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DealBook: Research in Motion, Struggling, Ponders a Dim Future

June 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Thorsten Heins, president and chief executive of Research in Motion, is under pressure to turn around the company.Julie Fletcher/Bloomberg NewsThorsten Heins, president and chief executive of Research in Motion, is under pressure to turn around the company.

After rejecting the idea of a sale for months, Research in Motion acknowledged on Tuesday that it was considering “strategic business model alternatives” — or in banker’s speak, RIM, which makes the BlackBerry, said it was pondering a potential deal for all or parts of the company.

But did it wait too long?

A year ago, RIM, a Canadian company, became the subject of takeover rumors, after Google’s $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility. Then, analysts believed that RIM would draw interest from Microsoft, Amazon.com or any number of Chinese phone manufacturers who could afford what would have been a pricey deal.

The company’s executives rebuffed the idea, arguing that RIM was on the verge of a turnaround. New phones were coming that combined touch-screens with BlackBerry’s e-mail and security features. And the PlayBook, with an industrial-strength operating system, could stand toe to toe with the iPad.

But RIM’s prospects have withered since. In March, the company disclosed that its quarterly sales had plunged 20 percent from the previous quarter, as customers migrated to iPhones and Android devices. The company warned on Tuesday that it expected another loss.

The weakness is reflected in the stock’s sharp decline. RIM’s market value is just $5.4 billion, down roughly 76 percent from a year ago. Its share price fell slightly on Thursday, to $10.33.

“Buying this stock is like going to the casino,” analysts at National Bank Financial wrote in a research note on Wednesday.

Now, executives appear to be reluctantly admitting they need to make a change. On Tuesday, the company said that it is conducting a strategic review. As part of its effort, RIM tapped JPMorgan Chase and RBC Capital Markets to help assess its potential options.

Those efforts may not lead to a sale, but instead partnerships with other companies or the licensing of BlackBerry software. Earlier this year, RIM’s chief executive, Thorsten Heins, disavowed any need to consider “drastic change.”

Ehud Gelblum, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note — entitled “No Happy Ending in Sight” — on Wednesday that he did not believe RIM was seeking to sell itself as a whole, but may consider outsourcing its network operating center or selling off parts.

That may be the best option. Earlier this year, the sales prospects for RIM did not look promising. A few analysts believed that RIM did not have “much to offer” a potential buyer.

The company’s prospects may have deteriorated in the intervening months. Some analysts indicate that RIM may only be worth the total value of its patents and its cash, roughly $1.8 billion. It is unclear what the patents may fetch, though analysts at Jefferies estimated last fall that the intellectual property could bring $1 billion to $2.5 billion.

Should RIM put itself on the auction block, it may find the universe of potential buyers remains fairly small. Microsoft, long considered a possible suitor, has been focused on its new Windows operating system and its tie-up with Nokia. Amazon.com has cast its lot with a version of Google’s Android. And buyers in China and India may face complaints from important BlackBerry customers like the United States and Canadian governments.

And patience isn’t necessarily a virtue in deal-making.

Take Yahoo, which Microsoft offered to buy for nearly $45 billion in 2008. The talks quickly cratered, and a deal never panned out. Yahoo has since run through three chief executives and cast about for a new business model.

It has agreed to sell about half of its stake in the Alibaba Group of China, a move that will generate cash that can be paid out to investors. And it has revamped its board.

But it is unclear whether such efforts will make up for Yahoo’s 58 percent drop in value since Microsoft’s takeover attempt.

Then there is Palm Inc., which is often compared with RIM at this stage. Having failed to gain traction with a series of devices built on its own smartphone operating system, the company began a sales process several years ago, drawing in five bids.

One suitor, Hewlett-Packard, was pressured into raising its offer by 20 percent, and ultimately paid $1.2 billion to win the bidding. The deal represented a 23 percent premium to the smartphone maker’s closing price from the day before the offer was announced in 2010. Yet by that point, Palm’s stock price had dropped 50 percent over the previous 12 months.

