The full FCC put on hold implementation of an administrative law judge’s December decision requiring Comcast to carry the Tennis Channel as widely as sports networks owned by the cable operator. The new decision largely reflects an Office of General Counsel order earlier this month staying implementation of the ALJ decision in the program carriage complaint where the independent channel alleged Comcast discriminated against it (CD May 5 p3). The new stay said it “will preserve the status quo while the Commission has an adequate opportunity to examine the record and the ALJ’s disposition of each issue closely.” The cable operator challenged Chief FCC ALJ Richard Sippel’s decision, while the indie sought an order requiring the wider carriage.
Communications between Google and the National Security Agency concerning encryption and cybersecurity, should they exist, won’t be turned over to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday. The D.C. Circuit affirmed a trial court order in favor of the NSA. EPIC had sought records of communications and agreements between Google and the NSA following the January 2010 attacks on the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, after which the company started routinely encrypting Gmail traffic. A Google executive had said publicly that the company was working with “relevant U.S. authorities,” and NSA Director Mike McConnell said in the media that cooperation between the agency and private companies like Google was “inevitable.” EPIC’s FOIA request to the NSA had asked in particular what role if any the agency played in Google’s decision not to routinely encrypt before the January 2010 attacks. Judge Janice Brown wrote for the three-judge panel, upholding NSA’s explanation that the sought information -- whose existence NSA neither confirmed nor denied, known as a “Glomar response” -- would pertain to its “organization, functions or activities,” and thus qualify for an agency-specific FOIA exemption. She said NSA’s explanation was “logical” and “plausible” about the benchmarks for qualifying for the exemption. EPIC’s claim that some of the sought information was “unsolicited” -- potential Google communications to the NSA -- and thus doesn’t fall under a pertinent exemption, didn’t convince Brown, who said the “broad language” in the NSA exemption applied to NSA’s vetting of commercial technology used by the government for “security vulnerabilities.” Potential communications between Google and the NSA could reveal “protected information about NSA’s implementation” of its information-assurance mission, and constitute a protected agency “activity” under the exemption, Brown said. It could also make companies “hesitate or decline” to contact the NSA for help if they knew the records could be revealed under FOIA, she said. EPIC’s citation of a previous D.C. Circuit rejection of a FOIA exemption for the NSA isn’t relevant, because the agency had made “conclusory” statements in that case, as opposed to the specific warnings about what would be compromised in EPIC’s request, Brown said. Simply because NSA discloses “basic information” about its information-assurance activities doesn’t mean it forsakes the exemption in response to EPIC’s “blanket request” for “all records,” nor does Google-NSA collaboration “widely reported in the national media” have any bearing, the judge said. Brown said EPIC’s assertion is “inaccurate” that the D.C. Circuit had only upheld Glomar responses where it was apparent the NSA “first conducted a search and segregability analysis” to locate potentially relevant records for disclosure: The NSA did those searches voluntarily, and the court never held or implied that search was “required.” EPIC Executive Director Mark Rotenberg told us the ruling should give lawmakers pause. “The NSA has become a black hole for cybersecurity activity,” he said. “If the agency cannot acknowledge the existence of records responsive to a FOIA request about a relationship with Google that was widely reported in the national media, then it would be absurd for lawmakers to give the agency any further authority for cybersecurity. Transparency, not secrecy, is the prerequisite for effective cybersecurity.”
Communications between Google and the National Security Agency concerning encryption and cybersecurity, should they exist, won’t be turned over to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday. The D.C. Circuit affirmed a trial court order in favor of the NSA.
A big reason why SanDisk is seeing growth in the client solid state drive business is that the industry has reached the “sweet spot” on SSD pricing, Chief Financial Officer Judy Bruner told an investor conference in New York on Tuesday. SanDisk long believed that sweet spot was about $1 per gigabyte, and that’s the threshold the industry recently reached, she said. Growth of SSD usage for notebooks was “less about the delta in the cost between” SSDs and hard drives than it was about reaching the sweet spot in SSD pricing, she said. SanDisk still expects there will be “continued supply demand imbalance” in the flash memory market industrywide in Q2, with “continued weakness in mobile card demand” being a “key contributor” to that imbalance, she said. “There is very little wafer capacity growth going on, we believe,” in Q2, and the rest of this year will be similar, she predicted. Bruner said SanDisk still expects to see “much improved supply demand imbalance” in the back half of this year. In the second half of 2012, the company expects to grow its mobile business quarter-over-quarter due to its new embedded products, and continue to make “strong share gains” in its client and enterprise SSD business, while gaining share at “leading mobile OEMs,” she said. The supply/demand imbalance was what led to the significant pricing decline that SanDisk reported for Q1 (CED April 23 p3), she said. SanDisk saw a 22 percent decline in average selling price per GB in Q1, she said. SanDisk had decided to continue pausing capacity expansion at its Fab 5 facility, but recently decided to not restart that expansion “any time this year,” the CFO said. “The soonest we will restart wafer capacity expansion is sometime in 2013” at Fab 5, she said. SanDisk has No. 1 market share in “the combination of cards and USB drives” in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Bruner said. Also at the conference, Brian Shirley, vice president of DRAM solutions at Micron Technology, said the graphics business has been “in a bit of a slump.” But, looking to 2013 and beyond, “there are some good trends happening, specifically with the new generation of game consoles,” he said. Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony all will be shipping new game systems, he said. “Those kinds of game consoles require very, very high-end memory,” more along the lines of “server and networking architectural memory as opposed to what used to be more of a PC type of memory,” he said.
Carriers filing replies in the FCC Lifeline proceeding generally supported the creation of a national Lifeline eligibility database, and want to maintain the current monthly reimbursement of $9.25, or increase it to $10. Replies posted Wednesday in docket 11-42 discussed an array of lingering concerns, including reseller eligibility for Lifeline discounts and whether Lifeline should be applied to bundled offerings that include a voice component.
