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BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

State of the Net 2013 and a House Commerce Committee Organizational Meeting http://benton.org/calendar/2013-01-22/

THE INAUGURATION
   President Obama makes call for high-skilled immigration reform in inaugural address
   Tech industry applauds Obama's address [links to web]
   Why inaugurations are laggards [links to web]
   1.1 million tweets sent during inauguration [links to web]
   New software tracks most frequent retweets [links to web]
   Frustrating inaugural message: No cell signal [links to web]
   On-Screen the Second Time Around, the Silly and the Sublime [links to web]

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC’s Genachowski Issues Gigabit City Challenge to Bring at least One Ultra-Fast Gigabit Internet Community to Every State in U.S. by 2015 - press release
   Faster, Sooner: Why The U.S. Needs 'Gigabit Communities' - op-ed
   Illinois Governor Quinn Announces Gigabit Internet Partnership with City of Evanston and Northwestern University - press release [links to web]
   Library Services in the Digital Age - research
   Google should be ashamed for paying carriers to handle its traffic - analysis
   Former Commissioners Blast Verizon's Neutrality Stance
   Keeping the Internet free - editorial
   Mixed Response to Comcast in Expanding Net Access

VIOLENCE AND MEDIA
   Guns or Media - analysis
   Why is FCC mum on violence in media? - op-ed
   Religious groups back Obama's call for CDC to study whether video games are linked to gun violence

CONTENT
   Toward a More Visual Language: How Social Networks Skirt Censorship in China
   Senator asks whether Justice tried to ‘make an example’ of Swartz [links to web]
   How MIT Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture [links to web]
   Even if It Enrages Your Boss, Social Net Speech Is Protected [links to web]
   Swarming a Book Online [links to web]

TELECOM
   AT&T rates skyrocket since deregulation
   Inmate Phone Service Draws FCC Scrutiny [links to web]
   Bumpier Margins on the Verizon [links to web]
   Verizon Communications 4Q loss widens [links to web]

EDUCATION
   Act carefully on online education - editorial [links to web]
   Who’s Afraid of the Big, Free MOOCs? [links to web]

HEALTH
   Turning to the Web for a Medical Diagnosis [links to web]

TELEVISION
   NAB Asks Court to Hold Off on Challenge to FCC Political File Rule [links to web]

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
   Board of Broadcast Governors is condemned in hard-hitting probe
   FOIA Online Gets Mixed Marks at Three Months

POLICYMAKERS
   Alec Ross, America’s Digital Diplomat, on 21st Century Statecraft [links to web]

STORIES FROM ABROAD
   What would AT&T gain from going multinational? Not much - analysis
   France Proposes an Internet Tax
   Report: Google made €50 million copyright offer, French publishers want €100 million
   Google should be ashamed for paying carriers to handle its traffic - analysis
   Privacy groups lobby EU to crack down on Web companies
   Brussels tables tighter EU media laws
   Report: Cuba using undersea fiber-optic cable [links to web]
   Building Blocks for Smart Networks - research [links to web]

MORE ONLINE
   Sun-Times parent eyeing Tribune assets [links to web]

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THE INAUGURATION

SECOND AGENDA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
President Barack Obama made a brief mention about the need for high-skilled immigration reform during his inaugural address at the United States Capitol. President Obama has made clear that passing comprehensive immigration legislation will be a policy priority during his second term. It's expected that a measure aimed at boosting the number of visas available to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities with master's degrees and PhDs in engineering, math and science fields will be included in forthcoming immigration legislation. In his speech, Obama argued that foreign-born engineers and graduates with advanced degrees should be able to stay in the U.S. and join the workforce rather than be forced to return to their home countries. "Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country," President Obama said.
benton.org/node/143603 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

