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CALM Act author Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wrote the Federal Communications Commission to say that her congressional intent was for promos to be included in the Act's restrictions on commercial loudness.
That came in response to a petition by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association Aug. 8, asking the FCC to reconsider parts of the act, which goes into effect in December. The Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act requires broadcasters and cable operators to insure that the volume of ads is not noticeably louder than the surrounding entertainment fare. NCTA argues that promotional material was not meant to be included in the definition of commercial advertisement, but Rep Eshoo begs to differ. "The difference between promotional materials and other forms of advertising would not be readily apparent to a consumer, and thus should not be treated differently in the context of the commission's rules," she wrote in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that she asked be made a comment in the proceeding. "[T]he plain language of the law does not provide a blanket exemption from promotional advertisements, nor did legislative debate on this subject infer such an exemption," she added. She suggested NCTA was simply trying to carve out as much of the ad territory from the rules as it could. "The NCTA seeks to create a special class of advertising based on the desire to exclude as many advertisements as possible from the FCC's rules," she said.
Rep Eshoo: CALM Act Meant to Apply to Promos
The languages and the cultures are different, but the pet peeves of mobile technology users around the globe are the same, with most people annoyed by receiving too much information.
About 60 percent of adults and teenagers in eight countries said too much is being divulged online, including inappropriate photos, unsolicited opinions, profanity and mind-numbing details of daily life. "We love our technology because it connects us and gives us an outlet for expression, but then at the same time, we are also feeling there is a bit of information overload," said Jessica Hansen, a spokesperson for Intel Corporation, which commissioned the survey. About half of the 7,087 adults and 1,787 teenagers questioned in the online poll said they felt overwhelmed by all the information. Nearly 90 percent would like people to think about what they share and how others will perceive them online.
Online sharing, information overload is worldwide problem: poll
It is critically important that states and local communities adopt broadband-friendly policies when it comes to rights-of-way management. When broadband service providers seek to construct next-generation networks, they need to access government-controlled land, poles, and conduits in order to lay fiber and install other infrastructure. Currently, too many providers who try to obtain such access are confronted with daunting sets of federal, state, and/or municipal regulations that often delay and sometimes deter infrastructure investment and broadband deployment. This wasn’t the case in Kansas City. Instead, local governments made a significant upfront commitment to expedite and simplify the permitting process. Indeed, this was one of the main reasons that Google selected Kansas City out of the more than 1,100 communities that applied.
I encourage municipalities across the nation to study Kansas City’s example and to see if they can streamline their own rights-of-way management policies. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission should work with stakeholders to develop model regulations, guidelines, or best practices for rights-of-way management that facilitate fiber deployment while safeguarding legitimate government interests. In the end, consumers will benefit from a more proactive, forward-thinking approach to these matters. More generally, to enable the nationwide deployment of next-generation networks like Google Fiber, we need to eliminate regulatory barriers to innovation and investment at all levels of government. Whether we are dealing with economic regulation or rights-of-way management, we cannot apply 20th century approaches to our 21st century challenges.
Commissioner Ajit Pai On His Visit To Kansas City's Google Fiber Project Pai: Rights-of-Way Issues Are Up to Date in Kansas City (B&C)
A coalition of civil liberties groups has asked a federal appeals court to revisit a recent ruling that held the police did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they tracked suspect Melvin Skinner's cell phone without a warrant.
The brief argues that a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had misunderstood both the relevant Supreme Court precedents and the technical details of how the police had accomplished the tracking. The groups -- the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Center for Democracy and Technology -- want the case re-heard by a panel of all Sixth Circuit judges. The legal arguments in the case center on US v. Jones, a Supreme Court decision from earlier this year that found it unconstitutional to attach a GPS device to a car and track it for 28 days without a warrant. In contrast, the police tracked Skinner using the GPS in his cell phone instead of attaching a separate GPS device to his car. And they tracked him for only 3 days rather than 28.
