The U.S. had the highest-ranked overall intellectual property (IP) protections out of 25 countries, said a report (http://bit.ly/1cuElre) from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) released Wednesday. The U.K. placed second and France third, with China 17th and India 25th, it said. The rankings are based on 30 IP standards, including “protection and enforcement of patents, trademark, copyrights, trade secrets, and participation in relevant international treaties,” and said the U.S. had “fallen behind” in IP “enforcement,” said a GIPC news release (http://bit.ly/1byiVVZ). The federal government should strengthen “current enforcement programs and allocate dedicated resources throughout the government to effectively enforce IP rights and protect consumers,” said David Hirschmann, GIPC president. The analysis was done by Pugatch Consilium, an international research consultancy.
A two-year federal grant will back a pilot program to safeguard children’s online activities and personal information, said a Verizon release Wednesday (http://on.mktw.net/1eg7aId). Privacy Vaults Online (PRIVO) -- which helps companies comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) -- put together the group of technology and identity companies and government agencies to work on the program, said Verizon. Verizon Enterprise Solutions will be among the participating companies. The government grant lasts for two years, is worth as much as $3.2 million and is funded through the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), a White House-launched, public-private sector initiative, said Verizon. NSTIC is housed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The pilot program is expected to create the Minors Trust Framework, “a collection of policies and online tools that provides parents more control over the online activities of their children and helps businesses address” COPPA requirements, Verizon said. The group will issue “privacy-enhancing login credentials” to “indicate parental consent, helping to reduce the capture of sensitive information about a child, and enabling easier, more secure online access,” Verizon said. PRIVO expects 1 million of these credentials will be issued by the end of 2014, with 10 million issued by the end of the pilot program in 2015, Verizon said. “Businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations that offer online services to children have been hindered in their efforts to comply with COPPA by the lack of a unified approach to notify parents and obtain their consent,” said PRIVO CEO Denise Tayloe in a statement.
The federal government should institute baseline cybersecurity requirements as a condition for contract awards for “appropriate acquisitions,” the Department of Defense and General Services Administration said in a report released Wednesday. The report, prepared as part of President Barack Obama’s February 2013 cybersecurity executive order, “provides a path forward to aligning federal cybersecurity risk management and acquisition processes,” DOD and GSA said. The agencies also recommended the federal government develop common definitions for cybersecurity jargon for all federal acquisitions and institute a federal acquisition cyber-risk management strategy. The government should include cybersecurity in acquisition training and increase government accountability for cyber risk management, DOD and GSA said. The government should also require all federal agencies to make purchases from original equipment manufacturers, authorized resellers and “other trusted sources,” DOD and GSA said (http://1.usa.gov/1aIm9eX).
A GAO report released Tuesday said the Department of Homeland Security should collaborate with the emergency services sector to address the cybersecurity implications of Internet-related technologies, in a revised version of the sector’s Sector-Specific Plan. DHS, along with the FCC and the departments of Commerce, Justice and Transportation, coordinated cybersecurity-related activities with state and local governments, but that coordination had not focused on the cybersecurity of public safety entities involved in 911 calls, the report said. DHS efforts to work with emergency services did not address Internet-based information technologies, such as next-generation 911, the GAO said. Those technologies were not included because updates to the emergency services sector-specific plan weren’t set to begin until after DHS released a revised version of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan in December, the GAO said. DHS plans to complete the emergency services sector plan by December. Until that plan is completed, “information systems are at an increased risk of failure or being unavailable at critical moments,” the GAO said (http://1.usa.gov/1evFtY7).
Seven of the top 10 leading countries in IPv6 adoption were European in Q3, said an Akamai report released Tuesday, according to the company’s news release (http://bit.ly/1fk4Vnp). Japan was the only Asian Pacific country in the top 10, it said. China accounted for 35 percent of “attack traffic” in Q3, followed by Indonesia at 20 percent; the U.S. was at 11 percent, it said. Average Internet connection speeds increased 10 percent from Q2 to 3.6 Mbps, it said.