With 555 question marks, the 182-page further notice of proposed rulemaking on contribution reform, released late Monday, contains as many questions as there are feet in the Washington Monument. Throughout the further notice, after posing several dozen questions, the commission pauses to ask whether certain proposals are consistent with its fundamental goal of being efficient, fair, and sustainable.
Skype video calling was added to the PS Vita, Microsoft’s Skype division said. Sony’s handheld videogame system is offering the Skype capabilities on the Wi-Fi and 3G models, Skype said. PS Vita users can download the application for free from the “Social” category of the PlayStation Store. The app was made available in the U.S. on Tuesday and expanded globally on Wednesday, a Skype spokeswoman said. Skype voice calling was made available on the PSP before this, but “this is the first time video calling is available on a mobile gaming device,” she said. “With the launch of Skype for PS Vita, we are taking another step towards our ultimate goal of making Skype video calling available on every platform, all over the world, and meeting the demands of existing PlayStation users to offer video on a gaming console,” said Manrique Brenes, senior director of emerging opportunities at Skype. Skype on PS Vita runs in “background mode” for users while gaming or using other applications and users have the capability to pause a game, conduct a call and then return to their previous activity, it said. Because the Vita features front- and rear-facing cameras, users can “switch back and forth between the two during a Skype call,” so that users “never miss” a call, “even when playing a game or using another app,” it said.
Skype video calling was added to the PS Vita, Microsoft’s Skype division said. Sony’s handheld videogame system is offering the Skype capabilities on the Wi-Fi and 3G models, Skype said. PS Vita users can download the application for free from the “Social” category of the PlayStation Store. The app was made available in the U.S. on Tuesday and expanded globally on Wednesday, a Skype spokeswoman said. Skype voice calling was made available on the PSP before this, but “this is the first time video calling is available on a mobile gaming device,” she said. “With the launch of Skype for PS Vita, we are taking another step towards our ultimate goal of making Skype video calling available on every platform, all over the world, and meeting the demands of existing PlayStation users to offer video on a gaming console,” said Manrique Brenes, senior director of emerging opportunities at Skype. Skype on PS Vita runs in “background mode” for users while gaming or using other applications and users have the capability to pause a game, conduct a call and then return to their previous activity, it said. Because the Vita features front- and rear-facing cameras, users can “switch back and forth between the two during a Skype call,” so that users “never miss” a call, “even when playing a game or using another app,” it said.
DirecTV “soft” launched its HD DVR service at Hilton’s Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, a company spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman declined to identify where the Hilton hotels initially getting the DVR service are located. But the hotels are using a version of the 3D-capable HR24 DVR/satellite receiver that contains a 500 GB hard drive and has been outfitted with software customized for the hospitality market, the spokeswoman said. Hotel guests can record live TV programs and pause or rewind them. But the guests can’t schedule programs in advance or view content previously recorded, the company said. A DirecTV server in the hotel restores default settings once a guest checks out, resetting the DVR program list, company officials said. Hotels deploying the DVR/satellite receiver pay for the equipment and a monthly fee for the DVR service, a spokeswoman said. DirecTV’s Residential Experience platform is deployed at 110 hotel properties. Meanwhile, DirecTV also struck a carriage deal with Starz Entertainment that includes the rights to distribute movies and TV series from Starz, Encore and other networks it owns through the DirecTV Everywhere service that’s due later this year. Starz is the first programmer DirecTV has identified for the multi-platform service that allows users to view content on the Web and mobile devices. DirecTV also is said to have the rights to use Fox cable networks, including FX and National Geographic Channel, as part of a carriage pact it struck with the network operator last fall. In a possible preparation for DirecTV Everywhere, the satellite operator said it partnered with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies on a new extended service plan that will cover both DirecTV hardware as well as products like tablets, TVs and PCs that can be used to watch programming. The service plan will launch Thursday and carry a $19.99 monthly fee that includes maintenance and technical support. There also is an Accidental Damage from Handling program that carries an additional $4.99 monthly fee.
DirecTV “soft” launched its HD DVR service at Hilton’s Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites, a company spokeswoman said. The spokeswoman declined to identify where the Hilton hotels initially getting the DVR service are located. But the hotels are using a version of the 3D-capable HR24 DVR/satellite receiver that contains a 500 GB hard drive and has been outfitted with software customized for the hospitality market, the spokeswoman said. Hotel guests can record live TV programs and pause or rewind them. But the guests can’t schedule programs in advance or view content previously recorded, the company said. A DirecTV server in the hotel restores default settings once a guest checks out, resetting the DVR program list, company officials said. Hotels deploying the DVR/satellite receiver pay for the equipment and a monthly fee for the DVR service, a spokeswoman said. DirecTV’s Residential Experience platform is deployed at 110 hotel properties. Meanwhile, DirecTV also struck a carriage deal with Starz Entertainment that includes the rights to distribute movies and TV series from Starz, Encore and other networks it owns through the DirecTV Everywhere service that’s due later this year. Starz is the first programmer DirecTV has identified for the multi-platform service that allows users to view content on the Web and mobile devices. DirecTV also is said to have the rights to use Fox cable networks, including FX and National Geographic Channel, as part of a carriage pact it struck with the network operator last fall. In a possible preparation for DirecTV Everywhere, the satellite operator said it partnered with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies on a new extended service plan that will cover both DirecTV hardware as well as products like tablets, TVs and PCs that can be used to watch programming. The service plan will launch Thursday and carry a $19.99 monthly fee that includes maintenance and technical support. There also is an Accidental Damage from Handling program that carries an additional $4.99 monthly fee.