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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 12 Issue 51
Volume 12, Issue 51 Atari Online News, Etc. December 17, 2010
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2010
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1251 12/17/10
~ Happy Holidays to All! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Old Catching Young!
~ Yahoo Prepares Layoff! ~ Yahoo To Kill Few Sites ~ Super Mario Turns 25!
~ Xbox 360 Is Most Used! ~ Gawker Hack Spreads! ~ TV, Internet the Same?
~ Add Schools, Libraries ~ New WOW Shatters Record ~ Facebook Hackers Cup!
-* Try To Block Net Neutrality! *-
-* Ruling: 4th Amendment Protects Email *-
-* Call for An Online Privacy Bill of Rights! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Okay, so I really screwed up last week! Some of you may only have noticed
one or two of my errors because I caught a couple before I updated our
various source sites, but the rest of you got hit with all barrels blazing!
I'll plead a case of having a "senior moment" along with a short bout of
having a brain f**t. Regardless, these were careless errors that should
have been caught. And I'll leave it that. Thanks to my pal Peter in the UK
for bringing the most glaring of errors to my attention!
So, I can't believe it's the end of the week again! This past week has flown
by so fast, I may have some whiplash! Only a week before the holiday - wow!
We have all of our shopping done - a small miracle in itself! There were a
couple of more things that were were seeking, but they're currently out of
stock or we want to wait until after the holiday for it. Not a problem.
Now it's just a matter of sorting gifts, wrapping them, and keeping them away
from the dogs, and each other for a few more days!
This past week we've seen a lot of bitter cold here in the Northeast, but we
were devoid of snow. A lot of the country wasn't so fortunate, and many
states are buried in the white stuff right now. We were supposed to get a
significant snow storm this weekend and into next week, but it will be moving
further out to sea than was initially anticipated. So, what we'll likely
see is a few flurries. I'm not complaining! Still, however, I'm going to
make sure that I have a full can of gas for the snow blower, and test it out
this weekend to make sure it's running well. You just never really know when
we'll get a sudden storm here in this part of the country!
Good luck making your final preparations for your holiday celebrations! Be
careful out on the roads, in the malls, and even online - 'tis the season
for unscrupulous characters!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. First of all, let me apologize for the
duplication in last week's column. It was my fault. Normally, if I'm going
to be late with a column, I ask Dana to use the late one for the following
week. This time I modified the column in a few places and re-sent it.
Well, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about this darned
weather. It's been cold here in the northeast. The kind of cold we
normally don't get until the middle of January or so. Of course, I can
remember my grandmother waxing nostalgic about "always having snow for
Thanksgiving" when she was a kid, so that serves as a reminder to me that
things change. Change isn't always a bad thing; change isn't always a good
thing. Change is just... change.
I mean, look at the way the computer world has changed in the past 50 or
so years. Heck, look at the way its changed in the past 20, or 10 or even
5 years. I can remember watching one television show or another where they
mentioned people using the internet... it was a 'future' show of some
sort, and kids were playing 'online games'. "How silly" I thought. I came
up with a handful of reasons right off the bat that something like that
could never come to be. First of all, the internet just wasn't set up to
do something like that. It was basically for academics and the military.
It wasn't a type of thing that most people could or would use. Then there
was the issue of computer 'strength'. Computers just weren't fast enough,
flexible enough. They didn't have enough memory or storage. The graphics,
if you could display them, would take way too long for even the best video
card of the day to render. There would never, I thought, be enough power
or speed to do that. And forget about watching anything like a movie. A
cartoon, maybe. But a movie? Nahhh. And even with all of that, I thought
that, the way technology kept progressing, 'they' might just make those
advances. Some brainiac at MIT or Stanford might figure out a way to beat
those problems. But the one thing that I didn't think would ever be
insurmountable was the need for bandwidth. Compression had taken us all
the way to 56K bits but that was, of course, dependent on how good your
phone line was, and line noise was still a major inconvenience. Sure, you
could try to compress the data more, but you still had to
compress/decompress it, and that takes CPU power and a big buffer. How
much more could we really expect to squeeze out of the standard copper
phone line?
Yeah, there were "T" lines (T-1, T-3.. remember those?), but they were
expensive. Far too expensive for most of us to have installed just to play
games or send emails. There was talk of fiber optics, even back then, but
those strands of fibers were quite expensive, and there were problems with
using light as well. So it looked to me like we were just going to be stuck
with 56K for quite a while.
