News of the movement for January 18, 2013


Mobile and Beyond

AT&T: More Barriers. In More Devices.

Thanks to enormous public pressure -- including our threat to file a complaint at the FCC -- AT&T is starting to relent. It’s allowing more customers to use FaceTime over its network. But more isn’t good enough. AT&T is still blocking FaceTime for all customers with unlimited data plans. That’s a lot of people. Let’s be clear: Data is data. AT&T has no right to decide how its customers use it.

Josh Levy, Free Press

NYPD Launch Citizen Crime Reporting App

The New York Police Department has launched its own app, which provides information and interactivity to those living in the state.

Springwise

Vietnam and the Cellphone Revolution

Vietnam, a police state where freedom of expression can come with a multi-year prison term, is awash in cellphones. Whether for talking, texting or taking photos, Vietnamese are buying up mobile devices at a rate exceeding the country’s own population.

Andrew Lam, New America Media

Ka-Ching! Ting Will Pay Your Contract ETF to Switch Phone Service

Instead of spending $100,000 on advertising that may or may not draw new customers, Ting is spending that money to get people to switch to its cellular service. The company will pay your ETF to make the move.

Kevin C. Tofel, GigaOM

Draft Bill Would Make Mobile Developers Delete Your Stored Data

Rep. Hank Johnson is unveiling a new draft bill that would require app developers to disclose their information-gathering practices, and allow users to request their stored information to be deleted.

Jeff Blagdon, The Verge


Save the Internet

Happy Internet Freedom Day

A year ago today, SOPA went from meaning "soup" in Spanish to meaning we all care about our right to information.

Marvin Ammori, Zocalo Public Square

Let's Talk About Internet Freedom

Jan. 18 is #InternetFreedomDay: the one-year anniversary of the collective uproar that derailed the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills from being signed into law. What should have been a euphoric celebration of a hard-earned victory, however, has instead become a memorial for the loss of one of the cause's bravest defenders; a life, incidentally, that might have been saved had the cause come to fruition sooner.

Raymond Schillinger, Huffington Post

'I Have a Dream' Posted in Defiance of Copyright for Internet Freedom Day

How does one celebrate Internet Freedom Day? Fight for the Future, an advocacy group that played a key role in SOPA's defeat, is commemorating the date by uploading and sharing footage of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable

Reform Draconian Computer Crime Law

The tragic death of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old coder and social activist, has shined a light on the sad truth about America’s misguided computer crime law, the breadth of discretion given to overzealous prosecutors and the unjust results that can occur when these two things work together.

Free Press

After Aaron: How an Antiquated Law Enables the Government's War on Hackers, Activists and You

At the center of Aaron Swartz's controversial case is a 1986 anti-hacking law gone horribly wrong.

Joshua Kopstein, The Verge

Orange Claims to Have Forced Google to Pay for Traffic

The head of French telecoms operator Orange said that it had been able to impose a deal on Google to compensate it for the vast amounts of traffic sent across its networks.

Agence France Presse


Media Policy at the FCC

AT&T Rates Skyrocket Since Deregulation

In August 2006, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to allow AT&T and other companies that provided local telephone service to raise prices at will. Since fall 2006, AT&T's price for flat-rate landline phone service has leaped 115 percent, from $10.69 per month to $23, according to information from the commission. The monthly price for measured service, which charges a fixed rate for a limited number of calls, has soared 222 percent -- from $5.70 to $18.35.

James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle

Faster, Sooner: Why the U.S. Needs 'Gigabit Communities'

Making sure the U.S. has super-fast, high-capacity, ubiquitous broadband networks delivering speeds measured in gigabits, not megabits, isn’t just a matter of consumer convenience, as important as that is. It’s essential to economic growth, job creation and U.S. competitiveness.

Julius Genachowski, Forbes

FCC Takes Heat for New Broadband Subsidy Plans

The FCC still has around $185 million out of the $300 broadband funds available from phase one of its Connect America Fund. Frontier signed up quickly for the funds, agreeing to take $71.9 million to wire some 92,000 homes. However, some companies have balked at taking full funding, saying that getting $775 per installation wasn't enough for their liking.

Karl Bode, Broadband Reports