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Chinese President Xi Jinping and American counterpart Barack Obama will talk cyber-security this week in California, but experts say the state's Silicon Valley and its signature high-tech firms should provide the front lines in the increasingly aggressive fight against overseas hackers.
With China seeking to grow its economy and expand its technology base, companies like Facebook, Apple, Google and Twitter are inviting targets. In fact, all have been attacked and all point the finger at China, which has denied any role. The U.S. government has stepped up efforts to thwart cyber-attacks, but those efforts are mainly focused at protecting its own secrets, especially regarding military operations and technologies. Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official whose Red Branch Consulting provides national security advice, said the responsibility for preventing attacks in the private sector lies with the U.S. innovators who created the technology that's being hacked in the first place.
Silicon Valley at front line of global cyber war
Tech and media companies — from Disney to small app makers — face the same dilemma as they near a July 1 deadline to bolster online privacy protections for children: getting it right.
Industry advocates paint a dire scenario of costly audits, abandoned projects and disrupted business models as firms prepare for the first significant changes under the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act since the rise of mobile technology and social networks. Privacy groups and the Federal Trade Commission, which set the new COPPA requirements, view the expanded rules as vital to protecting kids. And while few denounce that goal, the tensions underscore new complexities in an era where businesses increasingly rely on data collection and children have unparalleled access to the Internet. Affected businesses unite on one point: The shifts meant to promote kid safety could destroy that very market.
Firms sweat details of revised COPPA rules
One simple message stands out in Craig Moffett’s latest report on the pay-TV business: “cord-cutting is real.”
Citing the largest year-over-year pay-TV subscriber slide yet that occurred in the first quarter of the year, Moffett didn’t mince words: “Pay TV is unmistakably declining and the rate of penetration decline is accelerating. The very fact that there have recently been more new households being minted each year than there have been new pay-TV households is proof positive that cord cutting is real.” While making abundantly clear that this cord-cutting evidence didn’t mean “seismic changes” were just around the corner for the industry, Moffett projected that the pay-TV penetration rate would sink from 87.9% this year to 82% by 2020. He characterized the cost-cutting population as being 1.9 million strong — though that’s a drop in the bucket against a pay-TV populace totaling over 100 million in the US.
Top Wall Street Analyst: Pay TV “Cord-Cutting Is Real” Cord-Cutting Is Real, and the Cable Guys Are Still in Great Shape — For Now (WSJ)
Do parents worry about the growing amount of time their children spend with media? One new study suggests that most parents are largely unconcerned. And perhaps no wonder: Parents who show little concern about their children’s use of technology themselves spend big chunks of their leisure time with media.
The study, undertaken by the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University, was intended to look at how parents view technology — from television to smartphones to tablets — and how family life revolves around these devices. The study’s co-author, Vicky Rideout, an independent researcher who over the last decade has done pioneering research into patterns of technology use, said she was surprised to find that 59 percent of the 2,300 parents surveyed were not worried that their children would become addicted to technology. About 38 percent did express such a worry. But Rideout said the lack of concern among the majority of parents surveyed did not conform with what appears to be a popular sentiment, found in the media and among some researchers.
Most Parents Show Little Concern About Children’s Media Use, Survey Says
Reports that Apple is starting a new streaming music service sent Pandora’s stock price tumbling and sparked talk that Apple may be regaining its footing after several difficult months. But experts say there is at least one potential obstacle ahead for the company — federal antitrust laws.
Apple’s iTunes is the leading seller of digital music, with estimates of its market share running above 60 percent. That means regulators are likely to monitor any move into a related business to ensure that the company isn’t improperly using its muscle to squeeze out competitors, which could lead to higher prices for consumers, say experts in antitrust law. Simply creating a new music streaming service — even if it posed a serious threat to Pandora, Spotify or any similar company — would not be enough to put Apple in legal jeopardy. U.S. antitrust law is designed to protect consumers, not competitors. More choice, especially when offered by a respected company such as Apple, is likely to please many consumers. Yet size can generate unwanted federal government attention. Experts say there are elements of a potential antitrust case against Apple, depending on how it goes about creating its streaming-music business.
