residents from data collection. However, alongside those provisions, the FISA court-approved policies allow the NSA to:
Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;
Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;
Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;
Access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.
benton.org/node/154321 | Guardian, The
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OBAMA TO MEET WITH CIVIL LIBERTIES BOARD
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Justin Sink]
President Barack Obama will meet for the first time with an independent oversight board tasked with examining privacy and civil liberties issues within the federal government, as the White House looks to deflect criticism over a pair of recently revealed National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs. The meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is a chance for the five-member panel to share their concerns with the President about the government's top-secret Internet and telephone monitoring programs. President Obama has billed the oversight board as a counterweight to the government's surveillance programs, saying earlier this week that the panel served as a check on the data mining programs secretly authorized under the Patriot Act. The White House believes that meeting with the panel can help assuage privacy concerns voiced since the revelation of the NSA programs. The senior administration official said the board's functions included "ensuring that the need for such actions is balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties."
benton.org/node/154331 | Hill, The
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DAVID MEDINE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Alina Selyukh]
David Medine, the recently-confirmed chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, pledged to be "as transparent and public as possible" as the board reviews recently exposed U.S. government secret surveillance programs. The board, which has been largely dormant since 2008, held its first full-fledged meeting on June 19. The meeting was behind closed doors to review classified information about the vast and controversial Internet and phone monitoring programs. But Chairman Medine said that the board is aiming to hold a public event around July 9 to get legal insight from experts, academics and advocates.
benton.org/node/154320 | Reuters
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BIG BROTHER AND SILICON VALLEY
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: George Packer]
[Commentary] The National Security Agency’s data-mining story has fundamentally changed the public’s picture of Silicon Valley and its relation to the state. The Valley has, historically, kept as far away from Washington as possible. A strong, though not particularly ideological, strain of libertarianism appears to be coded into the DNA of computer engineers—a desire to be left alone to create beautiful systems that can be messed up only by the uncomprehending interference of mediocrities from the government. Partly as a result, information technology has been one of the country’s most lightly regulated industries. Last year, when Congress was poised to pass laws intended to protect intellectual property and prevent online piracy, tech companies, led by Google, struck back with one of the most effective lobbying tactics ever used: they shut down for a day. The effect was instantaneous—both bills went from easy sailing to overwhelming defeat. So much for that regulatory effort. But the opposition between tech and government has been breaking down recently, and in ways not limited to the N.S.A. program. Silicon Valley was always aware of the downsides to a relationship with Washington, but now it knows more about potential positives, not just in the growing influence of tech money in political campaigns and tech endorsements of individual candidates but in industry-led advocacy efforts on issues like immigration reform, and in the idea of technology as a solution for chronic social problems. Now, it turns out, the biggest companies in the computer business—Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Apple, among others—have been giving vast amounts of user data to the government’s chief surveillance agency, in some cases for years.
benton.org/node/154319 | New Yorker
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WHY MONOPOLIES MAKE SPYING EASIER
[SOURCE: New Yorker, AUTHOR: Tim Wu]
[Commentary] These days, America has one dominant search engine, one dominant social-networking site, and four phone companies. The structure of the information industry often goes unnoticed, but it has an enormous effect on the ease with which the government spies on citizens. The remarkable consolidation of the communications and Web industries into a handful of firms has made spying much simpler and, therefore, more likely to happen. We are often told that we’re living in special times, but it has always been a good time to spy on citizens, whether during the Cold War or the Second World War, or at the turn of the nineteenth century, when anarchists actually killed a President. The state’s will to surveil and to spy is constant. It is the structure and design of the information industries that make it more or less likely.
benton.org/node/154318 | New Yorker
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NSA AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Taylor Armerding]
It is not just personal information that is being swept into the National Security Agency's (NSA) massive databases. It is corporate data as well. And that could cause some serious international blowback for the U.S., both politically and economically. According to a number of security experts, the U.S. surveillance state --exposed more officially than ever before by former NSA consultant Edward Snowden -- will likely undercut the U.S.'s role and influence in Internet governance. "The revelations that have emerged will undoubtedly trigger a reaction abroad as policymakers and ordinary users realize the huge disadvantages of their dependence on U.S.-controlled networks in social media, cloud computing, and telecommunications, and of the formidable resources that are deployed by U.S. national security agencies to mine and monitor those networks," wrote Ron Deibert, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
benton.org/node/154317 | InfoWorld
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FEDERAL FUNDS AND SPEECH
[SOURCE: National Public Radio, AUTHOR: Scott Neuman]
The Supreme Court has struck down a law mandating that nonprofit organizations adopt a policy opposing prostitution as a condition for receiving federal funds for HIV/AIDS programs abroad, saying such a requirement violated the groups' free-speech rights. In the 6-2 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts led the majority, with Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself. The case, Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., stems from a 2003 vote by Congress stating that no federal funds "may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution" nor go to any organization "that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution."
benton.org/node/154316 | National Public Radio
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CONTENT

