News of the Week; March 15, 2017

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY

1. For the first time, more people subscribe to Netflix than have DVR: The streaming service has dramatically changed how Americans watch TV.
2. The Cord Cutting The Cable Industry Says Isn’t Happening, Keeps Happening
3. USAToday Latest News Outlet To Completely Miss The Point Of Cord Cutting
4. New York City Sues Verizon For Fiber Optic Bait And Switch
5. 1 million NYC homes can’t get Verizon FiOS, so the city just sued Verizon: Verizon wants another four years to cover remaining 1 million households.
6. Is There Any Rhyme or Reason for Which TV Networks are Included in Skinny Bundles?
7. Net neutrality hurts health care and helps porn, Republican senator claims: Does the senator’s argument make any sense? Let’s look at the facts.
8. Senate Democrats question FCC chair’s independence from Trump: Dems want promise that Pai won’t “penalize free speech” to punish Trump enemies.
9. Net neutrality DOA? Here’s what’s next for the internet
10. On Eve of Broadband Privacy Rule’s Effective Date, FCC Pauses Implementation 
11. AT&T allegedly “discriminated” against poor people in broadband upgrades: “Digital redlining” leaves poor people with the slowest Internet, report says.
12. In Dodging FCC Review, AT&T’s Time Warner Mega-Merger Just Got Much Easier Under Trump
13. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Interview: Media Ownership Rules ‘Quite Antiquated’
14. After escaping net neutrality probe, Verizon expands data cap exemptions: With net neutrality worries gone, FiOS TV goes “data-free” on Verizon Wireless.
15. DirecTV’s ‘Regional Sports Fees’ Make No Coherent Sense, Company Won’t Explain Why
16. Mayors slam AT&T for slow Internet, long phone outages: “AT&T has reneged on its responsibility to customers,” mayor says.
17. Will The Investigation Into Fox News Be Blunted Now That Preet Is Gone
18. Hannity pretends Crowley didn’t plagiarize: Are Monica Crowley and Sean Hannity in denial about Crowley’s plagiarism? Brian Stelter says Hannity hurts his viewers by ignoring real reporting.
19. Law School vs. TV Station: Showdown Over Racial Bias Questions
20. When times get tough, media consolidates. Tech? Not so much.: Code Advisors partner Quincy Smith talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the state of M&A on Recode Decode.
21. Compliance and Enforcement Decision CRTC 2017-65: William Rapanos – Violations of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation
22. Google Fiber Was Doomed From the Start: The internet access answer won’t come from private markets, but rather from policies that make for competitive networks. (Susan Crawford)
23. Amendments to the Films Act and the Broadcasting Act (Singapore)