Then came cable modems. They had their own problems, and I hated the idea
of paying the cable company any more than I had to already... but it was a
possibility. Not one I was particularly happy about, but a possibility
nonetheless.
No sooner had I decided that we were just going to have to deal with it as
a fact of life than some Einstein figured out that there's a whole other
piece of bandwidth that wasn't being used in copper telephone wire. And DSL
was born. It wasn't as fast as 'cable' could be at its best, but cable
then, as today, is rarely at its best. So the technology world showed me
up again, and a lot of use had the opportunity to add DSL onto our phone
bills. As soon as it was available in my area, I talked my boss into
getting it for the company. That allowed me to 'test' it before I decided
if I wanted to spend my own money on it. There were a few glitches, but
nothing insurmountable, and in general I thought it was very usable and
worth the price.
That was between five and six megabits per second ago. What blew my mind
as blazingly fast back then would now have me screaming in frustration at
what I would no doubt now consider a snail's pace.
So let's take a look back at how far we've come. Bandwidth that we could
only have dreamed of back then, fast machines, much better graphics, a
'usable' internet (thanks to the guys at CERN for the WWW), and
applications all over the place that allow us to do things we hadn't dared
to dream of back then.
One can only wonder what awaits us five or ten years down the road.
On another note, I want to make my by now familiar pitch for the soup
kitchens and shelters in your area. Get into the spirit and grab some
stuff from the grocery store or even from your own cupboard and drop it
off at anywhere that's having a food drive or at the shelter or soup
kitchen. And yeah, I'm going to mention dragging the kids into it too.
Show them that it's okay to give stuff away once in a while. Let them see
that it's a good feeling; that it's the giving that's the good part, not
getting credit for it. The simple act of helping someone else without
worrying about credit or anyone seeing you do it can be amazingly
satisfying. Try it and see.
Yeah, I know; times are tough for you too. You're just barely making it,
and it doesn't look like it's going to get much better in the short term.
But believe me, there are a lot of people out there that are a lot worse
off than you and me. It's not as bad as the early 80's, but its there.
There are people out there who need just a little bit more help. Let's
give it to them. You know what I mean... a couple of cans of soup, some
dry pasta, cereal, heck, even baby diapers and bottles and things that we
tend to take for granted.
And its the 'things we take for granted' that can be the real 'gotcha'.
There are needs that we take for granted every day... things that we just
assume are going to be there... and usually are. Things that we just never
pay any mind to until they're gone. For that reason, please also consider
donating a couple of bucks along with the canned and dry goods. It doesn't
have to be a lot of money. Even just a couple of bucks, added to everyone
else's couple of bucks, can make a big difference. Yes, I know, things are
tight. but there's a big difference between yours and my kind of 'tight'
and theirs. Sometimes ya just gotta do it, ya know? Think about it.
And the last thing I want to mention to you is that this is the time of
year that combines partying and occasional bad driving conditions. One of
them you can't do anything about, but the other you can... please don't
drink and drive. Like I usually tell you around this time of year: The
life you save may be MINE. [Grin]
Well, that's it for this time around. Tune in again next week, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Shatters!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Super Mario Bros. Turns 25!
Xbox 360 Most Used Console!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Shatters Gaming Record
Less than one month. That's how long it took for the video-game industry
to see yet another blockbuster title.
In November, Call of Duty: Black Ops shattered theatrical box office,
book and video-game sales records for a five-day worldwide sell-through
of more than $650 million. Now World of Warcraft: Cataclysm looks like
it might repeat the performance.
Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the popular World of Warcraft series,
announced that Cataclysm - the third in the series of the massively
multiplayer online role-playing game - sold more than 3.3 million
copies during its first 24 hours on the market.
That qualifies Cataclysm as the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The
previous record was 2.8 million-plus copies sold in 24 hours in November
2008. That was also a Blizzard title - and also a World of Warcraft
title: Wrath of the Lich King.
"We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but
the result was our best expansion yet," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and
cofounder of Blizzard. Before the launch of Cataclysm, World of
Warcraft's subscriber population had grown to more than 12 million
players globally.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, is seeing a strong season for
video games across the board this holiday shopping season. He pointed to
titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, as
well as Microsoft's success selling its Kinect peripheral for Xbox and
new Xbox 360s. But he also noted the growing popularity of
nontraditional games.