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: Victoria Espinel]
The release of the Administration’s 2013 Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement builds on our efforts to protect intellectual property to date, and provides a roadmap for our work over the next three years. In preparing the 2013 Joint Strategic Plan, we solicited public comment on how to improve our approach, and that public input was invaluable in drafting the final version of the Joint Strategic Plan. We will continue to seek public views on how to best promote and protect intellectual property rights. We will review our domestic legislation to make sure it is effective and up-to-date. We will look for ways to use technology better to make enforcement more efficient and targeted. We want to discourage infringement and encourage those that are appropriately building on the works of others to create new works, so we will educate authors on how fair use works to allow creation of new works. We will increase support for small and medium sized companies that are seeking to expand into foreign markets. And we will begin collecting information on labor conditions in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit and pirated goods overseas.
benton.org/node/154315 | White House, The | Dept of Commerce | B&C | The Hill
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FTC INVESTIGATION OF PATENT TROLLS
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Grant Gross]
The Federal Trade Commission will launch an investigation of the business practices of so-called patent trolls in an effort to understand whether those companies are harming competition and consumers, the agency's chairwoman said. As part of a growing focus of the U.S. government on patent abuses, the FTC will study patent assertion entities (PAEs), companies with the primary business model of buying and licensing patents, in an effort to understand the costs and benefits of PAE activity, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said. The agency will also watch PAEs closely for possible anticompetitive lawsuits and will take antitrust enforcement action against PAEs if warranted, Ramirez said. One PAE business model that's emerging is patent privateering, in which an operating company transfers its patents to a PAE, and the PAE files a patent infringement lawsuit against a competitor of the first company, she said.
benton.org/node/154314 | IDG News Service | The Hill
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COPYRIGHT AND PATENT PLAN
[SOURCE: The Verge, AUTHOR: Adi Robertson]
The White House laid out how it hopes to enforce rules against copyright infringement, patent trolling, and more. The Joint Strategic Plan, as it’s called, isn’t exactly a new initiative. It’s a periodic report that codifies existing ideas, urges government agencies and companies to work together, and picks up where previous measures left off. But despite years of complaints about overzealous intellectual property protection — and high-profile cases over whether things as simple as human DNA can be patented — it may be a step in the right direction. "The White House’s Strategic Plan identifies a number of sensible measures to improve copyright enforcement that even copyright skeptics should be able to embrace," says Berin Szoka of the libertarian-leaning think tank TechFreedom. Sherwin Siy, of digital rights group Public Knowledge, also called the report "very encouraging." Both groups have frequently opposed what they see as an overreaching enforcement system, but Siy believes that the report challenges some of the draconian "received dogma" about intellectual property.
benton.org/node/154313 | Verge, The | Broadcasting&Cable
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DOJ CLOSING ARGUMENT
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Laura Hazard Owen]
The three-week U.S. vs. Apple trial, in which the government accused Apple of conspiring with book publishers to fix e-book prices, is over — and now time to wait for Judge Denise Cote’s verdict. Following Apple attorney Orin Snyder’s summation, Department of Justice attorney Mark Ryan argued that the case was a simple antitrust suit — Apple’s conduct was “a per se violation of the Sherman Act,” an “old-fashioned, straightforward price-fixing agreement” that caused e-book prices to go up. Ryan argued that by setting price bands for e-books in the iBookstore, Apple intended to raise e-book prices: “Ceilings became floors” because publishers priced at the top limits of the caps. Ryan also said Apple’s argument that its negotiations with publishers were hard-fought didn’t matter — “[Why is it] that difficult negotiations cannot surround a conspiracy?…You can pick up a paper and see Venezuela and Saudi Arabia” arguing over what oil prices should be, but it “doesn’t mean they aren’t members of a cartel.” Ryan said, “I’d like to have a brief discussion about credibility,” then introduced a series of slides headed “Credibility” where the government sought to show that Apple’s witnesses were not reliable. Throughout the case, he said, the witnesses were “reaching for answers” and there was “constant retraction of testimony.” (In particular, he said, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy repeatedly changed her answers to a question after being shown her deposition.) “The court is well within its rights to credit none of a witness’s testimony” if some of that testimony is faulty, Ryan said; the court should not “hunt and peck” through testimony to pull out the true parts.
benton.org/node/154329 | paidContent.org
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM

SPRINT AND CLEARWIRE AGREE TO INCREASED ACQUISITION OFFER
[SOURCE: Sprint, AUTHOR: Press release]
Sprint and Clearwire announced that they have agreed to amend Sprint's agreement to acquire the approximately 50 percent of Clearwire it does not currently own (the “minority stake”) for $5.00 per share, valuing Clearwire at approximately $14 billion, or about $0.30 per MHZ-pop. This increased offer represents a 47 percent premium to Sprint’s previous offer of $3.40 per share announced on May 21, 2013 and a 285 percent premium to Clearwire's closing share price on Oct. 10, 2012, the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were first confirmed in the marketplace and Clearwire was speculated to be a part of that transaction. This offer also represents a 14 percent premium to the $4.40 per share DISH tender offer. Sprint has received commitments from a group of significant Clearwire stockholders -- including Mount Kellett Capital Management LP, Glenview Capital Management LLC, Chesapeake Partners Management Co., Inc. and Highside Capital Management LP -- which collectively own approximately 9 percent of Clearwire’s voting shares, to vote their shares in support of the transaction. These stockholders have also agreed to sell their shares to Sprint in the event the transaction does not close. Together with the voting commitments previously received from Comcast Corp., Intel Corp and Bright House Networks LLC, who collectively own approximately 13 percent of Clearwire’s voting shares, and Clearwire’s directors and officers, stockholders owning approximately 45 percent of the Clearwire voting shares not affiliated with Sprint, have now agreed to vote their shares in support of the transaction. Sprint expects a majority of the non-Sprint stockholders to support the Clearwire merger based on these agreements and the votes of shareholders with both Sprint and Clearwire shareholdings who have already voted in favor of the Sprint SoftBank transaction. In addition to the increased price per share, the companies have further amended the merger agreement that was previously entered into. Specifically, among other things, in certain circumstances where the transaction between Sprint and Clearwire terminates, Clearwire will be required to pay a termination fee of $115 million, or 3 percent of the equity value of the minority stake. In the event the transaction is not completed, Clearwire has agreed to hold its annual shareholder meeting as expeditiously as possible and if the transaction is not completed under certain circumstances, Clearwire has agreed to waive the current standstill provision in the Equityholders’ Agreement between Sprint, Clearwire, and the company’s strategic investors. That standstill provision was originally set to expire on November 28, 2013.
benton.org/node/154312 | Sprint | WSJ | WSJ | Bloomberg
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PENTAGON TO WIRELESS INDUSTRY: WE NEED OUR SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Bob Brewin]
The Defense Department must retain exclusive access to some spectrum in order to support military training and other critical national security needs, said Pentagon Chief Information Officer Teri Takai. She warned there needs to be a balance between supporting the growth of the wireless industry and Defense missions. “We have to weigh not only our responsibility to the nation, but also our operational responsibility,” she said. While she didn’t identify specific frequency bands considered critical, she said, “I think it’s important from a national security standpoint to recognize that we have a certain amount of spectrum that we utilize which is exclusive to us from a national security and an interference perspective.’ Among other things, Takai said Defense needs spectrum to support training in the United States, noting that 80 percent of training occurs around domestic military bases. “The safety of our men and women overseas is really based on their . . . ability to train,” she said. She suggested spectrum could be shared geographically based on population density or time. To do that, she said, requires knowing who owns the spectrum, and when and where they’re using it. “There’s certainly opportunity for us to do spectrum-sharing in, for example, rural areas, where we don’t have the bases,” Takai said. “Unfortunately, those aren’t the areas where there’s the commercial demand.”
benton.org/node/154289 | nextgov
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

