3.25 :: Scammers :: Told U So! :: Mixed Blessing :: Yesterday's News :: UR Gonna Get Sued :: 97% :: Cramming :: Fraud ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================

Feds Finally Realize That AT&T Has Been Enabling Scammers To Abuse IP
Fraud... Financed By Taxpayers, Techdirt
We first wrote about IP Relay fraud all the way back in 2004, when it
was pointed out that a huge percentage of calls using this system were
fraudulent, and the telcos were doing nothing to stop it, because they
were profiting at the taxpayer's expense. If you're unfamiliar with
the system, IP Relay has a good intention: to help hearing impaired
people communicate -- allowing them to send text-based messages to
phone numbers, which are then read by operators. In order to fund this
service, the FCC pays telcos an astounding
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120323/02570318219/feds-finally-realize-that-att-has-been-enabling-scammers-to-abuse-ip-fraud-financed-taxpayers.shtml

AMENDMENT OF PART 15 OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES REGARDING UNLICENSED
PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE DEVICES IN THE 1920-1930 MHZ BAND.
Modified Part 15 of the Commission's rules. (Dkt No. 10-97 ), FCC
Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 03/22/2012 by R&O. (FCC No. 12-33). OET
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-33A1.pdf

Ten Million DNS Resolvers on the Internet, ICANN
Resolvers are servers on the Internet which use the Domain Name System
(DNS) protocol [TXT, 120 KB] to retrieve information from
authoritative servers and return answers to end-user applications.
They're often found in enterprise and ISP networks, and there are a
number of public resolver services provided by people like Google and
OpenDNS. It's also possible to configure your own computer to be a
resolver, or to deploy your own in your own network using free
software like ISC BIND9 and NLNet Labs' unbound.
http://blog.icann.org/2012/03/ten-million-dns-resolvers-on-the-internet/

ICANN and the Red Cross: An Exceptional Exception, CircleID
ICANN's policy on the special protection of the Red Cross and the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) names has triggered a very
lively discussion including contributions by Konstantinos Komatis,
Milton Muller, Wolfgang Kleinwächter, and myself (with Avri Doria's
reply).
http://www.circleid.com/posts/icann_and_the_red_cross_an_exceptional_exception/

AT&T Statement on T-Mobile Closing Seven Call Centers, AT&T
Yesterday, T-Mobile made the sad announcement that it would be closing
seven call centers, laying off thousands of workers, and that more
layoff announcements may follow. Normally, we'd not comment on
something like this. But I feel this is an exception for one big
reason– only a few months ago AT&T promised to preserve these very
same call centers and jobs if our merger was approved. We also
predicted that if the merger failed, T-Mobile would be forced into
major layoffs.
http://attpublicpolicy.com/wireless/att-statement-on-t-mobile-closing-seven-call-centers/

The newspaper industry must change, or become yesterday's news, CW
Mobile technology and the Internet are transforming news. Whether
newspapers are involved is up to them, writes columnist Mike Elgan.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/uConbmcDph8/The_newspaper_industry_must_change_or_become_yesterday_s_news

Rob Frieden, The Mixed Blessing of a Deregulatory Endpoint for the
Public Switched Telephone Network, SSRN
Receiving authority to dismantle the wireline public switched
telephone network ("PSTN") will deliver a mixture of financial
benefits and costs to incumbent carriers. Even if these carriers
continue to provide basic telephone services via wireless facilities,
they will benefit from substantial relaxation of common carriage
duties, no longer having to serve as the carrier of last resort and
having the opportunity to decide whether and where to provide service.
On the other hand, incumbent carriers may have underestimated the
substantial financial and marketplace advantages they also will likely
lose in the deregulatory process.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2014116

After Massacre, Army Tried to Delete Accused Shooter From the Internet, Wired
The military waited six days before releasing the name of U.S. Army
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. One of the reasons: to try and erase the
sergeant from the internet.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/politics/~3/EOCi8WE6xDQ/

Another key ISOC-DC Event: Internet Privacy Developments, DC ISOC
Join us for a discussion of these and other developments with a panel
of top privacy experts:
http://www.isoc-dc.org/2012/03/another-key-isoc-dc-event-internet-privacy-developments/

Facebook to employers: Legal trouble if you ask for job-seeker passwords, Globe
Social giant's chief privacy officer cautions on privacy, concerns
over discrimination
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-Technology/~3/47hRipW_quM/

Senator Wants To Make It Illegal For Employers To Ask For Your
Facebook Password, Forbes
In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government
agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social
networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a
look around.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/22/senator-wants-to-make-it-illegal-for-employers-to-ask-for-your-facebook-password/

Employers Demanding Facebook Passwords Aren't Making Any Friends, Forbes
Should employers be able to access your Facebook page as a condition
of employment?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/03/22/employers-demanding-facebook-passwords-arent-making-any-friends/

Facebook: Ask employees for passwords, get sued, CNN
Facebook has weighed in on a practice by some businesses asking
employees or job applicants for their passwords to the popular
social-media site.
http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_tech/~3/7gVZAjZROa8/index.html

Most (97%) 2011 cyberattacks were avoidable, Verizon says, CW
Despite rising concern that cyberattacks are becoming increasingly
sophisticated, hackers used relatively simple methods in more than 95%
of data breaches in 2011, according to a report compiled by Verizon.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/ACqn7vTD8BA/Most_97_2011_cyberattacks_were_avoidable_Verizon_says

Federal Departments and Agencies focus Cybersecurity Activity on three
Administration Priorities, White House
As I was flying back from a cybersecurity conference in San Francisco
several weeks ago, I reflected on the wide range of technology and
talent we have working to build up our cyber security – and the
challenge of knowing which will be most effective when dealing with
advanced adversaries, especially in a limited budget environment.
Federal Departments and Agencies need to focus their cybersecurity
activity on a few of the most effective controls. This is why my
office, in coordination with many other Federal cybersecurity experts
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/23/federal-departments-and-agencies-focus-cybersecurity-activity-three-administration-p

GPS ruling is "hard" on the FBI—and that's a feature, not a bug, Ars Technica
National Public Radio reports that the FBI is still complaining about
January's Supreme Court ruling that installing a GPS tracking device
on a suspect's car without the owner's knowledge requires a warrant
under the Fourth Amendment. The FBI said last month that it was forced
to turn 3000 GPS devices off when the Supreme Court handed down its
decision.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/gps-ruling-is-hard-on-the-fbiand-thats-a-feature-not-a-bug.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

DOJ Signs New Rules To Let Intelligence Officials Access, Store And
Search More Info About US Citizens, Techdirt
Remember earlier this week when the NSA's boss Keith Alexander tried
to shoot down reports that it was storing and datamining all sorts of
communications info about Americans (despite a mandate that says the
NSA can't spy on Americans?). Yeah. So then there's this news:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120322/16372918216/doj-signs-new-rules-to-let-intelligence-officials-access-store-search-more-info-about-us-citizens.shtml

FBI Turns Back On 2,750 Of The 3,000 GPS Devices It Turned Off For
Lack Of A Warrant, Techdirt
In January, we wrote about the Supreme Court's somewhat surprising
ruling on GPS monitoring by law enforcement, in which it suggested
(but didn't fully say) that putting a GPS device on a car might need a
warrant -- a pretty easy process that the FBI just didn't want to go
through. Following this, we noted a report saying that the FBI
scrambled to turn off 3,000 such devices that had been placed without
a warrant
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120323/03114118220/fbi-turns-back-2750-3000-gps-devices-it-turned-off-lack-warrant.shtml

Mary Leary, The Missed Opportunity of United States v. Jones -
Commercial Erosion of Fourth Amendment Protection in a Post - Google
Earth World, SSRN
Today, those concerns have come to bear, but not in the way Amsterdam
or the Court predicted, and the Court has failed to respond .
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2025485

ISPs commit to new cybersecurity measures, CW
A group of U.S. Internet service providers, including the four
largest, have committed to taking new steps to combat three major
cybersecurity threats, based on recommendations from a U.S. Federal
Communications Commission advisory committee.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/XPmnt_uyezs/ISPs_commit_to_new_cybersecurity_measures

FCC Announces Voluntary CyberSecurity Program - Urges ISPs to Follow
Comcast's Lead on Botnets DNS Security, DSLReports
Last month FCC boss Julius Genachowski gave a speech in which he urged
ISPs to beef up their security practices, citing Comcast and
CenturyLink as two companies that did things right in regards to
handling botnets and other menaces. Yesterday Genachowski took things
one step further by announcing a new voluntary Cybersecurity program
that urges ISPs to shore up security measures versus botnets, attacks
on the Domain Name System (DNS), and Internet route hijacking.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/FCC-Announces-Voluntary-CyberSecurity-Program-118952

Comcast Applauds Work of the FCC's CSRIC on Online Security and Safety, Comcast
The online security and safety of our customers is a priority. For
Comcast's Xfinity Internet customers, Constant Guard™ provides the
tools to prevent, detect, respond to and manage security threats. To
be effective in this fight, we need cooperation across the entire
Internet ecosystem. That's why Comcast is an active participant on the
advisory committee created by the FCC — the Communications Security,
Reliability, and Interoperability Council, known as CSRIC — bringing
together industry participants to share ideas,
http://blog.comcast.com/2012/03/comcast-applauds-work-of-the-fccs-csric-on-online-security-and-safety.html

