March 4, 2009 (Genachowski nominated to be FCC Chair)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY MARCH 4, 2009

Still following news of the presidential Transition closely? See http://www.benton.org/headlines/transition_2008-09

THE TRANSITION
President Obama Nominates Julius Genachowski to be Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Picks for Key Government Posts Play Long Waiting Game

THE ECONOMY
   Estimated Economic Effects of the Recently Enacted Stimulus Legislation
   Computer Viruses and Other Malicious Software: A Threat to the Internet Economy
   Marketing execs bullish about M&A
   US economy again dominated the headlines

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   On Broadband Issues, Lobbying Expenditures Jumped at Year's End
   Is San Francisco Underserved?
   Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road [Video]
   "Smart grid" draft standards seen available by summer
   BT promised 'no regulatory barriers' on super-fast broadband

DIGITAL CONTENT
   Is John Conyers Shilling for Special Interests?
   The Authors Guild's attack on the Kindle 2
   Amazon to Sell E-Books for Apple Devices
   A Google Search of a Distinctly Retro Kind

PRIVACY
Bill takes aim at anonymous hot spots, like coffee shops
Parliamentarian Provides Privacy Update

TELEVISION
   Agenda for March 5 FCC Meeting
   FCC Suspends Digital TV Countdown Clock
   Cable Companies Target Commercials to Audience

QUICKLY -- NPR's Schiller says nonprofit model not for NYTimes; Funding the Nascent Field of Youth Media; Will relaxation of local media ownership save newspapers?; USAC Quarterly report to the FCC; IBM looks to secure Internet banking with USB stick; In Baltimore, No One Left to Press the Police; Updated: FCC Issues NOI On Content-Control Technologies

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THE TRANSITION

PRESIDENT OBAMA NOMINATES JULIUS GENACHOWSKI TO BE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
[SOURCE: The White House]
President Barack Obama nominated Julius Genachowski to be Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski is a technology executive and entrepreneur with strong experience in both the private sector and public service. He is Cofounder and Managing Director of LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, and a Special Advisor at General Atlantic. He was a senior executive for eight years at IAC/InterActiveCorp, where his positions included Chief of Business Operations and General Counsel. In government, Genachowski served at the Federal Communications Commission as Chief Counsel to Chairman Reed Hundt, and earlier as Special Counsel to FCC General Counsel (later Chairman) William Kennard. [more at the url below]
http://benton.org/node/22830
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PICKS FOR KEY GOVERNMENT POSTS PLAY LONG WAITING GAME
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Michael Shear, Philip Rucker]
An intensified vetting process has left dozens of President Obama's picks to run the government mired in a seemingly endless confirmation limbo, frustrated and cut off from the departments they are waiting to serve and unable to perform their new duties. In the month since $146,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties forced former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) to withdraw as the nominee to become secretary of health and human services, other appointees say an army of investigators from the White House, the FBI and the Senate has descended on them, demanding years-old receipts from business trips, examining minor charitable contributions, digging through 20 years of their associations, and leading them to hire accountants to field a web of complex tax questions. Some nominees have been allowed to work in related jobs at the departments as they await confirmation. They are not permitted to speak publicly on behalf of the administration and are required to avoid using the offices they hope to get. Others are simply told to wait at home until their nominations clear the Senate.
http://benton.org/node/22829
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THE ECONOMY

