May 2011

The top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee want the Federal Communications Commission to kill the fairness doctrine once and for all.

The doctrine requires broadcasters to air opposing points of view but the FCC ruled in 1987 that it would stop enforcing it. Republicans in recent years, however, have voiced concern that the FCC may try to revive the rule in some way, citing past comments from FCC Associate General Counsel Mark Lloyd on the doctrine and his criticisms that talk radio is not balanced.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that he does not support reinstatement of the fairness doctrine.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., wrote Genachowski on Tuesday to urge him to formally remove from the Code of Federal Regulations the doctrine and rules allowing for those who are attacked by a broadcaster's editorial to respond on air. They pointed to President Obama's recent executive order asking agencies to abandon unwarranted regulations and noted that the chairman has directed the agency to follow the order even though it does not apply to the FCC.

"The Fairness Doctrine, political-editorial and personal attack rules would seem like and easy place to start since the FCC has already abandoned them based on the principles you say you continue to support," Upton and Walden wrote.

They called on Genachowski to reply by Friday on whether he will comply with their request and to provide an estimate on how long it will take him to remove the rules.

Critics of AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile have flooded inboxes at the Federal Communications Commission, but after Tuesday, AT&T gets a turn to officially fire back.

Tuesday was the deadline for opponents to file formal "petitions to deny," which ask the FCC to block the merger. Now AT&T and its supporters have until June 10th to respond to those petitions and convince federal regulators that the deal should go forward.

"Today, we'll begin to see evidence of the strong public support our merger has generated - and it is perhaps the broadest, deepest range of public interest support ever filed at the FCC in support of any transaction," wrote AT&T vice president Jim Cicconi in a blog post Tuesday. He said support for the merger has only been growing.

But that's not the view of other wireless companies and consumer advocacy groups who have voiced active opposition to the deal.

"This outcome may be a good deal in the short term for the executives and shareholders of these two companies, but it's a raw deal for the American public. The FCC must reject this merger," said Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, one of the groups to file petitions Tuesday.

How much impact the petitions actually have on the FCC decision is unclear. FCC officials will look at the issues raised in the filings and all the petitions will be rejected or approved collectively.

For more on Tuesday's FCC petitions, as well as new support for the merger, visit our Tech page.

The Commerce Department voiced approval of the House's patent reform legislation Tuesday, signaling much needed support for an issue that has been bogged down in Congress for the better part of a decade.

In a letter to the bill's sponsor, House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said he supports an amended version of the House legislation. Locke reiterated support for a Senate version of patent reform that passed in March.

"These two bills are identical in many respects, and we are confident that the variations between the two can be resolved and that enactment of a bipartisan consensus bill is within reach," Locke wrote. "We look forward to working with Congress toward prompt passage of legislation that will enable more timely and quality-focused examination of patent applications, establish a secure funding mechanism for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and reduce litigation uncertainties and costs."

Locke said he will work with lawmakers to make some revisions to USPTO fee setting authority and the way patents are litigated.

The House legislation is expected to come up for a floor vote as soon as the week of June 13.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced Tuesday that he has appointed Harvard law and computer science professor Jonathan Zittrain to serve as the agency's distinguished scholar.

Zittrain is considered an expert on many Internet-related issues and helped co-found Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In a statement, Genachowski said Zittrain would work on issues related to 21st century communications networks from the FCC's Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis.

Genachowski described Zittrain as "one of the world's leading strategic thinkers on communications policy in the 21st century."

In an e-mail response, Zittrain said he will be working part time at the FCC and does not plan to take a leave from Harvard.

Zittrain is only the second person to hold the post as distinguished scholar at the FCC. He will succeed Duke University law professor Stuart Benjamin.

Nearly 20 percent of all American adults now use the Internet to make phone calls, according to a new survey released Monday from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

The findings show a big jump from 2007, when 6 percent of adults reported using the Internet to make calls. Overall, 24 percent of all Internet users said in the latest survey that they make phone calls online.

"People are becoming more aware of it and the devices themselves are little bit more enabling of it," Pew Internet & American Life Project Director Lee Rainie said,

The survey includes both users of video telephone services such as Skype and those who use Internet services such as a Vonage plan to make phone calls using their home telephone.

Hispanics were the biggest users, with 27 percent reporting they use the Internet to make phone calls compared with 21 percent of both blacks and whites. The survey also found that Internet phone users were more likely to be 18-29 years old, college educated and earning more than $75,000 a year.

The survey will likely be good news to Microsoft, which announced earlier this month that it is buying Skype for $8.5 billion.

The survey of 846 adults was conducted April 26 through May 22 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent.

Hack attacks over the weekend show that defense contractors, public TV and even members of Congress are vulnerable.

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner has hired a lawyer after someone hacked into his Twitter account and sent a woman a picture of a man's bulging underpants.

Cyber attacks at defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp and PBS show how widespread corporate breaches have become, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cyber attacks can mean war, the Pentagon says.

Could it be true? The Washington Post hints that iPads have supplanted Blackberries in parts of Washington.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take a break from medical leave to deliver the keynote speech at next week's Apple conference in San Francisco.

Twitter will announce a photo-sharing service at the D9 conference in California this week.

Korean electronics maker Samsung has asked a federal judge to make Apple give it samples of its next-generation iPhone and iPad.

The demand is part of an ongoing trademark battle between Apple and Samsung. Earlier this month, Apple asked Samsung to reveal several of its newest smartphones and tablets as part of the discovery phase of a lawsuit Apple filed against Samsung.

The court is requiring "reciprocal disclosure".

Samsung on Friday asked a U.S. District Court judge in California to force Apple to give it "a sample of the final, commercial version of the next generation iPhone that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the 'iPhone 4S,' 'iPhone 5,' or some other name."

The Korean company made a similar demand for "the next generation iPad that Apple will release, whether that product will be known as the 'iPad 3,' 'Third Generation iPad,' or some other name."

Hackers attacked U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin last week, but did not get hold of data from customers, programs or employees, the company says.

Lockheed Martin said on Saturday night its information systems network had been the target of a "significant and tenacious attack," but said that its security team detected the intrusion "almost immediately and took aggressive actions to protect all systems and data," according to PC World.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense offered help, Bloomberg reports.

The impact on the military "is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect," Lieutenant Colonel April Cunningham, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail quoted by Bloomberg.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, cyber attacks on agencies jumped 39 percent to 41,776 in 2010, up from 30,000 in 2009. The OMB also notes that the federal government spent about $12 billion on IT security, or about 15 percent of the roughly $80 billion total IT budget.

But Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, told National Journal in April that a few sensational events make the overall cyber threat seem worse than it really is.

Google unveils its new wallet. But there are security concerns and Paypal isn't too happy, either.

US Chamber of Commerce says White House cyber plan goes too far.

Skepticism in Congress over proposed AT&T, T-Mobile combo

Israelis, Palestinians go to war . . . over Twitter

Google, Facebook and mobile-phone operators want to ease tensions over who will pay for wireless networks.

LinkedIn Corp in China looking for ways to capitalize on its big user base

Oh no! Anything but that!

Shoppers soon will be able to use mobile phones to pay for things at the checkout counter under a system unveiled by Google Inc and other major companies.

House lawmakers sharply questioned executives of AT&T and T-Mobile's owner Deutsche Telekom on Thursday, delving into some esoteric issues rarely discussed outside Federal Communications Commission meetings.

At a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., expressed concern that a merger between AT&T and T-Mobile would harm competition in the market for what's referred to as "backhaul."

Backhaul is when a landline phone company such as AT&T sells access to its network to wireless companies. Unlike many smaller wireless companies, AT&T and Verizon own significant landline networks.

