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In order to protect itself from piracy, the worldwide recording industry needs a few favors from governments and corporations around the globe, and a major new digital music report (PDF) from the industry's worldwide lobby IFPI lays them out. When placed end-to-end, it's a lengthy list—and its one that comes after a year of surprisingly strong growth for the industry.
The Industry Wishlist:
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Google Inc. held a holiday bash in December on a rooftop overlooking the Capitol, where congressional staffers and other Washington denizens nibbled on minipizzas and received a gift of red Google mittens.
The party wasn't very different from those held by other Washington powerhouses during the holidays. But, as lawmakers soon learned, Internet companies can also wield a tool the others usually can't. Last week, Web users flooded Congress with messages of protest against antipiracy legislation, forcing backers to abandon their bills almost as quickly as they could say "Wikipedia blackout."
The Internet industry has found a rare sweet spot in Washington. With Google in the lead, the companies have begun building a strong traditional lobbying force in Washington. And, to complement that inside game, websites' millions of users have become a powerful outside weight on Congress.
What's more, in a rare Washington double play, the concerns of Internet companies have found a sympathetic ear both in the Democratic White House and among Republican presidential candidates who otherwise can't agree with Barack Obama on anything.
"There is no question that the influence of the Internet community is at its apex," says Leslie Harris, chief executive of the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, which is backed in part by tech companies including Google and Facebook Inc.
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We received an amusing email over the weekend chiding us for never having covered ACTA -- the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Of course, we've actually written 247 articles that mention ACTA (yes, I just counted). It seems that among some folks who just joined the "worry about copyright legislation" bandwagon, they've just discovered ACTA as well. ACTA stories are quickly taking over the SOPA channel on Reddit. I'm happy that more people are coming around to these issues, but they might want to take some time to actually read up on things before they start screaming. For example, someone there put together a White House petition to stop ACTA, without even acknowledging that the US government already signed ACTA back in September.
The petition also ignores the most obvious line of attack for the US's participation: the questions about whether or not ACTA really qualifies as an "executive agreement." Instead, it takes that as granted, ignoring (or, more likely, simply not knowing) that there are serious constitutional questions about the claim that this is an executive agreement -- and that Senator Ron Wyden has already asked the White House to justify the claims that it's an executive agreement, rather than a treaty. Also, it's worth noting that other countries, including the EU, have already claimed that ACTA is a binding treaty, even as the US continues to deny that fact.
Either way, the EU failed to sign at the official signing ceremony (along with Mexico and Switzerland), claiming that it still had to get some legal ducks in a row. A legal review within the EU found that ACTA is terribly vague and wide open to interpretation, such that some of it may violate other directives -- which would be a pretty big problem. But rather than fix anything, it appears the EU (under great pressure from the US) is looking to go ahead with ACTA. We noted last month that an EU Council took a step forward in supporting ACTA, but did so by hiding it in an unrelated agriculture and fisheries meeting.
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Intel’s wireless ambitions go beyond smartphones and tablets. It’s set its sights on the guts of the mobile network as well. By embracing a new network design concept called Cloud-RAN, Intel believes it can reshape wireless networks from highly-specialized architectures into more generic computing platforms that run over its off-the-shelf silicon. And in the world’s largest operator, China Mobile, Intel sees the opportunity to make that vision happen.
China Mobile has a massive network of 700,000 GSM and 220,000 3G base stations built into towers throughout China’s vast landscape. The base station is easily the most expensive element of the wireless network, and as China Mobile looks to the next wave of wireless technology, LTE, it doesn’t want to repeat that enormous infrastructure investment by installing pricey hardware at the bottom of every tower. Instead, it’s looking for Intel’s help to move all of that network intelligence into the cloud, leaving only the radios and antennas at the cell site.
The Cloud-Radio Access Network (Cloud-RAN) isn’t the public cloud of Amazon Web Services. Rather it’s a private cloud run by each operator in local data centers, but the principle is the same. China Mobile could centralize an enormous number of now-distributed computing resources. That would not only save capital and operating costs, but it would also allow it to webscale the network’s biggest number-crunching requirement – converting the analog fuzz scooped out of the airwaves into digital ones and zeros the network can understand.
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Frontier Communications’ DSL service to some residents in Sardinia, Ohio has been progressively slowing down to the point Speedtest.net rated one man’s connection an “F-Minus.”
Larry Meeker’s broadband service from Frontier achieved speeds of just 190kbps — about four as fast as traditional dial-up Internet service. Upload speeds reached just 1kbps. When Meeker called Frontier Communications to complain about the lousy broadband speeds, he reports Frontier didn’t seem in any hurry to improve his service.
