Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

Why the FCC Will Get Media Ownership Wrong Again, And What They Should Do to Get it Right, by Mark Lloyd, Center for American Progress, January 26, 2007.

Whatever happened to the FCC’s obligation to consider the public interest? Well, that depends on what the meaning of the public interest is. As long as the FCC defines the public interest as some sort of competition in media markets, then the FCC can assure Congress that letting Clear Channel get bigger is in the public interest….

But what if the FCC did something that was really new? What if it defined the public interest in a way that actually seemed to coincide with what most of us think that means? What if the FCC defined the public interest to mean the best interests of a democratic public? What if the FCC created an index that could really show the relationship between media ownership and what local citizens know about government?

Mark Lloyd is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

The End of the Internet?

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, wrote this article back in February. In fact, we probably blogged about it right here because net neutrality is a HUGE issue for libraries. And if you didn’t get a chance to read the article the first time around, Amy Goodman has a very good interview with Chester on today’s Democracy Now. Give it a listen. It’s incredibly pertinent. (This is part one with part 2 being broadcast tomorrow).

And for those of you in the bay area, be sure to go to the EFF fundraiser next thursday April 20th. There’s to be a panel discussion about pay email and net neutrality between Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0, CNET’s quarterly technology-industry newsletter, Danny O’Brien, Activist coordinator for EFF, and Mitch Kapor, President and Chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation. T

The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
–Jeff Chester, “The End of the Internet?”

The Lion, The Witch and The World Trade talks

A hoax press-release describing Narnia’s ambassador’s dissatisfaction with the current round of World Trade Organization talks was picked up and run as news by many outlets including Forbes.

ABA Journal: Librarians Lead Legal Battles Over the Patriot Act, Copyright, Tech Issues

All right! Just as the American Bar Association writes that ALA is becoming a force to be reckoned with as Òone of the most active players in legal fights over technology, copyright, national security, censorship and privacy lawÓ, I ran across this resolution CD #20.7 (which was a bitch to find on ALA’s website; when are they switching over to a new CMS and will it be open-source?!) passed at ALA’s Annual conference in Chicago regarding wireless broadband.

I’m so glad ALA has a dog in this fight. Here’s what I’d like to see in any municipal WiFi system:

1) Low or *preferably* no cost WiFi access (low = less than $10/month). Costs should be covered by the businesses using the network to conduct business, not by the citizens accessing the network. Citizens *should not* have to subsidize businesses more than they already are! There could also be an addition of 1/4 cent (or some small fraction, I haven’t worked out the math) on the municipal sales tax devoted specifically to supporting the network.

2) Low or no barriers to accessing the network. This means not having to fill in forms, give personal information, or any of that stuff. We should just be able to turn on our computers and connect, securely and privately!

3) Support for low-income families including computer training and heavily subsidized laptop purchases. The Digital Divide will not go away unless ALL of us pitch in to assure that ALL of us have access to the “information society”.

RESOLVED, the American Library Association support legislation, including S.1294, that protects the rights of municipal governments to provide broadband wireless networks to their communities;

and be it further RESOLVED that, the American Library Association oppose H.R. 2726 because it denies municipal governments the right to locally determine broadband deployment thus making
broadband wireless development the exclusive purview of corporate entities;

be it further RESOLVED that, the American Library Association encourage its state chapters, affiliates and others in the library community to monitor and participate in debates on state legislation or policy proposals in order to ensure that local governments are not prohibited from providing broadband wireless networks to their residents, businesses and educational institutions;

and be it further RESOLVED that, the American Library Association continue to work with allies and
coalitions, such as the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties to preserve local governmentsÕ rights to determine how broadband wireless deployment is to be instituted within their communities and institutions.

[Thanks Jessamyn!]

MuniWireless article series

Libraries are all about access to information right? Then librarians should be talking about and advocating for municipal wireless networks. Wireless should be seen as just one more public utility (water, sewer, …) that should be supported by city governments.

Currently, 34 U.S. cities and 50 foreign cities have deployed Wi-Fi, while an additional 19 U.S. cities and 15 foreign ones have deployed more narrowly targeted “hot zones” in their urban cores, according to muniwireless.com. Here in San Diego, we have the SoCal Freenet building a wireless network in Golden Hills, with coverage planned for other areas like Bario Logan and City Heights. Perhaps the most well-known municipal wireless story is unfolding in Philadelphia, where the city is building a WiFi network, but companies like Verizon are fighting it, saying the city shouldn’t be competing with the private sector. Lessig had something to say about that in Nov, 2004. And there was a story on Talk of the Nation in April, 2005 discussing municipal wireless services with, among others, Declan McCullagh from CNet.

