Subject: [Benton's Communications-related Headlines] April 9, 2007

From: Kevin Taglang <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:56:55 -0500

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY APRIL 9, 2007

NEWS ABOUT THE FCC
	Congress Nudges an FCC on Hold
	FCC's Kevin Martin on the Hot Seat
	FCC chief avoids missteps of predecessor

LOCALISM
	Local Government Groups Oppose FCC Order
	Martin's DTV Lease Plan Drawing Little Support

TRIBUNE SALE
	Zell Wins Tribune In Bid to Revive A Media Empire
	What the Tribune Sale Means
	Papers, Web firms need 'a new deal,' Zell says
	Zell in Talks With Geffen On Deal for L.A. Times

BROADBAND
	Consumer groups suggest rules for US wireless sale
	Clinton Introduces Rural Broadband Bill
	Helping Our Children Succeed: What's Broadband got to do with it?

TELECOM
	Phone firms hung up over fees
	Vonage wins temporary reprieve in Verizon case
	Outrage! A Nation’s Phones May End in Foreign Hands

CONTENT
	Critics demand Imus be fired for Rutgers remark
	FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell To Approve Violence Report
	NCTA: Let Program-Access Ban Expire
	AFP, Google News settle lawsuit over Google News
	Study Says Copyrighted Material Not Dominant on YouTube
	A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs
	Reaching Out to Diverse Faiths, Viewers

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
	GOP-issued laptops now a White House headache

NEWS ABOUT THE FCC

CONGRESS NUDGES AN FCC ON HOLD
[SOURCE: Washington Post 4/4, AUTHOR: Charles Babington]
Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI) scolded the five 
members of the Federal Communications Commission 
when he finally got them before a powerful 
subcommittee last month. The FCC botched handling 
of cable television franchising, racked up a 
backlog of unanswered consumer complaints, and 
dallied on various disputes between industry 
rivals with little oversight from the previous 
Republican-controlled Congress in recent years, 
the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce 
Committee said in the March 14 hearing. Within 
days, word spread that the FCC was accelerating 
efforts to complete action on about 150 pending 
matters -- from regulating cable television 
service in apartment buildings to settling 
quarrels over the distribution of 
telecommunications funds in rural areas. Some 
analysts saw the move as a direct response to 
lawmakers' complaints. With Democrats running 
Congress, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin is 
"responding to the sense that Dingell doesn't 
like backlogs," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, 
president of the nonprofit Media Access Project. 
"He doesn't want to be on the wrong side of Dingell."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301652.html?referrer=email
(requires registration)

FCC'S KEVIN MARTIN ON THE HOT SEAT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Now serving his second term as chairman of the 
Federal Communications Commission, 40-year-old 
Kevin Martin, has been in the hot seat lately. 
Since he became chairman in 2005, he has pushed 
for greater curbs on sex and violence. Against 
great resistance, he has attempted to force cable 
systems to carry the digital channels of local TV 
stations. And he has riled many more in the cable 
industry with his advocacy of “à la carte,” which 
would allow consumers to purchase only the 
individual channels they want. Meanwhile, the new 
Democratic-controlled Congress has threatened 
frequent oversight hearings of the FCC. On the 
eve of the National Association of Broadcasters 
convention in Las Vegas, Chairman Martin sat down 
with B&C’s John Eggerton to talk about everything 
from TV violence to the Fairness Doctrine. On 
media ownership he Chairman Martin says, "I've 
committed to completing all of the ownership 
studies and all of the ownership hearings before 
the commission takes any action to make sure we 
are going through a process that is transparent 
and people have the opportunity to raise the 
issues of concern to them. We have committed to a 
total of six ownership hearings and two on 
localism. We have completed three of the six 
ownership hearings. We have another one coming up 
in Maine and one in Tampa at the end of April. So 
we've made some progress, but we still have some 
work to do. I'm not sure I can say when the 
earliest we could do something, because I have to 
make sure we finish all the hearings." On 
broadcasters' public disclosure rules he says, 
"Much of the debate over whether broadcasters 
should be subjected to additional public-interest 
obligations is based on whether they are serving 
their communities now. I think most broadcasters 
are doing a good job, and making public their 
practices will add concrete facts to this debate 
and should benefit them. My predecessor 
circulated an item on enhanced disclosure, and I 
recently proposed some edits to strengthen it."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6431598.html

