Inquiry
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UK opens inquiry into whether music streaming is fair for artists
The UK is launching an inquiry to determine if music streaming services pay artists fairly, possibly leading to reforms.
Tech giants to face House committee hearings over effects on small business
Internet heavyweights are facing yet more congressional scrutiny over their competitive practices. The House Small Business Committee intends to question Amazon, Facebook and Google over their possible harm to competition for small businesses. Committee chair Nydia Velàzquez (above) intends to hold a hearing in late October or early November to explore the health of smaller companies in the face of "dominance" by large tech firms in spaces "ranging from e-commerce to internet traffic," a spokeswoman told Bloomberg. Notably, Velàzquez wants to know if small outlets are stymied when they either compete directly with internet giants or try to promote themselves on those giants' sites.
UK MPs launch inquiry into the impact of 'fake news'
What is fake news? That's a question that Facebook has been trying to answer for months, but it's now becoming the subject of a UK parliamentary inquiry. The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee confirmed today that it will launch an investigation into the "growing phenomenon" of fake news in a bid to define exactly what it is, who is impacted by it and the threat it poses to democracy.
TalkTalk hack: MPs launch inquiry after police make fourth arrest
We now know the extent of the TalkTalk hack, and while it's not as bad as everyone first feared, it still poses massive questions about cybersecurity and the countermeasures being taken by British technology companies. To get a better grasp of the situation, the UK's cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee has launched an inquiry today into the recent attack. While TalkTalk is the focal point -- MPs will look at the "nature" of the hack and TalkTalk's response -- it'll also be considering the telecoms and internet service provider (ISP) industry as a whole. Specifically, the Committee wants to know what measures are being taken to stop these sorts of breaches, how much money businesses are investing in their defences, and whether response protocols could be improved.
FCC wants to know if it's too modest about broadband, gives chance to fight caps and slow speeds
A common complaint with the FCC's National Broadband Plan is its conservative definition of the broadband in question: many would argue that the 4Mbps baseline is an anachronism in an era of 4G, FiOS and Google Fiber. If you've ever wanted the FCC to up the ante, now's your chance. The regulator wants comments on its definitions of fixed and mobile broadband to gauge whether real-world trends like multi-user streaming video should lead to raised expectations for internet providers. Ever been burnt by a too-low bandwidth cap? It's open season on that area as well, with the FCC asking if it should define a minimum acceptable cap and possibly call for better limits than we see today. We just share GigaOM's wish that we could ask if every cap is even necessary, although the Department of Justice might be answering that for us. Americans have up until September 20th to make their voices heard, so get cracking if you'd like to set a higher bar.
Apple does not plan to appear before Australian price inquiry
Apple is in hot water in Australia for refusing to appear in front of a House of Representatives inquiry into retail pricing, says stuff.co.nz. A report by the House of Representatives standing committee on infrastructure and communications claims Apple (and other tech companies like Microsoft) charge significantly more for products in Australia than they do for the same products in the US. The committee wants to know why this pricing disparity exists and has asked Apple for an explanation. The Cupertino company handed over a confidential submission, but the confidentiality clause prevented the committee from using this information in its report. Apple has also refused to appear at the committee's hearings. "Apple has made the utterly wrong call, bringing down the shutters and refusing to engage with this inquiry,'' said Labor MP and committee member Ed Husic. "They're making it difficult for the committee to do its work and it's a massive double standard." This double standard is a reference to Apple's attendance at past US Congressional hearings. Apple's refusal to attend has prompted the members to discuss whether it can legally force the company to attend the hearings. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Congressmen ask devs of 34 iOS apps about user privacy
In the wake of the Path address book fiasco, Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) have followed up their initial query to Apple about privacy issues by contacting the people and companies behind 34 iOS apps. The list includes Tim Cook (again), concerning Apple's own Find My Friends, Mark Zuckerberg and Path's CEO Dave Morin, among others. The letters themselves are open for viewing on the Committee on Energy and Commerce's website, and include questions about exactly how many times the apps have been downloaded, what information they transmit back from user's devices and what happens to that data. The devs have until April 12th to respond, and while we're not sure what will happen after that, we're pretty sure this ends with someone's Hall of Fame consideration in doubt despite seven Cy Youngs and more than 4,000 strikeouts.
DoJ's inquiry at Apple purportedly expanding beyond iTunes practices
Take this for whatever it's worth (which isn't a whole heck of a lot without any official confirmation from any of the parties involved), but the New York Post has it that the Justice Department's inquiry into Apple's iTunes practices may in fact be growing. 'Course, it's not exactly surprising to hear that authorities are now investigating every nook and cranny of Apple's tactics thanks to Steve Jobs' public thrashing of Flash and his sly insistence that the world shun Adobe while hugging HTML5, but we've still yet to hear from the DoJ and Apple about what exactly is going on within Cupertino. At any rate, the Post notes that a number of "sources" have confirmed that the inquiry is growing, most notably to include "how the iPhone and iPad maker does business with media outfits in areas beyond music." We'd heard whispers that things may be getting just a bit too dictator-ish in the developers Ts and Cs, and now it seems that the DoJ is "asking questions about the terms that Apple lays out for computer programmers who want to develop apps for the iPad." It'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out, but we can bet devs (and end-users, frankly) are hoping and praying for less restrictions in the future.
FCC extends deadline on Verizon's ETF response, lets it enjoy the weekend
They're not exactly calling off the hounds, but the FCC's standing down just a wee bit in its hunt to get to the bottom of Verizon's astronomical new $350 "advanced device" early termination fee; the original deadline for the carrier's responses was yesterday, December 17, but instead, the FCC will now be checking its mailbox on Monday. Even in the most extreme outcome, it'd likely be months or years before the FCC would actually go from an inquiry to applying pressure on Verizon to lower the fee. In the meantime, though, failure to respond to the questionnaire will probably result in an entertaining series of strong verbal admonishments and -- if Genachowski's in a feisty mood -- perhaps a flurry of punishing blows to Verizon's torso and upper body.
FCC formally launches inquiry into wireless competition
Well, we can't say we didn't see this one coming. At today's meeting, the FCC has said that it will be launching a formal inquiry into the wireless industry and specifically into certain business practices of the big four: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA , and Verizon Wireless. The commission hasn't yet detailed exactly how they're going to go about this, but you can bet they'll be looking into exclusivity deals between handset manufacturers and carriers. And who knows? They might be interested in the whole iPhone / AT&T / Google Voice conundrum, especially if it turns out that AT&T had a hand in dissing the app. According to Reuters, the agency is looking into "how competition affects consumers," with an eye towards further investigations into other areas, including cable and broadband. [Via Phone Scoop]
Dell looking into flaming laptop incident
You've got to hand it to Dell; even though its laptops may burst into flames at the most inopportune moments, at least the company has the good sense to conduct a prompt and public investigation into the matter (although the worldwide coverage of those "inflammatory" photos probably helped speed things up just a bit). Apparently the charred remains from that fateful conference in Osaka, Japan have been beamed back up to the mother ship, where Dell engineers are furiously working to discover how their product turned into a pyrotechnics show that amused and frightened us all. As usual, everyone's looking to pin this incident on that easiest of scapegoats -- the malfunctioning battery -- but whatever the problem turns out to be, we're sure hoping it gets fixed before another notebook decides to disobey the "no smoking" sign and light up on an airplane.
