| News of the movement for March 9, 2011 |
![]() Internet Regulation Focus of Key Congressional Hearing Many of the major telecom companies already have near-monopolies in some regions of the country, and critics claim they will become the dominant media giants of the digital age. Advocates of Net Neutrality are concerned that, without it, smaller players and websites for grassroots causes will be priced out of access or will be available at only cripplingly slow speeds with potentially serious commercial and political consequences.
Bartholomew Sullivan, Memphis Commercial Appeal Republicans Pan FCC Reasons for Net Neutrality Rules A day before House lawmakers put controversial Net Neutrality rules under scrutiny, leading Republican lawmakers said the chairman of the FCC hasn't convinced them that the reasons behind the rules were good enough.
Cecilia Kang, Washington Post House Resolution Against Net Neutrality a 'Solution in Search of a Problem' Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Turner's testimony is part of a hearing on a "resolution of disapproval" that seeks to overturn the Network Neutrality rules adopted by the FCC in December. Turner plans to criticize the resolution, calling it a "solution in search of a problem."
Free Press Genachowski: Market Analysis Was Integral to New Net Neutrality Rules In response to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC conducted economic analysis on Net Neutrality rules and said he is keeping the Title II docket open because it is "an open, public process" launched less than a year ago.
John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Tech Debate: Net Neutrality, Needed or Not? Network Neutrality regulation is necessary, proponents say, to ensure that ISPs treat all traffic in a neutral fashion and don't try to enrich themselves by meddling with the bits. Poppycock, naysayers respond. Service providers have always behaved and there is no reason to introduce regulations that could slow down this critical engine of commerce.
M. Chris Riley and Scott Cleland, Network World Comcast, Zoom Settle Modem Feud Last November, hardware vendor Zoom Telephonics brought out the Network Neutrality wolf cries, insisting that Comcast was violating Net Neutrality by making it harder to get their devices certified under Comcast's approval process. The companies have now settled the dispute, but haven't released details about the settlement.
Karl Bode, Broadband Reports ![]() Budgets Cut Funds for Fighting Internet Censorship A congressional debate over how best to promote Internet freedom abroad is about to run into budget politics. A little-known provision in both Senate and House stopgap plans would strip the State Department of some of its funding for technology that breaks through Internet censors.
Tony Romm, Politico Facebook Is AOLifying the Internet When an entire generation of computer users first poked our doe-eyed faces onto a young Internet, many of us were greeted with a single, encompassing, monolithic face peering back: the AOL Home Screen. To call it a young Internet isn't even fair -- it was a mature, thriving AOL. It was ubiquitous, it was powerful, it was everything -- and it ended up destroying itself, too flawed by design to last. And someone's trying to rebuild the Death Star.
Sam Biddle, Gizmodo How Many Wireless Networks Can the U.S. Support? What can the U.S. market support, both in terms of carriers and in terms of the amount of spectrum available? The FCC clearly isn't worried about Verizon and AT&T, judging by its wireless competition report released last year, but how many more nationwide networks will survive?
Ryan Kim and Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM ![]() Help Change Journalism at NCMR One word can make a world of difference. There is a reason we call our big event the "National Conference for Media Reform," not the "National Conference on Media Reform." This conference is about building the movement for better media and creating real change in our country and our communities. This is not just another conference about the future of journalism; it's the National Conference FOR Media Reform.
Josh Stearns, Free Press NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Resigns NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned, NPR just announced. This follows news that then-NPR fundraiser Ron Schiller (no relation) was videotaped slamming conservatives and questioning whether NPR needs federal funding during a lunch with men posing as members of a Muslim organization (they were working with political activist James O'Keefe on a "sting.")
Mark Memmott, NPR Facing Lawmakers' Fire, NPR Sees New Setback Already under fire from Republicans who want to strip its federal financing, NPR was forced into damage-control mode after the release of a video that showed one of its fund-raising executives repeatedly criticizing Republicans and Tea Party supporters.
Brian Stelter and Elizabeth Jensen, New York Times Would NPR Stations Survive Without Federal Money? Ron Schiller, the executive caught in the hidden-camera sting, says NPR, which gets less than 2 percent of its budget from federal funds, would be "better off." But for rural stations, the figure can be 30 percent or higher.
Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor The Battle for Public Broadcasting Republicans aim to defund NPR and public broadcasting, but at a modest cost this journalism is vital to American democracy.
Amy Goodman, The Guardian Newspapers Hope Readers Will Throw Money over the Wall As the financial screws continue to tighten on traditional media companies, more and more are choosing to throw their eggs into the basket labeled "paywall," despite a conspicuous lack of evidence that erecting barriers to non-paying readers -- or turnstiles that charge them after they've read a certain number of articles -- has any beneficial effects. In the long run, these walls are really just sandbags against a rising tide of free content.
The National Conference for Media Reform 2011 promises to be the biggest event in the country that tackles what is arguably the biggest issue in the country: the state of our media. Book your ticket to Boston. Then start planning your own journey through our three-day event. Register now! ![]()
![In Other News...]() Statement by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the Announcement that Josh Silver Will Leave Free Press Josh Silver is one of the founding fathers of Free Press and a formative force in its growth over recent years. Many of the causes it champions are causes for which I also have fought. Due in no small part to the efforts of Josh and the dedicated staff at Free Press, the voices of millions of Americans that would otherwise have gone unheard have been heard here at the FCC and in the halls of Congress.
FCC FTC Pushes Industry to Protect Consumer Privacy Referring to himself as perhaps "the elephant in the room," David Vladeck, director of the bureau of consumer protection, Federal Trade Commission, addressed what has been on many marketing and media agency executives' minds of late: Consumer privacy.
MediaPost Patent Reform Passes Senate; Bill Headed to House The Senate passed a bill that would significantly reform the U.S. patent system for the first time in nearly 60 years. The bill will now go to the House for consideration. One of the largest changes the bill would institute if it becomes law is switching the U.S. from a First-to-Invent system to a First-to-File system.
BroadbandBreakfast.com Warner Tests Renting Film on Facebook for Web Cash Warner Brothers became the first major media company to offer a movie for rent on Facebook, a move that could position the social network to become a force in the digital distribution of movies, rivaling services like Netflix and iTunes.
New York Times AT&T to More Sluggish Verizon: Can You Hear Me Now? We wondered if this would be true: An investigation into Verizon's iPhone data performance reveals a sad reality. Get used to waiting, iPhone lovers. No network, it seems can sufficiently handle the red-hot Apple product properly.
Fast Company Modern Divorce: Wiretapped Teddy Bears, $120,000 in Fines Digital recording tools are so cheap and simple to use that it's easy to deploy them without thinking through the consequences. A Nebraska mother and grandfather found this out the hard way last month when they were hit with a combined $120,000 penalty for wiretapping after sticking an audio recorder inside a young girl's favorite teddy bear.
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