January 14, 2013 (Sen Rockefeller to retire)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2013
This week’s agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2013-01-13--P1W/
POLICYMAKERS
Sen Rockefeller to retire, giving GOP a prime pickup opportunity
Chairman Rockefeller’s Final Years in Senate Will Be Intense
Rockefeller retirement shakes up privacy battle
Joshua D. Wright Begins Term at Federal Trade Commission - press release
Following the cash behind the new Congress [links to web]
Why Should I Care About CES? - analysis
VIOLENCE AND MEDIA
Top video game publishers meet with Biden on gun violence
Why the video game industry has to talk about gun violence - analysis
President Obama has few tools to fight violence in media, attorneys say
Real-World Killings Pressure TV Fiction
A Disconnect Between Violence and TV
CONTENT
Verizon could charge users $35 to challenge anti-piracy claims
Google To Build AI Into Search [links to web]
PRIVACY
Kamala Harris' push for online privacy - editorial
Rockefeller retirement shakes up privacy battle
WIRELESS
Report: There are now 1.6 billion 3G/4G connections in the world [links to web]
Smartphones Become Life’s Remote Control
EU to foster unified telecoms market [links to web]
Your Gadgets Are Slowly Breaking the Internet [links to web]
In a Bid to Keep Voice Alive, AT&T Courts Developers [links to web]
Google Gains From Creating Apps for the Opposition [links to web]
TELEVISION
NBC has no qualms about using news unit as a marketing tool
Pay TV will shrink for first time in history, study says cable watching peaked in 2011 [links to web]
HEALTH
Digitizing the doctor’s office: 7 ways technology will shape healthcare in 2013 [links to web]
NEWS FROM THE FCC
Ex Parte Meetings with the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force - public notice
Emergency Access Advisory Committee Charter Extended to June 2013
Broadcast Station Totals as of December 30, 2012 - press release [links to web]
OWNERSHIP
FTC Chairman: Google Settlement Was a Win for Consumers, Not Search Giant [links to web]
Google's $25 Million Bargain - editorial [links to web]
The story behind Tribune's broken deal [links to web]
The Genius of Samsung [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Internet activist's family blames feds for suicide
MIT Responds to Death of Activist Aaron Swartz, Begins Internal Investigation [links to web]
JOURNALISM
Invasion of the Data Snatchers - editorial
Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb - analysis
MORE ONLINE
Netflix gets unfair postal advantage: U.S. court [links to web]
Apple, Google Deal for Kodak Patents Approved by Judge [links to web]
Digital Reading on the Rise for Children (With a Qualifier) [links to web]
Bexar set to turn the page on idea of books in libraries [links to web]
Design to Propel Technology Forward [links to web]
POLICYMAKERS
ROCKEFELLER TO RETIRE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Alexandra Jaffe]
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced that he will not run for reelection in 2014, giving Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in a state that's grown increasingly red in recent years. “As I approach 50 years of public service in West Virginia, I’ve decided that 2014 will be the right moment for me to find new ways to fight for the causes I believe in and to spend more time with my incredible family," Sen Rockefeller said in a statement. Republicans already have their top recruit in place for the race. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) threw her hat in the ring late last year, and is considered the front-runner for the seat, should she survive what could be a tough GOP primary. Democrats have some hope that the seat can remain in their column. Despite the increasingly red tint of West Virginia, the state hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1956. Rockefeller’s decision to retire now, at the very start of the election cycle, gives Democrats plenty of time to mount a defense. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who is tasked with recruiting Senate candidates as chairman of the chamber's campaign committee, acknowledged the challenge that Democrats face in West Virginia. He said the party would look for an “independent-minded Democrat" to run for the seat.
benton.org/node/143221 | Hill, The | B&C
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ROCKEFELLER NOT RETREATING
[SOURCE: AdWeek, AUTHOR: Katy Bachman]
Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) may be retiring, but he’s going to go out with a bang.