"We're reassembling a duopoly in the back end," Issa said.

But AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said there many other options besides AT&T and Verizon for backhaul services.

Other concerns aired at the hearing included potential job losses, competition, and extending coverage to rural areas. For more on the hearing, visit our Tech page.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., renewed his fight over online piracy legislation Thursday by announcing he will again block it from moving to the Senate floor.

Wyden said he has placed a "hold" on the legislation, which was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. The bill, sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is aimed at cracking down on foreign websites that offer pirated content and counterfeit goods. A hold prevents Senate leadership from obtaining agreement to bring a bill to the floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., could get around a hold by seeking a cloture vote, which would require 60 votes, on allowing the bill to proceed to the floor for debate.

"In December of last year I placed a hold on similar legislation, commonly called COICA, because I felt the costs of the legislation far outweighed the benefits. After careful analysis of the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA, I am compelled to draw the same conclusion," Wyden said in a statement Thursday. "I understand and agree with the goal of the legislation, to protect intellectual property and combat commerce in counterfeit goods, but I am not willing to muzzle speech and stifle innovation and economic growth to achieve this objective."

A group of Internet engineers released a paper Thursday that raised concerns with a provision in the bill that would require Internet service providers to redirect requests for domain names linked to websites that offer pirated content or counterfeit goods. The paper notes that the engineers do not oppose strong enforcement of intellectual property rights. "The DNS [domain name system] filtering requirements in the PROTECT IP Act, however, raise serious technical concerns," it said.

A spokeswoman for Leahy said he did not have any comment on Wyden's move, saying the Judiciary Committee's unanimous vote for the bill speaks for itself.

The bill is strongly backed by IP groups who argue that law enforcement needs more tools to address the growing threat to U.S. innovation posed by rogue foreign websites. Such sites offer illegal access to U.S. television shows and movies and counterfeit or stolen copies of U.S. drugs, luxury items and other goods.

"Today's decisive action by the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the PROTECT IP Act sends a clear message that rogue sites--those devoted to the sale of counterfeit goods or distribution of pirated content--have no place in the legitimate marketplace," David Hirschmann, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center, said in a statement.

The Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus released its watch list of countries it says are not doing enough to protect U.S. intellectual property Thursday and took particular aim at firms that allow ads to be placed on sites offering pirated content or counterfeit goods.

"We are calling on responsible advertisers, search engines, Internet service providers, and other parts of the internet ecosystem to work with us to protect the hard work of American creators from piracy," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., one of the House co-chairmen of the group, said in a statement.

Companies that provide online advertisements on websites were criticized at a House hearing earlier this year for not doing enough to ensure their ads are not placed on sites that offer illegal content or goods. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday aimed at cracking down on such websites, while House Judiciary leaders are working on their own bill on the issue.

The caucus called on five countries -- Canada, China, Russia, Spain and Ukraine -- to do more crack down on piracy and counterfeiting.

"The American music, film, software, gaming, and publishing industries are among America's top exporters, and millions of jobs depend on their continued international leadership," the caucus report said. "Americans must not be forced to subsidize the content that others steal. Likewise American businesses should not be forced to compete with foreign companies that cut production costs by using pirated software or scientific articles."

Canada was criticized again for failing to update its intellectual property laws to reflect the growing problem of online piracy. The group praised China for doing a better job of enforcing IP rights and for making certain commitments such as a pledge to do more to ensure Chinese government agencies are using legal software. "Yet, until specific action is taken, widespread piracy will continue severely damaging American content industries," the caucus said.

Russia, Spain and Ukraine were criticized for failing to do enough to curb on online piracy. The group said Ukraine in recent years "has increasingly become a hub for infringing online content."

The caucus list provides a narrower look at what other countries are doing to protect U.S. intellectual property than the annual report on the same topic released by the U.S. Trade Representative and only focuses on places where piracy has reached alarming levels, the group said.

The proposed $39 billion combination of AT&T and T-Mobile isn't sitting well with Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. After a Thursday appearance at the State of the Mobile Net Conference, Eshoo -- whose district straddles much of Silicon Valley -- told Tech Daily Dose: "Well, it looks to me like we're on our way to a duopoly."

She was referring to concerns that a combined AT&T/T-Mobile and Verizon, which would drop from first to second among mobile carriers, would control roughly four-fifths of the wireless marketplace. "The lens through which I will measure this is real competition and how it affects consumers," she added.

The lawmaker weighed in as the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet, headed by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., held the lower chamber's first hearing on the deal. She joins a growing chorus of House Democrats raising worries about the impact on consumers and competition, including Conyers and former Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mass., who warned Wednesday that federal regulatory approval would be a "mistake."

Asked whether she sees any positives to the proposed union, such as quicker nationwide deployment of superfast 4G wireless broadband technology (a positive often touted by AT&T), Eshoo said it's possible to see "value" in the acquisition. But she quickly added that the competitive impact remains paramount for her. Eshoo's panel also plans to review the transaction, which would remove the nation's fourth biggest wireless carrier from the marketplace.

For complete coverage of today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, click here

Influential hedge fund manager and longtime Microsoft investor David Einhorn urged Microsoft to oust its CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday.

"Ballmer's continued presence is ruining your stock," Einhorn said at the annual Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference in New York, "It's time for Microsoft to tell Steve Ballmer to go." See more here.

Facebook is once again expanding its Washington office and bringing on two officials from the administration of former President George W. Bush.

Joel Kaplan, who served as deputy chief of staff to Bush, will be joining the social networking service on June 13 as vice president of public policy and will head Facebook's Washington office. Kaplan will be coming to Facebook from Energy Future Holdings, where he has served as executive vice president overseeing the firm's public policy and external affairs.

Myriah Jordan, who worked in the Bush administration's Office of the Chief of Staff, will be joining Facebook in Washington on June 6 to help lead Facebook's congressional lobbying as a policy manager. She was most recently general counsel to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

"It's imperative that we scale our policy team so that we have the resources in place to demonstrate to policymakers that we are industry leaders in privacy, data security and safety," said Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes. (Noyes is the former editor of Tech Daily Dose)

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who worked as a counselor to Bush in the last year and a half of his administration, said Kaplan will prove to be a "real asset" for Facebook and has good relations with both Republicans and Democrats.

"They have some big issues ... and having someone of Joel's gravitas and stature is important for them right now," Gillespie said in an interview with Tech Daily Dose.

Some of the issues the company is grappling with include concerns voiced by several lawmakers over the social networking site's privacy practices. Facebook also is recovering from a public relations blunder when it was revealed recently that it hired a public relations firm to try to plant negative stories about rival Google in the media.

Cathie Martin, who has been heading Facebook's congressional lobbying efforts, has requested a leave of absence from the company to deal with personal matters and will be leaving early next month, Facebook said. Noyes said the company hopes she will return.

While most of the usual stakeholders have weighed in on whether federal regulators should back AT&T's bid to buy rival T-Mobile USA, one unlikely player to give its two cents is the Sierra Club.

The group sent a letter Wednesday to members of Congress "to express optimism about the potential expansion of broadband that the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile provides," though it did not explicitly say if it supports approval of the deal.

"Expansion of broadband technologies to rural America brings a vital 21st century infrastructure to all our communities and will conserve energy by eliminating carbon emissions related to travel and promote other efficiencies through smart grids and smart meters accessed through broadband," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune wrote. "As regulators examine this transaction, they should consider these values in their deliberations."

The group has, been pushing for greater broadband access as part of the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition of environmental and organized labor groups.

Margrete Strand Rangnes, director of Sierra Club's labor and trade program, said her group believes that if the merger is structured right, it could provide an important opportunity to increase broadband deployment.