WKRC-TV TroubleShooter Howard Ain reports Frontier had done little for Meeker initially, saying “it will cost a lot of money for the company to upgrade” the broadband facilities in inherited from an acquisition from Verizon Communications.
Frontier changed its mind when Ain indicated the company’s broadband woes were about to be a feature item on WKRC’s 6pm local news. Meeker also told the station he was preparing to file a complaint with Ohio’s public utility regulator. Just a few days before the report aired, Frontier called Meeker to tell him improved service was on the way.
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For more than a year, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have argued that existing laws were insufficient to deal with the problem of "rogue sites" hosted overseas. They've been pushing bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act as essential weapons in the fight.
But evidently, American law enforcement didn't get the memo that they were powerless against overseas file-sharing services. The day after the Internet's historic protest of SOPA and PIPA last week, the United States government unsealed an indictment against the people behind Megaupload, one of the largest sites on the Internet. Four senior Megaupload officials were arrested in New Zealand on Thursday, and officials seized millions of dollars in assets.
As we reported Thursday, the FBI worked with authorities from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the UK, and the Phillipines to catch the defendants and seize their assets. Law enforcement officials froze accounts at banks based in Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Phillipines, and Germany. The feds also seized numerous servers, cars, pieces of artwork, televisions, and other assets. The list of seized assets in the indictment was six pages long.
So if the US government already has the power to arrest people and seize assets in places as far away as Germany, New Zealand, and the Philippines, are the new enforcement powers sought by content companies even necessary? We posed that question to two people on opposite sides of the SOPA debate. Cara Duckworth is a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America. And Julian Sanchez is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and an occasional contributor to Ars Technica.
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Comcast tried hard to become a mobile operator, but it failed to find a way to make the business work — at least that’s what Comcast EVP of public policy David Cohen claimed in a fascinating blog post last week describing why it and its cable buddies decided to sell their spectrum and shack up with competitor Verizon Wireless. That admission is a surprising one to say the least, and if Comcast is being forthright it also raises some troubling questions about the state of the U.S. wireless industry. If a company with a $71 billion market cap and deep roots in the telecom service provider business can’t make a go of the wireless business, what hope is there for any newcomer?
Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks joined together as SpecrtumCo in 2006 to bid on and win licenses in the AWS spectrum auction, but according to Cohen, the venture couldn’t make the math work when it came to actually launching a commercial mobile service. SpectrumCo spent $20 million in prepping its frequencies for launch; tested equipment from Qualcomm, Nokia and Samsung; and explored multiple network technologies ranging from WiMAX and LTE to CDMA’s now long dead 4G standard. The group struck up a partnership with Sprint to share network costs and capacity, and it even invested $1.65 billion in Clearwire to gain access to its WiMAX network.
Despite all of those efforts, Cohen wrote, Comcast couldn’t make wireless work:
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Throughout history, economic development has always followed, or been driven by, infrastructure. Train tracks, interstate highways and airline routes have all been instrumental in bringing economic progress to various parts of the world.
In today's global, information-driven economy, high-speed Internet access may be the most important piece of infrastructure. That's why Governor Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Murray have made it a priority to bring broadband to North Central and Western Massachusetts.
Working with local advocates and technical experts, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative developed the MassBroadband 123 fiber-optic network to expand broadband access to more than 120 communities in those parts of the state. The network will provide the necessary broadband infrastructure to attract and support job-creating, private economic investment and allow local governments and institutions to deliver services more efficiently.
This effort is being led by the collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute. Through the leadership of the administration, the Legislature and the state congressional delegation, we were able to secure $45.4 million in federal stimulus funding to build the network.
One of the things I hear from businesses across the state is the need to be more competitive. By expanding broadband coverage, companies and institutions will be better positioned to succeed in a rapidly growing global market. MassBroadband 123 will extend connectivity to 335,000 households and 44,000 businesses, creating new economic development opportunities and supporting job growth. The network will also provide direct fiber connections to more than 1,000 schools, libraries, public safety and medical facilities.
There is enormous enthusiasm for the project within the business community, as well as the broadband service providers we expect will invest in the network and generate new growth. Our private sector partner and network operator, Axia NGNetworks USA, is committed to investing $35 million to $45 million to operate and expand MassBroadband 123, which will allow any broadband service provider to connect and offer its services. This model will increase the affordability of high-speed Internet to residents and businesses and spur innovation.