Still, there’s some hope left for RIM. Motorola Mobility had largely been left for dead by August 2011, trailing Samsung and H.T.C. in the race for Android device dominance. Then Android’s creator, Google itself, arrived with a bid carrying a whopping 63 percent premium, spurred by the valuable patents that Motorola held.

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/research-in-motion-struggling-ponders-a-dim-future/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Bits Blog: Google Cleared of Java Patent Violation

May 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

Google did not infringe on any Oracle patents when it used Java software in the Android operating system, a federal jury said on Wednesday.

The verdict, reached in Federal District Court in San Francisco, leaves Oracle with a relatively small claim of copyright infringement, making it almost certain that the judge will not demand a harsh penalty from Google.

That would be a mild end to what at one time seemed to be a major case between two of the largest companies in tech. Oracle, which picked up the Java software language when it bought Sun Microsystems, accused Google of violating both patent and copyright protections in developing Android, which is now the world’s most popular smartphone operating system. If Google had lost on several counts of the case, it could have been subject to severe fines or been forced to let Oracle in on future developments of Android.

“It’s a full win for us,” said Jim Prosser, a Google spokesman. “If you look at what has happened in this case so far, they didn’t have much.”

Deborah Hellinger, an Oracle spokeswoman, issued this statement:

“Oracle presented overwhelming evidence at trial that Google knew it would fragment and damage Java. We plan to continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write-once, run-anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility.”

The case became notable for the star power of its witnesses, as both Oracle’s chief executive, Lawrence J. Ellison, and Google’s chief executive, Larry Page, took the stand. Evidence also included several embarrassing e-mails from Google executives discussing whether they needed to seek a software license for Java.

Earlier this month, the jury found that Google had violated Oracle’s copyright, but only on a few lines of code, out of millions of lines in Android. Other copyright claims were, like today’s patent claims, unconvincing to the jury.

Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco, who is presiding in the case, has revealed himself to be something of an amateur programmer. He has been somewhat dismissive of the sophistication needed to create the Android code that the jury earlier found had been stolen, another indication that he is unlikely to pass harsh judgment on Google.

While Oracle may appeal the verdict, there is still another wrinkle in the trial. The judge must still rule on whether or not application programming interfaces, or A.P.I.’s, can be copyrighted. A.P.I.’s are the specifications between different software components that enable them to communicate with each other. If he rules that they cannot be copyrighted, damages will be relatively modest. If he finds that they are, the case will be again presented to a jury.

Article source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/23/google-cleared-of-java-patent-violation/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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1 Billion Euro Loss and a Silver Lining for Nokia

January 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Nokia said it lost almost €1.1 billion, or $1.4 billion, in the fourth quarter, compared with a €745 million profit a year earlier. Sales at Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, fell 21 percent to €10 billion from €12.65 billion a year earlier. Operating profit shrank by more than half during the period to €478 million from €1.1 billion a year earlier.

But shares of Nokia rose sharply in Helsinki trading after the company reported that it had already sold more than a million Lumia phones, the first using the Windows operating system, since October. Nokia is currently selling two Windows models, the Lumia 800 in Europe and parts of Asia, and the Lumia 710 in the United States.

“The results suggest a good start for the Nokia Windows Phones,” said Franciso Jeronimo, an analyst in London at International Data Corp. He said that other makers of Windows phones, like Samsung and HTC, were also benefiting from Nokia’s promotion of the operating system. “The massive marketing investment to promote the Nokia Lumia 800 contributed to ship better-than-expected volumes.”

Stephen Elop, the former Microsoft executive who is directing Nokia’s transition from its own Symbian operating system to Windows, said the company planned to widen its aggressive selling of Windows devices, which I.D.C. estimates had only a 1 percent share of the global operating system market in the fourth quarter, far behind the leading operating systems, Android, made by Google, and iOS, made by Apple.