Cybersecurity and the FCC's CSRIC Recommendations, AT&T
Today, the FCC's Communications Security, Reliability and
Interoperability Council (CSRIC) issued their recommendations to the
FCC on several issues related to cybersecurity including: DNSSEC
implementation practices for ISPs; secure Border Gateway Protocol
(BGP) deployment; and botnet remediation. As we noted a few weeks
ago, keeping the Internet safe for consumers to browse, transact
business and communicate is an important objective not only for AT&T
but any other business that operates online.
http://attpublicpolicy.com/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-and-the-fccs-csric-recommendations/

FCC Releases New U.S. Anti-Bot Code, CircleID
The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) joined a unanimous vote at the Federal
Communications Commission's (FCC) Communications Security, Reliability
and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) meeting today, approving the
voluntary U.S. Anti-Bot Code of Conduct for Internet Service Providers
(ISPs), also known as the ABCs for ISPs. As a member of the CSRIC
appointed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the OTA has been working
with the FCC and leading ISPs to develop this voluntary Code.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20120223_fcc_releases_new_us_anti_bot_code/

FACT SHEET: FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES
RECOMMENDATIONS TO COMBAT THREE MAJOR CYBERSECURITY THREATS: BOTNET
ATTACKS, DOMAIN NAME FRAUD AND IP ROUTE HIJACKING. News Release
OCHJG PSHSB, FCC
Fact Sheet
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-313159A1.pdf

AT&T Tied to Nigerian Scam, WSJ
A Justice Department lawsuit alleges AT&T improperly sought FCC
reimbursement for hearing-impaired services it provided to scammers
from Nigeria
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304636404577297454154404874.html?mod=rss_Technology

AT&T collected millions from taxpayers in fraudulent charges, US says,
Ars Technica
AT&T improperly received millions of dollars from a government
reimbursement fund by ignoring fraudulent use of the IP Relay call
system provided free of charge to hearing- and speech-impaired US
residents, the US government alleged this week.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/att-collected-millions-from-taxpayers-in-fraudulent-charges-us-says.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Cramming Is Back, Media Law Prof
The New York Times' The Haggler takes up the cause of an angry
consumer who found charges for unwanted services on her cellphone
bill. Why, after so many years, and so many complaints, is cramming
still such a problem?
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/media_law_prof_blog/2012/03/cramming-is-back.html

Texting woman splashes into Lake Michigan, CNET
A woman is so engrossed in sending texts that she falls off a pier and
into the chilly waters of the great lake.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/8Piilfw7F3w/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where
they went."-Will Rogers
:: Adopt a Rescue Dog or Cat :: http://www.petfinder.com ::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Website :: www.cybertelecom.org
Blog :: cybertelecom.blogspot.com
Delicious :: http://del.icio.us/rcannon100/zxc
Twitter & Facebook :: Cybertelecom
Google Group :: cybertelecom-l

AUP :: www.cybertelecom.org/cybert.htm#aup
Cybertelecom is Off-the-Record. Otherwise play nicely.

Link to us! www.cybertelecom.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright Office Announces Public Hearings on Possible Exemption to Prohibition of Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies

"The Copyright Office announces public hearings on the possible exemptions to the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. In accordance with the Copyright Act, as amended by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Office is conducting its triennial rulemaking proceeding to determine whether there are particular "classes of works" as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses if they are prohibited from circumventing such technological measures. The first public hearing, confined to demonstrations of technology, will be held in Washington D.C., on Friday, May 11, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. Public hearings will also be conducted in Los Angeles, California, at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 17, 2012, and Friday, May 18, 2012. Additional public hearings will be conducted in Washington, D.C., at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 31, 2012, Friday, June 1, 2012, and Monday, June 4, through Wednesday, June 6, 2012. Requests to testify must be received by 5:00 p.m. eastern daylight time, Monday, April 2, 2012. For further information, see www.copyright.gov/1201/.

March 11, 2012
Hearing in Washington, D.C., on possible exemptions to the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. This hearing will be confined to demonstrations of technology.Due date for reply comments addressing points made in the initial comments on proposed classes of works to be exempted from the prohibition against circumvention.
May 17-18, 2012
Hearing in Los Angeles, California, on possible exemptions to the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.
May 31-June 1 and June 4-June 6, 2012
Hearing in Washington, D.C., on possible exemptions to the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.

3.21 :: Sorry :: The Coming Cyberwar :: "inviting coworkers" :: Tons Sued :: Dangerously Vague :: Struggling With Surveillance :: Never Say Anything ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================
"Guitar music is on the way out." Decca Records, declining to record a new group called The Beatles (1962)

Our National Broadband Plan is a Two-Year-Old Dunce - FCC Ignored Competitive Problems to Focus on Adoption, And Failed, DSLReports
Just about two years ago the FCC introduced our first ever national broadband plan. While designed to appear comprehensive and ambitious, I noted at the time that beyond the chocolate-flavored exterior lay a very hollow project. Completely ignoring their own data on open access and the broadband sector's biggest problem (a lack of competition), the FCC focused on ramping up adoption (read: helping ISPs sell more service). To do this they simply piggybacked on
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Our-National-Broadband-Plan-is-a-TwoYearOld-Dunce-118909

FCC Plans New Rules on Satellite Airwaves, WSJ
Federal telecommunications regulators began deliberations Wednesday on new regulations to open up satellite airwaves for more wireless phone usage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577295580800235556.html?mod=rss_Technology

FCC moves ahead on Dish wireless plan, WAPO
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday took a step forward into turning satellite spectrum held by Dish Network into a terrestrial wireless network, with a notice that it intends to investigate the plan and vote on whether to approve the license.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=7d848d95c39c9ccdb87d6c3d662032e5

Sorry, carriers, 9 out of 10 tablets sold are Wi-Fi, Gigaom
Approximately 90 percent of all tablets in the U.S. relied on Wi-Fi over 3G mobile broadband last year, according to industry analyst Chetan Sharma. In his most recent wireless market update report that summarizes the industry in 2011, Sharma suggests that carriers aren't a needed distribution chain for slates; at least not yet.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/XwRHpWe61L0/

Study: U.S. broadband adoption levels off, CW
Adoption of broadband service in the U.S. has levelled off since 2009, and the U.S. government and the tech and broadband industries will need to work more closely together to drive up subscriber numbers, according to a new study.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/py2aXt34LQg/Study_U.S._broadband_adoption_levels_off

ICANN Confirms That It's Going To Make It Easier For Governments To Seize Domains Around The Globe, Techdirt
This just gets worse and worse. After pointing out that ICANN was missing a big (and important) opportunity by not speaking out against governments seizing domain names, we were disappointed to see ICANN release a white paper that was more of a how-to manual for governments on seizing domains. Now, Paul Keating points us to the depressing news that ICANN is now publicly saying that it will work more closely with governments around the world to help them seize
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120320/17474318177/icann-confirms-that-its-going-to-make-it-easier-governments-to-seize-domains-around-globe.shtml

Public Engagement Through Social Media, White House
On Friday, March 16th, the White House Office of Public Engagement and the General Services Administration brought together over 300 regional community leaders and 13 federal agencies in Columbus, Ohio at the third White House Community Partnership Summit. Joined by Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, attendees shared their thoughts and ideas with Administration officials. The
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/20/public-engagement-through-social-media

Facilitating Internet Freedom in Iran, White House
"From Facebook to Twitter - from cell phones to the Internet - our people use the same tools to talk to one another, and to enrich our lives. Yet increasingly, the Iranian people are denied the basic freedom to access the information
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/20/facilitating-internet-freedom-iran

The Coming Cyberwar With Iran?, VOA
On January 17th, 1991, as the 34-nation coalition of Operation Desert Storm prepared for its first aerial bombardment of targets in Iraq, the U.S. military sprung a surprise.
http://blogs.voanews.com/digital-frontiers/2012/03/20/the-coming-cyberwar-with-iran/

DISH NETWORK LLC v. DiMarco, Dist. Court, D. Nevada 2012, Fed Court
Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their DMCA claims that Defendants' trafficking in the WizHub devices and extended warranty codes violate the statute. Plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed through the loss of subscription fees they would otherwise receive by potential customers who receive encrypted, subscription-based programming for free via those devices.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13078170930670279959

Twitter turns six, Twitter
Six years may not be very long in human terms, but it's been quite an enormous span for the thing we know and love as Twitter. When @jack first sketched out his notion in March 2006, no one could have predicted the trajectory of this new communication tool. Now it seems that there are as many ways to express
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/twitter-turns-six.html

D Constantine, Cloud Computing: The Next Great Technological Innovation, the Death of Online Privacy, Or Both?, GA State U L R
Google Docs1 is a service used by individuals and, in its Google Apps2 form, by businesses and educators.3 Google Docs allows a user to log on to his Google account on any computer and create text documents, spreadsheets, and a variety of other documents while saving everything remotely—allowing that same user to log off one computer, log on to another computer, and continue to work on the same document.
http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol28/iss2/6

Firefox switching to HTTPS Google search by default (and the end of referrer leakage), Do Not Track
A few days ago, Mozilla's developers quietly enabled Google's HTTPS encrypted search as the default search service for the "nightly" developer trunk of the Firefox browser (it will actually use the SPDY protocol). This change should reach regular users at some point in the next few months
http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2012/03/firefox-switching-to-https-google.html