FCC CHIEF AVOIDS MISSTEPS OF PREDECESSOR
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times 4/8, AUTHOR: Jim 
Puzzanghera [email-masked]]
The FCC is in the midst of a periodic review of 
its media ownership rules, as required by 
Congress. The agency will spend the rest of 2007 
studying whether to relax restrictions on the 
number of radio and TV stations that a company 
can own in one market, as well as rules that 
prevent ownership of a newspaper and a station in 
the same city. But this review could be much 
different from the last one, held four years ago. 
The largest station owners are not as insistent 
this time around on easing the rules because the 
broadcasting business has lost some luster since 
2003 as advertisers and viewers have become 
enamored of the Internet. Major station owners 
such as News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and CBS Corp. 
are more interested in reducing their broadcast 
holdings and expanding their presence online. "It 
does not appear to me that the passion of the 
opponents has diminished in any way, but the 
passions of the proponents have diminished 
significantly," said Blair Levin, a 
telecommunications analyst at brokerage Stifel, 
Nicolaus & Co. One exception: Tribune Co., which 
owns newspapers and TV stations in five markets, 
including Los Angeles, where it owns The Times 
and KTLA Channel 5. The company's prospective new 
owner, Sam Zell, would need waivers in those 
markets to comply with the rules. Another factor 
is that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin appears intent 
on avoiding the mistakes made by his predecessor. 
Former Chairman Michael Powell, a fellow 
Republican, was widely criticized for holding 
just one public hearing, and suffered a 
humiliating blow to his credibility when Congress 
reversed part of the FCC's decision to overhaul 
the ownership rules.  As a commissioner in 2003, 
Martin voted to liberalize the rules. That's one 
reason opponents worry that his open approach 
might be simply an attempt to smooth the path for 
what the media industry wants.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc8apr08,1,3101936.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true
(requires registration)

LOCALISM

LOCAL GOVERNMENT GROUPS OPPOSE FCC ORDER
[SOURCE: Multichannel News 4/3, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
The Federal Communications Commission’s recent 
order requiring local governments to approve 
applications from new video providers in 90 days 
represents an “abuse of discretion” and violates 
federal law, according to petitions for review 
filed by a coalition of local government  and 
cable access groups. The challenges were filed in 
the U. S. Courts of Appeal for the Third, Fourth 
and Sixth Districts. The petitions for review 
were filed on behalf of the Alliance for 
Communications Democracy, the Alliance for 
Community Media, the National Association of 
Counties, the National League of Cities, the 
National Association of Telecommunications 
Officers and Advisors and the U.S. Conference of 
Mayors. The petition challenges an FCC ruling 
released March 5. When an application for video 
certification is made in a city by a telephone 
company that already has facilities in city 
rights of way, the city must act on that request 
within 90 days, according to the order. The FCC 
concluded that current municipal proceedings drag 
on too long, frustrating competition. The 
appellants argued that the FCC order violates the 
U.S. Constitution, the federal Communications Act 
and the public-notice requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6430593.html?rssid=108

MARTIN'S DTV LEASE PLAN DRAWING LITTLE SUPPORT
[SOURCE: tvnewsday 4/4, AUTHOR: Kim McAvoy]
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to create a new 
class of “small and independently owned” TV 
broadcasters using digital channels leased from 
conventional, licensed broadcasters is generating 
more confusion than enthusiasm. So far, only 
religious broadcasters have embraced the idea. 
Most others are waiting to see the full proposal 
before passing final judgment. It’s now being 
circulated among the other FCC commissioners. 
Under Martin’s rent-a-channel plan, the digital 
broadcasters would have all the obligations of 
regular broadcasters, but would also have all the 
rights. In other words, they will have to air 
three hours a week of children’s programming, but 
they will also be able to demand carriage on 
local cable systems. The opportunity would be 
limited to “small and independently owned 
businesses,” Chairman Martin suggested in a March 
9 speech before the American Women in Radio and Television.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/04/04/daily.2/