“From this beachhead of more than one million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful,” Mr. Elop said. The company announced planned to sell a third Windows phone, the Lumia 900, through ATT Mobility in the United States.

Mr. Elop said Nokia would also start selling Lumia devices in China and Latin America by June. He said the Windows operating system and its associated services, which he refers to as a software-hardware “ecosystem,” are being embraced by operators who want a credible rival to Apple and Android, which together had more than three quarters of the global smartphone operating system market in the fourth quarter, according to I.D.C.

“In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field,” Mr. Elop said. “With Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field. Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing.”

But as Nokia navigates the transition to Windows, it is suffering financially, as operators abandon or demand price cuts on Symbian models, which still make up the vast majority of the 113.5 million phones Nokia sold in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, the number sold declined by 8 percent from 123.7 million a year earlier. The average selling price of a Symbian phone slid 23 percent to €53 in the quarter from €69 one year earlier.

Sales fell 38 percent in Europe, Nokia’s largest market, and 40 percent in China, its third-largest market, during the quarter. In North America, Symbian sales dived 77 percent to 53 million units from 233 million a year earlier.

Mr. Elop said that Symbian devices were being undercut by lower-priced smartphones. Chinese rivals Huawei and ZTE sell basic smartphones for less than $100.

“In certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that are different from Symbian’s traditional strengths.”

Mr. Elop said Nokia expected to sell fewer Symbian devices than originally anticipated when he announced the decision to adopt Windows in February 2011. At the time, Mr. Elop predicted Nokia would sell 150 million Symbian devices as Nokia ramped up production and made the transition to Windows phones.

On Thursday, he said Nokia would sell fewer, without being more precise.

Nokia began selling its first Windows model, the Lumia 800, in October in selected markets in Europe and Asia. This month, it began selling Lumia 710 through T-Mobile U.S.A

Analysts are expecting Nokia to rapidly reassert its relevance in the smartphone market, which it had largely to itself before the 2007 introduction of Apple’s first iPhone. Over the next 12 months, Nokia will grow its smartphone market share more than sixfold, to 12.2 percent, overtaking Research In Motion, the makers of the Blackberry, according to I.D.C.

By 2015, Windows and Nokia will be the second-largest smartphone operating system in the world, I.D.C. estimates, with 21 percent, trailing Google’s Android with 47 percent but ahead of Apple, with 19 percent.

“What people are underestimating is how much operators in Europe and elsewhere are beginning to support and push Windows phones,” Mr. Jeronimo said in an interview. “Operators are very afraid of becoming dependent on the Android-Apple duopoly and as a result, they are pushing Nokia devices aggressively on the public.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=408b54a2139c6e1639728ded26373b65

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In Antipiracy Debate, Media Worlds (and Generations) Clash

January 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

BACK in high school they always told us that brains prevail — that cool gets you only so far.

Well, last week, smarts won — at least one round. Wikipedia went dark and Google blacked out its logo, as the brainiacs of Silicon Valley tilted at the A-list media giants of Hollywood and New York.

At issue were two antipiracy bills that few Americans had even heard of. Suddenly, though, people were buzzing about SOPA and PIPA — short for the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act.

The bills were put forward by the entertainment industry to combat unauthorized downloads of movies, music and television via foreign Web sites. The technorati argue that the legislation would hand the government Orwellian powers over the Internet.

It all seemed a bit like a food fight in the school cafeteria between “us” and “them.” Many of the media companies that have championed the legislation — the News Corporation, Viacom, Time Warner, Disney — have a rocky relationship with Silicon Valley. Sure, they want their content on new-school digital platforms — but they also want to keep their old-school profits. As if. Tension between the two sides seems certain to grow as the debate heats up on Capitol Hill.