The Communications Workers of America also belongs to the alliance and has come out in support of the merger. The CWA represents more than 40,000 AT&T wireless workers.

Many public interest groups and some lawmakers, however, oppose the merger, saying it will stifle innovation and competition in the wireless market and lead to higher prices for consumers and a likely loss of jobs.

Will the G8 call for tighter Internet regulation?

FCC: we will be neutral on wireless market

Tech executives will address the G-8 summit Thursday.

AT&T to launch its new LTE network

British lawmakers look to tweak strict privacy law after Twitter users defy court injunction.

An easier way to transfer money

Office of Management and Budget scrapping sites that would have allowed federal employees to swap work tips and detail quality of federal services to the general public.

More hacks force Sony to shut down its PlayStation Network, Sony shut down some of its Internet services in Canada, Thailand and Indonesia

The Wall Street Journal discusses how Lady Gaga's new album has become a pawn in a price war over digital music sales between Apple and Amazon.

USA Today examines the battle between Microsoft and Google over cloud services

Google is planning to unveil a new mobile payment service.

Folks are lining up for and against the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, Sony gets hacked yet again, and new ways to leave your wallet at home, on today's e-Reads:

"Google is a great company but we are better," Russian upstart Internet search firm Yandex claims

Explosion at giant Chinese factory that makes just about everything Apple raises questions.

Leap Wireless opposes AT&T's $39 billion bid for T-Mobile, saying the merger would reduce competition. Other folks hate it, too.

Sony gets hacked even more.

Making wallets square.

How Twitter made a fool of British libel law.

AT&T has already dropped some significant cash in its effort to gain approval for its merger with T-Mobile, and documents filed recently at the Federal Communications Commission indicate it plans to spend even more.

According to a confidentiality agreement filed at the FCC, AT&T has hired at least 71 legal experts and consultants to help with the merger process. That number includes in-house counsel as well and lawyers and consultants from a range of outside firms.

AT&T is seeking approval from the FCC as well as the Department of Justice. The telecom giant announced in March that it plans to buy rival T-Mobile for $39 billion.

Among the firms that AT&T has hired are Arnold & Porter, Crowell & Moring, Sidley Austin, WilmerHale, the Brattle Group, and Compass Lexecon.

On the lobbying side, AT&T has also been on a hiring spree, tapping lobbyists at firms such as Peck, Madigan, Jones, & Stewart, Roberti Associates, and Capitol City Group, among others. AT&T reported spending $6.8 million on all its lobbying efforts in the first quarter of 2011.

Some countries make use of Facebook and other social media to fight back against opponents, the Washington Post reports.

Comcast executive to host Obama fundraiser next month in Philly . . .

. . . while a Seattle summer camp says no to Comcast's offer to restore funding.

Beyond T-Mobile and Qualcomm deals, AT&T is seeking even more spectrum.

Can United Kingdom courts block tweets about celebrity gossip?

Sony to report $3.2 billion annual loss, reversing earlier projection

LightSquared's plan to build a wholesale broadband network is facing increasing skepticism from members of Congress who worry that interference from the system could be a safety risk.

The company's innovative network, partially based on a giant satellite, will operate on spectrum very close to global positioning system (GPS) signals. That has both the GPS industry and defense and public safety officials worried that the broadband network's powerful transmitters could overpower GPS devices.

In response, the Federal Communications Commission has required LightSquared to work with GPS companies to test potential interference. In a letter sent to the agency Thursday, 33 senators asked the FCC to revoke a waiver granted to LightSquared.

"We have substantial concerns that LightSquared's proposal places an unacceptable risk to public safety through interferences with GPS receivers necessary for aviation, first responders, agriculture, construction, maritime navigation, E-911, and national defense systems," the letter states.

The lawmakers, including Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., call on the FCC to make LightSquared prove its system won't cause interference before it can start operating.

LightSquared Executive Vice President Jeff Carlisle said there are technical ways to reduce potential interference and says the company is operating well within FCC guidelines.

John Malone's Liberty Media in bid to acquire Barnes & Noble and its Nook e-reader biz

Comcast under fire for slashing non-profit's funding in response to tweet about Meredith Baker

Justice denies rumors that Antitrust Chief Christine Varney might take Silicon Valley position

Bright lights, big city: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski tours Diller, Nebraska

Most expect that AT&T will spend a significant amount of money lobbying to get its proposed merger with T-Mobile approved by federal regulators but $3,000 an hour?

That's the figure one critic says AT&T has spent so far to get the deal approved by federal regulators. AT&T announced in late March its plans to buy the fourth biggest wireless carrier T-Mobile, sparking a major lobbying battle.

"AT&T is spending $3,000 an hour lobbying to pass this merger," Ernesto Falcon of the consumer's group Public Knowledge said during a webcast Thursday.

While AT&T's total lobbying tab of $6.8 million for the first quarter of this year does indeed boil down to more than $3,000 an hour, that figure includes lobbying on all the federal issues the company is following. In addition to lobbying in favor of the merger, AT&T listed a wide range of other issues on its lobbying disclosure form including patent, tax and health care issues as well as tech and telecom matters such as the Federal Communications Commission's open Internet proceeding and cybersecurity.

"I wouldn't disagree that maybe some of that lobbying money has been spent on tangent issues, but I can't imagine that it can be that much in comparison to preparing an army to launch and sell the merger," Falcon said in an e-mail response following the briefing.

Either way, AT&T is on pace to far surpass the total amount it spent last year on lobbying activities. AT&T spent $15.3 million lobbying in 2010, according to the Center for Responsible Politics.

Opponents of the merger, including many smaller wireless carriers, say they don't expect to match AT&T when it comes to lobbying dollars but they have moved aggressively to make their case that the merger will harm competition and lead to higher prices for consumers. Public Knowledge has joined the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Rural Cellular Association, the Rural Telecommunications Group, and others in launching a website opposing the AT&T-T-Mobile merger.

"I don't imagine we will have the same resources as AT&T," Cellular South's Ben Moncrief said during the Web briefing. "From our perspective as a small carrier, we recognize the enormous task" the company faces in trying to block the merger.

Another Wall Street Journal expose reveals that 'like' buttons track you.

Apple might be ready for cloud music.

Even though Americans are increasingly downloading their music, don't write the obituary on the compact disc just yet, USA Today reports.

Amazon.com now selling more kindle books than print books.

Google next week will expand its Social Search feature to 19 additional languages, Mashable reports.

LinkedIn's share price doubles in first public trading.

And smartphone companies may face new privacy regulations in Europe.

Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., will press Google and Apple executives Thursday about whether applications available on their mobile phones might violate a children's online privacy law.

In letters to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Rockefeller questioned whether apps provided by the firms or third-party apps sold for their mobile devices are aimed at children under 13 and whether they are in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Rockefeller sent a similar letter to the Association for Competitive Technology, which represents the makers of many smart phone applications.

The children's online privacy law bars the collection of data from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. The Federal Trade Commission is currently reviewing the law to see if it needs to be updated to reflect the evolving ways children access the Internet including on mobile phones and gaming devices.

Representatives from the association and Google and Apple are set to appear Thursday at a Commerce hearing on consumer privacy issues related to the mobile marketplace. The issue has gained new attention in recent weeks given concerns about location data stored on Google's Android device and Apple's iPhone.

"I am concerned that some applications running on today's mobile platforms may be violating laws that are intended to protect children," Rockefeller said in a statement. "My hope is that Apple, Google and the ACT can shed light on mobile app practices so that we can make sure children are protected."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had some fun Monday with Federal Communications Commission member Meredith Attwell Baker's decision to leave the agency in June to take a job with Comcast just a few months after she voted to approve the cable provider's acquisition of NBC Universal.

