The Obama administration is willing to discuss transparency with journalists and others, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a Society of Professional Journalists news release Tuesday, shortly after he met with representatives of SPJ, the American Society of News Editors and the Society of Environmental Journalists. "This Administration isn't just committed to the principle of transparency, we've committed to engaging advocates and journalists to discuss legitimate ideas that advance it. We look forward to continuing this conversation." SPJ said among issues discussed in the hourlong meeting were "anonymous background briefings" and "other policies that prevent information from flowing to the public." Agencies such as the FCC routinely hold such briefings with groups of reporters, sometimes more often than on-the-record media events (see 1511200019). The White House didn't comment Wednesday.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said the possibility that journalist Matthew Keys, who was convicted in October under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for providing access to Tribune Co.'s content management system, could get up to 25 years in prison is another reason that updating the federal anti-hacking statute is "long overdue." Keys provided the content management system username and password to the hacktivist group Anonymous in an online chat room and an individual used those credentials to make "some relatively silly changes" to a Los Angeles Times story, amounting to "vandalism," said EFF in a Wednesday blog post. The federal government charged Keys with three felony violations under CFAA, including "conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer, transmission of computer code that resulted in unauthorized damage, and attempted transmission of malicious code to cause unauthorized damage." His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 20. EFF acknowledged the government may seek a five-year sentence but said many prosecutors and judges use the maximum punishment to indicate a crime's severity and also to put pressure on defendants to plea bargain or settle. The amount of damages claimed under CFAA could also result in a longer prison sentence, said EFF, saying the government said Tribune incurred nearly $930,000 in losses based on the 40 minutes that the vandalized article was posted. "How much of the claimed 'damages' are actually the result of 'hacking' and how much are part of an attempt to ratchet up loss to ensure a felony CFAA conviction?" asked EFF. It cited a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (see 1512040036) in a different case that CFAA doesn't apply to violations of employer-imposed use restrictions. EFF also said the Keys case "is an illustration of prosecutorial discretion run amok."

Eight in 10 digital device users said they would stop engaging with content that's too long or hard to view across devices, said an Adobe report. Consumers are increasingly “multiscreening, impatient and demanding to be entertained,” it said Monday. Nearly three-fourths of consumers are open to content recommendations from brands based on experience, and 75 percent said they would exchange at least one piece of data about themselves to prompt better content suggestions. Respondents said they used an average of five different devices and 83 percent said they used multiple devices simultaneously. Globally, consumers use an average of 2.23 devices at the same time, while U.S. consumers reported the highest simultaneous usage at an average 2.42 devices. On their feelings about multiscreening, 81 percent of consumers felt entertained, 80 percent felt connected, 76 percent felt productive while 47 percent said they were distracted when multiscreening. Consumers are skeptical of most content they view online. Half question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed from a product listing, 49 percent question whether an author was given an incentive to write a positive review and 48 percent wonder whether a news article was biased. The report, by Edelman Berland, is the second installment of a two-part online survey of 12,169 consumers ages 18-plus from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., Sept. 12-29.

Pandora launched on Monday Thumbprint Radio, what it dubbed a “hyper-personalized” station that's tailored to listeners’ unique thumbs-up feedback. Chief Product Officer Chris Phillips called Thumbprint Radio a “collaboration between each listener and Pandora,” a dynamic collection of users’ favorite music that they’ve selected with a thumbs-up. The more a listener “thumbs,” the “better their station will get,” Phillips said. Our first listen to Thumbprint Radio started with Clair de Lune by Debussy, followed by Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies, and then jumped to House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and Time of the Season by The Zombies -- all tunes we pegged as favorites but decidedly not in the same list or for the same listening mood. Pandora said Thumbprint Radio is “not simply all of your thumbs up on shuffle” but “an experience that will seamlessly guide listeners through the wide variety of their favorites, while weaving in new music discovery along the way.” Once listeners have shared their stations, Pandora said, it dynamically updates the channel in real time based on subsequent thumbs-up ratings.

