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ELECTRONICS GROUP RESTATES CASE FOR NET NEUTRALITY
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Tom Abate]
The American Electronics Association reiterated its position that Congress should enact regulations to maintain the status quo with regard to broadband pricing, namely that all Internet traffic should get the same treatment at the same price. Proponents call this "Network Neutrality." In a 4-page report titled "The Case for Preserving Network Neutrality," the AEA repeats many familiar arguments about giving too much pricing power to telephone and cable firms that provide more than 90 percent of the broadband access in the United States. But the report adds one new bit of information to the debate: how much content providers already pay to pump electronic traffic through the Web.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=8821
* The Case for Preserving Network Neutrality
http://www.aeanet.org/PressRoom/prac_091206_net_neutrality.asp
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=8821
HEED THE THREAT TO INTERNET FAIRNESS
[SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, AUTHOR: Craig Newmark, craigslist.org]
[Commentary] The Internet allows people to help one another because it is pretty much a level playing field. Its inherent culture is about giving everyone a fair shot at success. There's a term for this attribute on the Internet: Net neutrality. In America, as on the Internet, you play fair and work hard, and you can get ahead. However, fairness on the Net is being threatened by telecommunications giants like AT&T and Verizon. They have openly admitted that their interests are best served by getting companies - their server customers - to pay for special privileges. They want to eliminate Net neutrality and instead gain permission to charge companies for preferential treatment. Essentially they want to create a Net fast lane for a select group of companies. I think most people would agree that telecoms shouldn't have the ability to grant Net privileges to the people with big money or power. So let's keep the Internet as it is: neutral, fair and free. And urge your local senators to keep it that way as the Senate considers telecom legislation this fall. The Philadelphia region, and the rest of America, deserve that.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15495923.htm
Heed the Threat to Internet Fairness
FCC IGNORES AMERICA'S BROADBAND WOES
[SOURCE: Free Press press release]
The United States continues to lag behind the rest of the world in accessible and affordable broadband service, with no signs of closing the digital divide at home, according to a new report released today by Free Press, the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union. Contradicting the rosy picture painted by the Federal Communications Commission and Congress, Broadband Reality Check II exposes the truth behind America's digital decline: A failed broadband policy that has left Americans with higher prices, slower speeds and no meaningful competition for high-speed Internet service. Broadband Reality Check II updates last year's report on the state of high-speed Internet in America and details new empirical research. Among its key findings: 1) U.S. broadband prices aren't dropping: Cable modem prices are holding constant or rising, and DSL customers on average are getting less bandwidth per dollar than just a year ago. 2) Despite claims of "fierce competition," cable and DSL account for 98 percent of the residential broadband market. And over 40 percent of U.S. ZIP codes have one or fewer DSL or cable modem providers reporting service. 3) The market share of "third platform" alternatives like satellite, wireless and broadband over powerline technologies has actually decreased over the past five years. 4) Those living in urban areas are nearly twice as likely to have home broadband access as their rural counterparts. 5) Approximately one out of 10 households with incomes below $30,000 reported having high-speed Internet access, but six out of every 10 households with incomes above $100,000 had broadband. 6) The price of broadband service, and not necessarily the lack of a home computer, is the key barrier to broadband adoption by low-income households.
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=164
* Broadband Reality Check II
http://www.freepress.net/docs/bbrc2-final.pdf
http://www.freepress.net/press/release.php?id=164
WHERE ARE TV COMPLAINTS FROM KIDS?
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The United Church of Christ (UCC) Office of Communications said Tuesday it has written FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to seek the status of four petitions it filed over the past two years to deny license renewals to four stations it alleges violated kids TV ad rules. The first two petitions, against WPXW (Paxson) and WDCA (Fox), both Washington, were filed-in conjunction with the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), in September 2004, the other two, against Univision's WGHS and Raycom's WUAB Cleveland, were filed in August 2005. They argue that the station's FCC-friendly kid shows do not fit the bill. The shows at issue are Miracle Pets, Ace Lightning, Stargate: Infinity, Sabrina, and Complices al Rescate. The complaint against Univision's WGHS is the first for the UCC against a Spanish-language station. "Children in Virginia, Washington D.C., Cleveland, and throughout the United States have been deprived of the protection enacted by Congress in the Children’s Television Act," wrote CDD Counsel Angela J. Campbell. "I urge you to consider these matters as soon as possible." The group points out that the FCC has resolved numerous kids TV ad violations at other stations in the interim-those have ranged from no actions to proposed fines. “In the absence of Commission action, broadcasters will continue to air programming that denies children the educational opportunities Congress envisioned,†Campbell wrote. “Taking action to promote positive programming for children would be in keeping with the Commission’s present focus on protecting our children from indecent content.â€
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6371133?display=Breaking+News
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6371133?display=Breaking%20News
FCC SETS ROADMAP FOR USING VACANT TV AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: Reuters]
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday set a roadmap for making airwaves between television channels available for other services by early 2009, when broadcasters are due to switch to digital signals. The agency said it expects to have from its laboratory the results of tests for interference by July 2007 and would set final technical requirements for devices to use those airwaves without an FCC license by October 2007. The FCC said in a notice it would accept applications for the equipment in December 2007 with the goal of having them on retail store shelves by February 2009, when broadcasters are scheduled to turn off their analog airwaves and broadcast in digital.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
* Proceeding on Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/3386
ALCHIN: COMCAST WON'T BE A CELLULAR COMPETITOR
[SOURCE: Multichannel News]
Comcast co-chief financial officer John Alchin couldn't say much about the nation’s largest cable operator’s participation in the Federal Communications Commission wireless auctions, but he added that there is no intention to become a cellular carrier in competition with Sprint Nextel, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile USA or AT&T Wireless. Comcast is a partner in SpectrumCo, a group that includes Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications. Through 118 rounds of the auction -- which commenced Aug. 9 -- SpectrumCo has bid $2.4 billion and has 113 provisionally wining bids for markets such as Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and Dallas. “Any spectrum that we acquire really provides us with long-term flexibility and many strategic options that wouldn't be otherwise available to us,†Alchin said at the conference. “We have no interest in being the fifth cellular operator.†Alchin added that Comcast will likely test integrating wireless functionality enabled through the increased spectrum in certain markets into the other platforms the cable operator has, perhaps in conjunction with its Sprint Nextel joint venture (which also includes the other partners in SpectrumCo).