After showing a news report noting Baker's complaints about the cumbersome and lengthy process the FCC uses to examine mergers, Stewart said, "Good for you Madam Commissioner, cutting through the red tape to save time and money for the American taxpayer. Finally, someone in government who is not just looking out for No. 1. I see big things for Meredith Baker."

He then ran a Fox News clip reporting on Baker's decision to leave the commission for Comcast and ran a tag line, "Well that was fast."

Meanwhile, one of the critics of the Comcast merger, ivi TV, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC seeking all of Baker's correspondence related to ivi TV. Ivi and others have criticized Baker's decision to join Comcast.

Ivi, which is battling a copyright infringement suit filed by NBC and the other big networks, is seeking "any and all documents, including e-mails, sent or received by former Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker or her staff in which our company, ivi, Inc. or our service ivi TV is referenced," the company said in its FOIA request filed Friday.

Ivi officials met with Baker and a staff member in December prior to the FCC's January vote on the merger to detail ivi's concerns with the deal but said they were dismayed by Baker's open support for the merger. An ivi spokesman said the company filed the FOIA request to see if there are any "conflicts of interest, collusion and the like."

Baker's staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Federal Communications Commission named a former Department of Justice official on Tuesday to oversee the agency's review of AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appointed Renata Hesse, currently a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she focuses of antitrust issues. As senior counsel, Hesse (no relation to Sprint CEO and merger opponent Dan Hesse) will lead the FCC working team reviewing the $39 billion merger.

"Renata's wealth of legal expertise and experience is a welcome addition to the review team and I am thrilled that she will soon be joining us," Genachowski said in a statement. "Her leadership will help ensure that our review of this important transaction is fair, thorough and efficient."

Hesse's experience includes a stint at the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, which is also reviewing the deal and will be working with the FCC.

The Federal Communications Commission waded into the controversy over cellphone tracking Tuesday, announcing that it will partner with the Federal Trade Commission in reviewing the risks of location-based services.

The agencies stopped short of announcing any formal investigation. Rather they propose to gather information through online comments and a public information forum on June 28.

Congressional leaders and privacy groups attacked companies like Apple and Google after reports that smart phones track and gather information on their users' locations.

"While the use of location data has spurred innovation, the FCC's National Broadband Plan recognizes that consumer apprehension about privacy can also act as a barrier to the adoption and utilization of broadband and mobile devices," the FCC said in a statement. "Clear information and public education can help consumers better understand these services."

The hearing will feature representatives of wireless carriers, consumer advocacy groups, and technology companies. The hearing, as well as the public comments, will eventually go into a staff report, laying the groundwork for possible future FCC or FTC action, an FCC official said.

The National Association of Attorneys General has endorsed a Senate bill introduced last week aimed at cracking down on foreign websites that offer pirated content or counterfeit goods.

On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a new version of his legislation that would allow U.S. authorities to seek a court order requiring U.S.-based Internet service providers, search engines and payment processes to stop doing business with these rogue sites.

"Legislation is needed to disrupt the counterfeiting and pirate business model by cutting those sites off from the American marketplace," 42 state AGs said in a letter sent Monday to Leahy. "This narrowly tailored response to clearly illegal activity would enable effective action against the worst of the worst counterfeiters and pirates online."

The group said rogue websites that offer counterfeit goods and pirated content pose a danger to their citizens and rob countries around the world of jobs and revenue.

After nearly two years of discussion on the issue, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has finally introduced legislation that would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Leahy introduced the legislation Tuesday to update the 1986 law outlining government access to electronic communications to reflect the vast changes in the technology landscape since he helped craft the measure.

A coalition of tech companies and public interest groups known as the Digital Due Process coalition was formed last year to lobby Congress to update the law to reflect the growing use of new technologies such as cloud computing. They argue that current laws provide different legal standards to electronic communications depending on how it is stored and when it was drafted.

Leahy's legislation would set one standard for the disclosure of e-mail and other forms of electronic communications with a search warrant based on probable cause. The bill would require government officials to notify the owner of such information within three days after it has been obtained. The measure also would require the government to obtain a search warrant or court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to access geolocation data from an individual's smart phone or other communications device. The bill also includes an exception to the bill's nondisclosure requirement allowing a service provider to voluntarily disclose data to government officials related to a cyber attack.

"I drafted this bill with one key principle in mind -- that updates to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act must carefully balance the interests and needs of consumers, law enforcement, and our nation's thriving technology sector," Leahy said in a statement. He was the lead author of the original ECPA law, which has been amended over the years but not rewritten.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is part of the Digital Due Process coalition, praised Leahy for attempting to update the law but cited some concerns with his legislation. The group said it would like to see stronger reporting requirements and a prohibition from the use of information obtained in violation of ECPA in court. The group also voiced concern about the cyber attack provision.

"Clearly, an electronic privacy law that was written the year 'Top Gun' was in theaters is in desperate need of an update. Technology has vastly outpaced our privacy rights, and this bill is a good first step toward rectifying that disparity," said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office. "We're hopeful that Congress will continue to add further protections to the ECPA Amendments Act to ensure that when Americans use new technologies they receive the same constitutional protections."

Sony says it has begun reopening its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Mideast after hackers got into more than 100 million user accounts.

Sony hackers used Amazon's cloud computing service, and it might be a great tool for them, Bloomberg reports.

How about buying a Google bond?

AOL Inc is launching a professional division called AOL Industry aimed at helping government, energy and defense executives use social media, video and design from consumer-oriented sites.

PC Magazine offers advice on protecting your smart phone from viruses.

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) has joined the No Takeover Project, which opposes the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile.

France auctions next-generation wireless frequencies, raising 2.5 billion euros ($3.6 billion).

Google is spending hundreds of millions to try to show it is a responsible corporate citizen and a valuable contributor to the local economy in Europe.

New "wine for dummies" mobile app.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., plans to announce a May 25 vote on legislation that would pave the way for a nationwide emergency communications network using a controversial slice of airwaves known as the D-block, government and public safety sources said.

The network, to be used by first responders, would incorporate lessons learned from communications glitches that hampered the responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

Rockefeller backs police, fire and rescue squads that want the D-block coupled with spectrum already under their control for the state-of-art broadband network. "Obviously, it's a milestone in the process," said Sean Kirkendall, spokesman for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International, which held a meeting Monday in Washington to advocate for the legislation, and will meet with lawmakers this week about the need for action. "We've been working toward this," he added.

Rockefeller and three other Democratic co-sponsors plan to hold a news conference Tuesday to urge swift passage in the Senate. The West Virginian recently told reporters that he wants Congress to enact his legislation before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Achieving that goal, however, would require overcoming some sizable obstacles, particularly in the GOP-controlled House, where prominent Republicans have been resistant to Rockefeller's approach. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications, Technology and Internet Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., have said they'd prefer to have the D-block auctioned to help fund the network.

Democratic FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski agrees.

Private/public partnerships are the most effective way to secure most of cyberspace, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told National Journal Monday.

He said there is no question that cyberattacks are taking a toll on the American economy and he said he considers cyberattacks as one of the two greatest threats to the country, along with biological attacks.

"We have huge number of assets connected to the Internet, so we need to take this seriously," Chertoff told National Journal after speaking at a Federal Communications Commission event on small businesses and cybersecurity.

Industry and government officials continue to debate what role the government should play in protecting cyberspace. Chertoff, now a private consultant at his own firm, said while the Defense and Homeland Security Departments defend federal networks, the government "cannot and should not" protect everything else.