Apple updated its statistics on national security orders (http://bit.ly/1mRZJHV) after the Justice Department lifted some restrictions on reporting government requests for information (CD Jan 28 p10). The company said it received between zero and 249 national security orders Jan. 1-June 30, 2013 -- a range it had not been able to report in its previous disclosure (CD Nov 7 p12). National security orders represent the total number of national security requests received from the government, which includes national security letters issued by the FBI, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo. In total, the company received 927 law enforcement account requests, specifying 2,330 accounts. Previously, those numbers were reported as 1,000 to 2,000 account requests and 2,000 to 3,000 accounts. Data disclosed was to law enforcement in 747 of the 2,330 accounts named. That disclosure number was initially reported as zero to 1,000.
Internet display advertising increased by more than 32 percent in the first three quarters of 2013, compared with the same time period in 2012, said Nielsen in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1e2NlWl). TV had a 57.6 percent share of ad spending, compared with 4.5 percent for the Internet, it said. How TV and the Internet “can work together” is an “exciting development,” said Randall Beard, Nielsen’s global head of advertiser solutions, in the release.
Google’s acquisition of DeepMind Technologies, an artificial intelligence company in London, was confirmed by a Google spokesman Monday, by email. Google has not disclosed the terms of the deal, although multiple reports have put the figure at $400 million.
Future 4K streams of Netflix content will be encoded at 15.6 Mbps, “well within reach of a significant minority of our members,” CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells said Thursday in a quarterly letter to shareholders. “The reach of capable 20 Mbps broadband connections will continue to grow,” they said. However, “since the number of 4K displays sold in 2014 and the number of available hours of 4K content both will be relatively modest, the short-term impact of 4K is mainly on consumer perception of Netflix as a leader in Internet TV,” they said. Domestic U.S. growth at Netflix “is very strong,” and much of that can be credited “to the tailwind of Internet video growth in general,” they said. Hulu had three CEOs in 2013, “and yet grew paid subscribers an impressive 65 percent,” they said. “We think YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes video and BBC iPlayer are also growing fast.” And in the more “traditional” pay-TV sector, “there is lots of activity that may affect us on the margin,” they said. Within the pay-TV “ecosystem” looms some “potentially big shake ups,” including those that will be guided by the Supreme Court’s Aereo decision, they said. Depending on that decision, “Aereo will either have to pay for the broadcast content” like pay-TV operators, or pay-TV “will no longer be obliged to pay,” they said. “In contrast, we continue licensing and producing more exclusive content for our direct-to-consumer business, and are relatively unaffected by the big bundle questions.” Last April, Netflix introduced its four-concurrent-stream $11.99 a month option to begin its evaluation of “plan tiering,” the letter said. Since late 2013, it also has tested one- and three-stream “variants,” as well as SD/HD differentials “at various price points,” it said. “Eventually, we hope to be able to offer new members a selection of three simple options to fit everyone’s taste. If we do make pricing changes for new members, existing members would get generous grandfathering of their existing plans and prices, so there would be no material near-term revenue increase from moving to this potential broader set of options. We are in no rush to implement such new member plans and are still researching the best way to proceed.” Netflix finished 2013 with more than 44 million subscribers and expects to reach 48 million by the end of Q1 this year, the letter said.
Two-thirds of U.S. broadband households are interested in smart home service bundles including safety, security and management, said Parks Associates. Home management is the most appealing bundle combining safety alerts, remote home monitoring and remote thermostat management, Parks said. “Consumers, while interested in smart home services, are averse to long-term contracts, but there are other, alternate options for building revenues,” said Tom Kerber, Parks research director for home controls and energy. Consumers, for instance, are willing to let their service provider adjust their thermostat during peak hours to avoid monthly monitoring fees, he said. In-app purchasing and advertising also could be a source of incremental revenue for product manufacturers and service providers, Kerber said. According to a Q4 2013 survey of 2,500 households on energy conservation steps they had taken over the past year, 47 percent of respondents said they had switched to LED or CFL light bulbs, the third-most-cited activity behind turning off appliances when not in use (54 percent) and adjusting thermostats (48 percent). The trend showed an upswing in adoption of LED bulbs from 6 percent to 11 percent of households from Q4 2012 to Q4 2013, while CFL bulb adoption dropped from 54 to 50 percent for the period and incandescent usage slipped from 50 to 49 percent, it said. Only 5 percent of households had switched to a time-of-use electricity plan to reduce energy consumption, it said.