TRIBUNE SALE

ZELL WINS TRIBUNE IN BID TO REVIVE A MEDIA EMPIRE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal 4/3, AUTHOR: Sarah Ellison [email-masked]]
On April 2, the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles 
Times, several other newspapers and 23 television 
stations fell into the hands of an unlikely 
newspaper baron, iconoclastic real-estate magnate 
Sam Zell, whose bid had come at the eleventh 
hour. Mr. Zell's plan suggests that he has some 
degree of confidence in the beleaguered newspaper 
business. He has told people he sees promise in 
the company's Internet assets. But the deal 
leaves many unanswered questions about the future 
of Tribune.  company's board accepted a revised 
$34-dollar-a-share proposal from Mr. Zell to take 
the company private. The complex deal is 
structured around an employee stock-ownership 
plan, or ESOP. When it is completed, most of the 
company's shares will be held by Tribune 
employees. Although he has no background in 
journalism, Mr. Zell will become chairman of a 
media company that will be carrying a heavy debt 
load, which will force its new owners to face 
tough questions. How Mr. Zell will be received 
remains to be seen. He has said he doesn't intend 
to break up the company, but Tribune said it will 
sell off the Chicago Cubs after the completion of 
the current baseball season. One person who has 
spoken to Mr. Zell about his plans says he is 
likely to seek further budget cuts, a move that 
will likely be unpopular with staff, particularly 
at the Los Angeles Times, where the editor and 
publisher both stepped down last year to protest 
budget cuts ordered by Tribune's headquarters.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB117551431653956734.html
(requires subscription)

WHAT THE TRIBUNE SALE MEANS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Paige Albiniak]
Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion purchase of the troubled 
Tribune Co. is going to put more pressure to 
perform than ever on the company’s 23 TV 
stations. While the TV stations represent only 
one-quarter of the company’s total revenue, they 
turn in healthier cash flows than Tribune’s 11 
newspapers. And their profit margins range in the 
low- to mid- 30% range, while the papers hover 
around 20%. The company is going to depend on 
those cash flows to handle the huge amount of 
debt -- between $12 billion and $13 billion, up 
from $5 billion in existing debt -- Tribune is 
taking on to complete this deal. “They don't have 
a large margin of error when they take on that 
much leverage,” says James Goss, senior 
investment analyst with Chicago-based Barrington 
Research. “But their cash flows and revenue base, 
which people presume are just falling off the 
cliff, are really not. They've just leveled off.” 
Pressure to improve efficiencies at the stations, 
and thus throw off more cash, may result in 
layoffs, for which employees at Tribune’s Los 
Angeles Times have been bracing for months now. 
Tribune executives say they do not expect 
widespread cutbacks, but that’s going to depend 
on TV-station performance in coming months.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6431678.html
* Zell Gets Veto Power at Tribune
although Sam Zell will control only a minority of 
the board, he will have the right to veto any 
major transactions. The employees, who will get 
company shares but who will no longer get 401(k) 
contributions from Tribune, will have far less control.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/business/media/06tribune.html