But Chertoff said federal agencies should be an important part of regulating and partnering with private industry.

In an interview after the same FCC event, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told National Journal that his agency can play a "unique and important" role in helping businesses protect their networks.

"This is a very confusing area so our vision was to gather the experts and work together to help educate businesses," he said. Genachowski, who has championed the development of high-speed Internet, said that broadband is undoubtedly critical infrastructure that should be protected through partnerships between industry and government.

For more on the FCC's newly released small business cybersecurity tip sheet and Monday's event, visit our new Tech page.

FCC member Baker's shift to Comcast adds to 'cynicism' about government, says the NYTimes

House Democrats are resistant to GOP efforts to 'reform' the FCC, Broadcasting & Cable says

Top Democratic senators skeptical of AT&T's effort to acquire T-Mobile, NY Daily News reports

Cisco could shed Up To 4,000 jobs as it exits struggling businesses, according to All Things D

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Thursday made another pitch for his legislation aimed at creating a national interoperable broadband network for public safety officials.

In a conference call with reporters, Rockefeller said he would like to move the bill by June so he can achieve his goal of enacting legislation before the upcoming 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

His bill, which he introduced in January, would reallocate a chunk of spectrum known as the D-block for the creation of a national broadband public safety network. The commission that investigated the 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon called for the creation of such a network given the difficulties first responders to those attacks experienced.

"To me its disgraceful and embarrassing and costly to our country that since the Sept. 11 of 2001 that we have done nothing to really change the way our public safety officials can communicate," Rockefeller said.

To help pay for building such a network, the bill also authorizes the Federal Communications Commission to conduct incentive auctions. Such auctions are aimed at persuading current spectrum holders such as broadcasters to give up some of their spectrum.

Rockefeller said he also envisions having some money left over for deficit reduction, which he acknowledged could help attract some GOP lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who have resisted calls to re-allocate the D-block for public safety. Under current law, the FCC is required to auction that spectrum for commercial bidders.

He noted that he is working on the issue with Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who has introduced her own spectrum legislation.

Meanwhile, top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday touted a new study from the Government Accountability Office that examines how the government currently manages its spectrum resources.

"The GAO report underlines the urgency for Congress to focus immediately on spectrum policy," Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a statement. "We should act promptly in a bipartisan manner to authorize incentive auctions, start the construction of a nationwide public safety broadband network, and conduct vigorous oversight of federal and commercial spectrum utilization."

A cute camera for Flip-lovers

How to avoid being clickjacked on Facebook.

More e-reads here, on our Tech page.

The biggest antitrust case of the digital age comes to an official end Thursday in the United States with the expiration of the final judgment in the antitrust case against Microsoft.

The Justice Department, 19 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in 1998 alleging that the software giant violated antitrust laws. The suit claimed Microsoft was illegally attempting to maintain its monopoly over computer operating systems by excluding competing middleware programs such as Internet browsers and media players.

The lawsuit was launched by the Clinton administration but was settled by the administration of George W. Bush in 2002 for far less than what Microsoft's critics were seeking - such as the breakup of the company.

"The final judgment helped create competitive conditions that enabled new kinds of products, such as cloud computing services and mobile devices, to develop as potential platform threats to the Windows desktop operating system," the Justice Department said in a statement this week.

The settlement barred Microsoft from engaging in exclusionary behavior harmful to competitors and consumers and required the company to provide third parties with the programming details needed to design their products to work with Microsoft's operating system. However, it did not bar Microsoft from continuing to bundle new products into new versions of its Windows operating system.

"The general impact is that it produced a better corporate citizen in Microsoft and perhaps a less aggressive competitor," said Glenn Manishin, a lawyer with Duane Morris who worked for some of the groups that urged the Justice Department to bring the lawsuit against Microsoft.

While the final judgment was ultimately viewed as a victory for Microsoft, the case distracted the company for years and cost it millions of dollars in legal fees. Microsoft also had to deal with private legal battles and the European Union's antitrust case. Microsoft is still appealing the EU's fine in that case.

"Our experience has changed us and shaped how we view our responsibility to the industry," Microsoft said in a statement this week. "We are pleased to bring this matter to successful resolution, and we are excited to keep delivering great products and services for our partners and customers."

Outgoing GOP commissioner Meredith Baker wasn't on hand Thursday as the Federal Communications Commission proposed new rules requiring Internet companies to report serious service outages.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Baker would not be considering agenda items after she announced Wednesday that she would be leaving to join NBCUniversal as a lobbyist.

Minus Baker, the commission voted to require Internet companies to abide by reporting rules that have been imposed on traditional phone companies.

For years the FCC has required phone companies to report when natural disasters or equipment failure shuts down phone service. But with more and more people relying on Internet connections for phone service, the FCC wants more information about serious outages.

"Broadband technologies delivering communication services are fast becoming substitutes for communications services provided by older, legacy communications technology," the FCC said in a statement.

Because broadband networks carry a substantial portion of 911 emergency call traffic, outage reporting is a public safety issue, said Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell.

"All Americans rightly expect their emergency calls to go through," he said.

In filings at the FCC, Internet providers argued that the reporting rules won't work for Internet services. Unlike traditional telephone networks, Internet services don't run through centralized points, making it difficult to tell where a problem originated.

"Given the significant differences between voice and broadband networks, the existing outage reporting model is a poor fit for broadband networks," Verizon argued.

The FCC also voted to give U.S. phone companies more flexibility in negotiating international agreements.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., called on the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday to investigate a security flaw in applications available on Facebook that may have put user data at risk.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Pryor said his concerns stem from a story Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal that said a security flaw in 100,000 Facebook apps may have inadvertently given some third parties, such as advertisers, access to some information on the social network's users' profiles.

"The article troubles me because many consumers, particularly young consumers, use social networking websites on a regular basis to communicate and exchange messages with friends, often relying upon a sense of control over the information they choose to share," wrote Pryor, chairman of the Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection Subcommittee. He asked the FTC to respond to his request by May 25.

Pryor's concerns were echoed by Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Ed Markey, D-Mass., both senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. They sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a series of questions about the extent of the security flaw and what his company has done to address the issue. They've asked for a response by June 2.

"While Facebook reportedly now has fixed this particular issue, we remain concerned about how the problem arose in the first place, was allowed to persist undetected for such a long period of time and could recur in some form in the future," the lawmakers, co-chairmen of the House Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, said in the letter to Zuckerberg. Last fall, they raised similar concerns about third-party access to Facebook user information.

Facebook maintains that it worked with Symantec, which helped identify the problem, to immediately fix the issue after it was revealed and that it does not believe any user data was compromised.

"We've conducted a thorough investigation which revealed no evidence of this issue resulting in a user's private information being shared with unauthorized third parties," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement. "The report also ignores the contractual obligations of advertisers and developers which prohibit them from obtaining or sharing user information in a way that violates our policies."

Some folks are stunned to hear that FCC Commissioner Merediith Attwell Baker is leaving the agency to join Comcast/NBC Universal as a lobbyist.

They are especially suspicious because Baker voted n January to approve the cable giant's joint venture with NBC Universal. More on this here.

While AT&T Chief Randall Stephenson strongly defended his company's proposed merger with T-Mobile USA at a Senate hearing Wednesday, he did signal some areas where he's willing to deal.

During the hearing, Cellular South CEO Victor Meena complained that smaller carriers have been unable to reach data roaming agreements with AT&T.

While the Federal Communications Commission approved rules last month requiring firms to reach data roaming agreements on reasonable terms, Meena said he has seen little progress on the issue. Such roaming agreements ensure consumers can access the Internet, text and send data when they leave their wireless company's network area.