"Angry Birds racked up five million paid downloads with $1 million a
month worth of advertising revenue, according to reports. So it's not
just traditional game platforms, but also these new mobile gaming
platforms that really didn't exist a few years ago, that show consumers
are still very much interested in video games," Gartenberg said.
"Whether it's the hard-core user who is looking for a more traditional
game experience or a casual mobile user, games are going to be very
popular and we are going to see some impressive numbers this holiday
shopping season," he added.
Like Microsoft with its Kinect launch, Blizzard put a flurry of
marketing activity around the new title. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
was simultaneously released in the United States, Canada, Mexico,
Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New
Zealand on Dec. 7, and became available in Korea and the regions of
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on Dec. 9.
More than 10,000 stores throughout the world opened their doors at
midnight to serve players who wanted to be among the first to obtain a
copy of the expansion. In addition, approximately 15,000 players
attended official launch events hosted by Blizzard and key retail
partners in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, the
Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., and the region of Taiwan.
"World of Warcraft: Cataclysm delivered even bigger day-one sales than
we experienced with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty in July," said Bob
McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop, "making
this a record year for Blizzard Entertainment at GameStop."
Super Mario Bros. Turn 25 with 'All-Stars Limited Edition'
Mario and Luigi are practically senior citizens in the video game world.
Now that they've hit the ripe old age of 25, Nintendo has released the
"Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition" package, a compilation of four
Mario games and a soundtrack CD.
"Whether you've been a Mario fan for 25 years of are just now
discovering his games, this limited-edition collection is packed with
hours of fun," Mark Franklin, director of public relations for Nintendo
in the U.S., said in a statement. "These classic games, along with the
soundtrack CD and /Super Mario History/ booklet filled with rare concept
art, make this a must-have collection for every video game fan."
The collection of games for the Wii is offered for $29.99 "while
supplies last," Nintendo said. The featured games included in the bundle
are "Super Mario Bros.," "Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels," "Super
Mario Bros. 2," and "Super Mario Bros. 3."
Nintendo said that it's the first time music from Mario games, which
arguably have some of the most iconic sounds in gaming, have been
available in North America. The CD features music from the very first
edition of "Super Mario Bros" up to the most recently released
Mario-themed game, "Super Mario Galaxy 2."
The history booklet that comes with the anniversary collection includes
interviews and rare sketches, artwork, and photographs.
When it was first released in 1985, the original game sold more than 40
million units worldwide, and as technology has improved, Mario has
remained a popular video game character. Fans of the game can visit the
"Super Mario Bros. 25th anniversary site to commemorate the game's
milestone birthday.
Xbox 360 Most Used Console, Wii Most Played Offline
Microsoft's Xbox 360 is the most used console among users aged 13 or
older, according to a new survey from media tracker Nielsen. "Most used,"
meaning everything from playing games to watching movies or catching some
tunes to surfing the internet.
The company used metered console tracking (similar to the "people meter"
box the company employs to track TV and cable viewing habits) to gauge
"electronically measured hours," which revealed users ages 13 and older
spent 4.9 "total hours" a week with the Xbox 360, compared with 4.1
hours on the PlayStation 3 and 1.4 hours on the Wii.
Let's break that down. Males and females ages 13 and older spent 6.1 and
2.6 hours a week (respectively) using the Xbox 360, compared with 5.2
(males) and 2.1 (females) hours with Sony's PlayStation 3, or 1.7
(males) and 1.1 (females) hours with Nintendo's Wii.
Any surprises there? Perhaps. It's intriguing to see an apples-to-apples
usage comparison for a change. Install base figures have no impact on
these figures, since Nielsen's measuring equally sized populations.
That's only half the story, however. The company also breaks down use
time on each console by function (though we're back to user-reported
data here, as opposed to neutrally metered).
In share of console time among users ages 13 and older, 62% use the Xbox
360 to play video games, a figure that drops to just 49% for PlayStation
3 owners, but which soars to 69% for Wii owners.
How's that break down for online and offline games? 28% use the Xbox 360
to play online games, while just 19% use the PS3 for online gaming, and
a mere 12% play online games with the Wii.
By contrast, 27% use the PS3 to watch DVD or Blu-ray movies, compared
with 11% on the Xbox 360 (the Wii can't play DVD or Blu-ray movies).
Shift to streaming videos, however, and the Wii suddenly takes the lead
with 20% of console use time, compared with just 10% of time spent with
the Xbox 360 and 9% with the PS3.