Tons Of Companies Sued In Class Action Lawsuit Over Uploading Phone Addressbooks, Techdirt
There was some controversy a month or so ago, when it came out that app maker Path was secretly uploading your entire address book to its servers. The company apologized and deleted all the data. Of course, pretty quickly, people realized that lots of apps do this, if you allow the app to search your address
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120316/00561518126/tons-companies-sued-class-action-lawsuit-over-uploading-phone-addressbooks.shtml

Dangerously Vague Cybersecurity Legislation Threatens Civil Liberties, EFF
There is a spate of proposed cybersecurity legislation working its way through the House and Senate. The bills are aimed primarily at facilitating cooperation regarding so-called "cybersecurity" issues among different branches of government as well as between government and the private sector. The bills range from being downright terrible to appropriately intentioned, yet they all suffer from the fundamental inability to clearly define the threats which are being defended
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/dangerously-vague-cybersecurity-legislation

Cybersecurity Act of 2012, Senate Commerce
The bipartisan Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was developed in response to the ever-increasing number of cyber attacks on both private companies and the United States government.
http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Legislation&ContentRecord_id=325da22a-a8ae-418c-a30d-d2eaa72afdc5

FBI Still Struggling With Supreme Court's GPS Ruling, NPR
The Supreme Court recently said police overstepped their legal authority by planting a GPS tracker on the car of a suspected drug dealer without a search warrant. The decision set off alarm bells at the FBI, where officials are trying to determine whether they need to change the way they work.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/21/149011887/fbi-still-struggling-with-supreme-courts-gps-ruling?ft=1&f=1019

NSA Insists It Doesn't Have 'The Ability' To Spy On American Emails, Texts, Etc., Techdirt
Earlier this week, we wrote about an excellent and detailed article in Wired about the efforts by the NSA to collect and store pretty much all communications data they could get their hands on -- whether originating in the US or not (despite clear rules that the NSA is only supposed to deal with foreign threats and communications). Some of that report merely confirmed earlier stories and news reports about programs like the warrantless wiretapping program the NSA runs,
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120321/10182618184/nsa-insists-it-doesnt-have-ability-to-spy-american-emails-texts-etc.shtml

NSA Chief Denies Wired's Domestic Spying Story (Fourteen Times) In Congressional Hearing, Forbes
In his recent bombshell story for Wired magazine, National Security Agency chronicler James Bamford writes that the joke that the agency's acronym stands for "never say anything" applies now more than ever. In fact, it seems the NSA does speak. It says "no" quite a lot.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/03/20/nsa-chief-denies-wireds-domestic-spying-story-fourteen-times-in-congressional-hearing/

Email Deliverability Takes a Turn for the Worse, Clickz
After several stable years, the inbox placement rate fell from 81% in the first half of 2012 to 76.5% in the second half.
http://feeds.clickz.com/~r/clickzstats/~3/URM-XLPatNQ/email-deliverability-takes-worse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."-Will Rogers
:: Adopt a Rescue Dog or Cat :: http://www.petfinder.com ::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Website :: www.cybertelecom.org
Blog :: cybertelecom.blogspot.com
Delicious :: http://del.icio.us/rcannon100/zxc
Twitter & Facebook :: Cybertelecom
Google Group :: cybertelecom-l

AUP :: www.cybertelecom.org/cybert.htm#aup
Cybertelecom is Off-the-Record. Otherwise play nicely.

Link to us! www.cybertelecom.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3.18 :: Defiant :: Beleaguered :: Not Giving Up :: Fledgling :: Destroying :: Violates Rights :: Fighting for Survival ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================
"The Americans think we need of the telephone, but we do not. We have
plenty of messenger boys." Sir William Preece, chief engineer of
Britain's Post Office (1876)

Defiant LightSquared says FCC action would violate its rights, CW
The FCC's proposal to kill LightSquared's planned LTE network would
violate the fledgling carrier's property rights by taking away its
spectrum and destroying its multibillion-dollar investment in mobile
broadband, LightSquared will argue on Friday in a formal comment to
the agency.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/it4n9bzGQrY/Defiant_LightSquared_says_FCC_action_would_violate_its_rights

LightSquared continues to fight for survival, CNET
LightSquared, the beleaguered wireless operator, is not giving up on
its plans to build a nationwide 4G LTE network. And it's calling on
the FCC to take action.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/l3Oeno2FmPc/

SC v. DIRTY WORLD, LLC, Dist. Court, WD Missouri 2012, Fed Court
Defendant not liable for defamation under 47 USC 230©; so long as a
third party willingly provides the essential published content, the
interactive service provider receives full immunity regardless of the
specific editing or selection process."
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13618488483383962454

FANCASTER, INC. v. COMCAST CORPORATION, Dist. Court, D. New Jersey
2012, Fed Court
Comcast has standing to pursue its cyber piracy claims for statutory
damages, but not for actual damages or injunctive relief, where
Comcast abandoned and dismantled its FANCAST.com website
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9015097130143686780

ICANN and LACNIC Agree to Enhance DNS Reliability in Latin America,
Caribbean, ICANN
At the ICANN 43 meeting ongoing this week, the Latin American and
Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) and the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) signed an agreement
pledging to work together to increase the number of L-Root locations
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
http://blog.icann.org/2012/03/icann-and-lacnic-agree-to-enhance-dns-reliability-in-latin-america-caribbean/

Red Cross and Internet Governance with Cause, CircleID
One of many controversies surrounding the introduction of new domain
names is the special protection given, though a moratorium, to the Red
Cross and Red Crescent Movement (RCRC) and International Olympic
Committee (IOC).1 Although the RCRC and the IOC are discussed
together, they are very different. Substantively speaking, ICANN's
decision to protect the RCRC brand has a
http://www.circleid.com/posts/red_cross_and_internet_governance_with_cause/

'This American Life' Retracts Mike Daisey's Apple Factory Story, NPR
The story became the show's most popular podcast and inspired a
petition, signed by hundreds of thousands, demanding better working
conditions for factory workers. But, now, This American Life says
Daisey fabricated many aspects of the story.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/16/148761812/this-american-life-retracts-mike-daiseys-apple-factory-story?ft=1&f=1019

AT&T pays $935 to settle iPhone throttling judgment, FierceBroadband
In a case that has become a public relations nightmare for it, AT&T
Mobility (NYSE:T) has paid $935 to Matt Spaccarelli, the irate iPhone
customer who won a small claims lawsuit in which he successfully
argued that AT&T had broken its promise to provide him with
"unlimited" mobile data service.
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/att-pays-935-settle-iphone-throttling-judgment/2012-03-18?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss

Consumer Report Incorrectly Thinks Metered Data Saves You Money -
Urges Grandfathered AT&T Unlimited Users to Ditch Plans, DSLReports
We've noted for some time that 4G wireless plans are generally based
around the idea of a pricing funnel disguised as value and choice,
where users are shoved toward tiers where they overpay for data pools
they never actually use. Introductory plans (usually 200-300MB) are
set just at a point where they offer too little usage for most users,
requiring consumers sign up for more expensive plans (usually 2-3 GB)
that provide too much usage for most users
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Consumer-Report-Incorrectly-Thinks-Metered-Data-Saves-You-Money-118851

China microblog rules take effect, BBC
Millions of microblog users in China face new registration rules, as
authorities try to prevent the spread of what they call "unfounded"
rumours.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-china-17399929

As ITU Eyes the Internet, Where is Civil Society?, CDT
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations
agency, will soon hold a meeting of world governments to decide
whether and how it will regulate the Internet. However, global civil
society has had little opportunity to take part in the debate.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/cdt/1603itu-eyes-internet-where-civil-society

Iran 'blocks' Foreign Office site, BBC
Tehran has blocked access to a UK Foreign Office website in Iran as
part of its "ever-tightening stranglehold of censorship", the foreign
secretary says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-17420534

Pakistan's Internet filter has the Valley buzzing over who's bidding, CNET
The bids are now in, but whoever wants a piece of what is almost
certainly a juicy contract is keeping quiet--and for good reason.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/ASEP2zgpaJo/

Righthaven is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to
meet its maker!, Citizens Media Law Project
f there is a polar opposite to organizations like ours, it is the
intellectual property troll. And in the IP troll heirarchy, one of
the trolliest has long been Righthaven, the self-described
"pre-eminent copyright enforcer" that sued hundreds of bloggers and
other Internet denizens apparently as part of its business model. If
the DMLP, the EFF, Public Citizen, and the like are the Justice
League, Righthaven would be in the Secret Society of Supervillians.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CitizenMediaLawProject/~3/B78WwbDQkpg/righthaven-no-more-it-has-ceased-be-its-expired-and-gone-meet-its-maker

Ouellette v. VIACOM INTERNATIONAL, INC., Dist. Court, D. Montana 2012, Fed Court
DMCA 17 USC s 512(f) action for wrongful takedown dismissed where
plaintiff would not be able to establish bad faith on part of
defendant
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16928673675834891108

Privacy suit filed against Path, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, others, CNET
Address book issue with mobile apps prompts privacy lawsuit against app makers.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/9fQ1ngsSCa0/

Police step up social media efforts amid confusing law, USA Today
Police departments and federal agencies are aggressively seeking
information from social-media companies, beefing up their budgets and
providing training to dig for online clues left by criminals and
victims in targeted investigations
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-18/social-media-law-enforcement/53614910/1