Subcommittee ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, pressed Stephenson on whether he would offer data roaming deals to smaller carriers like Meena's at reasonable rates.

"Absolutely, that's the law," Stephenson replied, and offered to meet with Meena after the hearing to discuss his specific concerns.

When questioned by subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Stephenson also agreed that his company would not accept any money from the Universal Service Fund to help expand its wireless broadband offerings. The fund has traditionally subsidized telephone service in rural and high-cost areas but the FCC is revamping it to include support for broadband service.

Lee also noted that many AT&T and T-Mobile workers are concerned about possible job losses as a result of the merger.

While he didn't say there would be no job losses, Stephenson said that in past mergers he has worked with the Communications Workers of America, which has 42,000 unionized members at AT&T wireless, to try to find jobs elsewhere in the new company for workers whose jobs are cut.

Sometimes pointed questioning at a Senate panel Wednesday suggest AT&T will have to pedal hard to convince Congress that its proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA won't damage competition. Read more from Juliana Gruenwald here and an analytical take from Josh Smith on our Tech page.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that GOP Commissioner Meredith Baker, whose term expires in June, plans to leave the agency and take a job in Comcast's Washington lobbying shop. Kyle McSlarrow, the longtime head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, joined Comcast in April as president of its DC office.

The FCC and the Justice Department approved Comcast's combination with NBC Universal in January, with Baker voting for the deal.

Read the article here

Responding to sharp questioning from congressional lawmakers on Wednesday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson refused to call T-Mobile a competitor and denied that AT&T considered the benefits of removing T-Mobile from the wireless marketplace.

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., repeatedly asked Stephenson and T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm to admit they are competitors. Stephenson said T-Mobile is not a "competitive focus" for AT&T because the smaller company is losing subscribers. T-Mobile still runs ad campaigns specifically targeting AT&T's system.

The AT&T CEO also denied wanting to remove T-Mobile as a competitor, or that officials considered that when AT&T decided to acquire T-Mobile. Kohl criticized Stephenson for claiming the deal is in the national interest. AT&T is seeking government approval to buy T-Mobile for $39 billion.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., also shook some odd assertions out of Stephenson. Under Franken's pointed questioning, Stephenson initially denied that AT&T had a competitive edge in its exclusive iPhone deal with Apple.

Franken argued that such exclusive deals would only go to major carriers like AT&T or Verizon (which are the only companies authorized to offer the iPhone), harming smaller carriers who can't get the latest devices, and Stephenson eventually acknowledged that Apple would be "not as likely" to give an exclusive deal to a smaller company.

The CEOs appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, which Kohl chairs.

The AP says the chief executives of AT&T and T-Mobile are ready to defend their proposed deal before Congress.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that AT&T, other wireless carriers, feel threatened by Microsoft's planned purchase of Skype . . .

. . . while CNN asks, why didn't Google seek to buy Skype?

Speaking of spectrum:

Broadcasters are beginning to talk about "next-generation" television, TVNewsCheck reports . . . . .

. . . and text-based emergency alerts are coming to mobile phones, according to Time Magazine.

In other news, Facebook sparked fresh privacy concerns when it was caught leaking personal data to third parties.

T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm is set to defend AT&T's proposed acquisition of his firm Wednesday, saying it will benefit T-Mobile's customers by bringing better coverage, improved network quality, access to next-generation wireless services and lower prices.

Humm is slated to testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. It will be the first congressional hearing to examine the $39 billion deal aimed at combining the nation's second biggest wireless company AT&T with the fourth largest provider T-Mobile USA. Humm will be joined at the hearing by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, who opposes the merger, and others.

"The combination brings together two uniquely compatible companies, achieving extensive synergies, while greatly benefiting the American economy, consumers, and particularly T-Mobile customers," Humm said in his written testimony.

He said if T-Mobile stays on its own it faces decline in subscribers, a shortage of spectrum to meet consumers' growing demand for mobile broadband services and an inability to launch 4G services given its current spectrum holdings.

While many consumer and public interest groups have lined up to oppose the merger, the Service Employees International Union announced its support for the deal last week.

And the Communications Workers of America, which includes 42,000 AT&T wireless workers, will be testifying in support of the merger at Wednesday's hearing. The CWA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, which voiced its support for the deal after it was announced in March. As SEIU and the other union leaders note, AT&T is the only unionized U.S. wireless carrier.

"This merger is a win-win for American families. Now, thousands of workers in the telecommunications industry will have the opportunity to collectively bargain and insist that good, quality jobs stay in our communities," SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry said in a statement.

While labor leaders may be touting the benefits of the deal, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., will be among those lawmakers asking tough questions of AT&T and T-Mobile USA's top executives Wednesday. Franken and other critics say they are concerned the merger will result in layoffs.

"I am concerned that the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile is going to be a raw deal for consumers," Franken, a subcommittee member, said in a statement Tuesday.

AT&T Chairman, President and CEO Randall Stephenson will make the case to a Senate subcommittee Wednesday that his company's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA will benefit consumers by improving service and providing more competitive prices.

"This transaction is all about consumers. It's about keeping up with consumer demand. It's about having the capacity to drive innovation and competitive prices for consumers," Stephenson said in his written testimony obtained by Tech Daily Dose. "And most important, it's about giving consumers what they expect - fewer dropped calls, faster speeds and access to state-of-the-art mobile broadband Internet service - whether they live in a large city, a small town, or out in rural areas."

Stephenson, along with the CEOs of T-Mobile USA, Sprint and Cellular South and others, will be testifying at a hearing on the merger Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee.

Stephenson said consumers will benefit from improved service quality and network capacity, more innovation, and increased competitive pressure. He added that combining his company, the second biggest wireless provider, with No. 4 T-Mobile USA will allow the merged firm to build out its 4G LTE network and bring other state-of-the art mobile broadband technologies to 97 percent of the U.S. population -- steps AT&T did not plan on taking before the transaction.

"With the scale, resources and synergies this transaction provides, we can and have committed to provide cutting-edge LTE mobile Internet service to more than 97 percent of the U.S. population - nearly 55 million more Americans than our pre-merger plans and millions more than any other provider has committed to serve," Stephenson added.

Stephenson dismissed criticisms that the merger lead to less competition. He said T-Mobile customers would have the choice to retain their existing rate plans or switch to an AT&T plan that might include access to its 4G LTE service, a choice T-Mobile customers would not have without the merger.

"The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile could not possibly derail the powerful forces of competition in one of the nation's most competitive industries," he said. Stephenson added that the "vast majority" of consumers have access to five facilities-based wireless operators now and will have even more choice once new mobile broadband providers like Clearwire and LightSquared roll out their new services.

At least one competitor, however, will make the case that the deal will reverse efforts by policymakers in recent years to expand telecommunications competition and will ultimately lead to less innovation and higher prices.

"With this transaction, policymakers face a clear choice: either (1) allow the wireless industry to continue down a path toward a duopoly made up of Ma Bell's two behemoth descendants or (2) reverse course and lay the foundation for a new era of competition in this industry," Cellular South CEO and President Victor (Hu) Meena said in his written testimony obtained by Tech Daily Dose.

The deal must be approved by the Justice Department, which will examine its impact on competition, and the Federal Communications Commission, which will weigh whether the deal is in the public interest.

Apple Inc has promised to update its software to address concerns that its iPhones, iPads and other devices may be keeping files that track users' movements. But Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., says he is not quite satisfied.

"Specifically, Apple will encrypt location information stored on customers' iPhones and iPads and other Apple mobile devices and significantly shorten the amount of time location information is retained by the company," Markey, co-chairman of the Bi-Partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, says in a statement.