We’ve made a point of involving local companies to help us advance the network. Lightower Fiber Networks in Boxborough is providing long-term access to fiber-optic cable that will connect the network to the major Internet connection point in Boston, while a portion of the project’s fiber-optic equipment is being purchased from Century Fiberoptics, a Holliston manufacturing company. Forming this kind of public-private partnership and making strategic investments are key components of Governor Patrick’s plan to extend broadband and stimulate growth.
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The Australian Attorney General’s (AG) office has said that our government are not considering any similar legislation in relation to the current SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and watered down counter act PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) Bill which is to be voted on in the US next week.
In case you’re not up-to-date with this issue, I can tell you that the Bill fundamentally represents a form of legislation that could be introduced in the United States shortly to combat the infringement of copyrighted material (piracy).
Why would this Bill be a bad thing if its to counteract illegal Internet proceedings?
The force behind the push of this Bill are a handful of powerful multimedia companies (namely movie studios and record companies) who say they losing commercial revenue because of the lack of adequate online piracy laws. However many believe if a law that these companies wanted to see legislated was introduced, it could have monolithic consequences.
Those against the Bill are concerned that legislation of this nature would unleash widespread and unaccountable censorship involving non US websites that would block websites at the domain level and that it would greatly interfere with the domain name system (DNS) – the core of the Internet. More importantly, the believe this law could contain measures that would impede online freedom of speech, websites, and internet communities. There is also the argument that suggests a lack of inadequate safeguards mechanisms would not be effectuvely put in place to protect websites and user generated content.
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This week we are happy to announce a new feature of the National Broadband Map that will make it easier to use on your mobile device. This new feature allows anyone on the go to more easily search broadband availability, summarize and rank data, and view a map of community anchor institutions — all optimized for their mobile device.
The mobile browser version of the National Broadband Map is designed to provide a clean, intuitive experience on the screen size of a smartphone. Users swipe across panels of information and can always access additional information by sliding the footer panel up. A convenient sharing panel is also available at the top of each page.
Users are now able to search for local broadband data with their smart phones’ GPS capabilities, if available. Traditional search is also supported, and the results are presented in a new format for mobile devices: in search results, just tap on a broadband provider to see further details and to access our crowdsource voting links.
The Community Anchor Institutions map is the first map we are deploying for a mobile environment. Tap “Search” to enter an address and find the 25 closest facilities. The map will zoom to the request location, and each point will offer information about the facility and any known broadband service details. Watch for additional maps to be included in the future.
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The ominous developments that Abdel Fattah warned about are on display in Washington today in the battle over two anti-piracy bills. This fight is just the latest example of how difficult it is for even an established democracy to protect both intellectual property and intellectual freedom on the Internet — all while keeping people safe, too. It is a challenge that Congress has historically failed to meet.
But Washington is waking up to the new reality: Politics as usual is not compatible with the Internet age, especially when it comes to laws and regulations governing the Web. And the Internet’s key players — along with millions of passionate users who have tended to view Washington as disconnected from their lives — are realizing that they can’t ignore what happens on Capitol Hill. Both sides must now face the long-simmering culture clash between Washington and the Internet, with implications that go far beyond a temporary Wikipedia blackout.
Washington targets isolated, static problems.
On the Web, everything is connected and changing quickly.
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IBM can help build a smarter city by using a smart grid and smart sensors for sustainable water conservation.
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Like any municipality, the City of Sterling Heights, MI oversees a mountain of data — everything from municipal records to system backups. As the amount of data increases, the challenges and expense of data storage do too.
The city is addressing these challenges by using an AT&T system which allows them to store data in the cloud, and make it available virtually anytime, almost anywhere through an easy to use online interface. AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service provides highly secure online virtual data storage, allowing the city to reduce the costs to house, manage and maintain on-site servers.
Recent internet bandwidth upgrades within Sterling Heights made the transfer of data to the cloud possible and with the potential cost savings the city opted to take advantage of this emerging technology.
"Keeping our data safe and secure is a priority for the City of Sterling Heights,” said Steven Deon, the city’s IT manager. “But storing our data on-site and managing day-to-day computing expenses can be challenging. AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service is helping us to better manage and reduce risk, helps us be more adaptable and ultimately saves us money.”
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Hollywood is threatening politicians with one thing they hold very dear: campaign cash.
As anti-piracy legislation stalled in Congress last week, the movie industry's top lobbyist, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, warned Democrats not to count on Hollywood money if they turn their backs on the industry's legislative priority.
Among the biggest recipients of Hollywood money are Californian members of Congress who remain supportive of the controversial anti-piracy bills. Eight Californians in the House of Representatives, as well as Democratic U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, co-sponsored the bills, representing more co-sponsors than from any other state.