PAPERS, WEB FIRMS NEED 'A NEW DEAL,' ZELL SAYS
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times 4/6, AUTHOR: David 
Streitfeld [email-masked]]
Sam Zell, who agreed to a takeover this week of 
Tribune Co., came to the heart of Silicon Valley 
on Thursday evening and said there needed to be 
"a new deal and new formulas" between newspapers 
and Internet companies. Journalists produce the 
news that search engines such as Yahoo Inc. and 
Google Inc. seamlessly and freely make available 
to anyone with a computer, Zell said during a 
presentation on corporate governance at Stanford 
University. "If all the newspapers in America did 
not allow Google to steal their content for 
nothing, what would Google do, and how profitable 
would Google be?" the Chicago real estate 
maverick mused. His answer: Not very. He said he 
had been in the news business for less than a 
week, so he wasn't a genius at it yet. Told that 
many people didn't think that newspapers were a 
good business because of declining circulation 
and falling ad revenues, he fired back: "A lot of 
people didn't think the railcar business was a 
good investment. I made a quarter-billion 
dollars. A lot of people didn't think container 
leasing was a good investment. I made a 
half-billion. Should I go on?" "The Tribune deal, 
no matter what happens, is not going to change my 
life," Zell said. "But it's a fascinating 
challenge. And it's even more of a challenge when 
I see other people haven't been successful in figuring it out."
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-zell6apr06,1,2129698.story
(requires registration)

ZELL IN TALKS WITH GEFFEN ON DEAL FOR LA TIMES
[SOURCE: Washington Post 4/5, AUTHOR: Frank Ahrens]
Chicago real estate mogul Samuel Zell, whose 
$13.2 billion bid for the Tribune Co. media 
empire was accepted April 2, has already talked 
to entertainment mogul David Geffen about a 
possible deal for the Los Angeles Times and 
dismissed a pair of rival bidders as 
backstabbers. Zell said Eli Broad and Ronald 
Burkle, Southern California billionaires who also 
bid on Tribune, approached him late in the 
process about forming a partnership to buy the 
company. Zell said in yesterday's Chicago Tribune 
that he put them off until his bid was accepted. 
Broad and Burkle then complained in a letter to 
the Tribune board that Zell's bid got 
preferential treatment over their original offer. 
"If somebody calls me and says 'I want to be a 
partner' and the next day tries to stick a knife 
in my back, tell me again why I would want to do 
business with him?" Zell told the Tribune.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402591_pf.html
(requires registration)

BROADBAND

CONSUMER GROUPS SUGGEST RULES FOR US WIRELESS SALE
[SOURCE: Reuters 4/5]
A coalition of consumer groups -- including 
heavyweights such as Consumers Union, New America 
Foundation and Media Access Project -- have 
proposed a set of proposals aimed at ensuring 
that an upcoming sale of U.S. wireless airwaves 
will create more competition in the 
communications industry. The Federal 
Communications Commission is expected to let 
bidders know sometime in April exactly what kind 
of services can be offered using the airwaves as 
well as how the auction will work and provide a 
set of rules on how the spectrum will be divided 
up. "We are asking them to set auction rules so 
it is not just the incumbents that win," said Art 
Brodsky, spokesman with Public Knowledge. The 
coalition is proposing three rules: 1) network 
neutrality, 2) reserving 30 MHz as "open access" 
spectrum, and 3) allowing more competitors than 
just the major incumbents to bid.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0522320220070405
* Coalition Pushes FCC For Open Spectrum Auction
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=198800661
* Silicon Valley Moneymen Make a Play for Airwaves
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: John Markoff]
Some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture 
capitalists and technology investors have joined 
an investment group that is preparing to 
challenge cellphone carriers, cable and satellite 
companies for valuable radio spectrum that will 
be freed when television broadcasters convert to 
digital signals. The government mandated the 
transition to digital, to be completed by Feb. 
19, 2009, so it could reclaim a broad swath of 
radio spectrum and reallocate the frequencies to 
public safety organizations and commercial 
broadband networks. The venture capitalists L. 
John Doerr and James L. Barksdale have joined an 
investment group that is promoting a plan that 
would open a portion of the radio spectrum for 
both uses, through technologies flexible enough 
to support both next-generation wireless Internet 
devices and public safety emergency 
communications. The plan is being put forth by 
Frontline Wireless, formed earlier this year by 
Reed E. Hundt, the former Federal Communications 
Commission chairman. Frontline Wireless is one of 
several potential bidders for spectrum in the 700 
MHz band, used until now by UHF television, that 
is being opened up by the move to digital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/technology/09spectrum.html
(requires registration)