Text Spam Class Action Against Jiffy Lube Moves Forward – In re Jiffy
Lube Int'l, Inc., Text Spam Litigation, Technology & Marketing Law
In re Jiffy Lube International, Inc., Text Spam Litigation,
11-md-2261-JM-JMA (N.D. Cal.; Mar. 9, 2012) Plaintiffs...
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2012/03/jiffy_lube_cant.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where
they went."-Will Rogers
:: Adopt a Rescue Dog or Cat :: http://www.petfinder.com ::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3.15 :: Send Lawyers Guns and Money :: Is that an L Root in Your Pocket? :: Speculations :: Strike Six! :: Expectations of Privacy in Social Media ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================
"The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most." IBM
to the founders of Xerox as it turned down their proposal (1959)

LightSquared Prepares For FCC Lawsuit - Hires Two Top Legal Guns to
Pursue Case, DSLReports
LightSquared is effectively dead in the water after the FCC denied the
company a necessary spectrum waiver to operate their planned LTE
network. The company's CEO recently bailed from the venture, and
reports last week emerged that Sprint was getting ready to scrap their
relationship with the company. LightSquared chief financial backer
Phillip Falcone is facing a lawsuit from investors and numerous
unrelated SEC inquiries. What's LightSquared's next step? To sue, of
course.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/LightSquared-Prepares-For-FCC-Lawsuit-118806

LightSquared hires Bush v. Gore lawyer to save doomed 4G network, Ars Technica
In a bid to save its 4G network after being rejected by the Federal
Communications Commission, LightSquared has hired lawyer Theodore
Olson, who helped President George W. Bush take office by winning the
Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, and former Department of Labor
Solicitor Eugene Scalia.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/lightsquared-hires-bush-v-gore-lawyer-to-save-doomed-4g-network.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

LightSquared exodus continues: Cricket lands at Clearwire, Gigaom
Given that LightSquared won't be launching an LTE network any time
soon, customers that committed to buying the would-be operator's
mobile broadband capacity are looking for alternatives – and they're
landing at Clearwire. On Wednesday, one of LightSquared's biggest
gets, Leap Wireless, said it would buy future LTE connectivity for its
Cricket prepaid service from Clearwire, marking the second in what
will likely be many defections to the wholesale 4G carrier.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/ArnihxEvI0g/

Stubhub Immune Under Section 230, JOLT
On March 6, 2012, a North Carolina appellate court three-judge panel
unanimously decided that Stubhub Inc. was entitled to Section 230
immunity under the Communications Decency Act. This decision
overruled the judgment of a Guilford County judge made last year that
found Stubhub had
http://www.ncjolt.org/blog/2012/03/14/stubhub-immune-under-section-230

L-Root in your Pocket, ICANN
ICANN operates L-Root, one of the 13 Domain Name System root servers
which together make up the infrastructure known as the Root Server
System. The Root Servers serve the root zone of the DNS, maintained by
ICANN staff in the IANA department. The Root Zone provides
http://blog.icann.org/2012/03/l-root-in-your-pocket/

Lawrence Strickling, Remarks at the Digital Broadband Migration, 10 J.
on Telecomm. and High Tech. L. 33
Last year I talked about defining the role of the U.S. government in
Internet policy to preserve and enhance the trust of actors on the
Internet.1 And that in carrying out that role, the government should
act less as a heavy-handed regulator and more as a facilitator or
convener to bring all stakeholders together. This is the
multi-stakeholder process you've heard discussed here the last two
days.
http://www.jthtl.org/content/articles/V10I1/JTHTLv10i1_Strickling.PDF

Managing Government Records: The Backbone of Open Government, White House
As part of Sunshine Week, I want to take the opportunity to update you
on one of the commitments made by the President as part of our Open
Government Partnership National Action Plan. On November 21, 2011,
President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum entitled "Managing
Government Records" to begin an Executive Branch-wide effort to reform
records management policies and practices. This is the first time
since
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/03/14/managing-government-records-backbone-open-government

AT&T vs. the consumer: the throttling controversy grows, Gigaom
Last month, AT&T fought and lost a lawsuit over whether its highly
controversial throttling policy violated the terms of "unlimited"
smartphone contracts. Matt Spaccarelli was awarded $850 for his
efforts, but neither side is letting the issue drop.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/2ERpO6MbALI/

DARPA chief leaves Pentagon for Google job, CW
Google, in a coup, has hired Regina Dugan, director of the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, for a senior executive position.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/l_gUZUH2Afo/DARPA_chief_leaves_Pentagon_for_Google_job

End of the line for AOL Instant Messenger?, CNET
Layoffs at the beleaguered Internet pioneer "eviscerates" IM unit,
according to a New York Times report
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/miqQeMZIt4Y/

BBC hit with cyberattack, Iran link suspected, WAPO
Hackers attacked the BBC earlier this month, leaving some parts of the
organization without access to e-mail and Internet services, the BBC
has confirmed. The broadcasting network said in its own article on the
attack that its director general, Mark Thompson, will address the
attack in an
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=20ab6eb7ca058c94088408ba833eb915

Iran may have committed cyber-attack on BBC, CNET
As two satellite feeds into Iran were jammed, the news source also
experiences a denial-of-service attack. The BBC's director-general
believes the Iranian authorities are the culprit.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/msvBzfT1BrA/

Companies Respond to Pakistan's National Censorship Proposal, EFF
Since we first wrote about Pakistan's Telecommunications Authority's
(PTA) plan to create a national censorship and blocking system, there
has been a global outpouring of criticism against the project. Bolo
Bhi, a Pakistani advocacy group, along with the Business Human Rights
Resource
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/companies-respond-pakistan%E2%80%99s-national-censorship-proposal

ISP Six Strikes Plan Arrives in July - Throttling, Filtering and
'Education', DSLReports
Last summer major ISPs including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and
Cablevision signed off on a new plan by the RIAA and MPAA taking aim
at copyright infringers on their networks. According to the plan,
after four warnings ISPs are to begin taking "mitigation measures,"
which range from throttling a user connection to filtering access to
websites until users acknowledge receipt of "educational material." As
you might expect, that
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ISP-Six-Strikes-Plan-Arrives-in-July-118834

Dave Gorman, Victim Of A Bogus DMCA Takedown, Highlights Flickr's
Horrible DMCA Takedown Policy, Techdirt
Dave Gorman, a Flickr user whose photo was taken down by a bogus DMCA
notice, is fighting with Flickr to get it to, if nothing else, change
the way it handles takedown requests. Gorman's photo, along with all
of its comments and views, was deleted based on the "strength" of a
scatter-shot DMCA issued by Degban, supposedly on behalf of porn
producers Wasteland.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120312/13265218082/dave-gorman-victim-bogus-dmca-takedown-highlights-flickrs-horrible-dmca-takedown-policy.shtml

Daniel J. Gervais and Daniel J. Hyndman, Cloud Control: Copyright,
Global Memes and Privacy
, 10 J. on Telecomm. and High Tech. L. 53
Imagine for a moment that electricity was used only to power one kind
of computer known as an electricity computer. That is what computer
power is like now: it mainly powers devices that sit on our desks with
qwerty keyboards attached. As computing becomes a
http://www.jthtl.org/content/articles/V10I1/JTHTLv10i1_Gervais.PDF

FCC's Amy Levine to leave the agency, WAPO
The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that senior
counsel Amy Levine will be leaving the agency.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e4a09cf2802b035dfc60f65356c40fe2

Vint Cerf, Internet Speculations, J. on Telecomm. & High Tech. L.
So, this is where it starts, four nodes at the University of
California, Los Angeles, experimenting with packet switching way back
in 1969. And then, we get here, more or less. That's a picture 10
years ago of what the inside of the Internet looked like with all the
interconnections of many thousands of independent Internet service
providers interconnected
http://www.jthtl.org/content/articles/V10I1/JTHTLv10i1_Cerf.PDF

Stephen E. Henderson, Expectations of Privacy in Social Media,
Mississippi College Law Review,
This article, which largely tracks my remarks at Mississippi College's
Social Media Symposium, examines expectations of privacy in social
media such as weblogs (blogs), Facebook pages, and Twitter tweets.
Social media is diverse and ever-diversifying, and while I address
some of that complexity, I focus on the core functionality, which
provides the groundwork for further conversation as the technology and
related social norms develop. As one would expect, just as with
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2018425

Lisa M. Austin, Privacy and the Question of Technology, Law and Philosophy
Technology is not simply eroding our privacy — it may also be forcing
us to rethink what we mean by privacy. Increasingly, what we are
worried about are practices that involve collecting, using and
disclosing information that is not sensitive or intimate and that is
increasingly collected in public — concerns that do not easily fall
within the domain of traditional privacy
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2016965

NIST Announces Funding to Form Steering Group to Support Trusted
Identities in Cyberspace, NIST
On March 9, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
announced that it is soliciting proposals to establish a steering
group in support of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in
Cyberspace (NSTIC) and to provide ...
http://www.nist.gov/itl/nstic-031212.cfm

Congress not happy with Apple's response on privacy concerns, CNET
Not satisifed with a letter from Apple addressing its privacy
policies, lawmakers have asked the company to send a rep to Washington
to answer further questions.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/eEtocv6SXFs/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where
they went."-Will Rogers
:: Adopt a Rescue Dog or Cat :: http://www.petfinder.com ::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Website :: www.cybertelecom.org
Blog :: cybertelecom.blogspot.com
Delicious :: http://del.icio.us/rcannon100/zxc
Twitter & Facebook :: Cybertelecom
Google Group :: cybertelecom-l

AUP :: www.cybertelecom.org/cybert.htm#aup
Cybertelecom is Off-the-Record. Otherwise play nicely.

