The Internet should not be completely free from government interference, the Software and Information Industry Association said in a Monday letter (http://xrl.us/boes3g) to the chairmen and ranking members of the House Subcommittees on Communications and Technology; Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations; and on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade. The letter -- sent before Tuesday’s joint hearing on a bill endorsing Internet freedom from government intervention -- asks recipients to reconsider language in the bill that “might inadvertently appear to endorse the now-discredited view of Internet exceptionalism that exempted the Internet from the reach of traditional territorial governments.” SIIA agrees that the ITU is not the appropriate entity to regulate the Internet and supports multistakeholder models -- such as those at the World Wide Web Consortium or NTIA -- but thinks that “there is an appropriate and context-dependent role for government and regulation of the Internet,” the letter said. The group asked members to revise the bill to include the following language: “It is the policy of the United States to promote a global Internet free from control from non-elected international government entities such as the ITU and to preserve and advance the successful multi-stakeholder model that governs the Internet."
The incidence of consumers who used streaming VOD (SVOD) and free streaming in 2012 was relatively equal, with 12 percent of U.S. TV watchers reporting having streamed TV shows for free from January-December 2012, compared with 14 percent who watched a TV show via SVOD, NPD said in a report. More than half of the viewers for streaming TV are between 18 and 34, indicating “the YouTube generation is evolving from short-form and user-generated content to TV shows,” while at the same time, as with YouTube, SVOD enables them to watch where and when they want, said Russ Crupnick, NPD senior vice president-industry analysis. Contrary to soaring mobile device usage trends, 83 percent of free TV streaming programs are viewed on a computer, Crupnick said. At the top of the list, Hulu accounted for 43 percent of total streams last year, NPD said, followed by CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC and CWTV, which combined accounted for 30 percent of total streams. ABC Family, Comedy Central, MTV and A&E TV rounded out the top 10 streaming sites, it said. The top 10 sites have strong consumer feedback, with 75 percent or more of the sites’ users saying they intend to return to that site in the future, NPD said. Hulu led, with two-thirds of viewers saying would “definitely” return to the site, the report said. The sites typically get good marks from users on convenience and site organization, and most perform well on current release availability. An exception is Fox, NPD said, which rated much lower due to the network’s often-delayed content. “The consumer response to program availability on Fox speaks to the often-controversial question of whether the audience detects shows that are windowed,” Crupnick said. Data in the report were weighted and projected to be representative of the U.S. Internet population aged 13 and older, NPD said.
The co-chairmen of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in a joint news release Monday they plan to reintroduce their Do Not Track Kids Act. The bill, as it was formerly written, aimed to require online companies to obtain parental consent for collection of children’s personal information and prohibit companies from using personal information of children and teens for targeted marketing purposes, among other provisions. “We believe consumers should have notice and give consent before their personal information is collected or shared,” the joint statement said. “Protecting consumer privacy in the mobile environment is crucial, particularly when it comes to children and teens.” The lawmakers would not say exactly when the bill would be reintroduced.
The House Commerce Committee plans hearings and oversight this session on issues related to cybersecurity, privacy and data security, the FCC, the nation’s wired and wireless communications networks, Internet governance and public safety communications, among other issues, it said in an announcement this week. The committee officially plans to adopt its oversight agenda (http://xrl.us/boesep) for the 113th Congress at a business meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Room 2123 Rayburn. The committee’s oversight plan said the nation’s current communications regulatory regime takes a “siloed approach” that may be decades old, and the committee said it will examine whether such regulations should be updated. Commerce members will do FCC oversight to evaluate the impact of the commission’s actions on voice, video, audio and data services, the plan said. The committee will pay “particular attention to whether the FCC conducts cost-benefit and market analyses before imposing regulations,” according to the plan. Oversight of NTIA and RUS’s broadband grants and loans will be done to determine the efficiency of the broadband investments, whether the funds were appropriately targeted, and the impact of the funding on jobs and the economy. The committee will monitor any efforts to replace the multistakeholder model of Internet governance with regulation, the plan said. The committee will determine whether the needs of first responders are being met, evaluate the progress of FirstNet’s development, and determine whether first responders have been allocated adequate spectrum. Commerce will seek to ensure the country is “well protected” from cybersecurity threats while avoiding one-size-fits all approaches that “hinder the flexibility of commercial and governmental actors,” according to the oversight plan.