Groups seek to overturn ruling allowing warrantless phone tracking
The lines are being drawn in the wireless data wars. On one side are the sharers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which offer plans for multiple users to share data minutes across different devices. On the other side: those offering unlimited data packages. On the heels of Sprint’s salvo touting the latter option (via a campaign over the weekend encouraging consumers to “Say no to sharing”), T-Mobile launched its Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data plans, which offers unlimited data at 4G speeds, without data caps, throttling or overage charges. T-Mobile has long taken a public stance against the shared data family plans. In a blog post from May 18, Andrew Sherrard, the company’s senior vice president of marketing, wrote: “Some of our competitors are backing away from simple, unlimited data and moving to family shared data plans. ….T-Mobile believes that consumers today do not want a ‘one size fits all’ approach to shared family data plans, nor would they benefit from that model.” According to the company, the unlimited data packages, which will be available for $20 or $30 a month extra depending on the voice and text plan selected, are meant to give consumers the most out of their smartphones without having to worry about data usage.
T-Mobile Touts Unlimited Mobile Data Strategy
Targeted content will increasingly become important on mobile devices through on-site and in-apps search for a variety of industries, which identifies the need for improvements in Web site and application search functions. Some 57% of smartphone and 52% of tablet users participating in research admit to clicking on a mobile ad because it provided information about a need or answered a question related to a recent search. The study from mobile-local ad network xAd, and call measurement provider Telmetrics, conducted by Nielsen, analyzes the mobile path to purchase for the travel, restaurant, and auto industries. It provides insights on successful strategies, but also considerations to increase conversions.
Mobile Study Identifies Need For Better On-Site, In-App Search
Michelle Obama’s ability to inspire nearly twice as many tweets per minute as Republican nominee Mitt Romney during her Democratic National Convention speech may have been due to more than being “personal and real.” The first lady had a home turf advantage.
Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans or independents to say social networking sites are important to them, according to a study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Nearly 50 percent of Democratic social media users told researchers that social sites are important for “keeping up with political news” compared to about 34 percent of Republicans. About 35 percent of Democrats said the sites were important for “recruiting people to get involved with political issues,” “finding other people who share your views,” and “debating or discussing political issues” compared to about 25 percent of Republicans.
DNC’s Twitter Victory Wasn’t Won on a Level Playing Field
This election season people started to talk about political cookies – a new expression for the term previously used for targeted or customized ads. These are advertisements that are automatically pushed out based an Internet user's search habits. Computer cookies are files stored on the user’s computer that save the browsing history and behavior on websites s/he visits. This history can be activated by companies to provide a tailored browsing experience as soon as users return to these websites. Every time a user submits information to a website the information is stored. The data in the cookie file is stored locally (and reactivated at return visits) and can also be transferred to another website.
Does the Public Have an Appetite for Political Cookies?
As Jon Stewart regularly shows, Fox News remains an Obama-bashing, climate-change-denying, war-on-Christmas-promoting purveyor of conservative talking points. But those talking points seem increasingly in flux. The Republican party as a whole seems to be entering a period of painful reflection and self-evaluation, and Fox offers a ringside seat.
Why Fox is essential viewing
This research compared technology use among homeless young adults with that of college students as a means of understanding technology use among young adults today; people who have grown up with technology. Specifically, social network site (SNS) usage was assessed for two age-matched young adult samples, one drawn from a large introductory psychology subject pool, and a second from homeless young adults who were approached for participation when they entered metropolitan shelters. Overall, technology use was strikingly similar. These results call for a paradigm shift in researchers’ understanding of technology use and indicate that contemporary young adults sampled across socio-economic class and varying ethnicities are far more similar than prior research would suggest. These results call into question whether the term “digital divide” is useful for describing group differences in technology use as our results suggest the divide has narrowed considerably.
The homeless use Facebook?! Similarities of social network use between college students and homeless young adults