GENACHOWSKI ISSUES GIGABIT CITY CHALLENGE TO BRING AT LEAST ONE ULTRAFAST GIGABIT INTERNET COMMUNITY TO EVERY STATE IN U.S. BY 2015
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
At the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski called for at least one gigabit community in all 50 states by 2015. Challenging broadband providers and state and municipal community leaders to come together to meet this “Gigabit City Challenge,” Chairman Genachowski said that establishing gigabit communities nationwide will accelerate the creation of a critical mass of markets and innovation hubs with ultra-fast Internet speeds. Chairman Genachowski said, “American economic history teaches a clear lesson about infrastructure. If we build it, innovation will come. The U.S. needs a critical mass of gigabit communities nationwide so that innovators can develop next-generation applications and services that will drive economic growth and global competitiveness.” To help communities meet the Gigabit City Challenge, Chairman Genachowski announced plans to create a new online clearinghouse of best practices to collect and disseminate information about how to lower the costs and increase the speed of broadband deployment nationwide, including to create gigabit communities. At the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, Chairman Genachowski proposed working jointly with the U.S. Conference of Mayors on the best-practices clearinghouse effort. Chairman Genachowski also announced that the FCC will hold workshops on gigabit communities. The workshops will convene leaders from the gigabit community ecosystem—including broadband providers, and state and municipal leaders— to evaluate barriers, increase incentives, and lower the costs of speeding gigabit network deployment. Together, the workshops will inform the Commission’s clearinghouse of ways industry, and local and state leaders can meet the challenge to establish gigabit communities nationwide.
benton.org/node/143567 | Federal Communications Commission
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THE US NEEDS GIGABIT COMMUNITIES
[SOURCE: Forbes, AUTHOR: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski]
[Commentary] All the Internet-connected, data-hungry gadgets that are coming to market send a strikingly clear message: we’re going to need faster broadband networks. Making sure the U.S. has super-fast, high-capacity, ubiquitous broadband networks delivering speeds measured in gigabits, not megabits isn’t just a matter of consumer convenience, as important as that is. It’s essential to economic growth, job creation and U.S. competitiveness. To maintain U.S. leadership in innovation, we need to keep pushing for faster broadband networks, and we need a critical mass of innovation hubs that offer homes and businesses access to gigabit broadband. This would bring supercomputing power to Internet users, and would drive inventions we can only barely anticipate. We need more gigabit testbeds to ensure there is a sufficient market in the U.S. for super-high-bandwidth applications and services. A critical mass of gigabit communities will spur innovation and investment.
benton.org/node/143566 | Forbes
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GOOGLE AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: David Meyer]
Google is paying France Telecom-Orange to deliver its data to users. It’s not clear how much Google is paying Orange, or what the precise terms of the deal entail, but it does look like a line has been crossed. Here’s why that’s bad. When he revealed the hitherto secret Google deal this week, Orange CEO Stephane Richard was clear that his carrier’s strong position in Africa gave it the leverage it needed to extract cash from the U.S. firm. In other words, Google stuck by its principles until self-interest dictated otherwise, and in the process Google is messing things up for other content providers.
benton.org/node/143564 | GigaOm
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FORMER COMMISSIONER BLAST VERIZON
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wendy Davis]
Verizon's argument that network neutrality rules infringe its free speech rights is "at odds with common sense," four former Federal Communications Commission members argue in a new court filing. "Verizon’s arguments fail as a matter of constitutional principle," they argue. "There is nothing inherently expressive about transmitting others’ data packets, at a subscriber’s direction, over the Internet." The coalition adds that Verizon's free-speech argument has wide-ranging repercussions that could affect a host of regulations. "Were Verizon’s theories credited, Congress’s historic power to take and authorize measures to preserve openness of communication networks would be unsettled and dramatically narrowed," they say in a friend-of-the-court brief. The brief was filed on behalf of a group that includes four former FCC commissioners -- Reed Hundt, Michael Copps, Tyrone Brown and Nicholas Johnson.
benton.org/node/143563 | MediaPost
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KEEPING THE INTERNET FREE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Internet freedom is not something to be taken lightly, as anyone who has tried to gain access to forbidden sites in China will tell you. The countries that would like to censor Internet content, including Russia, China, Iran and others, were eager to see their authority to do so etched into a United Nations treaty debated at a conference last month in Dubai. The United States and other nations committed to a free and open Internet refused to sign the treaty. It was a largely symbolic protest but the right thing to do. The conference did serve to highlight broad, opposing camps over Internet freedom. After the United States pulled out, 89 nations signed the agreement, including Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. The blank screen of the Internet censor is not likely to disappear soon. A long and fateful battle looms for digital freedom.
benton.org/node/143576 | Washington Post
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INTERNET ESSENTIALS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Amy Chozick]
Internet Essentials is not a government program, although that would be difficult to tell from the poster. Instead, it is a two-year-old program run by Comcast, the country’s largest Internet and cable provider, meant to bring affordable broadband to low-income homes. Any family that qualifies for the National School Lunch Program is eligible for Internet service at home for $9.95 a month. The families also receive a voucher from Comcast to buy a computer for as little as $150. The program is not charity: Comcast started Internet Essentials in order to satisfy a regulatory requirement to provide Internet access to the poor, which also happens to be one of the few remaining areas for growth for cable companies across the country. More than 100,000 households in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco and other major markets have signed up for Internet Essentials. But as the program gains popularity, the company has come under criticism, accused of overreaching in its interactions with local communities — handing out brochures with the company logo during parent-teacher nights at public schools, for instance, or enlisting teachers and pastors to spread the word to students and congregations.
benton.org/node/143583 | New York Times
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LIBRARY SERVICES IN THE DIGITAL AGE
[SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project, AUTHOR: Kathryn Zickuhr, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell]
The internet has already had a major impact on how people find and access information, and now the rising popularity of e-books is helping transform Americans’ reading habits. In this changing landscape, public libraries are trying to adjust their services to these new realities while still serving the needs of patrons who rely on more traditional resources. In a new survey of Americans’ attitudes and expectations for public libraries, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that many library patrons are eager to see libraries’ digital services expand, yet also feel that print books remain important in the digital age. The availability of free computers and internet access now rivals book lending and reference expertise as a vital service of libraries. In a national survey of Americans ages 16 and older:
80% of Americans say borrowing books is a “very important” service libraries provide.
80% say reference librarians are a “very important” service of libraries.
77% say free access to computers and the internet is a “very important” service of libraries.
[See more online at the URL below]
benton.org/node/143597 | Pew Internet & American Life Project | New York Times
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VIOLENCE AND MEDIA