A proposed NARUC resolution blasting the FCC’s rulemaking procedures advanced out of the telecom subcommittee Sunday, with no objections but about a half dozen abstentions from the subcommittee PUC staff members. The draft resolution came from Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner Jim Cawley (CD Jan 25 p5) and criticized the FCC’s heavy reliance on ex parte filings in its decisions. It’s a “strange kind of resolution and just makes me uncomfortable,” said Universal Service Fund Manager Jeff Richter of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission before the vote. He was among those who abstained. Others pointed to “judgmental” and “pejorative” phrasing when suggesting edits. Telecom Analyst Labros Pilalis of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission countered by asking what other action NARUC would have besides appellate court action. He said the resolution also now has cosponsors: Vice Chair Anne Boyle of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, Chairman Betty Ann Kane of the D.C. Public Service Commission and Commissioner Stephen Bloom of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. The proposed resolution will advance to consideration by first the NARUC telecom committee and then the NARUC board, who then will decide whether to make it official organization policy. “The real deal is done in the ex partes,” said Ray Baum, senior policy adviser to House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., speaking at a Monday panel on the FCC. “Full detail” of these ex parte contacts needs to be revealed, “not some summary,” he added: “We really need to reform that agency.” The congressman’s office will take the proposed NARUC resolution “seriously” and be watching its status, he said. Boyle told the three Hill staffers on that panel Monday to tell their members of Congress that the proposed resolution isn’t a partisan effort. She and two other commissioners behind the resolution, Kane and Cawley, are Democrats, she said.
The FCC should revise its cellphone radio frequency standards to reflect biological studies “proving that non-ionizing radiation breaks the blood brain barrier and damages DNA causing cancer and other deleterious effects,” the California Brain Tumor Association said in a filing at the commission. “Your current standards only take into account thermal heating and this must be changed,” the filing said (http://xrl.us/boesoj). “Most children and teens are heavy users of cell phones and studies prove that their brains and tissues absorb more radiation than that of an adult. Please employ new practices in regard to RF standards as our youth will have a lifetime of exposure. Brain tumors are on the rise in the temporal and frontal lobes; the area to which the phone is held. One recent study showed brain tumors on the rise in 20-29 year olds with just 5 years of use.” CTIA had no comment on the filing.
The FCC International Bureau requested comment on the Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act Monday (http://xrl.us/boesoh). The bureau wants comments “with respect to the impact of privatization on U.S. industry, jobs and industry access to the global marketplace,” it said. The ORBIT Act is aimed at promoting a “fully competitive global market for satellite communications services for the benefit of consumers and providers of satellite services and equipment by fully privatizing Intelsat and Inmarsat,” it said. Comments are due March 4, replies March 18.
The FTC said Friday it voted to extend to Feb. 22 the deadline to submit public comments on the agency’s proposed settlement with Google and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary, at the request of several members of the public. The deadline was originally set for Monday. The settlement, announced in early January, would end the FTC’s investigation into claims that Google employed search engine bias, as well as claims the company pursued -- or threatened to pursue -- injunctions against companies that used Motorola Mobility’s standard-essential patents in their products and were willing to license them on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms. Comments can be submitted in writing or electronically (http://xrl.us/boesn3). Four of the five members of the commission voted in favor of the extension, while Commissioner Joshua Wright continued to recuse himself from cases involving Google, an FTC spokeswoman said. Google has financially supported some of Wright’s academic work.
Wireless carriers like U.S. Cellular play an important role as “a competitive force in the marketplace,” company officials said in a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman and other officials. The meeting was to discuss U.S. Cellular’s push for an interoperability mandate for the lower 700 MHz band, according to an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/boesnt). “We also stressed the importance of our company’s innovative product offerings as well as the strength of our network performance as evidenced by the fact that less than 2 percent of our cell sites in the area impacted by Superstorm Sandy lost power,” the filing said.
The U.S. needs to implement and enforce its commitment to user privacy by focusing on “robust privacy legislation,” consumer and privacy advocates told U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State John Kerry, Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and U.S.-EU Ambassador William Kennard in a letter dated Monday (http://xrl.us/boes3e). Signatories include the ACLU, the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Watchdog, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and U.S. PIRG. Users face the threats of “identity theft, security breaches, government surveillance, and secretive, discriminatory profiling” as their data are “abused by both the commercial sector and governments,” advocates wrote. The line between companies and government entities “is increasingly blurred as personal data passes between both with few restrictions,” the groups said. To combat these threats, the EU is working to “update and modernize their framework for privacy protections,” including considering “Data Protection Regulation and a Directive on Law Enforcement,” which would strengthen protections for user data against governmental access, the letter said: These efforts are met by “an unprecedented lobbying campaign” by the U.S. government and industry members “to limit the protections that European law would provide.” Instead, the U.S. should be making good on its commitment to protect user privacy, as outlined in President Barack Obama’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, advocates said. The principles outlined in Obama’s proposal -- echoed in the EU’s privacy initiatives -- “must be given legal force,” or the document “will become a hollow promise,” the letter said. The advocates suggested that Congress update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to more strongly protect user data from government access, which “would be a good start for the strengthening of US law and policy to bring us into compliance with International Human Rights norms."