Senate

Media Minutes: December 30, 2011

Candace Clement — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:03:45 -0500

Media Minutes presents its countdown of the year in media. Among the important media stories of 2011: An appeals court ruled against further media consolidation, the Senate slapped down an attempt to kill Net Neutrality and the Occupy movement highlighted police mistreatment of journalists.

Media Minutes: November 11, 2011

Candace Clement — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:17:42 -0500

Internet activists cheered as the Senate slapped down an attempt to destroy the FCC’s Open Internet rules. And who is going to save local news? Journalism education programs, according to a report from the New America Foundation.

Calls for U.S. to Investigate, Prosecute News Corp. Grow Louder

Stevie Converse — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:09:55 -0400

Full article: Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford
As members of the British Parliament trumpet Rupert Murdoch's decision to drop News Corp.'s proposed $12 billion takeover of BSkyB as a "victory," there are rumblings from lawmakers in the United States that the company may have violated American law over the course of the phone-hacking scandal plaguing the company. And now members of Congress are beginning to weigh in.

Murdoch Scandal Jumps the Pond

Stevie Converse — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:45:22 -0400

Full article: Huffington Post
Timothy Karr
It seems clear now that Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. colleagues believed that their tremendous media power placed them above the law. Now the scandal that started in Great Britain has crossed the Atlantic and could cause more homegrown trouble for the U.S.-based media company.

Rockefeller Urges Probe into News Corp. for Phone Hacking

Stevie Converse — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:07:28 -0400

Full article: TPM
Sarah Lai Stirland
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) urged regulators to look into whether News. Corp. had violated any U.S. laws when its British journalists gained unauthorized access to several individuals' voice mails to pursue stories.

Rockefeller Schedules Privacy and Data Security Hearing

Stevie Converse — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:30:37 -0400

Full article: Broadcasting & Cable
John Eggerton
The Senate Commerce Committee has slated a hearing on privacy and data security for June 29. No witnesses have been announced for the hearing. The issues of online privacy protection and cybersecurity have drawn a lot of attention on the Hill and in the Administration, including a proposed data security legislative package from the latter and a raft of hearings and bills from the former.

Franken Introduces Geolocation Privacy Bill

Stevie Converse — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:52:08 -0400

Full article: Broadband Breakfast
Rahul Gaitonde
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), introduced a bill that would make rules more stringent for collecting geolocation data on mobile device users. The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011 would require companies to obtain users' expressed consent to collect location data and to notify users when they share location data with third parties.

Policing the Internet

Stevie Converse — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:00:21 -0400

Full article: Los Angeles Times
A Senate bill aims to cut off support for any site found by the courts to be 'dedicated' to copyright or trademark infringement. Its goals are laudable, but its details are problematic. A group of leading Internet engineers has warned that the bill's attempt to hide piracy-oriented sites could hurt some legitimate sites because of the way domain names can be shared or have unpredictable mutual dependencies.

Franken Asks Apple, Google to Testify at May 10 Privacy Hearing

Stevie Converse — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:15:00 -0400

Full article: The Hill
Gautham Nagesh
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has invited representatives from Apple and Google to testify at a May 10 hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Privacy subpanel on protecting consumers' privacy while using mobile devices.

Privacy Legislation’s Potential Impact on Online Media

Stevie Converse — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:18:31 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
David Card
Last week, the bipartisan Kerry-McCain bill proposed legislation on a Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights that would put the Federal Trade Commission in charge of policing the online collection, sharing and use of personal information. The proposed bill is relatively business-friendly, so much so that it's drawing criticism from privacy rights activists.