Link to us! www.cybertelecom.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3.12 :: Time for Another Cake?? :: A Big Jump :: Going Through the Motions :: So ah Whose in Costa Rica? :: Sparks Fly ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================
"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 ½ tons." Popular Mechanics (March 1949)

Cogent Depeers China Telecom, Renesys
On March 5th, 2012 at 14:00 UTC (10:00 PM China Standard Time), Renesys observed that Cogent (AS174) and China Telecom (AS4134) appear to have dropped their mutual connectivity. Prior to this time, China Telecom regularly announced about 3000 prefixes to Cogent. After depeering, this ASN adjacency no longer exists in the global routing table.
http://www.renesys.com/blog/2012/03/cogent-depeers-china-telecom.shtml

Level 3 protests Verizon, AT&T "lock-up" data connection deals, Ars Technica
The great subscriber access war between Level 3 and Comcast has receded into the background, but Level 3 has plenty of other business before the Federal Communications Commission. Here's an issue that got our attention. The net communications facilities provider wants the FCC to do something about what it calls "demand lock-up" contracts forced upon the company in exchange for high speed data interconnection contracts with Verizon, AT&T, and CenturyLink.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/level-3-locked-up-by-the-big-telcos.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

54% of parents with teenagers use internet filters – a big jump from 2000, Pew
no description
http://pewinternet.org/Press-Releases/2005/54-of-parents-with-teenagers-use-internet-filters--a-big-jump-from-2000.aspx

Website operators not liable for third party comments, Internet Cases
Spreadbury v. Bitterroot Public Library, 2012 WL 734163 (D. Montana, March 6, 2012)
http://blog.internetcases.com/2012/03/11/website-operator-liability-section-23/

Net Neutrality Update: The D.C. Circuit Goes Through the Motions, CommLawBlog
It's been several months since that Hot Topic Of All Hot Topics, net neutrality, graced our space here. When last we reported on the subject, the net neutrality order had finally made it into the Federal Register, a number of parties had sought judicial review in a number of federal courts of appeals, the D.C. Circuit had been picked as the lucky court that will hear arguments on the matter, and a lone petition for reconsideration of the order had been filed with the Commission.
http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/CommLawBlog/~3/BFLx4bpYlho/

Internet Grows to More Than 225 Million Domain Names in the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Verisign
Nearly six million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 225 million worldwide across all domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.
https://press.verisign.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=AFC0FF0DB5C560D3&version=live&prid=858172&releasejsp=custom_97

Measuring Worldwide Growth in IPv6 Deployments, ICANN
In early 2011, the RIPE NCC shared some graphs that showed the percentage of IPv6-enabled networks over time. More precisely, it showed the percentage of Autonomous Systems (ASes)1 that announced one or more IPv6 prefixes in the global routing table. The results for the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) were described in the article Networks with IPv6 Over Time on RIPE Labs.
http://blog.icann.org/2012/03/measuring-worldwide-growth-in-ipv6-deployments/

Department of Commerce Cancels IANA Contract RFP, CircleID
The United States government has cancelled Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Request for Proposal (RFP) SA1301-12-RP-IANA according to an updated page on the FedBizOpps website. The change — time stamped Mar 09, 2012 2:44 pm — states: "The Department of Commerce intends to reissue the RFP at a future date, date to be determined (TBD). Interested parties are encouraged to periodically visit
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20120309_department_of_commerce_cancels_iana_contract_rfp/

ICANN and the NTIA need to come clean about the IANA application, IGP
The highly negative blog post written yesterday was fueled by the concern that NTIA was using the IANA contract to push ICANN into policy positions demanded by the GAC and a few powerful interests still trying to undermine or re-write the new TLD program.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IGPBlog/~3/yxqzfIFlnjk/5014313.html

Notice - Cancelled Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions - Request for Proposal (RFP) SA1301-12-RP-IANA, NTIA
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) remains committed to preserving the stability and security of the Internet's domain name system (DNS). Critical to the DNS is the continued performance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. In anticipation of the impending expiration of the IANA functions contract, NTIA, via two public notices in February and June 2011,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2012/notice-internet-assigned-numbers-authority-iana-functions-request-proposal-rf

Notice – Extension of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions Contract, NTIA
The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) reached an agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to continue performing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions until September 30, 2012. The IANA functions are the key technical functions supporting the Internet Domain Name System.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2012/notice-extension-internet-assigned-numbers-authority-iana-functions-contract

Go feds! E-books are way overpriced, CNET
For the last couple of years, electronic book buyers have paid a high price for one Apple CEO's ambition to make life miserable for Amazon.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/MqVVkXWN4Dg/

Time Warner's CNN Reportedly To Buy Mashable For $200M+, Forbes
Time Warner's CNN unit is in talks to buy Mashable, the popular technology and social news Web site, the New York Times reports, citing "three people with knowledge of the talks."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/03/12/time-warners-cnn-reportedly-to-buy-mashable-for-200m/

How Al Jazeera wants to bring Twitter to the world, Gigaom
Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera launched an educational campaign this month that aims to teach viewers in Turkey, Bosnia and elsewhere in the world how to use Twitter and Facebook. The videos are being distributed on a new, dedicated YouTube channel called Al Jazeera Unplugged but may eventually also show up on Al Jazeera's TV stations. The network's ambitious goal is to raise a new generation of citizen journalists.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/qXD3S0QaWlQ/

Opening Remarks for Data Journalism Conference, Yale ISP
Hello, all, and welcome to the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and our first annual conference on the state of data journalism. We've got two great panels lined up for today, with a wide range of journalists, programmers, academics, and researchers in attendance. Each panel is going to include some short initial presentations, some moderated discussion between the panelists, and then we'll open it up to you, the readership. Not to worry — your comments will be moderated.
http://yaleisp.org/2012/03/opening-remarks-data-journalism-bramble/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=opening-remarks-data-journalism-bramble

At CNET's SXSW 'big data' panel, sparks fly over privacy, CNET
Panelists from leading tech advocacy groups squared off during a discussion about how Internet companies should be regulated. Agreement was hard to come by on consumer protections.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cnet/tcoc/~3/PKU8pOGARKI/

NTIA Requests Comments on New Privacy Framework, Info Law Group
As we previously posted, on February 23, 2012, the White House released a white paper setting forth A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy (the "Framework"). The Framework called for a "multi-stakeholder process" to move forward in implementing the goals it set forth, including the creation of a legally enforceable code of conduct. On Monday, the
http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/InfoLawGroup/~3/rOsl0MLdBvo/

Want to Actually Read Online Privacy Policies? Prepare to Give Up 40 Minutes a Day, Center for Internet and Society
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/press/want-actually-read-online-privacy-policies-prepare-give-40-minutes-day

Cybersecurity is a Core Concern for Network Providers, USTelecom
House Communications Subcommittee members engaged in a thoughtful discussion with witnesses at a March 7 hearing
http://www.ustelecom.org/blog/cybersecurity-core-concern-network-providers

Push for Cybersecurity Bill Continues, Senate Commerce
Key industry stakeholders and top administration officials continue to weigh in on the need for cybersecurity legislation. In a letter to sponsors of the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, defense contractor Northrop Grumman yesterday urged action to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats. And today, Commerce Secretary John Bryson penned an op-ed in POLITICO on the need for immediate action on cybersecurity legislation.
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=dbe2d570-54ae-429d-8403-8256fc3368dd

Rogers' "Cybersecurity" Bill Is Broad Enough to Use Against WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay, EFF
Congress is doing it again: they're proposing overbroad regulations that could have dire consequences for our Internet ecology. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (H.R. 3523), introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, allows companies or the government1 free rein to bypass existing laws in order to monitor communications, filter content, or potentially even shut down access to
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/rogers-cybersecurity-bill-broad-enough-use-against-wikileaks-and-pirate-bay

No Checks or Balances in Warrantless Wiretapping Despite Holder's Assurances, EFF
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a much publicized speech at Northwestern law school on Monday, in which he attempted to explain the Obama administration's constitutional authority for killing U.S. citizens abroad without judicial oversight. Holder in part claimed that there is a difference between "due process" and "judicial process", the latter of which—according to him—is not guaranteed under the Constitution. The speech was
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/no-checks-or-balances-warrantless-wiretapping-despite-holders-assurances

Court Confirms Police Don't Need A Warrant To Do A Limited Search Of A Mobile Phone, Techdirt
In a court ruling that came out a little while ago (just catching up now), Judge Richard Posner took the lead in an appeals court ruling that effectively reaffirmed the idea that police don't need a warrant to search mobile phones as they're arresting someone. Of course, this general concept is not new and I've discussed my concerns about police being able to search phones without a warrant in the past -- but this particular ruling does seem
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20120308/03410718033/court-confirms-police-dont-need-warrant-to-search-mobile-phone.shtml

A Tale of Two Encryption Cases, EFF
In the last two months, two different federal courts have ruled on whether the Fifth Amendment's right against self-incrimination applies to the act of decrypting the contents of a computer. We wrote amicus briefs (PDF) in each case arguing the Fifth Amendment did prevent forced decryption when that act would incriminate a witness. And while our arguments were similar in both courts, the results were different.1 A district
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/tale-two-encryption-cases

Solar storm doesn't bash Earth but more are coming, CW
The solar storm buffeting the Earth on Thursday isn't as bad as physicists had expected, but there's still a chance it could get worse before it's over.
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/_2nzr1KsSVc/Solar_storm_doesn_t_bash_Earth_but_more_are_coming

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."-Will Rogers
:: Adopt a Rescue Dog or Cat :: http://www.petfinder.com ::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Website :: www.cybertelecom.org
Blog :: cybertelecom.blogspot.com
Delicious :: http://del.icio.us/rcannon100/zxc
Twitter & Facebook :: Cybertelecom
Google Group :: cybertelecom-l

AUP :: www.cybertelecom.org/cybert.htm#aup
Cybertelecom is Off-the-Record. Otherwise play nicely.