In his formal announcement speech today, the high-ranking Democrat signaled that he intends to "keep up this intensity" until he exits the Senate in 2014. Several times he referred to a “no holds barred approach.” As chairman of the Commerce committee and the No. 2 member on the Finance committee, Sen Rockefeller has a lot of clout to pursue his pet issues, including those that impact the media, advertising and telecommunications industries. Among these are: Internet privacy, media violence and the initiative to update the nation’s communications and telecommunications laws. Sen Rockefeller will also be a leading voice in the debate over how to reduce gun violence. Within days of the Sandy Hook tragedy, he crafted a bill calling for a study of the impact of violent video games and violent programming on children. The Senator could also take on updates of aging communications and telecommunications laws, especially given his recent success in getting legislation passed that will lead to the establishment of a nationwide interoperable public safety network.
benton.org/node/143230 | AdWeek | Chairman Rockefeller
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WRIGHT BEGINS TERM AT FTC
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz welcomed Joshua D. Wright as an FTC Commissioner at a swearing-in ceremony. President Barack Obama named Wright, a Republican, to a term that ends on September 25, 2019. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 1, 2013, and will replace J. Thomas Rosch, who served as a Commissioner since January 2006. Before joining the FTC, Wright was a Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, having served previously as Scholar in Residence at the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. Earlier, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a Visiting Fellow at the Searle Center at the Northwestern University School of Law. Wright’s areas of expertise include antitrust law and economics, consumer protection, empirical law and economics, intellectual property, and the law and economics of contracts. He has published numerous articles in leading academic journals, and co-authored Pioneers of Law and Economics and Competition Policy and Patent Law under Uncertainty: Regulating Innovation. Wright is the co-editor of the Supreme Court Economic review, and serves on the editorial board of the Antitrust Law Journal, Global Competition Policy, and Competition Policy International. Wright received a J.D. and a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA, where he was managing editor of the UCLA Law Review, and a B.A. in economics with highest departmental honors at the University of California, San Diego. Before joining the George Mason University School of Law faculty, he clerked for the Honorable James V. Selna of the Central District of California and taught at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Public Policy.
benton.org/node/143211 | Federal Trade Commission
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WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT CES?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
[Commentary] In Las Vegas this week, approximately 150,000 consumer electronics manufacturers, retailers, content providers and creators, broadband developers, wireless carriers, cable and satellite TV providers, installers, engineers, corporate buyers, government leaders, financial analysts and the media gathered for the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to see and showcase new and upcoming products. Writing in the Washington Post, Hayley Tsukayama asked a provocative question: why bother? You see, CES gets a bad rap these days — and there are a lot of reasons why. Major companies pull out of the show to set their own announcement agendas (see: Apple, Microsoft). And many of the show’s “hot products” of the year don’t always pan out in the real world, have super limited appeal, or simply never come out at all. In many ways, CES has earned its reputation as a disconnected confab and echo chamber. The most-pointed criticism is that CES is a hardware show in a software world. Innovation is increasingly coming from the software side of things, from content partnerships and novel applications of technology, which make gadget-driven news a little less interesting. So we ask this week, ‘Why should public interest advocates care about CES?’
http://benton.org/node/143195
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VIOLENCE AND MEDIA
VIDEO GAMES AND GUN VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
Representatives from the top video game publishers, including Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, participated in a meeting with Vice President Biden Jan 11 to discuss ways to curb gun violence in the United States. Attendees at the meeting included Entertainment Software Association CEO Mike Gallagher, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello and representatives from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, ZeniMax Media, Take-Two Interactive, Epic Games, E-Line Media and video game retailer GameStop, according to the vice president's office. Texas A&M University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a research lab that studies efforts to educate children through media, also had representatives present at the gun violence task force meeting. In addition, a video game industry consultant and leader of a government-funded study on the effects of video games on teenagers attended. Vice President Biden said the series of meetings showed the video game industry "was not singled out for help," noting that he met with entertainment trade association chiefs, according to a pool report. Vice President Biden said he came to the meeting with "no judgment" about video game companies, per the pool report. "You all know the judgment other people have made," he added.
