Headlines

Rep Barton: LPTV Bill Is 'Just Right'

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 19:03:43 +0000

The Low-powered TV (LPTV) and Translator Preservation Act of 2014, introduced by Rep Joe Barton (R-TX), was one of the subjects of the July 24 House Communications Subcommittee hearing.

Sen Rockefeller Wants to Revolutionize How You Watch TV

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:59:52 +0000

Sen Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is getting ready to settle into retirement. But before he does, he'd like to upend the entire television industry.

FCC Chairman Wheeler Announces Stolen Mobile Device Working Group Members

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:57:15 +0000

The Federal Communications Commission announced the members of the Technological Advisory Council’s (TAC) Working Group on Mobile Device Theft Prevention.

China’s digital transformation

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:55:57 +0000

For China’s small enterprises, greater digitization provides an opportunity to boost their labor productivity, collaborate in new ways, and expand their reach via e-commerce.

Behind Comcast’s truthy ad campaign for net neutrality

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:50:07 +0000

Comcast has been engaged in a public relations battle lately to convince policymakers and the public that it is all in favor of network neutrality, or the idea that Internet traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers no matter where it came from or what's contained in it.

ISPs are spending less on their networks as they make more money off them

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:47:33 +0000

It turns out that, as a percentage of the money they pull in, Internet service providers (ISPs) have generally spent less on infrastructure over time -- from a high of 37 percent of revenue in some cases to a low of around 12 percent more recently. This affects how reliable your connections are, what kind of speeds you get and the amount you pay for service each month.

Title II is the only path to net neutrality. Here’s why almost nobody thinks the FCC will take it

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:46:40 +0000

This is the Federal Communications Commission’s dilemma as it tries to design rules to prevent broadband providers from playing favorites when they deliver web traffic: It has a big stick, called “Title II,” but most people think the agency lacks the political juice to wield it against some very powerful companies.

Demographics, tech, and the digital divide

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:43:17 +0000

In the tech industry, one of the central debates has been over whether continued technological innovation can do much good for a wider group of people than just a narrow slice of the urban upper middle class.

CEO: Startup Rural Broadband Services Corporation Has Big Plans

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:42:08 +0000

A startup company known as Rural Broadband Services Corporation has big plans for rural Tahlequah, Oklahoma -- plans that RBSC CEO Roy Choates hopes he will be able to repeat in other rural communities that lack high-speed broadband connectivity.

The IP Transition: Great Expectations Or Bleak House?

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:39:24 +0000

The fact that the marketplace is embracing the IP Transition means we’re in the best of times. However, the government seems to be stuck in neutral when it comes to modernizing its regulatory framework to account for the IP Transition. What’s sidetracked us?

TDG: Half of Adult Broadband Users Now Engage Mobile Video Apps at Least Once a Month

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:37:25 +0000

A new report from The Diffusion Group (TDG), Mobile Video Apps: User Dimensions, finds that 49% of US adult broadband users engage some form of mobile video app at least once a month, with 17% engaging weekly and 16% daily.

Why The NSA Keeps Tracking People Even After They're Dead

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:34:32 +0000

You may be dead, but the United States government won't take you off its terrorist roster.

When is news reporting fair use under copyright law?

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:33:18 +0000

A recent fair use case, Swatch Group Management Services Ltd v. Bloomberg, (2d Cir. 2014) might shed some interesting light on how news reporting plays into the fair use analysis. This case shows that the news reporting aspect of fair use can be conceptually separated from transformative use.

Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 16:59:08 +0000

Americans should be concerned about the collection and storage of their communications under Executive Order 12333 than under Section 215.

FTC Commissioner Brill warns on mobile health-data gathering

Rebecca — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 16:56:32 +0000

Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill expressed concern about the way apps on smartphones and mobile devices are siphoning sensitive health data, and how some of that information may then be shared with third parties.

‘Don’t kill the Internet,’ protesters urge President Obama in Los Altos

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:12:15 +0000

While President Barack Obama was raising hundreds of thousands of dollars at two Bay Area fundraisers, protesters urged him to keep a promise he made to ensure that the Internet remains a level playing field.

Prosecutors Snooping on Legal Mail

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:10:58 +0000

The attorney-client privilege is the oldest, broadest and most important of all privileges in the American legal system. But for people sitting behind bars while awaiting trial or appealing a conviction, the attorney-client privilege stops abruptly at the e-mail login screen.

Twitter workforce largely white, male

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:09:45 +0000

Like most Silicon Valley companies, Twitter's workforce is largely white and male.

Google Jogs Memories Meant to Be Forgotten, Watchdog Says

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:08:54 +0000

Google risks a fresh round of criticism after its attempts to apply a court ruling giving citizens the right to be forgotten backfired, Ireland’s data watchdog said.

Google in fight to stop global removal of sensitive links

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:07:42 +0000

Google is braced for a showdown with European privacy watchdogs over demands the continent’s “right to be forgotten” online is extended across the world, with sensitive links stripped from all global versions of the search engine.

Murdoch’s bid for Time Warner threatens the golden age of television

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:06:42 +0000

What problem is Rupert Murdoch trying to solve?

Ofcom to do repeat review on rise in mobile spectrum licence fees

Benton Foundation — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:04:40 +0000

The proposed fivefold increase in the cost of using airwaves for mobile services will be reviewed again by Ofcom, the British telecommunications regulator, following warnings that it would hit the industry’s ability to invest.

Half of Smartphone Owners Don't Want Their Locations Tracked

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:58:20 +0000

Attention retailers: shoppers are not as interested with beacons and in-store tracking as you think they are, according to a new report from digital marketing platform Punchtab.

House Republicans: Something Smells Rotten at FCC

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:45:41 +0000

The leadership of the House Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee said that something "smells rotten on the [Federal Communications Commission's] 8th Floor" -- where the commissioner offices are located -- and that a report about a waiver related to an upcoming auction raises "a cloud of favoritism."

Senate moves to extend ban on Internet taxes

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:43:25 +0000

Senate Democrats are gearing up to pass a short-term extension of a moratorium on Internet access taxes, according to aides and K Street officials. The Internet Tax Freedom Act expires on Nov 1, and Democratic leaders are pushing to extend the moratorium through 2014.

AT&T: State Reviews of DirecTV Merger Complete

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:42:20 +0000

AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens told Wall Street that the states that have been reviewing its proposed merger with DirecTV have concluded those reviews without proposing any conditions.

AT&T’s Q2: Hello, new smartphone subscribers; Goodbye, Cricket prepaid customers

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:40:36 +0000

AT&T’s second-quarter earnings report was a tale of two carriers. On the one hand, AT&T had a record spring quarter when it came to its core postpaid business, adding 1 million net new customers. But in its prepaid business, AT&T lost 405,000 subscribers, all casualties of AT&T’s acquisition of Leap Wireless.

Could health apps save your life? That depends on the FDA

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:38:40 +0000

The next wave of biometric devices and apps might go further, measuring things like real-time blood pressure, blood glucose, and oxygen levels. The Food and Drug Administration’s final guidance focuses on a small subset of mobile apps that present a greater risk to patients if they do not work as intended.

No human has ever been to Mars. But NASA wants to put commercial satellites there.

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:37:43 +0000

NASA is investigating ways to put commercial satellites into the planet's orbit. A network of privately funded satellite relays could take advantage of next-generation, laser-based data links capable of sending information back to Earth hundreds of times faster than the typical American broadband connection.

FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel: Telecom mergers the result of online competition

Rebecca — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:58:00 +0000

Mergers in the communications space are a reaction to increasing competition from online and other video providers, according to Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.