Link to us! www.cybertelecom.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Wayward #ACPA Part 12: Which Factors Favors Which Party the Most

In these series of blog posts, we have been reviewing 11 years of AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protection Act cases, and the 9 factors which make up the bad faith analysis.  As we have seen, the 9 factors are grouped in two groups:  the Good Faith or Mitigating Factors (most like trademark) and the Bad Faith or Aggravating Factors (deal with the DNS stuff). 

In this post, we ask a simple question: which factor favors which party the most.  The results were surprising. 

• The factors that most favored DNOs were the Bad Faith Factors. 
• The factor that favored DNOs the most was Factor 7: Misleading Information, which went in favor of DNOs 68% of the time. 
• The other factor that favored DNOs the majority of the time was Factor 6: Offer to Sell, favoring DNOs 55% of the time. 
• Factor 8, Multiple Domain Name Registrations, favored DNOs only 40% of the time, even though the median number of domain names at issue is two (read that over a few times to get an idea of why the ACPA has gone astray).

Recall that in general, 64% of cases went in favor of TMOs. That 64% average can be used as a baseline.  

• All of the Good Faith Factors went in favor of TMOs more than 64% of the time. 
• None of the Bad Faith Factors went in favor of TMOs more than 64% of the time (Factor 5: Intent to Divert is on the 66%-line).

For the Good Faith Factors, the spread of the factor that went in favor of TMOs the most and the one that went in their favor the least was 14 percentage points; a relatively constrained spread. For the Bad Faith Factors, the spread was 60 percentage points. There is a greater dynamic with the Bad Faith Factors than for the Good Faith Factors.

One factor looks out of place. Factor 9, Famous Trademark, looks more like a Good Faith Factor than a Bad Faith Factor. The Good Faith Factors are traditional trademark law considerations (fair use, prior use, famous); the Bad Faith Factors are all unique to the Internet (diverting domain names, false information in domain name registration). Factor 9 looks more like the Good Faith (Trademark) factors and in fact is scored more like the Good Faith Factors. If we move Factor 9 over to the Good Faith Factors, the spread of percentage points for the Good Faith Factors changes from 14 to 16 points (a marginal change), where this move changes the spread of the Bad Faith Factors from 60 points to 34 points (a 26 point change).

Chart above compares number of cases factors was scored in favor of TMO as opposed to in favor of DNO; "neutral" scores were ignored.

Next: Which Set of Factors are Most Important?

ORDER :: FCC :: Outage Reporting Extended to Interconnected VoIP

THE PROPOSED EXTENSION OF PART 4 OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES REGARDING OUTAGE REPORTING TO INTERCONNECTED VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL SERVICE PROVIDERS AND BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS. FCC Extends Network Outage Reporting Requirement To Interconnected VOIP Service To Help Ensure A More Resilient And Reliable 9-1-1 System. (Dkt No. 11-82 ). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 02/15/2012 by R&O. (FCC No. 12-22). PSHSB

1. In this Report and Order, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) extends the outage reporting requirements in Part 4 of our rules only to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding, we proposed to take much broader action. Specifically, we proposed to extend Part 4 of the rules to both interconnected VoIP services and broadband Internet services. In addition, we proposed to require reporting of both outages based on the complete loss of service and those where, while service is technically available, technical conditions (such as packet loss, latency and/or jitter) effectively prevent communication. In response to the record developed in this proceeding, we are prepared at this time to adopt reporting requirements only with respect to the complete loss of interconnected VoIP service. Collecting this data will help the Commission help ensure the Nation’s 9-1-1 systems are as reliable and resilient as possible and also allow us to monitor compliance with the statutory 9-1-1 obligations of interconnected VoIP service providers. At this time, we also defer action on possible performance degradation thresholds for measuring an outage of interconnected VoIP service and on all outages of broadband Internet service. 

2. Consumers are increasingly using interconnected VoIP services in lieu of traditional telephone service. Interconnected VoIP services allow a wireline or wireless user generally to receive calls from and make calls to the legacy public telephone network, including calls to 9-1-1. As of December 31, 2010, 31 percent of the more than 87 million residential telephone subscriptions in the United States were provided by interconnected VoIP providers —an increase of 21 percent (from 22.4 million to 27.1 million residential lines) in the last year. The public’s increased reliance on interconnected VoIP services is also reflected in 9-1-1 usage trends; we estimate that approximately 31 percent of residential wireline 9-1-1 calls are made using VoIP service.

3. The availability and resilience of our communications infrastructure, specifically 9-1-1, directly impacts public safety and the ability of our first responders to fulfill their critical mission. The most practical, effective way to maintain emergency preparedness and readiness is to work continuously to minimize the incidence of routine outages.

4. The FCC’s public safety mission is one of our core functions, and “promoting safety of life and property” is a foundational reason for the creation of the Commission. More recently, Congress affirmed the Commission’s efforts to accomplish this mission by codifying the requirement for interconnected VoIP providers to provide 9-1-1 services.

5. Consistent with our statutory mission, Presidential Directives and Executive Orders, and related implementing documents charge the Commission with ensuring the resilience and reliability of the Nation’s commercial and public safety communications infrastructure. National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD-51 establishes the framework by which the government can continue to perform its most critical roles during times of emergency. Accordingly, the Commission has the responsibility to ensure continuous operations and reconstitution of critical communications and services. The Commission also plays an active role in Emergency Support Function 2 (ESF2), the communications branch of the National Response Framework, which guides the Nation’s conduct during an all-hazards response. Executive Order 12472 establishing the National Communications System, the functions of which include coordination of the planning for and provision of national security and emergency preparedness communications for the Federal government, also requires FCC participation.

6. We have cause to be concerned about the ability of interconnected VoIP subscribers to reach emergency services when they need them. Several recent, significant VoIP outages highlight our concern about the availability of 9-1-1 over VoIP service:

• On May 25, 2010, according to press reports, a service outage involving the AT&T U-Verse platform involved a server failure that impacted U-Verse interconnected VoIP service in AT&T’s entire 22-state local phone service area serving approximately 1.15 million customers. The reports indicate that the outage lasted for several hours. It remains unclear how many subscribers were unable to reach 9-1-1 and for how long.
• On March 22, 2011, a Comcast outage in 19 New Hampshire communities beginning around 3:30 p.m. left many Comcast customers in those communities unable to make any calls, including 9-1-1 calls. The problem lasted through the evening.
• In June 2010, CenturyLink Internet experienced failures that affected approximately 30,000 customers on the Kitsap Peninsula (near Seattle, Washington), and in a separate outage, affected approximately 100,000 customers across parts of Texas. The Kitsap Peninsula outage lasted an hour according to company sources, but some customers said it lasted four times as long. The Texas outage lasted over eight hours. During the outages, consumers, businesses and government were unable to place 9-1-1 or other calls over VoIP
• In March 2010, Comcast Internet and Digital Voice service was disrupted to customers in Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. Comcast customers experienced severely degraded service for at least two hours. During the outage, local, state, and Federal government department and agency customers of Comcast in the affected areas were unable to make or receive telephone calls. Residential and business subscribers to Comcast Internet and Digital Voice services also were affected by the outage significantly impairing their ability to engage in 9-1-1 and other communications.

7. Commission staff gathered these facts from press accounts. None of these outages was reported directly to the Commission. The current outage reporting requirements are limited to traditional voice and paging communications services over wireline, wireless, cable, and satellite and do not apply to outages affecting interconnected VoIP services. Obtaining outage information for interconnected VoIP service, however, is the most effective method for the Commission to know whether and how well providers are meeting their statutory obligation to provide 9-1-1 and Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) service. Further, without detailed information about outages that occur, the Commission is unable to analyze communications vulnerabilities, especially as they pertain to 9-1-1 services, or to share aggregate information with industry to help prevent future outages.

8. With the objective of ensuring the availability of 9-1-1 service, this Report and Order:

• extends the Commission’s mandatory outage reporting rules to facilities-based and non-facilities-based interconnected VoIP service providers;
  • applies the current Part 4 definition of an outage to outages of interconnected VoIP service, covering the complete loss of service and/or connectivity to customers;
  • requires that these providers submit electronically a notification to the Commission within
• 240 minutes of discovering that they have experienced on any facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize, an outage of at least 30 minutes duration that potentially affects a 9-1-1 special facility, in which case they also shall notify, as soon as possible by telephone or other electronic means, any official who has been designated by the management of the affected 9-1-1 facility as the provider’s contact person for communications outages at that facility;
• in this case, the provider shall convey to that person all available information that may be useful to the management of the affected facility in mitigating the effects of the outage on efforts to communicate with that facility; or
• 24 hours of discovering that these providers have experienced on any facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize, an outage of at least 30 minutes duration that:
• potentially affects at least 900,000 user minutes of interconnected VoIP service and results in complete loss of service; or
• potentially affects any special offices and facilities;
  • requires that these providers submit electronically a Final Communications Outage Report to the Commission not later than thirty days after discovering the outage; and
• clarifies that the Part 4 rules apply to voice services provided using new wireless spectrum bands.