benton.org/node/143233 | Hill, The | Politico
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WHY THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY HAS TO TALK ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Hayley Tsukayama]
The Entertainment Software Association’s decision to even attend Vice President Joe Biden’s meeting on gun violence sent shockwaves through the gaming community. Gaming site Gamasutra’s editor-in-chief Kris Graft said that talking with Vice President Biden was tantamount to accepting responsibility. “If you’re among the ‘game industry leaders’ entertaining this question in the court of the Vice President of the U.S.A. and his task force on gun control and violence, you, my well-meaning friend, are stating that you’re part of the problem, and therefore, you are part of the problem,” he wrote. Graft’s piece, in turn, set off a backlash of its own, with critics saying that the game industry has to continue to address the issue or risk being left out. As IGN writer Casey Lynch said in a response to Graft’s piece, “this conversation will happen, whether we’re a part of it or not.” That much, at least, is true.
benton.org/node/143234 | Washington Post
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FIGHTING VIOLENCE IN MEDIA
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Jennifer Martinez]
The Obama Administration has few tools available to take action against violence in video games and entertainment content, attorneys say. “The government doesn’t have any power directly to address violent program content and the best thing they can do is jawbone, bringing relevant people into the White House and talking to them,” said Andrew Schwartzman, a communications attorney.
benton.org/node/143238 | Hill, The
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REAL-WORLD KILLINGS AND TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
The issue of extreme violence on screen and its potential impact has become a thicket programmers cannot avoid. “I don’t think there’s anyone on this planet whose life hasn’t been changed and/or affected by the recent course of events,” said Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment. But, she argued, “nothing that is on the air is inappropriate.” CBS has more programming involving murders than any other network, but, Tassler said, the network justifies the level of carnage by assuring that “the bad guys are brought to justice.” In response to criticism of a specific CBS show, “Criminal Minds,” which features a serial killer every week, she said she would not allow her 14-year-old child to watch that show because “it’s an adult show.” Debates about television violence have waxed and waned for more than 50 years, sometimes surrounding shows, like “The Rifleman” and “Kojak,” that now seem tame. The increasing appeal of cable series, however, has changed the stakes. In 2001 Bob Wright, chairman of NBC at the time, wrote a memo pointing out an especially violent episode of “The Sopranos” on HBO and questioning whether “there was a lesson” for network shows in the popularity and acceptance of that level of violence.
benton.org/node/143259 | New York Times
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VIOLENCE AND TV
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: David Bauder]
If there's any soul-searching among top television executives about onscreen violence contributing to real-life tragedies like the Connecticut school shooting, it isn't readily apparent. All say the horrors of Newtown and Aurora rocked them. But during a series of meetings with reporters over the last 10 days, none offered concrete examples of how it is changing what they put on the air, or if that is necessary. Television's biggest influence is its omnipresence; the average American watches more than four hours of TV a day. In recent days, only FX President John Landgraf said he was in favor of further study about any correlation between entertainment and real violence. Previous studies have been mixed. The appetite for "Walking Dead" and "Texas Chainsaw 3-D" among young viewers is not lost on any TV executive, and bottom line pressure speaks most loudly to them. Broadcast networks feel a particular need to push the envelope when they see cable programs making noise with an ability to show more explicit scenes.