Nielsen says it'll have more data to share in January 2011. I'll be
paying attention. These are already some of the most intriguing (and
legitimate) comparison metrics I've seen.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Gawker Hack Spreads to Twitter
Registered users of Gawker Media websites are being advised to change
their login information after e-mail addresses and password details for
200,000 users were released online after a weekend hack attack. What's
more, the thefts may have contributed to a spam attack on Twitter,
hijacking the sites of members who use the same logins for multiple sites.
Early on Monday, the head of Twitter's Trust and Safety team wrote that
a spam attack appeared to be under way on its service. The spam
advertises acai berries, a kind of diet aid.
"Got a Gawker acct that shares a PW w/your Twitter acct?," said Del
Harvey in a Twitter message. "Change your Twitter PW. A current attack
appears to be due to the Gawker compromise."
The websites affected include Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Gawker, Jezebel, io9,
Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin, and Fleshbot. Users are required to
register, providing their e-mail address and a password, in order to
leave comments on those websites.
A group named "Gnosis" claimed credit for the attack. The compromised
information is now available in a 487 MB file, which can be downloaded
from peer-to-peer networks using a torrent now indexed on The Pirate
Bay. Other information in the file includes something called
"gawker_redesign_beta.jpg" as well as Gawker's server kernel versions.
In the torrent release notes, Gnosis said "So, here we are again with a
monster release of ownage and data droppage. Previous attacks against
the target were mocked, so we came along and raised the bar a little."
The stored passwords were encrypted although Gnosis said some of the
passwords have already been cracked.
"We're deeply embarrassed by this breach," Gawker said on its website. "We
should not be in the position of relying on the goodwill of the hackers
who identified the weakness in our systems."
Those who linked their Twitter accounts with Gawker do not have to worry
about those passwords, Gawker said, while those who logged into Gawker
sites using Facebook Connect are safe as Gawker does not store those
passwords.
Gawker is recommending that anyone who has a registered account change
their password. If someone uses that the same password across other
sites, those passwords should be changed as well, Gawker recommended.
"We are in the process of notifying those users who associated an e-mail
address with their Gawker accounts," the company said, adding that it
will create a feature by which users can delete their account entirely.
Yahoo Preparing To Lay Off 600 to 700 Workers
Yahoo Inc.'s holiday trimmings will include 600 to 700 layoffs in the
Internet company's latest shake-up triggered by lackluster growth.
Employees could be notified of the job cuts as early as Tuesday, according
to a person familiar with Yahoo's plans. The person asked for anonymity
because Yahoo hadn't made a formal announcement.
The planned cutbacks represent about 5 percent of Yahoo's work force of
14,100 employees. It will mark Yahoo's fourth mass layoff in the past
three years.
The latest two housecleanings have come under the company's current CEO,
Carol Bartz, a Silicon Valley veteran hired nearly two years, despite a
lack of experience on the Web or in advertising - Yahoo's main source of
revenue.
This week's round of reductions is expected to be concentrated in
Yahoo's U.S. products group, which already has been undergoing an
overhaul since Bartz hired former Microsoft Corp. executive Blake Irving
to run the division last spring.
The job cuts won't come as a shock. News of the looming layoffs was
first reported last month by two popular technology blogs, TechCrunch
and All Things Digital.
Yahoo's feeble financial growth, stagnant stock price and recent
management defections have raised questions about whether Bartz herself
might be shown the door before her contract expires in January 2013.
The company's revenue had edged up by less than 2 percent to $4.8
billion through the first nine months of the year, reflecting the
difficulty Yahoo has had selling ads while other Internet companies such
as Google Inc. and Facebook are thriving.
Google's revenue climbed 23 percent to nearly $21 billion through the
first nine months of the year. Privately held Facebook doesn't disclose
its results but it is growing so fast that it had to move into larger
headquarters earlier this year.
The malaise has spurred speculation that opportunistic buyout firms
might put together a takeover bid for Yahoo, possibly in partnership
with another embattled Internet icon, AOL Inc.
Bartz, 62, has repeatedly insisted Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale,
is heading in the right direction, although she has cautioned it might
be another year or two before there's a significant improvement in the
company's financial results.
Besides Job Cuts, Yahoo Will Shut Down Web Sites
After mass layoffs earlier this week, Yahoo is taking its cost-cutting
knives to another area of the company. Yahoo is reportedly shutting down
Delicious, Yahoo Buzz, MyBlogLog and Alta Vista. So far, the only
confirmed closure is Yahoo Buzz.
"Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment
in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our
core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond," the
company told All Things Digital on Thursday.
"We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and
services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months
such as Yahoo! Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others," Yahoo said. "We will
communicate specific plans when appropriate."
"Yahoo is trying to rationalize and streamline its product lines,
especially after cutting heads this week," said Greg Sterling, principal
analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "People are most upset about
the possibility that Delicious will be shuttered."
To others, Sterling continued, all the changes seem to be further
evidence of Yahoo's decline or shrinking nature. As for the future of
Yahoo, Sterling said the Internet world will have to wait to see what
happens.
"Levinshon and Irving are smart people," Sterling said. "However, the
negative impact on morale has got to be significant. It's the latest in
a series of cuts and reorgs that have taken place over the past two
years."
Earlier this week, Yahoo cut 600 employees, about four percent of its
workforce. Yahoo employs about 14,000 workers in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Perhaps ironically, CEO Carol Bartz insisted Yahoo was still "hiring
every day" as recently as mid-November. Most of the job cuts are
expected to come from the product division.
Yahoo has been struggling for years. Enderle said Yahoo is still trying
to recover from shunning Microsoft's acquisition offer in 2008. The
software giant offered $44.6 billion to acquire Yahoo, a 62 percent
premium over Yahoo's stock at the time. But Yahoo snubbed Microsoft
repeatedly, even fighting off a hostile takeover.
In October, rumors swirled that AOL and several equity firms might buy
the Internet giant. Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are
among the firms that reportedly explored teaming with AOL to buy Yahoo,
or even taking it private.
Fourth Amendment Protects E-Mail, Appeals Court Rules
Call it a landmark decision. In an appeal of U.S. vs Warshak in the
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the judges have ruled that the
government needs a search warrant before it can covertly seize and
search e-mails stored by e-mail service providers.
In the controversial case that could have widespread implications, the
court decided that e-mail users have the same reasonable expectation of
privacy in their stored e-mail as they do in their phone calls and
postal mail.
"Given the fundamental similarities between e-mail and traditional forms
of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy
common sense to afford e-mails lesser Fourth Amendment protection ..."
the court wrote. "It follows that e-mail requires strong protection
under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove
an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose
it has long been recognized to serve."
"[T]he police may not storm the post office and intercept a letter, and
they are likewise forbidden from using the phone system to make a
clandestine recording of a telephone call - unless they get a warrant,
that is," the ruling said. "It only stands to reason that, if government
agents compel an ISP to surrender the contents of a subscriber's
e-mails, those agents have thereby conducted a Fourth Amendment search,
which necessitates compliance with the warrant requirement."
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the decision is the
only federal appellate decision that squarely rules on e-mail privacy.
The EFF said the issue is made all the more important by the fact that
current federal law - in particular, the Stored Communications Act -
allows the government to secretly obtain e-mails without a warrant in
many situations.
"We hope that this ruling will spur Congress to update that law as EFF
and its partners in the Digital Due Process coalition have urged, so
that when the government secretly demands someone's e-mail without
probable cause, the e-mail provider can confidently say: 'Come back with
a warrant,'" said Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at EFF.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, called the ruling a good and important decision. As he sees it,
the ruling helps answer a critical question in the world of e-mail -
which is whether there is Fourth Amendment protection for e-mail beyond
what a federal statute provides.
"The Sixth Circuit has found that, yes, there is constitutional
protection for stored e-mail communication, which is sensible, of
course, because people do have an expectation of privacy of confidential
messages, whether transmitted through a wire or through an envelope,"
Rotenberg said.
He doesn't expect the government to appeal the decision, but he also
doubts these types of issues will go away because constant evolution of
messaging networks and new technologies will pose new legal challenges.
"I do think we should be guided by the Constitution," Rotenberg said.
"The Constitution adapts to new practices. If we are sending personal
messages by e-mail as opposed to the Pony Express, we should still have
constitutional safeguards."
New Report Calls for Online Privacy Bill of Rights
The Commerce Department is calling for the creation of a "privacy bill of
rights" for Internet users to set ground rules for companies that collect
consumer data online and use that information for marketing and other
purposes.
The proposal, outlined in a report Thursday, is intended to address
growing unease about the vast amounts of personal information that
companies are scooping up on the Internet - from Web browsing habits to
smart phone locations to Facebook preferences. That data is often mined
to target advertising.