9. The outage reporting threshold that we adopt today for interconnected VoIP service is technology-neutral in that it mirrors the existing standard applied to other services covered under Part 4 of the Commission’s rules. Furthermore, the reporting process adopted herein is quite similar to the current process. We recognize that requiring interconnected VoIP service providers to report even significant outages imposes a burden on them, but we have determined that the cost to these providers of implementing the rules adopted herein is justified by the overwhelming public benefit of a reliable 9-1-1 system and firmly grounded in the Commission’s statutory obligation to ensure that reliability 9-1-1 service is provided to users of interconnected VoIP service. Finally, we decide to defer the question of outage reporting requirements for broadband Internet service providers and determine that this issue deserves further study.

New Regulations

PART 4 – DISRUPTIONS TO COMMUNICATIONS

GENERAL

The authority citation for Part 4 is amended to read as follows:
Authority:  Sec. 5, 48 Stat. 1068, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 154, 155, 201, 251, 307, 316, 615a-1, 1302(a), and 1302(b).
1.  Section 4.3 is amended by amending paragraph (f) and adding paragraphs (h), resulting in original paragraph (h) now numbered as paragraph (i), to read as follows:
§ 4.3 Communications providers covered by the requirements of this part.
* * * * *
(f) Wireless service providers include Commercial Mobile Radio Service communications providers that use cellular architecture and CMRS paging providers. See § 20.9 of this chapter for the definition of Commercial Mobile Radio Service. Also included are affiliated and non-affiliated entities that maintain or provide communications networks or services used by the provider in offering such communications.
* * * * *
(h) Interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers are providers of interconnected VoIP service.  See § 9.3 of this chapter for the definition of interconnected VoIP service.  Such providers may be facilities-based or non-facilities-based. Also included are affiliated and non-affiliated entities that maintain or provide communications networks or services used by the provider in offering such communications.
                     
(i) Exclusion of equipment manufacturers or vendors. Excluded from the requirements of this Part 4 are those equipment manufacturers or vendors that do not maintain or provide communications networks or services used by communications providers in offering communications.

2.  Section 4.7 is amended by changing paragraph (e) as follows:
§ 4.7 Definitions of metrics used to determine the general outage-reporting threshold criteria. 
* * * * *

1. “User minutes” are defined as:

(1) Assigned telephone number minutes (as defined in paragraph (c) of this section), for telephony, including non-mobile interconnected VoIP telephony, and for those paging networks in which each individual user is assigned a telephone number;
(2) The mathematical result of multiplying the duration of an outage, expressed in minutes, by the number of end users potentially affected by the outage, for all other forms of communications. For wireless service providers and interconnected VoIP service providers to mobile users, the number of potentially affected users should be determined by multiplying the simultaneous call capacity of the affected equipment by a concentration ratio of 8.
* * * * *
3.  Section 4.9 is amended by adding paragraphs (g) to read as follows
§ 4.9 Outage reporting requirements – threshold criteria.
* * * * *
(g) Interconnected VoIP Service Providers.All interconnected VoIP service providers shall submit electronically a Notification to the Commission:

1. within 240 minutes of discovering that they have experienced on any facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize, an outage of at least 30 minutes duration that potentially affects a 9-1-1 special facility (as defined in (e) of § 4.5), in which case they also shall notify, as soon as possible by telephone or other electronic means, any official who has been designated by the management of the affected 9-1-1 facility as the provider’s contact person for communications outages at that facility, and the provider shall convey to that person all available information that may be useful to the management of the affected facility in mitigating the effects of the outage on efforts to communicate with that facility; or
   
2. within 24 hours of discovering that they have experienced on any facilities that they own, operate, lease, or otherwise utilize, an outage of at least 30 minutes duration:

(a) That potentially affects at least 900,000 user minutes of interconnected VoIP service and results in complete loss of service; or
(b) That potentially affects any special offices and facilities (in accordance with paragraphs (a)-(d) of § 4.5).

Not later than thirty days after discovering the outage, the provider shall submit electronically a Final Communications Outage Report to the Commission.  The Notification and Final reports shall comply with all of the requirements of § 4.11.

3.1 :: Resigns :: Ubiquitous :: Failed Conspiracies :: a Disaster :: Suicide King :: UnlimiWhat? :: Remember AIM? :: a ship with an anchor ::

============================================
CyberTelecom News
Federal Internet Law and Policy
============================================

LightSquared CEO Resigns, WSJ
LightSquared's CEO and an executive vice president stepped down in the
wake of a regulatory setback that has forced the wireless venture to
rethink its multibillion-dollar strategy to roll out a new
fourth-generation network.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577251543603149170.html?mod=rss_Technology

Robert G. Larson† and Paul A. Godfread, BRINGING JOHN DOE TO COURT:
PROCEDURAL ISSUES IN UNMASKING ANONYMOUS INTERNET DEFENDANTS, WMLR
The Internet is ubiquitous. Over the past two decades, it has
grown and evolved, overcome boundaries, and defied containment. The
Internet can now be accessed not only through a designated
http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume38/documents/6.Godfread.pdf

The Economics of Network Neutrality, TAP
Professor Nicholas Economides discusses his new article, co-authored
with Benjamin Hermalin, on "The Economics of Network Neutrality."
http://www.techpolicy.com/Blog/February-2012/The-Economics-of-Network-Neutrality.aspx

The Wayward ACPA Part 11: "The Courts Do Not Apply a Mechanistic
Scorecard", Cybertelecom
Looking over 11 years of AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(ACPA) caselaw, I can now test how the courts have wandered astray
with their decisions. In my last post, I once again hypothesized about
the error of the courts ways --- in a way that turned out to not be so
true. But this time, this time is different. The reason this time is
different is because it aint my conspiracy
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybertelecomBlog/~3/RkrWgkgq6tc/wayward-acpa-part-11-courts-do-not.html

The Wayward ACPA Part 10: "More Reasoned Decisions Mean Domain Name
Owner Wins", Cybertelecom
Looking over 11 years of AntiCybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(ACPA) caselaw, I can now test how the courts have wandered astray.
Last post, I tested my conspiracy theory that the court's analysis was
all about trademark, and they ignored the unique characteristics of
the Internet. That proved not to be so true. This time, my conspiracy
theory is that in order to favor trademark
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CybertelecomBlog/~3/we1VniRZRNI/wayward-acpa-part-x-more-reasoned.html

Threats Against DNS Root Servers, Icann
We have been receiving questions from various parties concerning the
recent threat against the Internet's root servers that is purported to
have originated with the group Anonymous.
http://blog.icann.org/2012/03/threats-against-dns-root-servers/

Schmidt: Handing over Control of Internet, DNS to the UN a Disaster,
Will Divide the Internet, Circleid
During the Mobile World Congress 2012, Google's executive chairman
Eric Schmidt, today warned against United Nations' treaty aimed at
bringing more Internet regulation. "That would be a disaster… To some,
the openness and interoperability is one of the greatest achievements
of mankind in our lifetime. Do not give that up easily. You will
regret it.
http://www.circleid.com/posts/schmidt_handing_over_control_of_internet_dns_to_un_itu_disaster/

FTC Will Host Public Workshop to Explore Advertising Disclosures in
Online and Mobile Media on May 30, 2012, FTC
The Federal Trade Commission will host a day-long public workshop to
consider the need for new guidance for online advertisers about making
disclosures required under FTC law.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/dotcom.shtm

U.S. Seizes Canadian-Owned and Registered Domain Name, Geist
The EasyDNS blog has an excellent - albeit scary - post on the U.S.
government seizure of bodog.com, the Canadian-owned online gambling
site. The domain was seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security despite the fact that it was Canadian registered. The only
U.S. connection is that the dot-com registry is located in the U.S.
The move sends a message that all dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org
domains are ultimately subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MichaelGeistsBlog/~3/z-aH3s0QUXI/

Feds Continue Crackdown On Poker... By Seizing The Wrong Bodog Domain, Techdirt
The feds domain name seizure powers seem simple enough (if of
extremely questionable legality, seeing as domains involve speech
which requires a higher standard to seize), so it really amazes me how
badly they seem to regularly screw up in using them. The latest is the
seizure of Bodog.com as well as the indictment of Bodog boss Calvin
Ayre. While there's been lots of attention paid to the seizures of
sites having to do with copyright and trademark infringement,
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120228/22460717908/feds-continue-crackdown-poker-seizing-wrong-bodog-domain.shtml

Don't bet on "Linsanity": US seizes online gambling domain over sports
wagers, Ars Technica
As the result of a long-running investigation that dates back to at
least 2006, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland
unsealed on February 27 a two-count indictment against Bodog
Entertainment Group and four Canadian individuals for allegedly (1)
conducting an online sports betting business in
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/dont-bet-on-linsanity-us-seizes-online-gambling-domain-over-sports-wagers.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

AT&T's New Data Policy for Heavy Users, Forbes
Under a new policy announced Thursday, AT&T has established clear
thresholds for unlimited data subscribers – those who exceed 3GB a
month and 4G LTE smartphone owners who surpass 5GB.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mickeymeece/2012/03/01/atts-new-data-policy-for-heavy-users/