HOW US GOT BROADBAND RIGHT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Lowell McAdam]
[Commentary] Some observers have painted a dire picture of the state of Internet availability in America. Some critics have called for new government policies to “fix” the telecommunications industry. Such criticisms are misplaced. If he is confirmed, Tom Wheeler will have the good fortune to be arriving at the Federal Communications Commission at a time when the United States has gained a global leadership position in the marketplace for broadband. More than 80 percent of American households live in areas that offer access to broadband networks capable of delivering data with speeds in excess of 100 megabits per second. Fifty-six percent of American adults have smartphones that give them access to mobile broadband data and video. The United States built its lead because companies invested nearly $1.2 trillion, over 17 years, to deploy next-generation broadband networks. These investments, which began with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, were neither accidental nor inevitable; they were a result of deliberate policy decisions by Congress and by Democratic and Republican administrations alike to protect consumers while encouraging companies to invest in nascent technologies that are now flourishing. Regulatory restraint has resulted in a robust broadband market, but today some self-styled policy advocates insist that America’s broadband marketplace is badly broken and that the only solution is to revert to Depression-era regulations, like government rate setting and price controls or rules dictating what types of competitive offerings broadband providers can offer consumers. These ideas, however, are part of the rigid bureaucratic approach that European regulators have correctly identified as stifling. Regulatory prudence is the only way to keep up the momentum in broadband innovation. There is no telling what will come out of this next wave of change. For its potential to be fully realized, however, it will be critically important for the industry to work with regulators — led, we hope, by Mr. Wheeler — to continue the bipartisan policies that have made our fast-changing industry a global leader. [Lowell McAdam is chairman and chief executive of Verizon Communications]
benton.org/node/154330 | New York Times
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IS CABLE HOLDING BACK BROADBAND?
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon]
The cable industry insists that it's ready and able to compete with Google Fiber when it comes to delivering ultra high-speed broadband. But the rhetoric doesn’t match up with the actions of the industry. Cable providers have been slow to make its speedier options broadly available, and when they do, they charge significantly higher prices that escalate as you move to faster tiers. Based on how the industry has chosen to price its service, it's clear that cable operators are not exactly encouraging adoption of ultra high-speed broadband. In comparison, Google is expanding Google Fiber to more markets, and offers a much faster connection at reasonable rates.
benton.org/node/154291 | C-Net|News.com
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SERVERS ARE NEW BATTLEFIELD
[SOURCE: telecompetitor, AUTHOR: Joan Engebretson]
High-profile flare-ups between content providers and broadband providers over traffic exchange are becoming an annual or even semi-annual Internet tradition. The latest flare-up is between Cogent Communications, which provides backbone connectivity for Netflix, and Verizon. But this time there’s a new issue embedded in an old issue. The old issue is how to deal with traffic imbalances between broadband providers and content providers who tend to send more traffic to broadband providers than they receive from them. The new issue pertains to a new approach to solving those traffic exchange problems – allowing the content provider to put servers in key broadband provider connection points, thereby minimizing the distance content has to travel between the two companies. The goal is to minimize transport costs and enhance the quality of the end user experience. And the fight now seems to be over who controls those arrangements.
benton.org/node/154288 | telecompetitor
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OWNERSHIP

TRIBUNE’S TAX TROUBLE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Floyd Norris]
It was perhaps the cleverest corporate tax strategy ever devised: no matter how much money the company made, neither it nor its shareholders would ever owe a penny in federal income taxes. “In conception, it was brilliant,” said Robert Willens, a longtime tax analyst who now runs his own firm, Robert Willens L.L.C. “It would have been probably the greatest tax avoidance structure ever devised, had they earned income.” Instead, the strategy has now backfired on the Tribune Company, the publisher of The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, among other publications. The company seems likely to have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that it would never have owed had it not tried to be so clever. Without the expected tax savings, the numbers probably would not have worked when Samuel Zell, the real estate billionaire, was putting together his 2007 takeover of Tribune. Perhaps he would have dropped the deal, or perhaps he would have been unable to finance it. In either case, everyone involved would have been better off.
benton.org/node/154311 | New York Times
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BROADCASTING