Whatever the outcome, the clash prompted a remarkable outpouring within the Internet world. By late Wednesday, more than seven million people had signed an online petition from Google to stop SOPA. Many senators and representatives who previously supported the legislation had flip-flopped.

On Thursday in South Carolina, Republican presidential contenders spoke out against the bills during a debate on CNN. The audience booed when the moderator, John King, disclosed that CNN’s parent, Time Warner, supported SOPA.

Before Wikipedia went black, all of this probably seemed esoteric. But it may well go down as a watershed moment. The old media, it seems, is struggling to keep up with the Web.

“The grass roots they can generate is, frankly, concerning,” Cary Sherman, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said of the Internet community.

One reason for that, says Sandra Aistars, the executive director of the nonprofit Copyright Alliance and a former associate general counsel for Time Warner, is that the Web’s anti-SOPA message is “sexier” than the facts offered up by Hollywood.

“Downloading stuff on the Internet for free is cool,” said a person close to Viacom, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his relationship with the company. “Our message isn’t cool.”

This is from someone on the side of Viacom, which invented MTV.

SURE, many media companies have embraced the Web. But privately, many media executives say Internet companies pay them no respect. Copyright? Please.

And yet the Web needs content and, ultimately, it needs to get that content legally.

“There’s no reason we can’t get together and work together,” said Michael O’Leary, a senior executive vice president for the Motion Picture Association of America. “But it’s difficult to do business with a business model that is based on theft.”

Fighting words, perhaps. But technology types don’t see this as a battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. They see it as a battle between old and new.

“It’s ultimately about disruptive and disintermediating technologies versus incumbent industry,” said Michael H. Rubin, a lawyer who has represented several large Internet companies in copyright cases. Incumbent industries, he said, chose “litigation and legislation over innovation.”

The faster that legitimate deals are struck, the sooner people will turn away from pirated movies and TV shows. “Right now they’re saying, ‘We understand you want to enjoy content on your own terms, and that’s the one way we don’t want to give it to you,’ ” said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, and an opponent of SOPA.

As long as the Web doesn’t eat into profits from traditional outlets, as it did with the music industry, media companies will have no problem making shows and movies available on the Web, said David Bank, an equity research analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “They can live with guys on the subway selling bootlegged DVDs,” Mr. Bank said. “What they can’t live with is a giant player that arguably could cause market forces that lead to value destruction.”

For now, the entertainment industry sees the Web as a means to make money on shows like the “Vampire Diaries” from CW or “Nip/Tuck” from FX. Unlike some breakout hits, such shows rarely lead to multimillion-dollar syndication deals.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=8be779a9e8a5bec87a568496701732bb

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In Piracy Bill Fight, New Economy Rises Against Old

January 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Yet on Wednesday this formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.

As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old.

“I think it is an important moment in the Capitol,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and an important opponent of the legislation. “Too often, legislation is about competing business interests. This is way beyond that. This is individual citizens rising up.”

It appeared by Wednesday evening that Congress would follow Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon as the latest institution to change course in the face of a netizen revolt.

Legislation that just weeks ago had overwhelming bipartisan support and had provoked little scrutiny generated a grass-roots coalition on the left and the right. Wikipedia made its English-language content unavailable, replaced with a warning: “Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Visitors to Reddit found the site offline in protest. Google’s home page was scarred by a black swatch that covered the search engine’s label.

Phone calls and e-mail messages poured in to Congressional offices against the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect I.P. Act in the Senate. One by one, prominent backers of the bills dropped off.

First, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, took to Facebook, one of the vehicles for promoting opposition, to renounce a bill he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who leads the G.O.P.’s Senate campaign efforts, used Facebook to urge his colleagues to slow the bill down. Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina and a Tea Party favorite, announced his opposition on Twitter, which was already boiling over with anti-#SOPA and #PIPA fever.

Then trickle turned to flood — adding Senators Mark Kirk of Illinois and Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Representatives Lee Terry of Nebraska and Ben Quayle of Arizona. At least 10 senators and nearly twice that many House members announced their opposition.

“Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, and tweets. I will be opposing #SOPA and #PIPA,” Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, wrote in a Twitter message. Late Wednesday, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, withdrew his support for a bill he helped write.

The existing bill “needs more due diligence, analysis and substantial changes,” he said in a statement.

Few lawmakers even now question the need to combat pirates at Web sites in China, Russia and elsewhere who have offered free American movies, television shows, music and books almost as soon as they are released. Heavyweights like the Walt Disney Company secured the support of senators and representatives before the Web companies were even aware the legislation existed.

“A lot of people are pitching this as Hollywood versus Google. It’s so much more than that,” said Maura Corbett, spokeswoman for NetCoalition, which represents Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, eBay and other Web companies. “I would love to say we’re so fabulous, we’re just that good, but we’re not. The Internet responded the way only the Internet could.”

For the more traditional media industry, the moment was menacing. Supporters of the legislation accused the Web companies of willfully lying about the legislation’s flaws, stirring fear to protect ill-gotten profits from illegal Web sites.

Mr. Dodd said Internet companies might well change Washington, but not necessarily for the better with their ability to spread their message globally, without regulation or fact-checking.

“It’s a new day,” he added. “Brace yourselves.”

Citing two longtime liberal champions of the First Amendment, Senator Patrick Leahy and Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Mr. Dodd fumed, “No one can seriously believe Pat Leahy and John Conyers can be backing legislation to block free speech or break the Internet.”

For at least four years, Hollywood studios, recording industry and major publishing houses have pressed Congress to act against offshore Web sites that have been giving away U.S. movies, music and books as fast as the artists can make them. Few lawmakers would deny the threat posed by piracy to industries that have long been powerful symbols of American culture and have become engines of the export economy. The Motion Picture Association of America says its industry brings back more export income than aerospace, automobiles or agriculture, and that piracy costs the country as many as 100,000 jobs.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=481940bfc34f8e8fffd7ffeaf47c7295

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Bucks Blog: A ‘Matchmaker’ for Drivers and Parking Spaces

January 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A sign outlines parking rules in New York City.Bloomberg NewsA sign outlines parking rules in New York City.

We’ve all been in this situation: You drive to an important appointment in the city — or a big outing, say, at a sports arena — and waste precious time frantically looking for a parking spot that won’t cost you a day’s wages.

ParkatmyHouse, an online service that began in Britain, is now working on a debut in the United States. It aims to increase the supply of affordable parking by making use of private spots, in driveways or in parking decks, that are available. The concept is similar to the online lodging service Airbnb, except you’re renting parking spaces instead of a room.

Anthony Eskinazi, ParkatmyHouse’s founder and chief executive, said in telephone interview that his company had been operating since 2006 in Britain, where it claims roughly 150,000 registered users and an inventory of some 40,000 parking spaces. Mr. Eskinazi describes the service a “matchmaker” between drivers and parking spaces.

Mr. Eskinazi is beginning to market the service’s operations in the United States, with an initial focus on the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area, as well as in Boston and Washington. The domestic version of the site is just getting started. When I recently typed “parkatmyhouse” into Google, it showed a link to a Web site that lets you submit a request for an area in which you’d like to find parking. (It also provided a link that led to the British Web site, which could be helpful if, say, you are hunting for a spot near Heathrow Airport.)

Mr. Eskinazi said he was working on lining up owners to list their parking spots on the United States Web site and that visitors would soon be connected automatically to a live search site. (To get an idea of how it will work, he said, you can check out a smattering of live rentals available in the Boston area. But he warns that the site isn’t “Americanized,” so there may, for instance, be some confusing British lingo.)

Mr. Eskinazi said he thought the idea would catch on quickly, as people became more familiar with the so-called “sharing economy. “The U.S. market is huge,” he said, noting that people can spend years on waiting lists for available monthly commuter parking in parts of Connecticut. The company has backing from BMW i Ventures, a venture capital outfit based in New York City.