GUNS OR MEDIA
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] The horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, have turned the nation’s attention to seeking ways to reduce acts of violence, especially with firearms. As with many huge issues like this, telecommunications and media policy play a role. This week, we look at the connections between media violence and real world violence. On December 19, 2012, President Barack Obama announced a task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden that would seek the best ideas from across the government and the public to reduce gun violence. The task force, comprised of members of Congress and Obama’s Cabinet, was asked to present President Obama with concrete proposals to send to Congress in January. After Newtown, the President signaled that Hollywood should be part of any solution, saying it was time to examine a culture “that all too often glorified guns and violence.”
http://benton.org/node/143540
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WHY IS THE FCC MUM ON VIOLENCE?
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: James Tuthill]
[Commentary] Our debate about how to reduce gun violence in our country has focused almost entirely on gun control since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And that's appropriate. But another critical element almost has been ignored: the harmful effect of violence in the media. Even more surprising is that the federal agency with knowledge of these effects has been mute on the subject. In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission "sought comment on the relationship between media violence and aggression in children." On April 6, 2007, the commission unanimously adopted a report, "Violent Television Programming and its Impact on Children." Of the five on the commission then, only Robert McDowell remains. In adopting the report, the FCC:
Found that many parents and health professionals are concerned about the harmful effects of violence in the media;
Agreed with the U.S. Surgeon General's opinion that "a diverse body of research provides strong evidence that exposure to violence in the media can increase children's aggressive behavior in the short term;
Concluded it could constitutionally regulate violent content;
Decided that then-current blocking technologies, such as the TV ratings system, are ineffective to control children's exposure to violence;
Suggested a workable definition of violence;
Concluded that "given the findings in this report, action should be taken to address violent programming ... ."
That was more than 5 1/2 years ago. What has the commission said about the recommendations it made in the light of the shooting massacres of the past five years? Nothing.
[Tuthill lectures on broadcast, communications and Internet law at the UC Berkeley School of Law.]
benton.org/node/143561 | San Francisco Chronicle
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RELIGIOUS GROUPS BACK VIOLENCE STUDY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Two leading religious groups voiced support for President Obama's call for Congress to appropriate $10 million for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to study gun violence and possible links to violent video games and media images. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said more research needs to be done to understand the effect that violent entertainment content has on young children. “We know that media influences young people and their behavior,” Helen Osman, secretary of communications for the U.S. bishops' conference, said in a statement. “So it is crucial to deepen our understanding of how violent media images and video games influence them and whether there is a link to violent behavior.” The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America backed Obama's call for additional research to be conducted on the issue. "This research will be beneficial not only to the effort to curb gun violence but also providing deeper insight into the relationship of children and media overall,” said Father Mark Arey, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in a statement.
benton.org/node/143560 | Hill, The
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CONTENT