DIGITAL

1. How the Internet Is Saving Culture, Not Killing It (Farhad Manjoo)
2. Kodi crackdown: Premier League wins High Court order to block illegal streams – Sky, TalkTalk, BT, and Virgin will block servers that host pirated footie games.
3. UK ISPs to block set-top boxes that illegally live-stream soccer matches: Premier League wins court injunction requiring server-level blocking.
4. UK Court Grants First Live Blocking Order To Stop New Infringing Streams As Soon As They Start
5. First live blocking order granted in the UK
6. UK Local Government Confirms Surprising EU Position That Viewing Pirated Streams Probably Isn’t Illegal
7. Political Polarization On Twitter Rose Up To 20 Percent In Obama Era: An analysis of 679,000 users over last year 8 years shows how we’re becoming more divided online
8. The social media “echo chamber” is real
9. Active social media users are self-segregated and polarized in news consumption.
10. Facebook—in hate-crime clash with MPs—claims it’s “fixed” abuse review tool: Lawmaker accuses Twitter, Google, and Facebook of “commercial prostitution.”
11. Technology To Blame For Nearly All Serious Crimes: Europol – The main police agency of the EU says its officers need to get more tech-savvy, too
12. Tech’s political impact? “14 people watch me on C-SPAN… 1M on Facebook” – Senator: Social media sites aren’t bad or good—ceding them to hate is the problem.
13. How To Improve Online Comments: Test Whether People Have Read The Article Before Allowing Them To Respond
14. Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it – It has taken all of us to build the web we have, and now it is up to all of us to build the web we want – for everyone
15. We didn’t lose control – it was stolen: The Web we have is not broken for Google and Facebook. People farmers are reaping the rewards of their violations into our lives to the tune of tens of billions in revenue every year. How can they possibly be our allies?
16. Biotyranny and its Resistance: Who Owns Your Body?: Inspired by Foucault, Chelsea Manning and techniques like gene editing, artists and activists are taking back power over our bodies from governments and corporations.
17. AI’s PR Problem: Had artificial intelligence been named something less spooky, we’d probably worry about it less.
18. Germany May Fine Social Media Companies For Allowing Hate Speech: New bill could make Facebook and Twitter pay for not policing their platforms
19. Facebook and Twitter Could Face Fines in Germany Over Hate Speech Posts
20. Watch what you tweet! ‘Serious harm’ test clarified
21. Prenda May Be Dead, But Copyright Trolling Still Going Strong
22. The Kim Dotcom film: How to avoid a trial for 5 years and counting: Dotcom’s showmanship throws a small democracy for a loop.
23. Ed Sheeran: Piracy Is What Made Me
24. Ed Sheeran intervenes for fan, saying he will sort out Facebook copyright ban
25. ‘I Don’t See A YouTube Value Gap. Over 45% Of Our Revenue From The Platform Is From UGC’
26. Google’s Uptime App Promotes Collaborative YouTube Viewing
27. How YouTube TV stacks up against DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, and Sling TV: Google entered TV streaming with a feature-rich service at an aggressive price.
28. Bad Libel Law Strikes Again: Silly UK Twitter Spat Results In Six Figure Payout
29. Oil Company Files Bogus Libel Lawsuit Over ‘Substantially True’ Facebook Comment By Local Activist
30. Man behind GemCoin, a fake cryptocurrency, settles lawsuit for $71M – Judge: “Defendant has shown no sign of recognition of wrongdoing.”
31. Study: U.S. Ad-Supported Internet Generated $1.21 Trillion, 10.4 Million Jobs In 2016
32. Insights: How Snapchat Is Changing The Way The Web Works And Looks
33. Samsung Shut Out Of Arbitration In Recent Consumer Class Actions
34. EU Parliament Report Recommends Throwing Out Something Even Worse Than The Link Tax: Upload Filtering
35. Uber an avatar of innovation and progress? The economic evidence says otherwise.
36. Uber says it will stop using Greyball to evade authorities: Uber’s chief security officer says the changes won’t be immediate but gradual.
37. Uber’s Going To Follow The Rules Now, Uber Says: The company, bombarded with bad press, has stopped digging in its heels about certain high-profile issues
38. Sharing Economy Giants Are Using Data To Build “The Taking Economy,” Study Warns: Information imbalances benefitting Uber and other services might need new solutions.
39. Google tops Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For: Tech giant tops list that also features NVIDIA at 39 and Activision Blizzard at 66
40. Report: Lack of Mentors, Female Role Models Top List of Barriers Facing Women in Tech
41. Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women?: Tech companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to improve conditions for female employees. Here’s why not much has changed—and what might actually work.
42. Yahoo to give Marissa Mayer $23 million parting gift after sale to Verizon: Mayer will leave as what remains of Yahoo becomes Altaba holding company.
43. Marissa Mayer Getting $23 Million For Running Yahoo Into The Ground
44. S.E.C. Rejects Winklevoss Brothers’ Bid to Create Bitcoin E.T.F.
45. US Regulator Makes Important Decision About Bitcoin Derivatives
46. Vice Media Will Produce Original, Exclusive Programming for Snapchat
47. Hologram Sports Broadcasts Of Olympics Competition Being Considered By IT Provider Atos
48. Facebook Scores Major League Soccer Streaming Deal, Continuing Push Into Premium TV Content
49. Facebook signs deal with MLS, Univision to stream live soccer games: Games that were previously Spanish-only will be streamed in English on Facebook.
50. The optimist’s guide to the robot apocalypse
51. A Robot Lawyer Is Officially Assisting With Refugee Applications
52. Canadian firms can’t use social media to report key information, CSA rules
53. Software results in mistaken arrests, jail time? No fix needed, says judge: “Clerical errors… will occur regardless of the case management system used by the court.”
54. One Day You Might Choose The Ending To A Netflix Show: The company experiments with interactive storytelling technology
55. Wowing and washable: Google’s smart jacket wears and works well at first glance: “Blinking on your jacket is uncool”—luckily this looks the part while having its brains.
56. Common Ethical Issues To Consider When Researching Jurors And Witnesses On Social Media
57. Why China’s internet use has overtaken the West
58. Advertising in Windows has reached an exasperating new low
59. ICANN’s Special Privileges for Trademark Owners are The.Worst
60. Trademarks and Digital Goods (Mark P. McKenna & Lucas Osborn)
61. Are Algorithms In Tune With Music?: What impact do algorithms have for music curation and creation? 

