Post Tech

Obama's deputy technology officer McLaughlin: Free speech is net-neutrality foreign policy

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

When President Obama told university students in Shanghai last week that he’s a “big supporter of non-censorship,” it took 27 minutes for one major Chinese portal to delete that part of his speech. After two-and-a-half hours, almost all portals in the nation took out the comments from news coverage. Despite what appeared to be the Chinese government’s clampdown on the controversial issue of online censorship, an explosive exchange about Obama’s support for “open Internet use” surfaced on blogs and on Twitter. “That is the optimistic part of the story,” said Andrew McLaughlin, the nation’s deputy technology officer, recounting the event. In a telecom law conference last Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln law school, McLaughlin and Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, talked about how an open Internet, or so-called net neutrality, underlies free speech on the Web. Without it, censorship can occur. “If it bothers you that

AT&T's top lobbyists tell FCC to punish Google Voice

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0500

CORRECTION: AT&T's Cicconi met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's chief of staff, Edward Lazarus. Genachowski was not in the meeting. It's been a few weeks since Google told the Federal Communcations Commission that its voice application is still blocking calls, just fewer of them. So what does the FCC plan to do? That's what AT&T wants to know and the company sent its top lobbyists to the agency this week to talk to Edward Lazarus, chief of staff to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about the apparent violation of phone calling rules. At the meeting, Cicconi also reiterated several objections from AT&T to an agency proposal for net neutrality rules that would prohibit the discrimination of content over the Web. (Here's a letter submitted to the FCC describing the meeting). Specifically, Cicconi said one portion of the proposed open-Internet rules was too strict. By "imposing a non-discrimination standard that does not

Hollywood tells lawmakers to back U.S. efforts in copyright trade talks

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Hollywood urged key lawmakers Thursday to support trade negotiations that would set rules for policing copyright laws. The Motion Picture Association of America wrote a letter to several lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Va.) and House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, asking them to support the Obama administration's efforts in the trade talks, which are being conducted behind closed doors in Seoul. Other countries participating in the negotiations include the United States, Canada, Japan and South Korea, along with European Union members. In its letter, the MPAA said that new global rules are needed to protect films from Internet piracy. As more people illegally trade content online, the movie studios businesses suffer. "The ability to finance, create and distribute entertainment, and the livelihood of the talented and dedicated men and women who work in our industry are dependent upon our ability to protect the intellectual property

Judge gives preliminary backing to revised Google books settlement

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:05:08 -0500

A federal judge late Thursday granted preliminary approval to a revised settlement between Google and two authors and publishers groups over the Internet giant's effort to create a vast digital library. U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin, of the Southern District of New York, said he will hold a hearing Feb. 18 on the new settlement, which would give Google access to scan and print millions of out-of-print titles protected under copyright. The first settlement reached between the parties in 2008 was criticized by the Justice Department, online commerce competitors, library groups and the Internet Archive. In response to those criticisms, the parties have revised their agreement, but critics say the new deal still falls short of protecting competition among book resellers and doesn't adequately address copyright concerns, particularly over orphan works -- titles whose authors can't be found or are unknown. The Justice Department and the public will have

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AP: Liberty Media's John Malone warns Comcast-NBC marriage could lead to more mega mergers

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:10:32 -0500

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone says Comcast's plan to buy NBC Universalcould prompt competitors to explore their own tie-ups. In an interview with the Associated Press, Malone said a combined Comcast and NBC Universal would have too much market power and would force competitors to "look pretty hard on how they can protect themselves from the kind of market power that that would represent." Malone is chairman of Liberty Media Corp., which controls satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. NBC Universal includes broadcast and cable channels, film studios and theme parks.

Television last frontier of innovation?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:30:00 -0500

In just one year, the hottest cell phones went from the flip Motorola Razor to mobile computers like the iPhone. Lightening-fast innovations are taking place throughout technology, except for one area: the television. That was a concern voiced by officials at the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, who identified a lack of competition and innovation in the television set-top-box market as a key hurdle to the adoption of broadband Internet. In its charge to blanket the country with affordable Internet access, the FCC is looking broadly at problems throughout the communications industry. It's already upsetting telecom and cable companies whose businesses are being scrutinized as it reviews a federal fund for phone service and the potential use of broadcast spectrum for mobile Internet use. Yesterday, they got under the skin of the cable and satellite industries with a critique of their use of set top boxes, which the agency said are

Small cable, online video companies warn of anticompetition in Comcast, NBC merger

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

What worries cable and online video companies most about the expected merger between Comcast and NBC Universal? They say the combined entertainment giant would have too much control over a wide body of content. And it could make it difficult for competitors to offer NBC broadcast and cable shows and Universal movies in the same way Comcast subscribers would receive it. RCN, a smaller cable operator based in Herndon, Va., says a merger between Comcast and NBC Universal would be "bad for competition and therefore bad for consumers." The company said it fears that such an entertainment goliath could hurt smaller cable competitors who already struggle getting good programming to their consumers. Even with federal rules that ensure choice programming held by Comcast is available to competing cable operators, it says Comcast doesn't always do so easily. "The rumored Comcast-NBC Unviersal merger would hugely expand Comcast's control over 'must have'

Reader wants to know Web sites involved in Rockefeller's marketing scam report

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

On Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-W.Va.) report about aggressive online marketing, reader "sbuck" reminds me to keep up my reader-friendly manners. "I know you're a tech/biz blog rather than a consumer one, but the most helpful thing you could do is to post the names of the 450 sites that follow these tactics...Surely Rockefeller has such a list?" Indeed he does. Though not with all 450 sites. Some of them were using those aggressive online marketing practices for such a short time that they weren't listed. But here is a link to exhibits in the report by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that name nearly 90 of the Web sites involved. (Check out exhibits 3-5 for the list.) Some companies on the list have issued statements recently saying they have changed their practices, but we can’t vouch for every Web site named by the committee.