FCC INDECENCY
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Brent Lang]
The Federal Communications Commission has spent much of the Obama Administration punting on indecency. But now, as a new chairman waits in the wings, broadcasters and advocacy groups are searching for signs about its future direction on the hot-button issue. Already there have been indications that the FCC is flirting with relaxing standards and limiting its enforcement efforts to flagrant use of profanity or blatant displays of sexuality. It just ended a request for comments from viewers and members of the broadcast industry in which it floated the idea that it would no longer fine programs featuring fleeting expletives or nudity. And Tom Wheeler, the former telecommunications executive President Obama appointed to take over for departed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, hinted during his confirmation hearings in Congress this week that he may take a laissez faire attitude when it comes to cracking down on blue language or content. Meanwhile, the FCC did not take a single enforcement action against a network-owned and operated affiliate for indecency or profanity during the first half of President Obama's tenure. During that time, the backlog of complaints swelled, prompting Genachowski to instruct the agency’s enforcement bureau last fall to dismiss roughly a million of these objections, noting the statute of limitations had expired in certain instances.
benton.org/node/154328 | Wrap, The | MediaPost
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TELECOM

VERIZON AND FIRE ISLAND
[SOURCE: Verizon, AUTHOR: Tom Maguire]
Recently, Stop the Cap! published stories about Verizon’s decision to discontinue traditional wired landline service for approximately 500 customers on Fire Island and offer them a wireless alternative called Voice Link. This is an important change for Verizon and our customers, and we wanted to clarify several points about the service and how Verizon is deploying it. In places like Fire Island, New York and some communities along the Jersey Shore, such as Mantoloking and Seaside Heights, Verizon evaluated the extent of the damage to its facilities – which in many cases were literally washed away by Super Storm Sandy – and conducted extensive research before deciding the best course of action to take in terms of restoration. Fire Island is a popular beach community with only a few hundred year-round residents, but the population swells each summer. Verizon’s equipment on the eastern side of the island was not too heavily impacted, so repairs were made and services restored. On the western side of the Island, however, a large percentage of Verizon’s copper facilities were damaged beyond repair. We studied the voice traffic on and off the island and where it was originating from on both Verizon’s wireline and wireless networks. The company discovered that 80 percent of the voice traffic was already wireless. If other wireless providers were factored in, it is likely that the percentage is closer to 90 percent. This made it clear that people had already made the decision as to what technology works best. They had abandoned copper long before Sandy.
benton.org/node/154279 | Verizon
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LIFELINE ACCOUNTABILITY DATABASE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Kimberly Scardino]
The National Lifeline Accountability Database will ensure compliance with one of the Federal Communications Commission’s most important rules to protect the integrity of the Lifeline program: limiting Lifeline benefits to one subscription per household. By harnessing communications and information technology to enforce this rule, the FCC will protect the universal service fund and the consumers who pay into it, promote fairness to beneficiaries and companies who play by the rules, and reduce the burden on providers. Implementation of the database will begin in Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Oklahoma and Washington this fall, with other states to follow shortly thereafter. Importantly, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) will “scrub” the subscriber information to eliminate duplicates BEFORE loading it into the database. The database will be operational by the end of the year and going forward will permanently detect and prevent duplicative Lifeline support before a consumer enrolls in the Lifeline program.
benton.org/node/154304 | Federal Communications Commission
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CYBERSECURITY