SKIRTING CENSORSHIP IN CHINA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mike Isaac]
After “social local mobile” or “SoLoMo,” the buzzword heard around Silicon Valley the most these days isn’t a neologism, it’s a country: “China.” It’s the key international growth market that so many U.S. tech companies want to break into — especially social Web companies like Facebook. Problem is, there’s this whole state censorship thing they’ve got to deal with. (Just ask Google how easy that is.) Perhaps, however, there’s a subversive way of sneaking free expression in the back door. (Listen up, Facebook.) “It’s really hard for the government to censor things when they don’t understand the made-up words or meaning behind the imagery,” said Kevin Lee, COO of China Youthology, in conversation at the DLD conference in Munich on Monday. “The people there aren’t even relying on text anymore It’s audio, visual, photos. All the young people are creating their own languages.”
benton.org/node/143592 | Wall Street Journal
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TELECOM

AT&T RATES SKYROCKET IN CALIFORNIA
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: James Temple]
In August 2006, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to allow AT&T and other companies that provided local telephone service to raise prices at will. Then-Commissioner Rachelle Chong, a Republican, credited as the driving force behind the deregulation plan, argued that growing competition from Internet phone service and cell phones would keep prices low. "By the end of the 2010, these rate caps will no longer be necessary," Chong said when the new rules were being phased in. "The market will be so competitive it will discipline prices." Too bad it didn't work out that way. Since fall 2006, AT&T's price for flat-rate landline phone service has leaped 115 percent, from $10.69 per month to $23, according to information from the commission. The monthly price for measured service, which charges a fixed rate for a limited number of calls, has soared 222 percent - from $5.70 to $18.35.
benton.org/node/143554 | San Francisco Chronicle
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

BBG REPORT
[SOURCE: Daily News, AUTHOR: James Warren]
The Board of Broadcast Governors (BBG) is a dysfunctional mess beset by “acute internal dissension” revolving around a longtime friend of former President George W. Bush, according to a new inspector general’s report. The damning investigation skewers the BBG, which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and other broadcast entities that together employ 3,500 people and reach 190 million people worldwide each week at a cost to taxpayers of $750 million a year. The inspector general says the board is hobbled by chronic absenteeism, vacancies that have gone unfilled, outright conflicts of interest and “a degree of hostility that renders its deliberative process ineffectual.” Though it names no names, the report characterizes board meetings as “dominated by one member whose tactics and personal attacks on colleagues and staff have created an unprofessional and unproductive atmosphere.”
benton.org/node/143575 | Daily News
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FOIA ONLINE GETS MIXED MARKS AT THREE MONTHS
[SOURCE: nextgov, AUTHOR: Joseph Marks]
A new digital system for managing Freedom of Information Act requests to the Commerce Department and a handful of other federal agencies deserves an A+ for making it easier to file FOIAs, Amy Bennett, assistant director of the transparency group Open The Government, said. FOIA Online deserves a D or an F grade, however, on one of its stated objectives: Making FOIA’d information more readily available to the general public, she said during a government transparency conference hosted by the American University Washington College of Law. Bennett is managing a project that compares FOIA processes at different federal agencies, including three -- Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Merit Service Protection Board -- that use FOIA Online.
benton.org/node/143557 | nextgov
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