benton.org/node/143258 | Associated Press
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CONTENT
VERIZON COULD CHARGE TO CHALLENGE ANTI-PRIVACY CLAIMS
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Ted Samson]
Businesses and individual subscribers to Verizon's Internet service may have to pay a $35 fee to challenge piracy allegations, according to a leaked draft of the company's forthcoming Copyright Alert Program. Subscribers could also face temporary service slowdowns to 256kbp if Verizon suspects its Internet tubes are being used for transporting copyrighted material. Torrentfreak posted a version of Verizon's Copyright Alert Program, purportedly swiped from the company's Web servers. A Verizon spokesperson told InfoWorld that "the document in question is a draft document, and was neither public nor even final" and that in coming weeks, the company "will be informing its customers about our education and mitigation program, at which time we will be able discuss the plan and its implementation." Though just a draft, the program makes for some interesting reading. It reflects the "six strikes plan" introduced in 2011 by major entertainment companies under the auspices of the Center For Copyright Information. Based on CFCI guidelines, online pirates who persist in sharing copyrighted music, movies, and television episodes will be sent a series of six increasingly severe alerts from their ISP. The alerts ultimately include such punishments as bandwidth throttling, temporary suspension of service, and copyright reeducation.
benton.org/node/143232 | InfoWorld
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PRIVACY
HARRIS AND PRIVACY
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Over the past year, state Attorney General Kamala Harris has tried to impose order in the wild west frontier of wireless applications though her legal powers are decidedly unclear. She's put forward a 22-page list of guidelines for app developers, networks, mobile carriers and others aimed at minimizing privacy conflicts and moving the mobile world away from sweeping up every shred of personal data. The ideas call for plainer privacy warnings, pop-up messages when an app asks for additional information, and a request that app makers not ask for personal data when it's not essential for basic functions. Her privacy campaign is another instance of a familiar political adage: If Washington won't, then California will. In this case federal agencies are moving slowly in area of online protections, leading Harris to act. Other states may be poised to follow. As the country goes mobile, it's critical not to forget personal rights and protections. A huge changeover in technology shouldn't obliterate privacy. Harris is right to pursue this goal at a critical time.
benton.org/node/143252 | San Francisco Chronicle
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ROCKEFELLER RETIREMENT SHAKES UP PRIVACY BATTLE
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Alex Byers]
Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s announcement that he’ll retire in 2015 is the latest personnel move in a month that has thrown the legislative end of the online consumer privacy world into flux. Sen Rockefeller (D-WX), who’s been the upper chamber’s most vocal proponent of strengthening online privacy laws, is the third privacy hawk in three weeks to make news for potentially being on the move. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who co-introduced a privacy bill of rights in April 2011, has been tapped by President Barack Obama for secretary of state. That opens a Senate seat in Massachusetts that longtime privacy hawk and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) wants and is likely to be focused on this session. Those three aren’t the only lawmakers interested in a growing technological issue —Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) have all made waves on consumer privacy and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) has been alongside Rep Markey in the House. But the trio has been a standard-bearer, and the moves throw an issue, which was in many ways on target for a breakout year in 2013, somewhat up in the air.
benton.org/node/143251 | Politico
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WIRELESS
SMARTPHONE’S AS LIFE’S REMOTE CONTROL
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Chen]
The smartphone is no longer just a portable computer in your pocket. It has become the remote control for your life. Want to flip off the living room lights, unlock your front door or get a reading of your blood pressure? All of this can be done through mobile apps that work with accessories embedded with sensors or an Internet connection. For several years, technology companies have promised the dream of the connected home, the connected body and the connected car. Those connections have proved illusory. But in the last year app-powered accessories have provided the mechanism to actually make the connections. That is partly because smartphones have become the device people never put down. But it is also because wireless sensors have become smaller, cheaper and ubiquitous. Big companies with strong brands have been heavily promoting the new uses for these gadgets.
benton.org/node/143241 | New York Times
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TELEVISION
NBC, MARKETING, AND THE NEWS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
NBC's symphony strategy is starting to hit a bad note. When Comcast took over the network in 2011, NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke put an emphasis on using one entertainment property to promote another. He dubbed the approach "Project Symphony." To be sure, the idea of media companies making use of their platforms to advertise their own assets and personalities is nothing new. ABC's "Good Morning America" has no qualms about using its valuable time to talk about "Dancing With the Stars." But NBC is becoming the most aggressive in doing this and if it continues it could harm the credibility of its news division. The latest example was the episode of the news magazine "Rock Center," which featured a long segment devoted to promoting the new NBC sitcom "1600 Penn."