NIST CYBERSECURITY UPDATE
[SOURCE: National Institute of Standards and Technology, AUTHOR: Patrick Gallagher]
President Barack Obama directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to work with industry on a voluntary cybersecurity framework for better protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Development of the framework is a NIST-coordinated but industry-led effort that draws on standards and best practices already available. Any effort to better protect critical infrastructure must be supported and implemented by the owners and operators of that infrastructure. Our task hinges on bringing the right people with the right expertise to the table. For the last several months, we’ve been soliciting information on the current state of cyber threats and security, how to identify and manage risk, what standards exist or are needed, and how the framework should address these issues. Our first two meetings in Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh were well attended, and represented an array of industries. We received more than 200 comments in response to our Request for Information. But we still need your input. We need to hear from you about what works and what additional tools you need. We particularly want to hear more about foundational cybersecurity practices, ideas for how to manage privacy and civil liberties needs, and outcome-oriented metrics that leaders can use in evaluating the position and progress of their organizations’ cybersecurity status. In a few weeks, we expect to post an outline of the preliminary cybersecurity framework, including existing standards and practices. Then from July 10-12 we’ll be hosting our 3rd Cybersecurity Framework Workshop in San Diego, where the private sector will be able to help us fill in the framework in more detail.
benton.org/node/154303 | National Institute of Standards and Technology | NIST - update
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AGENDA

FCC MEETING AGENDA CONFIRMED
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
The Federal Communications Commission will hold an open meeting on June 27, 2013. Here’s the agenda. The FCC will consider:
a Second Report and Order to improve and streamline the collection of broadband subscription and deployment data.
a Report and Order with licensing, service, and technical rules in the H Block at 1915-1920 and 1995-2000 MHz, that would help increase the Nation’s supply of spectrum for flexible-use services, including mobile broadband.
a Declaratory Ruling clarifying that wireless carriers that collect, or direct the collection of, customer proprietary network information (CPNI) on mobile devices must adhere to statutory and regulatory CPNI requirements in protecting that information.
an update on universal service reform implementation.
an update on progress towards the television broadcast incentive auction.
benton.org/node/154305 | Federal Communications Commission
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

NETWORK NEUTRALITY IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien]
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital policy, has urged lawmakers in Brussels to fast-track legislation to guarantee network neutrality — the equal treatment by telecommunications carriers for all types of content, whether voice, video or data — for the more than 500 million people in the European Union. Whether they can deliver such a far-reaching commitment before the current European legislative period ends next June is an open question, but the push to legally cement net neutrality raises other issues. Mobile operators, whose wireless grids are increasingly the go-to means for access to the Internet, are not the only companies that restrict people around the world from following their bliss on the Internet. But like beauty, net neutrality is in the eye of the beholder, say critics including Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association in Brussels. Operators oppose the push for a tougher net neutrality law, he said, but if such a regulation must exist, it should also be enforced on Web businesses like Microsoft, Google and Apple whose smartphones and tablets increasingly let people avoid their operator’s calling, texting and data charges.
benton.org/node/154278 | New York Times
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A NEW EUROPE FOR TELECOMS?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Frances Robinson]
Neelie Kroes, the European Union’s commissioner in charge of telecoms, gave some more hints about what the EU’s new Single Market Package for telecoms could look like when it lands this summer ahead of the discussion among EU leaders at their October summit. Here’s the WSJ translation of her speech: 1) Get ready for another fight, 2) Tear down those borders, give people choice, and cut those roaming prices (again) already, 3) Guys, we are behind the Chinese and the Americans as well. This is embarrassing, 4) Why isn’t my Samsung or Facebook European? 5) But don’t worry, once those barriers come down, and you give consumers what they want, you companies can start buying each other, 6) Governments: chillax. We won’t take your precious spectrum auction windfalls away, or your national regulators* but don’t use this as an excuse for more bureaucrats, and 7) P.S. don’t you DARE block Skype on smartphones!
benton.org/node/154277 | Wall Street Journal
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GOOGLE AND PRIVACY IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan]
European data protection authorities have for the first time threatened to fine Google, if the Silicon Valley company does not address their privacy concerns within three months. The co-ordinated move by regulators in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands could result in Google having to pay several million euros, under proposed new rules. “Time is running out for Google to get serious about data protection,” said Viviane Reding, the EU’s top justice official in charge of bolstering the bloc’s data protection rules. The decision to threaten Google with sanctions comes eight months after a probe led by EU regulators concluded that the US internet company failed properly to disclose how it was using its users’ personal data across multiple platforms. It also comes amid growing concern about the extent to which both governments and private companies collect and exploit people’s personal data on a vast scale.
benton.org/node/154323 | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal | CSM | Washington Post
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AT&T IN EUROPE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Daniel Thomas, Anousha Sakoui, Paul Taylor]
Randall Stephenson, chief executive of AT&T, is expected to be back in Europe this month to meet Neelie Kroes, the continent’s industry regulator. It will be the latest of his frequent visits, and a sign of how AT&T has been scouring the European mobile telecoms markets for acquisitions to expand outside its core US market. AT&T was most recently linked with talks with the Spanish government over the availability of Telefónica. While Madrid talks were denied by government officials, AT&T has been talking to companies, government officials and regulators across Europe, according to corporate advisers. “The intelligence coming back from all parts of Europe is that AT&T is interested, even if there has not been any traction yet,” says one industry adviser. “AT&T is testing the waters,” says another informed person. “They are exploring everything, which means talking to everyone. But if it was to do a deal then the idea would be ‘go big, and go early’ as the opportunities will not last forever.” AT&T has made little secret of its desire to acquire European businesses, although its focus is on mobile telecoms, which would make a bid for a whole group such as Telefónica less likely.
AT&T’s European ambitions reflect the technology lead that US mobile operators believe they have now established over their European counterparts, after having lagged behind them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Stephenson sees an opportunity to capitalize on some of the lessons AT&T has learnt during its introduction of LTE-based 4G services in the US over the past two years. This includes the extraordinary growth of mobile broadband use that has resulted, and the potential for web-based services that can be provided over these new networks.
benton.org/node/154322 | Financial Times | Financial Times – 4G | Bloomberg
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June 21, 2013
Source 
Hill, The
Author 
Justin Sink
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