AT&T DSL: Getting What I Pay For?, CW
Gibbs discovered that his DSL service can start at a lower line speed
than he signed up for and he's not happy
http://rss.computerworld.com/~r/computerworld/news/feed/~3/Gg_0-e3TFNI/AT_T_DSL_Getting_What_I_Pay_For_

Comcast Files First Annual Compliance Report on NBCUniversal Deal, Comcast
Today, Comcast and NBCUniversal filed our first annual report
detailing implementation of the conditions adopted by the FCC in the
NBCUniversal Transaction Order. We'll be filing these reports for the
next six years to show the extensive measures we've taken to comply
with and in many cases go above and beyond our commitments and the
FCC's conditions in connection with the NBCUniversal transaction.
http://blog.comcast.com/2012/02/comcast-files-first-annual-compliance-report-on-nbcuniversal-deal.html

AOL Cuts AIM Staff, WSJ
AOL plans to lay off as many as 50 employees at its AIM unit, best
known for its Instant Messenger communication service.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204571404577255832538944646.html?mod=rss_Technology

Eric Goldman, Revisiting Search Engine Bias, WMLR
Questions about search engine bias have percolated in the academic
literature for over a decade. In the past few years, the issue has
evolved from a quiet academic debate to a full blown
http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume38/documents/3.Goldman.pdf

Damaged Ocean Cable Cripples Internet In East Africa, NPR
In East Africa, the Internet has slowed to a crawl thanks to a
disruption of the telecommunications pipeline serving the region. Over
the weekend, a ship dragging an anchor severed one of the three
undersea data cables linking countries that include Kenya, Rwanda and
Ethiopia to the Middle East and Europe. It may take about three weeks
to fix. Audie Cornish talks to Solomon Moore, East Africa
correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/01/147752412/damaged-undersea-cable-cripples-internet-in-east-africa?ft=1&f=1019

CRTC Finds More Rogers Throttling Violations - Pursues ISP Despite
Pledge to Stop Throttling Completely, DSLReports
From crippling encryption and VPNs to throttling legitimate apps and
games like World of Warcraft, Canadian cable operator Rogers has been
the poster boy for ham fisted network management, accounting for
nearly half of all network neutrality infractions in Canada.
Responding to repeated consumer and regulatory
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/CRTC-Finds-More-Rogers-Throttling-Violations-118636

Cloud Computing Update: Best Practices for Acquiring IT as a Service, CIO.gov
The Administration's Federal Cloud Computing Strategy requires
agencies to default to cloud-based solutions whenever a secure,
reliable and cost-effective cloud option exists – however, the move to
the cloud requires a dramatic shift in the way Federal agencies buy IT
– from capital expenditures to operating expenditures. With this shift
http://www.cio.gov/pages.cfm/page/Cloud-Computing-Update-Best-Practices-for-Acquiring-IT-as-a-Service

Roland L. Trope and Sarah Jane Hughes, Red Skies in the
Morning—Professional Ethics at the Dawn of Cloud Computing, WMLR
For three decades, the practice of law has adjusted to the incoming
tide of the Digital Era. The tide has not raised all boats. What has
required so much adjustment is the arrival of a succession of new
communications technologies.
http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume38/documents/4.Trope.pdf

EPIC Urges DHS to Abide by Privacy Laws When Conducting Technology
Research, Epic
Earlier this week, EPIC submitted comments to the DHS on "The Menlo
Report: Ethical Principles Guiding Information and Communication
Technology Research." DHS sought public views on the privacy
implications of ethical human subject research in information and
communication technology research. EPIC said that many federal privacy
laws, such as the Privacy Act of 1974, set out legal standard for how
government agencies should protect personal data.
http://epic.org/2012/03/epic-urges-dhs-to-abide-by-pri.html

Reading the Privacy Policies You Encounter in a Year Would Take 76
Work Days, Center for Internet and Society
no description
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/press/reading-privacy-policies-you-encounter-year-would-take-76-work-days

Protecting Your Privacy Amid Google Policy Changes, NPR
Starting on March 1, when you sign into Google and use its dozens of
popular services, it will combine that personal data to make a fuller
portrait of you and send more targeted ads. Host Michel Martin and The
Washington Post National Technology Reporter Cecilia Kang discuss what
concerned users can do.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=147643649&ft=1&f=1019

Google privacy rules break law, EU Justice Commissioner says, Globe
Data agencies of EU member states say Google' consolidation of 60
privacy guidelines into one violates the privacy
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGlobeAndMail-Technology/~3/mCMAj6vgWwA/

Multistakeholder Process to Develop Consumer Data Privacy Codes of Conduct, NTIA
NTIA is requesting comment on substantive consumer data privacy issues
that warrant the development of legally enforceable codes of conduct,
as well as procedures to foster the development of these codes. NTIA
invites public comment on these issues from all stakeholders with an
interest in consumer data privacy, including the commercial, academic
and civil society sectors, and from federal and state enforcement
agencies. Written comments may be submitted
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/federal-register-notice/2012/multistakeholder-process-develop-consumer-data-privacy-codes-conduct

Moving Forward with the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, NTIA
Last week the Obama Administration unveiled a Consumer Privacy Bill of
Rights, part of a comprehensive blueprint to improve consumers'
privacy protections in the information age and promote the continued
growth of the digital economy. These rights enumerate the specific
protections that consumers should expect from companies that handle
personal data, and set expectations for the companies that use
personal data. While the Administration will work with Congress to
enact legislation based on these rights, we are moving forward now to
put these principles into practice.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2012/moving-forward-consumer-privacy-bill-rights

Adam Pabarcus, Are "Private" Spaces on Social Networking Websites
Truly Private? The Extension of Intrusion upon Seclusion, WMLR
In 2006, Brian Pietrylo was a server at a Houston's restaurant
operated by Hillstone Restaurant Group in Hackensack, New Jersey.2
While working at Houston's, Pietrylo created a MySpace group called
the "Spec-Tator."
http://www.wmitchell.edu/lawreview/Volume38/documents/8.Pabarcus.pdf

AT&T on Cybersecurity Legislation, AT&T
"We commend the Senators for introducing the Strengthening and
Enhancing Cybersecurity by Using Research, Education, Information, and
Technology Act, and for their leadership in addressing a critically
important issue for the U.S. economy.
http://attpublicpolicy.com/cybersecurity/att-on-cybersecurity-legislation/

Keeping the NSA out of civilian cybersecurity: there's a reason, Tech
Liberation Front
Tomorrow Sen. John McCain, along with five other Republican senators,
plans to unveil a cybersecurity bill to rival the Lieberman-Collins
bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he plans to bring to the
Senate floor without an official markup by committee.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techliberation/~3/sPuqmjC8dFc/

Will NSA Power Grab Imperil Cybersec Consensus?, CDT
In recent weeks, policymakers have been working to reach consensus on
steps to strengthen the nation's cybersecurity capabilities, but the
National Security Agency's campaign to expand the military's role in
protecting private sector systems threatens to derail forward
movement.
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/jim-dempsey/2902will-nsa-power-grab-imperil-cybersec-consensus

Revision of SP 800-53 Addresses Current Cybersecurity Threats, Adds
Privacy Controls, NIST
A major revision of a Federal Information Security Management Act
(FISMA) publication released today by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) adds guidance for combating new
information security threats and ..
http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/sp800-022812.cfm

U.S. Wants You to Hunt Fugitives With Twitter, Wired
A worldwide manhunt kicks off at the end of March -- a search across
America and Europe for five fugitives, identifiable only by their mug
shots. The successful team of trackers not only gets a $5,000 bounty
from the U.S. State Department. They demonstrate to the planet's law
enforcement and intelligence agencies that they can hunt down fleeting
suspects using nothing but their wits and social media connections.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/politics/~3/gtp1w8SJ7gc/

Only The DOJ Knows: The Secret Law of Electronic Surveillance,
University of San Francisco Law Review
This article examines a troubling pattern in the application of
federal law enforcement surveillance statutes -- namely, those
portions of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (the
"ECPA") sometimes known as the Pen Register Statute ("PRS") and the
Stored Communications Act ("SCA") -- whereby federal prosecutors
secretly and routinely obtain court authorization for surveillance
that Congress did not intend and which may violate the Fourth
Amendment.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2009442

Darpa Warns: Your iPhone Is a Military Threat, Wired
There's a growing threat to the U.S. military, according to the
Pentagon's premier research wing. No, it's not Iran's nukes or China's
missiles. It's the iPads, Android phones and other gadgets we all
carry around with us every day.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/politics/~3/4DuMtsGbYf8/

FCC Extends Outage Reporting Requirements To All Interconnected VoIP
Providers, Telecom Law Monitor
On February 21, 2012, the Federal Communications Commission issued a
Report and Order ("Order") adopting outage reporting requirements for
both facilities-based and non-facilities-based interconnected Voice
over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") service providers on a mandatory basis
in order to further ensure reliable 9-1-1 service. Outage notification
and reporting requirements currently apply to a variety of voice
providers, including wireline carriers, CMRS providers,
http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/TelecomLawMonitor/~3/dB03NKPikhk/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where
they went."-Will Rogers
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Google Group :: cybertelecom-l

AUP :: www.cybertelecom.org/cybert.htm#aup
Cybertelecom is Off-the-Record. Otherwise play nicely.

Link to us! www.cybertelecom.org
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