Unfortunately, there are bills before Congress that could bar states from allowing municipal broadband in areas served by the private sector, as well as measures to restrict the provision of municipal broadband in the 14 states that already provide it.

As the nation’s telecommunications laws are being drastically re-written (see the other recent posts on the FCC and broadband), I believe we’re seeing a codification of the digital divide. And this, my friends, is bad for libraries and really bad for citizens. Keep track of WiFi here (WiFiNetNews), here (Community Wireless), and here (Wireless Libraries).

White House Urges Newsweek to Repair Damage Caused by Report - New York Times (registration may be required. If so, go to BugMeNot)

Does anyone else see a problem here? Newsweek has retracted its story about Gitmo interogators flushing of the Quran. They did this not because it was a false statement but because the Bush administration forced them to out of concern for US image abroad — which is already where the Gitmo copy of the Quran may or may not be. Is there more proof needed that our government is manipulating our media?

Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine decided to publish the short item after hearing from an unnamed U.S. official that a government probe had found evidence a Quran had been flushed down a toilet by interrogators.

But on Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military’s investigation concluded ”it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration.” The spokesman also said the Pentagon had looked into other charges by detainees that the Quran had been desecrated and found them to be ”not credible.”

Whitaker said the magazine’s original source later said he could not be sure he had read about the alleged Quran incident in the report Newsweek cited and that it might have been in another document.

Free Press : 2005 National Conference for Media Reform

It’s happening this weekend in St Louis. You don’t have to be there to get in on the action. According to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now (in an interview with Urbana IMC’s Sasha Meinrath!), Bill Moyers will make his first public statement on the growing controversy over PBS at the plenary session on sunday.

There’s a live video stream starting at 6pm PST today and audio files of panels and sessions. There are also bloggers galore including media geek.

Check out the list of speakers:

Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange, Code Pink
David Brock, Media Matters for America
Laura Flanders, Author, radio host
Bill Fletcher, TransAfrica Forum
Al Franken, Air America Radio
Kim Gandy, Nat’l Organization for Women
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Juan Gonzalez, NY Daily News
Robert Greenwald, Director, Outfoxed
Jim Hightower, Author, Commentator
Janine Jackson, FAIR
Naomi Klein, Author, Columnist
George Lakoff, Author, Professor
Robert McChesney, Founder, Free Press
Victor Navasky, The Nation
John Nichols, Founder, Free Press
Diane Watson, U.S. House

Public Knowledge - Broadcast Flag Court Challenge

Well, it’s more than TIVO fans, it’s anyone who uses electronics. The FCC’s broadcast flag has been shot down by the US Court of Appeals! This is a major victory for libraries as it strengthens the fair use doctrine of the copyright law — ALA, AALL, Medical Library Assn, Special Library Assn etc filed the lawsuit along with Public Knowledge and others. The broadcast flag would’ve required future digital television (DTV) tuners to include DRM technologies.

From the opinion (PDF):

The insurmountable hurdle facing the FCC in this case is that the agency’s general jurisdictional grant does not encompass the regulation of consumer electronics products that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission.

Here’s some background on the broadcast flag from wikipedia. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also has some in-depth information.

And Now For Some *Real* Radio / Last week: The death of corporate rock radio. This week: Readers extol glorious alternatives. Listen up!

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Hey all you podcasters out there. There are *tons* of alternatives to clear channel and this article lists some of them. Check them all out, but make sure to check out underheard.

Business > White House Drops Effort to Relax Media Ownership Rules” h ref=”http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/business/27cnd-media.html?ex=1264568400&en=b0f560bbece8fb57&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland”>White House Drops Effort to Relax Media Ownership Rules

This is great news. However, there’s a cloud in this silver lining (see quote below). The FCC didn’t want the SC to take the case because they want to keep hammering away at first amendment issues with the stringent indecency rules that Powell put into place. I’m sure there will be more to come.

Officials said one reason the administration decided not to seek Supreme Court review is that some lawyers were concerned that the case could prompt the justices to review related First Amendment issues in a way that could undermine efforts by the commission to enforce indecency rules against television and radio broadcasters. Over the last year, the agency has issued a record number and size of fines, and has been pressed by some conservative and other advocacy groups to be more aggressive.