President Barack Obama will meet for the first time with an independent oversight board tasked with examining privacy and civil liberties issues within the federal government, as the White House looks to deflect criticism over a pair of recently revealed National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs.

The meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is a chance for the five-member panel to share their concerns with the President about the government's top-secret Internet and telephone monitoring programs. President Obama has billed the oversight board as a counterweight to the government's surveillance programs, saying earlier this week that the panel served as a check on the data mining programs secretly authorized under the Patriot Act. The White House believes that meeting with the panel can help assuage privacy concerns voiced since the revelation of the NSA programs. The senior administration official said the board's functions included "ensuring that the need for such actions is balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties."

President Obama to discuss NSA in first meeting with civil liberties board

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June 21, 2013
Source 
New York Times
Author 
Lowell McAdam
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] Some observers have painted a dire picture of the state of Internet availability in America. Some critics have called for new government policies to “fix” the telecommunications industry. Such criticisms are misplaced. If he is confirmed, Tom Wheeler will have the good fortune to be arriving at the Federal Communications Commission at a time when the United States has gained a global leadership position in the marketplace for broadband.

More than 80 percent of American households live in areas that offer access to broadband networks capable of delivering data with speeds in excess of 100 megabits per second. Fifty-six percent of American adults have smartphones that give them access to mobile broadband data and video. The United States built its lead because companies invested nearly $1.2 trillion, over 17 years, to deploy next-generation broadband networks. These investments, which began with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, were neither accidental nor inevitable; they were a result of deliberate policy decisions by Congress and by Democratic and Republican administrations alike to protect consumers while encouraging companies to invest in nascent technologies that are now flourishing.

Regulatory restraint has resulted in a robust broadband market, but today some self-styled policy advocates insist that America’s broadband marketplace is badly broken and that the only solution is to revert to Depression-era regulations, like government rate setting and price controls or rules dictating what types of competitive offerings broadband providers can offer consumers. These ideas, however, are part of the rigid bureaucratic approach that European regulators have correctly identified as stifling.

Regulatory prudence is the only way to keep up the momentum in broadband innovation. There is no telling what will come out of this next wave of change. For its potential to be fully realized, however, it will be critically important for the industry to work with regulators — led, we hope, by Mr. Wheeler — to continue the bipartisan policies that have made our fast-changing industry a global leader.

[Lowell McAdam is chairman and chief executive of Verizon Communications]

How the U.S. Got Broadband Right

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June 21, 2013
Source 
paidContent.org
Author 
Laura Hazard Owen
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

The three-week U.S. vs. Apple trial, in which the government accused Apple of conspiring with book publishers to fix e-book prices, is over — and now time to wait for Judge Denise Cote’s verdict.