ESTIMATED ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE RECENTLY ENACTED STIMULUS LEGISLATION
[SOURCE: Congressional Budget Office, AUTHOR: CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf]
The Congressional Budget Office released a year-by-year estimate of the economic effects of the American Recovery and reinvestment Act. The CBO estimates that the law will raise gross domestic product (GDP) and increase employment in the short run -- by adding to aggregate demand and boosting the utilization of labor and capital. However, the CBO thinks the law will reduce output slightly in the long run because the resulting increase in government debt will tend to "crowd out" private investment and thereby reduce the stock of productive private capital. That crowding-out effect will be diminished to the extent that some of the funding in the legislation will go for activities that could add to the nation's long-term output.
http://benton.org/node/22822
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COMPUTER VIRUSES AND OTHER MALICIOUS SOFTWARE: A THREAT TO THE INTERNET ECONOMY
[SOURCE: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, AUTHOR: ]
Spurred by the prevalance of always-on, high-speed connections, the Internet has become a powerful tool for enhancing innovation and productivity. The increasing dependence on the Internet and other communication networks, however, means the Internet has also become a popular and efficient way to spread computer viruses and other types of malicious software (malware). "Viruses", "worms" and "zombies" might sound like science fiction, but they are in fact the reality presented by the spread of malware. The power and threat of malware are that it can infiltrate, manipulate or damage individual computers, as well as entire electronic information networks, without users knowing anything is amiss. All of this has brought the electronic world to an important juncture. Malware attacks are increasing in both frequency and sophistication, thus posing a serious threat to the Internet economy and to national security. Concurrently, efforts to fight malware are not up to the task of addressing this growing global threat; malware response and mitigation efforts are essentially fragmented, local and mainly reactive.
http://benton.org/node/22814
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MARKETING EXECS BULLISH ABOUT M&A
[SOURCE: TheDeal.com, AUTHOR: Richard Morgan]
Executives in marketing communications are no more optimistic about the economy than their peers in other sectors. But they're decidedly bullish, still, about doing deals. Six out of 10, in fact, expect to be involved in M&A this year. And that represents only a modest decline from the 67% who anticipated being a buyer or a seller a year ago, according to a report from boutique advisory firm AdMedia Partners. The finding represents a consensus of 3,700 advertising, marketing services and online marketing executives, as well as select financial sponsors, recently interviewed by AdMedia Partners. These same respondents expect a 5% decline in total advertising spend, compared with a 5% increase in interactive advertising spend. They also foresee 5% growth for their own businesses.
http://benton.org/node/22813
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US ECONOMY AGAIN DOMINATES THE HEADLINES
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
Driven primarily by the Obama budget and concerns over the nation's red ink, the economic crisis was easily the top story from February 23-March 1, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. It filled 38% of the newshole, compared with 39 % the previous week. But that is only a partial indicator of the dominance of economic news last week. The second biggest story (10% of newshole), was Obama's Feb. 24 speech—delivered to Congress but aimed at living rooms—intended to strike a balance between reassurance and urgency about the country's economic stability. Coverage of the failing U.S. auto industry accounted for another 2%. Some of the media's attention to the mechanics of the new Administration last week also included an analysis of Obama's ambitious efforts at domestic restructuring.
http://benton.org/node/22806
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