"Still, I remain concerned about the apparent contradiction between Apple's assertion that it does not track consumers and its explanation that it maintains a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around a user's current location. Such a distinction does not make much difference to consumers whose location could be pinpointed with great accuracy," Markey says.

"Apple's response also indicates that the company has entered into a confidential business relationship with a third party to share the anonymous location data it gathers from users. Apple should make more details of this sharing arrangement known, and I will be following up with Apple to get clarification on this issue."

The Senate is holding a hearing Tuesday on the issue, and Apple and Google are among those testifying. You can see our coverage of that hearing here.

Approving AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile would be akin to putting Humpty Dumpty together again, the advocacy group Free Press says.

The group wants Congress and the Department of Justice to protect consumers by opposing the $39 billion deal.

Free Press research director Derek Turner calls the merger "unprecedented" and "unthinkable" in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Monday night.

"Americans need real competition and advanced wireless services, and should not be asked to trade one for the promise of the other," Turner writes. "In short, putting Humpty Dumpty back together is a bad idea. If antitrust law has any meaning left, the Department of Justice should follow past precedent and its own guidelines, and swiftly reject this unthinkable proposal."

The presidents of AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and other wireless carriers are scheduled to testify before the subcommittee on Wednesday.

The 15 page document outlines Free Press's argument against the deal:

• Regulators should consider the nationwide post-paid smartphone cellular service market, not just regional or local markets.

• The market is already highly concentrated, and the merger would only result in a duopoly.

• By acquiring T-Mobile, AT&T would harm consumers and competition.

• The market is particularly vulnerable to coordinated conduct, and the merger would make it worse.

• New companies will not be able to enter the market and effectively compete if the deal goes through.

• The benefits that AT&T claims would come from the merger are based on speculation and do not outweigh the potential harm.

• Forcing AT&T to divest some of its local markets would not prevent the harm done to nationwide competition.

AT&T argues that the merger will help extend wireless access to more Americans.

"The bottom line is that our merger with T-Mobile USA will offer significant benefits to American consumers," wrote AT&T's Joan Marsh in a blog post. "To sum up, this merger will address serious capacity challenges on our networks; it will significantly advance this country's wireless broadband goals; it will promote competition; and it will keep America on the cutting edge of wireless broadband technologies."

The merger must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.

Internal emails from Google made public by a Massachusetts state court shed light on the company's strategy for Android.

A parking app - but will it work in Metro Center?

See our tech page for more e-Reads...

Is your personal information the "new oil"?

CNET offers tips on how to spot a fake photo online.

Check out more of Today's e-Reads on our new Tech page.

One of the senators who could have a big say in the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger wrote the companies on Friday, asking the company to explain how the deal will help consumers.

"I remain concerned that the merger will lead to fewer choices, higher prices, and reduced services for wireless consumers," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., wrote in a letter to the CEOs of AT&T and T-Mobile.

The CEOs of both companies will testify next week to a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will check on antitrust implications of the merger through its oversight of the Department of Justice.

AT&T has painted the proposed $39 billion merger as a boon for consumers and a way to expand broadband service to virtually all of the United States.

"As you know, the major wireless providers have resisted my efforts to adopt meaningful pro-consumer measures in the industry, arguing instead that competition among providers would inevitably yield consumer reforms," Klobuchar wrote.

"If AT&T's purchase is approved, however, AT&T and Verizon would control approximately 75 percent of the entire wireless market - effectively creating a duopoly and diminishing the possibility that the industry will act on its own to institute pro-consumer practices."

Klobuchar also sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the Federal Communications Commission, which, along with DoJ, must approve the merger.
"How will you ensure that the proposed transaction will not lead to higher prices for consumers?" Klobuchar asks in her letter.

"What impact will decreased competition in the wireless industry have on practices that impact consumers such as cell phone exclusivity, early termination fees, and bill shock?"

Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, plan to circulate a discussion draft of their promised children's online privacy legislation Friday, which will include a controversial "do-not-track" provision.

The two congressmen co-chair the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus and have expressed increasing concern over recent privacy breaches, including reports that Apple's iPhones tracked and recorded their users' locations.

"Do you know where your children are is a question that every parent should know the answer to. But predators shouldn't be able to hack into an iPhone or Android to find out for themselves, with devastating consequences for families," Markey wrote in a statement at the time. Apple has denied that it tracks consumers' locations.

A Markey spokeswoman told Tech Daily Dose that in addition to addressing the location tracking issue, the proposed legislation will include a do-not-track provision for children, a "digital marketing bill of rights" for teens, and a provision for an "eraser button" to eliminate a child's information online.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced their own consumer privacy bill last month. That bill does not include a do-not-track clause, which would require Web browsers to allow users to prevent companies from collecting information online.

This just in: the CEOs of AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint will duke it out at the May 11 Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile:

Witness List

Hearing before the
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

On

"The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger: Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?"

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226
10:15 a.m.

Randall L. Stephenson
President & CEO
AT&T
Dallas, TX

Philipp Humm
President & CEO
T-Mobile USA
Bellevue, WA

Daniel R. Hesse
CEO
Sprint Nextel Corporation
Overland Park, KS

Victor H. "Hu" Meena
President & CEO
Cellular South, Inc.
Ridgeland, MS

Gigi Sohn
President & Co-Founder
Public Knowledge
Washington, DC

Larry Cohen
President
Communications Workers of America
Washington, DC

Is Al Gore less boring in an e-book? The New York Times thinks so.

Also, wireless docking for your laptop.

See some more of today's e-reads on our Tech page.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday he never directly collaborated with President Obama in developing and passing regulations to prevent anticompetitive behavior online.

At a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet Subcommittee Thursday morning, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., continued his probe into how much interaction went on between the White House and the FCC as the agency created net neutrality rules.

Genachowski said he "never discussed" net neutrality with Obama, and the chairman denied that he pursued the rules because Obama made it a campaign issue.

Issa has repeatedly sent letters to the FCC, demanding information about meetings between White House and FCC staffers. He argues that such collaboration could have violated disclosure rules.

For more on Thursday's hearing, visit our Tech page.

Antitrust laws alone cannot do the job of protecting the open Internet, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will say in testimony on Thursday, Hillcon Valley reports.

For more e-Reads see our Tech page.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Wednesday he plans to introduce legislation with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that would block state and local taxes on digital goods such as music or software downloads if there is no similar tax on similar physical goods, such as CDs.

Wyden may introduce the bill as soon as tomorrow that would ban "multiple and discriminatory" taxes on goods delivered electronically. Similar legislation was introduced in the House in the last Congress by former Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., the former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee.

Wyden has a track record on Internet tax issues. He helped write a law that bans the imposition of multiple or discriminatory taxes on Internet access.

Wyden said he has a similar approach with his new legislation. "I only wanted one thing: that is that activity online would not be discriminated against relative to offline activity," he said.

The legislation would not impact the efforts of states and some retailers to require online retailers like Amazon to collect sales taxes from customers in states where those companies don't have a physical presence, a Wyden aide said.

As a result of a 1992 Supreme Court decision, companies are not required to collect sales taxes from customers in states where they do not have a physical presence. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin is working on legislation that would authorize states to require online companies to collect sales taxes on remote sales. When asked about the issue, Wyden said he is open to the idea, but argued that state and local governments have not done enough to simplify their sales tax regimes.

Wyden said he also is working on legislation that he plans to introduce soon that would establish binding principles barring discrimination against the Internet for trade purposes.

Through his Finance subcommittee, Wyden said he has been pushing the Obama administration to pursue trade rules that would ensure the free flow of data over the Internet. In addition to filtering Internet content for political purposes, many countries are increasingly engaging in protectionist behavior on the Internet that discriminates against U.S. goods and services, he said.

