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MEDIA FIRMS SAY GOOGLE BENEFITED FROM FILM PIRACY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Matthew Karnitschnig matthew.karnitschnig@wsj.com and Julia Angwin ]
A group of major media companies has accused Internet giant Google Inc. of benefiting from the sale of pirated movies and providing business support to two Web sites suspected of offering access to illegal film downloads, according to several people familiar with the matter. The allegations are an embarrassment for Google, which assured the companies on Friday it would take measures to prevent a recurrence of the episode. At the core of the media companies' dispute with Google is their claim that Google deliberately directed traffic to Web sites that were engaged in fostering piracy. Although people familiar with the situation say the incident doesn't involve large sums of money, several media executives say it has led them to question Google's internal controls. Google told the studios on Friday it would implement new procedures to prevent recurrences.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117125197567105533.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117125197567105533.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
WHY DIGITAL MUSIC SHOULD BE SET FREE
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: John Gapper]
[Commenatary] The average iPod user has only 22 DRM-encrypted songs on his or her device out of 1,000. The rest of the songs are either pirated illegally from friends or copied legally from the owner’s CD collection. There is no excuse for piracy. Every so often, someone tries to justify it by mumbling about how companies overcharge for CDs and he is doing what Robin Hood would have done. But since any pirate can buy a CD and distribute the music on it without difficulty, DRM does not curb those that it should. Some music industry executives hope one day to replace CDs with copy-protected discs but that is a distant prospect. Until then, DRM merely affects the law-abiding, who find it an annoying and inflexible encroachment on their legitimate property rights.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e70775e0-ba05-11db-89c8-0000779e2340.html
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Why digital music should be set free
RX FOR RETRANSMISSION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Rocco Commisso, Mediacom]
[Commentary] When it comes to governing the relationship between cable operators and broadcast-TV stations, “the industry has some major issues to face,†says Mediacom Communications CEO Rocco Commisso. His set of prescriptions: 1) Discrimination should not be acceptable. Broadcasters, like cable networks, should have published rate cards reflecting the station’s in-market ratings. 2) Local monopolies on broadcast-network signals should be eliminated. Cable operators should be allowed to import signals, especially when there is an impasse. 3) Anti-competitive marketing campaigns should be outlawed. A broadcaster should not be allowed to run marketing campaigns and subsidize a customer’s switch to another provider during negotiations. 4) Eliminate the requirement that broadcast-TV stations be part of the basic programming tier. If broadcasters’ signals can be placed on a separate tier of service, as is permitted on satellite platforms, they should be separable on cable as well. 5) Major broadcast networks should treat cable companies like broadband users. Cable systems should be able to make agreements directly with broadcast networks to take their full lineups or individual shows. 6) Allow operators to share in the advertising revenues. Cable operators should be entitled to two minutes of advertising on broadcast stations per hour. 7) The good faith standards for retransmission consent negotiations should be revisited. The FCC should outlaw any form of discriminatory pricing, abusive tactics and anti-competitive behavior by broadcasters. 8) Stop further relaxation of rules governing media consolidation. Particularly, no broadcaster should be allowed to own or operate more than one TV station in a market and use retransmission consent to hold cable companies and their customers hostage.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6415495.html?display=Opinion
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6415495.html?display=Opinion
TEACHING THE TRANSITION
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
With almost exactly two years to go, three major trade organizations this week will detail a coordinated campaign to educate American consumers that their rabbit-ear-style television sets could soon be useless. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association are in final planning stages for a press conference, where they will unveil a nationwide public-relations offensive to tell consumers that conventional, over-the-air analog television sets will be obsolete early in 2009. The three trade groups, while often in conflict, decided to create a unified campaign to inform 300 million U.S. citizens of the imminent change, in response to claims from key Congressional leaders that their industries had the scale and resources to do so.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6415556.html?display=Top+Stories
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6415556.html?display=Top%20Stories
FEDERAL APPEALS COURT WEIGHS INTERNET PHONE TAXES
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Anne Broache]
A federal appeals court panel on Friday heard a challenge against taxes that were extended last year to some Internet phone providers, but the judges did not clearly signal how they might rule. Some members of the three-judge panel at the U.S. District of Columbia Circuit Court suggested the Federal Communications Commission had not fully justified certain requirements it imposed in an order last June. The panel appeared less swayed, however, by arguments that the FCC had overstepped its authority in setting the mandate. At issue is a unanimous FCC decision to require all voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services that connect to the public-switched telephone network -- as opposed to using peer-to-peer technology, such as Skype--to contribute a percentage of their long-distance revenues to the Universal Service Fund. The multibillion dollar pool of money subsidizes telephone service in rural and low-income areas, certain health care providers, and schools and libraries. Previously, specific contribution requirements existed only for wireless and wireline telephone carriers, leaving it less clear where VoIP fit in. If the FCC's rules are upheld, Americans could continue to see taxes levied on their VoIP bills--and at a steeper rate than on their cell phone or wireline bills. That's a situation the relatively young VoIP industry fears will drive away business.
http://news.com.com/Federal+appeals+court+weighs+Internet+phone+taxes/21...
