Morning tech tip sheet: Thurs., May 6 — Reaction to the FCC’s net neutrality move and more

Other tech news:

FCC expected to strip broadband of price, line-sharing rules for phones (WaPo) — More on what would be granted forebearance, from Cecilia Kang: “The FCC is expected to forebear on all but six of the four dozen or so rules that apply to phones. The agency is expected to strip regulations over the rates of broadband access or requirements for service providers to open their lines to competitors — two rules for phones that broadband providers will protest.”

How
the FCC plans to regulate Internet lines (WSJ) — Senior
officials tell Amy Schatz, “Mr. Genachowski plans to circulate a notice
of inquiry to other FCC board members next week on his plans to
reclassify Internet lines — both cable and phone Internet lines — as
common carrier services under Title 2 of the Communications Act. In
2002, the FCC deregulated Internet lines, and this move basically
reverses that decision. … At the same time, he will propose a “notice
of proposed forbearance,” which will essentially lay out details about
all of the parts of Title 2 that the FCC won’t try to enforce on
Internet providers.Mr. Genachowski wants the agency to act quickly on
the notices so they can be put out for public comment, with an eye
toward making the changes official this fall, FCC officials said.

Glitch brings new worries about Facebook’s privacy (NYT) — Reports Jenna Wortham: “On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations. … Not long before, Facebook had introduced changes that essentially forced users to choose between making information about their interests available to anyone or removing it altogether.”

FROM LAST WEEK: Schumer asks FTC for social network privacy rules … Facebook: Most users like the changes we’ve made…

Apple:

The Microsoft of Mobile? (Wired) — Eliot Van Buskirk spots a
parallel: “Apple could soon be the target of an antitrust investigation
by either the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice,
according to numerous press reports, with the feds focusing on its new
policy requiring developers to write iPhone OS apps using only
Apple-approved programming languages. …
Microsoft famously faced a
long antitrust case starting in the ’90s. That case centered on the
company’s monopoly over the desktop. It started the FTC and later
shifted to the Justice Department, which successfully pursued Microsoft
in court.”

Google, Amazon win over AT&T, Comcast as FCC acts on net neutrality (Bloomberg) — Todd Shields has early GOP, Dem reaction to the FCC’s announcement. He writes, “Republicans questioned the FCC’s assertion of authority. … Using “outdated monopoly telephone rules is a major mistake,” Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, said in an e-mail. “The government has taken over a lot of industries just this year, and the last thing that our economy needs right now is for the government to take over the Internet, too.” … Representative Henry Waxman of California and Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who head each chamber’s commerce committee, wrote Genachowski yesterday urging him to consider all options to retain authority over access providers. The Democrats said they may back a law giving the agency more power. … Genachowski “has chosen a measured middle path and I support it,” said Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, in an e-mailed statement.”

What we’re
covering this week… 

THURSDAY

POSTPONED: The FCC’s
Joel Gurin, head of the commission’s Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau, discusses a new initiative involving consumer billing.

Where:

FCC headquarters

When: May 6

FRIDAY

NEW: What should the next communicaitions act look like?
Progress and Freedom Foundation
Where: National Press Club
When: 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Note: Big names to attend, offer insight, only days after the FCC will make its landmark move on net neutrality. Slated to show are Tom Tauke, executive vice president of Verizon; Peter Pitsch, associate general councel for Intel; Walter McCormick, the president and CEO of United States Telecom Association and a host of other industry leaders and analysts.

American
National Standards Institute and the Internet Security Alliance 

Cybersecurity

briefing on Capitol Hill to present new report

Where: Cannon 311C

When:

Friday, May 7, 11:30 a.m. RSVP required