Here’s how the site works in Britain, and, if Mr. Eskinazi’s efforts pan out, here as well. If you want find a spot to rent, whether for a day, a week or on a regular basis, you type in the relevant Zip code to find available spots, along with information about the rates and other attributes (that is, outdoors, in a garage, lighting and security features, etc). You can rent short-term or long-term, depending on your needs and what’s available. You must register on the site and can ask for more details about the property from the owner before committing. The site provides a contract for you to download.

Renters can pay for their space using a credit or debit card or PayPal, Mr. Eskinazi said. ParkatmyHouse makes a 15 percent commission on each transaction.  (The frequently asked questions on the British site mention a cash payment option, but Mr. Eskinazi said that option would be removed “shortly.”)

In Britain, he said, one renter is a mother who used a parking space for 15 minutes each weekday morning so she can park and walk her child into school. Another is a homeowner who rents her driveway during soccer matches at a nearby stadium.

If you own a spot you want to rent, you can list it — along with its availability and rate — free on the site. Homeowners with just one spot in their driveway can list it, as can businesses with a larger lot that’s vacant on weekends, or churches that have empty spots during the week, he said. “Honestly, it’s whatever you want. We’re completely flexible.”

There are some requirements. You must own the parking space you list or have the legal right to rent it. If your space comes along with an apartment you rent, for instance, you probably need your landlord’s permission to rent out the space. In Britain, at least, landlords are often agreeable if they are given a cut of the parking income, Mr. Eskinazi said.

As a security precaution, the Web site does not list the specific address of the parking space in question. That’s provided later in the transaction. The service also makes other safety suggestions, like asking the renter to provide a description of the vehicle and information about who will be driving it when it shows up.

What do you think of this concept? Would you rent from a private homeowner? Or list your own parking space for rent to strangers?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=645fe70579c7fcf1a19c6a6f52ca4faa

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Support for Internet Bill Wanes as Protests Spread

January 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Freshman Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, was first out of the starting gate Wednesday morning with his announcement that he would no longer back anti-Internet piracy legislation he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who heads the campaign operation for his party, quickly followed suit and urged Congress take more time to study the measure that had been set for a test vote next week.

Mr. Cornyn, just before 9 a.m, posted on his Facebook page that it was “better to get this done right rather than fast and wrong. Stealing content is theft, plain and simple, but concerns about unintended damage to the Internet and innovation in the tech sector require a more thoughtful balance, which will take more time.”

Their decisions came after swathes of the Internet were shut down Wednesday to protest two separate bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, written by Representative Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, drafted by Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Members of Congress, many of whom are grappling with the issues posed by the explosion in new media and social Web sites, appeared caught off guard by the backlash to what had been a relatively obscure piece of legislation to many of them. The Senate’s high-tech expertise was mocked in 2006 after the chairman of the Commerce Committee, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, called the Internet “not a big truck” but a “series of tubes” — a comment that landed the late Republican in the Net Hall of Shame.

The backlash to the pending legislation had caused the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, to go dark. Google’s home page had a black banner across its home page that leads to pointed information blasting the bills.

Such new-media lobbying was having an impact.

“As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costs Florida jobs. However, we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies,” wrote Mr. Rubio on his Facebook page.

Mr. Rubio has outsize influence for a junior senator entering his second year in Congress. He is considered a top contender for the vice presidential ticket of his party’s White House nominee this year, and is being groomed by the Republican leadership to be the face of his party – with Hispanics and beyond.

The moves on Capitol Hill came after the White House over the weekend also backed off the legislative effort.

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign Web sites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” White House officials said. With the growing reservations, a bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously and without controversy may be in serious trouble without significant changes. Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader and Democrat of Nevada, has scheduled a procedural vote on the Leahy version for early next week, but unless negotiators can alter it to satisfy the outraged online world, no one expects it to get 60 votes.