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6371166.html?display=Breaking+News
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6371166.html?display=Breaking%20News
HOUSE GOP LEADERS FIGHT WIRETAPPING LIMITS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Jonathan Weisman]
House leaders moved yesterday to temper many of the controls that a bill headed toward rapid passage would have imposed on the Bush administration's program for wiretapping terrorism suspects without court approval. The bill, set for Judiciary Committee consideration today, would have forced the administration to seek a warrant for surveillance within 60 days and bolstered consultations with Congress on the program. But last-minute changes pushed by senior Republicans may allow warrantless surveillance to largely continue without those controls. Instead, House Republican leaders brought their bill in line with legislation agreed to by the White House and the Senate, which would allow but not require the administration to submit the program to a secret court for a constitutional review. Republican leaders, in the midst of an increasingly angry attack on Democrats over defense matters, made it clear that they will not challenge President Bush's authority in matters of national security as they challenge their opponents' commitment to fighting terrorism. The move put House GOP leaders at odds with some Republican moderates and civil libertarians in the House and the Senate, who have pledged to assert Congress's authority over the wiretapping program. The legislation's chief author, Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM), made it clear that she will stand by the original bill's system of checks when the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence takes it up tomorrow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR200609...
(requires registration)
House GOP Leaders Fight Wiretapping Limits
DEMOCRATS CALL NSA'S INPUT TO SENATE PANEL INAPPROPRIATE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Walter Pincus]
Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee are complaining that the National Security Agency has played politics in support of the secret program to intercept phone calls between alleged terrorists in the United States and abroad. On July 27, shortly after most members of the committee were briefed on the controversial surveillance program, the NSA supplied the panel's chairman, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), with "a set of administration approved, unclassified talking points for the members to use," as described in the document. Among the talking points were "subjective statements that appear intended to advance a particular policy view and present certain facts in the best possible light," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) said in a letter to the NSA director. The cleared statements included "I can say the program must continue" and "There is strict oversight in place . . . now including the full congressional intelligence committees," as well as "Current law is not agile enough to handle the threat posed by sophisticated international terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda" and "The FISA should be amended so that it is technologically neutral." FISA refers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the current law. Sen Rockefeller and six Democrats on the panel wrote Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the NSA's director, on Aug. 29 that they believed those statements "appear intended to advocate particular policies rather than provide guidance on classification." The letter added: "We believe that it is inappropriate for the NSA to insert itself into this policy debate."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR200609...
(requires registration)
Democrats Call NSA's Input To Senate Panel Inappropriate
CRITICS DISPUTE IMPACT OF CHINA'S REVISED MEDIA RULES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Maureen Fan]
Journalism and human rights groups on Tuesday blasted China's efforts to further control the distribution of news and financial information by foreign news agencies, saying revised regulations showed that the government was tightening censorship. But other experts said the impact of the new rules was limited in a country that already bans direct delivery of general news to Chinese media. They said the new rules signaled an attempt by China's state media to grab a piece of the lucrative financial information market. The New China News Agency, mouthpiece for the Communist Party, announced revisions Sunday to 10-year-old regulations governing foreign news agencies in China. The new rules explicitly forbid foreign agencies to distribute news that undermines China's national unity or sovereignty or endangers China's national security, reputation and interests. Under the rules, agencies cannot include content banned under Chinese laws, and the New China News Agency has the right to decide what news and information will be released in China and can delete anything it deems inappropriate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR200609...
(requires registration)
Critics Dispute Impact of China's Revised Media Rules
PROPOSED TREATY ON TV SIGNALS SPURS CRITICISM
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
The proposal sounds modest enough: Broadcasters want to stop international pirates from hijacking American TV signals and re-transmitting them over the Internet. But the high-tech industry and digital rights advocates see something more sinister in the fine print of a proposed international treaty being negotiated this week in Geneva. They fear it will end up restricting how people can use legally recorded shows stashed on their TiVos or computer hard drives. Pushed by U.S. and European TV networks, the treaty being considered by a World Intellectual Property Organization committee would prohibit the theft of their signals, as well as those from cable and satellite broadcasters. TV broadcasters said they were not targeting average viewers recording their favorite shows, just large-scale thieves stealing their business. "If you send our signal … to 100,000 people so it ruins our ability to market our signals, we ought to be able to prohibit that," said Ben Ivins, senior associate general counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters, which has been pressing for the treaty for several years. But in what is shaping up as the next major battle in the fight over digital content, a coalition of phone companies, information technology firms and digital rights advocates warn the proposed treaty could do much more and is working to derail it.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-nutreaty13sep13,1,797...
(requires registration)
Proposed Treaty on TV Signals Spurs Criticism