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Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

TechNet Names Rey Ramsey CEO

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:28:54 -0500

TechNet, a bi-partisan political group of top Silicon Valley executives, named Rey Ramsey as its new chief executive. Ramsey, chief executive of nonprofit One Economy, comes to the organization as the high-tech sector show greater interest in issues in Washington. TechNet's members include venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Ramsey will replace Lezlee Wistine, who left TechNet last may to join Personal Care Products Council. "There is a growing importance of technology in our lives, an acknowledgement of what that means on the Hill in terms of legislation," Ramsey said in an interview. "I want to work with members of the organization to create bridges to other sectors --- the public sector, the nonprofit sector like the Urban League, and others who have a vested interest in jobs in their communities and a vested

FCC takes on cable, satellite on television set-top boxes

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:00:28 -0500

The box on top of your television may be holding back broadband. That’s according to the small army of people at the Federal Communications Commission charged with figuring out how to roll out high-speed Internet to every home, make it affordable and get people to subscribe. Here’s why they think the television set-top box is hindering broadband use: there aren’t enough of them to choose from. The majority of users rent their boxes from their cable or satellite provider. And there isn't enough innovation on the limited number of devices they get from their provider, nor are the providers adequately dealing with access to online video, the FCC’s national broadband planning task force said in an agency meeting Wednesday. “The marketplace is searching for better ways to connect the Internet more fully to television sets,” said Bill Lake, the FCC's media bureau chief. The role of the set-top box was

FCC broadband planners to outline hurdles to universal access

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:15:00 -0500

There’s not enough spectrum for mobile broadband. A federal fund for phone service needs to be repurposed to include broadband. Consumers should be told the truth about the Internet access speeds they pay for. These are the problems identified by the Federal Communications Commission as obstacles in its effort to blanket the country with high-speed Internet service. Blair Levin is head of the FCC’s task force charged to come up with solutions before a February deadline. He will discuss those policy-related gaps at an agency meeting Wednesday that's scheduled to start at 10 a.m. But it won’t be easy to solve these issues, which are already being contested by companies who fear that new policies could negatively impact their business plans. "Tomorrow is about saying these are problems we think are most important and by identifying those problems, we in a sense will kick off policy discussions on solutions,"

Rockefeller takes on aggressive online sales tactics, report finds firms misleading consumers

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:49:52 -0500

Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said that millions of online shoppers may be unknowingly signing up for membership clubs that are bilking consumers with mystery fees that show up on their credit card bills. Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released a report from an investigation and is conducting a hearing Tuesday morning (now) on what he says are deceptive practices that have affected more than 30 million Internet shoppers and have raised as much as $1.4 billion in revenue for marketing companies such as Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty. “After six months, this Committee has found that the companies we are investigating have figured out very clever ways to manipulate consumers’ buying habits so they can make a quick buck. American consumers have been complaining for years about these misleading practices and asking for answers -- and rightly so,” said Chairman Rockefeller. “Millions of Americans are

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Competitor raises concerns over Comcast-NBC merger

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Competitors are starting to speak out against Comcast's expected bid to take over NBC Universal. Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen said last week in an earnings conference call with analysts that he is concerned about a mega merger between the nation's largest cable system and television and movie producer NBC Universal. And he said look to Comcast's current practices with content distribution on how a merged Comcast/NBC may act in the future. Ergen said: "Obviously, we would have concerns with anybody who owns programming and ... distribution, particularly if they owned distribution in both broadband and cable. Programming access and broadband neutrality would be important issues there." "We've purchased programming content from Comcast for a long time. We're not treated fairly when it comes to the sports teams in Philadelphia. That ... has always smelled a little bit... So, there always have been some issues there." Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice

Post Tech links

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0500

Post Writer Ashley Halsey's take on teens continuing to text and drive, despite education warning against the practice and more attention on the Hill. We've been following the ACTA copyright negotiations. Check out Rob Pegoraro's take over the weekend.

Companies urge FCC to scrap broadband study that favors open access

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0500

The cable and telecom industries have called for the Federal Communications Commission to scrap a controversial Harvard University study on broadband Internet. At issue is an assertion in the report that nations that adopted open-access policies had greater success rolling out broadband to its residents. The Berkman Center report says: Our most surprising and significant finding is that “open access” policies—unbundling, bitstream access, collocation requirements, wholesaling, and/or functional separation—are almost universally understood as having played a core role in the first generation transition to broadband in most of the high performing countries In comments due Monday to the agency, the operators of those networks including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Cox challenged the report's findings. They also said the main author of the Harvard Berkman Center study is a biased long-time advocate of net neutrality policies. The FCC commissioned the study from Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The agency