Hulu, Yahoo and Zealot Networks will join Time's video distribution network, meaning Time video will be available via those online video distributors, Time said in a news release Thursday. Time said it now has 18 such distribution partners, including Amazon/Amazon Video Shorts, AOL/AOLon, CBS Local Digital Media, Cinesport, Gannett/USA Today, Nexstar and Vessel’s Video Service, and also said it intends to expand that distribution network internationally.

Pandora is now on Apple TV, it said Thursday, joining Apple Music as a native music content source. The Pandora app is on more than 1,000 CE devices, including connected speakers, gaming consoles, smart TVs and wearables in the U.S. Australia and New Zealand, the company said.

The UHD Alliance has completed work on “premium specifications” for Ultra HD displays, content and distribution, and will disclose details on those specs at CES, along with a “consumer-facing certification logo” for compliant products, it said in a Tuesday announcement. “Advances in resolution, brightness, contrast, color and audio will enable certified displays and content to replicate the richness of life’s sights and sounds and allow in-home viewers to more fully and accurately experience the content creator’s vision,” the alliance said. Alliance President Hanno Basse, Fox corporate chief technology officer, promised at IFA in Berlin that his group would have “a lot of things to share” at CES, including perhaps details on a dual-logo program for compliant hardware products (see 1509080050). Tuesday’s announcement made no mention of dual logos, only that the specs “cover a combination of key features and consumer-tested benchmarks that will usher in a new era of in-home entertainment.”

Despite a rental price hike last December and “managing inventory well,” Redbox “misjudged demand” in video rental business from its DVD kiosks, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said Tuesday. The company's stock fell 24.1 percent Tuesday to $44.04. Redbox parent Outerwall cut its outlook Monday amid a Redbox management change, the company said in an SEC 8-K filing. Amazon and Apple “have cannibalized a large portion of Redbox traffic from its convenience-oriented customers,” Pachter said. He expects Redbox core value-conscious customers to “remain loyal so long as there is a significant price differential between Redbox rentals and most on-demand offerings.” Outerwall attributed the lower guidance to heavier promotional spending and additional content purchases designed to “encourage consumers to return to normal rental patterns,” the filing said. Since content was already purchased, “there was less opportunity to offset the lower revenue,” it said. Redbox business continues to be challenged by “the historically low box office during the third quarter, which was the worst theatrical box office in Redbox kiosks in four years,” it said.

In wake of the Paris and San Bernardino, California, terrorist attacks, Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation, worries about the “geopolitical fears” of terrorism and the impact those fears might have on consumer confidence heading into 2016, he said on a Monday webinar that NRF sponsored jointly with the Consumer Technology Association. “My concern is whether those fears get more intense and translate into a bit of a holdup” in how consumers “see the future,” Kleinhenz said. “I believe consumers are going to spend based on their confidence,” he said. “Consumer confidence numbers are important. They’re a little bit fickle at times.” News coverage about the Paris and San Bernardino attacks “clearly leaves consumers unsettled and upset,” CTA Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac said. “But I don’t know if consumers broadly view all of these terrorist attacks in a connected way, such that it changes their overall perception of the trajectory of the economy, as it relates to their own financial well-being,” he said.

Despite the diversity of content consumption options, “traditional linear TV” remains a favorite among children aged 3 to 12, Futuresource Consulting’s Kid’s Tech study found. Futuresource in July canvassed more than 1,000 kids and their parents in each of four markets -- China, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. -- and found that 40 percent of the kids it studied rely primarily on free broadcast TV for their content, Futuresource said in a report. Online video services such as Netflix are at 25 percent, up from 22 percent a year ago. The study also said “the main TV screen seems to be maintaining its position as the main window to the kids' world of entertainment content.” It found 55 percent of the kids it studied in the survey watching content on the main TV screen for an average of more than six hours a week, it said Thursday. By comparison, fewer than three in 10 are watching video on a smartphone or tablet for more than six hours a week, it said.