ON BROADBAND ISSUES, LOBBYING EXPENDITURES JUMPED AT YEAR'S END
[SOURCE: BroadbandCensus.com, AUTHOR: Andrew Feinberg]
Lobby disclosure reports for the months of October, November and December 2008 revealed that six entities spent a combined $8.2 million on seeking influence before both houses of Congress as well as executive branch agencies on broadband-related items, including lobbying contacts at the Federal Communications Commission, National Telecommunications Information Administration of the Commerce Department, and the Rural Utilities Service of the Agriculture Department. For example, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association spent $4.4 million lobbying Congress and executive branch agencies on the subject of "broadband" during the last quarter of 2008, more than twice as much as the U.S. Telecom Association spent lobbying during the same period. The reports, which are available at the web site of the Senate Office of Public Records, don't show how much an entity spent lobbying on individual bills or issues. But a search for "broadband" in the fourth quarter lobbying disclosure database, narrowed against the NTIA, revealed a rise in lobbying expenditures from $5.2 million in the third quarter to $8.2 million in the fourth quarter, or a $3 million jump. That rise came even with one fewer entity lobbying on broadband-related bills and issues. Lobbying disclosures report for the first quarter of 2009 are due on April 15.
http://benton.org/node/22825
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IS SAN FRANCISCO UNDERSERVED?
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Is San Francisco going to be getting any broadband stimulus dollars? Isn't that area supposed to be the hotbed of development for broadband applications? Apparently the fastest upload speeds SF residents can get from their cable provider on a standalone Internet package is 384Kbps. They can get up to 768Kbps if they bundle Internet with other services, but if all you want is Internet 384Kbps upstream and 6Mbps downstream is all you can get. 384Kbps is pathetic. Barely enough to do one low quality videocall, and over a pipe that big it'd take hours to upload files of any meaningful size. How is it that a city that's not only a major metropolitan but a hub for application developers could have such crappy connectivity? As we move forward with determining where to spend the broadband stimulus dollars to support underserved areas, let's not assume that that only means the most rural areas and urban poor. Just as we can't afford to leave rural America behind, we can't ignore the plight of cities like San Francisco that while not unserved definitely count as underserved.
http://benton.org/node/22826
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FIVE DAYS ON THE DIGITAL DIRT ROAD
[SOURCE: InternetForEveryone.org, AUTHOR: ]
In North Carolina alone, nearly 5 million residents don't have access to high-speed Internet. According to a July 2007 study, 30 percent or more of the state's population in 21 rural counties did not have high-speed Internet connectivity. In many cases, telephone and cable companies have refused to provide service to people living in the remote and rural areas of the state, while some people are simply priced out of buying expensive broadband service. It's becoming increasingly clear, however, that Internet connectivity is key to a sound economy and could help revitalize local communities hit hard by the economic downturn. North Carolina is the second-largest textile employer and the third-largest apparel employer in the United States, and it has suffered numerous plant closures over the last decade. The state has continued to hemorrhage jobs in the face of our current economic recession, losing 34,900 jobs in December 2008 alone. Over the past year, 120,200 jobs have vanished, and the state's unemployment rate is high at 8.7%.
http://benton.org/node/22824
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"SMART GRID" DRAFT STANDARDS SEEN AVAILABLE BY SUMMER
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Ayesha Rascoe]
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing Tuesday on smart grid initiatives and technologies. Patrick Gallagher, deputy director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told the Committee that initial draft guidelines for the development of "smart grid" technology to modernize electricity transmission across the nation may be available by summer. Gallagher's agency has the primary task of coordinating the adoption of a framework for smart grid devices and systems. Many of the standards will be set by the private sector, but Gallagher said his agency would help coordinate that process. Smart grids utilize computers and sensors at power plants to create more efficient and less costly methods of moving electricity. Revamping the nation's energy grid for the twenty-first century could increase demand for a nationwide broadband network. The economic stimulus package passed by Congress last month provided the Energy Department with $4.5 billion for electricity delivery and energy reliability, but Gallagher and other federal regulators at the hearing said standards should be developed to help guide these investments.
http://benton.org/node/22823
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BT PROMISED 'NO REGULATORY BARRIERS' ON SUPER-FAST BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Computerworld, AUTHOR: Siobhan Chapman]
Ofcom has ruled it will present "no regulatory barriers" to the roll out of super-fast broadband infrastructure. The regulator announced plans to encourage the development of broadband that runs at speeds in excess of 40 megabits per second (Mbps). The ruling will permit BT to progress with an investment of £1.5 billion in the network, giving up to 20 million UK homes access to high-speed Internet. BT's Openreach infrastructure division, along with other telecom providers, will be able to charge ISPs for its super-fast wholesale broadband services in order to recoup the significant investment costs.
http://benton.org/node/22812
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DIGITAL CONTENT