“I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.”

The content industry, everyone from Hollywood studios to book publishers, have been pushing for a legislative response to Internet piracy for some time. Groups like the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, as well as giants such as NewsCorp, are practiced at old-time lobbying – hiring big-named Washington personalities such as former Senator Chris Dodd and salting campaign funds with contributions.

Mr. Dodd, who is now chairman and chief executive of the motion picture association, forcefully denounced the shutdowns in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging,” he said.

In the Tea Party era of grassroots muscle, though, the old school was taken to school, Congressional aides and media lobbyists agree.

“The problem for the content industry is they just don’t know how to mobilize people,” said John P. Feehery, a former Republican leadership aide and executive at the motion picture lobby. “They have a small group of content makers, a few unions, whereas the Internet world, the social media world especially, has a tremendous reach. They can reach people in ways we never dreamed of before.

“This has been a real learning experience for the content world,” Mr. Feehery added.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=481940bfc34f8e8fffd7ffeaf47c7295

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Media Decoder: SOPA and Antipiracy Debated on MSNBC

January 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A pair of bills that would strengthen antipiracy laws — and that could essentially censor the Internet, according to heavyweights like Google — have received scant coverage from the major television networks. The parent companies of the TV networks are among the chief supporters of the bills, having lobbied Congress to write them in the first place.

Those two facts, taken together, have caused conspiracy theories to flourish online about corporate interference in news coverage.

Chris Hayes and the staff of his show on MSNBC, “Up,” knew that when they invited Richard Cotton — the chief lawyer for NBC Universal, MSNBC’s parent company — and a prominent opponent of the bills, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit.com, on their Sunday morning broadcast. They viewed the bookings as an implicit rebuttal to the conspiracy theories, but also as a reminder that the parent companies of news organizations do indeed take sides sometimes.

NBC Universal “is not at all neutral in this legislative battle,” Mr. Hayes said in his introductory segment, noting for effect the coffee mugs in an MSNBC kitchen that read, “Steal this mug! But not our content (and our jobs).” NBC distributed the mugs to employees to rally support for the bills — known as SOPA, short for Stop Online Piracy Act, and the Protect IP Act — a few months ago.

During the long debate that ensued, Mr. Hayes, a progressive journalist and anchor who joined MSNBC full time last fall, clashed with Mr. Cotton, the longtime general counsel for NBC Universal who has led the media industry’s fight against content piracy. “This legislation,” he said, “would not affect a single site in the United States,” while Mr. Hayes and Mr. Ohanian contended that it would.

Mr. Cotton frequently gives interviews, but appearances by him on networks owned by NBC are rare. His appearance on MSNBC on Sunday morning was arranged by the company’s press office.

“Up” staffers joked afterward about Mr. Hayes having to clean out his desk, and he wrote on Twitter, also humorously, that “that show took a few years off my life.”

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=b70fc512f5946438646fbb191df6ab19

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,

You’re the Boss: A Year’s Worth of Wisdom From the Trenches of Small Business

December 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here at You’re the Boss, we believe that most small-business owners are really good at a few things, the things that allowed them to get their businesses off the ground. Inevitably, however, most owners are unprepared for the dozens of other tasks that are essential to running a business. We hope to help with those. But we don’t try to make it look easy.

Success rarely comes in a straight line from point A to point B. So we don’t emphasize the stories of rock star entrepreneurs who never seem to struggle; instead, we emphasize the struggle. Our bloggers try to show what life is like in their trenches, the ups and the downs, what’s working and what isn’t, the lessons learned. Along the way, they often benefit from the feedback of some of the smartest small-business readers around.