Following Apple attorney Orin Snyder’s summation, Department of Justice attorney Mark Ryan argued that the case was a simple antitrust suit — Apple’s conduct was “a per se violation of the Sherman Act,” an “old-fashioned, straightforward price-fixing agreement” that caused e-book prices to go up. Ryan argued that by setting price bands for e-books in the iBookstore, Apple intended to raise e-book prices: “Ceilings became floors” because publishers priced at the top limits of the caps. Ryan also said Apple’s argument that its negotiations with publishers were hard-fought didn’t matter — “[Why is it] that difficult negotiations cannot surround a conspiracy?…You can pick up a paper and see Venezuela and Saudi Arabia” arguing over what oil prices should be, but it “doesn’t mean they aren’t members of a cartel.” Ryan said, “I’d like to have a brief discussion about credibility,” then introduced a series of slides headed “Credibility” where the government sought to show that Apple’s witnesses were not reliable. Throughout the case, he said, the witnesses were “reaching for answers” and there was “constant retraction of testimony.” (In particular, he said, Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy repeatedly changed her answers to a question after being shown her deposition.) “The court is well within its rights to credit none of a witness’s testimony” if some of that testimony is faulty, Ryan said; the court should not “hunt and peck” through testimony to pull out the true parts.

DOJ compares Apple and publishers to oil cartels; now sit back and wait for the verdict

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June 21, 2013
Source 
Wrap, The
Author 
Brent Lang
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

The Federal Communications Commission has spent much of the Obama Administration punting on indecency. But now, as a new chairman waits in the wings, broadcasters and advocacy groups are searching for signs about its future direction on the hot-button issue.

Already there have been indications that the FCC is flirting with relaxing standards and limiting its enforcement efforts to flagrant use of profanity or blatant displays of sexuality. It just ended a request for comments from viewers and members of the broadcast industry in which it floated the idea that it would no longer fine programs featuring fleeting expletives or nudity. And Tom Wheeler, the former telecommunications executive President Obama appointed to take over for departed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, hinted during his confirmation hearings in Congress this week that he may take a laissez faire attitude when it comes to cracking down on blue language or content. Meanwhile, the FCC did not take a single enforcement action against a network-owned and operated affiliate for indecency or profanity during the first half of President Obama's tenure. During that time, the backlog of complaints swelled, prompting Genachowski to instruct the agency’s enforcement bureau last fall to dismiss roughly a million of these objections, noting the statute of limitations had expired in certain instances.

FCC at Crossroads on Indecency Rules - Enforce, Ignore or Risk Another 'Nipplegate'? Media Indecency: Less Or More For The FCC To Monitor? (MediaPost)

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June 21, 2013
Source 
Wall Street Journal
Author 
Keach Hagey
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

Final bids are due in the auction of Local TV LLC's 19 television stations, expected to fetch between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, potentially making it the biggest in a series of recent TV station deals.

A unit of private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, Local TV owns stations affiliated with various broadcast networks in markets such as Denver, Cleveland and St. Louis. It operates two additional stations that are owned by Tribune. The company was formed in 2006 when Oak Hill bought nine stations from New York Times Co. In 2008 it acquired eight Fox affiliates from Fox network's owner, News Corp. People familiar with the deal said Local TV is likely to be broken up into pieces. It could take several days, and possibly even weeks, to work out which bidders get which stations, the people said.

Local TV Bids Expected to Fetch Up to $2.5 Billion

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June 21, 2013
Source 
Wall Street Journal
Author 
Bob Tennant
Coverage Type 
Lauren Frayer

[Commentary] Common wisdom when it comes to Big Data is that you should keep it all. The reality, however, is far different. Keeping all your data is more expensive — and carries more risk — than it first appears.

Here are five key reasons to throw your data away.

  1. More data equals more risk.
  2. More data means more noise.
  3. Storing your data isn’t free.
  4. Data analyzed is a lot more valuable than data stored.
  5. The more data you have, the less you can trust it.

[Bob Tennant is CEO of Recommind which specializes in unstructured data management and analysis technology]

Five Reasons to Throw Your Data Away

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