IS JOHN CONYERS SHILLING FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS?
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Lawrence Lessig, Michael Eisen]
[Commentary] Is Rep John Conyers (D-MI) beholden to "Big paper?" Right now, there's a proposal in Congress to forbid the government from requiring scientists who receive taxpayer funds for medical research to publish their findings openly on the Internet. This ban on "open access publishing" (which is currently required) would result in a lot of government-funded research being published exclusively in for-profit journals -- inaccessible to the general public. Why on earth would anyone propose this? A new report by transparency group MAPLight.org shows that sponsors of this bill -- led by Rep. John Conyers -- received twice as much money from the publishing industry as those on the relevant committee who are not sponsors. This is exactly the kind of money-for-influence scheme that constantly happens behind our backs and erodes the public's trust in government.
http://benton.org/node/22815
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THE AUTHORS GUILD'S ATTACK ON THE KINDLE 2
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] Pressure from the Authors Guild was enough to prompt a capitulation from Amazon, which agreed to turn off the text-to-speech capability unless the author and publisher of a title granted permission. It was an unfortunate concession, because the guild is wrong on all counts. Most fundamentally, there is no such thing as "audio rights" in copyright law. Authors and publishers control the rights to create derivative works, such as audio books, but such works need to be "original works of authorship" preserved in a permanent form. The sounds intoned by the Kindle 2 (or any other text-to-speech program) are neither original nor permanent. Copyright holders also control the rights to performances of their works, but only when they're done in public. That's why, regardless of what publishers might claim in their e-book license agreements, you and your gadgets have the right to read e-books aloud to yourself and your family. And as reviews of the Kindle 2 note, the device's text-to-speech feature is best suited for brief excerpts, not entire works.
http://benton.org/node/22821
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AMAZON TO SELL E-BOOKS FOR APPLE DEVICES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Amazon.com will begin selling e-books for reading on Apple's popular iPhone and iPod Touch. Starting Wednesday, owners of these Apple devices can download a free application, Kindle for iPhone and iPod Touch, from Apple's App Store. The software will give them full access to the 240,000 e-books for sale on Amazon.com, which include a majority of best sellers. The move comes a week after Amazon started shipping the updated version of its Kindle reading device. It signals that the company may be more interested in becoming the pre-eminent retailer of e-books than in being the top manufacturer of reading devices.
http://benton.org/node/22820
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A GOOGLE SEARCH OF A DISTINCTLY RETRO KIND
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Noam Cohen]
Google, the online giant, had been sued in federal court by a large group of authors and publishers who claimed that its plan to scan all the books in the world violated their copyrights. As part of the class-action settlement, Google will pay $125 million to create a system under which customers will be charged for reading a copyrighted book, with the copyright holder and Google both taking percentages; copyright holders will also receive a flat fee for the initial scanning, and can opt out of the whole system if they wish. But first they must be found. Since the copyright holders can be anywhere and not necessarily online — given how many books are old or out of print — it became obvious that what was needed was a huge push in that relic of the pre-Internet age: print. So while there is a large direct-mail effort, a dedicated Web site about the settlement in 36 languages (googlebooksettlement.com/r/home) and an online strategy of the kind you would expect from Google, the bulk of the legal notice spending — about $7 million of a total of $8 million — is going to newspapers, magazines, even poetry journals, with at least one ad in each country. These efforts make this among the largest print legal-notice campaigns in history.
http://benton.org/node/22819
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PRIVACY

BILL TAKES AIM AT ANONYMOUS HOT SPOTS, LIKE COFFEE SHOPS
[SOURCE: Computerworld, AUTHOR: Patrick Thibodeau]
The Internet Safety Act, recently introduced by Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep Lamar Smith (R-TX) questions the wisdom of allowing anonymous access to the Internet, and it would require ISPs to log user activity -- and store that information for two years. The bill's two sponsors say the measure is needed to improve the ability to identify sexual predators. It means the local mom-and-pop cafe that serves open, anonymous Wi-Fi access along with coffee and muffins may soon be on the front lines of a war in Congress over privacy. Although the measure focuses on sexual predators, data that is collected and stored could potentially be sought by anyone with a subpoena. It remains unclear, from this legislation, how extensive any data collection would be and whether it would affect, for instance, a home user with an open network. It is the type of legislation that could take regulators and courts years to sort out if it becomes law.
http://benton.org/node/22810
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PARLIAMENTARIAN PROVIDES PRIVACY UPDATE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Winter Casey]
Ignasi Guardans -- a member of the European Parliament and a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs -- expects that President Barack Obama's administration will improve the nation's relationship with the EU on privacy issues: "It may probably be the case that the first changes happen within the U.S. itself, meaning that the respect for data privacy in the fight against terrorism will be much stronger, in general." He added that he believes that the U.S. government "is very much aware that this is just one among the big examples of issues where the 'arrogant' image of the U.S. in the last years can be substantially improved."
http://benton.org/node/22816
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TELEVISION