Boxer was the top Senate recipient of campaign contributions from the movie production industry over the last six years, picking up nearly $413,000, according to data compiled by MapLight.org and the Center for Responsive Politics.
Democratic Rep. Howard Berman, whose Los Angeles district includes the famed Hollywood sign, is the industry's top beneficiary in the House, picking up $106,500 in the last two years of reported contributions. Berman was an early co-sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act that the Motion Picture Association of America has been pushing.
The movie industry and other supporters maintain that the bills, known as SOPA in the House and PIPA [PDF] in the Senate, are necessary to fight foreign websites that pirate American films and music. Opponents, including tech companies, claim the bills threaten freedom of expression on the Internet.
The debate pits two powerful California industries against each other, but one gives much more political money than the other. In the Senate, for example, MapLight.org found that the entertainment industry gave $14 million in contributions over the last six years, compared with $2 million from Internet interest groups.
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The big Hollywood unions who supported SOPA and PIPA (even as many of their own members disagreed) have finally come out with their own statement on the whole PIPA/SOPA thing, and like the other supporters we've seen, it too, is totally tone deaf to what happened. Rather than recognizing the problems of the bill, it's obnoxious and condescending:
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Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, accused backers of LightSquared's proposed wireless network on Monday of seeking to pressure him into giving up an investigation into the company's plans.
Grassley said comments by Harbinger Capital's Philip Falcone, and another man who claimed to be representing LightSquared, could be interpreted as offering benefits in exchange for the senator's support. Here's the somewhat confusing letter to Falcone, who has helped finance LightSquared,
Grassley has been seeking documents from LightSquared and the Federal Communications Commission about the company's efforts to obtain approval for a nationwide wireless network. Tests show the network could interfere with global positioning systems.
The new accusations may not bode well for two FCC nominees, whose confirmations are being held up by Grassley over the LightSquared spat.
In an e-mail to a Grassley staffer, released by the congressional office, Falcone says he could help make the deal a "win" for Grassley politically. In a separate phone exchange, Todd Ruelle, who apparently works for a separate company, Fine Point Technologies, told a Senate staffer that a call center could be built in Iowa if the deal went through, according to Grassley's letter to Falcone.
"Taken together, these two statements implied an invitation to pull punches in my investigation. I won't be a part of that," Grassley wrote. He asked Falcone to confirm whether Ruelle was working for Harbinger or LightSquared, and if so, what his relationship with the companies is.
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Rep. Marilyn Avila (R-Time Warner Cable), the North Carolina representative fronting for the state’s largest cable company, sure can sing for her supper.
The representative who shilled for North Carolina’s notorious anti-community broadband legislation was the very special invited guest speaker for the cable industry lobbying association annual meeting, held last August in Asheville, according to newly-available lobbying disclosure forms obtained by Stop the Cap!
The North Carolina Cable Telecommunications Association reported they not only picked up Marilyn’s food and bar bill ($290 for the Aug. 6-8 event), they also covered her husband Alex, too. Alex either ate and drank less than Marilyn, or chose cheaper items from the menu, because his food tab came to just $185.50. The cable lobby also picked up the Avila’s $471 hotel bill, and handed Alex another $99 in walking-around money to go and entertain himself during the weekend event. The total bill for the weekend, effectively covered by the state’s cable subscribers: $1,045.50.
That’s a small price to pay to reward a close friend who delivered on most of the cable industry’s wish-list for 2011. Besides, the recent cable rate increases visited on North Carolina cable subscribers will more than cover the expense.
Meanwhile, in a separate disclosure, Stop the Cap! has learned Time Warner Cable covered food and beverage costs for members of the North Carolina General Assembly and their staff who attended the Mardi Gras World celebration in New Orleans, sponsored by corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC lobbies state legislatures for new laws they claim are grassroots-backed, but are in reality the legislative wish-lists of giant corporate interests, including North Carolina’s largest cable company — Time Warner.
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Boston is like many cities and suffers from a lack of cable competition and increasingly-eroded regulatory authority, meaning that local incumbent Comcast can generally overcharge for services as they see fit without competitive or regulatory repercussions. Since a price capping agreement expired three years ago Comcast has raised rates in the city 80%. Last May Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino filed an emergency petition with the FCC seeking authority to regulate the cost of basic cable in Boston for the first time in a decade.
Boston originally was able to regulate basic cable prices until Cablevision in 1997 convinced the FCC that with the arrival of RCN, the sector was so competitive regulatory price supervision wasn't necessary. The FCC deregulated price controls further in 2001. Six months after his request the FCC is still reviewing it, so according to the Boston Globe, with another round of major rate hikes by Comcast, he's trying again:
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Cable overbuilder Knology ( is talking to the city of Springfield, Fla., about acquiring its municipal cable system, which provides some competition for Comcast.