CLINTON INTRODUCED RURAL BROADBAND BILL
[SOURCE: Sen Hillary Clinton press release 3/29]
Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) introduced The Rural 
Broadband Initiatives Act. This legislation will 
extend and improve access to broadband services 
in small towns across America. It creates a 
policy and action framework to ensure that the 
federal government employs an effective and 
comprehensive strategy to deploy broadband 
service and access in the rural areas of the 
United States. The bill will also establish a 
Rural Broadband Innovation fund to explore and 
develop cutting edge broadband delivery 
technologies to reach underserved rural areas. 
The Rural Broadband Initiatives Act has been 
endorsed by the Communications Workers of America.
http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=271662&&

HELPING OUR CHILDREN SUCCEED: WHAT'S BROADBAND GOT TO DO WITH IT?
[SOURCE: The Children's Partnership , AUTHOR: 
April KirkHart and James Lau with Wendy Lazarus and Laurie Lipper]
This issue brief is designed to help leaders for 
children better understand what broadband is and 
what is at stake for our nation's 73 million 
children in the policy debate. It offers concrete 
ways that leaders can make children's needs a 
priority and advocate for digital opportunities for all youth.
http://www.techpolicybank.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Publications_from_The_Children_s_Partnership&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=10692

TELECOM

PHONE FIRMS HUNG UP OVER FEES
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times 4/5, AUTHOR: James S. Granelli]
A legal fight involving two Southern California 
companies and AT&T is exposing an ominous 
reality: Phone companies say they can decide whom 
their customers can't call. The Kidney Cancer 
Assn., a small charity watching its nickels and 
dimes, found that out the hard way. The nonprofit 
had been using a free, Web-based 
conference-calling service from a Long Beach 
company to connect patients with medical experts. 
But last month, the charity's cellphone provider, 
Cingular, began blocking calls to the system run 
by FreeConferenceCall.com. The same thing 
happened to Richard Rezabek, a software 
consultant, when he tried to conduct free 
conference calls with his U.S. Navy clients. "For 
two days, I had to pay to arrange long-distance 
calls, paying 30 to 40 cents a minute for each 
caller," said Rezabek "I couldn't charge my 
customers -- I had to swallow that cost." 
Swallowing the cost is exactly what Cingular 
parent AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Qwest are saying 
they're forced to do when they pay the high fees 
smaller phone carriers charge on the back end to 
connect callers. The conferences may be free to 
the consumer, but they're costing long-distance 
carriers millions of dollars. The blocked calls 
exposed a long-brewing dispute over how much it 
really costs to complete calls over a nationwide 
public telephone system that connects separately 
owned networks. It was believed to be the first 
time that the disagreement had spilled into the consumer's consciousness.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-phone5apr05,1,5194606.story?coll=la-headlines-business
(requires registration)

VONAGE WINS TEMPORARY REPRIEVE IN VERIZON CASE
[SOURCE: Reuters 4/7, AUTHOR: Rachelle Younglai]
Vonage won a temporary reprieve from an appeals 
court on Friday, hours after a lower court barred 
it from adding new customers while it appeals a 
finding it infringed Verizon patents for making 
phone calls over the Internet. U.S. District 
Judge Claude Hilton had limited Vonage to serving 
its existing customers. He also required Vonage 
to post a $66 million bond. The stay is good 
until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal 
Circuit hears Vonage's request for a permanent 
stay of Judge Hilton's injunction. However, it 
does not mean that Vonage will necessarily be 
able to continue its business as usual for the length of the appeals process.
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0625380920070407
* Vonage Gets Temporary Reprieve on Ruling
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6431520.html?rssid=108
* After setback, Vonage wins temporary relief
http://news.com.com/Judge+puts+halt+on+new+Vonage+customers/2100-1036_3-6173991.html?tag=html.alert
* Temporary reprieve allows Vonage to keep signing up customers
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20070409/2b_vonage09.art.htm