AGENDA FOR MARCH 5 FCC MEETING
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
Thursday's Federal Communications Commission public meeting will include two panels: the first on FCC and NTIA Reports on the Events of February 17, 2009 and Future Plans and the second on Industry and Consumer Group Reports on the Events of February 17, 2009 and Future Plans. Public interest superstars Gene Kimmelman, Vice President for Federal and International Affairs, Consumers Union; and Mark Lloyd, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund are on the second panel.
http://benton.org/node/22828
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FCC SUSPENDS DIGITAL TV COUNTDOWN CLOCK
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission has decided to waive the requirement that TV stations pulling the plug on analog June 12 begin a 100-day countdown clock starting March 4. The FCC said that since it had sought comment on the 100-day countdown requirement in a comment period that does not end until March 4, and could wind up changing that requirement. It concluded it would be "confusing for viewers to see a 100-day countdown beginning on March 4, only to see a different clock in the event that "we revise the requirement soon thereafter."
http://benton.org/node/22827
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CABLE COMPANIES TARGET COMMERCIALS TO AUDIENCE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
The advertiser's dream of sending a particular commercial to a specific consumer is one step closer to reality as Cablevision Systems plans to announce the largest project yet using targeted advertising on television. Beginning with 500,000 homes in Brooklyn, the Bronx and some New Jersey areas, Cablevision will use its targeting technology to route ads to specific households based on data about income, ethnicity, gender or whether the homeowner has children or pets. The technology requires no hardware or installation in a subscriber's home, so viewers may not realize they are seeing ads different from a neighbor's. But during the same show, a 50-something male may see an ad for, say, high-end speakers from Best Buy, while his neighbors with children may see one for a Best Buy video game.
http://benton.org/node/22818
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NPR'S SCHILLER SAYS NONPROFIT MODEL FOR NYTIMES
[SOURCE: TheDeal.com, AUTHOR: Gerald Magpily]
Talk of major newspapers such as The New York Times turning to a not-for-profit model to solve their financial woes has been tossed around the blogosphere. But Vivian Schiller, the CEO of nonprofit National Public Radio and formally a general manager at NYTimes.com, said in a speech at the National Press Club Monday that most newspapers especially The New York Times would never thrive under the nonprofit model. Why? The difficulty of raising and relying on endowments to operate the nonprofit. Schiller also says that an entity as large as The New Times to operate under a not-for-profit model would need a hefty endowment of at least $5 billion or more per year. And in this economy, that seems like an insurmountable sum.
http://benton.org/node/22817
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FUNDING THE NASCENT FIELD OF YOUTH MEDIA
[SOURCE: YouthMediaReporter, AUTHOR: Tonya Gonzalez]
There needs to be greater dialogue between funders and the field of youth media to enhance mutual understanding of this developing field of practice. Funders must help co-create and better serve the nascent field of youth media, providing practitioners opportunities to define the need of their communities, work collaboratively to establish best practices and more strategically work within their communities. As the field moves forward, we must unify our collective goals, giving youth opportunities to have voice that accurately and deliberately establishes their role as future leaders. We need opportunities for dialogue, outside of the funding model, between foundations and youth media practitioners.
http://benton.org/node/22811
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WILL RELAXATION OF LOCAL MEDIA OWNERSHIP SAVE NEWSPAPERS?
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Maisie McCabe]
The UK's Office of Fair Trading has launched a review into local and regional media ownership rules. But Jonathan Helliwell, media analyst at JPMorgan Cazenove, said any relaxation in the rules will be "insufficient" to turn the local newspaper industry around. He said "the businesses already tend to be local monopolies" and "synergies", or cost savings, gained through consolidation allowed by new rules would be "limited".
http://benton.org/node/22809
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USAC QUARTERLY REPORT TO THE FCC
[SOURCE: Universal Service Administration Company]
The Universal Service Administrative Company has announced that the total projected interstate and international end-user revenue base to be used in determining the contribution factor for Universal Service Support Mechanisms for the second quarter of 2009 is $18,714,716,246.51.
http://benton.org/node/22808
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IBM LOOKS TO SECURE INTERNET BANKING WITH USB STICK
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Jeremy Kirk]
IBM's Zurich research laboratory has developed a USB stick that the company says can ensure safe banking transactions even if a PC is riddled with malware. A prototype of the device, called ZTIC (Zone Trusted Information Channel), is on display for the first time at the Cebit trade show this week. IBM hopes to entice banks into buying it for online banking, which saves banks money on personnel costs but is constantly under siege by hackers.
http://benton.org/node/22807
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IN BALTIMORE, NO ONE LEFT TO PRESS THE POLICE
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: David Simon]
[Commentary] What happens when a lonely reporter tries to exercise Maryland's public information law?
http://benton.org/node/22805
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UPDATED: FCC ISSUES NOI ON CONTENT-CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES
http://www.benton.org/node/22565

March 4, 2009 (Genachowski nominated to be FCC Chair)

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