The new report is intended to guide lawmakers, industry and a White
House group looking at the issues surrounding Internet privacy.
It comes two weeks after the Federal Trade Commission recommended the
creation of a "Do Not Track" tool to let consumers stop or restrict
advertisers from studying their online activity - including the websites
they visit, the links they click, their Internet searches and their
online purchases - in order to target ads.
The Commerce Department report proposes the creation of a broad
framework for industry behavior to ensure that companies give consumers
clear notice about what personal data they are collecting and exactly
how they are using it.
It would require companies to give consumers the opportunity to "opt
out" of, or decline, some or all of that data collection and to correct
errors in the information. And it would set clearer limits on the use of
this information and require companies to secure the data they gather.
These so-called "fair information principles" would require
congressional action to become binding. At least one key lawmaker,
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said
Thursday that he supports such legislation.
The Commerce Department report also envisions specific codes of conduct
for particular types of companies, such as social network sites;
services that deliver location-based pitches to mobile devices; and Web
publishers and marketers that target ads based on a consumer's online
behavior.
Those codes of conduct would be voluntary, but enforceable. The FTC
could take actions against companies that commit to abide by them and
then don't comply.
In what could become one of the more controversial elements of the
Commerce Department proposal, the codes would be developed by Internet
advertising networks, Web publishers and marketers, social networking
sites and other online services, as well as government officials,
consumer groups, privacy watchdogs and others concerned about Internet
privacy.
The report recommends the formation of a federal privacy office inside
the Commerce Department to bring these stakeholders together to hammer
out the new codes of conduct.
While the proposal to create such an office signals that the Obama
administration is elevating the importance of Internet privacy, the
decision to place it inside Commerce has alarmed some privacy watchdogs.
They complain that the department is more concerned about protecting
corporate interests, than consumer needs - as evidenced by its
willingness to let the industry help write the new rules.
"Having the Commerce Department play a role in protecting privacy will
enable the data collection foxes to run the consumer privacy henhouse,"
said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital
Democracy, a privacy group.
Meanwhile, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which represents the
online advertising business, praised the new Commerce Department report
for recognizing the importance of including the industry in developing
rules to safeguard consumer privacy online. IAB added that the report
validates the industry's own efforts at self-regulation.
The report, which has been approved by the White House, is intended to
guide Internet companies and marketers as well as lawmakers and policy
makers as they develop a new framework to safeguard consumer privacy on
the Internet without stifling Internet commerce.
It also will inform the work of a subcommittee on privacy and Internet
policy that was created inside the White House's National Science and
Technology Council in October and shares the same goal.
"Consumers must trust the Internet in order for businesses to succeed
online," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement.
Commerce officials hope their report will also lay the groundwork for
discussions with foreign governments to align global standards for
acceptable industry behavior. The European Union, for one, has said it
plans to update its privacy regulations to give consumers more control
over their online data.
The Commerce Department report does not take a position on the FTC's Do
Not Track proposal, which is at the center of a debate over how to give
consumers more control over their online information. The tool would
most likely take the form of a browser setting that would let consumers
signal to websites that they do not want to be tracked or want only
limited tracking.
Although privacy watchdogs have welcomed the FTC proposal, the online
advertising industry has warned that allowing consumers to turn off all
online tracking could have unintended consequences because tracking is
used to deliver all sorts of personalized Web content - from sports
scores to stock prices - and not just Internet ads.
Other recommendations in the Commerce Department report include
establishing national standards on data breaches that would require
companies to notify consumers in the event of a breach. Most states
already have such laws, but those laws are often inconsistent.
The report also called for a review of the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act, a 1986 law that extended wiretapping restrictions to e-mail
messages and other data files, but is now considered out of date.
Hutchison Again Tries To Block Net Neutrality
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), along with several Republicans,
filed an amendment to the omnibus appropriations bill making its way
through the Senate to bar the Federal Communications Commission from
enforcing network neutrality.
Sen. Hutchison, the ranking member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Committee, co-sponsored the amendment to H.R. 3082 with
Senators Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.),
John Ensign (R-Nev.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), John Thune (R-S.D), and
Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
The House of Representatives already passed the bill, 212-206, on Dec.
8. It must pass through the Senate, then be signed by President Obama
into law. The bill includes a controversial two-year pay freeze for some
federal employees that has angered lawmakers on both sides.