"We ought to look at the Internet in a different way in the international trade space," Wyden said. "I think the Internet is going to be the shipping lanes of the 21st century."

During a speech later in the day, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., voiced optimism about the prospects of moving legislation she has introduced that would impose a five-year freeze on state and local taxes on wireless phone service. Wyden has introduced a similar bill in the Senate.

She noted that House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is supportive of the measure, which has been referred to his committee. A House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on the bill last month.

Lofgren, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other supporters note that some states impose taxes as high as 23 percent on wireless phone service.

"Local governments don't like it. I was in local government for 14 years, I also know given the [state] budget system, if you can tax it, you will, which is why you have sin-level taxes on wireless access," she said.

Hackers left Sony a taunting message after they got into more than 24 million user accounts, the company told Congress on Wednesday, while a major data breach at the online marketing firm Epsilon was the result of a single employee's compromised account.

Although representatives from Sony or Epsilon refused to testify at Wednesday's subcommittee hearing, their written responses revealed new details about the attacks.

Hackers stole personal information from more than 100 million customer accounts at Sony. A separate attack hit Epsilon and lawmakers say they want more information from the companies.

Epsilon said it discovered its breach on March 30 when an employee noticed suspicious activity on his or her account. Company investigators found that the employee's credentials had been compromised, according to a letter sent to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade on April 18. Epsilon sends e-mails on behalf of a range of corporations, including Citigroup, Walgreens, and Capital One.

When hackers attacked Sony in a breach reported on Monday, they left a file named "Anonymous" with the words "We are legion," according to a letter from the company.

"Just weeks before, several Sony companies had been the target of a large-scale, coordinated denial of service attack by the group Anonymous," the letter states. "The attacks were coordinated against Sony as a protest against Sony for exercising its rights in a civil action in the United States Court in San Francisco against a hacker."

Anonymous has released a statement denying any involvement in the latest data breach.

Whoever is responsible, Sony says is was the victim of a "very carefully planned, very professional, highly sophisticated criminal cyberattack."

For more on Wednesday's hearing and congressional reaction, visit our new Tech page.

A House Judiciary subcommittee has set a tentative date for later this month for its hearing examining AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile USA.

Following remarks Wednesday at a Computer and Communications Industry Association conference, Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Tech Daily Dose that the hearing is tentatively set for May 26. During his speech, Goodlatte did not tip his hand on where he stands on the merger, saying "I don't want to prejudge that."

CCIA President and CEO Ed Black told Goodlatte that he hopes the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission will block the merger. "It really is a bridge too far," Black said. The group argues that further consolidation among wireless providers will stifle innovation and competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

During remarks later in the morning, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calf., ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Communications and the Internet Subcommittee, said Congress and federal regulators need to "carefully scrutinize" the merger.

In particular, she said they need to examine how the merger will impact the price of wireless data services, the special access market, which are the rates businesses and other organizations pay to connect their networks to the Internet, and competition and choice for consumers and businesses in next-generation wireless services.

The SEAL attack that killed Osama bin Laden was good business for Google.

More of our e-reads today on the tech page.

The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold a hearing on the AT&T/T-Mobile transaction in late May, industry and government sources told Tech Daily Dose. Tentative dates for the session before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., are May 25 or 26.

The Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, headed by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., will be the first congressional panel to review the transaction when it convenes a May 11 hearing featuring two marquee witnesses: AT&T President and CEO Randall L. Stephenson and T-Mobile USA President and CEO Philipp Humm.

AT&T's proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile is also expected to be the focus of hearings before the Senate and House Commerce Committees. The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission recently commenced their regulatory reviews of the deal.

Amid an ongoing debate over American foreign aid, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Johnson & Johnson hope to harness mobile technology to help new and expectant mothers around the world.

The effort, announced Tuesday, aims to spread health information to women in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. A similar program, called text4baby, was launched in the United States last year.

"If we are going to improve public health across the developing world, our solutions must be focused on reaching the hard to reach with health information they otherwise would not receive," USAID Administrator Raj Shah said in a statement. "This partnership will harness the power of mobile technology to provide mothers with information about pregnancy, childbirth, and the first year of life, empowering these women to make healthy decisions for themselves and their families."

The $10 million program, called the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action, comes as congressional Republicans increasingly take aim at foreign aid. Some policy makers question spending millions of dollars overseas while running up debts at home.

Freshman Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has called for an end to all such spending and GOP budgets have proposed reducing State Department and aid spending by almost a third, although actual cuts have been a fraction of that so far.

United States Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said the mobile phone effort will help create more effective ways to use mobile technology to improve the health of women and children.

"This is an exciting approach to using technological innovation to address development challenges," he said.

Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee say the nation could save time and money by laying down broadband pipes when building federal highways.

They introduced legislation Tuesday that would require contractors to place plastic pipes during the construction of federal highways for the fiber-optic cable lines used to provide broadband Internet access.

The bill was introduced by Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and co-sponsored by Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and other members of the committee. They offered a similar bill in the last Congress.

"This legislation is a creative approach to more rapidly deploy broadband service, promote competition, and do so with limited federal dollars," Eshoo said. "This 'dig once' policy would expand broadband at a fraction of the cost by including the conduit as roads are being built."

The lawmakers noted in a statement that the Federal Highway Administration has said it is 10 times more expensive to dig up and repair an existing road to lay fiber lines than to add them when a road is being built or repaired.

Despite being supported by key Energy and Commerce lawmakers, the bill will not be considered by that panel and has instead been referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The Telecommunications Industry Association applauded the proposal, saying it's a commonsense way to help expand broadband that adds little to the cost of road construction.

The New York Times reports that makers of video game consoles are milking the devices for all their worth.

AT&T's data caps go into effect today.

And The Washington Post looks at how the Web found out about Osama bin Laden's death.

Check out more of today's e-Reads on our new Tech page.

Sony will be skipping this week's congressional hearing held in its honor, so to speak. On Wednesday the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade will examine the threat of data breaches after hackers stole personal information from 77 million Sony PlayStation Network accounts.

Representatives of from the Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Secret Service, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Association for Computing Machinery are scheduled to testify.

Ken Johnson, a spokesman for Chairwoman Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said Sony declined to testify at the hearing because of the ongoing investigation into the data breach involving its PlayStation Network customers' information. The company has agreed to answer written questions from the subcommittee on the data breach. The panel has given Sony until the close of business Tuesday to provide answers to those questions, Johnson said.

"Despite this, millions of consumers are twisting in the wind, so we are determined to get some answers for them," Johnson said.

He added that Bono Mack plans to introduce data breach legislation soon after Wednesday's hearing and may make some tweaks to the draft measure based on feedback from the hearing. According to an internal committee memo obtained by Tech Daily Dose, the legislation will be based on a bill previously introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

Rush's bill required companies to protect data and notify consumers of any breaches. It was designed to formalize the patchwork of privacy laws currently in place at the state level. According to the memo, hackers have compromised nearly 600 million personal records since 2005.

"Whether the breach occurs inadvertently through the accidental release of information, in the offline world by loss of a laptop or stolen records, or online via hacking, the results can be disastrous for consumers," the document concludes.

So it turns out that even if you throw away your phones and disconnect your Internet the government can still track you -- at least if you're the world's most wanted terrorist.

Ironically, American officials said the lack of phone and Internet connections at Bin Laden's otherwise new Pakistan compound was a major giveaway.

Read more about how Bin Laden's low-tech lifestyle kept him off the map for more than a decade, but finally caught up with him on our new Tech page.