Amid reports of new Apple streaming music service, antitrust violation may be obstacle
Cox Communication launched the Connext2Compete initiative in Virginia at a ribbon cutting ceremony in Fairfax County attended by Fairfax County Board of supervisors chairman Sharon Bulova, Federal Communications Commission acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, Connect2Compete CEO Zach Leverenz, and representatives from LULAC and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington.
Connect2Compete is a national not-for-profit initiative aimed at extending broadband access to families with children (K-12) participating in the National Free Lunch program, by offering discounted high-speed Internet service. Families that qualify will be eligible for high-speed Internet service for $9.95 per month, a free modem and free professional installation. The expansion to Virginia follows a successful pilot of the program; the C2C program is modeled after a broadband adoption program Cox started in Santa Barbara (CA) in 2002. Cox announced its national rollout of the program in April.
Cox Extends Connect2Compete Program to Virginia
Network neutrality advocates may not be pleased with proposed legislation from Europe’s digital chief, Neelie Kroes. She laid out her plans at a meeting on “guaranteeing competition and the open internet in Europe.” Here’s a breakdown:
- One size may not fit all — Internet service providers (ISPs) should be able to offer connections with guaranteed quality of service, with regular subscribers getting a “best efforts internet”.
- Transparency — People signing up to internet packages should be clearly told what is included, what is not, and what speed they can expect.
- Easier switching — It must be easier to switch provider. Barriers including “excessive charges, modem hire or email addresses” will be “removed”.
- No blocking/throttling — ISPs and carriers will not be able to deliberately degrade or block services that rival their own, such as VoIP or messaging services.
Here’s what Europe’s network neutrality law would look like
In the mobile high-speed Internet market, the Obama Administration believes it may be necessary to limit competition in order to promote it.
That paradox sums up a brewing fight over whether the two largest cellphone companies — AT&T and Verizon Wireless — will be allowed to participate without restrictions in the planned auction of new airwaves for wireless broadband next year. The Administration’s antitrust team urged the Federal Communications Commission in April to develop auction rules that ensure that T-Mobile US and Sprint, the two smaller nationwide mobile carriers, are able to buy some of the prime airwaves and better compete nationally with the two larger companies. The suggestion that some auction participants could get favored treatment has spawned a dispute involving corporate lobbyists, academics and members of Congress on both sides of the debate. Some television and radio broadcasters have weighed in against auction limits while consumer advocates and some big companies that use mobile broadband in their operations have backed such limits.
Whatever the FCC decides will have huge implications on the ability of American consumers to inexpensively use the Internet from their smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. It could also affect how much money will be available to build a nationwide communications network for first responders, a plan that has been on the drawing board since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A Dispute Over Restrictions in a US Auction of Airwaves
The courts should not defer to the Federal Communications Commission on its claim that it has the power to regulate network neutrality, Verizon wrote in a court filing.
The company was responding to an earlier filing from the FCC that claimed a recent Supreme Court case bolsters the agency's net-neutrality rules. The Supreme Court ruled last month that agencies should be given deference to interpret their own jurisdiction if a law is ambiguous. The company was responding to an earlier filing from the FCC that claimed a recent Supreme Court case bolsters the agency's network neutrality rules. The Supreme Court ruled last month that agencies should be given deference to interpret their own jurisdiction if a law is ambiguous. "The core issue in this case is whether any substantive provision of the Communications Act authorizes the FCC’s sweeping regulation of the Internet," Verizon wrote. "The agency’s inability to identify any specific authority for these rules ... is fatal."
Verizon hits back in network neutrality case
Sinclair Broadcast Group has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the stock and broadcast assets of four television stations owned by Titan Television Broadcast Group (TTBG) for $115.35 million.
Sinclair also will assume TTBG agreements to provide sales and other services to two other stations. The TTBG stations are located in three markets and reach 1% of US TV households. Completion of the transaction is subject to the customary closing conditions, including FCC approval and antitrust clearance.
The TTBG stations to be owned and operated, programmed or to which sales services will be provided, are:
- KMPH Fresno, Calif. (Fox) DMA 55
- KFRE Fresno, Calif. (CW) DMA 55
- KPTM Omaha, Neb. (Fox) DMA 75
- KXVO Omaha, Neb. (CW) DMA 75
- KMEG Sioux City, Iowa (CBS) DMA 147
- KPTH Sioux City, Iowa (Fox) DMA 147
Sinclair Buys 6 Titan Television Stations