"None of the funds appropriated by this Act may be used by the Federal
Communications Commission to adopt or implement, or otherwise bring or
litigate (1) any claim or otherwise intervene in, join, participate, or
support any claim in any Federal or State court relating to any open
Internet-based rules, protocols, or standards; or (2) rules, protocols, or
standards regulating the behavior of broadband Internet access service
providers with respect to discrimination of broadband traffic, network
management practices, managed services, specialized services, or paid
prioritization," the amendment states.
In a statement, Sen. Hutchison said that the FCC's network neutrality
plan should be blocked. "The FCC chairman's attempt to impose new
government regulations on the Internet is unnecessary government
overreach that will stifle future innovation," she said in a statement.
Hutchison's amendment isn't the first time that the senator has tried to
block the FCC's attempts to enforce network neutrality. In Sept. 2009,
Hutchison filed an amendment to another appropriations bill that would bar
the FCC from spending money on crafting and implementing regulatory
changes.
On Dec. 1, the Federal Communications Commission confirmed that it will
vote on a net neutrality proposal at its December 21 meeting. FCC
Chairman Julius Genachowski provided an outline of the plan on which
commissioners will vote, which is similar to the one proposed in October
2009, but does not reclassify broadband as a telecom service.
The plan outlined by Genachowski includes five basic points: meaningful
transparency; a ban on blocking lawful apps and services; a ban on
unreasonable network management; an allowance for a certain amount of
ISP network management; and rules governing wireless that calls for
transparency and a basic no-blocking rule.
None of these proposals are all that different from the original plan
Genachowski proposed in October 2009.
Lawmakers Want Net Neutrality for Schools, Libraries
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission should expand network
neutrality rules to providers of broadband service to schools, libraries
and other community institutions when it votes on new regulations next
week, three Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives said.
Representatives Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Doris Matsui and Anna
Eshoo, both of California, sent a letter to the FCC on Friday, saying
it's "critically important" that schools, colleges and libraries are
protected by net neutrality rules.
Their letter comes after the American Library Association, the Association
of Research Libraries and Educause raised concerns earlier this week that
net neutrality rules proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski would
apply to providers of residential broadband services and not to so-called
community anchor institutions.
"Leaving these critical institutions out of the proposal will create a
gaping hole in the FCC's net neutrality safeguards," said the letter.
"Many community anchor institutions purchase standard access to the
public Internet from broadband Internet service providers and simply
cannot and do not negotiate their own terms or conditions unlike large
corporations ..."
In many communities, libraries are the only place for residents to get
free Internet access, the letter added.
The FCC is scheduled to vote on Genachowski's proposal on Tuesday.
Matsui, Eshoo and Markey said they applaud the FCC's decision to move
forward with net neutrality rules.
Several other lawmakers have blasted Genachowski for pushing the rules
forward, however.
Genachowski's proposal is in "direct contradiction" to testimony he made
in March before a House committee, said Representative Mike Rogers, a
Michigan Republican. Genachowski said then he was not in favor of
regulating the Internet.
FCC officials have disputed that new net neutrality rules would amount
to Internet regulation.
Genachowski has called for the FCC to act on formal rules after an April
U.S. appeals court decision striking down the FCC's attempt to enforce
informal net neutrality principles in a case involving Comcast's slowing
of peer-to-peer traffic.
"The FCC is not a legislating body," Rogers wrote in a Thursday letter
to Genachowski. "If this vote is successful, I intend to work with my
colleagues to immediately move to enact a disapproval resolution ... as
well as subpoena the commission to a hearing examining your reasoning
for ignoring the D.C. Circuit Court."
Also this week, Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, and 28 other
GOP senators sent a letter to Genachowski urging the FCC to abandon the
net neutrality rules.
"The Internet has flourished over the last 20 years because of, not
despite, a lack of government control and involvement," the letter said.
"If the commission does adopt your plan to impose new regulations on the
Internet, the cost of that action will be measured in investments
forgone, innovations stifled, and most importantly, jobs lost. With
America's economy in such a fragile state, the last thing the government
needs to do is burden the private sector with more ill-advised
regulatory red tape."
Genachowski first proposed that the FCC reclassify broadband as a
regulated, common-carrier service in order to get around the limits of
the court order, but his latest proposal would create net neutrality
rules without reclassification. Several longtime advocates for net
neutrality rules have criticized that proposal, saying it doesn't
provide strong protections for mobile broadband users and it contains
several loopholes for broadband providers.
