FCC Chmn. Martin recommends approving the AT&T-BellSouth merger without conditions, sources said Fri. Martin late Thurs. began circulating a proposed order among other commissioners to gain their input on his plan. A source said the chairman wants to schedule the final vote at the FCC’s Oct. 12 open meeting. Martin said last week at an analyst’s conference he would like to see the FCC act on the merger by mid-Oct.
Sen. Bennett (R-Utah) wants to bring back Morning in America -- or at least a Reagan Administration commission at the time derided for diverting DoJ resources. Bennett grilled Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales at a hearing Tues. on why “very little has been done” for 20 years to study mainstream porn consumption and its possible link to child porn. The Senate Banking Committee hearing, on financial institutions’ role in fighting commercial child pornography, featured many members saying “mainstream” and “child porn” in the same breath.
The future of Internet security hangs on pricing and renewal provisions in proposed registry contracts with ICANN, VeriSign officials told reporters in a briefing Mon. ahead of Wed.’s Senate Commerce hearing on ICANN’s future. The registry operator has faced criticism from registrar Network Solutions -- and congressional scrutiny -- over its contract for .com, which would let VeriSign raise wholesale prices up to 7% in 4 of 6 years and includes what critics call a “presumptive” renewal clause (WID Sept 15 p1). But VeriSign disputed the “presumptive” characterization and said every registry needs a long-term incentive -- “expectancy” of renewal -- to invest in infrastructure needed for security.
Evolving information-sharing technologies used by the govt. are leaving some privacy concerns legally uncovered, experts said. “There are a lot of issues not covered by the Privacy Act,” said Maureen Cooney, former DHS chief privacy officer now at Hunton & Williams: “Government employees would like steps to follow.” Cooney spoke a meeting Fri. of NIST’s Information Security & Privacy Advisory Board, which is starting a year-long project to study gaps in the privacy law.
Lifting nationwide cable system ownership caps might not benefit consumers, making the action hard to justify at first glance, said FCC Chmn. Martin. Speaking on a UBS teleconference, he renewed pressure for the industry to sell subscribers individual channels. Further consolidation might not reduce cable rates, which rose over the past decade while prices for other telecom services declined, he said. Many of the comments responded to investors’ questions.
Having hit House Commerce, Judiciary and Small Business committees with competition concerns, opponents of VeriSign’s proposed .com registry contract said they plan to air grievances with the House Homeland Security Committee on a new angle: Cybersecurity. An “expert report” commissioned by prime critic Network Solutions (NS) said ICANN hasn’t ensured “adequate security safeguards” in the .com, .biz, .info and .org top-level domain registry agreements. But VeriSign shot back that the report was “very basic” and more concerned with swaying Congress than improving registry security.
SANTA CLARA, Cal. -- Govt. agencies and big financial companies are weak links in data security, an industry entrepreneur said, dissenting from colleagues who pointed to consumers. Govt. won’t require better security across the board, raising the question of who will, said Steve Gal, co- founder of ID Analytics, on a panel late. Wed. at the Digital ID World conference here. Govts. do little identity verification, he said: “That’s where I think it breaks down,” letting imposters through the door to troll more widely throughout digitized data.
Industry groups this week warned of a major burden for wireless carriers, tower companies, broadband wireless providers and others, if the FAA imposes regulations requiring notice to the agency from anyone modifying a radio transmitter in 13 separate bands, including the increasingly important 2.5 GHz band.
Industry groups this week warned of a major burden for wireless carriers, tower companies, broadband wireless providers and others, if the FAA imposes regulations requiring notice to the agency from anyone modifying a radio transmitter in 13 separate bands, including the increasingly important 2.5 GHz band.
A copyright reform bill circulated by Rep. Smith (R- Tex.) and headed for markup by the House Judiciary Committee today (Wed.) is being met with protest from digital rights activists, consumer electronics interests, satellite radio providers and even RIAA. The bill’s broad aim -- to streamline copyright laws governing digital downloads, webcasts and subscription services - is laudable, groups said. But pieces of the draft said to threaten digital broadcasting aren’t being received well, including parts that could affect the major record labels’ $300 billion lawsuit against XM.