Springfield officials discussed the deal at public meeting earlier this week. Under terms of the proposal, the city would spend about $3.1 million to upgrade the system before transferring ownership to Knology, according to a report in The News Herald in Panama City. Knology would give the city 33 percent of its gross revenue from the cable operation for eight years.
Comcast has sparred with the municipal cable system in the past. In 2009, one of its technicians was accused of disconnecting customers from Springfield Cablevision, and pitching Comcast service to subscribers that complained about outages.
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A new $20.6 million telehealth program utilising the National Broadband Network (NBN) will provide new and innovative in-home telehealth services to older Australians, people living with cancer and those requiring palliative care.
Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, and Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, said the NBN Telehealth Pilot Program would deliver services to patients in NBN rollout areas and provide feedback on how this program and other health care measures can be delivered nationwide.
The speed, ubiquity and bandwidth of the NBN will enhance the reliability of bringing these services to Australians, ultimately transforming the way health care is delivered around the nation.
The existing telehealth program is already proving popular with Australian patients and doctors, making it easier for people to receive care and advice via videoconferencing when and where they need it.
Six months after the Government introduced Medicare rebates for telehealth consultations, uptake has grown steadily with more than 7,000 services provided by over 1,200 clinicians around Australia, mostly to rural and remote areas.
Telehealth is a cost effective, real-time and convenient alternative to the more traditional face-to-face way of providing medical care and advice. It removes many of the barriers, such as distance, time and cost, which prevent patients from accessing timely and appropriate healthcare services.
Over time, the NBN will provide an enhanced nationwide platform that allows homes, doctor surgeries, pharmacies, clinics, aged-care facilities and allied health professionals to connect to affordable, reliable, high-speed and high-capacity broadband.
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When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.
But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.
The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.
Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.
However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.
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Maryland’s business and economic development arm has begun to publish an online database of the financial incentives that the state provides to companies when they promise to create jobs, open new facilities or otherwise contribute to the economy.
The database is one of several Web-based tools that the agency has created of late as it aims to increase transparency, in part because a government watchdog criticized its disclosure practices, said Andrea Vernot, assistant secretary for marketing and communications.
District-based Good Jobs First, a nonpartisan group that pushes for corporate and government accountability, ranked Maryland 18th in the country for its online disclosure of economic development subsidies in a report released in December 2010. Virginia placed 25th in that study and the District shared last place with 13 others.
So earlier this month, the state released the Maryland Finance Tracker, which provides an annually updated list of the monetary perks given to companies. Users can sort the data by year, company location or incentive program.
“They’ve been doing their best to amp up what they can,” said Thomas Cafcas, a research analyst with Good Jobs First. “The database isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a work in progress and they should be lauded for their efforts because it’s certainly come a long way for taxpayer transparency.”
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The Stop Online Privacy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act may be on hiatus, but what’s really at stake are two equally critical values that don’t necessarily have to be in opposition of each other, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski stated in a fireside chat at the Digital Life Designconference in Munich today.
PIPA and SOPA would give the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against foreign websites associated with infringing intellectual property. Following a widespread online protest from prominent web companies, authors of both pieces of legislation have decided that the bills need to be reworked before being put to the House or Senate for vote.
When asked about SOPA, Genachowski narrowly avoided disclosing whether he was pro or anti SOPA, but said that the vital importance of preserving a free and open Internet does not have to be at the odds with legislation that ensures effective mechanisms are in place to enforce intellectual property.
This wishful-thinking viewpoint is in direct contrast to Y Combinator creator Paul Graham’s recent call for the death of Hollywood.
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We’ve always enjoyed the occasional stay in a Mandarin Oriental property (we’re partial to the New York and Las Vegas locations), and now we’ve got one more reasonto do so: there’s wireless Internet in the walls.
The hotel group has contracted Ruckus Wireless to install its Wi-Fi wall switches for all 248 guest rooms in its flagship New York City hotel, citing “explosive demand” for wireless capacity.
The move follows successful installations at sister Mandarin Oriental properties in Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta, Sanya, London and Hong Kong.
As befits a five-star hotel, the Mandarin New York has a history of early tech adoption: it was among the first to deploy a converged IP network, distributed antenna system (to extend wireless signals), IP-based voice, stored and broadcast IP video, and — naturally — plasma displays.
Capacity, coverage, and user density were the big problems at the New York property, said Oscar Gomez, director of information technology at the hotel.
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Enabling the successful integration of renewable energy and the transition to sustainable, reliable, and affordable power systems.
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