Old Catching Up to Young on US Internet
Older folks are closing ground on youngsters quick to leap on hot Internet
trends such as social networking and online shopping, according to a Pew
Research Center study.
While members of a Millennial Generation made up people ages 18 to 33 are
still way ahead in areas such as using smartphones to connect online, their
dominance is slipping in many Internet arenas, the US study concluded.
"Even in areas that are still dominated by Millennials, older generations
are making notable gains," study authors said in their findings.
"Some of the areas that have seen the fastest rate of growth in recent
years include older adults' participation in communication and entertainment
activities online, especially in using social network sites such as
Facebook."
Approximately half of "Younger Boomers" ages 46-55 used online social
networks in May as compared to just 20 percent two years earlier,
according to the study.
The fastest adoption of social networks took place with people 74 years
of age or older, with use quadrupling in two years to 16 percent of the
group, the study found.
Overall use of online social networks by US adults of all ages nearly
doubled in two years to 61 percent, while 83 percent of Millennials are
members of such Internet communities, according to the research.
While Millennials are still more prone to watch online video, other
generations are adopting the habit.
About 55 percent of "Older Boomers" ages 56 to 64 have watched video
online, as have one-in-five members of the "G.I. Generation" ages 74 and
older.
Older Internet users were also taking increasingly to getting news online.
Millennials were more inclined to send text messages or play online
games, while older folks were more likely to visit government websites
or check financial information on the Internet.
Online activities that proved popular to Internet users of all ages
included shopping, banking, email, searches, and rating products or
services.
"Searching for health information, an activity that was once the primary
domain of older adults is now the third most popular online activity for
all internet users 18 and older," the study said.
The only online activity that had its popularity eroded was blogging,
with people evidently opting to express themselves in forms such as
Twitter messages and Facebook status updates, according to the research.
Parents Start To See TV, Internet The Same
No TV for a week, the time-honored punishment for misbehaving children,
has been enhanced. Now, parents are also withholding Internet access to
punish their kids, further sign that the Web has become as important to
families as television.
As the two mediums converge, parents are quickly coming to see TV and
the Internet in similar ways and are seeking to limit their kids' access
to both, according to a report out this week from researchers at the
University of Southern California.
The survey from the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future found
that two-thirds of parents say they restrict their kids' access to TV as
punishment, a number that has barely budged over the past 10 years. But
the percentage of parents who limit Internet access as a form of
punishment has nearly doubled in the last decade.
Among parents surveyed this spring, 57 percent said they withheld Web
access to punish their kids. That is up from 32 percent in 2000.
Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the center, said parents are
starting to not see a big distinction between TV watching and Internet
use. Even so, parents are still more comfortable with the amount of time
kids spend on the Internet - 71 percent said it was "just about right"
compared with just 51 percent for TV.
Earlier surveys by the center have shown that families are spending less
time together than they used to, a decline that has coincided with the
explosive growth of social networks in the past few years.
Now, parents are saying Internet access at home is also reducing the
time their children spend with their friends face-to-face. Gilbert
called this a worrisome trend, though noted that the number of parents
to report this is still small - 11 percent in 2010 compared with 7
percent in 2000.
Of course, the Internet and social networks also make it easier to
communicate and they help families stay in touch with loved ones.
"The answer is never about technology. It's always about parental
responsibility," Gilbert said. But he noted that the explosive growth of
digital technology has made it increasingly difficult for parents to
monitor what their kids are doing.
The 2010 survey was conducted in April among about 2,000 Americans over
the age of 12. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage
points.
Facebook Holds Inaugural "Hackers Cup"
Facebook is challenging software hotshots around the world to show their
mettle in the online social networking king's first "Hackers Cup."
Facebook is taking its tradition of all-night "hackathons" to a higher
level with an international coding competition promising top contenders
cash, glory, and a free trip to the company's Northern California
headquarters.
The contest consists of a set of online rounds that kick off in January
and a final round in March held at Facebook's campus in the Silicon
Valley city of Palo Alto.
Facebook will pay for the top 25 contestants in the online rounds to
come to California for the final stage of the competition.
The first place finisher is promised 5,000 dollars and will no doubt
catch the eye of recruiters at Facebook. Details about the contest can
be found at a Hackers Cup page at Facebook.
=~=~=~=
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