OUTRAGE! A NATION'S PHONES MAY END IN FOREIGN HANDS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Sylvers]
AT&T and América Móvil, the Latin American 
cellphone company, each offered to buy a third of 
Olimpia, which owns 18 percent of Telecom 
Italia’s common shares, for a combined investment 
of about 4.5 billion euros ($6 billion). AT&T and 
América Móvil, which now have the largest 
cellphone businesses in the United States and 
Latin America, respectively, may have dropped 
into this Italian soap opera unprepared for the 
reaction from some politicians and business 
leaders, who are demanding that Telecom Italia remain in domestic hands.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/business/worldbusiness/09italia.html
(requires registration)

CONTENT

CRITICS DEMAND IMUS BE FIRED FOR RUTGERS REMARK
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Peter Johnson]
Radio host Don Imus' apology Friday for 
disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University 
women's basketball team has not satisfied angry 
critics, from black journalists to the NAACP, who 
want him fired. He's also in hot water with 
MSNBC, which simulcasts his popular talk show, 
and syndicator CBS Radio. As reaction to his 
comments played out, both outlets said they were 
reviewing the incident. The furor over his 
remarks comes as the popularity of MSNBC's 
simulcast of Imus in the Morning has surged 35% 
in the past year. It was a factor in rival CNN's 
decision to switch anchors on its competing 
American Morning. It's unclear how Imus' comments 
will affect his popularity or tenure. But MSNBC 
sought to distance itself from his "offensive" 
remarks, noting, "As Imus makes clear every day, 
his views are not those of MSNBC." Parent company 
NBC called them "deplorable." CBS said that 
though a "sincere apology was called for," it 
will "monitor the program's comments going 
forward." Imus' trademark is take-no-prisoners 
humor, and fans say part of his appeal is that he 
is an equal-opportunity offender. But blacks say 
he has been particularly insensitive, comparing 
former NBC News correspondent Gwen Ifill to a 
"cleaning woman" and referring to Illinois Sen. 
Barack Obama as "that colored fellow."
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070409/d_imus09.art.htm

FCC COMMISSIONER ROBERT MCDOWELL TO APPROVE VIOLENCE REPORT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable 4/2, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell says he will 
vote to approve the FCC's upcoming report to 
Congress on TV violence but has not done so yet 
because he is still vetting it to make sure it is 
"thorough and constitutional."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6429868?title=Article&spacedesc=news

NCTA: LET PROGRAM-ACCESS BAN EXPIRE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News 4/3, AUTHOR: Linda Haugsted]
Strong competition from direct-broadcast 
satellite and terrestrial competitors means the 
ban that prevents exclusive agreements between 
programming networks and cable operators that 
have invested in them is no longer needed, 
according to a Federal Communications Commission 
filing Monday by the National Cable & 
Telecommunications Association. Due to the growth 
in penetration of providers DirecTV and EchoStar 
Communications, more than one in three video 
households (approximately 28 million) now buy pay 
television services from vendors other than 
cable-television providers, according to the NCTA 
filing. This means that if a channel were to 
refuse to deal with DBS competitors, that 
programmer stands to lose 30% of its distribution 
revenue, the filing added. Retention of the 
access ban serves to “distort marketplace 
competition,” according to the document.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6430436.html?rssid=108

AFP, GOOGLE NEWS SETTLE LAWSUIT OVER GOOGLE NEWS
[SOURCE: Reuters 4/7, AUTHOR: Eric Auchard]
Agence France-Presse and Google Inc. have settled 
a copyright lawsuit, clearing the way for Google 
to post snippets of the French news agency's news 
and photos online, the two companies said on 
Friday. In a joint statement, the two companies 
said the accord allows the Internet giant to post 
AFP content on Google News and other services. 
Terms of the pact were not disclosed.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0728115420070407