benton.org/node/143242 | Los Angeles Times
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NEWS FROM THE FCC
EX PARTE MEETINGS WITH THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSITIONS POLICY TASK FORCE
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
On December 10, 2012, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the formation of an agency-wide Technology Transitions Policy Task Force to provide recommendations on how to modernize the FCC’s policies in a manner that encourages the technological transition, empowers and protects consumers, promotes competition, and ensures network resiliency and reliability.
The Technology Transitions Policy Task Force is conducting a data-driven review to ensure that our nation’s communications policies continue to drive a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment, promote competition, and protect consumers. Parties meeting with the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force may advocate on issues that are not the subject of an open proceeding. It is nevertheless important that the Task Force have an open and transparent process. Accordingly, the FCC will treat presentations to the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force (including both oral meetings and written submissions), as to the work of the Task Force as subject to filing in a “permit-but-disclose” proceedings, in which ex parte presentations to Commission decision-making personnel are permissible but subject to certain disclosure requirements in accordance with the Commission’s ex parte rules. Presentations to the Technology Transitions Policy Task Force should be filed in GN Docket No. 13-5 (as well as any other applicable docket, where appropriate).
benton.org/node/143215 | Federal Communications Commission
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EMERGENCY ACCESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE CHARTER EXTENDED TO JUNE 14, 2013
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: Public Notice]
By this Public Notice, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission extend the charter of the Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) by six months until June 14, 2013. This extension of the charter will enable the EAAC to complete the important work it began in early 2011 pursuant to the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (CVAA).
benton.org/node/143213 | Federal Communications Commission
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
AARON SWARTZ
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Brendan Sasso]
The family of Internet activist Aaron Swartz is accusing federal prosecutors of driving him to commit suicide. Swartz, who was facing computer hacking charges, hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment. He was 26. “Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach," the family said. "Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death."
benton.org/node/143239 | Hill, The | WSJ | NYTimes
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JOURNALISM
DATA SNATCHERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bill Keller]
[Commentary] When it comes to privacy, we are all hypocrites. We howl when a newspaper publishes public records about personal behavior. At the same time, we are acquiescing in a much more sweeping erosion of our privacy — government surveillance, corporate data-mining, political microtargeting, hacker invasions — with no comparable outpouring of protest. As a society we have no coherent view of what information is worth defending and how to defend it. When our privacy is invaded in the name of national security, we — and our elected representatives, afraid to be thought soft — generally go along quietly. Our complacency is reinforced by a popular culture that has forsaken Orwell’s nightmares for a benign view of authority. In many of my own guilty-pleasure television favorites — “The Wire,” the British thriller series “MI-5,” the Danish original of “The Killing,” the addictive “Homeland” — surveillance is what the good guys do, and it saves the day. Meanwhile, as Al Qaeda wanes, our surveillance state continues to grow more intrusive, with woefully little oversight or accountability.
benton.org/node/143257 | New York Times
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GUNS, MAPS AND DATA THAT DISTURBS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
[Commentary] Should data have a conscience? As a journalist, I am trained as an absolutist in matters of open data. Public records should be just that, public, and as agents of transparency, news media outlets should help cast sunlight on those records. In that context, data is not good or bad, right or wrong; it is information that should be there for the asking, taking or publishing. That was my initial reflex after The Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., decided, in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, to publish a map with the names and addresses of people who had applied for handgun permits in two suburban counties. I followed a simple logic: the records were open, the public interest was high and journalism that blends both those things makes sense. But on reflection, was it really journalism? Not so much.
benton.org/node/143256 | New York Times
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