Here are highlights from a year in the You’re the Boss trenches:

Jay Goltz wrote about why there are more and more resources for small businesses — but failure rates still remain high. And the top 10 reasons small businesses fail. And the dirty, little secret of successful companies (they fire people). And why it can be a mistake to dismiss annoying customers (for one thing, “crazy” customers can have sane friends). And whether Groupon is ruining retailing. And what it takes to collect receivables, especially in a difficult economy. And why checking references isn’t a waste of time (especially if you know what to ask). And how to tell if you’re a good boss. And a surprise e-mail he got from an employee he’d tried to forget. And why if you can take a vacation, you should take a vacation.

Paul Downs wrote about how hard it can be to accept advice. And the surprising results when he experimented by turning off his Google Adwords campaign for a week. And the meaning of his falling health insurance rates. And his long-term struggle with pricing. And dealing with an extremely picky customer. And the reader comment that changed his business. And, best of all, how his business finally turned a profit.

MP Mueller wrote about coming to terms with being a boss. And using God as a marketing strategy. And figuring out that she’s not getting as much out of her accountant as she probably should. And two businesses that really understand social media. And how telling your story can help you connect with customers.

Barbara Taylor wrote about business owners who can’t bear to hear the truth about what their businesses are worth. And the four questions to ask before hiring a business broker. And how words can get in the way of selling a business. And realizing that you know you have to change as a business owner. And whether the term lifestyle business is an insult. And whether there is any way the iconic owner of an iconic business in Atlanta can sell her business.

Bruce Buschel wrote about the five things he wishes he had known before the fire. And what it took to reopen the restaurant after the fire. And how his customers say the darnedest things. And the events of an especially bad night in August. And the hardest part of running a restaurant. And how to defend against an unhappy customer who is trashing your business all over the Internet.

Gabriel Shaoolian wrote about why mediocre Web sites are so dangerous. And whether a small retailer can compete with the big boys and what’s wrong with this retailer’s site.

Tom Szaky wrote about choosing between profits and growth. And about trying to create a policy to cover romance in the office. And his top 10 sales tips. And whether green companies should partner with mega companies like Wal-Mart. And how a small company can go global.

Robb Mandebaum wrote a case study about a retailer who couldn’t get a loan. He also wrote about whether small businesses are over-taxed and over-regulated. And whether the health care overhaul will encourage businesses to drop health coverage. And how small-business owners responded to President Obama’s jobs plan. And how some small businesses have thrived without borrowing money. And he answered questions about Small Business Administration lending on C-Span.

David Freedman wrote about whether it pays to move to the cloud. And a company that has automated the process of starting a business. And a more efficient approach to hiring. And a tool to help businesses struggling with social media. And why, if you have a great idea, you should tell everyone.

Adriana Gardella created a business group of women business owners who meet regularly to discuss how they’re doing. She wrote about the struggles of one of those owners to overcome some bad decisions made early in her career, before she understood the dangers of growth. And how two of those owners think their fathers would react if they could see how the company they started is being run today. And the dark side of opening a store. And why women have an advantage in technology. And how a Rwandan entrepreneur lost her husband to genocide and then found her way into the funeral-home business.

Jessica Bruder wrote wrote a case study of whether it makes sense for a failing business to spend $170,000 for a consultant (in this case it did). And about a start-up incubator that floats. And a start-up that wants to eliminate “food deserts.” And starting the “Netflix of flowers.”

And every week, Gene Marks scours the Web so that you don’t have to — looking for all of the stories that have the biggest impact on small-business owners. On Tuesday, he selected the best of those stories.

Happy Holidays from the You’re the Boss team!

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0c3ebe875589f451622992599e38a453

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: , ,

Bits Blog: A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court

December 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Can a company cash in on, and claim ownership of, an employee’s social media account, and if so, what does that mean for workers who are increasingly posting to Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus during work hours? A lawsuit filed in July could provide some answers, reports John Biggs in Monday’s New York Times. Read the entire article.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2e4aa807d769f231bedb7852825e4bb9

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: , ,
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