STUDY SAYS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL NOT DOMINANT ON YOUTUBE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable 4/5, AUTHOR: Garth Johnston]
The amount of copyrighted material on YouTube and 
other video sharing sites may be less than 
previously thought. A report from online video 
tracker Vidmeter  found that of the top 6,725 
videos between December 9, 2006 and March 22, 
2007 only 621, or 9.23%, were removed because 
they were found to infringe upon their owners 
copyright. The most popular YouTube videos were 
viewed 1,586,573,131 times in the studied time 
frame and pulled clips accounted for only 94,187,203 of those views, or 5.93%.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6431253.html

A CALL FOR MANNERS IN THE WORLD OF NASTY BLOGS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brad Stone]
Last week, Tim O’Reilly, a conference promoter 
and book publisher who is credited with coining 
the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, 
creator of the communal online encyclopedia 
Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape 
online discussion and debate. Chief among the 
recommendations is that bloggers consider banning 
anonymous comments left by visitors to their 
pages and be able to delete threatening or 
libelous comments without facing cries of 
censorship. A recent outbreak of antagonism among 
several prominent bloggers “gives us an 
opportunity to change the level of expectations 
that people have about what’s acceptable online,” 
said Mr. O’Reilly, who posted the preliminary 
recommendations last week on his company blog 
(radar.oreilly.com). Mr. Wales then put the 
proposed guidelines on his company’s site 
(blogging.wikia.com), and is now soliciting 
comments in the hope of creating consensus around 
what constitutes civil behavior online.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/technology/09blog.html?hp
(requires registration)
* Aiming for a kinder, smarter online encyclopedia
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-citizen9apr09,1,2224061.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

REACHING OUT TO DIVERSE FAITHS, VIEWERS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Tim Kridel]
Religious networks increasingly are exploring 
ways to bridge different denominations and 
shifting viewer habits. As a result, programmers 
are looking to interfaith fare, as well as new 
formats. Subscription video-on-demand service 
Shalom TV bills itself as a “mainstream Jewish 
television network.” But its lineup includes 
inter faith programs like Faith Journal, which 
features Buddhist, Christian and Islamic scholars 
and religious leaders debating universal 
questions such as faith versus reason and the 
point at which life begins. “There is a keen 
interest in inter faith dialogue toward 
understanding the outlook of other religions and 
creating a greater sense of interfaith harmony,” 
Shalom TV president and CEO Rabbi Mark Golub 
said. “Much of this is driven by the rising 
awareness of Islam fueled [in part] by current 
affairs. More and more programs are now 
addressing this area.” That’s noteworthy because 
it shows how faith-based networks can attract 
secular viewers who aren't looking for religious 
programming but are drawn in when seeking 
information about, for example, the roots of the crises in the Middle East.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6431733.html?display=Special+Report

GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

GOP-ISSUED LAPTOPS NOW A WHITE HOUSE HEADACHE
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Tom Hamburger]
When Karl Rove and his top deputies arrived at 
the White House in 2001, the Republican National 
Committee provided them with laptop computers and 
other communication devices to be used alongside 
their government-issued equipment. The 
back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for 
and maintained by the RNC, was designed to avoid 
charges that had vexed the Clinton White House -- 
that federal resources were being used 
inappropriately for political campaign purposes. 
Now, that dual computer system is creating new 
embarrassment and legal headaches for the White 
House, the Republican Party and Rove's 
once-vaunted White House operation. Democrats say 
evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used 
for political and government policy matters in 
violation of federal record preservation and 
disclosure rules. In addition, Democrats point to 
a handful of e-mails obtained through ongoing 
inquiries suggesting the system may have been 
used to conceal such activities as contacts with 
lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on 
bribery charges and is now in prison for fraud. 
Democratic congressional investigators are 
beginning to demand access to this RNC-White 
House communications system, which was used not 
only by Rove's office but by several top 
officials elsewhere in the White House.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-laptops9apr09,1,5319142.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage
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