CREATIVITY

1. Canada Says It Won’t Attend Special 301 Hearing Because USTR Prefers Industry Allegations To Facts And Data
2. Is Blacklock’s Now Engaging in a Strategy of Start, Stay and Delay? (Howard Knopf)
3. French court finds Jeff Koons guilty of copyright infringement
4. When Morality and Copyright Collide
5. Copyright: the right to exploit vs the right not to exploit
6. Concordia University caught on the wrong side of copyright
7. Who is on the Wrong Side?: Why the Copyright Mistake at Concordia Highlights the Problems with Collective Licensing (Michael Geist)
8. Yes We Scan: Why Concordia Should Not Shelve Its Book Scanner (Michael Geist)
9. Breaking News: OUP and other Publishers Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Delhi University and Photocopier
10. Photocopying Textbooks Is Fair Use In India: Western Publishers Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Delhi University
11. UC Berkley To Remove More Than 20,000 Online Videos From Public Access In Response To DOJ Captioning Demand 
12. Get back to whom you once belonged: Paul McCartney seeks to reclaim ownership of music catalog through interesting provision of copyright act 
13. ‘Fake news’: the best thing that’s happened to journalism – Fake News has upset a lot of people and caused real damage but it’s been good news for journalism analysts like me. I’ve never had more interest in a media issue than this. I’ve never been busier talking and researching a topic and it’s consequences. Here are some notes that I use when I give talks about fake news.
14. How South Korea’s Fake News Hijacked a Democratic Crisis
15. Trump ‘Fake News’ Story Punished In Tanzania: A Tanzanian news outlet suspended nine people after airing a false story claiming that Trump thought its president was an “African hero.”
16. Fixing Fake News Won’t Fix Journalism: Scammers have become a scapegoat for the ailing press. What we really need is a deeper fix.
17. This Article Won’t Change Your Mind: The facts on why facts alone can’t fight false beliefs
18. SXSW has rescinded its incendiary immigration policy after a huge backlash
19. When Art Meets Power
20. Ad Agencies And Accountability
21. China Busily Approving ‘Trump’ Trademarks With Stunning Speed
22. Judge Allows for Possibility “Marilyn Monroe” Is Too Generic for Trademark
23. No Photographs, Please, We Are French
24. The Role Insurance Can Play in Your IP Strategy
25. In liberal Hollywood, a conservative minority faces backlash in the age of Trump
26. Are Black Brits Black Enough to Play Black Americans?: Samuel L. Jackson questioned the casting of black British actors in American roles on Hot 97 earlier this week, but his comments neglect both shared history and the reality of Britain’s entertainment industry
27. The Fate Of The Critic In The Clickbait Age
28. Pi(e) Is Not Protected By Copyright Laws
29. Music as a Matter of Law (Joseph Fishman) 

SURVEILLANCE & PRIVACY

1. US charges two Russian agents with ordering hack of 500m Yahoo accounts: Russian law enforcement agency that works with FBI hired Yahoo hackers.
2. Russian Agents Were Behind Yahoo Hack, U.S. Says
3. Are White House Officials Breaking the Law by Using Secret Messaging Apps
4. Secretary of State Tillerson used e-mail alias as Exxon CEO: Climate change investigation leads New York AG to request “Wayne Tracker” e-mails.
5. Privacy commissioner investigating Canada Border Services Agency over electronic media searches
6. High Court reserves judgment in Facebook case: Data watchdog wants EU court to decide on European Commission data-transfer rulings
7. Constitution Protects Publication of Politicians’ Home Address/Phone Number–Publius v. Boyer-Vine (Eric Goldman)
8. Advertisers look forward to buying your Web browsing history from ISPs: Ad groups thank Republican lawmakers for move to kill ISP privacy rules.
9. NY Legislators Looking At Installing A Free Speech-Stomping ‘Right To Be Forgotten’
10. French Government Adopts Long-Awaited Decree Compensating ISPs for HADOPI-relatedTasks
11. the internet of (very private) things (Brenda Pritchard)
12. Maker of ‘Smart’ Vibrators Settles Data Collection Lawsuit for $3.75 Million
13. Vibrator maker ordered to pay out C$4m for tracking users’ sexual activity: Canadian manufacturer We-Vibe collected data about temperature and vibration intensity, revealing intimate information without customers’ knowledge
14. Judge Rules For Golden State Warriors, Dismisses Eavesdropping App Lawsuit
15. FBI’s methods to spy on journalists should remain classified, judge rules – Reaction: “It is antithetical to a democracy that supposedly values a free press.”
16. US spies still won’t tell Congress the number of Americans caught in dragnet: Electronic surveillance programs Prism, Upstream hang in the congressional balance.
17. Despite Stream Of Leaks Exposing Tremendous Gov’t Surveillance Capabilities, James Comey Still Complaining About ‘Going Dark’
18. Congressman Introduces Bill That Would Allow People And Companies To ‘Hack Back’ After Attacks
19. Controversial ‘Vigilante’ App Relaunches To Help People Go Film Police
20. Tobii Recommends Explicit Consent for Recording Eye Tracking Data
21. Threat via Whisper prompts FBI to show up: “holy **** I’m… going to get raided”: Seriously, don’t post violent threats on “anonymous” messaging apps.
22. There were more device searches at US border last month than all of 2015: CBP has not answered Ars’ questions; ACLU has heard no explanation.
23. Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border: Protecting the Data On Your Devices and In the Cloud
24. Big data to get intellectual property protection in Japan: Companies would be freer to sell information they now collect and hoard
25. Consumer Reports Proposes Open Source Security Standard To Keep The Internet Of Things From Sucking
26. DeepMind says no quick fix for verifying health data access
27. Data Mining for Personally Targeted Politics
28. Judge Grants Search Warrant Demanding Info On Everyone Who Searched For A Certain Person’s Name
29. Geohot’s new automated-driving device can only be redeemed by coughing up data: Answers questions about NHTSA letter from October, Tesla snafu.
30. Consumer protection & privacy paramount at the FTC Forum on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain

Jon