Web Interests Challenge FCC On Universal Service
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 2/9, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-LPYH1171390205324.html
Federal appeals court weighs Internet phone taxes
NEW COP FOR HIGH-SPEED NET?
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Tom Abate]
When the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission delivered an important speech last year about competition in cyberspace, she ended her remarks by focusing on an issue that directly affects the 65 million U.S. households that have broadband Internet service. "We will continue our consumer protection work," FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said at a conference in Aspen, Colo., "by, for example, holding Internet service providers accountable for any false or deceptive representations to consumers concerning the nature of the Internet access provided." What Majoras meant by that remark should start coming into focus later this week when the FTC convenes two days of workshops designed to expand its scrutiny of business practices in cyberspace. Now, consumer advocates hope the FTC will take a hard look at how ISPs advertise broadband service by telling consumers that, for a certain monthly fee, they can access the Internet at speeds "up to" -- and then make a claim about speed. "Nobody knows what they get, and the consumer has no way of judging," said Mark Cooper with the Consumer Federation of America.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/0...
* Learn more about the FTC's public workshop on "Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy" at http://www.ftc.gov/opp/workshops/broadband/index.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/02/11/BUG…
MARKEY ADDRESSES E-RATE AND OTHER TOP TECHNOLOGY ISSUES
[SOURCE: Rep Ed Markey (D-MA)]
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, received the Alliance for Public Technology’s Susan G. Hadden Award at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Friday. In accepting the award, Rep Markey said that affordable access to telecommunications technologies for all Americans is vital not only because it is right and fair but because in the economy of the 21st Century, we need all of our citizens to be productive. In the decades ahead, America needs to compete in a fiercely competitive economy with all of the diversity and productivity and innovation that all our people can muster to the task. "Preparing the next generation for this future was what my original E-rate provision was all about," he noted.
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2594&I...
* Charles Benton also received the Alliance for Public Technology’s Susan G. Hadden Award. See his remarks at http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/4792
http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2594&Itemid=14…
MARTIN BACKS DIVVYING UP RECLAIMED BROADCAST SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants the spectrum in the upcoming 700 mHz auction to be divided into smaller geographic areas to make it easier for smaller companies and companies owned by minorities and women to bid on it. He also wants to put build-out requirements on services using the new spectrum to spur more radio broadband deployment. Chairman Martin also told the legislators the FCC is considering reclassifying wireless broadband as an information service. That would bring it in line with cable and telco-delivered Internet access, which were reclassified, freeing them from mandatory access provisions and creating the network neutrality debate that has become one of the hottest topics in Washington. Chairman Martin's plug for diversity went beyond the new 700 mHz auction. He put in a plug for ownership diversity, saying "at our public hearings the Commission has heard a consistent concern that there are too few local and diverse voices in the community." He said the Commission "must make sure that consumers have the benefit of a competitive and diverse media marketplace," but also said that it "must balance concerns about too much consolidation and too little choice with appropriate consideration of the changes and innovation that are taking place in the media marketplace.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6415309.html?display=Breaking...
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6415309.html?display=Breaking%20News
THE HAITI FILE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Mary O'Grady]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has apparently lost a file pertinent to two civil law suits. The file is the record of which U.S. telecom companies that did business with the government of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide actually complied with U.S. law by submitting their contracts to the FCC. The case alleges that President Aristide took bribes from U.S. telecom carriers doing business in his country. The alleged quid pro quo for the U.S. companies that agreed to pay the bribes was access to the Teleco network at rates below the uniform "international settlement rate" set by the FCC. Two different long-distance suppliers have said that Teleco officials offered them just such a special rate in exchange for payment made to specially designated accounts. If the allegations are true, it would mean that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was violated, right under the nose of the FCC and the Department of Justice, during Democratic and Republican administrations. It would also mean that while Haitians were placing their trust in Uncle Sam to help them construct a democracy, millions of dollars that might have gone to building an infrastructure were siphoned off by a corrupt tyrant and U.S. business partners with friends in high places.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117124344952105351.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117124344952105351.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
FCC STUDY ON TELEPHONE TRENDS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
On Friday, the FCC released its Trends in Telephone Service report, which summarizes in one convenient reference source information published in various reports over the course of the past year. The report provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the telephone industry coming from consumers, members of Congress, other government agencies, telecommunications carriers, and members of the business and academic communities. Issues covered include Advanced Telecommunications (what many of us call broadband), Local Competition, Cell Phones, Prices, revenues, Subscribership, Universal Service, and Needlepoint.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270415A1.doc
* Read report at:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-270407A1.pdf
FCC Study on Telephone Trends