WHAT WOULD AT&T GAIN?
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Kevin Fitchard]
AT&T couldn’t convince regulators to let it buy T-Mobile, so now it may be eyeballing overseas markets. Perhaps there are strategic or business reasons why AT&T would want to buy a foreign mobile carrier, but operationally it’s hard to see what it stands to gain. While there has been plenty of international investment in U.S. operators, the opposite hasn’t been true. And there are plenty of reasons why U.S. operators have tended to stand alone rather than function as globe-spanning multinationals. It’s no coincidence that most of the big multinationals are based in Europe where the individual wireless markets are small. By launching in multiple countries, companies like Vodafone or Telefónica gain much bigger economies of scale than if they just stayed home. With such scale they can dictate pricing to their infrastructure and handset suppliers, and they can coordinate their services across borders. If you’re AT&T, though, scale isn’t an issue. What’s more, if AT&T were aiming at increasing its pricing power further, buying an international carrier would do it little good.
benton.org/node/143558 | GigaOm
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FRANCE’S INTERNET TAX
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: ]
France, seeking fresh ways to raise funds and frustrated that American technology companies that dominate its digital economy are largely beyond the reach of French fiscal authorities, has proposed a new levy: an Internet tax on the collection of personal data. The idea surfaced in a report commissioned by President François Hollande, which described various measures his government was taking to address what the French see as tax avoidance by Internet companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook. These companies gather vast reams of information about their users, harnessing it to tailor their services to individuals’ interests or to direct customized advertising to them. So extensive is the collection of personal details, and so promising the business opportunities linked to it, that the report described data as the “raw material” of the digital economy. “They have a distinct value, poorly reflected in economic science or official statistics,” the report said.
benton.org/node/143572 | New York Times
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GOOGLE’S COPYRIGHT OFFER
[SOURCE: paidContent.org, AUTHOR: Jeff John Roberts]
Google proposed an annual €50 million payment to news publishers to resolve a long-simmering copyright dispute, but the publishers decided to hold out for more, according to a report in Le Monde. The offer came before Christmas as part of ongoing discussions over whether Google should pay to index web content. According to the report, French publishers turned down the €50 million (USD $66.6 million) offer and demanded a figure of €70 to €100 million instead. They also objected to the way Google proposed to disburse the money. The company reportedly offered to spend a third of the €50 million in the form of direct ad purchases while using the rest for commercial advertising partnerships between Google and the publishers. The publishers reportedly complained that too much of the proposed money was contingent on sales figures. The proposed deal would have been similar to the one Google reached with Belgian newspapers in December. The Belgian deal, in which Google paid about $6 million, allowed Google to claim that the money was part of a partnership venture — and not a copyright pay-out. Google has long insisted that copyright law permits it to index webpages and, in some cases, offer news snippets.
benton.org/node/143591 | paidContent.org | Le Monde
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EU PRIVACY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
A coalition of privacy advocates wrote to the European Union, urging it to ignore the advice of the U.S. government and push ahead with proposed data privacy regulations of Web companies like Facebook and Google. Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Digital Democracy and the Friends of Privacy USA met with EU officials on Monday in an effort to counter the lobbying of the U.S. government. "There is a dramatic expansion of data collection of online users, a digital 'arms' race that is being fought in the U.S., EU, Asia Pacific, and other areas. Personal data are being compiled and sold to the highest bigger in 'milliseconds' via online auctions — all with the knowledge or consent of the consumer," the privacy groups wrote in a paper.
benton.org/node/143590 | Hill, The
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EU MEDIA LAWS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Fontanella-Khan, Robert Budden]
Media outlets across Europe face being tightly regulated by independent agencies with sweeping powers to investigate complaints and enforce fines if the recommendations of a Brussels-appointed panel become law. The high-level group set up more than a year ago by Neelie Kroes, a European Commission vice-president, concluded that it was essential to introduce new rules to ensure journalists and media organizations act responsibly and do not abuse their power. “All EU countries should have independent media councils with a politically and culturally balanced and socially diverse membership,” says a report by the group, chaired by Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvia’s former president. “Such bodies would have competences to investigate complaints [and] should have real enforcement powers, such as the imposition of fines, orders for printed or broadcast apologies, or removal of journalistic status,” it states. “The national media councils should follow a set of European-wide standards and be monitored by the commission to ensure that they comply with European values.”
benton.org/node/143589 | Financial Times
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